BATTLESPACE UPDATE Vol.20 ISSUE 27
02 July 2018
NEWS
NEWS IN BRIEF – EUROPE
Trouble at Mill!
Iraq and Syria: OP SHADER
NATO: Military Committee Chairman
Military Assistance: Moorland Fires
Joint Expeditionary Force
European Intervention Initiative
Type 26 Frigates: Australian Order
RPAS: Protector Due
Ukraine: Reform Conference
Argentina: Arms Exports
DFRP: Ministerial Correction
Defence Committee: US-NATO-UK
Finland cleared over Patria UAE license
Italy commits to F-35
EU to deepen military readiness
Conference Before NATO Summit
May refuses To Commit to Tier One
UK intelligence tolerated mistreatment
NATO Summit could be in trouble
Rift between May and Williamson
German air force in dire straits
NATO Joint Air Power Strategy
Maintaining UK and US relationship
Brexit, defence and the EU
EU defence force plan
Rally for Heroes back
UK modernization plan expected
UK foreign defense dealings
UK excluded from cooperative plans
NATO needs to reassess structures
US builds in Russia’s backyard
UK defence spending must rise
NEWS IN BRIEF – USA
Oshkosh wins JLTV order
Light attack experiment suspended
Bipartisan Israel Anti-Boycott Bill
House sinks submarine proposal
Munitions sale to Gulf barred
Foreign defense companies want in
DIA Forewarning to 21st Century
Supporting Global Stabilization
NEWS IN BRIEF – REST OF THE WORLD
Japan to buy U.S. Aegis radar
Discounted Gulf US weapons sales
U.S. Ends 70 Years in Seoul
US and Lebanon Meeting
Israel Technology to Fight Kites
RoK KF-X design with European missiles
Monitoring Australian projects
Russia increases readiness levels
Afghan Air Force Growth Pays Off
RoK updates offset policy
LAND 400 and UAS opportunities
Queensland’s 10-year plan
BUSINESS NEWS
Chemring takes countermeasures
Scisys positive trading update
Navantia leads SEPI’s losses
Ultra Electronics shares fall
Ultra trading statement
Velocity Composites confident
GE starts break up
J.F. Lehman sells NRC Group
Barnbrook Systems marks milestone
Eutelsat rules out Inmarsat bid
Civmec completes listing
MILITARY VEHICLE NEWS
GD debuts new LAV variants
US Army awards Stryker contract
Europe’s big land-weapon contest
Czechs to upgrade T-72s
Algeria unveils upgraded BTR-80
Israel rolls out Eitan prototype
BAE amphibious vehicles to Taiwan
DARPA’s GXV-T project
DARPA demonstrates technologies
Norway cancels tank upgrade
Teaming robots with manned vehicles
LOGISTICS AND THROUGH LIFE UPDATE
Oshkosh Sustainability Report
Mi-17-1Vs to India
Singapore’s digital accords
GOLDesp’s MILS to DLMS
Airbus H125 and H130 costs
AI predicts failures
Lockheed F-35 contract
USN weapons need power
USAF maintenance via VAM
Airbus, Thai Airways MRO JV
Lockheed Iraqi contract
Lockheed F-35 contract
USN 3D printing test on ship
Upgrading US Navy ships
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Nanostructured Magnesium Alloy
US Soldiers Control Robot Swarms?
USN contract for drone swarms
Lockheed Auto-GCAS on F-35
BAE’s collaborative robots
$95bn for R&D in Pentagon Bill
Disruptive Geospatial Innovation
Bell reduces V-280 costs
ON PWM buck converters
Clarke Valve Achieves API 641
G2 products now at TMD London
U.S. behind in quantum computing?
SATELLITE SYSTEMS, SATCOM AND SPACE SYSTEMS UPDATE
Viasat’s Bar Is Moving Higher
Airbus Geo-INT System to Thailand
£100m for UK rival to Galileo?
Arianespace lowers 2018 launches
LauncherOne to Join Spaceflight
Northrop GOES – R Series
SSL Satellites to Cape Canaveral
Kratos RT award for Pilot Phase 2
Platform Mundi is now live
MBS and Kymeta Sign Agreement
ViaLite’s L-Band HTS for Defense
USAF rocket deal with SpaceX
RemoveDEBRIS Mission Begins
RADAR, EO/IR, NIGHT VISION AND SURVEILLANCE UPDATE
PITBULL Counter UAS Jammer
Invisibility cloaking approach
MQ-25A with mission payloads
USAF selects Citadel’s drone
Russia’s 5th generation radars
Australia cleared to buy Aegis
Dornier 228 MPA to Seychelles
Missile defense radar in Hawaii
TMD exhibits at Farnborough
SEA’s Krait final trials
Michigan Police Video Network
Russia’s Kasta 2-2 radar
CODALTEC and Indra AD system
RoK Chooses Boeing P-8
Russia receives second Tu-214
Dedrone Wins SOCOM Competition
E-7 Wedgetail to replace Sentry?
Hensoldt launches TRML-4D radar
Elbit May gunshot detection system
DoD G550s for Australia?
MISSILE, BALLISTICS AND SOLDIER SYSTEMS UPDATE
New US Army SHORAD solution
USAF procures bunker busters
Leonardo IM-SHORAD selected
AQS-24B data into SeeTrack
USMC rifle control system
Lockheed JAGM milestone C
RoK Raybolt spotted in Yemen
Leonardo DRS TROPHY contract
MHTK transitions to EMD phase
KC-130J Harvest HAWK Plus Testing
US Army’s ATACM’s contract
Denmark selects SIG SAUER P320
Israel’s underground Iron Dome
US Soldiers to Fight Underground
Aquabotix US$78,000 funding f
FN SCAR Review
USAF B-52 external weapons load
New Grom air-to-surface missile
U.S. Army interceptor contracts
JSM final development phase
UNMANNED SYSTEMS UPDATE
WEF Drone Innovators Network.
Different Paths on UAV Regulation
Australian Triton purchase
Facebook ditches UAV plan
Boeing investment in Matternet
Thailand expands ties with Israel
Australia’s MQ-4C Triton purchase
Transatlantic Flight of GA MALE
C2, TACTICAL COMMUNICATIONS, AI, CYBER, EW, CLOUD COMPUTING AND HOMELAND SECURITY UPDATE
Samsung Approved for USAF Use
NATO investigating new JISR
Delay for DISA elimination
Soldiers Defend Against EW
Project Maven hazard for Google
USAF Networks, Innovation Key
US Army Cyber Quest
Vigilance best cyber defense
Harris USSOCOM’s AN/PRC-163
CLE detects unknown threats
Nato UV18 trial technology tests
Paradise Announces SSPAs
US strategy for AI
Lockheed facility in San Antonio
Germany shortlists R&S for VJTF
US wrong bet on radiofrequency
INTERNATIONAL PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITIES
EUROPE
Czechs to upgrade T-72s
F-35s Delivered to Turkey
Lockheed, Esterline Belgian deal
USA
USAF procures bunker buster bombs
DoD IG questions AH-64E procurement
RoK contracting snafu on T-X trainer?
Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft
UH-1N Huey helicopter with new aircraft
REST OF THE WORLD
BAE triumphs in Australia
HAL’s Bill for Tejas Mark1A checked
Two more Poseidon customers
Bahraini F-16V contract awarded
CONTRACT NEWS IN BRIEF
UNITED KINGDOM
AIR
Inzpire training contract
EUROPE
LAND
Denmark-Ballerup: Hand guns
Estonian RoK K9 Thunder deal
SEA
Spain to purchase Aegis
AIR
Airbus Hungarian H145M contract
USA
LAND
L3 Video Receiver contract
Leonardo DRS TROPHY contract
Lockheed ATACMS contract
Saab Carl-Gustaf® contract
SEA
Aquabotix contract
Curtiss-Wright BPMI contract
HII CVN 80 contract
AIR
Aerojet Rocketdyne contract
BAE Systems APKWS contract
Boeing MH-47G contract
General Dynamics-OTS contract
Lockheed E-2D ESM contract
Northrop Polar Space contract
Northrop ALMDS contract
Raytheon SDB II contract
Raytheon LOCUST contract
SpaceX AFSPC-52 contract
TECHNOLOGY
ICF cyber contract
Radiant Solutions NGA contract
REST OF THE WORLD
LAND
BAE Taiwan AAVP7A1 contract
Denel Munition contract
SEA
BAE Systems SEA 5000 contract
Argentinian OPVs from France
Saab Receives Order Naval Radars
AIR
Boeing Kuwait F/A-18 contract
Lockheed Bahrain F-16 contract
Northrop RAAF Triton contract
TECHNOLOGY
Comtech Asia Pacific contract
MANAGEMENT ON THE MOVE
LOCATIONS
LAND
Raytheon’s UAE headquarters
RoK paid for overseas base
Northrop Moss Point facility
Australian RMAF base Butterworth
MARITIME
Mexican Navy and Damen patrol ship
Indian Navy’s first DSRV
Delivery of submarine Indiana
UK plans fast patrol launches
Italian Vulcano completes launch
Colombian Navy launches BDA
Colombian hydrographic vessel
Russia commissions Ivan Gren-class
AIR
Argentina receives Texan IIs
CH-47F Block II program milestone
A400M air-to-air refuelling
NC212i transports to PAF
Piaggio at Farnborough
PLANT CLOSURES, JOB LOSSES AND STRIKES
France retires Mirage 2000N
MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT
PERSONNEL
Poland plans fourth division
CCG transferred to CMC
Bundeswehr’s Panzerlehrbrigade 9
Aviation Brigade Arrives in Europe
U.S. APPOINTMENTS
Cyber services cyber commanders
BG Mark A. Baird appointed
Dana Deasy appointed to CIO
Ellen McCarthy nominated
INDUSTRY
Vigilant Resourcing launched
INDUSTRY TEAMINGS
Fincantieri agreement with Titomic
RADIALL and TECHWAY agreement
PERSONNEL
EUROPE APPOINTMENTS
Martek Aviation hires Mark Wharry
U.S. APPOINTMENTS
CACI appointed Mike Hale
Kellstrom hires Juan Forero
Lockheed elects Vicki Hollub
PEI-Genesis hires M.P. Singh
Raytheon elected Marta R. Stewart
Viasat’s appoints Dave Ryan
REST OF THE WORLD APPOINTMENTS
Lockheed appoints Robert Harward
Quickstep appoints Alan Tilley
New board for SA AMD
EXHIBITIONS AND CONFERENCES
Close Combat Symposium
PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS
Lessons from accommodation
Armed Forces Covenant Report
Spending demand for 3% of GDP
House of Commons and House of Lords Hansard Written Answers
Capita
Capita
AWACS
Defence: Procurement
FEATURES
BAE Systems Wins Preferred Bidder Status on Australia’s GCS-A Frigate Programme
By Howard Wheeldon, FRAeS, Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd.
Brilliant New ‘ABC of the RAF’ – Designed To Inspire Next Generation
By Howard Wheeldon, FRAeS, Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd.
Bosnia and the EU: Time to end Operation Althea
By Nicholas Williams |Senior Associate Fellow
The V4 on Defence: The Art of Disagreement
By Martin Michelot |Deputy Director of the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy
Uncharted Waters: the Italian Government’s Foreign and Security Policy
By Stefano Stefanini, Former Permanent Representative to NATO, Former Diplomatic Advisor to the President of Italy
Wisdom and The Voice of Experience
By Howard Wheeldon, FRAeS, Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd.
Innovation for the Next Generation of Army Engineers
The theme for DVD2018 is Innovation today and tomorrow: exploiting current capabilities more creatively and identifying novel solutions to enable Conceptual Force Land 2035
Looking Beyond the Nuclear Dimension: The Other Side of the North Korean Threat
By Anthony H. Cordesman
RAF Museum Hendon Transformation Complete – A New Adventure Begins
By Howard Wheeldon, FRAeS, Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd.
Airbus, BMW and Siemens Comments – Brexit Establishment Fights Back!
By Howard Wheeldon, FRAeS, Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd.
TAILPIECE
The ‘Bulford Kiwi’, carved on Salisbury Plain by New Zealand soldiers in 1919, has been restored by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation with help from partners and local people. (DIO Press Release, 29 Jun 18.) (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
CONTACT DETAILS
Julian Nettlefold
BATTLESPACE Publications
8 Sinclair Gardens
London W14 0AT
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)207 6105520
Mobile: +44 077689 54766
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NEWS IN BRIEF – EUROPE
Sponsored by Harris Corporation
http://www.harrisforcemodernization.com
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30 Jun 18. Trouble at Mill! A number of our readers expressed surprise that our Alert regarding the Australian Frigate order did not include any comments from No. 10 or the MoD. (See: BATTLESPACE ALERT Vol.20 ISSUE 16, 28 June 2018, Australian SEA 5000 winner revealed).
The Times reported today why this was the case, ‘Disputes and dysfunction reign in a cabinet all at sea.’
Early on Thursday afternoon, Downing Street was circulating a provisional press release welcoming a decision by the Australian government to award a British company a multibillion-pound contract for anti-submarine warships. After a scratchy week in government-business relations, it was a rare piece of unambiguously good news and they were keen to boast about it. The internal document being prepared to be fed into the next day’s papers carried quotes from Theresa May, Liam Fox, the trade secretary, Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, and Guto Bebb, a junior defence minister.
Yet at the point of victory, collective Tory discipline broke down once again. No 10 was caught off guard when the Australian government announced the deal online eight hours earlier than expected, and a ministerial scramble for credit began.
First Mr Williamson put out his own comments welcoming the deal, jumping ahead of Mrs May.
Some sources said that Mr Williamson had middle of the night conversations with the Australian defence industry minister Christopher Pyne to secure the deal. This prompted counter briefing from a Tory MP that the Australian defence minister “nearly scrapped the whole thing [because] when Gavin went to lobby for it he berated them about technical crap he clearly didn’t understand.”
As MPs started criticising the slow response to the news from Number 10, one senior member of the government was insisting that it did not understand the time difference between London and Canberra.
Then allies of Michael Fallon, Mr Williamson’s predecessor, weighed in to demand his share of the political spoils. Downing Street, which can be sensitive to comments on Twitter, grew increasingly irate as the debate threatened to spoil their good news story.
Finally, in a highly unusual act of petulant retribution which will not be forgotten, someone in Number 10 decided to remove Mr Williamson’s remarks — which had been in the earlier draft — from the Downing Street press notice, and sent it out without mentioning his contribution.
Public rebukes that stark do not come often; and it reveals a growing enmity between the MoD and parts of No 10.
“If they can’t send out a press release, how can they deliver Brexit”, wailed one veteran Tory MP yesterday. (Source: The Times)
26 Jun 18. Iraq and Syria: OP SHADER. On 18 Jun 18 Tornados destroyed an armoured truck concealed inside a building in Eastern Syria. On 20 Jun 18 Typhoons attacked a cave containing weapons in Western Iraq and on 21 Jun 18 Typhoons bombed a hostile position which had been firing on coalition forces in Southern Syria. On 23 Jun 18 a Reaper eliminated
a Daesh mortar team in Eastern Syria. (MoD, 26 Jun 18.)
Comment: At a special session of the Conference of State Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague (27 Jun 18) it was agreed to call upon the Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to put in place arrangements “to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic”. The initiative was led by the UK and supported by 30 other countries.
(Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
29 Jun 18. NATO: Chairman of the Military Committee. NATO confirmed (29 Jun 18) that Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach GBE KCB ADC DL has taken up his appointment as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, senior military adviser to the Secretary-General.
Comment: Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach succeeds General Petr Pavel from the Czech Republic as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee. Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach was previously the UK Chief of the Defence Staff and has been succeeded in that appointment by General Sir Nicholas Carter KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
27 Jun 18. Military Assistance: Moorland Fires. The MoD reported (27 Jun 18) that approximately 100 soldiers from 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland
have been deployed to assist the Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service (GMFRS) operation responding to
the Saddleworth Moor fires. A Chinook helicopter was also deployed from RAF Odiham but the GMFRS notified
the MoD (28 Jun 18) that the helicopter was no longer required. Troops deployed from their barracks at
Catterick and have been operating from a local Army Training Centre, undertaking tasks such as the
management of water lines, fire beating and providing general support.
Comment: The fire on Saddleworth Moor, part of the Peak District National Park North East of Manchester, started on 24 Jun 18. Firefighters struggled to contain the fires, exacerbated by the hot conditions, and on
27 Jun 18 the GMFRS confirmed that they had requested military assistance from the MoD. On 30 Jun 18, the MoD said that the Army will continue to provide support following the initial 48-hour call-out period. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
28 Jun 18. Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF): MoU Signed. The Defence Secretary signed (28 Jun 18) the JEF Comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) alongside counterparts from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. With the UK as framework nation, the JEF is able to deploy 10,000 personnel from across the nine signatory nations.
Comment: The JEF was launched in 2015 and is being developed as a force which can respond rapidly “to meet global challenges and threats ranging from humanitarian assistance to conducting high intensity combat operations”. In May 2018, the JEF undertook a live capability demonstration on Salisbury Plain which featured troops from the UK Parachute Regiment, the Danish Jutland Dragoon Regiment, the Lithuanian ‘Iron Wolf’ Brigade and the Latvian Mechanised Infantry Brigade. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
25 Jun 18. European Intervention Initiative (EII): Letter of Intent. The UK signed (25 Jun 18) a Letter of Intent in Luxembourg, alongside eight other European countries, launching the EII. The EII will be a defence co-operation framework that aims to improve operational planning and co-ordination of military deployments among European partners. The Initiative is set to be complimentary to existing NATO, EU and JEF structures.
Comment: Work on the proposed Initiative featured in a list of measures agreed at the UK-France Summit held at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 18 Jan 18. Signatories to the EII are: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and
the UK. The Initiative is open to other European countries with the capability to contribute to the EII. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
29 Jun 18. Type 26 Frigates: Australian Order. BAE Systems confirmed (29 Jun 18) that the Australian Government has selected the Type 26 frigate to fulfil the A$35,000m (£20,000m) SEA 5000 programme to deliver nine Future Frigates for the Royal Australian Navy.
The ships (to be known as the Hunter Class) will be built in South Australia by ASC Shipbuilding which will become a subsidiary of BAE Systems, subject to contract negotiations. The initial design part of the contract with Australia’s Department of Defence is expected to be in place by the end of the year and production is expected to begin in 2020.
Comment: The announcement was welcomed by the Prime Minister as “the first export of a British design for
new-build frigates since the 1970s”. The BAE Systems design was chosen over rival proposals from Navantia
(Spain) and Fincantieri (Italy). The selection of the Type 26 frigate follows a period of “intensive Government
engagement” with Australia, including the deployment of three RN warships (HMS ALBION, HMS ARGYLL and HMS SUTHERLAND) to the Asia-Pacific region during 2018. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
29 Jun 18. Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS): Protector Due. The Protector RG Mk1 RPAS is due to fly non-stop from North Dakota to RAF Fairford on 11 Jul 18. The flight is expected to take over 20 hours and will be the first across the Atlantic by a Medium Altitude RPAS and the first time one has entered UK airspace under beyond line-of-sight communication control.
Comment: The UK is investing in an initial 16 Protectors, replacing Reaper in RAF service. Protector has enhanced armed surveillance abilities including extended range, increased payload and improved weapons integration. Protector is expected to enter RAF service “in the early 2020s”. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
27 Jun 18. Ukraine: Reform Conference. The Foreign Secretary confirmed (27 Jun 18) £35m of UK funding to support Ukraine’s reform programme, as
he joined other Foreign Ministers at a summit in Copenhagen. The funding will provide practical support to strengthen Ukraine’s sovereignty and includes £13.4m for conflict, security and stability projects to bolster Ukrainian defence reform, promote peace-building, eliminate corruption and increase civilian oversight.
Comment: The UK funding also provides £11m to support reform in Ukraine through the Good Governance Fund, £6m in humanitarian aid and £5m in 2018 to help Ukraine counter Russian disinformation (which includes
support to the country’s public broadcaster). (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
27 Jun 18. Argentina: Arms Exports. In a Written Statement (27 Jun 18) the Foreign & Commonwealth Office said that additional restrictions on arms
exports to Argentina, put in place in 2012, are to be lifted. The UK will continue to refuse licences for goods
judged to enhance Argentina’s military capability. “However, where like-for-like equipment is no linger available,
we may grant licences where we judge they are not detrimental to the UK’s defence and security interests.”
Comment: Relations between the UK and Argentina have been improving and, in September 2016, both
countries signed a joint communiqué which established closer bilateral co-operation. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
25 Jun 18. Defence Fire and Rescue Project (DFRP): Ministerial Correction. The MoD issued (25 Jun 18) a Ministerial Correction regarding details of the DFRP contract awarded to Capita Business Services Ltd. The 12-year contract is worth “around £550m” and corrects the figure of £400m given previously.
Comment: A contingent liability provision has been agreed with HM Treasury which reflects the financing
structure of the anticipated contractual arrangements with Capita, enabling early injection of capital into the
project. The contingent liability would only be activated if the contract is terminated early. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
26 Jun 18. Defence Committee: US-NATO-UK Defence Relations. The Defence Committee published Indispensable allies: US, NATO and UK Defence relations on 26 Jun 18 as HC 387. The Committee concludes that the UK can only maintain its influence in NATO and the US if its Armed Forces are properly resourced and recommends a future Defence spending target of 3% GDP. The Committee also considers NATO’s “diversified and expanded” mission and calls for the UK’s anti-submarine warfare capability to be bolstered. The report can be accessed via the Parliament website (www.parliament.uk). (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 18/24, 02 Jul 18)
29 Jun 18. Despite Yemen conflict, probe clears Finland over Patria export license for sale to UAE. An investigative report by Finland’s Chancellor of Justice has cleared the center-right government of any impropriety or irregularities in the awarding of a military export licence to Patria to cover the sale of armored personnel carriers to the United Arab Emirates.
The CoJ’s ruling stated that the government’s decision to approve the UAE export deal complied with all laws regulating the sale of weapons systems and military equipment to foreign states. The CoJ’s ruling clears the way for Patria to begin APC deliveries to the UAE.
“The export deal is not without controversy. In terms of abiding by the letter of the law, the sale and export agreement conformed to all rules and regulations. That said, the government made its decision knowing the UAE is involved in a civil war conflict in Yemen,” Justice Chancellor Tuomas Pöysti said.
The CoJ made special mention of the Ministry of Defence in its report, recommending it improve consultative communications with the United Nations Human Rights Council and other U.N. organizations before approving arms export licenses to countries and regions involved in armed conflict.
The Finnish government issued two separate export license permit approvals to Patria in 2015 and 2018. The first export permit was expedited without objection. However, the second permit sought in 2018 raised questions over the possible use of Patria APCs by the UAE in Yemen.
“Although the export permit in 2018 is more questionable, given that the UAE is involved in a conflict in Yemen, the decision to grant an export permit complied with all aspects of Finnish law,” Pöysti said.
The CoJ, as part of its inquiries into the 2018 export permit, investigated reports of sightings of Patria AMVs deployed by UAE forces in Yemen. The CoJ found that unconfirmed sightings weighed on the report but did not impact its final decision. This was strictly based on the lawfulness, under existing legislation, of the export licence granted to Patria.
Finland’s arms export laws conform to standards set by the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty, in addition to the European Union’s rules governing oversight of defense companies. The export-license process also takes other factors into account, such as human rights, national security and political stability in the region to where military equipment is being sold.
The Finnish state holds 50.5 percent of the shares in Patria. The other 49.5 percent of shares are owned by Norway’s Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace.
The export license obtained by Patria in 2016 covered the delivery of an unspecified number of eight-wheel drive AMVs to the UAE. The delivery is expected to be within the range of 40 to 90 units if all options are exercised. The contract price agreed with the UAE excludes the supply of weapons systems. (Source: Defense News)
29 Jun 18. Italy’s new defense minister commits to F-35, butts heads with France. Italy’s new populist government may slow down but not reduce its order of F-35 fighter jets, while trimming its manpower in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta has told Defense News.
In one of her first interviews since taking office at the start of June, Trenta said Italy remained a faithful ally of the U.S., but added she was skeptical about sanctions imposed on Russia by the West.
A former defense academic at the Link University in Rome and a veteran of the Italian Army’s civil reserve unit, Trenta was named defense minister by a coalition government formed in June, which groups the anti-migrant League party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.
Five Star officials promised last year to scrap Italy’s purchase of 90 F-35 fighters, but Trenta said the new government would not cut orders, even if it might stretch out its purchase plan.
“It’s a program we inherited and we have lots of questions; that is why we will evaluate the program considering the industrial and technology benefits for national interest, as we are the new government,” she said.
“What I would like to do is lighten the load since we have other spending commitments in Europe. We will try to stretch out deliveries instead of cutting the order, which would reduce offsets and mean penalties,” she said.
Foreign military invovlement
Trenta met U.S. national security adviser John Bolton on June 26 as he visited Rome, and she confirmed the new government’s strong ties with the U.S. “The U.S. is our historic ally, we have never doubted that,” she said.
Trenta said she told Bolton that Italy aims to reach NATO’s defense spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product. “But we would also like our strong presence in military missions recognized as an added value,” she said.
She said that presence would still be substantial despite the government’s plan to trim its headcount in Afghanistan from 900 to 700, if and when replacements could be found to step in from other nations.
“We don’t want to undercut stability or reduce support for Afghans. We want to start a change of pace, as established by the previous government, keeping at the same time the mission operative,” she said. “We don’t want to weaken the mission, so we will look for other partners to take over tasks like logistics.”
The minister said she asked Bolton for help launching a planned Italian military mission to Niger in Africa to help combat people smugglers who send migrants across the Sahara to Libya, where they embark on boats heading for Europe.
The mission was announced last year but has been blocked by the Niger government, she said.
She said she also asked Bolton to help Italy take a “leadership” role in bringing peace to lawless Libya, noting she would visit the country next month in hopes of meeting Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the military commander hostile to the United Nations-backed Tripoli government that is supported by Italy.
Italy has been irked by French diplomacy in Libya, including backing for Haftar and support for elections by year-end. The election plan, Trenta said, was “not the best thing to do — the U.S. has seen in Iraq what happens when you rush things.”
Butting heads
France and Italy have meanwhile bickered this month over differing plans to deal with migrants arriving in Europe, but Trenta said no amount of political arguing would derail a planned merger between the naval operations of Italian shipyard Fincantieri and France’s Naval Group.
“Both countries are planning on the deal going ahead — there has been no impact from the migration discussion,” she said.
The new government in Rome has not yet signed up to a French plan for a multinational rapid intervention force, which would contain fellow European Union members, but also the U.K., which is planning to leave the EU. France said it wants the initiative to exist separately to the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation initiative for security and defense.
Trenta said Italy would probably sign. “As a new government, we wanted to study it and make sure it does not weaken the EU PESCO initiative,” she said.
Italy’s new government rattled its European allies earlier this month when Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he would like to end sanctions that were imposed on Moscow after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Trenta shares his view. “We have to consider Italy’s strategic interests — sanctions have damaged Italian exports, and it would be a good idea to evaluate alternative instruments,” she said.
“We see the U.S. as an ally, but we don’t see Russia as a threat — we see it as an economic partner,” she said. (Source: Defense News)
29 Jun 18. EU to deepen military readiness, raise spending, leaders say. The European Union must strengthen its defences, spend more and be able to act independently of the United States, the bloc’s leaders said in a summit statement released early on Friday, pledging to push ahead with a new military cooperation pact.
The pledge came after leaders met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday and it includes a commitment to spend more on defence after years of cuts, a central demand of U.S. President Donald Trump, who will attend a NATO summit in July in Brussels.
“Europe must take greater responsibility for its own security and underpin its role as a credible and reliable actor and partner in the area of security and defence,” the summit statement said.
Britain’s imminent departure from the European Union has also given impetus to the bloc’s plans, both because London blocked EU defence cooperation for years and also as the bloc compensates for the loss of the EU’s highest-spending military power.
The summit declaration also cemented a commitment to an EU defence pact signed in December that aims to develop weapons and deploy troops together after years of duplication and competing military structures.
“The Union is therefore taking steps to bolster European defence, by enhancing defence investment, capability development and operational readiness. These initiatives enhance its strategic autonomy while complementing and reinforcing the activities of NATO,” it said.
Trump’s “America first” policy and his conflicting statements on NATO and the European Union, as well as what he sees as Europe’s underfunded militaries, have also prompted the bloc to consider much closer EU defence coordination.
However, the bloc still insists that the U.S.-led NATO alliance remains responsible for defending Europe, while France is seeking to keep Britain close to EU military structures through a French-led crisis response force that nine European countries launched earlier this week.
Diplomats present at the two-day summit in Brussels described the debate over security and defence as consensual, despite tensions over migration that held up the formal adoption of the statement on Thursday evening.
Stoltenberg said on Thursday that the U.S.-led NATO alliance and the European Union were also cooperating on “military mobility, infrastructure, legal hurdles, to make sure that we are able to move forces quickly through Europe if needed”.
Russia’s military modernisation and its large-scale exercises along NATO’s eastern flank have raised concern in the alliance that it must do more to deter Moscow from any repeat of the Russian 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.
However, it is unclear Britain will cooperate with European Union security and intelligence agencies once outside the bloc.
At the summit dinner, Prime Minister Theresa May made a plea for allowances for London and to have access to EU databases, warning that European security was at stake.
May said sharing information freely helped solve serious crimes and prevent militant attacks. “Our ability to do so is being put at risk,” May told other EU leaders at the dinner, according to a senior British government official. (Source: Reuters)
28 Jun 18. Marshall Center, Munich Security Conference Meet Ahead of NATO Summit. The Munich Security Conference and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies’ Loisach Group discussed priorities and deliverables ahead of the upcoming NATO summit during a meeting held June 20 and 21 at the Robert Bosch Foundation here.
“Our intent is to provide senior leaders with the results of our work to help guide their discussions when they meet in Brussels on July 11 and 12,” said Jack Clarke, the Marshall Center’s lead professor for the Loisach Group.
Enhancing German and U.S. Partnership
The Loisach Group is a partnership created by the Marshall Center and the Munich Security Conference in August 2017. Clarke said the group focuses on enhancing the security partnership between the U.S. and Germany while promoting an enduring strategic dialogue between these partners.
“Loisach Group meetings is where we can talk about different opinions in open and frank discussions with a mixture of U.S. and European academic professionals, and civilian and military practitioners in an international atmosphere,” said retired German army Brig. Gen. Johann Berger, Marshall Center’s German deputy director. “We try in friendship, which the United States and Germany has had for more than 70 years, to come to grips with and find out possible results for current security challenges facing this partnership of the transatlantic alliance.”
Each February, the Munich Security Conference brings together more than 450 senior decision-makers from around the world to engage in an intensive debate on current and future security challenges. The Marshall Center is a 25-year-old, German-American security partnership that has produced generations of global security professionals schooled in American and German security policies.
‘Important Step’
This meeting was the fourth one for the Loisach Group and the first one held in Berlin. It was a meeting that Andrew A. Michta, dean of the Marshall Center’s College on International and Security Studies, said was “an important step in deepening American and German strategic dialogue and strengthening Marshall Center’s partnership with the Munich Security Conference.”
The name of the group refers to the Loisach River in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the fact that the water from that river flows into Munich. The first meeting of the Loisach Group was in May last year, and the second meeting was a few months later in December. Both meetings focused on German and U.S. engagement with Russia.
“It’s clear that the Loisach Group through our partnership with the Munich Security Conference is gaining significant amount of recognition,” Clarke said. “People understand that it’s an important forum for us to be able to discuss these issues, and as a result, we are starting to see some very senior officials speak to our audience, who can carry that message forward.”
Loisach Group ‘Really Matters’
Ambassador Dr. Hans-Dieter Lucas, Germany’s permanent representative on the NATO Council, gave the members a glimpse of the topics to be discussed during the NATO summit. These include NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism, strengthening NATO’s Black Sea presence, stepping up efforts against cyberattacks and hybrid threats, and creating a more agile, ready, and deployable NATO.
Lucas said the Loisach Group is “absolutely important” and “really matters” and that’s why he made the trip to Berlin with just a little over two weeks to go before the NATO summit.
“These two organizations are working together to make major contributions to the transatlantic dialogue and cooperation in the field of security policy,” he said. “I think in these difficult times we need more than ever these types of dialogue between Germans and Americans.”
Policy Ideas to NATO Summit 2018
A year ago, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visited the Marshall Center for the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Marshall Plan. Clarke said that both defense leaders stated the need to establish a strategic dialogue between their countries.
“The Loisach Group is a forum for discussions between senior Germans and Americans on issues of national security that both binds and separates us,” he said. “The group was designed to focus on areas of disagreement between Germany and the U.S. so we can try to find some common ground.”
Clarke said the members are now compiling the notes taken at the Berlin meeting and that even with just two weeks to go before the summit, he is confident that officials in the German Defense Ministry and the U.S. Defense Department will get these policy ideas in time.
“I read them when I get them,” Lucas said, speaking about the Loisach Notes produced by group members that he has received from the previous three meetings. (Source: US DoD)
27 Jun 18. Prime Minister Dodges Challenge to Commit to ‘Tier One’ Defence Status. For the second time in a week, Theresa May has shied away from pledging that the UK will remain a “Tier One” military power.
Eyebrows were raised last week when the Prime Minister shied away from a commitment to Tier One status during a press conference with NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, saying instead the UK would continue to be “a leading defence nation”.
When she was pressed on the issue by one of her own MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, she again steered clear of the phrase, saying the Government was committed to Britain being “a leading military power”.
In a move said to have sent shockwaves through the military, the Prime Minister was reported last week to have asked Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson to justify plans to maintain Tier One status. Mr Williamson has been pushing for an increase to military budgets as he undertakes the Modernising Defence Programme to prepare the armed forces to respond to future threats.
Mrs May later insisted the reports were “not correct” but has not since publicly used the formulation Tier One, which is thought to require an independent nuclear deterrent, a full range of land, air and sea forces, and the ability to respond to modern threats like cyber-attacks.
Plymouth Moor View MP and former soldier Johnny Mercer asked Mrs May at PMQs to “confirm to the House today that she is absolutely committed to this country retaining its Tier One military status”.
The PM replied: “I am absolutely committed to this country remaining a leading military power. There is no question that the Government will do what it needs to do to ensure that we are a leading military power.
“But we do need to ensure that we look at the threats we are now facing and the capabilities we need as these threats change. That is what the Modernising Defence Programme is about.
“But it is also about making sure our Ministry of Defence is operating as cost-effectively as it can so we can ensure we are providing for our brave men and women in our armed forces but we are also addressing the needs of the future.”
Asked why Mrs May did not use the Tier One phrase, her official spokesman told reporters: “The Prime Minister was clear in her commitment that Britain will remain a leading military power with a full range of capabilities.
“She set out that we want to ensure, as we look forward to 2030, that we have the full range of capabilities we need.”
Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith added to pressure on Mrs May on the issue when she told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute earlier this week that Britain’s Tier One military status was for Labour “absolutely a category that we want to be in”.
A senior Labour source confirmed that leader Jeremy Corbyn wants Britain to maintain Tier One status.
Mrs May paid tribute to Britain’s military personnel, telling MPs that Armed Forces Day on Saturday would be “an opportunity to recognise the source of pride and inspiration that our serving men and women are to us”.
On Wednesday morning she and Mr Williamson hosted members of the military reservists to a breakfast event at 10 Downing Street to mark Reserves Day. Mrs May told the Commons that reservists play “an integral and vital role” in maintaining the UK’s security. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/British Forces News)
28 Jun 18. UK intelligence tolerated ‘inexcusable’ US mistreatment of terror suspects. British agencies accused of tolerating ‘mistreatment’ of suspects by US allies. A long awaited report on the UK’s handling of detainees and suspects during the war on terror has sharply criticised the chiefs of Britain’s intelligence agencies, accusing them of failing to recognise a “pattern of mistreatment” by their close US allies. Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) published two reports on detainee mistreatment and rendition on Thursday morning, one covering the nine year period immediately after the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001 and another covering the period from 2010 up to the present day. Although the reports failed to find any evidence that UK intelligence operatives from MI6, MI5 or the ministry of defence directly mistreated or tortured terror suspects, they reveal new evidence of a greater number of cases where British agents were aware of mistreatment. Dominic Grieve, MP, chair of the ISC, said: “It is difficult to comprehend how those at the top of the office did not recognise the pattern of mistreatment by the US. “That the US, and others, were mistreating detainees is beyond doubt, as is the fact that the Agencies and Defence Intelligence were aware of this at an early point. “In our view the UK tolerated actions and took others that we regard as inexcusable.” (Source: FT.com)
27 Jun 18. Trump’s letters to allies mean the NATO Summit could be in trouble before it begins. Those hoping the July NATO summit might be a time of family healing between the 29 allies appear to have gotten a rude awakening, following a series of letters from U.S. President Donald Trump to his NATO allies with a clear message: The summit will be all about who does and doesn’t spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.
The only letter to be made public comes from Norwegian newspaper VG, which published a letter from Trump to Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, dated June 19. But a source confirmed to Defense News that several other NATO states have received similar letters, and Foreign Policy magazine has reported that the letters largely follow a similar format.
In the letter, the U.S. president notes that Norway is “the only NATO Ally sharing a border with Russia that lacks a credible plan to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense.”
“I understand domestic political pressures, as I myself have expended considerable political capital to increase our own defense spending,” the letter reads. “It will, however, become increasingly difficult to justify to American citizens why some countries continue to fail to meet our shared collective security commitments.”
The letter would appear to put a dagger into the idea that the NATO Summit could be used to heal any rifts opened up between the U.S. and Europe during the G7 gathering last month, and also end the hopes among Western European nations that the 2 percent issue would not be the dominant topic in Brussels come the meeting.
“Why the president would find it necessary to send a letter like this in advance of the NATO summit is a mystery,” said Julie Smith, a Europe expert with the Center for a New American Security. “It shows a lack of understanding of Norway’s place in the alliance and sets the wrong tone in advance of an important summit in mid-July.”
“This isn’t how you ‘prep’ for a NATO summit,” added Smith, a former Obama official with both the Pentagon and White House. “Letters like this will only backfire.”
During his presidential campaign, Trump seized on the idea of NATO members not paying enough while describing the alliance as “obsolete.” While that rhetoric has softened, Trump recently said that allies not meeting the 2 percent standard would be “dealt with.”
Alternative metrics
Critics of Trump’s focus on countries hitting the 2 percent figure argue that it is a flawed statistic that misses the point. A common talking point notes that Greece, which breaks the 2 percent mark, is spending over 75 percent of its defense budget on personnel costs such as pensions for veterans, while countries such as Denmark are spending their funds directly on large modernization programs.
Those countries had hoped to refocus Trump on the defense spending issue by presenting different metrics for him to look at.
One argument was that the 2 percent GDP target also comes with a requirement to spend 20 percent of your defense budget on major modernization projects, including expensive American goods, and that many countries are hitting that.
Another argument is simply that countries have increased defense spending broadly, and while they may not be at 2 percent, they are closer than they were years ago.
Norway would appear to be the poster child for such alternative metrics. It is spending around 27 percent of its defense budget on major programs, including American made F-35s and P-8 aircraft. The country plans to get to around 33 percent in a few years. It has also increased its defense spending around 25 percent since 2014, and is the second largest spender per capita on defense in the alliance — something Trump himself notes in his letter.
Norway’s US alliance under Trump
Notably, Trump’s letter also comes as the U.S. Marine Corps is preparing to beef up its presence in Norway, something the Norwegian government had been seeking.
Speaking in Washington Tuesday morning, Norway’s foreign minister Ine Eriksen Søreide, who previously served as defense minister, laid out the rationale for looking beyond 2 percent.
“There is a widespread agreement that Europe must invest more in defense spending but I think it is equally important not to talk about [Norwegian] security and U.S. security. I think we need to talk more about allied security,” Søreide said while at the Center for a New American Security, adding that “We remain strongly committed to the 2 percent goal.”
“For those of you who know the defense sector, you also know It’s not very helpful just to pour a lot of money into one sector over a year or two,” she added. “You have to gradually build up, otherwise the money is not spent wisely and will not be spent on the right things.”
Smith called Norway a “a model member of the NATO alliance,” thanks both to its willingness to contribute to operations abroad and the fact it is spending heavily on modernization.
“When I was in government we pushed allies to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense. But we also spent a lot of time stressing that in addition to what you spend, it’s how you spend your defense budget that makes the biggest difference,” said Smith. (Source: Defense News)
27 Jun 18. Defence rift deepens between Theresa May and Gavin Williamson. Downing Street insiders believe minister could quit over funding dispute. Theresa May is reported to be unhappy with Gavin Williamson’s plan for modernising the armed forces. Theresa May has deepened a row with Gavin Williamson, defence secretary, by telling him to go back to the drawing board and come up with a military vision fit for the new challenges facing the country in 2030. Some people in Number 10 believe Mr Williamson may now quit if he does not get the extra money he believes the Ministry of Defence needs, possibly to burnish his ambitions for the Tory leadership by presenting himself as a defender of the armed forces. “People don’t think he’s behaving in a very grown up way,” said one ally of the prime minister. “Conservative MPs are scathing about what he is doing.” Mrs May’s relations with Mr Williamson, who ran the prime minister’s Tory leadership campaign in 2016, have become icy as the defence secretary steps up his campaign to secure a big increase in the military budget. The prime minister was not happy with Mr Williamson’s initial plans for modernising the armed forces, which some insiders described as more appropriate for tackling the threats facing the country “20 or 30 years ago”. Mrs May told MPs on Wednesday: “What do we want our ministry of defence and armed forces to look like in 2030? That’s the question.” On exercise with the British Army as it battles for funds The MoD denied that it had been told to return to the drawing board. “The Modernising Defence Programme continues to progress in line with the timelines and aims set out by the defence secretary when it was launched in January,” it said. An ally of Mr Williamson played down any possible resignation, saying that the defence secretary had already “stopped gruesome cuts to capability” by winning £800m in extra funding in March. Mr Williamson was taken aback last week when Mrs May told him to go away and explain what a “tier one” military power would look like. His allies said his defence plan was already complete. Mrs May, challenged by Tory MP Johnny Mercer to commit to Britain remaining a “tier one” power, refused to use the phrase, saying only: “I am absolutely committed to this country remaining a leading military power.” Recommended FT View Britain confronts limits of its military power The prime minister believes any defence plan must bolster Britain’s defences against cyber attacks and other new threats, with less emphasis on the expensive military hardware demanded by defence chiefs. The Commons defence committee has said the defence budget should rise from just over 2 per cent of gross domestic product, or about £40bn, to 3 per cent of GDP, about £60bn. Mr Williamson is also being urged to fight the MoD’s corner by defence chiefs. But Mr Williamson has alienated both Mrs May and chancellor Philip Hammond, who have warned him that the MoD will not receive the same kind of budget uplift recently announced for the NHS. They have told Mr Williamson that he will not be allowed to publish an interim report on his defence review — which he had intended to showcase plans for extra spending — before next month’s Nato summit in Brussels. The defence secretary is now locked in a fight with other spending departments for a share of a shrinking public spending cake, following the £20.5bn boost announced for the NHS last week. (Source: FT.com)
27 Jun 18. German air force in dire straits – chief of staff. NATO member Germany’s air force is in dire straits and funds are urgently needed to modernise its weaponry and systems, the air force chief of staff said on Wednesday.
“The Luftwaffe is at a low point,” Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, who took over as chief of staff of the air force about a month ago, told 200 industry executives, military officers and lawmakers at an event in Berlin on Wednesday evening.
Gerhartz said his assessment followed visits to various air force sites and discussions with troops that revealed serious deficits in the readiness of aircraft and other equipment.
“Aircraft are grounded due to a lack of spare parts, or they aren’t even on site since they’re off for maintenance by the industry,” he said. He said a 400-hour inspection of the Eurofighter combat jets now took a total of 14 months, twice as long as planned, and this was unacceptable.
His comments followed recent reports by the defence ministry and the German parliament’s military ombudsman that revealed significant gaps in military equipment and personnel.
A February ministry report showed only 39 of 128 Eurofighter jets were available for training and combat use last year on average, and just 26 of 93 older-model Tornado fighter jets.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are finalising budget plans for 2019, but Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, from the SPD, has been resisting moves to accelerate increases in military spending.
Merkel this month forecast steady increases in German military spending in coming years, in line with Berlin’s pledge to meet a NATO target of moving towards spending 2 percent of economic output by 2024, but she gave no details.
Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen has been pressing for increased spending after Scholz’s previous longer-term plan called for military outlays to edge lower after reaching 1.3 percent of economic output in 2019, up from 1.2 percent now.
Von der Leyen has pledged that German military spending will reach 1.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2025.
Gerhartz urged lawmakers at the Wednesday event to back a more sustainable spending plan that would allow the air force to rebuild its equipment and improve planning for new weapons and upgrades to existing systems. (Source: Reuters)
27 Jun 18. First NATO Joint Air Power Strategy Emphasizes Integral Role of Domain. NATO released its first Joint Air Power Strategy yesterday, stressing the integral role the domain plays in all of the alliance’s tasks. This is the first joint strategy released since the alliance’s maritime strategy came out in 2011.
The strategy spells out the importance of air power in collective defense, crisis management and cooperative security. It is key to deterring Russia and projecting stability beyond the borders of NATO. It is also vital for the struggle against terrorism.
“A balanced and innovative approach to joint air power that understands, accepts and mitigates risks will provide a coherent military capacity, enhancing the development of a credible and flexible NATO posture,” the report says.
The flexibility and speed of air power is a key to countering the threats, “which are more diverse, complex, rapidly evolving and demanding than at any time since the end of the Cold War,” the report says. “This diverse picture is further complicated by easy access to technology, the ability to limit or deny access and maneuverability, and the capacity to disrupt command and control networks.”
Evolving Threats
Future challenges and threats to the alliance will be transnational and multidimensional in nature and will likely have long-term consequences for peace, security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region. The strategy notes there is no guarantee that the alliance will always retain air dominance.
The strategy recognizes that the alliance depends on air and space capabilities in and around all possible terrain and environments. “The development, proliferation and integration of adversary ballistic and cruise missiles, advanced layered air defense, cyber and electronic warfare systems will change the dynamics of alliance air operations, which have more recently been conducted in permissive conditions,” according to the report. “Forces will need the ability to operate despite the existence and further proliferation of such capabilities, which may result in threat environments ranging from permissive to highly contested.”
These problems will become greater in the future, the strategy notes.
The strategy covers the importance of the cyber domain to air operations, saying the successful use of air power requires robust and securely networked command and control. “The protection of the network will become as important as the protection of the platform,” the report says. “Forces will also need to protect against manipulation of data and information, and should be able to validate and verify data to ensure it is accurate, reliable, and derived from trusted sources.”
The joint strategy is not limited to conventional deterrence, conventional actions, integrated air and missile defense and nuclear deterrence. Air power enables situational awareness and understanding while providing the political leaders with agile means to rapidly change posture, escalating or de-escalating through appropriate measures as required.
This is a joint strategy, and it provides a blueprint for allied nations as they build air and space capabilities. “Since [Joint Air Power] includes elements operating in the air, maritime, land and cyber domains, supported by space, it represents one of the strongest drivers for the integration of multi-domain operations, including the capacity to conduct [command and control] from the air,” the report says. (Follow Jim Garamone on Twitter: @GaramoneDoDNews)
26 Jun 18. Maintaining UK and US military relationship could cost Britain more than $10bn a year. Britain needs to raise defense spending by over £8bn a year, or U.S. $10.59bn, to not undermine the military relationship with the U.S. says a report by the parliamentary defence committee.
The report, which looks at the U.K.’s defense relations with the U.S. and NATO, recommends Britain increases the percentage of gross domestic product being allocated to the military first to 2.5 percent and eventually 3 percent if the country is to maintain the military relationship with the U.S. and keep its leading role in NATO.
“The U.K. armed forces and the Treasury benefit from our close relationship with the U.S. However, that will continue to be true only while the U.K. military retains both the capacity and capability to maintain interoperability with the U.S. military and to relieve U.S. burdens. For this to be the case the U.K. armed forces must be funded appropriately,” said the report released June 26.
The lawmakers urged a significant rise in a defense budget which currently just manages to squeeze above the 2 percent of gross domestic product demanded by NATO for defense spending.
“We calculate that raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP would result in a forecast spend of £50 bn per annum and raising it to 3% of GDP would take this to £60 bn per annum,” said the lawmakers.
The defense budget this year is set at £37bn with small real term increases expected annually up to 2022.
A rise to 3 percent would see defence spending return to a level — in GDP percentage terms —that has not been seen since 1995.
The release of the document comes at a bad time for anyone advocating increases in defense spending here.
Last week Chancellor Philip Hammond, an ex-defense secretary, revealed plans to spend an additional £20bn a year on health care and made it clear that there was little or nothing left to bolster the finances of other departments, including defense.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has been battling for months to secure additional funding to fill a black hole that the National Audit Office, the government’s financial watchdog, has previously estimated could be anything between £4.8bn and £20bn in equipment spending alone over the next decade. The exact amount depends to some degree on how much the military can save in efficiency improvements and reprioritizing and cutting capabilities and programs. The headline outcomes of a Ministry of Defence review into the future size and shape of British forces, officially called the Modernising Defence Programme, could come at the NATO summit scheduled for Brussels starting July 11. Media reports Sunday on the defense funding battle highlighted the seemingly growing rift between Williamson and senior government figures over the issue. The reports followed strong denials from Prime Minister Theresa May last week that the government here was considering a watering down of Britain’s ‘tier-one’ status as a military power after the Financial Times reported that May asked Williamson to justify continuance of that position.
The U.S, Britain, China, Russia and France are the only nations with a tier one status — which basically means they are able to fight nuclear, conventional and other conflicts around the world.
The committee said military-to-military engagement between the U.K. and the U.S. was one of the linchpins of the bilateral relationship between the two nations.
The report said the U.K. benefits greatly from the width and depth of the U.K.-U.S. defense and security relationship, but such a relationship requires a degree of interoperability that can be sustained only through investment in U.K. armed forces.
The importance of the military relationship between the U.S. and Europe’s leading military power also extends into NATO.
Lawmakers said the relationship is vital to the functioning of NATO while the U.K.’s leading contribution to the alliance helps to sustain the relationship between London and Washington.
Julian Lewis, the Defence Committee chairman, said in a statement:
“Defence spending is an area where a strong message needs to be sent to our allies and adversaries alike. The Government has consistently talked about increasing the U.K.’s commitment to NATO after our departure from the European Union. An increased commitment, in the face of new and intensified threats, means that further investment is essential,” said Lewis.
The warning in the report over the risks to the military relationship between London and Washington follows a similar warning in February by U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis that Britain had to retain a credible military if the relationship between the two nations was to endure and strengthen.
Williamson said that in financial terms alone the U.K. benefits to the tune of £3bn a year from the U.K.-U.S. defense relationship.
John Spellar MP, the Defence Committee’s senior Labour Party member and former armed forces minister said the inquiry has “underlined the importance of the U.K.-U.S. relationship in the area of defense and security and emphasizes the benefit which the U.K. receives as a result.”
“We have heard that there are perceptions in the U.S. that the U.K.’s defense capabilities have slipped and that concerns have been raised about the U.K.’s ability to operate independently. We need to challenge this perception and the Modernising Defence Programme is an excellent opportunity to do so,” said Spellar. (Source: Defense News)
25 Jun 18. Brexit, defence and the EU’s quest for strategic autonomy.
EU members may not feel they can trust the Brits on defence. But the UK’s past reliability on this front suggests they should. There is more joy in heaven (or so we are told, on the best available authority) over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine already-righteous folk. On that basis, fatted calves in the vicinity of Brussels should have been keeping a very low profile as the British, after long years decrying and obstructing European defence integration, have rediscovered an unconditional commitment to Europe’s security, and pressed for the closest possible post-Brexit partnership. Yet the European Union negotiators’ response to this change of heart has been less than rapturous – and, in the matter of the Galileo satellite project, frankly disobliging. They seem unmoved by the growing likelihood that Brexit will do major damage to cross-Channel defence research and industry cooperation, and thus to the EU’s own aspiration to build Europe’s strength in these areas. That aspiration is part of the wider ambition that Europe should increasingly strive to stand on its own feet when it comes to defence and security – ‘strategic autonomy’, in the jargon. So why the EU coolness towards the British overtures?
Can the British be trusted?
Brexiters have a ready explanation for EU coolness: the EU is happy to cut off its own nose to spite its face provided it can punish the Brits for leaving; the European Commission, who lead the negotiations, have always been ‘ayatollahs’, valuing doctrinal purity above common sense. (Pots and kettles, you might think, given that the whole Brexit adventure is a triumph of ideology over pragmatism – but there we are.)
Even dispassionate observers, while understanding European Commission reluctance to think outside the box on other matters unless and until the Brits come to terms with how their own ‘red lines’ have boxed them in on economic issues, see the European Commission’s flat insistence that “third country means third country” as blinkered. The British proposal of an internal security treaty certainly deserves a better hearing than it has so far received.
What the British too readily overlook, however, is that there is more than bureaucratic resistance at work in the EU attitude to the future defence relationship. There is also the matter of trust. Britain has, after all, spent much of the past decade or more systematically obstructing EU defence integration, and casting itself as the protector of NATO – both because that has played well domestically, and in the hope of currying favour in Washington.
Blocking an EU operational headquarters, or a European Defence Agency budget increase, may have been more symbolic than truly important – but it is nonetheless remembered in Brussels, and in other capitals such as Berlin. Nor is Michel Barnier, a commissioner during Galileo’s difficult early days, likely to have forgotten the British efforts, at US behest, to prevent the emergence of a rival to GPS. So, a degree of scepticism at British protestations of a change of heart is inevitable – especially given the fragility of Theresa May’s grip on power, and the identity of some of those who could succeed her.
Strategic autonomy: Desirable? Achievable?
This fundamental question – can the British truly be trusted? – has become the more salient as the need for European “strategic autonomy” has become ever more obvious. Even before the Trump election, the concept was prominent in the 2016 European Global Strategy, where “taking greater responsibility for our own security” is framed as what the times require, EU citizens expect, and a healthy transatlantic partnership demands. In 2018, the imperative for Europeans to reduce their security dependence on the US becomes more pressing by the day, as Donald Trump gets into his international stride – embracing tyrants, insulting and bullying allies, and trashing any piece of multilateral furniture he happens upon. No wonder Europeans view the upcoming July NATO summit with such trepidation.
Of course, most Europeans would really rather not dwell on these uncomfortable developments. It was so much easier, and so much cheaper, to hang on to US coattails, paying for American protection with strategic obedience. And it was so much more possible to trust other European partners, especially the ones who had been mortal foes in the not-so-distant past, if Uncle Sam presided and kept everyone in line. Even if old antagonisms between Europeans have faded, rivalries have not – how much less irksome to defer to leadership from the US than from any peer! US hegemony has been a sweet servitude, made all the more palatable by the conditioned assumption that that Europe would be hopelessly vulnerable without American military protection.
Today, that assumption is, of course, true. Politically, solidarity among EU member states is in short supply. Militarily, inefficiency and duplication in defence spending have delivered enfeebled capabilities, as recently reemphasised by reports of the parlous condition of much of Germany’s armed forces. And the US nuclear guarantee remains the foundation stone of Europe’s defence against the only major military threat it faces, that of Russia.
None of this, however, is immutable. Indeed, European dependence on American protection is absurd, given that the 28 EU member states between them are second only to the US in their defence spending, and last year, astonishingly, spent very nearly four times as much on defence as Russia. Europe is also home to the world’s second most advanced defence industry and research base. There are even two nuclear powers in Europe, whose combined nuclear arsenals could present any potential aggressor with a more than adequate retaliatory threat – provided they were prepared to offer a deterrent umbrella to their neighbours, and their neighbours were prepared to accept it.
In sum, strategic autonomy is there for the European taking – unless one believes that Europeans can never make an even a halfway decent fist of pooling their defence efforts and resources, and that there is something uniquely credible about the idea that, in a nuclear crisis, Trump would risk Chicago to protect Berlin. No wonder, then, that the autonomy notion is gaining currency: in Emmanuel Macron’s Sorbonne speech of last November when he referred to “gradual and ineluctable disengagement by the US”; in Angela Merkel’s recent public utterances, repeating her ‘beer tent’ call of last summer for Europeans “to take their fate into their own hands”; and in the new departure of spending money from the EU budget, through a special European Defence Fund (EDF), to foster defence research and industry in Europe.
The European Defence Fund as flashpoint
This last development, of the EU subsidising what is awkwardly called the ‘European defence technological and industrial base’ (EDTIB), may well be the next big transatlantic casus belli. For, while Trump will use the NATO summit to demand that the European allies spend more on defence, what this most mercantilist of presidents clearly has in mind is that the extra money should be spent on American hardware. Pity the poor Germans, slated to make a key decision this summer between American and European candidates to replace the Tornado combat aircraft. And it is anyone’s guess what reprisals Trump will threaten if the EU persists in its intention to devote EDF funds solely to companies controlled by EU nationals and based on EU territory.
Strategic autonomy is there for the European taking – unless one believes that Europeans can never make an even a halfway decent fist of pooling their defence efforts
Will Europeans cave? Bearing in mind the longstanding imbalances in transatlantic defence trade, they will probably stand their ground. The Americans have long denied Europeans equitable defence market access, and used their technology to control and coerce – for example, by vetoing European defence exports incorporating some small American component. (When the British proposed to buy Airbus rather than Boeing air tankers, and planned to recoup costs by leasing out the tankers for commercial use when not needed by the military, the US government aimed to block the deal by insisting that commercial operators could not be allowed near the tankers’ GPS suite. The British promised to remove the GPS in such circumstances. The US responded that this would not do, since the dimensions of the GPS antenna could be inferred from the size of the hole in the aircraft’s fuselage. Much British capital had to be expended to circumvent this ‘classified hole’ problem.)
So, a new transatlantic conflict is brewing – with the UK at risk of ending up as collateral damage. For the UK is aiming to retain for its defence industries just the sort of privileged access to European projects which the EU is now proposing to deny to the US. A tough ask – but they have a compelling case. For the reality is that UK industry and research institutes have long been fully committed and cooperative participants in the EDTIB. What is more, they can be counted on to remain that way – for that most dependable of reasons: vital self-interest.
Why Europe still needs the Brits
It is one of the many ironies of Brexit that over the decades of UK membership of the EU, while Europhobes have obsessed over the erosion of British sovereignty, the British have shown themselves entirely pragmatic about European cooperation in the defence industry, that most ‘sovereign’ of spheres. They have been key partners in a series of European combat aircraft projects, and in the last big collaborations launched before the financial crisis hit, the A400M airlifter and the Meteor missile. And they stuck with their decision to buy those Airbus air tankers (unsurprisingly, given that they still make all Airbus wings, at any rate at time of writing …).
The British approach to matters of defence ownership has been equally open. Major investments by European defence companies such as Leonardo and Thales have been welcomed. Britain has merged its own assets and capabilities with continental partners to create MBDA, the pan-European, and world-leading, missile house. The UK was even ready to sign off on the proposal for a BAE Systems/Airbus merger in 2012, until German cold feet put paid to that historic opportunity.
Most important of all, the British have long led Europe in the scale of their investment in defence R&D, and have had no inhibitions about sharing the technological fruits with European partners (if the commercial terms were right, of course). This has not been through any Euro-idealism. It has been a pragmatic reaction to the established US refusal to share technology, ‘special relationship’ or no. The British know that their only alternative to European cooperation is to end up as ‘tin-bashing’ subcontractors to the US defence and aerospace giants. Like it or not, British defence companies and their continental peers have been condemned to cooperate to remain internationally competitive. And no one expects that situation to change in the years ahead.
Thus Britain is a key part of the EDTIB, and can be counted on to remain so, given the chance. That chance will depend on how the rules for participation in projects under the new EDF are written. If the EU is serious about strategic autonomy, it will find a way to accommodate this uniquely capable partner in the new system, whatever happens with Brexit. In doing so, it can expect to have to withstand huge pressure from the other side of the Atlantic. But then, that is rather the point in pursuing strategic autonomy in the first place, is it not? When a British government says “trust us”, the EU must inevitably ask itself why it should. But in matters of defence industrial and technological cooperation, British reliability has been demonstrated over many years. The EU’s own interests and aspirations require it to keep this door open to the repentant prodigal. (Source: Google/www.ecfr.eu)
25 Jun 18. European countries to formalise EU defence force plan. Nine EU nations will formalise a plan on 25 June to create a European military intervention force, a French minister said, with Britain backing the measure as a way to maintain strong defence ties with the bloc after Brexit. The force, known as the European Intervention Initiative and championed by French President Emmanuel Macron, is intended to be able to deploy rapidly to deal with crises. A letter of intent is due to be signed in Luxembourg on 25 June by France, Germany, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, Spain and Portugal, French Defence Minister Florence Parly told the newspaper Le Figaro.
The initiative involves ‘joint planning work on crisis scenarios that could potentially threaten European security,’ according to a source close to the minister, including natural disasters, intervention in a crisis or evacuation of nationals.
It would be separate from other EU defence cooperation, meaning there would be no obstacle to Britain taking part after it leaves the bloc.
The French minister said: ‘This is clearly an initiative that allows the association of some non-EU states. The UK has been very keen because it wants to maintain cooperation with Europe beyond bilateral ties.’
Twenty-five EU countries signed a major defence pact in December 2017, agreeing to cooperate on various military projects, but it is not clear whether Britain would be allowed to take part in any of them after it leaves the bloc. The EU has had four multinational military ‘battlegroups’ since 2007, but political disagreements have meant the troops have never been deployed. Paris hopes that by focusing on a smaller group of countries, its new initiative will be able to act more decisively, freed from the burdens that sometimes hamper action by the 28-member EU and 29-member NATO. Italy had originally shown interest in the proposal. The new government in Rome ‘is considering the possibility of joining’ but has not made a final decision, Parly said. (Source: Shephard)
26 Jun 18. After sponsoring a team in Rally for Heroes back in 2016, Briggs Defence has stepped up its support for the charity fundraiser and is a main sponsor of this year’s event, which is aiming to bring in £150,000 for SSAFA. Rally for Heroes takes place from August 2-11 when the cars will set off from Horse Guards Parade in London. Taking in some of Europe’s most picturesque scenery, the 50 teams participating in the fully subscribed event will follow a set route through no less than 10 countries. As well as its event sponsorship, the specialist division of asset management and engineering services provider Briggs Equipment is entering a team in this year’s Rally. Briggs Defence’s contract development manager Jamie Secker is co-pilot to Brigadier Simon Hutchings, who has already completed two Rallies and this year gets behind the wheel of a Caterham CSR 260.
Gary Clements of Briggs Defence said: “Rally for Heroes is SSAFA’s biggest single fundraiser and as an event and team sponsor for this year’s Rally we’re delighted to support the Armed Forces’ charity’s wonderful work in support of serving and veteran military personnel.”
Every five miles of the Rally represents the life of a serviceman or woman who has died in combat since the start of the Afghanistan conflict. This is especially important for SSAFA, which provides specialist support to hundreds of bereaved and injured service families affected by recent conflicts, including Afghanistan.
On the first day the teams will cross the Channel to France and then make their way to Switzerland, heading through the mountain passes to Italy. Day 4 is the drive south to Venice before the cars turn east into Slovenia – a first for Rally for Heroes – and then head south along the coastal roads of Croatia. The route for day 6 is Croatia to Bosnia, after which the teams drive north through Austria to Germany. Day 9 will see the teams make their way along the autobahns to Luxembourg before embarking on the final leg to the finish back in the UK.
Jamie said: “This challenge is going to be an amazing experience, with no creature comforts as those familiar with a Caterham CSR will fully appreciate, and it’s all in a great cause.
“We’re really committed to achieving the Rally’s overall target of £150,000 for chosen charity SSAFA, which provides lifelong support to servicemen and women and their families and works with veterans of all ages to help them settle into life outside the Armed Forces.”
25 Jun 18. Big reveal of UK modernization plan expected in Brussels. The British Ministry of Defence’s Modernising Defence Programme, essentially a review of spending and capabilities, should start to see the light of day around the time of the July 11-12 NATO summit in Brussels. British Prime Minister Theresa May could unveil the headline conclusions of the program at the summit, with the details to follow sometime in the future. The fear is that without the government handing the military more money over the next decade, capabilities will be lost and procurement programs abandoned or delayed ― and in some instances, that is already happening.
The MoD has been battling for additional cash from the Treasury for months, but with the British government announcing June 18 plans to spend billions of pounds more on health over the next few years, the chances of defense getting any significant boost appears increasingly remote.
Instead the MoD will likely have to persevere with efficiency and other cuts to reduce a black hole in the 10-year equipment plan that the National Audit Office, the government’s financial watchdog, said earlier this year could be unaffordable to the tune of between £4.9bn and £20.8bn (U.S. $5.7bn and U.S. $24.1bn). The parliamentary Defence and Public Accounts committees are so worried about “severe“ budgetary pressures that they took the unusual step of jointly writing to the prime minister in early June to voice their concerns. A June 18 report by the Defence Committee said that if the government wants to have the resources to keep the country safe, it “must begin moving the level of defence expenditure back towards 3% [from the current level of 2 percent] of GDP, as it was in the mid-1990s.” (Source: Defense News)
25 Jun 18. Britain to school industry, government on foreign defense dealings. Britain is setting up a high-level school for defense exporters aimed at increasing the skills of executives and government officials negotiating often complex deals with foreign customers. The scheme, known as the Defence Enterprise Export Programme, is the initiative of the Defence Growth Partnership, the joint industry-government operation set up some four years ago to boost overseas sales of British military equipment. DEEP is aimed at executives with the potential to move into senior management or on a fast-track career path with their organization.
DGP is collaborating with the highly regarded Cranfield University to create a two-year Master of Business Administration program to bridge the skills gap in a key area of the defense sector, as Britain battles to compete in a fiercely competitive sector that saw the U.K. industry net £5.9bn (U.S. $6.8bn) in export sales in 2016. The scheme will be officially rolled out by the DGP at the Farnborough air show in July.
Ed Frankland, the DGP’s program director, said a lot of effort is going into skills for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but little thought has been directed at other areas where Britain needs additional capabilities.
“The topic nobody was doing anything about was equipping ourselves to be more effective on the international stage through defense exports. In the post-Brexit world, these are exactly the kind of people the U.K. will need,” Frankland said.
The part-time course uses online learning, classrooms and other methods, and it’s set to get underway next year.
One feature of the course will see students move between companies and government posts to maximize exposure to key skills.
Allan Cook, the senior defense industrialist who co-chairs the DGP, said more than 40 people had already signed up for the first course, and hundreds more are expected to follow over the next few years.
The students come from industrial members of the DGP and government departments.
With Britain facing a chronic shortage of engineers, part of the DGP’s remit is to provide an uptick in skills for the defense sector.
“We have had a lot of success in developing programs for skills in the defense area. The first was for a masters qualification in systems engineering in collaboration with Cranfield. It’s a core capability, as everybody in the U.K. defense sector is short of systems engineers; now we are targeting export skills,” Cook said.
Other skill gaps will be identified for similar treatment to the schemes already set up once DEEP is up and running. The DGP brings together companies like BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Leonardo and Lockheed Martin, as well as academia, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Ministry of Defence, and the Department for International Trade, primarily to help boost defense exports through teaming, advancing technological innovation and providing market intelligence.
Much of that work is done through a UK Defence Solutions Centre based at Farnborough, which is tasked with, among other things, identifying key market trends, highlighting capability development themes and seeking alignment of investment by the British government and industry to meet requirements. The effort is jointly funded, with the government providing cash and the companies backing personnel. However, that is changing. A major uptick in government funding in the DGP is allowing the recruitment of permanent staff at the UK Defence Solutions Centre. (Source: Defense News)
25 Jun 18. Excluded from cooperative plans in Europe, UK sets groundwork for future fighters. Expectations are growing among industry executives and analysts that the British government will use a huge gathering of international air force chiefs in the U.K. in mid-July to outline a strategy leading to development of a new generation of fighter jets for the post-2040 era. Left out in the cold by a joint Franco-German plan to develop a new fighter, Ministry of Defence officials ― supported by industry ― have been working for months on a combat air strategy to sustain Britain’s capabilities beyond the Eurofighter Typhoon, and they are determined to figure out a way forward this summer.
With more than 50 air force chiefs from around the world expected to attend the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford, southern England, as part of the Royal Air Force’s centenary celebrations, it is likely the British will use the event to kick-start plans to develop an eventual replacement for the Typhoons, which form the backbone of the country’s fighter fleet.
“We are definitely hoping that between the NATO summit, the Royal International Air Tattoo and the Farnborough air show in mid-July, something gets announced to get the combat air strategy underway,” said Paul Everitt, the CEO at ADS, a U.K. defense and aerospace trade organization.
Consultant Howard Wheeldon, of Wheeldon Strategic, who is very much plugged into MoD and industry circles, said nothing was set in stone yet, but he expects some kind of announcement, possibly at the Royal International Air Tattoo, which starts July 13.
“I do get the impression they will go for something big in the way of an announcement. It could be something along the lines of ‘this is what we would like to do, and we want to do it with partners.’ In part it’s meant to be a bit of a shock to France and Germany,” Wheeldon said.
An MoD spokesman told Defense News that the U.K.’s air combat strategy “will aim to set the policy goals that will maximize the national strategic value in combat air, including operational capability; technological advantage; economic benefits; industrial capability, capacity and skills; prosperity; and export outcomes, and will set clear parameters for industry to drive long-term, sustainable improvements in productivity and efficiency to ensure the U.K. combat air sector remains world-leading and internationally competitive.”
“It will signal to international partners the U.K.’s approach to combat air capability development, encouraging a wider dialogue with partners and allies over future cooperation,” the MoD spokesman added.
Everitt said any announcement would fall short of a program go-ahead, but expects a significant step forward by the British.
“I think it will be a commitment to a strategy rather than a strategy itself. It will cover some of the key elements they will need to address rather than a commitment to build. Nevertheless, in terms of making progress I see it as a big step forward,” he said.
Everitt said the jointly funded government-industry UK Defence Solutions Centre has already been tasked with looking at potential international partners and future customers for a sixth-generation jet.
The ADS boss said the “politics of the situation are if we want to interest potential partners or even customers, we are going to have to demonstrate we have something that’s real.”
“If we want to be taken seriously, we have to put something on the table. Time pressures mean while we would not necessarily like to do it in this environment, we have to put something out there to say we have the capability and political intent to do this,” Everitt said.
What the British don’t have, however, is the money to go it alone in developing a new fighter. So a partner, or two, is essential if the country’s air combat-dominated defense industry is to remain a leading player.
“We will still have sufficient time over the course of the next five years that if we begin to make progress with this we will be able to combine with other players, be it France and Germany, or others around the world. But to meet any kind of timetable we have to start doing something now,” Everitt said.
Jon Louth, the director of defense, industries and society at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, said it’s a big ask to see the U.K. joining the nascent program now being touted by France and Germany.
“The Germans and the French want to go it alone on this and almost have it as a European Union exemplar,” Louth said. “Politics aside, I think U.K. will likely want to move quicker than Franco-German partners, even if we were let in.”
France has suggested Britain could be brought into the program at a later date, but Everitt questioned the value of any deal that didn’t give the defense sector in Britain a leading role.
“As we look beyond Europe, it’s a bit tricky who we might establish a partnership with. With us having difficult conversations with colleagues in the European Union, we need the strategic vision and political preparedness to make some quite challenging decisions about who might be a potential partner in this project,” he added.
Wheeldon reckons a combat air strategy will emphasize partnerships at the international and domestic levels.
“I think the signals put out from the strategy will be very positive, particularly in terms of looking for a partnership with another country. It could be Italy, Turkey, Sweden, Japan or whoever. It will also likely [emphasize] Britain’s defense-industrial base and its importance, so any government partnership will be with them as well,” Wheeldon said.
Louth said the U.S. might provide another partnering option, although there looks to be a gap between the likely requirements of the two countries.
“The U.S. seems to be talking about a larger platform than we want, so there could be some interesting options around new partners that would fit the British Brexit narrative of global markets,” he said, referring to Britain’s exit from the European Union.
“I sense that we will start to hear about an emerging combat air replacement program in July, and there might even be some early money from the government to start thinking about capabilities and, longer term, a demonstrator,” he added.
BAE Systems already has a deal with Turkey to help develop the TF-X fighter program being pursued by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, while the British and Japanese governments announced last year they were looking at options for collaborating on a new generation of fighters.
However, The Financial Times has reported the British deal with Turkey is running into trouble over issues surrounding the passing of intellectual property related to sensitive aircraft and engine technology to Ankara.
BAE continues to lead in the development of technologies for the Typhoon and is Lockheed Martin’s main international partner in the F-35 program. It is also part of a stalled Anglo-French partnership to investigate unmanned combat vehicle technologies.
In a statement, the company said it is working closely with the Royal Air Force and industry partners to further develop “Britain’s work-leading combat air capability” and envisions a future combat air system developed with international partners that is flexible, affordable and customizable for export.
But for such a vision to move forward, Everett said, the role of Britain must be clear.
“The industrial question is would we have sufficient lead in any joint program to make it worthwhile. That perhaps is a more serious question in any U.K.-French-German mix.” (Source: Defense News)
25 Jun 18. Portugal’s defense minister targets NATO defense spending goals. When the 29 NATO states gather in Brussels for the biannual NATO Summit from July 11-12, expect a heavy focus on the eastern flank with Russia. But it is important to remember that some NATO nations reside on the other side of the continent ― and have different geographic priorities.
José Alberto de Azeredo Lopes, the minister of defense for Portugal, believes NATO needs to reassess its internal structures to better deal with new challenges from Africa, Iraq and Syria. He talked about that, and the infamous defense-spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product, with Defense News on June 13.
Let’s start big picture. What are your expectations and hopes for the upcoming NATO summit?
To tell you the truth, I have no enormous expectations. What I hope is that we can reunite again and forget for a while the issue of the 2 percent that is in some ways becoming an obsession for us. So I think what is the most important thing that I would like to see in the NATO summit is to see friends and allies speaking again, frankly, about their positions on defense issues on collective security, on collective defense.
Portugal is a founding member of NATO, and [while] we agree fully that the states must be more committed in financial aid, from a financial perspective on their collective defense, I am a little bit afraid that this is turning out to be the only issue that we are discussing. We have lost, somehow, our ideals. I don’t follow in any way those who consider NATO is going down or that it has lost its fundamental purpose. But I strongly believe that it would be a very important sign, even for our adversaries, that we gave a clear message: We can be here and there discussing some issues, but on the fundamentals we continue as solid as a rock.
How do you make that argument, though, to this particular American administration, which has become very focused on the 2 percent issue?
I have no problem doing this. I always speak very frankly. And I must say that I don’t remember such good relations between Portugal and the United States in defense issues. I don’t remember in the past. We are working very well on the Azores issue. We are working on the bilateral plan. And I can say ― and I say it in a very convinced way: I like Secretary [Jim] Mattis very much. I think he’s an excellent secretary of defense. We could speak with him very frankly. If you want to speak about money, you can always speak about money, but is our common security and defense only a 2 percent issue?
Let me make an exercise: If every state was at 2 percent defense budget ― now there will be no further problems? We would be secure? Because if it does that, I can convince my prime minister to pay the 2 percent. But can anyone seriously say that our defense and security issues are a money issue? I have some doubts on that.
When you say you feel NATO has lost its ideals, what do you mean?
I [took] office in November 2015. My first meeting [at NATO], we only discussed Russia. Russia. And Russia. And I even asked, smiling, if I was in a meeting of the “Eastern Treaty Organization” because I have heard no word about the Atlantic, the northern part of the Atlantic, the new challenges of transnational terrorism. I was astonished not to see these kinds of features of modern, of contemporary issues of our security and defense. I think that it’s important to define very clearly: What do you want NATO for?
I continue considering that it should recover its capacity of innovation, of seeing in a broader way that we are very western, that we are in the western part of Europe. I like very much my eastern friends.
We are very active on showing our solidarity in a very concrete way. For instance in Lithuania, our marines are there, our F-16s are there. So we don’t receive lessons from anyone about our commitment to our collective approach to security and defense. But NATO should be always the engine that integrates, interprets, makes interpretation of the challenges felt by every state. I think that NATO has a bright future, but it has to adapt to new challenges.
In recent months you’ve said there needs to be a new strategic concept for NATO. What should that look like? Is it a play on the 360-degree concept?
The 360-degree approach … I cannot hear this cliché anymore. I’m sorry for saying this. What I asked NATO is to modernize its way of thinking and of acting. We must remember: NATO was created in a very traditional way. We created a very traditional organization with state members, with the state procedures, with the famous Article 5. And we asked this instrument to be our alliance against a very traditional power, a very state-centered power, a very territorial power. So it was territories against territories, and it worked marvelous, in a marvelous way. It’s a very professional organization. We have brilliant persons.
But we are having difficulties in understanding what we need all these apparatuses for. We are discussing standard, traditional issues. But when you begin speaking on the south, you don’t really know what you need to do, and you say: “Well, let the others do this job.“ What others? European Union for instance? Maybe. The United Nations? Maybe. But when you look to the Atlantic, when you look to the Gulf of Guinea, it’s difficult to understand why NATO has not a regular naval presence there.
But this seems like a fundamental problem for NATO. You can have a strategic concept, but fundamentally this is an alliance that goes from the Atlantic Ocean to the Baltic. You’re never going to convince the Estonians that, “no, the real issue is south,“ when they’re looking at Russia. They are never going to convince you that the immediate threat is Russia, not the south.
I think this is a false argument. I [need] not to be convinced on the feeling of threat of an Estonian against the Russians. I don’t need to have nightmares with Russia to understand that you feel very directly threatened. And so if you feel like this, and if in an objective way there is this threat, we are there because it’s our obligation, because we are allies and because we are a part of the same project.
[Similarly] I don’t want an eastern county to understand all the marvels of the Gulf of Guinea. But I need them to understand that, for instance, if there are security threats there that we are all going to pay. Because almost 40 percent of the global trade is going through that, and if it’s not secure everyone is going to pay the price. And if Africa is not secure we are all going to pay the price. If one acts only and reacts only to its direct threats, we don’t need NATO. And so this is the challenge we need to stop.
If you see the naval capacity of Russia, we can see them going through our water. We can wave [to them]. We are speaking the same language, the same threat, because they are global. You cannot speak about the eastern flank when you see Russia in Syria; when you see Russia in the Central African Republic. We have seen them there ― they are there already. So what is this “eastern flank“ issue? They were more effective in Syria than literally in the eastern front. Maybe it’s time for us to understand that we are all together facing the same challenges and the same adversaries.
Are you satisfied with how the European Union defense proposals have gone so far? The Permanent Structured Cooperation initiative on defense and security is relatively new, but the European Defence Fund has been around for a bit.
We are strongly committed to PESCO, but we are strongly committed to PESCO knowing what I said: that our core collective, secure instrument continues, and we will continue to be NATO. It’s not the time to make new divisions, but we believe that our common security and defense policy was, more or less, sleeping. Let’s return to June 23, 2016 ― Brexit. So then we were going: “Wow, maybe the European Union is not eternal.“ But if you see what we have done in two years, it’s quite extraordinary. [Brexit was] a very, very, very strong pressure to reinforce our investment in defense. If we wanted to survive as a political unit, we had to find something that reunited us. Defense was this. It’s very interesting that one of the major contributions to where we are today with PESCO was Brexit. (Source: Defense News)
25 Jun 18. Poking the bear: US Air Force builds in Russia’s backyard. As the U.S. Defense Department expands its presence in Europe, the Air Force has quietly ramped up investments that would enable it to deploy to allied bases in Eastern Europe and operate close to Russia’s western flank. The Trump administration wants to spend $828m in 2019 to build up military infrastructure in Europe as part of an ongoing initiative to deter Russian aggression and reinforce allies. Almost half of that construction funding would go toward U.S. Air Force projects.
The request would more than double military construction funding under the European Deterrence Initiative, or EDI, from the 2018 request — when not so long ago, the U.S. military was shrinking its Cold War-era footprint in Europe.
As the EDI request grew to $6.5bn from $4.8bn in 2018, military construction in the EDI request leaped from $338m in 2018, while pre-positioning funds jumped from $2.2bn to $3.2bn.
Of that, the Air Force would spend $368.6m to pre-position equipment and $363.8m for military construction. While that’s roughly on par with what was spent in fiscal 2018, it’s a huge jump from FY17, when the Air Force got only $31.2m in pre-positioning funds and $85.4m for military construction.
The idea is that if Russia invaded a European nation — for example, Latvia — the U.S. Air Force would be able to quickly respond, supported by basic airfields to reload, refuel and repair damage.
To do this, the U.S. is placing pre-positioned Air Force basing assets in original NATO nations, like Germany and the United Kingdom, and making significant airfield improvements in Eastern Bloc countries and beyond.
To be clear, the U.S. is not looking at building up new major bases in former Soviet bloc countries, but it’s making improvements to existing infrastructure to ensure it supports U.S.-specific requirements.
“It makes it easier to reinforce [allies] in a crisis,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps officer and senior international security adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The munitions, the taxiways and refueling points makes it much easier to move in there in an emergency.”
U.S. European Command chief Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti acknowledged as much in congressional testimony in March. The FY18 and FY19 budget requests, he said, would “enable the rapid reception of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters, close-air support, bombers and air mobility aircraft in a contingency.”
On Russia’s doorstep, the 2018 budget funded refueling infrastructure and a tactical fighter aircraft parking apron and taxiway at Amari Air Base, in Estonia, so it can support the A-10, F-15, F-16, F-22 and F-35 aircraft. The 2019 budget request asks for $16m more for U.S. Special Operations Command training and operations facilities at Amari.
At Kecskemet Air Base, in Hungary, $56m in 2018 dollars is paying for fuel storage, taxiway construction and other improvements to accommodate the F-15, A-10 and C-5 transport aircraft.
The 2019 request would build a munitions storage facility at Malacky Air Base, in Slovakia, where 2018 dollars are expanding the tactical fighter aircraft parking apron to accommodate the A-10 and F-15. The Air Force also wants $13.8m in FY19 for taxiway construction at Rygge, Norway. (Source: Defense News)
26 Jun 18. UK defence spending must rise to keep strong U.S., NATO links – MPs. Britain must raise defence spending to make sure it retains influence over the United States and maintain its leading role in the NATO military alliance, a report by a committee of MPs said on Tuesday.
Parliament’s Defence Committee said spending needed to increase to 2.5 percent of national output from its current level of 2 percent to retain Britain’s firepower. It said spending should rise to 3 percent if the armed forces’ capacity and capabilities were to be improved.
Britain’s 35.3bn pound defence spending in 2016/17 makes it one of the few NATO members to meet a 2 percent target set by the U.S.-led alliance, which is seen as a bulwark against Russian military power.
But, as nearly a decade of public spending curbs threaten to reduce some areas of Britain’s military capabilities, Prime Minister Theresa May has been under pressure from some in her party and the overall defence community to increase funding.
“Defence spending is an area where a strong message needs to be sent to our allies and adversaries alike,” said defence committee chairman Julian Lewis.
The defence committee report came as fellow NATO member France launched a military force with other countries, including Britain outside the framework of the European Union, with the aim of bringing together a coalition of willing militaries ready to react to crises near Europe’s borders without NATO or the United States.
A separate parliamentary analysis published in February showed Britain’s defence spending fell by £1bn between 2012/13 and 2016/17.
The defence committee report, which has no direct power to change policy, said Britain’s role within NATO helped to sustain the British-U.S. relationship. Close historical ties and a continuing ability to fight alongside the United States was important to their wider diplomatic relationship, it added.
“Military-to-military engagement between the UK and the U.S. is one of the linchpins of the bilateral relationship,” the report said, citing both operational and financial benefits.
“However, that will continue to be true only while the UK military retains both the capacity and capability to maintain interoperability with the U.S. military and to relieve U.S. burdens.”
Last week, the Financial Times said May had told Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson he needed to rethink the capabilities needed to be a modern military force and focus more on Britain’s ability to tackle cyber warfare threats, including from Russia.
May denied the report was correct, but when asked directly whether she wanted Britain to be a tier one military power, she said only that she wanted Britain to be a “leading defence nation.”
Speaking on a visit to London ahead of a NATO summit next month, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned last week transatlantic ties were under threat amid rows over trade, climate change and foreign policy, but that he believed they could survive. (Source: Reuters)
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29 Jun 18. Oshkosh Defense, LLC, an Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK) company, announced today that the U.S. Army has placed a $484m order for 1,574 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV) and associated installed and packaged kits.
“This latest order follows the completion of the Multiservice Operational Test and Evaluation (MOT&E) conducted by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and further demonstrates that the JLTV program continues to be a top modernization priority for our armed services,” said George Mansfield, Vice President and General Manager of Joint Programs at Oshkosh Defense. “The JLTV is ready to support our troops, and we look forward to getting more soldiers and Marines into this extremely mobile, protected, and proven next-generation light tactical vehicle.”
In addition to the recently completed operational testing, the JLTV also completed Reliability Qualification Testing earlier this year, accumulating over 100,000 miles and exceeding reliability requirements.
To date, Oshkosh has produced more than 2,000 JLTVs and has delivered more than 1,600 JLTVs to the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. A Full Rate Production (FRP) decision is expected in FY19. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
29 Jun 18. Light attack experiment flights suspended as Air Force investigates pilot death. Just days after the tragic death of a pilot involved in the Air Force’s light attack experiment, the service is deliberating how — and whether — to proceed with the effort.
Lt. Christopher Carey Short, a naval aviator, died June 22 when the A-29 Super Tucano he was flying crashed over the Red Rio Bombing Range, which is part of the White Sands Missile Range north of Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. The second pilot operating the aircraft was airlifted to a hospital with minor injuries.
Since then, all light attack aircraft flying operations have been suspended as the Air Force begins an investigation into the cause of the crash and determines what to do next, said Gen. Mike Holmes, commander of Air Combat Command.
“I can’t really say much about the accident, because there’s an accident board — a safety board that’s stood up, and we use safety privilege to protect the people that were involved there,” he told reporters at a June 28 breakfast.
“We’re proud of the whole team that are down there flying in the exercise,” Holmes said. “We’re certainly very sad about the loss of Lt. Chris Short, a great aviator that was dedicated to trying to find out what the answers were about [whether] we can use this airplane in some circumstances to free up out more sophisticated fighters. We’ll let that safety board work through that mission and report back to us.”
The Air Force is experimenting with a handful of inexpensive, off-the-shelf turboprop aircraft to determine whether to establish a program of record. Rather than using expensive fourth- or fifth-generation fighters, officials posit that it could buy light attack aircraft to accomplish the counterterrorism missions flown throughout the Middle East at a lower cost.
The service decided to conduct a second round of experiments to get more information about what it would take to support and sustain two aircraft the service is interested in purchasing — Textron’s AT-6 and the A-29 built by Sierra Nevada Corp. and Embraer.
Since May, one A-29 and two AT-6s have been flying out of Holloman Air Force Base — regularly flying three times daily — as U.S. military pilots fly training missions, do weapons drops, and familiarize themselves with the performance of the aircraft.
A previous round of experiments, conducted last August, involved the A-29, AT-6, Textron’s Scorpion and L3 Technologies’ AT-802L Longsword.
Air Force Materiel Command and the service’s acquisition wing — led by the Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation Office — are working through whether the service has enough data on the A-29 and AT-6 to end the experiment, whether more testing is needed, and how that data could be required if needed.
The Air Force does not have any initial information on what may have caused the crash, Holmes said. But once it a better idea, it can take precautions as necessary if flights resume, even before the final Safety Investigation Board or Accident Investigation Board reports are released.
The death of a test pilot has — understandably — cast a pall over the experiment, which had previously been celebrated by Air Force officials as evidence of the service becoming more agile, innovative and willing to adopt nontraditional acquisition mechanisms.
But Holmes said he was not concerned that the tragic event would have “undue impact” on whether the experiment moves forward, or whether the service tries similar efforts in the future.
“I don’t think it will have a chilling effect on future experiments,” he said. “Whenever you’re trying something new, there are risks of trying something new and working through it, and without knowing exactly what happened, and certainly without trying to insinuate exactly what happened — aviation’s not necessarily risky, but it’s unforgiving.”
“I think we’ll take a look at the data we’ve gathered, [and] we’ll continue ahead with our process toward deciding whether we want to go forward with the program.”
It appears that there continues to be support in Congress for the program. Earlier this week, the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee moved forward a spending bill that would add $300m for a light attack aircraft program, allowing the Air Force to start a program in fiscal year 2019. (Source: Defense News)
29 Jun 18. Congressional Committee Unanimously Passes Bipartisan Israel Anti-Boycott Bill. The influential House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously passed the bipartisan Israel Anti-Boycott Act sending it to the full House of Representatives for a vote, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday. The bill would protect Israel and Israeli businesses from boycotts organized by international organizations. Northwestern Law School Prof. Eugene Kontorovich explained last year that the purpose of the bill is to counter efforts by international organizations, such as the United Nations Human Rights Council. In support of such secondary boycotts, the U.N. Human Rights Council is preparing a blacklist of Israeli-linked companies (using such a broad definition of “supporting settlements” that the blacklist could sweep in any Israeli-linked firm).
The Post termed the bill the “most significant federal effort to legislate against the BDS movement.” The BDS — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions — campaign seeks to isolate Israel by subjecting it to economic boycotts.
Democrats on the committee insisted on language protecting free speech. However, Kontorovich pointed out that the Israel Anti-Boycott Act expanded on previous legislation and never targeted speech, but specific actions. The current legislation would amend the Export Administration Act of 1979 and extend protection to American companies from boycotts, not only by Arab nations, the target of the 1979 legislation, but from international bodies too.
The Israel Anti-Boycott Act was introduced by Rep. Peter Roskam (R – Ill.) and Rep. Juan Vargas (D – Calif.). An identical bill has been introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D – Md.) in the Senate. (Source: theisraelproject.org)
28 Jun 18. House sinks submarine proposal, OKs Pentagon spending bill with dual-carrier buy. The House on Thursday passed its chamber’s version of the annual defense appropriations bill with a plans to buy two aircraft carriers at a time but without a proposal to buy two more submarines. In a 359-49 vote, House members approved a $675bn Defense Department appropriations bill that would fund 93 F-35 fighter jets (four more than Senate appropriators are seeking), three littoral combat ships (to the Senate’s two) and the Advanced Battle Management System, which would replace the JSTARS recapitalization plan that the U.S. Air Force wants to kill. The measure also includes a 2.6 percent pay raise for troops starting next January and an end-strength boost of 15,600 troops spread across the four services. Lawmakers in recent days tacked on several other amendments to the budget, including increasing A-10 Warthog win-replacement funds, adding $10m to assist in recovering Korean War remains, and prohibiting the military from doing business with Chinese telecom firms ZTE and Huawei. Democratic amendments aimed at walling off the Defense Department from assisting the Trump administration’s controversial immigration enforcement efforts were scuttled by the House Rules Committee and blocked from floor debate.
House Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Rob Wittman, R-Va., and ranking member Joe Courtney, D-Conn., successfully included an amendment to enable a dual buy of the aircraft carriers CVN-80 and CVN-81, a move they said could save as much as $2.5bn in construction costs and would not add new expenses next year.
“Allowing us to buy two aircraft carriers at a time helps us with efficiency, it helps us reduce cost, it gets the aircraft carriers that we need — and it has widespread support,” Wittman told the rules panel on Tuesday.
House Appropriations Committee ranking member Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., did not oppose the two-carrier amendment but cautioned that the ships’ cost — $10bn each — could create problems with budget caps still in place.
“To imply we are weak-kneed and not spending adequately on shipbuilding is not true,” said Visclosky, arguing that the overall bill adds $837m to the president’s shipbuilding budget request of more than $21bn.
Those warnings hung over the next amendment from Courtney and Wittman, which would have added $1.7bn to fund long-lead materials to build three Virginia-class submarines per year starting in 2022. (The amendment died in a floor vote on Thursday, 167-244.)
Courtney and Wittman’s states are home to the shipyards that would build the submarines: General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, and Huntington Ingalls in Newport News, Virginia. But they argued the move was meant to help the Navy better negotiate a larger block buy of submarines and mitigate a decline in the fleet size.
The attack submarine fleet is expected to reach 42 boats in a decade, one-third less than the Navy force-structure assessment prescribes.
“Subs are aging out faster than the two-per-year build rate can replace,” Courtney said.
The Pentagon opposed the plan’s reshuffling of funds in a letter Tuesday from Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to lead appropriators, saying the change would ultimately add $6bn to shipbuilding costs over time. Offsetting cuts for 2019 alone would reduce planned buys of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, oilers and fast frigates, as well as reduce sixth-generation fighter aircraft development dollars.
Courtney and Wittman dismissed the long-term costs as speculation.
“The Chinese in 2020 will have 70 submarines. They are building them at a rate of six per year,” Wittman said. “Are we willing to tell our children and grandchildren, when we had a chance to do something, that we did not act?”
But Visclosky and the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee Chair Kay Granger, R-Texas, led the opposition, arguing shipbuilding programs would be left in disarray.
“Since when is it acceptable to give someone $1bn so they will have ‘options’?” Granger said.
With the House defense appropriations measure settled, the question of how to get the full fiscal 2019 budget through Congress will await lawmakers when they return from next week’s July 4 break. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he would not sign an omnibus spending bill of the sort Democrats have bargained hard to get in recent years.
The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced its version of the measure on Thursday morning, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has yet to announce when the full Senate will vote on it.
In an attempt to defuse a partisan fight, key Senate Democrats are floating the idea of linking their $675bn Pentagon spending measure to the committee-passed spending bill for labor, health and human services, education, and related agencies.
House Labor-HHS appropriations subcommittee chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., told Politico earlier this week he favors linking his bill ― which is a priority for Democrats ― with the defense policy bill ― which is a top priority for Republicans. However, it’s doubtful House conservatives will back the idea. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry, a Freedom Caucus member, was receptive but not committed on Wednesday.
“I’m open to it, but I’m not going to vote for bad policy or profligate spending any more than if they’re done separately,” he told Defense News. “We’re bankrupting the country, and we’ve got to be aware of that.”
(Source: Defense News)
28 Jun 18. U.S. lawmaker holds back support for munitions sale to Gulf allies due to Yemen. A top U.S. Senate Democrat said on Thursday he cannot support for now a Trump administration plan to sell high-tech munitions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over concerns about the war in Yemen, a decision that could derail the sale. Senator Bob Menendez, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the administration had not satisfied his concerns about the sale to members of a Saudi-led coalition of thousands of precision-guided munitions, or PGMs, which could be used to kill Yemeni civilians.
His position could sink the deal for Raytheon Co, the largest maker of the PGMs in the United States. “I remind you that the American public has a right to insist that the sales of U.S. weapons to foreign governments – especially those of this magnitude and lethality – are
consistent with U.S. values and national security objectives,” Menendez said in a letter.
“The Congress, as the direct representative of the Americanpublic, is charged with exercising effective oversight of such sales,” he said in the letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
Reuters reported in May that President Donald Trump’s administration had asked Congress to review the sale of more than 120,000 precision-guided munitions to the two U.S. Gulf allies.
While the value of the transactions could not be determined, past PGM sales have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars or more.
The Gulf Arab states have been battling since 2015 to restore a government driven out by the Houthis, Shi’ite Muslim fighters that Yemen’s neighbors view as agents of Iran.
THOUSANDS DEAD
The war has killed more than 10,000 people and created the world’s most urgent humanitarian emergency, with 22 million Yemenis dependent on aid and 8.4 million at risk of starving.
Concern in the U.S. Congress, and internationally, has intensified since June 12, when the coalition launched an offensive to drive the Houthis from the port of Hodeidah.
Menendez said information the Trump administration hadprovided about the latest PGM sales so far had not adequately addressed bipartisan concerns about whether the weapons would be used to kill civilians.
He asked for more briefings, addressing civilian casualties in Yemen, U.S. refueling support for the Saudi-led coalition and a more general U.S. policy in Yemen. Major U.S. arms deals with foreign governments are subject to an informal preliminary review by the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees before a formal 30-day review process in
which lawmakers can try to pass legislation barring a sale.
While most are approved routinely, some objections have led to deals being canceled, or delayed for months.
Senator Bob Corker, the Republican Foreign Relations chairman, blocked major arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf nations for much of last year over a dispute with Qatar, lifting his “hold” only early this year.
Trump views weapons sales as an important way to create jobs in the United States and increase the country’s
international influence. He could decide to disregard Congress’ objections, but that could galvanize support for any move to pass legislation to block it. (Source: Reuters)
26 Jun 18. Foreign defense companies want in on US Army modernization efforts. The U.S. Army has honed in on six modernization priorities, none of which can afford to linger in a sluggish acquisition process as threats grow in sophistication and the battlefield grows more complex, which has piqued the interest of many foreign companies, who are banking on having an increased chance at playing in the U.S. market due to the pace at which the Army wants to prototype and procure capabilities.
At European defense conference Eurosatory, several companies unveiled not just paper or miniature model concepts but actual capabilities targeting the top two priorities: The Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) and Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF).
The Army announced last fall that it would establish a four-star command to tackle its modernization priorities in short order. They are LRPF, NGCV, Future Vertical Lift, the Network, Air-and-Missile Defense and Soldier Lethality, in that order.
And since that announcement, the service has set up cross-functional teams to focus on each priority. Many leaders of the CFTs said earlier this year that they planned to prototype capabilities within just a few years and get them into the hands of soldiers.
Next-gen combat vehicles
The U.S. Army’s first stab at building prototypes for what it intends to be an innovative, leap-ahead NGCV and its robotic wingman will be ready for soldier evaluations in fiscal 2020 with a follow-on prototypes expected in 2022 and 2024.
Germany’s Rheinmetall Defence revealed its new Lynx KF41 infantry fighting vehicle at Eurosatory on June 12 with an eye toward the U.S. market. The company pulled out all the stops including a 10:00 a.m. champagne toast to christen the vehicle.
It’s sometimes the case, at a unveiling, for the vehicle to just be a non-functioning, life-size model to convey the concept, but Rheinmetall made it clear the vehicle being shown is real. The company has publicly available footage of the vehicle’s rigorous test campaigns.
Executives at Rheinmetall told Defense News it believes the stars could be aligned for a successful pitch of the Lynx vehicle to the U.S. Army. Due to its modular design, a few hours of work can turn the Lynx into anything from a medium tank to a battlefield ambulance.
Ben Hudson, head of the company’s vehicle systems division, hopes the feature will be an interesting proposition for the U.S. Army’s NGCV.
“We are highly interested in it, and we have been below the radar for a little for the last couple of years while we’ve delivered this,” Hudson told Defense News following the unveiling. “We don’t want to deliver a PowerPoint, we want to deliver a real vehicle, and we have shown this to some people in the U.S. Army and I think it is fair to say there is some genuine interest for the U.S. to look at this vehicle as a serious competitor for the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle.”
When asked how Rheinmetall might become involved in that collaboration, Hudson said there have been a lot of changes over the past several months as the Army’s new cross-functional team under its new Futures Command moves forward with efforts to bring an NGCV capability online.
“All I can say is the next six months for that program are going to be very interesting, and we look forward to things that may occur early next year. That’s all I can really say about that for now,” he said.
What’s still missing, however, is an official U.S. partner company that could give the bid an American face and manage domestic production. Such teaming is practically mandatory these days, and Hudson said there is no shortage of suitors.
“We’ve had significant interest from U.S. companies at Eurosatory over the last couple of days,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of people interested in partnering with us because we don’t only have a concept, we’ve got a real vehicle and turret for the program.”
Israeli company Rafael didn’t have a dramatic unveiling at the show, but told Defense News that it was developing and testing a 30mm weapon station outfitted with its Trophy active protection system as an all-in-one system.
The Army is outfitting several brigades worth of Trophy APS on its Abrams tanks. The turret can be purchased with our without the Trophy system, Rafael’s Michael L. told Defense News at the show. Michael’s last name has been withheld for security reasons.
One customer is buying more than a hundred 30mm weapon stations, he said.
And while Rafael is envisioning the possibility of its 30mm turret and APS system being a good option for outfitting upgunned Strykers going forward, it’s also setting its sights on becoming involved in NGCV prototyping with its work in flexible turret design as well as in its long history fielding APS capability.
But not every leading tank manufacturer outside of the U.S. is clamoring to get involved in the U.S. combat vehicles market.
In the case of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and its French partner Nexter, executives believe the odds of selling entire vehicles to the American armed forces are dim. “We play a role in the U.S., we are selling in the U.S., but not on a system level,” KMW boss Frank Haun said during an interview at Eurosatory.
Mayer, his Nexter counterpart, added that “political reasons” and the “industry landscape” make it difficult for outsiders to break into a market tightly controlled by domestic players.
In Haun’s experience, arms sales to the U.S. have the highest chance of succeeding when there is little money at stake. “Whatever is under the radar of senators and congressmen will work,” he said.
U.S. defense contractors have significant influence in Congress thanks to traditional lobbying campaigns targeting both Democrats and Republicans. In addition, many large companies employ workers in plants across the United States, which means lawmakers from those areas are eager to ensure a continued flow of defense money to the contractors.
Long-range precision fires
The U.S. Army will demonstrate LRPF technology from a precision-strike missile to hypersonics and ramjet capabilities within the next couple of years, according to the service’s LRPF CFT.
In the near future, the service is looking at how it will evolve its current M109A7 self-propelled howitzer — or the Paladin Integrated Management — into extended-range cannon artillery. At the same time, a competition is ongoing to build a new LRPF capability that replaces and surpasses the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
Norwegian ammunition company Nammo unveiled what it’s calling an “extreme range” artillery concept using ramjet propulsion that it hopes will meet the emerging LRPF requirements for a variety of countries, including the United States.
Nammo has combined its experience in both ammunition and rocket-propulsion technology, and it’s merging those capabilities to create an artillery shell capable of reaching more than 100 kilometers in range without changing the gun on a standard 155mm howitzer, according to Thomas Danbolt, company vice president of large caliber ammunition, who spoke at Eurosatory, one of the largest land warfare conferences in Europe.
The company displayed a model of the artillery shell at the exposition and plans to test several LRPF capabilities in the coming years, particularly its new extreme-range artillery projectile.
The projectile will go through a flight demonstration in the 2019 or 2020 time frame, according to Erland Orbekk, company vice president for ramjet technology, which coincides with the Army’s LRPF CFTs tentative plans to test ramjet and hypersonics capabilities as early as 2019.
Swedish company Saab has also teamed up with Boeing to develop a Ground-Launched Small-Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) and announced at the show that the pair had demonstrated — in cooperation with the U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) — its capabilities for ground forces during a test fire where the laser-enabled weapon launched and then tracked and engaged a moving target at a distance of 100 kilometers. The range ultimately will be closer to 150 kilometers.
The partnership allows for the team to easily tap the U.S. market as well as international customers interested in improving rocket artillery capability, according to Boeing’s Jon Milner, within the company’s direct attack weapons international programs division.
Milner said Boeing and Saab would continue to assess what customers want. The U.S. Army has made it clear it needs longer range artillery in order to avoid being out-gunned and out-ranged by adversaries, but also a lot of NATO countries are interested in the capability because of NATO mandates which creates a significant international market for the weapon.
(Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
26 Jun 18. Defense Intelligence Agency Bringing Forewarning into 21st Century. The adage “forewarned is forearmed” has entered the digital era at the Defense Intelligence Agency, as leaders, collectors and analysts there seek to adapt to the changing security and technological world, the agency’s director said at the Defense One Tech Summit here today.
DIA has the mission of compiling information and intelligence on foreign militaries and the operational environment the American military will confront, Army Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley Jr. told Defense One editor Patrick Tucker.
The agency is in the business of giving leaders strategic warning. “What are the emerging technologies that are coming out that we need to be thinking about?” Ashley said. “The other part of that is to inform the decision-makers and what they have to build to counter them.”
Hypersonics, anti-satellite capabilities, and sophisticated ground, sea, air capabilities must be countered, and the agency looks to gather information and intelligence on them Ashley said. The general talks often about analytic modernization. This concept deals with data. “How do we deal with big data? How do we deal with the wealth of information that is out there and available?” he said.
So much information is available that it is difficult for humans to digest it all, he pointed out. “One of the things we are working on now are analytic data teams,” he said. “How do we take a traditional analyst and link him up with a data scientist?” Ashley said he sees the job of an analyst morphing into that of a political scientist and data scientist in the future.
Growth of Space Domain
The agency is broadening its collection to deal with the new military domain of space. Ashley said he sees the domain growing over the next decade. “If you look to the National Defense Strategy, the central problem that it seeks to solve is [that] the technological gap that we have had the lead on is slowly collapsing,” the general said. “The goal is to maintain primacy and a leading role.”
Since 2001, the only domain the American military has been challenged on is the land domain, through improvised explosive devices and combat in cities. American dominance in the sea, air, cyber and space domains was not seriously contested by terror groups. “The re-emergence of great power competition – Russia and China – you start seeing a closing gap in all domains, and they are being contested,” he said.
Military capabilities to interdict satellites both in space and on the ground is possible, the general said. “In the warfighting doctrine, you have to account for the resilience you build into the domains, you have to build in redundancy, and in some cases, if it is degraded or denied, how do you fight in that realm?” Ashley said.
Reflexive Control
The general also discussed a concept current in the agency with regard to Russia – reflexive control – and it deals with hybrid warfare. The Russians use this to intimidate, coerce and scare nations into doing what is in Russia’s best interests. Ashley said the concept is an outgrowth of Soviet doctrine that the Russians continued to work on after the break-up of the Soviet Union.
“Reflexive control is information operations [conducted] in such a way to drive you toward a decision or outcome that you think is yours,” he said. “[The Russians)]seed the information in such a way to drive you toward that decision.”
Identifying this is tough, the general said, using Russian involvement in Western elections as an example. “What’s happening now is you have a great deal of sensitivity across the European nations – they are actually looking for [reflexive control]. They are looking for those themes to ensure they will be able to put the truth out and counter to that.”
(Follow Jim Garamone on Twitter: @GaramoneDoDNews)
26 Jun 18. Official Highlights DoD Role in Supporting Global Stabilization Efforts. The Defense Department has redefined its goals in global stabilization and security efforts and is focusing on transitional, small-scale stabilization working by, with and through its partners, a defense official said today.
Mark Swayne, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for stabilization and humanitarian affairs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, participated in the keynote plenary on the Stabilization Assistance Review at a stabilization symposium held at George Washington University.
The Stabilization Assistance Review is an interagency effort with the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and DoD to identify ways the United States can leverage diplomatic engagement, defense and foreign assistance to stabilize conflict-affected areas.
The review took place last year; the secretaries of State and Defense and the administrator of USAID signed it in February.
‘Redoubling Efforts’ With Partner Elements
Swayne pointed out DoD is not the lead agency in stabilization efforts, but rather it supports efforts of the State Department and USAID. The effort supports the objective in the National Defense Strategy to enable U.S. interagency counterparts to advance U.S. influence and interests, he said.
“We are redoubling our efforts to make sure that we are a good partner working with the other elements,” Swayne said, “because whenever we have an area where we deploy, soldiers, sailors, airmen [and] Marines, we want to make sure that any victories or any gains that they make on the ground are sustained.”
He added, “Working with our interagency colleagues will do that.” For example, he noted, USAID and State Department personnel are being supported in northeastern Syria by DoD elements.
Seeking Small-Scale Stabilization Ability
DoD lacks a global authority to conduct stabilization activities on its own, Swayne said, adding that DoD has asked Congress to give the department small-scale stabilization ability.
After the defeat in 2016 of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Manbij, Syria, DoD personnel were the only U.S. government officials on the ground there. DoD could have started a stabilization effort and then handed it over to State or USAID, if DoD had the authority, he explained.
DoD’s new stabilization policy, which is a revision of DoD Directive 3000.05, clarifies DoD’s core responsibilities during stabilization as security, basic public order and the immediate needs of the population, he said. If proposed fiscal year 2019 legislation is enacted, DoD will establish a Defense Support to Stabilization program and a program office at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, he said.
The $25m fiscal year 2019 DSS program would take advantage of existing interagency mechanisms and information technology infrastructure to ensure efficient and effective program execution, according to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Stabilization activities are separate from humanitarian assistance, the office points out.
Those activities may include efforts to establish civil security, provide access to dispute resolution mechanisms, deliver targeted basic services and establish a foundation for the voluntary return of displaced people, DoD officials said. (Follow Lisa Ferdinando on Twitter: @FerdinandoDoD)
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29 Jun 18. Japan to buy advanced U.S. radar for missile defence system. Japan will next week pick a U.S.-made advanced radar for its multibillion-dollar missile defence system, an upgrade that could help ease trade friction with Washington and provide cutting-edge protection against the arsenals of North Korea and China, sources said.
“Aegis will be a big-ticket purchase; it will be a nice gift for President Trump,” said a Japanese government official, referring to the ground-based Aegis Ashore system.
Japanese officials could make their radar choice as early as Monday for two Aegis Ashore batteries it wants to deploy in 2023. That means the purchase can be added to a defence budget proposal slated for release in August, three sources with knowledge of the plan told Reuters, declining to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media.
The candidates are Raytheon Co’s SPY-6 and a version of Lockheed Martin Corp’s Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), the sources said. Japan had sought the SPY-6 when it agreed to buy Aegis Ashore last year, but Washington was reluctant to supply it.
The Japanese budget proposal comes amid an easing of tensions following the June 12 meeting in Singapore between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong un.
Although Japanese military planners still see North Korea as an immediate danger, they view China’s growing military power as a bigger long-term threat.
The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force controls an arsenal of hundreds of ballistic missiles that could reach Japan. Upgrades to Japan’s missile defences system would make it one of the world’s most advanced.
Japanese defence officials have estimated the cost of the two Aegis Ashore batteries at about $2 billion. The final tally, including the SPY-6 or LRDR, which can detect targets several times farther away than existing Aegis systems operated by Japan or the U.S., could be at least twice that, the sources said.
Although the upgrade adds expense, it fits with Trump’s stated desire to export more American military hardware.
In a visit to Tokyo in November, he welcomed Japan’s procurement of F-35 stealth fighters and urged Japan to buy more U.S. weapons and goods.
Trump has since cranked up pressure on Tokyo with tariffs on steel, threats of levies on car imports and calls for a bilateral trade deal between the two countries.
At a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in June, Trump said Abe had pledged to buy “billions and billions of dollars of additional products of all kinds.”
Abe may meet Trump again around the time of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York in September, a Japanese government official told Reuters. He declined to say what the two leaders would discuss.
RAYTHEON OR LOCKHEED
Raytheon and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries developed Aegis Ashore’s SM-3 Block IIA missiles; Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor.
The SPY-6 radar is designed for the U.S. Navy’s fleet of Aegis-equipped warships. The LRDR will be integrated into the U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse Defence anti-ballistic missile system in Alaska by 2020.
Both cutting-edge radars will allow Japan to make full use of new longer-range interceptors and could be used to defend against any future threat posed by Chinese missiles.
Japan’s military procurement proposals for the year starting April 1 come on the heels of Kim’s pledge in Singapore to work toward denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Trump in return ordered a halt to large-scale military drills with South Korea.
Japan, which hosts about 50,000 U.S. military personnel, including the biggest overseas concentration of U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy carrier strike group, has said it would not change its military posture until it see concrete signs that Pyongyang is prepared to permanently dismantle its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
(Source: Reuters)
29 Jun 18. Discounted US weapons sales to Gulf states come under scrutiny
Pentagon agency said to have waived $8.5bn in reimbursements to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait from 2012-2017
The Pentagon’s arms sales agency would have to tighten discounts it has awarded wealthy Middle East nations and disclose their rationale to Congress under proposed legislation that’s united a liberal California Democrat and the conservative head of the House Freedom Caucus.
US law requires foreign purchasers of American weapons to pay part of the Defence Department’s “non-recurring,” or one-time, costs in developing them.
Yet the Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency approved $16bn, or 99 percent of waiver claims, for various reasons from 2012 through 2017, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
That’s too high, according to Democratic Representative Jackie Speier and Republican Mark Meadows.
“Our defence relationships with these countries are important, but these nations have the interest and ability to pay these small added costs,” Speier said in a statement Thursday.
The Pentagon agency waived $8.5bn in reimbursements to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait from 2012-2017, Speier and Meadows say.
Saudi Arabia was granted a $3.5bn waiver, or discount, last year as part of a $15bn sale for Lockheed Martin Corp’s Thaad anti-missile system, Bloomberg News reported in March.
A congressional aide familiar with defence agency data given to the Government Accountability Office said it showed Saudi Arabia had won waivers totaling $4.82bn, including the Thaad sale. Other waivers included $2.6bn to Qatar.
A waiver is issued almost routinely when a customer claims the sale will be lost without it, according to the GAO. In other cases, a potential NATO or other alliance customer can make a case that the sale will improve “commonality” with the US military through the use of standard weapons and systems.
Meadows, a North Carolina fiscal hawk, said he supports the proposal because it “ensures that allies – particularly allies who are among the richest in the world – undergo a thorough analysis of their ability to reimburse the taxpayer for defense development costs before receiving any waiver of their responsibility to pay.”
The proposed legislation, which will be referred for action to the House Foreign Affairs committee, limits countries’ eligibility for “loss of sales” waivers when they “demonstrate consistent or high-value purchasing patterns,” according to Speier. It also requires the Defense Security Cooperation Agency to provide Congress detailed justifications for approving waivers that are granted.
“The waiver approval process is inadequate to make” a loss-of-sales determination so it must be tightened, Speier said. “At the very least, our negotiators shouldn’t be giving away bns of dollars without asking hard questions,” she said.
(Source: ArabianBusiness.com)
29 Jun 18. U.S. Ends 70 Years of Military Presence in South Korean Capital. The United States formally ended seven decades of military presence in South Korea’s capital Friday with a ceremony to mark the opening of a new headquarters farther from North Korean artillery range.
The command’s move to Camp Humphreys, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul, comes amid a fledgling detente on the Korean Peninsula, though the relocation was planned long before that. Most troops have already transferred to the new location, and the U.S. says the remaining ones will move by the end of this year.
The U.S. military had been headquartered in Seoul’s central Yongsan neighborhood since American troops first arrived at the end of World War II. The Yongsan Garrison was a symbol of the U.S.-South Korea alliance but its occupation of prime real estate was also a long-running source of friction.
Located in the western port city of Pyeongtaek and close to a U.S. air field, the new 3,510-acre (1,420-hectare) command cost $11 bn to build and is the largest overseas U.S. base. South Korea has paid about 90 percent of the cost.
“This headquarters’ building, within the headquarters’ complex that surrounds it, represents the significant investment in the long-term presence of U.S. forces in Korea,” Gen. Vincent Brooks, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said during the opening ceremony. “U.S. Forces Korea will remain the living proof of the American commitment to the alliance.”
In a message read out at the ceremony by an aide, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that the headquarters is the cornerstone of the U.S.-South Korea alliance.
“In opening a new era of the U.S. forces headquarters in Pyeongtaek, I hope that the U.S.-South Korea alliance will develop beyond a ‘military alliance’ and a ‘comprehensive alliance’ and become a ‘great alliance,'” Moon said in the statement.
The relocation is part of a broad U.S. plan to realign its 28,500 troops and their bases in South Korea into two major hubs: one in Pyeongtaek and the other in the southeastern city of Daegu. U.S. officials say they want to move out of highly populated areas and improve efficiency and military readiness.
“Modern warfare is all about concentrating and deploying forces quickly, and Pyeongtaek in these terms has many advantages because it can really function as an outlet, unlike Yongsan, which was stuck in the middle of a population center,” said Yun Jiwon, a security professor at Pyeongtaek University.
It also moved U.S. forces away from the hundreds of North Korean artillery guns targeting the Seoul metropolitan area, although Camp Humphreys is still within reach of newer weapons, such as the 300 mm guns North Korea revealed in 2015.
The land used by the Yongsan Garrison will be handed over to South Korea, which hopes to turn the site into a Seoul’s “Central Park.”
The Yongsan area has been occupied by foreign forces since the late 19th century. Chinese troops used the site as their base when they came to help suppress a revolt in 1882. The Imperial Japanese Army took it over during Japan’s colonization of the peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
The U.S. military arrived to disarm Japan following its World War II defeat. Most U.S. troops were withdrawn in 1949 but they returned the next year to fight alongside South Korea in the three-year Korean War. In 1957, the U.S. military command in South Korea was formally launched in Yongsan.
Camp Humphreys resembles a small American city. It has massive shopping centers with chains such as Taco Bell, Popeye’s and Starbucks, a movie theater, a water park and elementary, middle and high schools within walking distance of apartment buildings where servicemen and their families live in three- to five-bedroom units.
(Source: Bloomberg)
29 Jun 18. US and Lebanon Hold Joint Military Commission Meeting. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Robert Karem invited Gen. Joseph Aoun, commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, to Washington, District of Columbia, to co-chair the U.S.-Lebanon Joint Military Commission on June 26-27. The two nations reaffirmed the partnership between our militaries and our shared objectives of maintaining regional stability and security, countering terrorism, and building the capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) as the sole defender of Lebanon’s sovereignty. In his opening remarks, Karem commended the LAF for its recent successes in maintaining security and stability within Lebanon and expanding its control of Lebanon’s borders.
In August 2017, the LAF launched its largest offensive in almost a decade and expelled the last strongholds of ISIS and al-Qa’ida from Lebanese territory. The LAF also increased its presence throughout Lebanon, with a focus on increasing control over Lebanon’s border with Syria. In Southern Lebanon, the LAF has increased joint border patrols with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping mission.
Since 2006, the United States has provided security assistance to the LAF, with a focus on transforming the LAF into an organization that is capable of executing complex military counter-terrorism operations, defending Lebanon’s borders, fulfilling Lebanon’s international obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701, and becoming the sole guarantor of Lebanon’s security and sovereignty. To this end, Karem announced a new package of assistance for the LAF to improve its mobility and logistics capabilities, including the procurement of 100 up-armored high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWV), logistics trucks, and associated communications equipment, ammunition, spare parts and training.
Karem’s delegation included U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard and senior defense officials from U.S. Embassy Beirut, along with representatives from the Joint Staff, U.S. Central Command, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and the Department of State. (Source: US DoD)
29 Jun 18. Israel Turns to Technology to Fight Low-Tech Fire Kites.
In the past three months, hundreds of fire kites and flaming helium balloons – some with explosives attached – have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, causing hundreds of fires, often several a day, that have burned thousands of acres (nearly 7 square miles of land) on the Israeli side of the border. More than half of that land has been in nature reserves.’
The damage, which has been estimated in the millions of shekels, has created a major headache for the Israel Defense Forces, thus far at a loss for how to combat this new kind of terrorism without causing loss of life. Two new technologies may help Israel regain its deterrence. One is already being deployed, the other is on the way. The first is called Sky Spotter. It’s built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and has been operating along the Gaza border for the past week. That’s only a partial solution, of course: spotting the fire kites is a start but knocking them out of the sky before they ignite the countryside is the army’s ultimate goal. For that, the IDF is testing a laser system to shoot the flying firebombs while they’re still in flight. The ease with which the fire kites can cross into Israel has raised another concern: mini-drones from Gaza carrying explosives. The concept is that the IDF’s drones will fire hundreds of thin aluminum strips at the enemy mini-drone, thus entangling the drone’s rotor blades and bringing it down. (Source: theisraelproject.org/via Israel21c)
29 Jun 18. South Korea unveils first images of KF-X design with European missiles. South Korea’s arms acquisition agency unveiled June 29 the preliminary design of the KF-X fighter aircraft, nearly 30 months after the launch of the indigenous fighter development program in January 2016.
The disclose of the preliminary KF-X design came after the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, or DAPA, held a preliminary design review, or PDR, between June 26 and June 28 of the 4.5-generation twin-engine jet to decide whether to proceed to the next phase of critical design review, or CDR.
“Through the PDR, we’ve confirmed that all system requirements are met in the preliminary design so as to enter the CDR stage,” said Jung Kwang-sun, head of DAPA’s KF-X Program Group. “We plan to complete the detailed design work by September 2019 and begin the production of prototypes.”
The unveiled design, codenamed C-109, has been completed following repeated wind tunnel tests and computational fluid dynamic analysis, he added.
Notably, the disclosed photos of the KF-X design shows the jet is armed with European missile systems. Four Meteor long-range air-to-air missiles developed by MBDA are shown to be nestled under the fuselage, while two IRIS-T short-range guided air-to-air missiles are mounted on respective wingtip launchers.
“It’s the first time to see an official image of the KF-X jet equipped with European missiles,” said Kim Dae-young, a research fellow of the Seoul-based think tank Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. “That means KF-X engineers have modified the jet’s design to carry the European weapons systems in place of U.S. ones.”
The DAPA originally preferred fitting the KF-X aircraft with U.S. weapons systems, such as Raytheon-built AIM-120 and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, but the U.S. government has yet to approve the export license of the missiles, according to DAPA officials.
A DAPA source told Defense News, however, that his agency is still open to the possibility of U.S. air-to-air missile integration into the KF-X jet.
“Meteor and IRIS-T missiles are, in fact, more expensive than U.S. ones,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Not just the cost matters ― U.S. weapons systems are easier to be integrated into the jet, so if the U.S. government shows a positive sign of offering its air-to-air missiles, we’ll discuss it for sure.”
The KF-X development is led by the DAPA-affiliated Agency for Defense Development and Korea Aerospace Industries, the country’s only aircraft developer, with a global partnership with Indonesia, which is obliged to burden 20 percent of the development costs.
The project aims to produce more than 120 cutting-edge fighters to replace the aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s. A first flight is planned in 2022, with testing and evaluation to take place until 2026.
On May 31, the DAPA announced that the preliminary design of KF-X’s active electronically scanned array radar was completed to move to the critical design phase.
The prototype of the KF-X radar are being developed by Hanwha Systems with the help of Israel’s Elta Systems, which is in charge of testing the AESA radar. (Source: Defense News)
28 Jun 18. Calls for audit office to closely monitor Australian Defence mega projects. As the nation’s premier auditing body, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has a responsibility to ensure that taxpayer money is well spent. Defence is no exception, so why, as ASPI claims, has the same diligence not been afforded to the nation’s growing list of defence mega projects?
The government’s commitment to $200bn investment in the nation’s defence apparatus and capabilities over the next two decades is characterised by a series of increasingly complex ‘mega projects’.
Ranging from the projected $80bn Future Submarine (SEA 1000) won by Naval Group, the $35bn Future Frigate (SEA 5000), $17bn F-35A Joint Strike Fighter purchase and the combined LAND 400 Phase 2 and 3 projects worth approximately $10bn, the projects all serve as clear examples of such mega projects.
Given their complexity, it is expected that Australia’s defence procurement programs, like many throughout the world, would suffer delays, project overruns and the like, however the recent and well documented cost overruns and project delays that hindered the initial procurement of the Navantia designed Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers, Collins Class submarines and MRH-90 Taipan multi-role helicopters have highlighted the need for greater scrutiny throughout the procurement phase of major defence projects.
In light of such scenarios, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has long called for greater transparency throughout the defence procurement cycle and closer public scrutiny of Defence’s Integrated Investment Plan and the department’s broader procurement practices. Given the continuing lack of transparency, should the public and service men and women be concerned?
In response to such serious project delivery and cost overruns, the ANAO has provided annual reporting (since 2008-09) in the form of the Major Projects Report (MPR), which provides the public with greater transparency and understanding of Defence’s procurement cycle, procedures and the costs involved with supplying the capabilities needed to defend the nation and its interests.
These concerns were echoed by Liberal senator and former Brigadier Linda Reynolds CSC when she spoke with Defence Connect Podcast earlier this year: “It’s in that committee [joint standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade] where we’re really looking at the longer-term implications, that we think we’ve got a greater role over numerous governments to make sure that Australian money is not only being well spent, but we’re getting the best possible capability for what we can afford. And there’s clearly room for improvement.”
Senator Reynolds’ calls for closer monitoring of cost and capability delivery are echoed by South Australian senator Rex Patrick when speaking with Defence Connect about the importance of the ANAO’s report.
“In 2011-12 it was $5.9bn. In the years that followed it jumped to $6.5bn, then to $16.8 bn and then to $18.5bn. This year [2018], across the 27 major defence acquisitions in the ANAO report, it’s the number I just talked about: $21.5bn. That’s a $21.5bn blowout compared to what the government approved when it committed to the projects,” he said.
Meanwhile, ASPI’s review of the ANAO annual report raises more concerns and questions, particularly around why the largest defence procurement projects in the nation’s history, SEA 1000 and SEA 5000, are not included in the MPR for a number of reasons, including:
- According to the 2018-19 Defence portfolio budget statements, the funding approved by government for SEA 1000 is already over $2.2bn, which the department can commit and spend, placing this phase of the procurement at the cusp of the top 10 approved projects;
- Public information and data for SEA 1000 is (understandably) limited. However, concerningly there is no agreed date for initial operating capability (IOC), which is described as the first point at which government and the department get first operational use of the vessels;
- Lack of clarity around total acquisition/procurement costs for SEA 1000, which have been publicly ascribed to over $50bn, which actually reflects a project cost closer to $80bn, raising questions around the projected $35bn procurement cost for the nation’s future frigates; and
- As the ANAO itself has reported, the department’s own risk assessments of aspects of the shipbuilding program were categorised in the ‘extreme’ risk category.
Looking abroad to both the US and the UK, each with their own defence mega project cost over runs and delays, such as Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, new Ford Class super carriers and Zumwalt Class stealth destroyers, and the increasingly troubled Type 45 Destroyers and Type 26 Frigates in the UK. These have resulted in smaller unit buys, costly project delays and an impact on operational and strategic capability.
As we get closer to an announcement on the winning design for SEA 5000 and government continues to nurture a sovereign shipbuilding capability to support the Future Frigate and Future Submarine programs, it is prudent that transparency, oversight and the budgetary impacts of such mega projects are tightly managed to prevent a broader detrimental impact on Australia’s long-term operational, strategic and economic capabilities. (Source: Defence Connect)
28 Jun 18. Russia increases equipment and readiness levels. Implementation of Russia’s Gosoboronzakaz (State Defence Order, GOZ) reached 97.5% in 2017, newly appointed Vice Premier Yuri Borisov has said. The armed forces reached a readiness level of 95%, Borisov said at a teleconference on 22 June, adding, “As of 1 January, modern hardware accounted for 59.5% of equipment in service.” Borisov recalled that President Vladimir Putin had established the aim of increasing the share of modern hardware in service with the Russian military to 70% by 2020, with an equipment readiness level of at least 95%. Borisov also reported progress in the implementation of the State Armament Programme (GPV) 2011–2017. “A number of laws have been signed; in particular Federal Law No 275 stipulating special conditions for the implementation of the Gosoboronzakaz and chief executives’ responsibilities, while Federal Law No 159 has allowed the optimisation of the spending of state funds. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
27 Jun 18. Afghan Air Force Growth Pays Off in Fight Against Taliban, Official Says. The Afghan air force has grown in capacity and proficiency as it continues to successfully target the Taliban across Afghanistan, the deputy air commander of NATO’s Resolute Support mission said today.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Lance R. Bunch, also the vice commander of the 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force Afghanistan, said during a teleconference for Pentagon reporters from Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, that the Afghans are fighting their own war.
“The Afghan air force continues to add new capability, from dropping laser-guided bombs to combat air drops to integrating the UH-60 [helicopter] into their operations,” Bunch said. “This is an air force that gets better every day.”
Under the authorities of the president’s South Asia Strategy, he explained, coalition air power has expanded the targeting of Taliban forces, finances and infrastructure using new methods.
Pressuring for Reconciliation
“The entire purpose behind our air campaign is to pressure the Taliban into reconciliation and help them realize that peace talks are their best option,” Bunch said. “We kept the pressure on them through the winter and into this spring. Before the recent cease-fire began, Operation Iron Tempest, … our air campaign, had destroyed 154 Taliban targets.”
The Afghan air force also participated by conducting 19 strikes against Taliban revenue targets with their A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft, he said. The targets included narcotics production, storage and trafficking locations, weapons and explosive caches, headquarters and staging areas.
The South Asia Strategy’s new authorities have allowed for increased military pressure, which has been “amplified by the diplomatic and social pressure that is manifesting itself across the country in the form of the Afghan people calling for peace,” the general said.
Cease-Fire Still in Effect
And while Operation Iron Tempest is only one element of the military pressure the coalition has been putting on the Taliban, Bunch said he thinks it was a contributing factor to the recent cease-fire, which is still in effect. The cease-fire and more talk of peace are clear indications the South Asia Strategy is working, the general said.
“It was the combination of this military pressure, coupled with diplomatic and social pressure, that has brought us to this point, where for the first time in four decades, the people of Afghanistan were able to celebrate a peaceful end to the holy month of Ramadan,” Bunch said. “Now that the Afghan people have had a taste of that peace, their calls for a lasting peace have multiplied across the country and been heard worldwide, increasing pressure on the Taliban to reconcile.”
Airstrikes and other operations have hit the Taliban where it hurts most: in the wallet, the general said. “By all estimates, these air operations have taken over $45 million in revenue away from the Taliban in the strikes leading up to the cease-fire,” Bunch noted.
And the Afghan National Interdiction Unit’s raids, advised by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, have seized or destroyed another $11m from the Taliban’s illicit drug enterprise, he said.
No Evidence of Civilian Casualties
Bunch emphasized that no credible allegations of civilian casualties have arisen from the 154 strikes. “Our airstrikes and raids are targeted very specifically to avoid civilian casualties while putting maximum financial pressure on the insurgents,” the general said.
And unless the Taliban joins Afghanistan’s government in negotiations to extend the cease-fire, Bunch said the coalition will continue to pursue them and their illicit revenue streams at every turn.
“We are not here conducting counter-narcotics operations,” he pointed out. “The South Asia Strategy gave us extended authorities to conduct counterthreat finance operations. There is a difference that I want to emphasize: Whatever sources of revenue the Taliban draws upon, that’s where we’ll strike them.”
The Afghans leading the fight against the Taliban, Bunch emphasized. “It’s been an honor to watch them own this fight and want to own it,” he added. “Every day, they’re only getting better and more capable on the battlefield and in the air. They are fighting for the future of their nation and for the rest of the world.” (Follow Terri Moon Cronk on Twitter: @MoonCronkDoD)
27 Jun 18. South Korea updates offset policy to support collaboration and exports. Key Points:
- Updated offset policy to prioritise exports and industrial co-operation instead of technology transfers
- Emphasis is intended to drive industrial advancement and boost job creation, says DAPA
South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has announced changes in the country’s defence offset policy, placing a priority on industrial collaboration and export facilitation rather than technology transfers. DAPA said in a statement on 26 June that the changes represent the biggest defence offset reform since the policy was introduced in the early 1980s. DAPA said it will start enforcing the updated policy, which was recently endorsed by DAPA’s defence promotion committee, in stages from later this year. DAPA said the updated policy will include a new “industrial co-operation quota system” that will outline a requirement for foreign contractors to procure certain amounts of locally produced components for integration into military platforms supplied to the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. This requirement, said DAPA, will ensure supply to the military as well as boost jobs and support capability development. Another new requirement will be to support, through the offset policy, “a shift from the acquisition of defence technologies to the export of defence components” by promoting “mid- to long-term, large-scale co-operation” between foreign contractors and local companies. DAPA did not provide details of the export plan but said it would introduce a “value system” through which foreign contractors and local counterparts will be incentivised to establish long-term partnerships to support exports. It added that the value system would also create “favourable conditions” for foreign contractors that have “accumulated values”, supporting their efforts to secure contracts in South Korea. DAPA said the reforms were required to help South Korea’s defence industrial base reach a higher level of capability. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
25 Jun 18. LAND 400 and UAS drives advanced manufacturing opportunities. A new manufacturing facility in Darra, Queensland has opened to help small local businesses capitalise on advanced manufacturing opportunities across defence projects.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who opened Products For Industry’s new Darra facility, said PFi is one of 111 small and medium enterprises that form the Queensland branch of the Australian Industry and Defence Network (AIDN) that will benefit from the LAND 400 Phase 2 project.
“The federal government chose Rheinmetall’s Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicle because it is the best option to keep our service men and women safe,” the Premier said.
“Rheinmetall chose Queensland as its location to build the Boxer over four other states because of our long association with defence industries, our advanced manufacturing capabilities, and because of companies like Products For Industry.”
PFi provides a wide range of products and services, including custom-designed machinery, robotics, machine automation systems and safety systems.
Premier Palaszczuk added that opportunities abounded for defence-related enterprises, from manufacturers and vocational trainers to electricians and engineers, as the state government rolls out its suite of industry roadmaps as part of the signature Advance Queensland initiative.
“We have released our aerospace and defence 10-year roadmaps to accelerate the pace of growth and create sustainable jobs of the future,” the Premier said.
A key part of aerospace and defence roadmaps will be unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The Australian Army is currently exploring multiple projects across the UAS sector, with the Army recently announcing it will start rolling out the Black Hornet Nano UAS.
“We are also establishing Queensland as an international hub for unmanned aerial systems, and we are pursuing supply chain opportunities within major international projects such as deep maintenance of RAAF aircraft,” Premier Palaszczuk
“The technologies and machinery we need to pursue these opportunities are here at PFi’s new facility, and so are the bright minds – 100 of them – that can design and install, service and repair them.” (Source: Defence Connect)
22 Jun 18. Queensland lays out 10-year plan for defence sector. The Queensland government has unveiled its Defence Industries 10-Year Roadmap and Action Plan to support its ambition of a 10,000 person-strong, $7bn defence industries sector by 2028.
Key actions contained in the roadmap include the creation of Defence Jobs Queensland to develop the state’s defence industry and enable delivery of the key strategies and priority actions; establishing defence advisory boards of senior defence and industry personnel; establishing a Defence and Aerospace Industry Development Fund to help Queensland small-to-medium enterprises get the skills and accreditations needed to compete in the global marketplace; and engaging with the Australian Defence Organisation and industry to attract major defence projects to Queensland.
Speaking at the release of the roadmap, State Development and Manufacturing Minister Cameron Dick said supporting the defence industries sector with a range of initiatives could see the creation of 3,500 new jobs.
“The federal government’s Defence White Paper and the pace of technological change presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for defence suppliers,” the minister said.
“I want to see Queensland businesses reap the benefits.”
The minister said the state’s defence industries already employ more than 6,500 people and generated an estimated $6.3bn in revenue in 2015-16, which the government hopes to grow through key programs like the LAND 400 Phase 2 contract, which will see over 100 military vehicles built in Ipswich.
“The Queensland government’s attraction of Rheinmetall to build their LAND 400 Boxer military combat reconnaissance vehicles here demonstrates that we are increasingly being recognised as our nation’s next-generation defence supplier,” he said.
“So too does the federal government’s decision to base the Defence Cooperative Research Centre for Trusted Autonomous Systems in Queensland.”
Defence hubs in Ipswich and Townsville have already been allocated $10m. The hubs would be a source of advice and expertise, focusing on regional supply chain logistics as well as maintenance.
Member for Ipswich Jennifer Howard said Ipswich would join in implementing the Defence Industries 10-year Roadmap and Action Plan.
“Ipswich, with its proximity to the Amberley RAAF Base, is an ideal location for a defence industries hub,” Howard said.
“The hub will act as a catalyst for skilled jobs for Ipswich people in advanced manufacturing, and will provide opportunities for small to medium businesses in Ipswich to benefit from this growing sector.”
Member for Bundamba Jo-Ann Miller said her electorate was front and centre in the growth of the defence industries sector with the location of the Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence, or MILVEHCOE, to build the Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicles at Redbank Plains.
“The construction of this $170m facility will support 300 jobs a year over two years and is an excellent example of the economic benefits to be gained from the expansion of the defence industries sector,” Miller said.
Member for Townsville Scott Stewart said Townsville was a logical location for a defence industries hub, and the potential for local jobs resulting from the move underscored its importance.
“Townsville is a proud garrison city and developing a defence industries hub through this roadmap provides exciting opportunities for our region,” Stewart said.
To assist development of the state’s defence industries, the state government has appointed three strategic defence advisers to support and help attract major defence projects to Queensland.
The new advisers are retired Lieutenant General Peter Leahy, retired Rear Admiral Simon Cullen and retired Air Vice Marshal Neil Hart.
Leahy said that the recent run of high profile successes for Queensland’s defence and aerospace industries had shown that local expertise was being recognised.
“There is real momentum in these industries in Queensland, and the roadmaps will ensure that momentum is maintained and accelerated as a range of high-value, technologically advanced national and international projects come on line,” he said.
“The sector here benefits from a strong cadre of leading small and medium businesses, who bring to the table the sorts of skills and capabilities that defence forces and prime contractors all over the world are looking to make use of.
“The focus in the roadmaps on improving the ability of local businesses to develop capability and access the defence and aerospace supply chains, as well as a focus on developing a long-term pipeline of projects, will set these industries up for success.” (Source: Defence Connect)
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29 Jun 18. Chemring takes decisive countermeasures. Chemring’s (CHG) half-year figures were met with approval from analysts at Peel Hunt, who pointed to “a better underlying trading environment overlaid with self-help initiatives that have driven much improved margins and lower net debt”. A net working capital reduction and a 44 per cent fall in finance costs suggest that management has paid due attention to those aspects of the business within its control. It’s just unfortunate that the defence contractor updated the market on the day that reports emerged of a meeting between Theresa May and Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, during which the Prime Minister questioned the UK’s status as a “tier one” military power.
Happily for Chemring there are no such qualms across the Atlantic, where “the Presidential Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2019 sees the largest military budget in US history, at $700bn (£531bn). So, it’s little wonder the group has initiated a $50m programme to transform its Tennessee facility, with the aim of reinforcing its position in the global countermeasures market (flares, chaff and decoys, including infra-red and radio frequency jamming). The order book for this segment of the business – which is also the most profitable – came in at £193m, an 11.6 per cent increase at constant currencies since the October year-end; that’s something of a contrast to the group backlog, which at £442m was £36m adrift of the end rate in FY2017. There’s a degree of predictability, however, because £212m should be delivered over the second half, representing around 80 per cent of expected revenues.
The countermeasures market continues to show rising bid activity and order intake, but recent events in Salisbury and Syria could act as demand catalysts for products within the group’s sensors segment – particularly those concerned with chemical and biological detection. The group remains in the mix for several contract awards in this area from the US Dept of Defense, though they’re still “subject to on-going development, customer testing programmes and customer decision making processes”.
Peel Hunt gives cash profits of £83.6m for the Oct 2019 year-end, together with free cash-flow yield of 5.9 per cent, rising to £86.9m and 6.6 per cent in FY2020.
IC View
There was no material update on the ongoing investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into allegations of money laundering and bribery, and therefore no indication of any contingent liabilities, though the group did reveal a £17.4m deferred tax write-off relating to changes under US tax legislation. Outside the burgeoning US market, a firming oil price could translate into improved order intake from customers in the Middle East. But the shares are trading bang in line with their historic P/E ratio. Hold.
Last IC view: Hold, 181p, 19 Jan 2018. (Source: Investors Chronicle)
28 Jun 18. Scisys (SSY) – which supplies software to the media and broadcast, space, government, defence and commercial sectors – gave a positive trading update this morning, citing an “impressive start” to 2018. The group’s order book now exceeds £100m, against £91.3m at the December year-end. Management plans to protect Scisys’s participation in EU-funded space programmes including Galileo and EGNOS, irrespective of the outcome of Brexit negotiations. As previously announced, this may entail redomiciling to the EU. Cash generation was strong, and net debt fell from £5.9m as at December to £1.9m by the end of May. The shares were up 4 per cent in morning trading. Buy. (Source: Investors Chronicle)
27 Jun 18. Navantia leads SEPI’s losses. Shipbuilder Navantia was the biggest single lossmaker for Spanish state holding group SEPI (Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales) in 2017 as it ran up a new record loss of EUR389.8m (USD455m). The figure was just over twice as much as national mail company Correos, as SEPI’s overall deficit grew to EUR225.5m, 60.4 % higher than in 2016. However, losses in the group’s larger wholly owned subsidiaries were partly offset by SEPI’s stakes in other defence-related companies. The government’s stake in Airbus earned EUR119.9m and Indra EUR31.9m according to figures released in the official state bulletin (BOE). (Source: IHS Jane’s)
27 Jun 18. Ultra Electronics shares fall as it warns on profits due to development cost overruns at its US operation. The FTSE 250-listed firm said that, while it anticipates some recovery in the second half of the year, the group now expects full-year operating profit at constant currencies will be reduced by between £4m and £6m. Ultra Electronics added that it continues to expect to see organic revenue growth, with the overall market background more positive
Ultra Electronics PLC (LON:ULE) saw its shares fall on Wednesday after the defence firm warned on profits due to cost overruns on development contracts at its US operation, Herley.
In a pre-close trading statement ahead of its interim results, the FTSE 250-listed firm said that, while Herley anticipates some recovery in the second half of the year, the group now expects full-year operating profit at constant currencies will be reduced by between £4mln and £6m.
The group added that while most of its operations have had better-than-expected order intake and are expected to deliver first-half revenue and operating performance broadly in line with management’s expectations, Herley continues to be impacted by the cost overruns, which are partly customer driven
Ultra Electronics said its order book of £972m at the end of May was strong with the opening order cover for the second half expected to be higher than in recent years.
The group added that it continues to expect to see organic revenue growth, with the overall market background more positive, reflecting, in particular, an improving US defence market.
It also said its cash performance will be more heavily weighted to the second half of the year, with current full-year expectations for cash conversion of 70%-75% due to increased working capital requirements given the higher order book and revenue.
New boss excited
The firm’s new chief executive officer, Simon Pryce commented: “”Whilst individual programme problems clearly detract from an otherwise broadly satisfactory first half, the team are focused on addressing operational, programme and customer issues whilst continuing to win new business.”
He added: “Although I have only been CEO for a few days, I am excited by what I have seen. It is clear that the group has a strong and relevant technology base and a range of specialist capabilities supporting a broad number of long term platforms and programmes.
“We are well positioned in areas of priority spend with significant exposure to the strengthening US defence budget which is reflected in our growing order book. The firm will announce results for the six months ending June 30 on August 6. (Source: proactiveinvestors.co.uk)
27 Jun 18. Ultra, the international defence, security, transport and energy Group, today issues its pre-close trading statement, ahead of its Interim Results for 2018. The majority of the Group’s operations have had better than anticipated order intake and are expected to deliver half-year revenue and operating performances broadly in line with management expectations. Herley, however, continues to be impacted by cost overruns on development contracts, which are partly customer driven. While Herley anticipates some recovery in the second half of the year, management now anticipate that the expectations for the Group’s operating profit at constant currencies for the full year will be reduced by £4m-£6m. The order book at £972m at the end of May was strong with the opening order cover for the second half expected to be higher than in recent years. We continue to expect to see organic revenue growth. As previously guided, the Group’s cash performance will be more heavily weighted to the second half of the year. For the full year, current expectations are for cash conversion of 70-75%. This is due to increased working capital requirements given the higher order book and revenue. The overall market background for Ultra is more positive, reflecting in particular the improving US defence market. Ultra’s interim results announcement for the six months ending 30 June 2018 will be on 6 August 2018.
Simon Pryce, Chief Executive Officer, said, “Although I have only been CEO for a few days, I am excited by what I have seen. It is clear that the Group has a strong and relevant technology base and a range of specialist capabilities supporting a broad number of long term platforms and programmes. We are well positioned in areas of priority spend with significant exposure to the strengthening US defence budget which is reflected in our growing order book. Whilst individual programme problems clearly detract from an otherwise broadly satisfactory first half, the team are focussed on addressing operational, programme and customer issues whilst continuing to win new business.”
26 Jun 18. Velocity Composites confident of meeting full year guidance after first half revenues jump. Revenue in the first half rose 25% despite delays to some contract awards.
Velocity Composites PLC (LON:VEL) shares gained after saying it remains confident of meeting full-year expectations on the back of growing demand in the aerospace composites industry.
The supplier of advanced composite material kits to the aerospace sector reported first-half revenue of £11.6m, a 25% increase on the previous year, despite suffering delays to contract awards.
However, the company said the gross margin was affected by unforeseen customer changes and the onboarding on multiple programmes across the UK.
Gross profit fell to £1.8m from £1.9mln last year while the loss before tax widened to £987,000 from £299,000.
“The six months ended 30 April 2018 have seen growth during a period for the industry incorporating a significant degree of consolidation and corporate change, with the resultant delays in contract award experienced by the company, as previously announced,” said chief executive Jon Bridges.
“We continue to successfully execute our growth strategy through delivering new contract wins and look to progress new manufacturing sites in Europe and further afield.”
He added: “Velocity has a clear strategy to capitalise on this growth opportunity and as such, the board remains confident of meeting the market’s revised full year expectations, subject to customer demand fluctuations.” (Source: proactiveinvestors.co.uk)
26 Jun 18. GE starts break up through large-scale spin offs. Divestments of healthcare and Baker Hughes units would shed a third of revenues. General Electric will spin off its healthcare division and stake in oil services company Baker Hughes as the once sprawling US conglomerate refocuses on a smaller group of core businesses and cuts its debt load. Tuesday’s announcement marks the conclusion of an effort to simplify the company’s sprawling structure and raise cash to strengthen the balance sheet, including the spin-off of its train manufacturing business and $3.3bn sale of its distributed power division. The divisions being spun off under the plan unveiled on Tuesday accounted for 30 per cent of the group’s revenue and 25 per cent of its industrial segment profit last year. The decision marks a further shift away from GE’s broad conglomerate structure, which under chief executive Jack Welch in the 1980s and 1990s included businesses as diverse as insurance, entertainment and plastics. GE will now confine its business to three divisions: equipment for the electricity industry, renewable energy, and aero engines and other aircraft parts. The company is likely to cut its dividend after it completes the spin-off of the healthcare unit within the next 18 months, GE executives told reporters. The dividend was cut last year for only the second time since 1938. Shares in GE rose 7 per cent to $13.67 in early US trading. John Flannery, who took over as chief executive from Jeff Immelt last August, has been working to give GE’s individual divisions more autonomy and cut corporate overheads. The spin-offs represent the culmination of Mr Flannery’s strategic review. The group has been struggling in recent years, hit by a series of problems including a downturn in the market for gas-fired power plants and the slump in the oil industry that hurt Baker Hughes. On Tuesday, GE was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average after more than half-a-century in the financial index. “Today marks an important milestone in GE’s history,” Mr Flannery said. “We will continue to improve our operations and balance sheet as we make GE simpler and stronger.” The moves are expected to shave $25bn off the company’s net debt and reduce its reliance on shorter-term financing such as commercial paper. Mr Flannery has been trying to repair the company, which has sputtered since the financial crisis. In 2015, Mr Immelt launched a programme of disposals to offload most of its financial services division, which had provided more than half the group’s profits. But that bold move failed to deliver a sustained improvement in performance. GE’s shares have dropped by 54 per cent over the past year. Earlier this year, the company disclosed the US Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating its announcement that it needed to pay an additional $15bn to cover legacy insurance liabilities, and the way it had been accounting for revenues from long-term contracts. The separation of Baker Hughes and the healthcare division, which makes magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound machines, are likely to take annual turnover below $90bn. That is less than half of the company’s sales in 2008, when they peaked at just under $180bn and below its $91bn turnover in 1997. Analysts with credit rating agency S&P Global warned the string of complex divestitures would leave GE with “less business diversity, earnings and cash flow and as such, potential for heightened volatility in profits and cash flow.” They said they expected to downgrade the company one-notch to A-minus. (Source: FT.com)
26 Jun 18. J.F. Lehman & Company Announces Definitive Agreement to Sell National Response Corporation and Sprint Energy Services.
J.F. Lehman & Company (“JFLCO”), a leading middle-market private equity firm focused exclusively on the aerospace, defense, maritime, government and environmental sectors, is pleased to announce that its investment affiliate JFL-NRC-SES Partners, LLC (“JFL-NRC-SES”) has signed a definitive agreement to sell all its membership interests in NRC Group Holdings, LLC (“NRC Group” or the “Company”) – formed earlier this year through the combination of JFLCO portfolio companies National Response Corporation (“NRC”) and Sprint Energy Services (“Sprint”) – to Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. III (NYSE American: HCAC.U, HCAC, HCAC.WS) (“HCAC”). Following the consummation of the transaction, NRC Group will be a wholly-owned direct subsidiary of HCAC and HCAC will change its name to NRC Group Holdings Corp. NRC Group Holdings Corp. will apply to continue to list its common stock and warrants on the NYSE American under the proposed ticker symbols “NRCG” and “NRCG.WS,” respectively. Investment affiliates of JFLCO will continue to own a significant equity position in the public company as part of the transaction.
NRC Group is a global provider of comprehensive environmental, compliance and waste management services. The Company’s broad range of capabilities enable it to provide global reach to meet the critical, non-discretionary needs of its more than 5,000 customers across diverse industries and end markets to ensure compliance with environmental, health and safety laws around the world. Chris Swinbank, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer of NRC Group at its formation, will continue to serve in that capacity post-closing.
Since the acquisition of NRC and Sprint by investment affiliates in 2012 and 2015, respectively, JFLCO has worked successfully with each company’s management team to reinvigorate their core businesses, expand geographically and grow their service portfolio through both vertical integration and expansion into adjacent, complementary service offerings. These organic growth initiatives were augmented by ten strategic acquisitions which substantially increased NRC Group’s geographic footprint.
“We are proud of the growth and expansion that NRC Group has achieved over the past six years,” said Mr. Swinbank. “J.F. Lehman & Company has been instrumental in helping solidify and grow our reputation and brand, augment and diversify our service capabilities, significantly expand our geographic footprint and recruit talent to our team. We look forward to continuing this momentum as a subsidiary of a public company.”
Alex Harman, Chairman of NRC Group and a Partner at JFLCO, added, “Our successful partnership with management has enabled the creation of a highly differentiated global business with significant opportunities for continued growth. In addition, the sale of NRC Group represents an excellent outcome for our investors, whose support has been essential to our organization’s success.”
“We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with NRC Group’s senior management team and working with the HCAC team to further accelerate the Company’s organic and acquisition-driven growth strategy,” said Glenn Shor, Director of NRC Group and a Managing Director at JFLCO.
Closing of the transaction is expected to occur in Q3 2018.
Stifel and Houlihan Lokey Capital, Inc. served as financial advisors to JFLCO and Jones Day and Blank Rome LLP provided legal counsel.
Additional Information About The Transaction And Where To Find It
The proposed transaction will be submitted to stockholders of HCAC for their consideration. HCAC intends to file with the SEC preliminary and definitive proxy statements in connection with the proposed transaction and other matters and will mail a definitive proxy statement and other relevant documents to its stockholders as of the record date established for voting on the proposed transaction. HCAC’s stockholders and other interested persons are advised to read, once available, the preliminary proxy statement and any amendments thereto and, once available, the definitive proxy statement, in connection with HCAC’s solicitation of proxies for its special meeting of stockholders to be held to approve, among other things, the proposed transaction, because these documents will contain important information about HCAC, NRC Group and the proposed transaction. Stockholders may also obtain a copy of the preliminary or definitive proxy statement, once available, as well as other documents filed with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction and other documents filed with the SEC by HCAC, without charge, at the SEC’s website located at www.sec.gov or by directing a request to Nicholas A. Petruska, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of HCAC, 3485 North Pines Way, Suite 110, Wilson, Wyoming 83014 or by telephone at (312) 803-0372.
Participants in the Solicitation
HCAC, JFL-NRC-SES, NRC Group, and certain of their respective directors, executive officers and other members of management and employees may, under SEC rules, be deemed to be participants in the solicitations of proxies from HCAC’s stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction. Information regarding the persons who may, under SEC rules, be deemed participants in the solicitation of HCAC’s stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction will be set forth in HCAC’s proxy statement when it is filed with the SEC. You can find more information about HCAC’s directors and executive officers in HCAC’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, filed with the SEC on April 2, 2018. Additional information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests will be included in HCAC’s proxy statement when it becomes available, which can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above.
26 Jun 18. Barnbrook Systems marks milestone at Farnborough. Barnbrook Systems Ltd is marking its 40th anniversary at Farnborough International Airshow with its strongest presence so far. The family run company – a leading member of the Farnborough Aerospace Consortium (FAC) – is taking its largest delegation and latest products ranges to the July air festival. Barnbrook Systems – based in Fareham, Hampshire, UK – will be displaying and demonstrating such products as its aerospace contactors, engine controls and innovative inflight refuelling technology.
Managing director Tony Barnett said: “The Airshow is an opportunity for us to demonstrate our capabilities and showcase our successful product ranges.
“The 2018 Airshow is particularly significant as it is falls in our 40th anniversary year. We look forward to welcoming existing clients and business associates to our stand and making valuable new contacts during this year’s show.”
Barnbrook Systems also designs, manufactures and supports such products as electromechanical and solid state relays, circuit breakers, actuators, test sets, pressure transducers and interconnect systems.
It also carries out new build, repair and overhaul of contactors and engine control units. It has extensive test facilities, including vibration and environmental to test and qualify its products to the respective standards.
Barnbrook Systems is a well-established member of ADS as well as the Farnborough Aerospace Consortium. This year will be its 12th consecutive appearance at the Airshow.
At the last Airshow in 2016, the company signed a six-figure deal with aviation giant Leonardo for its cutting-edge refuelling switch.
In 2014, Tony had a one-to-one briefing with then Prime Minister David Cameron. Barnbrook Systems is on stand number 1320 with the Farnborough Aerospace Consortium in exhibition hall one.
Barnbrook Systems is a former winner at the Solent Business Awards, South Coast Business Awards, UK Rail Industry Awards and Light Rail Industry Awards. Its clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Leonardo, Gulfstream, Safran, GE Aviation, Eaton and Hindustan Aeronautics.
25 Jun 18. Eutelsat rules out bid for British satellite rival Inmarsat. A deal would have faced significant political resistance in UK. French satellite group Eutelsat has ruled out a bid for British rival Inmarsat less than 24 hours after it said it was considering making an offer. Shares in Eutelsat closed down 6.2 per cent on Monday after it was pressed by the UK Takeover Panel into clarifying its position, while Inmarsat’s stock rose 4.3 per cent. EchoStar, the US satellite company, had made a “highly preliminary offer” for Inmarsat earlier this month. Analysts had previously thought Eutelsat to be an unlikely bidder for the group as it pushed forward with plans that indicated a desire to launch its own satellites rather than take over Inmarsat’s operations. On top of that, a bid for the UK’s only major satellite group by a foreign company would have faced significant political challenges, particularly given the upset between Brussels and the UK over access to Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system. Eutelsat is now barred from making an offer for Inmarsat for another six months, unless a competitor ends up making a firm bid for the group or circumstances change markedly. Shares in Eutelsat climbed 3.2 per cent in early trading in Paris on Tuesday, while Inmarsat was trading down 7.8 per cent. (Source: FT.com)
22 Jun 18. Civmec completes listing on Australian stock exchange. Civmec Construction and Engineering, which is partnered with German shipbuilder Lürssen to build offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), completed its listing on the Australian stock exchange (ASX) on 22 June, the company has announced.
Western Australia-based Civmec said its listing on the ASX will “strengthen its position in Australia’s fast-growing engineering and construction sector”. The company’s business sectors include marine and defence, oil and gas, water, infrastructure, and metals and minerals.
Civmec, which has also been listed on the Singapore stock exchange since 2012, set up its Marine and Defence division in September 2015 and four months later completed its acquisition of Australian naval shipbuilder Forgacs Marine and Defence for AUD20.75m (USD14.7m)(Source: IHS Jane’s)
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Odyssey is an independent corporate finance firm which advises on acquisitions, business sales, management buy-outs and raising finance, typically in the £5m to £100m range. We have extensive experience in the niche manufacturing sector with our most recent completed deal being the sale of MacNeillie to Babcock Plc. Details can be seen at: http://www.odysseycf.com/case-study-macneillie/
As a result of this and related projects we have developed relationships with buyers and funders looking to acquire or invest in the sector. We would be happy to share further insights into the sector and to carry out reviews of businesses whose shareholders are considering an exit, acquisition or fundraise.
The review will include:
* Valuation
* Market review
* Comparative deals and structures
* Initial thoughts on buyers/ investors/ targets
* MBO viability
* Feasibility review and identification of any issues to be addressed pre-deal
There is no charge for this review.
If this is of interest we would be happy to meet at your convenience.
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MILITARY VEHICLE NEWS
Sponsored by MILLBROOK
Tel: +44 (0) 1525 408408
www.millbrook.co.uk/military
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28 Jun 18. General Dynamics debuts new LAV variants, looks toward ground-based air defence variant. General Dynamics Land Systems Canada (GDLS-C) unveiled two new variants of its light armoured vehicle (LAV) 6.0 family during CANSEC 2018 in Ottowa from 30–31 May. The company also spoke about its LAV 6.0 Air Defence concept, and the LAV 700 currently in production for an export customer. The LAV 6.0 Reconnaissance, or ‘Recce’, variant was developed from the LAV 6.0 baseline for the Canadian Army’s LAV Reconnaissance Surveillance Suite Upgrade Program (LRSS-UP), a contract awarded to GDLS-C in late 2014 at a cost of CAD287m (USD216m) for 66 vehicles. First deliveries of the vehicles to the Canadian Army are expected in the early 2020s. In addition to sharing common features with the LAV 6.0, such as the M242 25mm chain gun, a double-V hull, and a 450-hp Caterpillar C9 engine, the LAV 6 Recce has extensive sensors for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The detachable electro optic/infrared (EO/IR) surveillance suite, mounted on top of an extendable mast, has a radar, a day/night imager, IR imaging, and a laser pointer/laser rangefinder (LRF) all fitted to a stabilised gimble. The mast can be extended up to 5m when on the move, or up to 10m while stationary. The sensors on the mast feed information into the operator control station, which consists of two touchscreen displays, a keyboard, and a primary hand controller. The feed can be duplicated onto an onboard laptop, which can also control the mast while connected to the vehicle. The commander and gunner stations can access the sensor data from their own displays in their respective compartments. The vehicle also has an extended ‘silent watch’ functionality, whereby it can turn off the engines and carry out its ISR functions using its onboard lithium batteries for up to eight hours. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
28 Jun 18. US Army awards $258m contract for Stryker vehicle upgrade.
The US Army has awarded a $258m contract modification to upgrade the service’s Stryker flat-bottom vehicles to the Stryker A1 configuration.
Under the deal, General Dynamics (GD) Land Systems will be responsible for modifying and modernising 116 of the Stryker vehicles. Built upon the combat-proven Double-V Hull (DVH) configuration, the Stryker A1 configuration will help to provide unprecedented survivability against mines and advanced explosive devices. In addition to the DVH survivability, the new configuration will provide a 450hp engine, 60,000lb suspension, 910A alternator and in-vehicle network.
The Stryker A1 infantry carrier vehicle is claimed to be one of the most versatile, mobile and safest personnel carriers in the entire inventory of the US Army.
Expected for completion in March 2020, work on the upgrade project will be carried out at the company’s facilities in Ohio, Alabama, Florida, and Michigan.
The US Army’s Stryker land vehicle is an eight-wheeled, armoured combat carrier that is currently powered by a 350hp Caterpillar JP-8 diesel engine.
The vehicle provides the US Army with a combination of capabilities, including infantry transport, offensive firepower and reconnaissance, in addition to other capabilities such as anti-tank guided missiles, mobile command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), engineering and fire support, mobile gun system, and medical evacuation.
GD Land Systems focuses on delivering new design, engineering, technology, production and full life-cycle support for land combat vehicles across the world. Earlier this month, the company received a $68.6m modification contract from the US Army Contracting Command in Warren, Michigan, to upgrade the Stryker carriers to the patented DVH design. (Source: army-technology.com)
26 Jun 18. Tank makers steel themselves for Europe’s next big land-weapon contest. European manufacturers of armored vehicles are jockeying for position in what looks to be the most expensive land program for the continent in decades. The industry activity follows plans by France and Germany, reiterated this month, to build a Main Ground Combat System that would replace the current fleet of Leopard 2 and Leclerc tanks. While conceived as a two-country project for now, the hope is to develop a weapon that other European land forces will also pick up.
Details remain murky about exactly what the new vehicles must be able to do, though the job description includes something about manned-unmanned teaming. Perhaps that’s why officials chose an amorphous name for the project, as it could be anything from a nimble, autonomous fighter to the type of human-driven steel beast of today’s armies.
The target date for introducing the new platform is set at 2035, and Germany has picked up the lead role for the project both on the government and the industry side.
KNDS, the Franco-German joint venture of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Nexter, put the program on the radar of visitors of the Eurosatory trade show in Paris earlier this month. The companies mated the chassis of a Leopard 2 tank to a Leclerc turret ― and voila, a European Main Battle Tank was born. Company officials stressed that the hybrid behemoth is only a stepping stone on the way toward a full-blown European tank offering under the Main Ground Combat System banner. But the product might interest Eastern European nations looking to divest their Russian legacy fleets for a good-enough, Western-made tank that ― presumably ― doesn’t break the bank.
The marriage of KMW and Nexter saves the two companies from having to compete against one another for the next-generation tank. It also creates the appearance that Paris’ and Berlin’s love for a future tank is happily echoed by their industries.
“Let’s assume we wouldn’t have joined forces,” said Frank Haun, the CEO of KMW. Both he and his Nexter counterpart, Stephane Mayer, would have had to lobby their respective governments for a purely national solution, pulling the old argument of keeping jobs in the country, Haun said.
The two companies hailed an announcement last week about a new Franco-German deal aimed at examining possible program options for the future tank.
“The Letter Of Intent signed yesterday is a significant step forward in the defense cooperation between the two countries and in Europe,” reads a June 20 statement. “This close cooperation was the key motivation for the foundation of KNDS in 2015, where Nexter and KMW cooperate as national system houses for land systems.”
But the binational industry team is far from the only game in town.
Take Rheinmetall, for example, which is KMW’s partner in the Leopard program. Company executives at the Paris weapons expo were tight-lipped about their strategy toward the Main Ground Combat System, or MGCS. But it’s probably a safe bet to presume the Düsseldorf, Germany-based firm won’t cede a market of tens of billions of dollars without a fight.
“Come back and see me in December in Unterlüß,” Ben Hudson, head of the company’s vehicle systems division, told Defense News during an interview in Paris. He was referring to a small German town one hour south of Hamburg where Rheinmetall runs a manufacturing plant.
Hudson declined to say more about what the company would roll out at that time. “I can’t mention it just yet,” he said. “Expect more surprises in the future. We’re already working on some other things in the secret laboratories of Rheinmetall.”
Either way, officials were eager to note that KNDS, despite its industrial alignment alongside the two governments in charge, is only one bidder in a field that has to fully emerge.
“I think there is still a lot of water to flow under the bridge on this program, as it is only in its early days. However, with the technology in the Rheinmetall Group, we have a significant interest in playing a key role in MGCS,” Hudson said.
He argued that developing the next-generation tank must begin with considering the “threat” out there, namely the Russian T-14 and T-15 tanks, which are based on a common chassis dubbed Armata. Those vehicles’ characteristics, or at least what is known about them, dictate “high lethality” be built into the future European tank, according to Hudson.
“How do you defeat a tank that has four active defense systems on it?” he asked.
And then there is General Dynamics European Land Systems, the Old World’s offspring of the U.S. maker of the Abrams tank and Stryker vehicle.
The company is careful to note its European roots: a consolidated mishmash of formerly independent armored-vehicle makers from across the continent.
Manuel Lineros, vice president of engineering, told Defense News that the company’s Ascot vehicle will be the GDELS offering for the European next-gen tank. Advertised for its mobility and weighing in at roughly 45 tons, the tracked vehicle falls in the class of infantry fighting vehicles, putting it one notch below the heaviest battle tank category.
“I understand the battlefield has changed,” Lineros said in an interview at Eurosatory. “We have to abandon the ideas of a combat vehicle versus a classic main battle tank. Everything is so mixed up now.”
Whatever the Ascot lacks in sheer mass against projectiles aimed at its shell could be compensated with an active protection system and the ability to move quickly on the battlefield, argued Lineros. “We have to be flexible in this way of interpreting the requirements.”
That includes defending against drone swarms, which could become the peer-to-peer equivalent of improvised explosive devices designed to rip open the underbellies of vehicles, he said. Unlike the recent countermine vehicle architecture, that type of aerial threat could mean the top surface of future vehicles will be a weak point requiring special protection, he added.
Though adding armor plates remains the industry’s first instinct in responding to new threats, Lineros said there is a limit to what he called an “addiction” to steel. “More and more we’ll be moving out of this sport.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
27 Jun 18. Czechs to upgrade T-72s. The Army of the Czech Republic (ACR) plans to upgrade its fleet of T-72M4 CZ main battle tanks (MBTs) in order to retain their operational effectiveness until 2025, the chief of general staff of the ACR has said. Lieutenant General Ales Opata said plans call for modernising the MBT’s primary weapon system, including upgrading the Tank Universal Reconfigurable Modular System (TURMS-T) fire-control system (FCS), in particular the replacement of the Attila thermal camera, which is considered to be obsolete. The ACR currently fields 30 T-72M4 CZ MBTs, with another five held in storage.
“By 2025 the leadership of the Ministry of Defence and ACR will need to decide whether to replace all tanks of Russian design. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
27 Jun 18. Algeria unveils upgraded BTR-80. Algeria’s Ministry of National Defence has unveiled BTR-80 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) that have been upgraded to launch 9M133 Kornet missiles. Two upgraded BTR-80s were seen in video footage and photographs released on 26 June to show the ‘Sakhr 2018’ exercise carried out by the 36th Motorised Infantry Brigade in the 2nd Military Region in northeast Algeria. At least one was also seen launching a missile during the exercise. The upgrade consists of a launcher with two Kornet missiles, one either side of electro-optical systems, mounted on top of the vehicle’s turret. It appeared that the turret – which is normally manually operated – would have to be traversed to acquire and track turrets and that the gunner would be unable to open his hatch to load more missiles. The electro-optics appeared to consist of the standard Kornet targeting system without the optional thermal camera in one housing and other systems that could include a different thermal camera and rangefinder in a second. Both housings appeared to have no covers to protect the optics. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. Israel rolls out second Eitan prototype. The Israeli Ministry of Defense (MoD) has announced that a second prototype of the Eitan wheeled armoured personnel carrier (APC) has been produced.
It said on 17 June that the new version has been developed on the basis of lessons learned from the first prototype, which went through a series of trials with infantry units in various types of terrain.
The MoD said the second version will have a different 750-hp engine and its body has been changed to improve protection for the crew and the on-board systems. Improvements have also been made in its steering, electrical systems, transmission, wheels, and brakes. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. BAE Systems to supply assault amphibious vehicles to Taiwan. BAE Systems has been awarded a USD83.6m contract to provide to Taiwan the “necessary material and technical engineering to build, integrate, test, and deliver” 36 AAV7A1 Assault Amphibious Vehicles. The contract is for 30 AAVP7A1 personnel carriers, four AAVC7A1 command post vehicles and two AAVR7A1 recovery vehicles, according to a 22 June announcement by the US Department of Defense (DoD). This deal, which involves Foreign Military Sales (FMS) under the Taipei Economic Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) – FMS case TW-P-SEQ – also includes support and test equipment, spares, publications, training, engineering services, logistics, and other technical support required.
All work will be performed in York, Pennsylvania, and is expected to be completed by 22 July, 2020, said the DoD, adding that this contract “was not competitively procured in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii) – only one responsible source and no other supplies or services that will satisfy agency requirements”. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. Awardees demonstrate new technologies for DARPA’s GXV-T project. A number of Phase II contract awardees have demonstrated advanced radical technology for future combat vehicles for the US DARPA’s Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) programme. DARPA’s GXV-T programme focuses on enhancing mobility, survivability, safety, and effectiveness of future combat vehicles without piling on armour. The new technologies will enable the vehicles to travel quickly over different terrain while enhancing situational awareness and ease of operation.
DARPA Tactical Technology Office GXV-T programme manager Major Amber Walker said: “We’re looking at how to enhance survivability by buttoning up the cockpit and augmenting the crew through driver-assistance aids.
“For mobility, we’ve taken a radically different approach by avoiding armour and developing options to move quickly and be agile over all terrain.”
The GXV-T programme focuses on developing future combat vehicles that would be capable of travelling up to 95% of off-road terrain, including slopes and various elevations.
The vehicles will include advanced wheel-to-track and suspension technologies that would enable access and faster travel both on- and off-road compared to the existing ground vehicles.
The programme aims to seek solutions with multiple on-board sensors and technologies that would provide high-resolution, 360-degree situational awareness while keeping the vehicle enclosed.
Walker added: “DARPA’s excited about the progress made to date on the GXV-T programme and we look forward to working with the services to transition these technologies into ground vehicle technologies of the future.” (Source: army-technology.com)
26 Jun 18. DARPA demonstrates 6 new technologies behind the agile combat vehicles of tomorrow. Back in 2014, DARPA announced the launch of its Ground X-Vehicle Technology (GXV-T) program, an initiative designed to break through a single paradigm that has been weighing the military down in ground combat. That paradigm is the ever-escalating vendetta between tanks and anti-tank guns.
Artillery designers keep making bigger anti-tank guns, and in response the tank designers have to load them up with more and more armor, to the point where the M1A2 Abrams (the main battle tank of the US Army) now weighs a staggering 72 tons.
That’s nearly twice the weight of a semi-trailer loaded to its maximum legal capacity of 40 tons, and it makes the modern tank a real pain to deal with, from the build, maintenance and deployment, right through to the end use. They’re not what you’d call light-footed or agile, and their sheer bulk can damage or destroy roads or bridges that aren’t up to the task.
DARPA has thus been working on what comes next: smaller, lighter, more nimble vehicles that have tricks other than massive armor up their sleeve when it comes to surviving on the battlefield.
Last month, the GXV-T program demonstrated some of the remarkable technologies it’s been working on. And while they’re far from finished, there are some pretty radical ideas in there. Let’s take a look:
Reconfigurable Wheel Track (RWT)
Wheels let you go fast on the road, tracks give you better traction in sand, mud and dirt. So a team from Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center (CMU NREC) has chipped in with a transforming wheel design that gives you a version of either, at the touch of a button.
In wheel mode, powerful arms in the hub open out to form a circular shape, and the entire rim rotates with the outer grippy track. In track mode, the hub stops dead as it closes down into a triangular shape, and the tread rotates around the hub. The transition takes just two seconds.
Electric In-Hub Motor
Working around the standard military 20-inch rim size, QinetiQ has come up with an electric hub motor fit for combat vehicle use. With all the acceleration, torque and traction benefits of a regular electric motor, the QinetiQ motor adds in three-stage gearing, internal thermal management and a liquid-cooled brake system.
Multi-Mode Extreme Travel Suspension (METS)
The goal here is high-speed travel over rough and uneven terrain, and Pratt & Miller’s METS system is awesome to watch in action. It uses standard 20-inch rims, mounted to a dual suspension system. A short-travel suspension system gives six inches (15 cm) of regular off-road bump handling, but when the road gets really rough, an active high-travel suspension gives each wheel a whopping six feet (1.8 m) of travel – 42 in (107 cm) upward and 30 in (76 cm) downward from the center point.
In this way, the METS can get around while keeping the cabin upright in some pretty extreme situations. It’s a little reminiscent of the Swincar “spider car” from 2015, offering a wildly agile way to get around at speed.
Enhanced 360-degree Awareness with Virtual Windows
Windows are a key point of vulnerability for any military vehicle, so Honeywell International presented a system that eliminates them altogether. The driver sits in the cockpit and views the world outside through near-eye VR goggles that effectively turn the cabin transparent for 360-degree vision. It seems to work; “numerous tests” have seen drivers complete off-road courses in these blacked-out cabins with no appreciable penalty to their course times.
This is of course reminiscent of the “transparent jet plane” concept implemented in the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, which uses a similar VR display and camera array to remove the plane from a pilot’s field of vision.
Virtual Perspectives Augmenting Natural Experience (V-PANE)
Continuing with the augmented vision angle, Raytheon BBN Technologies has chipped in with a fascinating vision system that gives drivers the ability to see the world from a range of different perspectives, each generated from a series of video cameras and LiDAR sensors, something like a juiced-up version of the top-down camera view you can now get when parking some high-end cars.
The system creates a real-time 3D model of the car’s surroundings, then generates useful visual perspectives from a straight-out-of-the-cabin view, to a high third-person view, to other views augmented with a model of the vehicle to assist with tight technical maneuvers. One would imagine this detailed 3D model would also assist with targeting systems should threats be identified.
Off-Road Crew Augmentation (ORCA)
Also from CMU NREC, the ORCA system uses a bunch of cameras and sensors to map out the off-road terrain in front of a vehicle and predict and plan the safest, quickest route through. The system is also capable of taking over and self-driving in an off-road situation, which is noa small achievement. Phase 2 testing showed vehicles with the ORCA aids and visual overlays went faster and avoided nearly all pauses, which could expose a team to danger in the battlefield.
All these technologies are still under development, as the GXV-T program looks to identify which can be pushed forward into an operational capacity in the medium term. (Source: https://newatlas.com)
22 Jun 18. Norway cancels tank upgrade. Plans to upgrade the Norwegian Army’s Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks (MBTs) have been abandoned following the publication of the government’s revised budget in May, the Norwegian MoD has confirmed.
“Through the examination of the Land Power Proposition in the autumn of 2017, it was decided to suspend the planned and approved upgrade project for existing tanks (Project 5050) based on the recommendations in the National Power Assessment,” the MoD told Jane’s.
A reduced MBT capability will be retained until 2025, when a new tank or an interim solution will be introduced. Only 30 of the 52 tanks in the Norwegian Army inventory are operational.
Upgrade proposals to adopt Germany’s Leopard 2A7V or a development of the CV90 infantry fighting vehicle were rejected. The MoD said its reasons were that modernising the MBTs “would not provide sufficiently capable tanks to meet developments in the threat of modern weapons and ammunition types”.
Measures to maintain the Leopard 2A4s until 2025 “are being investigated”, the MoD added, while admitting that the Norwegian tank fleet’s operational capabilities would be gradually reduced and its numbers may be slightly reduced. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
21 Jun 18. Eurosatory expo floor offers hope yet for teaming robots with manned vehicles. Ideas for how robots and vehicles may team on the battlefield have long been abundant, but honing in on a real strategy to make manned-unmanned teaming work operationally has proved difficult.
But defense industry around the world seems to be coming up with clearer concepts on how to take an endless proliferation of robotic technology and match capabilities with manned vehicles to create workable operational solutions. On a recent trip to Eurosatory, one of Europe’s largest land warfare conferences, Don Sando, the deputy to the commanding general for combat development at the U.S. Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence, said he’s not seeing much unique technology when it comes to unmanned capabilities around the world. Eurosatory, for example, featured an abundance of armed ground robots.
But “what I have seen corroborates our thinking that ground robotics systems, air robotics systems and the integration of both with manned systems is proliferating,” Sando told a small group of reporters at the show June 13.
“I was here four years ago, and without taking a head count I am convinced that there are a lot more nations and companies displaying and talking about ground and air robotics systems and their teaming than there was four years ago,” he said. “We are not wrong in our thinking that robotic systems are important. They are here today. Everybody is thinking about them, they are available to all kinds of people, good and bad, and we are right to put our energy toward it.”
Several of the recent land warfare conferences showed that industry was struggling to bring concepts to fruition.
Sando said comparatively to Eurosatory, he saw less coherent concepts coming together at the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in October 2017 in Washington.
And James Tinsley, a defense analyst at Avascent, told Defense News last September at DSEI in London that the expo showed a striking lack of integration of unmanned aircraft systems into vehicle concepts.
At DSEI, Finnish defense company Patria was the only one to display a concept integrating a drone with a vehicle — mounting the hand-launched Black Hornet micro-UAV from FLIR atop a little stick on the roof of the back end of its armored modular vehicle.
“This may reflect the lack of consensus around which crew member will operate the platform and sensor, who will buy and maintain the system, how launch/recovery/reuse can be integrated into the vehicle architectures, and other things to be worked out,” Tinsley said. “But it seems like there could be some additional low-cost, [commercial/modifiable off-the-shelf] solutions and integration opportunities to shape market demand, which vehicle and system contractors are not pursuing.”
Those solutions have begun to take shape at recent defense shows like Eurosatory. The increase in more fleshed out concepts there could stem from the promising advances the U.S. Army and militaries abroad have made in trying to solidify concepts that align with its robotics and autonomous systems strategy, which shows armed forces might be more willing to buy and field concepts.
One concept on the expo floor was eerily similar to Patria’s concept at DSEI. BAE Systems showcased a Black Hornet on its CV90 armored combat vehicle. But others took it a step further by integrating both unmanned aerial and ground vehicles with manned systems.
French company Nexter unveiled a concept version of its Titus armored vehicle adapted to carry augmented mission systems that included a tethered UAV, unmanned ground vehicles and a remote controlled 20mm cannon.
The UAV would be used for surveillance and artillery targeting and can fly at a height of up to 50 meters. Another UAV concept was a standalone drone that could be launched from the vehicle’s roof for reconnaissance missions.
And Nexter had designed the hull to have an outside compartment to deploy
a small UGV to detect improvised explosive devices and chemical, biological and radiation weapons.
The 20mm cannon, the UGV and UAV can be controlled inside or outside the vehicle with a smart pad.
In August, the U.S. Army took aggressive steps with a major demonstration at Fort Benning, Georgia, in August that evaluated the concept of a robotic wingman within the maneuver force and how to incorporate robotic capability within a tank formation that included both ground and aerial unmanned systems.
Recently, the U.S. Army in Europe demonstrated a complex breach concept using mostly robotic systems at the Joint Warfighting Assessment in Germany this spring that proved to be very operationally effective, according to Sando.
He added that the ultimate goal is for every formation to have air and ground unmanned systems to help forces from individual-dismount solutions like throw-bots and soldier-borne sensors like the Black Hornet, to capabilities installed at the squad, platoon, and company levels and above. What that really looks like and what systems are chosen for various capabilities at various levels will take more time to determine, Sando said. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
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Millbrook, based in Bedfordshire, UK, makes a significant contribution to the quality and performance of military vehicles worldwide. Its specialist expertise is focussed in two distinct areas: test programmes to help armed services and their suppliers ensure that their vehicles and systems work as the specification requires; and design and build work to upgrade new or existing vehicles, evaluate vehicle capability and investigate in-service failures. Complementing these is driver and service training and a hospitality business that allows customers to use selected areas of Millbrook’s remarkable facilities for demonstrations and exhibitions.
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LOGISTICS AND THROUGH LIFE UPDATE
Sponsored by Oshkosh
www.oshkoshdefense.com
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26 Jun 18. Oshkosh Corporation Releases Fiscal 2017 Sustainability Report. Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) a leading designer and manufacturer of specialty vehicles and vehicle bodies, released its fifth annual Sustainability Report, demonstrating how the Company continues to make a difference in the communities where its team members live and work. The report also highlights how the Company has enhanced operations, processes and grown sustainability initiatives.
“In the Oshkosh Corporation family, sustainability continues to be a core focus area in our manufacturing operations, design processes, community engagement activities and strategic goals,” said Wilson R. Jones, Oshkosh Corporation president and chief executive officer. “It’s part of our Oshkosh Corporation culture that builds on the efforts of our 15,000 team members around the world.”
Oshkosh Corporation views sustainability from a holistic perspective and continues to make strides toward sustainability excellence. Highlights include the following:
- Reducing waste to landfill by 64% since fiscal 2012
- Team members volunteering more than 7,400 hours in their communities including 2,100 hours in its first annual “Good to Give Back Week,” initiated by its Access Equipment Segment
- Being named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for the third consecutive year.
Oshkosh Corporation’s fiscal 2017 achievements also resulted in being named an “Industry Mover” in RobecoSam’s Sustainability Yearbook 2018. To learn more, and access the fiscal 2017 report, visit: http://www.sustainability.oshkoshcorp.com/en/view-report. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
27 Jun 18. Russian Helicopters Holding Company (part of Rostec State Corporation) delivered six Mi-17-1V helicopters to the Border Security Force of the Republic of India. The helicopters were overhauled at Novosibirsk Aircraft Repair Plant (NARP).
“NARP performs activities associated with the repair and overhaul of Mi-8/17 type helicopters for the whole range of foreign operators, however, the contract with the Border Security Force has been implemented for the first time. During the acceptance the customer’s delegation got familiarized with the results of performed activities and technologies applied at the enterprise. The plant has been highly praised by the Indian military specialists and now further cooperation is being discussed,” – stated Igor Chechikov, Deputy Director General for After-Sales Support Services of Russian Helicopters Holding Company.
The specialists of NARP carried out a complete cycle of activities related to the overhaul of the Indian helicopters. In the short term the batch of Mi-17-1V will get off to the permanent home base, where the final acceptance report will be signed after check flight procedure.
“Currently the Border Security Force is an independent military unit in the Ministry of Home Affairs of India with the sole command and it is considered as the largest border security force in the world, that is why this cooperation means high quality evaluation of our activities and huge experience,” – noted Alexey Belikh, Managing Director of JSC “NARP”.
28 Jun 18. Singapore signs digital technology accords with Boeing and Airbus. Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) has signed separate agreements with Airbus and Boeing to co-develop digital technologies to enhance support for aircraft in operation with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF).
The two accords were signed on 28 June at the inaugural Singapore Defence Technology Summit, which is hosted by the DSTA – an agency under Singapore’s Ministry of Defence – and is taking place in the city-state during 27-29 June. Under the agreement between the DSTA and Airbus, the two organisations will undertake research and development of digital products and services that can “optimise the maintenance and availability of the military platforms acquired and operated by Singapore”, said a joint statement. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
27 Jun 18. Tapestry to transition GOLDesp’s MILS to DLMS. Tapestry Solutions is to transition GOLDesp’s Military Standard Logistics Interface (MILS) to a new Defense Logistics Management Standard (DLMS) for the US Department of Defense (DoD).
MILS supports standardisation within the DoD’s global supply chain and ensures proper maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) of defence assets.
Tapestry Solutions is supporting a DoD directive to ensure its GOLDesp MRO and Supply software is compliant with DLMS by 1 January 2020. As part of this effort, the company is developing a new Distributed Logistics Service module that will convert outgoing MILS formatted message to DLMS and incoming DLMS formatted messages to MILS. All changes will be transparent to the user. The new standard will come into effect in 2020.
Tapestry’s GOLDesp MRO and Supply software interfaces with MILS to enable domestic and foreign military sales customers to quickly obtain supplies through the US military. It features a comprehensive set of fully integrated maintenance and supply modules and has been implemented as a tri-service logistics management solution by customers on five continents. (Source: Shephard)
27 Jun 18. Airbus H125 and H130 helicopter customers will get a boost in their operations thanks to a significant reduction in direct maintenance costs for the Safran Arriel 2D engine, which equips both single engines. The two main improvements provided by Safran are the extension of 25 % of the time between overhaul (TBO) to 5,000 hours for new and in-service helicopters, and the new three year/ 2,000 hours warranty conditions – replacing the previous two year/1,000 hours warranty – for all H125 and H130 helicopters delivered in 2018.
“Safran continuously works to make its engines more robust and easy-to-use”, says Nicolas Billecocq, Safran Helicopter Engines’ vice president of the Light Helicopter Engines Program. “Extensive endurance tests conducted on the Arriel 2D and analysis of engine fleet data have enabled us to further validate the engine’s strength and simplicity. Thanks to these new improvements, the Arriel 2D will feature one of the lowest direct maintenance costs of its class.”
“Improving customer satisfaction and the competitiveness of our products is one of our top priorities at Airbus Helicopters. These engine durability enhancements are a clear illustration of our efforts in this direction,” said Axel Aloccio, Head of the Light Helicopter Programme at Airbus Helicopters. “The TBO and warranty extension are very concrete improvements for H125 and H130 operators around the world: those two types keep offering the best value for money.”
H125 and H130 customers will also benefit from the removal of the calendar limitation, which until now required an engine inspection at a repair centre every 15 years, regardless of the number of hours logged. The robustness of the Arriel 2D eliminates the need for a calendar limit on modules 1, 2, 4 and 5, while for module 3, the engine’s condition can be restored during a periodic visit performed at a maintenance centre.
The H125 and H130 lead the single-engine helicopter market, accounting for almost 70% of deliveries in the last five years. The H125 outclasses all other single-engines thanks to its performance in high and hot environments, versatility and low operating costs. The H130 is the quietest and safest helicopter in its class, having become the reference for passenger transport.
More than 1,000 Arriel 2D-equipped H125 and H130 helicopters are in service worldwide and have collectively logged over one million flight hours. The Arriel 2D offers extremely competitive operating costs, 10% lower in average than those of earlier variants. The Arriel 2D is also backed by a complete Safran service package, notably the Support By the Hour (SBH®) contract and the 5Star programme, fully adapted to customers operating fewer than five helicopters.
27 Jun 18. Here’s how artificial intelligence could predict when your Army vehicle will break down. The Army wants to use artificial intelligence software to predict when vehicle parts might break down and prevent equipment failures before they happen. Uptake, a Chicago-based AI company, recently received a $1m contract from the Army to test its technology on a group of deployed Bradley M2A3 combat vehicles, according to the Washington Post. Depending on how the trial goes, the AI software could be applied on a much larger scale.
“We’re looking to see if we can leverage some of Uptake’s machine learning algorithms to spot equipment failures before they happen,” Lt. Col. Chris Conley, Army program manager for the Bradley fleet, said in the report. “If this pans out and can provide some real capability, the Army could look to expand this to the entire Bradley fleet as well as other combat vehicle fleets.”
Uptake’s technology will analyze the signals produced by the Army’s equipment to provide updates on the equipment’s maintenance status. If a vehicle part shows signs of being faulty, for example, commanders will be alerted and have the ability to repair or replace the part before the entire vehicle is compromised.
“Just like humans have been putting their statuses on Facebook and Twitter, these machines have been putting out their statuses for decades and nobody’s been listening,” Ganesh Bell, president of Uptake Technologies, told the Post. “Only recently do we have the technology to understand that.”
M2 and M3 Bradleys are some of the most widely used Army vehicles in peacekeeping and combat missions.
This will be the first application of the technology to military vehicles.
“I’m not convinced that this will be successful, but I’m really excited about the potential of it,” Conley told the Post. “We’re doing a pilot test to verify their claims before we do anything at scale.”
Retired Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an Uptake shareholder, told the Post the AI technology is what the military needs to ensure readiness and efficiency.
“What I’ve seen on the component side is you almost wait for failure and then figure it out,” he said. “Based on the results I’ve seen there is a huge potential here for better outcomes and a lot less expense, which is what anybody in the military is focused on.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Military Times)
26 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Corp., Marietta, Georgia, has been awarded an $86,798,783 five-year contract order (FA8553-17-F-0020-PZ0001) under the basic indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (FA8553-17-D-0004) for support to the Iraqi Air Force. The support will include contractor logistics support, technical assistance and logistics, to include aircraft and aerospace ground equipment, spares, repairs and familiarization training on their six C-130J aircraft. Work will be performed at Martyr Mohammed Ala Air Base, Iraq, and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2022. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $16,648,642 are being obligated at the time of award. The overall value of the contract is set at a ceiling value of $100,000,000. This contract order is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Air Force Life Cycle Management, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity.
25 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded $73,564,206 for modification P00037 to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, fixed-price-incentive-firm contract (N00019-16-C-0004) to stand-up depots outside the continental U.S. (OCONUS) for the maintenance, repair, overhaul, and upgrade (MRO&U) of the F-35 aircraft. This contract also provides for the procurement of support equipment, labor, and Autonomic Logistics Information System hardware required to stand up the F-35 OCONUS MRO&U capability. Work will be performed in New South Wales, Australia (35 percent); Cameri, Italy (35 percent); Orlando, Florida (15 percent); Fort Worth, Texas (10 percent); and El Segundo, California (5 percent), and is expected to be completed in February 2022. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy); and non-DoD participant funds in the amount of $73,564,206 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This effort combines purchases for the Air Force ($5,985,650; 8.1 percent), the Marine Corps ($3,046,396; 4.1 percent), Navy ($2,985,505, 4.1 percent) and non-DoD participants ($61,546,655; 83.7 percent). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
24 Jun 18. Future US Navy weapons will need lots of power. That’s a huge engineering challenge. The U.S. Navy is convinced that the next generation of ships will need to integrate lasers, electromagnetic rail guns and other power-hungry weapons and sensors to take on peer competitors in the coming decades.
However, integrating futuristic technologies onto existing platforms, even on some of the newer ships with plenty of excess power capacity, will still be an incredibly difficult engineering challenge, experts say.
Capt. Mark Vandroff, the current commanding officer of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center and the former Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program manager who worked on the DDG Flight III, told the audience at last week’s American Society of Naval Engineers symposium that adding extra electric-power capacity in ships currently in design was a good idea, but that the weapons and systems of tomorrow will pose a significant challenge to naval engineers when it comes time to back-fit them to existing platforms.
“Electrical architecture on ships is hard,” Vandroff said.
Vandroff considered adding a several-megawatt system to a ship with plenty of power to spare, comparing it with simultaneously turning on everything in a house.
“When you turn everything on in your house that you can think of, you don’t make a significant change to the load for [the power company],” Vandroff explained. “On a ship, if you have single loads that are [a] major part of the ship’s total load, [it can be a challenge]. This is something we had to look at for DDG Flight III where the air and missile defense radar was going to be a major percentage of the total electric load ― greater than anything that we had experienced in the previous ships in the class. That’s a real technical challenge.
“We worked long and hard at that in order to get ourselves to a place with Flight III where we were confident that when you turned things on and off the way you wanted to in combat, you weren’t going to light any of your switchboards on fire. That was not a back-of-the-envelope problem, that was a lot of folks in the Navy technical community … doing a lot of work to make sure we could get to that place, and eventually we did.”
In order to get AMDR, or SPY-6, installed on the DDG design, Vandroff and the team at the DDG-51 program had to redesign nearly half the ship — about 45 percent all told. Even on ships with the extra electric-power capacity, major modifications might be necessary, he warned.
“We’re going to say that in the future we are going to be flexible, we are going to have a lot of extra power,” Vandroff said. “That will not automatically solve the problem going forward. If you have a big enough load that comes along for a war-fighting application or any other application you might want, it is going to take technical work and potential future modification in order to get there.”
Even the powerhouse Zumwalt class will struggle with new systems that take up a large percentage of the ship’s power load, Vandroff said.
“Take DDG-1000 ― potentially has 80-odd megawatts of power. If you have a 5- or 6-megawatt load that goes on or off, that is a big enough percentage of total load that it’s going to be accounted for. Electrical architecture in the future is still an area that is going to require a lot of effort and a lot of tailoring, whatever your platform is, to accommodate those large loads,” he said.
In 2016, when the Navy was planning to install a rail gun on an expeditionary fast transport vessel as a demonstration, service officials viewed the electric-power puzzle as the reason the service has not moved more aggressively to field rail gun on the Zumwalt class.
Then-director of surface warfare Rear Adm. Pete Fanta told Defense News that he wanted to move ahead with a rail gun demonstration on the JHSV because of issues with the load.
“I would rather get an operational unit out there faster than do a demonstration that just does a demonstration,” Fanta said, “primarily because it will slow the engineering work that I have to do to get that power transference that I need to get multiple repeatable shots that I can now install in a ship.” (Source: Defense News)
21 Jun 18. USAF sees aircraft maintenance via augmented reality. The Air Force Research Laboratory wants to find out how virtual, augmented and mixed (VAM) reality technologies can be leveraged to improve aircraft maintenance. In the private sector, VAM tools have been used in training and manufacturing and maintenance industries to reduce quality errors and increase throughput. Following the lead of advanced manufacturing companies, AFRL wants to move away from printed maintenance instructions and investigate solutions like projecting scaled visualizations of the task onto the machinery being serviced.
But before such technology can be developed, AFRL wants information about four specific areas:
Content development. Cost-effective solutions for creating the magnitude computer-generated visualizations aircraft preventative and remedial maintenance will require innovative crowdsourcing of augmented reality (AR) content development by airmen. The content must be able to be developed by non-programmers and not be dependent on digital models of legacy aircraft systems.
Content approval and management. Solutions for vetting and managing VAM content are needed to ensure that airmen are using the latest technical data. Open modular enterprise solutions. The Air Force anticipates using AR devices in many, varied uses cases, so any solution should be device agnostic and allow new technical capabilities to be incorporated. Additionally, the device selected for each use case should be the one deemed most able to ensure the physical safety of the maintainer and cybersecurity for Air Force computer networks and data. VAM business cases. Each VAM use case will need to describe the associated financial impact. First time quality and process throughput are key metrics for establishing a business case for additional implementations of VAM technologies. (Source: Defense Systems)
25 Jun 18. Airbus, Thai Airways to form MRO joint venture. Airbus and Thai Airways, the country’s national airline, have agreed to establish a joint venture (JV) to provide maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services at a civil-military airport near the country’s eastern seaboard.
The proposed JV will be located at the U-Tapao International Airport, with Thai Airways officials confirming to Jane’s that the MRO facility is expected to be operational by 2021. A spokesperson from Airbus told Jane’s that the two sides will “now proceed to finalise the joint venture agreement and incorporate the company”.
Given U-Tapao’s role as a joint-user facility, building MRO support for both sectors is part of the Thai government’s project to develop the airport, although the new Thai Airways-Airbus JV will be geared towards supporting commercial jet airliners. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Corp., Marietta, Georgia, has been awarded an $86,798,783 five-year contract order (FA8553-17-F-0020-PZ0001) under the basic indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (FA8553-17-D-0004) for support to the Iraqi Air Force. The support will include contractor logistics support, technical assistance and logistics, to include aircraft and aerospace ground equipment, spares, repairs and familiarization training on their six C-130J aircraft. Work will be performed at Martyr Mohammed Ala Air Base, Iraq, and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2022. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $16,648,642 are being obligated at the time of award. The overall value of the contract is set at a ceiling value of $100,000,000. This contract order is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Air Force Life Cycle Management, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity.
22 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded $175,308,058 for modification P00053 to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee, fixed-price-incentive-firm, firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-15-C-0114). This modification provides for the development, testing, and activation of 13 different F-35 component repair capabilities in support of the F-35 Lightning depot implementation plan for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy and non-Department of Defense (DoD) participants. Work will be performed in Nashua, New Hampshire (37 percent); Torrance, California (15 percent); Redondo Beach, California (12 percent); Fort Worth, Texas (11 percent); Inglewood, California (8 percent); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (6 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (5 percent); Niles, Illinois (3 percent); Williston, Vermont (1 percent); Orlando, Florida (1 percent); and Grand Rapids, Michigan (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in November 2021. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps); and non-DoD funds in the amount of $175,308,058 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This modification combines purchases for the Air Force ($82,237,394; 46.9 percent); Navy ($41,118,693; 23.5 percent); the Marine Corps ($41,118,693; 23.5 percent); and non-DoD Participants ($10,833,276; 6.1 percent). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
22 Jun 18. USN conducts first 3D printing test aboard MPF ship. The US Navy (USN) is aiming to expand at-sea demonstrations of three-dimensional (3D) printing of spare parts in 2019 to determine if it should install such systems on its vessels. The USN will identify which ships will be appropriate candidates for testing this technology, Nathan Desloover, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) at-sea additive manufacturing research and development lead, told Jane’s. Initial efforts will also revolve around polymer printer. However, he noted that a firm schedule for these demonstrations have not been set.
“We are developing that,” Desloover said. “But we are looking at every class of ships as a candidate.”
Potential test platforms could include Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), aircraft carriers, or even submarines.
3D printers have been tested on USNS Robert E Peary (T-AKE 5). There are also 3D printers installed on some USN vessels such as USS Wasp (LHD 1).
The navy conducted the first 3D printer demonstration aboard a Maritime Prepositioned Force (MPF) supply vessel, USNS Sacagawea (T-AKE 2), in support of Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) level training in the Pacific Command area of responsibility in April 2018.
Three 3D printers were deployed aboard Sacagawea along with a team of navy engineers and marines from 2 to 7 April.
“The goal of the team was to prove that parts can be produced and delivered from an MPF supply vessel, flattening supply chains and freeing stowage space for more critical supply items,” a Military Sealift Command (MSC) spokesperson told Jane’s.
“A T-AKE vessel was specifically chosen for this testing due to its global sustainment mission in support of expeditionary naval forces.”
The team demonstrated the ability to receive a part request, design the part, and deliver it to the end-user while afloat. The engineers also tested the seaworthiness of the printers.
Parts were made for High Mobility Multi Wheeled Vehicles: the Nibbler quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a ratchet, trailer wheel cap and miscellaneous switches, electrical box, and custom plumbing parts for Sacagawea. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
21 Jun 18. Upgrading US Navy ships is difficult and expensive. Change is coming. The U.S. Navy is looking at extending the life of its surface ships by as much as 13 years, meaning some ships might be 53 years old when they leave the fleet. Here’s the main problem: keeping their combat systems relevant. The Navy’s front-line combatants ― cruisers and destroyers ― are incredibly expensive to upgrade, in part because one must cut open the ship and remove fixtures that were intended to be permanent when they were installed. When the Navy put Baseline 9 on the cruiser Normandy a few years ago, which included all new consoles, displays and computer servers in addition to the software, it ran the service $188m.
Now, the capability and function of the new Baseline 9 suite on Normandy is staggering. The cost of doing that to all the legacy cruisers and destroyers in the fleet would be equally staggering: it would cost billions.
So why is that? Why are the most advanced ships on the planet so difficult to keep relevant? And if the pace of change is picking up, how can the Navy stay relevant in the future without breaking the national piggy bank?
Capt. Mark Vandroff, the current commanding officer of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center and former Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program manager, understands this issue better than most. At this week’s American Society of Naval Engineers symposium, Vandroff described why it’s so darn hard to upgrade the old ships and how future designs will do better.
Here’s what Vandroff had to say:
“Flexibility is a requirement that historically we haven’t valued, and we haven’t valued it for very good reasons: It wasn’t important.
“When you think of a ship that was designed in the ‘70s and built in the ‘80s, we didn’t realize how fast and how much technology was going to change. We could have said: ‘You know what? I’m going to have everything bolted.’ Bolt down the consoles in [the combat information center], bolt in the [vertical launch system] launchers ― all of it bolted so that we could more easily pop out and remove and switch out.
“The problem was we didn’t value that back then. We were told to value survivability and density because we were trying to pack maximum capability into the space that we have. That’s why you have what you have with the DDG-51 today. And they are hard to modernize because we valued survivability and packing the maximum capability into the minimum space. And we achieved that because that was the requirement at the time.
“I would argue that now as we look at requirements for future ships, flexibility is a priority. You are going to have to balance it. What if I have to bolt stuff down? Well, either we are going to give up some of my survivability standards or I’m going to take up more space to have the equivalent standards with an different kind of mounting system, for example. And that is going to generate a new set of requirements ― it’s going to drive design in different directions than it went before.
“I suppose you could accuse the ship designers in the 1980s of failure to foresee the future, but that’s all of us. And the point is they did what they were told to do. Flexibility is what we want now, and I think you will see it drive design from this point forward because it is now something we are forced to value.” (Source: Defense News)
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About Oshkosh Defense
Oshkosh Defense is a leading provider of tactical wheeled vehicles and life cycle sustainment services. For decades Oshkosh has been mobilizing military and security forces around the globe by offering a full portfolio of heavy, medium, light and highly protected military vehicles to support our customers’ missions. In addition, Oshkosh offers advanced technologies and vehicle components such as TAK-4® independent suspension systems, TerraMax™ unmanned ground vehicle solutions, Command Zone™ integrated control and diagnostics system, and ProPulse® diesel electric and on-board vehicle power solutions, to provide our customers with a technical edge as they fulfill their missions. Every Oshkosh vehicle is backed by a team of defense industry experts and complete range of sustainment and training services to optimize fleet readiness and performance. Oshkosh Defense, LLC is an Oshkosh Corporation company [NYSE: OSK].
To learn more about Oshkosh Defense, please visit us at www.oshkoshdefense.com.
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NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
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28 Jun 18. Terves Advancing High-Strength, Non-Flammable Nanostructured Magnesium Alloy Technology. Terves LLC. (“Terves”) is pleased to announce that it was selected by the U.S. Army and Missile Defense Agency to continue development of novel high-strength, non-flammable, nanostructured magnesium alloys for light-weighting applications. Terves received the Department of Defense (“DoD”) SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) support to enhance its patent-pending cast and wrought Magnesium alloys derived from its high-temperature, high-strength magnesium alloys currently used in oil and gas applications. These new alloys, with further development, show tremendous potential to save 30% or more in structural weight by replacing cast and wrought 2000, 6000, and 7000 series aluminum alloys in transportation, space, and defense applications.
Replacing steel with aluminum can lead to an ~40% weight savings and using magnesium alloys instead of aluminum can lead to a further weight reduction of ~30%. According to McKinsey’s report titled ‘Lightweight, Heavy Impact’ the use of lightweight materials in just three industries – automotive, aviation, and wind – will increase significantly in volume over the next two decades, creating a market impact of more than $400bn.
“The very high strength, ductility, and mechanical durability at elevated temperatures of these nanostructured low-density magnesium alloys make them excellent candidates for aerospace, defense and transportation lightweighting initiatives. The alloy series was developed based on newly understood ‘Long Period Stacking Order’ (LPSO) nanostructured phases that we have modified using reduced rare earth contents and further microalloying additions to control flammability, corrosion, and to strengthen the primary alpha phase. The resulting product is a lightweight magnesium alloy casting or wrought product with uniform high strength and ductility, directly comparable to the 7000 series aluminum alloys and a metal alternative to carbon fiber composites. The efforts represent DoD-sponsored collaborations initiated through our LIFT (Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow) membership and networking efforts, and we want to recognize LIFT for that role. Specifically, the Missile Defense Agency’s support funds a collaboration with Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), who is helping us optimize thermomechanical processing for producing very high-strength thin-walled structures used in aerospace and defense structures; while the recently selected Army sponsored effort will fund a collaborative effort with Dr Alan Luo’s group at The Ohio State University to develop heat treatable alloy variants for thick-section castings, die castings, plate, and forgings useful for helicopter and potentially armor applications. The casting alloys have the flexibility of being formed or heat treated to produce a final product or produced net shape (such as by high pressure die-casting). Numerous components on U.S. missile defense and fast response weapon platforms would benefit from the reduced weight of higher-strength wrought and cast Magnesium alloys while aerospace and transportation applications would also see benefits. If these high strength and ductility magnesium alloys can be produced at sufficiently low cost, which we believe they can be, there will be a high driving force to use these lightweight materials in many different industries,” said Mr. Andrew Sherman, CEO, Terves.
“Terves initially developed the magnesium alloy family using novel galvanically active LPSO nanostructures to create high-strength dissolvable magnesium alloys used for making frac balls, frac plugs, and other dissolvable downhole tools. Dissolvable zonal isolation tools were adopted by the industry in 2013, and it is expected that as volumes increase by wider adoption leading to cost-reduction, more than 30% of the oilfield completion tools would be replaced by self-clearing dissolvable tools within the next 3 years. Expanding on this new class of multifunctional magnesium alloys with non-flammable, corrosion resistant, and heat-treatable modifications enables expanded applications and is part of Terves’ market diversification and magnesium alloy technology leadership business strategies. Terves has over a dozen issued and pending patent applications that cover different magnesium alloys, composites, manufacturing techniques, and methods and applications of controlled corrosion for use in freshwater, low and high temperature, and additional environments encountered in downhole and aerospace industries. As a strong intellectual-property based, product-focused organization, Terves has the widest range of dissolvable metal and dissolvable elastomer products that allows it to be a partner of choice for several of the leading oilfield tools and service companies,” continued Mr. Sherman. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
27 Jun 18. Individual US Soldiers Will One Day Control Swarms of Robots. US Army robotics officials at Fort Benning, Georgia are trying to give individual soldiers the capability to control swarms of air and ground robotic systems for missions that often require large numbers of troops to accomplish. U.S. ground forces have used small ground robots and unmanned aerial systems for years, but only on a small scale, said Don Sando, director Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate at Benning.
“To really get a large benefit from robotic systems, we have to break the one-soldier, one-robot link, because right now, you generally need one operator for one robotic system and that is effective and interesting, but when I can have dozens of robotic systems controlled by one soldier, now I have a significant advantage,” Sando told a group of defense reporters today on a conference call.
A single soldier could conduct reconnaissance over “large areas with fewer soldiers and many dozens of robotic systems,” Sando said.
“That starts to matter especially in conditions such as dense urban environment,” Sando said. “The problem with urban environments is they consume soldiers … limited lines of sight, tunnels, buildings — all the things that just take manpower to overcome and control.
“If we can expand that with robotic systems, both air and ground, then that has significant impact.”
The concept could be developed to enhance communications battlefields when networks are hampered by enemy activity as well as natural obstacles.
“If our communications infrastructure is going to be contested, as we know it will, then how can I regenerate quickly and effectively in a given area with robotic systems, both air and ground, to create that network?” Sando said.
CDID officials are developing a common controller that can control air and ground robots regardless of the model.
“We are very close on that; we did some assessment last year. We proved the feasibility of about three different versions of controllers that can effectively control air and ground robotic systems,” Sando said. “The advantage to that is a soldier only has to learn one system as opposed to every robot has its own unique controller.”
The goal is to make a decision on a common controller by late fiscal 2019, Sando said.
But the problem is more than just choosing the right controller.
“How do you train a soldier, and how do you train leaders to do that? Sando said. “It’s one thing to have two hands on your rifle — one soldier, one system. It’s one thing to be a small unit leader, to have a few subordinate leaders under your control — it’s something else to have dozens of under your control.”
Organizations continue to come to Benning to “practice and develop algorithms to employ swarming unmanned aerial systems,” Sando said.
“The next thing beyond that is OK, how do I swarm ground robotic systems? How can I do that?” he said. “That is the thing we are least developed on and that’s the thing we want to start trying to emphasize.
“We are going to continue to develop that and test that and I think that poses the next really large return on investment as we expand robotic systems.” (Source: Military.com)
27 Jun 18. USN office awards $30m contract for drone swarms. How expensive is it to recreate a biblical plague with robots? For the Office of Naval Research, it comes to $29,688,168, or roughly one quarter the purchase price of an F-35B. That’s the contract award to Raytheon for further development of the the “Low Cost UAV Swarming Technology,” or LOCUST, prototype.
We’ve seen LOCUST a few times before. In 2016, ONR launched a swarm of drones from a series of tubes on the back of a truck, like a cyberpunk beehive. A year later, ONR showed the system launched instead from containers on F/A-18 Hornets. What’s notable about the prior demonstrations is that the bodies of the drones themselves are different, and the launch methods are too. LOCUST calls to mind a specific sort of swarm, a kind of small and vicious mass moving through the air, but the technology here appears largely platform agnostic. LOCUST is about sensors and software, not the arbitrary constraints of physical form.
Here’s an earlier demonstration, from a video published in May 2016:
These drones, fixed wings with delta-shaped bodies, resemble nothing so much as old wartime footage of prop-powered fighters and bombers fighting in the skies above Europe. They move through the sky like schools of fish and provide protection for the whole formation, even if they do little to protect an individual plane from harm. With swarming, the LOCUST formation can use the same principles of mass and redundancy as in eras past, but without a handful of lives on board each aircraft that’s shot down.
The most recent award for the LOCUST program funds with an expected date of completion in Jan 25, 2020. Should the autonomy software perform as well as intended, it will be up to the Navy to decide how to use the power of redundant autonomous aircraft moving as one through the sky. Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance are the immediate possibilities, but why name a technology after locusts if destruction isn’t at least somewhere in the minds of the machine’s architects.
(Source: Defense News Early Bird/C4ISR & Networks)
27 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin soon implementing Auto-GCAS on F-35. Lockheed Martin is implementing an Auto-GCAS system on the F-35 as part of Block 3F modernisation. Source: US Air Force
Key Points:
- Lockheed Martin in 2019 will implement an Auto-GCAS system on the F-35
- This can assume temporary control and pull out of a crash if a pilot is unresponsive
Lockheed Martin will soon implement on its F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) an Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) that allows the aircraft to take control and avoid crashing, according to a key executive.
Jeff Babione, company vice-president and general manager of advanced development programmes, said on 26 June that Auto-GCAS was recently installed on the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and, in the last year or two, has saved the lives of five or six pilots. Auto-GCAS is expected to enter the F-35 fleet in 2019, according to the Pentagon’s Joint Program Office (JPO), which did not respond to a request for comment.
Auto-GCAS is designed to prevent controlled flight-into-terrain mishaps by executing an automatic recovery manoeuvre when impact with the ground is imminent. It does this through a predicted trajectory, based on Global Positioning System (GPS) positioning and system altitude, which is compared with an onboard Digital Terrain Database.
Once the programme recognises the aircraft is likely to crash, it prompts the pilot to evade either a ground crash or a controlled flight-into-terrain situation. If no action is taken, Auto-GCAS assumes temporary control, engaging an autopilot manoeuvre to roll the aircraft upright and initiate a 5-G pull, diverting the aircraft and pilot out of harm’s way before returning aircraft control to the pilot.
F-35s are currently equipped with an earlier version of the software that provides pilots with a Manual Ground Collision Avoidance System (MGCAS). With this system, a pilot must be able to hear, see, process, and heed the MGCAS warning, and manually fly the aircraft away from the ground.
(Source: IHS Jane’s)
27 Jun 18. BAE Systems engineers will soon benefit from collaborative robots – or ‘cobots’ – designed to support people with complex manufacturing of combat aircraft by the end of this year.
The cobotic workstation, a key feature of the factory of the future, is fitted with a range of digital technology and will be piloted at the company’s Warton, Lancashire site to work safely and seamlessly alongside manufacturers building high-tech systems for cutting-edge combat aircraft.
The technologies that have been developed – including operator recognition and a sensor-enabled cobotic arm – will be tested on the Typhoon production line by the end of this year, marking the latest step in BAE Systems’ strategy to continually invest in and enhance its manufacturing capabilities to deliver the aircraft of the future.
The introduction of new digitally integrated advanced manufacturing technologies builds on existing investments in robotics and aims to drive further productivity, quality and safety improvements into future combat aircraft programmes, helping to increase the Company’s competitiveness and manufacturing agility. Robotics is already an integral part of BAE Systems’ combat aircraft production line which includes a high level of automation, but the integrated sensors that feature in the workstation make this the next step in people safely working directly with robots.
The technology will allow the worker to make strategic decisions while delegating to the cobotic arm repetitive, machine-driven tasks which require consistency. This will enable engineers to focus on highly-skilled tasks, adding greater value to the manufacturing process.
It will recognise operators and automatically load optimised individual profiles using wireless technology. It will also automatically deliver tailored cues and instructions, suitable for their level of expertise to guide them through practical tasks. This will allow employees to work at a greater pace, with increased accuracy.
KEY FEATURES
- Operator recognition – the high tech workstation will use wireless sensors to identify each worker and tailor the working experience accordingly
- Digital training passport – will remember each worker’s level of expertise, training history and user permissions
- Cobotic arm – will be fitted with sensors to enable it to safely interact with employees during complex assembly tasks
- Light-assisted assembly –will prompt the user towards the correct components or consumables during the manufacturing process with light-assisted or pick by light technology
Dave Holmes, Manufacturing Director at BAE Systems’ Air business, said: “We’ve only really started to scratch the surface of what automation can do in industry and some really exciting possibilities are emerging as we enter the fourth industrial revolution.
Cobotics is the next, natural step in developing manufacturing technology that will allow for a blending of skilled roles. We envisage that people will make larger, more strategic decisions while delegating the repetitive and intricate aspects of production to a robot.
Through the factory of the future technology, automation will empower employees to work safely at greater speed and with maintained accuracy, leading to increased productivity and quality.”
BAE Systems has collaborated with a number of partners including the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, and Siemens who will provide MindSphere software. This software will connect technologies through the workstation and output manufacturing data that will help engineers analyse and improve the advanced manufacturing processes.
The cobotic workstation is part of BAE Systems’ plans to further incorporate and integrate manufacturing technologies into the workplace – such as reconfigurable, multifunction technology, 3D printing, augmented reality and manufacturing autonomy.
26 Jun 18. Will $95bn for R&D make its way to the final defense appropriations bill? defense appropriators have advanced a proposed $675bn Pentagon spending measure for 2019, touting its heavy investment in innovation and research to maintain America’s military edge.
Hewing to the bipartisan, two-year budget deal, the spending bill includes $607.1bn in base budget funding and $67.9bn in the war budget. It is $20.4bn higher than the fiscal 2018-enacted level.
The bill contains $95 bn for research and development, the largest R&D budget in the Pentagon’s history, adjusted for inflation, according to Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Dick Durbin, D-Ill. The bill also includes $2.8bn in added basic research funding the president’s budget did not request.
The bill also seems to surpass the Senate-passed policy bill’s emphasis on future warfare, with $929m for hypersonics, $564m to develop advanced offensive and defensive space capabilities, $317m to develop a directed-energy weapon, and $308m for artificial intelligence, according to a summary released Tuesday.
“This bill sustains U.S. force structure and improves military readiness. It also recommends investments in future technologies needed to defend our nation in an increasingly complex and competitive national security environment,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who also leads the sub-panel.
“Our military must maintain its technological superiority. I am pleased that our subcommittee has identified the resources needed to make that happen ― investing in basic research, hypersonics, directed energy, missile defense, cybersecurity, and our test and evaluation infrastructure,” he said.
Aviation programs would get $42bn, to include $1.2bn for eight F-35 carrier variants and four short takeoff and vertical landing Joint Strike Fighters, and it includes $375m for the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System — as well as sustainment of the legacy fleet of JSTARS aircraft.
The bill allocates $24bn toward shipbuilding, which includes two Virginia-class summaries, three DDG-51 destroyers and two littoral combat ships. There’s $250 in advance procurement funding for one more DDG-51 in 2020 and $250m for submarine industrial-base expansion.
Munitions would get $18.5bn, with $125m to expand procurement for the anti-ship cruise missile LRASM for the Navy, and the JASSM long-range, conventional, air-to-ground, precision-standoff missile for the Air Force and Navy, as well as $57m for Army industrial facilities.
For personnel, the bill supports a military pay raise of 2.6 percent and includes $974m for defense medical research. The bill’s end-strength boost of 6,961 falls below the president’s request for 25,900 more troops. The spending bill is several steps from becoming law. The House is due to take up its version of the legislation this week, and the Senate must pass its version of the bill before the two versions are reconciled. The full Senate Appropriations Committee is set to hold its markup on Thursday. The Senate this week passed a “minibus,” which merged funding for energy and water programs, the legislative branch, military construction, and Veterans Affairs. The strategy is meant to ensure passage for domestic spending priorities that Democrats have demanded in recent years.
Democrats seem to favor merging the proposed defense spending bill with the coming spending bill for labor, health and human services, education, and related agencies. Durbin said as much Tuesday: “We have a confident path to conclusion for both.”
“I believe in this bill, I think its a good bill and I could easily support it, defend it,” Durbin said of the defense spending bill, calling a merger helpful to “the best ending for the appropriations process.”
(Source: Defense News)
26 Jun 18. TECTERRA Announces New Program for Disruptive Geospatial Innovation. TECTERRA, a government-funded not-for-profit, is proud to announce LEAP, a brand new program designed to fund the development and commercialization of technologies with the potential to transform an industry.
“Alberta companies are creating innovative technologies that have the potential to significantly alter the trajectory of whole industries or markets,” says Jonathan Neufeld, CEO of TECTERRA, “through LEAP we will provide substantial support for innovative companies with a clear mission, and help them take their transformational technology to market faster so they can effectively compete in the global market.”
TECTERRA provides funding to Alberta companies going to market with their innovative geospatial technologies. With the launch of the LEAP program, TECTERRA will now be able to provide funding for projects with budgets greater than $1,000,000. Alberta small to medium sized companies working on disruptive geospatial technology products may apply for a loan to cover 50% of the development and commercialization costs, to a maximum of $1,000,000 per project. Loans through the LEAP program are non-dilutive, interest-free, and repayable only after the product generates revenue.
To apply, companies must submit all application requirements via the TECTERRA LEAP program page here.
Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. Applications for consideration during TECTERRA’s next funding cycle closing in September 2018 are due July 11, 2018.
TECTERRA is actively seeking Alberta companies developing innovative products that include geospatial technology in the value chain. If you are a for-profit company, incorporated and operating in Alberta and you are working on geospatial technology you may qualify for funding.
For information and details about TECTERRA’s LEAP program, visit
http://www.tecterra.com/programs/leap/
Web Links:
Official TECTERRA website: www.tecterra.com
Twitter: @TECTERRA
Hashtag: #TECTERRA
Notes to Editors:
TECTERRA is a geospatial technology innovation support centre that supports the Canadian development and commercialization of geomatics technologies. The first centre of its kind, TECTERRA works with industry, entrepreneurs, researchers, and government affiliates to enable the use of geospatial technologies in addressing local, national and global challenges. Since its inception in 2009, TECTERRA has supported 234 companies, including 91 startups; and has placed over 380 highly qualified professionals into jobs across Canada. Overall, the organization has generated $265m in actual economic impact to date with over $450m in impact forecast from those same investments.
(Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
20 Jun 18. Bell uses design-for-manufacturing approach to reduce V-280 costs. Key Points:
- Bell used a design-for-manufacturing approach to its V-280 straight wing and rotor blade design
- The company said this helped reduce costs by roughly 50% in both areas
Bell used a design-for-manufacturing approach with its V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft to drive down costs, according to a programme official.
Paul Wilson, V-280 chief engineer, told Jane’s on 20 June that the company was able to reduce costs by as much as 50% in a few areas: straight wing, rotor blade, and rotor hub assembly. He said Bell used the straight wing design to cut costs in half just through the first aircraft build.
Wilson said engineers looked at making rotor hub assembly and rotor blades more producible before they started designing the aircraft. He said Bell used a broad goods layout approach to essentially lay down blankets of composite material quickly, compared with laying down individual fabric or very small and narrow pieces of fabric, which is used in historical composites for manufacturing.
“Areas of focus have been with the … all composite wing, all composite rotor blades, the hub aspect of rotor blades as well as looking at the drive system elements,” Wilson said in an interview on the flight line of Bell’s V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft production facility here.
Bell on 18 June gave reporters a view of the V-280’s first demonstration flight, which took place six months after first flight. The aircraft is nearly 40 flight hours into the test programme.
The demo flight was conducted in “aug rate”, or with pilots hand-flying the aircraft. The V-280 performed a normal takeoff from a hover and lowered the pylon angle, enabling the aircraft to operate more like a turboprop. Bell said the speeds demonstrated on 18 June were only a portion of the V-280’s maximum capability. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
25 Jun 18. ON Semiconductor Announces New Family of Multi-Chip Module PWM Buck Regulators Offering Market-Leading Current Density and Fully Integrated MOSFETs. ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON), driving energy efficient innovations, has announced the release of three new highly efficient mid-voltage PWM buck converters. Supporting a wide input voltage range of 4.5 V to 65 V, an output current of up to 10 A and output power of 100 W, ON Semiconductor’s new FAN6500X family of buck converters combines the time-tested fixed frequency control scheme with flexible Type III compensation and robust fault protection. ON Semiconductor has integrated its PowerTrench® MOSFET technology to create a rugged integrated solution that delivers industry-leading power density and efficiency for DC-DC applications.
By combining ON Semiconductor’s PowerTrench MOSFET process with industry-leading packaging technology in a PQFN footprint, the FAN65008B/5A/4B PWM buck converters deliver extremely low parasitics in the power path, enabling developers to realize a peak efficiency of 98.5%, with low ringing and better EMI than a solution that uses an external MOSFET.
All three devices support a wide input voltage range from 4.5 V to 65 V, making them applicable to a large range of applications in the Industrial and Consumer sectors, from Base Station power supplies to Home Automation. They are also suitable for battery management systems, as well as USB Power Delivery (PD) applications. The integration of two LDOs, plus an on-chip Power Path switch, gives designers the flexibility to power the controller from the input voltage, the buck converter output or through the PVCC pin using the Power Path.
The high level of integration means manufacturers can use the FAN6500x family to strike the right balance between power density, BoM cost, performance and flexibility. By leveraging its PowerTrench MOSFET technology, ON Semiconductor successfully addresses the key features developers look for in a power management solution.
The FAN6500x family implements an exhaustive range of features to protect itself and any downstream circuits from damage. These include adjustable Over-Current protection, Thermal Shutdown, Over-Voltage protection and Short-Circuit protection.
“With the release of the FAN6500X family of parts, ON Semiconductor has produced a series of robust solutions to help customers meet their mid-voltage DC-DC needs with industry-leading efficiency, power density and flexibility,” said Richard Lu, Vice President of Mobile, Computing and Cloud Division, ON Semiconductor.
ON Semiconductor offers supporting evaluation boards (FAN65004B-GEVB, FAN65005A-GEVB and FAN65008B-GEVB). Please contact your ON Semiconductor sales representative to request evaluation boards. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
25 Jun 18. Clarke Valve Achieves API 641 Certification on Shutter Valve, First Control Valve to Meet the Low Fugitive-Emission Standard. Clarke Valve announces the API 641 certification of its proprietary Shutter Valve design, the first control valve to achieve this certification of low fugitive-emission performance.
The API 641 standard applies to all stem seal materials and requires a stringent maximum allowable leakage of 100 parts per million by volume (PPMv). This API test standard calls for 610 cycles of the valve under extreme temperature fluctuations to evaluate emissions performance over an accelerated life cycle.
Fugitive emissions from legacy valve designs in industrial facilities are a major contributor to air pollution and greenhouse gases. Kyle Daniels, President & CEO said, “Most people are unaware that 80% of refinery methane emissions come from traditional valve stems. Since the Shutter Valve’s unique design provides a superior seal at the valve stem, it drastically reduces these emissions.”
The patented Shutter Valve, by Clarke Valve, was independently tested by Yarmouth Research and Technology, LLC, who certified the valve passed testing with less than 20 PPMv of leakage, well below the 100 PPMv limit. “We are excited to offer the only full-bore control valve in the world that eliminates virtually all fugitive emissions,” said Daniels.
The Shutter Valve’s distinct design, already the best performing control valve in the world, is now also the most environmentally friendly control valve ever certified.
Clarke Valve is the creator of the revolutionary Shutter Valve, a full-bore control valve developed utilizing advanced aerospace design techniques. This innovative valve design provides ideal attributes for industrial control valves, including unsurpassed flow rate, zero pressure drop, zero leakage, and reduced cavitation & pitting, resulting in improved wear/maintenance characteristics and precise flow control. Clarke Valve products are custom-engineered to meet customer needs and assembled at their headquarters in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Yarmouth Research and Technology is an independent testing laboratory in North Yarmouth, Maine that provides services to manufacturers and end-users of chemical process equipment, such as valves, packing, gaskets, seals and other flow control products. All testing is certified by a Professional Engineer. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
22 Jun 18. TMD Technologies’ recently acquired G2 Engineering, hi-tech, specialist microwave manufacturing company, is now producing its range of transponder products at TMD’s premises in West London. TMD Technologies’ recently acquired G2 Engineering Ltd, a specialist hi-tech microwave design and manufacturing company previously based in nearby Greenford, West London, is now operational and producing its range of transponder products at TMD’s manufacturing facility in Hayes, West London.
Established some 18 years ago, G2 Engineering is experienced in the design and manufacture of a range of radar transponders and support equipment for applications that include UAVs, missiles, and manned aircraft. Prominent customers of G2 Engineering include MBDA and QinetiQ.
Said Dave Brown, TMD’s Managing Director: ”G2 Engineering is respected within its specialist area of the microwave and RF industry, and was well known to us because they supply many of the same customers as we do. This acquisition will benefit all – and offer increased potential for new business opportunities!”
21 Jun 18. Top intelligence officials fear U.S. behind in quantum computing, cyber. The universities and research institutions in the United States focusing on quantum computing are “sub-par,” a top National Security Agency official said June 21.
The complaint is among a laundry list of examples, topped by cybersecurity, where American innovation in the intelligence field is struggling, said George Barnes, deputy director at the NSA.
“We have to be better at playing the long game,” he said. Barnes added that the Chinese “can play the long game” and “they are taking steps that might not be realized for 20 years.”
The warnings, made at the Capitol Hill National Security Forum in Washington, highlighted mistrust between the government and private sector, as well as the structural challenges of supporting innovation.
Whether it is quantum computing, space or artificial intelligence, Robert Cardillo, Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency worried that “the moment will be too late” for American innovation.
Experts say that when quantum computers are fully operational, they will upend the use of password-protected systems, artificial intelligence and other areas of information technology.
“Whoever achieves quantum first, everything they are doing and have been doing is irrelevant,” Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, said. He added the United States needs to treat quantum the way it treated the Y2K crisis, where the government “spent billions of dollars and spent a decade preparing … We need to be the leader.”
Hurd said that he supports a recently proposed bill from Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, that aims to “accelerate quantum research and development.”
But the intelligence officials at the forum said that the very nature of American government that prioritizes short-term gains may harm innovation. With their centralized five-year plans, China does not have the potential sequesters and fluctuating budgets that are features of the U.S. government.
Rob Joyce, the newly installed senior adviser at the NSA, said that government needs to give “more people the license to fail.” He said that while the agency doesn’t want to squander taxpayer money, “oversight regulation” does not encourage innovation.
Joyce said that the agency needs to boost partnerships with the banking industry, power companies and other areas of critical infrastructure because government has moved to a “support” role.
“We are not the finishers now,” Joyce said.
Asked what the most important emerging threat was for the NSA, Barnes answered with one word: “Cybersecurity.”
“The attack surface is broad and the solution requires government and the public sector together,” Barnes added.
Barnes said that that agency is not used to working with the private sector however, and it harms cybersecurity. “Trust is an issue.” (Source: Fifth Domain)
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Oxley Group Ltd
Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, cockpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.
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SATELLITE SYSTEMS, SATCOM AND SPACE SYSTEMS UPDATE
Sponsored By Viasat
www.viasat.com/gov-uk
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19 Jun 18. Viasat’s Bar Is Moving Higher, According to Morgan Stanley Research. Recent FY4Q results for Viasat didn’t move the needle, but the bar moves higher from here: Morgan Stanley Research expects the next quarterly report to be particularly important as investors look for clear signs of a successful initial ViaSat-2 ramp.
Two key areas in the coming quarters are the focus:
1) subscriber and aircraft ramp, and,
2) a return to positive EBITDA growth in 2H and deleveraging.
Another focus will be any updates on finding a partner for the ViaSat-3 EMEA satellite. Consumer execution risk continues to keep us on the sidelines with an Equal-weight rating, though we lower our PT to $71 from $78 on lower EBITDA/higher capex estimates.
Margin for error narrows next quarter as net add expectations rise: The most recent quarter only had about one month of ViaSat-2 commercial service, and while net subscriber losses of ~1k were slightly below the firm’s quickly. The company models ~30k net adds for FY1Q19 and ~171k for FY2019 vs 83k in losses last year. Additionally, ARPU growth is expected to remain positive in the ~5 percent range for the year. The company is also looking to significantly grow its commercial aircraft business: 85 adds are modeled this quarter and 390 for the year vs 76 last year.
Financials expected to be 2H weighted: On the last earnings call, management highlighted that “adjusted EBITDA growth due to residential broadband will occur in the second half, as we overcome higher marketing and SAC expenses, initial promotional pricing and the fixed costs associated with the ViaSat-2 network expansion.”
The company also highlighted the government systems segment “tends to be significantly stronger in the second half of our fiscal years.” As such, the company’s model adj. EBITDA to fall ~10 percent in 1H before rebounding to ~70 percent growth in 2H, with leverage expected to peak in the 4.8x range in 2Q. Noted is that a recent amendment to the lending agreement gives the company room to take leverage as high as 5.25x, while the covenants also include ~$65M in additional EBITDA add backs. Insurance proceeds remain another outstanding question, and we now model a $125m payment in FY4Q.
Updated estimates drive PT to $71 from $78: The firm’s model for recent results is being updated with estimates moving lower on a more conservative EBITDA ramp in satellite services and commercial network, with total revenue estimate moving down by 2 percent for FY2019 and 1 percent for FY 2020, while the firm’s EBITDA estimates moves down by 15 percent for FY2019 and 3 percent for FY 2020 (see Financials).
Morgan Stanley Research’s updated price target is based on the firm’s DCF analysis and implies ~9x FY2020 EBITDA. The company notes that ViaSat continues to trade at a premium to the other publicly traded peers, reflecting in part its superior growth prospects. (Source: Satnews)
27 Jun 18. Airbus to provide an end-to-end Geo-Information System to Thailand. The Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency of Thailand (GISTDA) has selected Airbus as partner for its next-generation national geo-information system. The end-to-end system will make Thailand one of the few nations able to fully exploit geo-information for societal benefits. Fully in line with Thailand’s 4.0 policy, the THEOS-2 programme will constitute a major milestone in the development of Space in the Eastern Economic Corridor and its Digital Park.
As part of the contract, a comprehensive capacity building programme will involve Thai engineers in the development of an integrated geo-information system, ground segment and two Earth observation satellites: a very high-resolution and a small satellite system. The small satellite system from Airbus’ subsidiary SSTL will be assembled and tested in-country by Thai engineers to deliver technology transfer and involve local suppliers. This will be complemented by an extensive training scheme capitalizing on Airbus’ comprehensive geo-intelligence expertise, and will further develop Thailand’s geo-spatial industry.
“We are very pleased to be working with Airbus to jointly develop an innovative end-to-end geo-information platform that will become a national centre of excellence,” said Dr. Anond Snidvongs, Executive Director of GISTDA. “The platform will host and exploit multi-source data in an interoperable and integrated manner. The resulting insights will be key sources of information for Thai leaders and will help them deliver Actionable Intelligence Policy (AIP): tools for area-based management and decision-making.”
Dr. Anond Snidvongs added: “Many users will access the system, from policy-makers to local users. Ultimately, THEOS-2 will be leveraged to develop Thailand national skills in the whole Space value chain.”
“Being selected by GISTDA for the THEOS-2 programme, Airbus is continuing the successful relationship developed with THEOS-1, and we are of course very honoured by GISTDA’s continued confidence in us,” said Nicolas Chamussy, Head of Space Systems at Airbus. “With our unrivalled expertise across the entire Earth observation value chain, we are in an excellent position to support an ambitious and determined organisation like GISTDA to establish an all-encompassing geo-information system for the benefit of the Kingdom of Thailand.”
From the early stages of the programme, GISTDA will feed its geo-information system with satellite imagery collected by the Airbus constellation of optical and radar Earth observation satellites Pléiades, SPOT, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X, as well as other sources of data.
An optical satellite system delivering 0.5 m ground resolution imagery, THEOS-2 is based on Airbus’ innovative, flight-proven AstroBus-S satellite. Scheduled to be launched in 2020, it will secure the service continuity of THEOS-1, an Airbus-built satellite launched in 2008, which continues to deliver high quality imagery four years after its expected end of life. With the AstroBus-S satellite, Thailand is joining a small circle of nations with sovereign access to very high-resolution geostrategic information. (Source: ASD Network)
28 Jun 18. Hammond urged to approve £100m for UK rival to Galileo. Funding request signals Britain is serious on launching its own satellite system. Greg Clark, the business secretary, has urged the Treasury to release £100m for a two-year feasibility study on a British satellite navigation system as a row grows with Brussels over access to the EU’s Galileo project. Chancellor Philip Hammond received the formal request this week, in the clearest sign yet that Britain is serious about launching its own global navigation satellite system if Brussels does not reverse its opposition to UK industrial involvement in the secure elements of Galileo. Mr Hammond and Theresa May, the prime minister, have both indicated that Britain could go it alone in an attempt to protect the country’s burgeoning space industry and ensure the British military has an independent alternative to the US global positioning system. Mr Hammond is under pressure to back the feasibility study before next month’s Nato summit as evidence of Britain’s willingness to invest in technology that will be used by the armed forces. Officials are aiming to launch the first tender for a UK-led satellite navigation system in the autumn. In addition to the feasibility study, the government is also looking at contracting for certain long-lead items, such as the atomic clocks that ensure signals broadcast by the satellites are transmitted synchronously. In testimony before MPs on Tuesday, Guto Bebb, science minister, estimated the cost of a British system at between £3bn and £5bn. He admitted there seemed little immediate prospect of the European Commission changing its stance that Britain cannot have access to secure elements of Galileo once it quits the EU next year. The UK is exploring the possibility of building a navigation system with international partners such as Australia. Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, is set to raise the issue of Galileo at the Nato summit in mid-July. Recommended FT View In a space race, Europe is better off with the UK Nick Ayling, a senior Ministry of Defence official, told MPs this week that such transparency was necessary “if we want to place military reliance” on the system. “It is not an uncommon thing to ask,” he said. “There’s a willingness [in Brussels] to have further discussions but I can’t say I was personally encouraged by the response.” Galileo was launched in 2003 as the world’s first civil-run satellite navigation system and an independent rival to GPS. Under EU rules, non-member states cannot be involved in the development of Galileo’s secure public regulated service, a highly resilient, military-grade signal. Yet British companies have been heavily involved in the development of the service. They are now being blocked out of bidding for contracts unless they pledge to move all work to EU member states from March 2019. EU rules allow for third-country military to use PRS with a security agreement. But Britain has argued that it also needs oversight of the secure technology and its future development if it is to have confidence in the security of the system. One industry source said the government wanted to “put steel behind its threat to create a UK system” through launching the tenders. The feasibility study would be aimed at advancing the design and ensuring that certain critical items could be acquired in time for a system to be up and running in the mid-2020s. (Source: FT.com)
27 Jun 18. Europe’s Arianespace lowers 2018 launch view to about 11 from record 14. European space launch company Arianespace expects around 11 launches this year, down from an earlier forecast of up to a record 14, its chief executive said on Wednesday. Arianespace has conducted only three satellite launches so far this year but expects a much busier second half, Chief Executive Stephane Israel told Reuters on the sidelines of a telecommunications trade show in Singapore. It completed 11 launches last year and in January had forecast up to 14 for 2018. Israel said Arianespace had a healthy enough backlog for 14 launches but there had been a problematic launch in January and an issue with satellite availability that postponed a planned launch for May.
He said it was too early to provide a definitive forecast for 2019 but he expected there might be “11 or 12” launches, in line with this year.
Arianespace, majority-owned by Airbus SE and Safran SA, conducts launches for the European Space Agency as well as for private groups including telecom service providers such as Britain’s Avanti Communications Group PLC and Japan’s SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings Inc. It competes for commercial customers against rivals such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, United Launch Alliance – a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co – and China’s Great Wall Industry Corp. (Source: Reuters)
25 Jun 18. Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne to Join Spaceflight’s Growing Portfolio of Launch Vehicles for Small Satellite Rideshare. Spaceflight, the company reinventing the model for launching small satellites into space, and Virgin Orbit today announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a mission to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in 2019.
Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl, a dedicated 747-400 carrier aircraft, will carry LauncherOne (which will house Spaceflight’s customer smallsats) to an altitude of approximately 35,000 feet before release for its rocket-powered flight to orbit. The two-stage expendable rocket, which is currently in the final stages of qualification, can place about 300-500 kilograms into orbit. Virgin Orbit aims to conduct multiple missions to LEO in 2018.
Spaceflight has launched more than 140 satellites to date from a variety of launch vehicles including Falcon 9, PSLV, Dnepr, Antares, and Soyuz. It recently announced agreements for launches on Electron, Vega, and now LauncherOne.
“We’re continuing to provide the most options for customers to get their spacecraft into orbits that traditional rideshare cannot service,” said Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight. “LauncherOne offers timely and targeted access to the equator and mid-latitudes, and we’re excited to provide this innovative service to our customers via this partnership with Virgin Orbit.”
Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart added: “Spaceflight brings a proven track record of launch success, a vibrant international customer base, and a customer-centric approach to put together missions to LEO, GTO, GEO and beyond. This agreement further propels the smallsat revolution and gets us closer to realizing our vision of launching anyone, anywhere, any time.” (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
25 Jun 18. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) contributed to an advanced weather satellite that enables improved weather prediction capabilities, leading to more accurate and timely forecasts, watches and warnings. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) – R Series is managed by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). GOES-S, the second satellite in the series, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on March 1 and was renamed GOES-17 upon reaching geostationary orbit. The first satellite in the series, GOES-16, launched from Cape Canaveral in November 2016 and is operational as NOAA’s GOES East.
Northrop Grumman’s Scalable Space Inertial Reference Units (Scalable SIRU™), which offer sensor pointing/stabilization and attitude control for the mission, were provided to the satellite’s prime contractor, Lockheed Martin.
“Our Scalable SIRU provides the top performance and stabilization needed for the highest quality images and is well-suited for commercial satellite applications,” said Dean Ebert, vice president, navigation and positioning systems, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. “We are committed to offering customers a variety of options to meet their specific mission needs through our versatile Scalable SIRU family of products.”
GOES-17, orbiting 22,300 miles above Earth, will be positioned to boost forecast accuracy for the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii once operational. Together, GOES-16 and GOES-17 will observe most of the Western Hemisphere. GOES-17 scans the skies five times faster than previous GOES spacecraft with four times greater image resolution, according to NOAA. It will provide high-resolution, rapid-refresh satellite imagery as often as every 30 seconds. GOES-17 data will help improve the prediction and warnings of severe weather, potentially saving lives. Additionally, GOES-17 will improve aviation forecasts and flight route planning to avoid hazardous conditions such as turbulence. Northrop Grumman plans to provide additional Scalable SIRU™ units for the remaining satellites in the GOES-R Series.
21 Jun 18. SSL Ships the First of Three Satellites to Cape Canaveral. AFS for SpaceX Launch this Summer. SSL, a Maxar Technologies company (formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.) (NYSE: MAXR, TSX: MAXR), has shipped the first of three new satellites to the SpaceX launch base at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida over the next month. Driven by commercial advances, the three satellites will bring communications capability to connect people and transform lives around the globe.
Telstar 19 VANTAGE, an advanced high throughput satellite (HTS) built for Telesat, one of the world’s leading satellite operators, marks the 50th SSL-built communications satellite to launch this decade. It arrived safely at the launch base this week for a launch scheduled next month.
Two more SSL communications satellites are scheduled to ship to SpaceX launch base over the next month, including a second HTS for Telesat, Telstar 18 VANTAGE, and the Merah Putih satellite (previously known as Telkom-4), for Indonesia’s largest telecommunication and network provider, PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk.
Dario Zamarian, group president, SSL, noted that the company has a long legacy of leveraging its commercial mindset to provide satellite operators with spacecraft systems that address their requirements and enable global transformation. The cadence this month of shipping out three satellites for launch demonstrates the firm’s ongoing market leadership and commitment to quality, reliability, and performance.
Telstar 19 VANTAGE
Telstar 19 VANTAGE is one of a new generation of Telesat spacecraft designed to serve today’s bandwidth intensive applications. It will support a range of services, including advanced broadband connectivity for consumer, enterprise and mobility users across the Americas and Atlantic from its prime orbital location of 63 degrees West, the same location used today by Telesat’s Telstar 14R.
Like all Telesat VANTAGE satellites, Telstar 19 VANTAGE combines broad regional beams and powerful HTS spot beams enabling customers to maximize throughput and spectral efficiency while optimizing network performance. Its Ka-band HTS capacity will serve Telesat customers operating in Northern Canada, the Caribbean, the North Atlantic Ocean, and South America. Additional Ku-band HTS spot beams will serve growing South American markets in Brazil and the Andean region. Telstar 19 VANTAGE will also bring new Ku-band broadbeam capacity over the North Atlantic Ocean enhancing Telesat’s coverage of this important mobility market.
Telstar 18 VANTAGE
Telstar 18 VANTAGE, the third HTS in Telesat’s global fleet, will be located at 138 degrees East, an ideal position for connecting Asia to the Americas. It will replace and expand on the capabilities of Telesat’s Telstar 18 satellite through its extensive C-band coverage of Asia, its Ku-band HTS spot beams over Indonesia and Malaysia, and its six additional Ku-band regional beams. These high performance beams will enable Telstar 18 VANTAGE to meet growing demand for mobility, enterprise networks and telecom services across the Asia region. As previously announced, Telesat has partnered with APT Satellite of Hong Kong in the design and procurement of this spacecraft, which APT calls Apstar-5C.
Dan Goldberg, President and CEO of Telesat, said that company has worked closely with SSL and the Maxar family of companies for many years and are pleased to have collaborated with them on these new Telstar VANTAGE high throughput satellites. These state-of-the-art spacecraft are going to provide important competitive advantages for Telesat customers across the Americas and Asia. It’s great news that Telstar 19 VANTAGE is now at the launch base and that Telstar 18 VANTAGE is nearly finished and in the queue to ship.
Merah Putih
Merah Putih, a name which represents the red and white of the Indonesian flag, will be integrated into Telkom’s greater telecommunications network to provide service throughout the 17 thousand islands of the Indonesian archipelago, as well as India and other parts of South and Southeast Asia. Satellite forms the telecommunications backbone that connects Indonesia, along with other technologies, such as submarine cable.
Merah Putih, which was completed ahead of schedule, will replace Telkom-1, at 108 degrees East, where the satellite will expand on Telkom’s coverage to serve new markets. Its all C-band payload will enhance both internet and telephone service for populations in remote regions and offload backhaul for cellular service.
Mr. Mr. Zulhelfi Abidin, Chief Technology Officer of Telkom, said satellite plays a vital role in the firm’s telecommunications infrastructure3. SSL has been an excellent spacecraft supplier and has completed the satellite construction ahead of schedule. (Source: Satnews)
18 Jun 18. Kratos RT Logic Scores with U.S.A.F. SMC Pilot Phase 2 Program Award. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq:KTOS) has revealed that their Kratos RT Logic subsidiary won an award for the Pilot Phase 2 program — this effort will implement a proof-of-concept system enabling an enterprise solution to increase the capacity and resiliency of wideband satellite communications (SATCOM).
Kratos’ system will enable government satellite users to roam, similar to the way cell phone users roam through multiple cellular networks. This will be demonstrated with a Flexible Modem Interface (FMI) that enables secure communication across multiple operator networks, in multiple frequency bands, utilizing diverse waveforms and modems. It will show implementation of critical command and control (C2) capabilities allowing an existing U.S. government terminal to switch to different satellites if the main satellite is compromised, enhancing resiliency through path diversity and enabling global service connectivity to multiple available networks.
Under the terms of the award, Kratos will also demonstrate a prototype government network operating center (GNOC) function that responds to user requirements and service provider capabilities. The function interfaces to SATCOM gateways and remote terminals, provides situational awareness, and successfully mitigates threats.
Kratos is supported on this effort by a world-class team of satellite operators to execute the program, including Intelsat General, SES Government Solutions, and Inmarsat. The program is sponsored by the Space and Missile Systems Center, MILSATCOM Systems Directorate, Advanced Concepts Division (SMC/MCX).
Joseph Vanderpoorten, SMC/MCX Division Chief, said that the Pilot Phase 2 initiative realizes new concepts for enabling more flexible and resilient use of wideband SATCOM resources.
Mike Rice, VP of Satellite Ground Systems at Kratos, added that the commercial product solution illustrates how minor modifications to existing government terminals can create the ability to seamlessly leverage multiple commercial SATCOM resources. The U.S. government will have the capability to utilize efficiencies developed within the commercial sector to improve the responsiveness of wideband SATCOM, increase capacity and enhance space situational awareness, all while supporting a more resilient enterprise ground architecture. (Source: Satnews)
22 Jun 18. Atos announces satellite data Platform Mundi is now live. Atos announces satellite data Platform Mundi is now live.
Atos announces that its new Earth Observation (EO) Platform, officially named Mundi Web Services, is now live and being used by several clients. This platform is supported by a newly-created consortium, composed of DLR, e-Geos, EOX, GAF, Sinergise, Spacemetric, Thales Alenia Space and T-Systems, which is led by Atos, on behalf of the European Commission and ESA (European Space Agency).
Mundi gives users and companies unlimited, free and complete access to real-time geo Copernicus satellite data and enables them to combine it with their own data and tools, to build new innovative products and services that integrate accurate and real-time information from satellites. It can be used across a broad range of sectors and markets such as manufacturing, insurance, utilities, agriculture, forestry, urbanism and emergency services. The platform additionally provides access to sophisticated processing tools, resources and infrastructure, thus offering companies a single Cloud-based one-stop shop to bring added-value services to market quicker.
“The launch of the Mundi Web Services platform marks a significant milestone in Atos’ investment in Big Data, analytics and AI platforms for Space applications, through our Atos Codex offerings” says Stéphane Janichewski, Head of Defence & Aerospace Market at Atos. “These platforms will enable companies to deliver new services for the digital economy, which will provide value for society in order to address some of the greatest challenges we face today such as climate change and resource scarcity.”
Mundi is one of the five DIAS (Copernicus Data and Information Access Services) cloud-based platforms, which are officially launched today by the European Commission to EU institutions, ESA and representatives from the industry at the ‘Baveno+20 – From GMES to Copernicus and Beyond’ in Baveno, Italy today, on the 20th anniversary of the Copernicus Programme, the world’s largest single Earth Observation program. (Source: Google/http://www.ciol.com)
20 Jun 18. Media Broadcast Satellite and Kymeta Sign Agreement for SOTM and SOTP Applications. Media Broadcast Satellite (MBS) and Kymeta have signed a master agreement during Eurosatory 2018 that allows MBS to provide Kymeta products and services to government and defense customers outside the U.S.
The KyWay™ terminals will form an integral part of MBS’ tailored SATCOM-On-The-Move (SOTM) and SATCOM-On-The-Pause (SOTP) applications and services for non-US government customers on a global scale.
Agile communications that can reach even the most remote areas are of paramount importance to government, defense, and intelligence customers today. On land, at sea, and in the air, connectivity is mission-critical and creates situational awareness for all involved. Operations are often carried out in the most remote areas and under harsh conditions. Satellite connectivity overcomes these barriers. Traditional parabolic satellite antennas, although widely used, can fail due to the moving parts and may limit the weapon station as they are not low profile enough to allow full coverage around the vehicles or vessels.
Kymeta flat-panel satellite antenna technology is lightweight and slim, consumes very little power, is efficient and very reliable, with no mechanical components. Its easy commissioning and provisioning ensure rapid set-up and installation. The antenna may be used on vehicles and vessels to provide the high throughput connectivity that enables the complex government and defense applications of today.
MBS is already in discussions with several EU defense and public security organizations about the provision of services featuring the Kymeta antenna. MBS provides global Ku-band coverage across various platforms such as Newtec Dialog, ND SatCom 5G, and iDirect, and offers applications such as connectivity for theaters of operation; interconnection and interoperability of institutional or defense sites/network entities; command and control (C2); Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR); border control and special operations (SOF). For special missions, MBS will offer the Kymeta antenna as a camouflaged installation.
Sven Sünberg, Managing Director of MBS, said that the company is delighted to announce that MBS has become an official partner and distributor of highly innovative flat-panel antenna technology from Kymeta. This kind of cutting-edge technology is what MBS is dedicated to bring to the firm’s customers, further enhancing the company’s exceptional security, reliability, and agility in this constantly evolving market.
David Harrower, SVP Global Sales, Kymeta, added that since Kymeta became the first commercially-available, flat-panel, electronically-steered satellite antenna provider, the company has witnessed extensive interest from government, military, and public safety organizations around the world. The firm’s customers in the government and defense markets have already found that Kymeta satellite antennas deliver fast tracking, even in some of the most unforgiving environments, making it perfect for the unique requirements of these markets. Adding MBS to our global distribution partner community will further support our efforts to bring broadband global, mobile connectivity where it has never been before. (Source: Satnews)
17 Jun 18. ViaLite’s L-Band HTS for Defense Provides Security for Those Who Defend Others. ViaLite solves the issue of keeping information secure with the use of ViaLite RF over fiber transmission equipment. The use of optical fiber provides added benefits in securing information-gathering centers against lightning and EMP strikes, as well as preventing attempts to eavesdrop or corrupt critical operational/sensitive data.
ViaLite products for government and defense provide:
- Enhanced data security
- Signal integrity
- Reliable and secure data transmission
- Efficient incident management
- Enhanced personnel safety
- Integrates into command, control, comms, computer and intelligence systems
ViaLite addresses customer applications for many communication technologies including:
- Professional Mobile Radio (PMR)
- TETRA
- GSM-R
- Cellular (In-Building)
- GPS
- WiFi / WiMax
- Satcom
ViaLite’s L-Band HTS 700-2450
The ViaLite L-Band HTS – HWDR link offers hyper-wide dynamic range (114 dB/Hz 2/3) and also allows for multiple channels to be sent down a single fiber. The link is ideal for the extremely demanding dynamic range applications associated with HTS and defense, and is based on the ViaLiteLong Distance DWDM System technology used for site diversity, or up to 600 km of antenna remoting. The features include:
- Transmission distances of 0-50 km (DWDM)
- Ideal for 500, 800 and full 1500 MHz bandwidths used in High Throughput Satellites (HTS)
- Designed for Satcom and Defense – RF and fiber connections on the rear
- Uses a regular L-Band HTS Receiver
- 13/18 V and 22 KHz tone LNB control
- True Plug and Play
- 50 and 75 ohm
- Superior linearity and low noise
- SNMP or web GUI interface for easy set-up, remote monitoring or control
- 5-year warranty as standard
ViaLite products are INFOSEC, EMSEC and TEMPEST compliant, so guarantee the delivery of services such as GPS/MSF time signals, digital TV, HF, VHF/UHF Radio, cellular and satellite signals. PPM Systems specializes in: RF over fiber systems (Satcom and COMINT), antennas and stacked antenna systems, RF filtering and conditioning, EM spectrum and decoding receivers, and IED/ECM defeat systems. Predominately working with the Government and Military/Defence sectors, PPM can design and supply a complete customized system meeting specific requirements.
(Source: Satnews)
22 Jun 18. US Air Force announces rocket deal with SpaceX for military satellite. U.S. Air Force Space Command will send a new military satellite into space in 2020 with the help of SpaceX.
The AFSC’s Space and Missile Systems Center announced Friday a $130m contract with the rocket design and manufacturing company.
The relatively low-cost price tag secured the deal for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, beating out main rival United Launch Alliance (composed of Boeing and Lockheed Martin) by tens of millions of dollars and earning praise from the Air Force.
Lt. Gen. John Thompson, program executive officer for the Space and Missile Systems Center, approved the contract, saying it “directly supports [the Center’s] mission of delivering resilient and affordable space capabilities to our nation while maintaining assured access to space.”
The agreement for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle service contract includes “launch vehicle production, mission integration and launch operations” from SpaceX, according to a news release.
The Heavy Falcon can deliver a payload of 70 tons to low-Earth orbit.
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell highlighted the price savings in a statement, saying her company’s services offer “the American taxpayer the most cost-effective” and “reliable” services for national space missions.
(Source: Defense News)
20 Jun 18. The University of Surrey’s RemoveDEBRIS Mission Begins and Features Airbus Technologies. A spacecraft that will demonstrate a range of innovative technologies to clean up space debris has now been deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) and will soon begin its experiments in orbit. RemoveDEBRIS, one of the world’s first attempts to address the build-up of dangerous space debris orbiting Earth, was sent to the ISS via the SpaceX CRS-14 launch in early April. The satellite was designed, built and manufactured by a consortium of leading space companies and research institutions, led by the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.
The RemoveDEBRIS mission will perform four experiments, including the first harpoon capture in orbit and a net that will be used on a deployed target. The team will also test a vision-based navigation system that uses cameras and LiDaR technology to observe smallsats that will be released from the main spacecraft. Finally, the RemoveDEBRIS craft will deploy a large sail that will drag it into the Earth’s atmosphere, where it will be destroyed.
This ISS satellite deployment opportunity was made possible thanks to NanoRacks and their Space Act Agreement with NASA’s U.S. National Labs.
The consortium consists of:
- Mission and Consortium coordination – Surrey Space Centre (UK)
- Satellite system engineering – ASF (France)
- Platform and Avionics – SSTL (UK)
- Harpoon – Airbus (UK)
- Net – Airbus (Germany)
- Vision Based Navigation – CSEM (Switzerland)/ INRIA/ Airbus (Toulouse)
- CubeSat dispensers – Innovative solutions in space (Holland)
- Target CubeSats – Surrey Space Centre (UK)/ STE
- Dragsail – Surrey Space Centre (UK)
NanoRacks created the Kaber system to accommodate the increasing customer demand for commercial opportunities to deploy smallsats from the International Space Station. Kaber offers deployments for satellites up to approximately 85 kilograms, and NanoRacks is able to provide Kaber launches on both SpaceX and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (previously Orbital ATK) commercial resupply missions.
Professor Guglielmo Aglietti, Director of the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey and Principal Investigator for the mission, said that after almost five years of development, it is exciting to finally be in a position where these technologies can be tested in the field. If successful, the technologies found in RemoveDEBRIS could be included in other missions in the very near future.
Sir Martin Sweeting, Chief Executive of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL), added that SSTL’s expertise in designing and building low cost, smallsat missions has been fundamental to the success of RemoveDEBRIS, a landmark technology demonstrator for Active Debris Removal missions that will begin a new era of space junk clearance in Earth’s orbit.
NanoRacks External Payloads Manager, Conor Brown, stated that it’s wonderful to have helped facilitate this ground-breaking mission. RemoveDEBRIS is demonstrating some extremely exciting active debris removal technologies that could have a major impact to how space debris is managed moving forward. This program is an excellent example of how small satellite capabilities have grown and how the Space Station can serve as a platform for missions of this scale.
The project is co-funded by the European Commission and the research learning to the results have received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement #607099.
Additionally, the spacecraft features three Airbus technologies to perform Active Debris Removal (ADR): a net and a harpoon to capture debris as well as a Vision Based Navigation (VBN) system to develop rendezvous techniques in orbit with space debris. The spacecraft itself was designed and built by Airbus subsidiary Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and also includes a drag sail to speed up deorbiting of the whole mission.
The mission timelines will see the net deployed in October this year, followed by the VBN test in late December and then the harpoon in February 2019. The experiments will all be carried out below the orbit of the ISS. The net experiment, developed by Airbus in Bremen, will witness a cubesat deployed from the main mission craft. When the cubesat is five meters away, it will then be targeted by the net and captured at approximately seven meters before it floats away to de-orbit.
The VBN system from Airbus in Toulouse will test 2D cameras and a 3D LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology supplied by CSEM to track a second smallsat deployed from the main spacecraft. The VBN system will track its rotation and movement away from the main spacecraft. At the same time the cubesat will transmit its true position to the main spacecraft, enabling the performance of the VBN to be measured. This cubesat will then float and de-orbit naturally.
The Airbus Stevenage designed harpoon will see a 1.5 meter boom deployed from the main spacecraft with a piece of composite panel on the end. The harpoon will be fired at 20 meters/sec to penetrate the target and demonstrate the ability of a harpoon to capture debris. After completion of the Airbus designed ADR, the main spacecraft will deploy the drag sail developed by SSC which will deorbit the craft in approximately eight weeks. Without the drag sail, deorbiting would take more than 2.5 years.
Nicolas Chamussy, Head of Airbus Space Systems said the company has spent many years developing innovative active debris removal systems to be at the forefront of tackling this growing problem of space debris and to contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for future generations. (Source: Satnews)
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At Viasat, we’re driven to connect every warfighter, platform, and node on the battlefield. As a global communications company, we power millions of fast, resilient connections for military forces around the world – connections that have the capacity to revolutionize the mission – in the air, on the ground, and at sea. Our customers depend on us for connectivity that brings greater operational capabilities, whether we’re securing the U.S. Government’s networks, delivering satellite and wireless communications to the remote edges of the battlefield, or providing senior leaders with the ability to perform mission-critical communications while in flight. We’re a team of fearless innovators, driven to redefine what’s possible. And we’re not done – we’re just beginning.
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RADAR, EO/IR, NIGHT VISION AND SURVEILLANCE UPDATE
Sponsored by Blighter Surveillance Systems
www.blighter.com
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28 Jun 18. PITBULL – A Wearable Counter UAS Jammer.
MyDefence has launched PITBULL – the next generation wearable Counter UAS solution that utilizes smart jamming to defeat enemy drones. PITBULL was developed to have minimal impact on other signals while jamming, in an effort to maintain own communication.
The Counter UAS jammer is a tactical solution weighing just 775 grams, designed to be worn on the uniform with the purpose of minimizing the cognitive load of dismounted soldiers, so they can focus on the mission instead.
Last month MyDefence launched the WINGMAN 103 – wearable drone detection for special operations forces – and now joined by the PITBULL, dismounted soldiers will be able to both detect and defeat enemy drones. PITBULL is plug-n-play and requires minimal training to operate. Used together with the WINGMAN detector, the entire process of detecting and defeating malicious drones can be fully automated, allowing the operator to carry on with the mission without worrying about enemy drones.
“This is a big leap in the technological advancement of active countermeasures against malicious drones. There exists an immediate demand in the Counter UAS market for wearable solutions for dismounted soldiers that does not interfere with their function in a unit. We are therefore proud to introduce the PITBULL wearable smart jammer that allow dismounted soldiers to defeat enemy drones while maintaining own communication”, says CEO of MyDefence, Christian Steinø.
Product features
- The only wearable Counter UAS jammer on the market
- Covers 2.4-2.5GHz, 5.2-5.8GHz and the GNSS frequency bands (other frequency bands will be covered by an active external antenna later this year)
- Ultra-light form factor with a weight of only 775 grams (w/o battery)
- Up to 20 hours standby battery time and 2 hours of continuous jamming
- Both automated and manual jamming modes
- Jamming range of 1,000 meters
- Average power output is 2W
MyDefence is inviting customers to purchase the initial version of PITBULL, which features up to 20 hours standby battery time and 2 hours of active jamming. The PITBULL has an effective jamming range of 1000 meters and can be fully automated in collaboration with the WINGMAN wearable drone detector. With its rugged exterior, the PITBULL has been designed to operate in demanding environments and is the perfect companion to the WINGMAN products.
“The PITBULL drone jammer will, based on the detection signals from the WINGMAN, automatically start jamming the control signals of the detected drones. PITBULL requires no training – simply turn on the devices and you are protected against detected drones, making it ideal for dismounted soldiers, who can instead focus on their mission”, says Christian Steinø.
Weighing less than a kilogram, the PITBULL smart jammer is the ideal solution for dismounted soldiers operating in hostile environments, where enemy forces utilize commercially available drones for reconnaissance and as weapon delivery systems. (Source: UAS VISION)
28 Jun 18. Spectral Cloaking Could Make Objects Invisible Under Realistic Conditions. New approach to invisibility cloaking could be used to secure data transmissions and advance sensing, telecommunications and other applications. Researchers and engineers have long sought ways to conceal objects by manipulating how light interacts with them. A new study offers the first demonstration of invisibility cloaking based on the manipulation of the frequency (color) of light waves as they pass through an object, a fundamentally new approach that overcomes critical shortcomings of existing cloaking technologies.
The approach could be applicable to securing data transmitted over fiber optic lines and also help improve technologies for sensing, telecommunications and information processing, researchers say. The concept, theoretically, could be extended to make 3D objects invisible from all directions; a significant step in the development of practical invisibility cloaking technologies.
Most current cloaking devices can fully conceal the object of interest only when the object is illuminated with just one color of light. However, sunlight and most other light sources are broadband, meaning that they contain many colors. The new device, called a spectral invisibility cloak, is designed to completely hide arbitrary objects under broadband illumination.
The spectral cloak operates by selectively transferring energy from certain colors of the light wave to other colors. After the wave has passed through the object, the device restores the light to its original state. Researchers demonstrate the new approach in Optica, The Optical Society’s journal for high impact research.
“Our work represents a breakthrough in the quest for invisibility cloaking,” said José Azaña, National Institute of Scientific Research (INRS), Montréal, Canada. “We have made a target object fully invisible to observation under realistic broadband illumination by propagating the illumination wave through the object with no detectable distortion, exactly as if the object and cloak were not present.”
Overcoming previous hurdles
When viewing an object, what you are really seeing is the way in which the object modifies the energy of the light waves that interact with it. Most solutions for invisibility cloaking involve altering the paths that light follows so that waves propagate around, rather than through, an object. Other approaches, called “temporal cloaking,” tamper with the propagation speed of the light such that the object is temporarily concealed as it passes through the light beam during a prescribed length of time.
In either approach, different colors of an incoming light wave must follow different paths as they travel through the cloaking device, thus taking different amounts of time to reach their destination. This alteration of the wave’s temporal profile can make it apparent to observers that something is not as it should be.
“Conventional cloaking solutions rely on altering the propagation path of the illumination around the object to be concealed; this way, different colors take different amounts of time to traverse the cloak, resulting in easily detectable distortion that gives away the presence of the cloak,” said Luis Romero Cortés, National Institute of Scientific Research (INRS). “Our proposed solution avoids this problem by allowing the wave to propagate through the target object, rather than around it, while still avoiding any interaction between the wave and the object.”
Rearranging colors
Azaña and his team accomplished this by developing a method to rearrange different colors of broadband light so that the light wave propagates through the object without actually “seeing” it. To do this, the cloaking device first shifts the colors toward regions of the spectrum that will not be affected by propagation through the object. For example, if the object reflects green light, then light in the green portion of the spectrum might be shifted to blue so that there would be no green light for it to reflect. Then, once the wave has cleared the object, the cloaking device reverses the shift, reconstructing the wave in its original state.
The team demonstrated their approach by concealing an optical filter, which is a device that absorbs light in a prescribed set of colors while allowing other colors of light to pass through, that they illuminated with a short pulse of laser light.
The cloaking device was constructed from two pairs of two commercially available electro-optical components. The first component is a dispersive optical fiber, which forces the different colors of a broadband wave to travel at different speeds. The second is a temporal phase modulator, which modifies the optical frequency of light depending on when the wave passes through the device. One pair of these components was placed in front of the optical filter while the other pair was placed behind it.
The experiment confirmed that the device was able to transform the light waves in the range of frequencies that would have been absorbed by the optical filter, then completely reverse the process as the light wave exited the filter on the other side, making it look as though the laser pulse had propagated through a non-absorbing medium.
Putting cloaking to use
While the new design would need further development before it could be translated into a Harry Potter-style, wearable invisibility cloak, the demonstrated spectral cloaking device could be useful for a range of security goals. For example, current telecommunication systems use broadband waves as data signals to transfer and process information. Spectral cloaking could be used to selectively determine which operations are applied to a light wave and which are “made invisible” to it over certain periods of time. This could prevent an eavesdropper from gathering information by probing a fiber optic network with broadband light.
The overall concept of reversible, user-defined spectral energy redistribution could also find applications beyond invisibility cloaking. For example, selectively removing and subsequently reinstating colors in the broadband waves that are used as telecommunication data signals could allow more data to be transmitted over a given link, helping to alleviate logjams as data demands continue to grow. Or, the technique could be used to minimize some key problems in today’s broadband telecommunication links, for example by reorganizing the signal energy spectrum to make it less vulnerable to dispersion, nonlinear phenomena and other undesired effects that impair data signals.
While the researchers demonstrated spectral cloaking when the object was illuminated from only one spatial direction, Azaña said it should be possible to extend the concept to make an object invisible under illumination from every direction. The team plans to continue their research toward this goal. In the meantime, the team is also working to advance practical applications for single-direction spectral cloaking in one-dimensional wave systems, such as for fiber optics based applications.
Paper: L. Romero Cortés, M. Seghilani, R. Maram, J. Azaña, “Full-field broadband invisibility through reversible wave frequency-spectrum control,” Optica, 5, 779-786 (2018).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.5.000779
(Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
28 Jun 18. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA‑ASI) today announced that it has successfully flown its MQ-25A surrogate aircraft – a Predator C Avenger – outfitted with a representative set of mission payloads, including Electro-optical/Infrared (EO/IR), Electronic Support Measures (ESM), Automatic Identification System (AIS), and Mission Processing. MQ-25 is the U.S. Navy’s unmanned aerial refueling aircraft program.
“Our ability to be agile has always been an important business driver for GA-ASI,” said Linden Blue, CEO, GA-ASI. “This representative mission system design for the MQ-25 leverages our strength and experience in developing open-architecture systems, which offer a flexible growth path towards future payloads.”
The GA-ASI team built upon its analysis performed under the Navy’s Concept Refinement contract to develop a scalable mission architecture that supports Open Mission System (OMS) standards and the Navy Inter-operability Profile (NIOP) datalink. During the flight, the MQ-25A surrogate’s payloads were remotely commanded by GA-ASI’s extensible payload command and control (C2) system. The team will leverage this software to enhance the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System (UMCS). Between flights, GA-ASI quickly re-configured the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) with different payloads to demonstrate the system’s modular design and the benefits of an open architecture solution.
28 Jun 18. USAF selects Citadel’s drone countermeasure system at AFWERX. Counter-drone technology company Citadel Defense’s drone countermeasure system technology has been selected for the US Air Force (USAF) Innovation Development Program at AFWERX.
The technology received significant third-party affirmation for its advanced combat theatre-tested approach to counter-unmanned aerial vehicles (C-UAV).
Recognition will enable the company to receive required coaching, funding and facility access from the USAF in order to further develop and deploy its solutions.
The new drone countermeasure system can be used to effectively identify and classify an approaching unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The technology can then selectively apply successive digital countermeasures to induce the UAV to land or return to its home base.
Citadel Defense’s system is the only multilayer, in-depth counter-drone solution selected by judges at AFWERX to receive additional funding and testing support from the USAF.
Citadel Defense founder and chief executive officer Daniel Magy said: “We’ve been proud to experience early success deploying our ground-based systems to help US soldiers in the field.
“With continued innovation, we’re confident we can meet the challenge of integrating with the platforms of the USAF to provide safety against the emerging threat of hostile UAVs and look forward to increased collaborations and support.”
Established last year by the Secretary of the Air Force, AFWERX focuses on improving the capabilities of the USAF by connecting innovators, simplifying technology transfer and accelerating results. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
28 Jun 18. Russian Aerospace Defence Forces receives 5th generation radars. Russian Aerospace Defence Forces have received the new 59NE Protivnik-GE 3D decimetric band track data processing radar, said Russian defense ministry press service. According to the Russian defense minister’s press service, the 5th generation 59NE Protivnik-GE universal mobile three-coordinate radar station has been introduced in air defence units in the Samara region.
“The radar is designed to control the space, detect air targets, determine their high-resolution coordinates (azimuth, distance, altitude), speeds and flight trajectories at long ranges and high altitudes. The station is able to operate under conditions of intense radio interference when being part of automated air defence control systems, rapid reaction forces and air traffic control systems,” the Defense Ministry’s press-service has said.
In conditions of intense radio interference, the radar is able to give information simultaneously for guiding fighters and targeting anti-aircraft missile battalions without additional refinements. The airspace viewing height is up to several hundred kilometres.
Coverage area:
– range, km 10 – 400
– altitude, km ±200
– azimuth, deg 360
– elevation, deg ±45
– radial speed, km/h 60 – 8000
The 59NE Protivnik-GE radar can operate under any climatic conditions and can be transported by road (roads of any category), rail, air, and water. It can be deployed on an unorganized site.
(Source: Google/defence-blog.com)
27 Jun 18. Australia cleared to buy $185m in Aegis equipment. The U.S. State Department has cleared Australia to purchase long-lead equipment for integrating its CEAFAR 2 phased array radar system with the Aegis combat system, with a potential price-tag of $185m.
Australia seeks to add nine Aegis capable Future Frigates over the next 20 years, while upgrading their three existing Aegis capable Hobart Class destroyers, per an announcement by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
“This sale enhances Australia’s self-defense capability, while significantly improving interoperability with U.S. Navy AEGIS combatants in the region,” the notification reads. “By deploying a surface combatant fleet that will incorporate Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), Australia will significantly improve network-centric warfare capability for U.S. forces operating in the region.”
Designed by Australian company CEA, the CEAFAR radar is a modular phased array radar system already in use by Australia’s navy. The goal of this equipment package is to get everything aligned between the radar and the Aegis weapon systems going on the new frigates.
Included in the package are a number of Aegis-related equipment, including “Command Display System (CDS) Consoles (including 2 consoles in Gun Weapon System configuration); Multi-Mission Display (MMD) systems, including projectors, sensors and cameras; Tactical Equivalent Core Computing System (CCS) Cabinets; Tactical Equivalent AEGIS LAN Interconnect System (ALIS) Cabinets; Tactical Equivalent AEGIS Conversion Equipment Group Input/Output (ACEG I/0) Cabinets; Tactical Equivalent Advanced Storage Area Network (ASAN) Cabinets; Global Command and Control System – Maritime (GCCS-M); Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) sites systems, to include processing rack, simulation equipment and workstation; AN/SPQ-15 Converter/Receiver and /signal data converter equipment; Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DIVDS) cabinet; AN/SQQ-89 Sonobouy Processing Core Computing System racks, with console and laptop; AEGIS simulator racks and workstations; AEGIS Training System; and various ancillary equipment and support products, including desktop computers, displays, test units and compilations servers, printers, workstations, spares, cabling and software licenses.”
Technical assistance is also requested. Primary work will occur at the Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems facility in Moorestown, NJ.
Being cleared by the State Department does not guarantee a sale will be completed. Congress can still intervene, and final price and quantity are often altered during negotiations. The proposed sale is being handled under a Foreign Military Sales vehicle.
This is the second Aegis-related FMS notification in as many days. On Tuesday, a notification that Spain is seeking to buy 5 Aegis weapon systems, potentially worth $860.4m, was released. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
27 Jun 18. India gifts second Dornier 228 MPA to Seychelles. India has handed over a second licence-built Dornier 228 maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) to Seychelles in a ceremony held on 26 June at Air Force Station Palam in Delhi.
Visiting Seychelles President Danny Faure, who received the aircraft’s airworthiness certificate from Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, was quoted in an official statement as saying that the gifted MPA, which was licence-built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, will “amplify our capacity to conduct maritime surveillance over our extensive Exclusive Economic Zone of 1.4 million km²”.
He pointed out that the platform, which had been promised to the country by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2015, will join the first Dornier 228-202 aircraft that had been similarly donated to the Seychelles Air Force in 2013. “This first Dornier has been assisting the Seychelles Coast Guard in rescue operations, air surveillance and securing our EEZ,” said the president during the ceremony.
Faure said the new Dornier “will fly to Seychelles in time to participate in the 42nd anniversary of our Independence”, adding that this “will be a proud testimony of India’s devotion and commitment to the People of Seychelles”.
Senior Indian officials told Jane’s on condition of anonymity that the aircraft donation had acquired a “more urgent dimension” in light of the rescinded deal for India’s military base.
Seychelles recently revoked an offer that would have allowed India to construct and operate a military base on one of its islands and boost its presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
During a 4 June press conference Faure had said that the 27 January agreement signed with New Delhi to develop and operate such a base on Assumption Island would “not move forward”. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
27 Jun 18. US military aims for $1bn missile defense radar in Hawaii. The U.S. military wants to install missile defense radar in Hawaii to identify any ballistic missiles that are fired from North Korea or elsewhere, officials said Tuesday. The $1bn system would spot warheads on missiles headed for Hawaii and other U.S. states, and provide that information to ground-based interceptors in Alaska designed to shoot them down. It would be able to distinguish warheads from decoys that are designed to trick missile defense systems.
The radar would help give the Alaska missiles “better eyes,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii and a supporter of the project.
So far, lawmakers have appropriated $61m for planning but not funds for construction. Schatz, who serves on the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he doesn’t have much doubt about the likelihood of follow-on funding.
The radar would be about 30 to 50 feet wide and 60 feet to 80 feet high, according to the Missile Defense Agency.
It will likely to have a flat-face surface like one in Shemya, Alaska, instead of a ball-like appearance of other military radar. Experts say the larger the face, the more precisely it will be able to distinguish between warheads and decoys.
The agency is studying two possible locations for the radar, both of which are on Oahu’s North Shore. It’s collecting public comment through July 16.
Schatz said lawmakers discussed the radar with the previous commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. Harry Harris, who recently retired and has been nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to South Korea.
“We already have robust capabilities, but working with Admiral Harris, we wanted to double down and make sure we have the most powerful combination of missile interceptors and radar systems anywhere,” Schatz said in a phone interview.
The radar would help identify long-range ballistic missile threats mid-way through flight.
David Santoro, a director and senior fellow for nuclear policy at the Pacific Forum think tank in Honolulu, said threats from North Korea were increasing as Pyongyang developed more sophisticated missiles and nuclear weapons.
“Over the past few weeks, we have seen a so-called peace initiative developing, but the reality is the threat is still there. It’s not going away,” Santoro said. The U.S. would be expected to build a radar system to counter the threats, he said.
U.S. concerns about the threat from North Korean missiles spiked last year as North Korea test-fired long-range missile over Japan and threatened to launch ballistic missiles toward the Guam, a major U.S. military hub in the Pacific. President Donald Trump warned the U.S. military was “locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely” and that the U.S. would unleash “fire and fury” on the North if it continued to threaten America.
But then Trump and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, met in Singapore earlier this month and issued a declaration agreeing to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
The statement did not define a process, say when it would begin or say how long it might take. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Military Times)
27 Jun 18. TMD exhibits latest advanced TWT and solid state MPMs for radar, EW and communications systems, plus G2 Engineering radar transponders – all on Stand 1134, ADS UK Pavilion Hall 1.
At Farnborough this year TMD Technologies Limited (TMD), world class, West London based company specialising in professional microwave and RF products, will be showing microwave power modules (MPMs) and intelligent instrumentation amplifiers – as well as for the first time, a selection of radar transponders from TMD’s newly acquired company, G2 Engineering Ltd.
TMD will be showcasing its very latest MPMs, namely: the new travelling wave tube (TWT) based 30-40 GHz Ka band PTX8807, high-power 6-18 GHz PTX8110 and high-power 34-36 GHz Ka band PTX8815 – products that are ideal for high performance radar and EW systems. (see below).
New TWT based Ka band MPMs on show – and many other advanced microwave products from TMD
PTX8807 – heralding a new line of TWT based, Ka band MPMs. This new MPM features simplified integration for high performance EW and radar systems and provides an output power of up to 200 W over a 30-40 GHz range. Comprising a high-power Ka band helix TWT and switched mode power supply it forms a single ‘drop-in’ unit without the need for high voltage connections.
PTX8110 – providing high power. The new PTX8110 operates from 6-18 GHz at 200 W and, with its compact design, is easily integrated into those high performance EW and radar systems requiring higher power. Comprising a high power helix TWT and switched mode power supply, the PTX8110 forms a single ‘drop-in’ microwave amplifier unit without the need for potentially unreliable high voltage TWT interconnections. It is designed to provide optimum noise performance.
PTX8815 – Ka band MPM for high performance. The new PTX8815 TWTA is designed for Ka band radar applications such as naval fire control. Featuring broadband capability, covering 34–36 GHz, it offers a peak power of over 1100 W in the mid-band, and 600 W at the band edges with a maximum duty of up to 12%. This top class TWTA is the answer to high fidelity radar requirements for low close-to-carrier phase noise and spurious performance.
PTS6900 – solid state MPM optimised for EW/ECM. TMD’s solid state PTS6900 MPM employs advanced GaN MMIC technology, and offers high performance over a 2-6 GHz range with an output power of 150 W. It is designed for fast integration into EW/ECM systems, and has a predicted 30,000 hours MTBF in an airborne uninhabited fighter environment.
PTXM Series – ultra compact MPMs. For airborne radar, EW and communications, the PTXM Series ultra-compact MPMs feature low volume and low weight and are ideal for UAVs. They operate over the frequency range 4.5 to 18 GHz with output powers up to 140 W, and offer probably the highest power density on the market.
PTCM Series instrumentation amplifiers. Ideal for radar and EW threat simulation, the PTCM Series TWT intelligent instrumentation amplifiers operate over a frequency range from DC to 40 GHz with a power output up to 50 kW. They are designed to deliver the highest field strengths in the test environment. User benefits include self-test, fault diagnosis, modular plug and play replaceable printed circuit boards.
G2 products at Farnborough 2018
For the first time TMD will be showing a selection of radar transponders from G2 Engineering Ltd, its recently acquired specialist microwave company. Applications for G2 transponders and support equipment include UAVs, missiles, and manned aircraft.
Andy Crawford, TMD’s Head of After Sales, has overall responsibility for the sales and marketing of G2 Engineering products. He commented: “This acquisition broadens our portfolio and significantly increases our capacity in radar and comms transponder technology. It is really exciting to be working on a new product portfolio – introducing these well established and technically advanced G2 products to TMD’s customer base.”
27 Jun 18. Cohort plc company SEA’s Krait Defence Anti-Submarine Warfare system is taking a leap forward in capability with the final trials of the extended 150m ultra-thin towed array. The new evolution of KraitArray uses multi-module assembly philosophy and is now established in-service for use with ASV, AUV and small surface vessels. This 150m KraitArray extends the range and increases the bearing accuracy enabling a full ASW capability on small ships and OPVs. The final proving trial is being fully-funded by a major defence contractor to prove its entire range of capability including new high-sensitivity transducers. This project is set to increase the worldwide pedigree and ongoing development of KraitArray for ASW. The KraitArray now delivers similar performance to much larger and costlier towed arrays but is more efficient to launch and recover; minimising the footprint on the host vessel and handling requirements. The modular construction of the KraitArray offers flexibility, resilience and is easily repaired or replaced on board, improving cost effectiveness, while offering extended life.
SEA Managing Director Steve Hill explained: “The drive towards unmanned surveillance of the seas makes the lightweight KraitArray a valuable tool for underwater sensing. It is also an ideal solution for smaller vessels which are unable to accommodate a traditional heavy towed array.”
The KraitArray will be available to view at the UDT Exhibition in Glasgow.
27 Jun 18. Michigan State Polices Deploy State-of-the-Art Mobile Video Network. CNC Technologies, an aviation technology and wireless communications company serving the law enforcement, military and government markets, announced its selection by the Michigan State Police to deploy a state-of-the-art mobile video network to support the department’s airborne law enforcement operations.
Developed to speed and improve the ability of MSP to share actionable aerial intelligence, the new solution will enable secure transmission of real-time video and data from the department’s airborne assets to officers and partner agencies across the region.
CNC will design, deploy and provide ongoing support for the entirely mobile video network, which will be integrated within MSP’s Mobile Command Center truck. The system will centralize live video and data streams from MSP’s Aeryon SkyRanger sUAS fleet and helicopter assets, allowing officers to immediately distribute up to four simultaneous feeds to HD monitors, PCs and handheld devices via local WiFi and satellite.
To provide complete coverage across the state’s 96,000+ square miles, the system has the capacity to stream video and data over both cellular and satellite networks, leveraging cellular in metro areas and satellite in rural regions. The system is also the first from CNC to integrate both helicopter and drone video within a single platform with the drone transmission capability driven by a custom, CNC-developed software package.
“MSP has been at the leading edge of airborne law enforcement as one of the first agencies to integrate drones into its public safety and policing efforts,” said Ron Magocsi, founding partner and chief technology officer at CNC Technologies. “We are pleased to assist them on this assignment and look forward to supporting the department in its public safety mission.”
CNC Technologies can deploy any level of solution from implementing a real-time microwave downlink capability to building out a nationwide counterterrorism network encompassing aircraft, ground-based receive sites, imaging platforms and encrypted communications systems for sovereign state clients. The CNC Technologies team also has extensive experience supporting Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) projects funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (Source: UAS VISION)
26 Jun 18. Russia’s Central MD receives Kasta 2-2 radar. The Russian Central Military District’s (MD) air defence division in the Samara Region has received a new Kasta 2-2 all-round three-coordinate radar, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced on 21 June. The Kasta 2-2 is a 360 degree surveilance radar station designed to control air space, defining the range, azimuth, flight level and specifications of aircraft and cruise missiles, including those flying at small and extremely low altitudes. The four-vehicle station can also locate stealth targets and moving objects on the water surface. (Source: Shephard)
26 Jun 18. CODALTEC and Indra to develop advanced Colombian air defence system. Defence firm Corporación de Alta Tecnología para la Defensa (CODALTEC) has partnered with Indra to develop the first advanced Colombian air defence system.
The Colombian air defence system will meet the country’s requirements and potentially those of other countries in the region. It will be the first system to be fully manufactured in Latin America.
The current air defence system development project will help improve the capacities of the Colombian defence industry. It will also help advance all other initiatives of the Grupo Social y Empresarial de la Defensa (GSED), the social and business group for defence.
CODALTEC and Indra will jointly develop a command and control system designed to receive information provided by different sensors. The system will combine them to offer a comprehensive and integrated vision of the real scenario for military officers.
The command and control system will be capable of detecting any risk and taking immediate and necessary actions to neutralise it.
CODALTEC and Indra signed their first cooperation and technology transfer agreement in 2014, which concluded last year with the delivery of an advanced high-mobility tactical radar.
Designed to detect aircraft flying at a low altitude, the tactical air defense radar (TADER) was delivered to the Colombian Air Force by CODALTEC. The TADER radar will be fully interoperable with any other type of subsystem. This will allow the system to incorporate future capabilities or integrate equipment used by other armed forces. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
25 Jun 18. S. Korea Chooses Boeing’s P-8 Patrol Aircraft for Naval Procurement Project. South Korea decided Monday to purchase U.S. defense company Boeing’s P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft in a US$1.7bn project, Seoul’s military acquisition agency has said.
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said that Seoul’s defense project promotion committee convened to make the decision to purchase the aircraft through a government-to-government “Foreign Military Sale” program.
“(We have decided) to purchase the latest maritime patrol aircraft for conducting patrol, search and rescue operations through the foreign military sale program from the U.S. government, in consideration of the cost, time schedule, capabilities as well as the legal aspect,” the DAPA said in a press release.
Before the decision, a three-way competition had emerged, with Europe’s Airbus Defense & Space and Sweden’s Saab expressing their intentions to win the first major defense acquisition project since the Moon Jae-in government took office in May last year. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/Yonhap news agency)
25 Jun 18. Russia receives second Tu-214PU-SBUS airborne command-and-control post. On 20 June, the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) received the second Tu-214PU-SBUS airborne command-and-control (C2) post from JSC Tupolev, a subsidiary of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).
The aircraft was built by the company’s Kazan Aviation Plant under contract to the MoD, a Russian aerospace industry source told Jane’s . It has already flown to its home airbase, he added.
“The aircraft is built with Russian-made components only, meeting the requirements of the state customers,” he said.
Fitted with the SBUS-214 special communication unit, the Tu-214PU-SBUS airborne command and control post provides additional communication capabilities. It has a range of at least 7,200 km, according to the source. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. Team Dedrone Wins USSOCOM ‘Game of Drones’ Competition.
Dedrone announced that its team of Echodyne Corporation, Squarehead Technologies and Battelle, won first place at ThunderDrone’s “Game of Drones” outdoor demonstration at Nellis Air Force Base and AFWERX enclave, June 18-20. Hosted by AFWERX, Team Dedrone bested five other teams in the last of three ThunderDrone rapid prototyping events focusing on countering small, unmanned aerial drones.
Team Dedrone successfully demonstrated the capabilities of a layered detection, tracking, classification and mitigation solution that defends protected airspace against aerial drone threats. Initially 93 counter-drone technology companies formed teams and were narrowed down through a series of three rapid prototyping events.
The Dedrone platform is a fully automatic counter-drone solution, designed to detect, classify and mitigate drone-based threats. Dedrone’s software, DroneTracker, gathers intelligence from Dedrone’s RF sensors, Echodyne’s MESA radar and Squarehead Discovair acoustic sensor. Once DroneTracker makes a positive identification of a drone, Battelle’s non-kinetic defense system, DroneDefender™, is automatically triggered to defeat the drone and eliminate the threat.
The Dedrone platform combines hardware sensors and machine-learning software, providing early warning, classification of and mitigation against all drone threats. Based in San Francisco, Dedrone was founded in 2014.
ThunderDrone is a U.S. Special Operations Command and SOFWERX initiative dedicated to drone prototyping, which focuses on exploring drone technologies through idea formation, testing and demonstrating efforts that are being conducted collaboratively with the Department of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office.
SOFWERX leads collaboration between special operations warfighters and select contributors from industry and academia on technology and innovation efforts to bring drones, tactical swarms and their associated data science applications to the special operations community.
Team Dedrone Quotes: “Dedrone’s open platform and architecture allows customers to combine the best in drone detection and mitigation technology, such as with RF sensors from Dedrone, radar from Echodyne, acoustic sensors from Squarehead, and jammers from Battelle,” shares Joerg Lamprecht, CEO and co-founder of Dedrone. “This multi-layered sensor platform ensures that all organizations, including those under USSOCOM, are provided complete airspace security that is safe from all drone threats.”
“ThunderDrone provided us with our first opportunity to simultaneously engage against multiple UAVs with two DroneDefender V2 systems,” shares Alex Morrow, Technical Director of cUAS Programs at Battelle. “Battelle is pleased with another successful demonstration of our DroneDefender V2.”
“Echodyne’s compact solid-state radar repeatedly demonstrates an unparalleled combination of range, tracking accuracy and value in countering UAS threats,” notes Eben Frankenberg, Echodyne CEO. “We’re pleased that our beam steering radar once again contributed its indispensable capabilities as part of the award-winning Team Dedrone solution.”
“Discovair’s directional acoustics add a near unspoofable layer of super hearing. The ability to deal with drones hinges on detection. In cluttered areas and up against any drone system, even passive ones – Discovair acoustic sensor has proven to shine,” shares Stig Nyvold, CEO of Squarehead Technology. “Discovair’s importance as part in the systems of systems has once again been proved. We are very excited to be part of this team and look forward to the future.” (Source: UAS VISION)
25 Jun 18. The E-7 Wedgetail, should this aircraft replace the Sentry? The E-7A Wedgetail provides one of the most advanced air battlespace management capabilities in the world and the Royal Air Force are rumoured to be interested in it to replace their E-3D Sentry aircraft.
The E-7 Wedgetail is an Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft with maritime search capabilities, the ability to control unmanned aircraft and intelligence gathering capabilities.
We recently reported that options for the future delivery of the UK’s Airborne Warning and Control capability are being explored, with the focus now on replacing the E-3D Sentry fleet.
We understand that upgrades however are reportedly considered to be expensive. According to Janes here, maintenance is becoming increasingly costly and replacing them instead might be the most cost-effective option.
Some industry commentators are also arguing for a new aircraft type altogether. The large sums of money allocated to upgrading the E-3D fleet should be used to purchase a more advanced off-the-shelf aircraft, a defence analyst has argued. Justin Bronk, Research Fellow, Airpower and Technology, outlines options for replacing the E-3 fleet in his paper ‘The Future of Air C2 and AEW: E-3 Sentry, Threat Technologies and Future Replacement Options’:
“The RAF’s E-3Ds need a £2bn CSP both to bring them to rough parity with current US and French standards by the mid-2020s and to stretch the fleet out to 2035 in the process. However, the E-3, even in modernised form, is no longer a cutting-edge ABM&S system in a world where proliferating long-range missile systems and emerging non-Western low-observable fighters can force it to stay hundreds of kilometres from contested airspace, placing a higher premium on BLOS communications capacity rather than onboard sensors.
Even when it is able to operate closer to the battlespace, the AN/APY-1/2 mechanically scanned radar array common to all E-3s has significant inherent limitations in terms of its ability to detect low-observable, very slow moving and hypersonic threats, unlike more modern AESA-equipped AWACS types already in service with the US Navy and various air forces around the world. An AESA-equipped ABM&S platform with improved communications node capabilities, based on a commercial-derivative airframe, seems a logical alternative option which could provide the RAF with a more capable and efficient alternative to extending the life of the E-3D over the next 20 years.”
Both the Sentry and Wedgetail are designed to monitor airspace to provide threat detection of adversary aircraft and situational awareness on friendly assets.
The E-7A Wedgetail is based on a Boeing 737-700, with the addition of an advanced Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar and 10 mission crew console. They can cover four million square kilometres during a single 10 hour mission according to the Royal Australian Air Force.
“The E-7A Wedgetail represents an entirely new capability for the Australian Defence Force, providing an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) platform that can gather information from a wide variety of sources, analyse it and distribute it to other air and surface assets.
The E-7A Wedgetail can control the tactical battle space, providing direction for fighter aircraft, surface combatants and land based elements, as well as supporting aircraft such as tankers and intelligence platforms. Based on the 737-700 commercial airliner airframe, the E-7A Wedgetail features advanced multi role electronically scanned radar and 10 state-of-the-art mission crew consoles that are able to track airborne and maritime targets simultaneously.”
As the Second Line of Defense put it, the Wedgetail is designed with ‘the reach rather than range approach’; the MESA radar can be dialled up in terms of energy and focused in terms of direction on priority scan areas. As one Northrop Grumman engineer reportedly put it:
“There is a fundamental shift operationally in terms of how one uses the Wedgetail versus the AWACS. You no longer are limited or defined by a 360 degree rotator. You are able to configure how much power you want to put into your radar reach; it is configurable to the mission. The integrated IFF and radar functionality also allows the system to reach much greater than other systems into the battlespace to shape greater situational awareness in the battlespace. You can put the energy in the mission area where you have the highest priority.”
The L-band electronically scanned AEW and surveillance radar is located on a dorsal fin on top of the fuselage, dubbed the “top hat”, and is designed for minimal aerodynamic effect. The system provides 360 degree coverage and is capable of simultaneous air and sea search, fighter control and area search, with a maximum range of over 600km (look-up mode). When operating in look-down mode against fighter-sized target, the maximum range is in excess of 370 km according to Boeing. When used against maritime targets, the maximum range is over 240km for frigate-sized targets. MESA is capable of simultaneously tracking 180 targets and conducting 24 intercepts. Back in 2009, Boeing even demonstrated control of three ScanEagle unmanned aircraft from a Wedgetail.
In addition, the radar antenna array is also doubled as an ELINT (that’s a form of covert intelligence-gathering by electronic means) array, with a maximum range of over 850 km at 9,000 metre altitude.
Wedgetail looks to be maturing nicely in Australian hands with the major early teething troubles now ironed out. It’s also currently undergoing a major programme of further upgrades, due to be completed in 2022 that we reported on here.
Back in 2014, a Wedgetail conducted the first Australian sortie over Iraq supporting coalition forces conducting airstrikes against Islamic State. The next year, another performed the longest Australian command and control mission in a war zone during a 17-hour, 6-minute combat mission, requiring two air-to-air refuellings to stay aloft.
What we don’t know however is how closely the Wedgetail matches what the Royal Air Force want from an E-3D Sentry replacement but the degree of commonality with P-8A Posiedon Maritime Patrol Aircraft being purchased can’t be a bad thing, especially when Wedgetail also has an enhanced maritime search capability which may be useful in augmenting the relatively few P-8s being purchased, this is something I believe places it ahead of other new platforms like the more costly E-767 operated by Japan. Wedgetail, in my opinion, is the only real contender short of a bespoke (and no doubt therefore expensive) platform developed for the UK.
(Source: News Now/ukdefencejournal.org.uk)
24 Jun 18. Hensoldt launches new TRML-4D radar. Germany’s Hensoldt has launched a new land-based version of its TRS-4D Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. The radar, designated the TRML-4D, uses a gallium nitride (GaN) solid-state transmitter and software-defined AESA system operating in the C-band (NATO G-band).
“The missiles that need to be defended against are either more agile, they are getting faster, or they are coming in swarms that try to saturate the system. These are some of the principal threats that we have to deal with in coming up with a new system,” Markus Rothmaier, head of naval and ground radar at Hensoldt said.
According to Rothmaier, the C-band gives the radar superior accuracy compared with other systems in the S-band range.
“With this higher accuracy, we can ensure that the overall system of radar, command-and-control system, and the effector is increasing its probability to kill the threat.”
The TRML-4D has an instrumented sensitivity of a radar cross-section of 0.01m 2, and a maximum range of 250 km to a height of 30 km. The minimum range is less than 100 m. Fighter aircraft can be tracked as confirmed targets at ranges over 120 km, with supersonic missiles as confirmed targets at over 60 km.
The radar’s AESA-based ‘cued track’ functionality is also able to establish a track within the first rotation of the antenna, obtaining improved track information through a “look-back” functionality as the antenna completes its rotation. By the time the antenna begins its second rotation, it then has a third hit of the target to allow for improved track stability of targets.
According to Rothmaier, this functionality is useful against pop-up targets, as well as targets that are performing high-performance manoeuvres. It allows for higher track rate updates in a minimum number of scans, while also increasing the time for weapons systems to react. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. Elbit Systems unveils May gunshot detection system. Elbit Systems’ Elisra subsidiary has developed a new wide-area acoustic sensing device called May. The system works with an autonomous network of static sensors that provides detection, classification, and geo-location of acoustic events such as gunshots, artillery fire, or explosions.
It can also discern events that would be of more interest to law enforcement agencies, such as shouting and screaming.
Hadar Halili, marketing and sales director, land electronic warfare for Elisra told Jane’s that May is first of a family of products of its acoustic capability programme to be brought to the market. According to Halili, the technology had been in development for several years as a private venture. Halili said that the system is equipped with a complex set of algorithms that eliminate false alarms and locations due to echo or reflection, a feature that makes it suited for urban environments. It can be used to cue security cameras or other surveillance devices and could be used as a complementary capability to signals intelligence systems. Network communications are usually provided through an integral cellular or wireless network, but wired connections are an option. The system is also suitable for border coverage. May is based on an open architecture and has been successfully integrated with command and control systems, although Halili was unable to provide details. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. DoD contracts two G550s for FMS customer, likely Australia. The US Department of Defense (DoD) has contracted two ‘green’ Gulfstream G550 business-jet aircraft to be converted into special mission platforms for a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer, most likely Australia. A USD83m contract was awarded to L-3 Communications on 21 June to procure the two aircraft. The award, which was granted by the 645th Aeronautical Systems Group (ASG) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, is set to run through to August 2021. The 645th ASG, commonly known as ‘Big Safari’, is responsible for the rapid procurement and fielding of new weapons systems, sensors, and platforms for domestic and international operators. In June 2017 the DoD approved the sale to Australia of up to five G550 aircraft fitted with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and electronic warfare (EW) mission systems, with integration work to be carried out by L-3 in Greenville, Texas. A contract for the procurement of the first two ‘green’ aircraft for conversion was awarded in January 2016, with this latest awarded being for a second two. The total value of the procurement if all the options are exercised is USD1.3bn. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
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The Blighter electronic-scanning (e-scan) FMCW Doppler ground surveillance radar (GSR) is a unique patented product that provides robust intruder detection capabilities under the most difficult terrain and weather conditions. With no mechanical moving parts and 100% solid-state design, the Blighter radar family of products are extremely reliable and robust and require no routine maintenance for five years. The Blighter radar can operate over land and water rapidly searching for intruders as small a crawling person, kayaks and even low-flying objects. In its long-range modes the Blighter radar can rapidly scan an area in excess of 3,000 km² to ensure that intruders are detected, identified and intercepted before they reach critical areas.
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MISSILE, BALLISTICS AND SOLDIER SYSTEMS UPDATE
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28 Jun 18. US Army’s interim short-range air defense solution crystallizes. The U.S. Army’s interim short-range air defense system, which will urgently fill a capability gap identified a few years ago in the European theater, has crystallized. The Army had already decided the Interim Maneuver-Short-Range Air Defense system would be developed around its Stryker combat vehicle, but it has now chosen Leonardo DRS to supply a mission equipment package that will include Raytheon’s Stinger vehicle missile launcher, according to Col. Chuck Worshim, program manager for cruise missile defense systems with the Army’s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, who spoke to Defense News on June 28.
General Dynamics Land Systems — which produces the Stryker — will be the platform integrator for the IM-SHORAD system, he added.
The Army went through a selection process through the Department of Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium to determine the best collection of vendors to build prototypes.
A Boeing-GDLS team was a front-runner for an interim SHORAD mission package, unveiling before any other vendor a solution in August 2017 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.
Using an Avenger system on top of the Stryker, which was the team’s solution, sought to take what was already in the Army’s inventory to create a system.
And a SHORAD demonstration at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, last September saw more possibilities for the interim solution including Rafael’s Iron Dome and South Korean defense firm Hanwha’s Flying Tiger.
But a dark horse emerged at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium, also in Huntsville, in March. Leonardo DRS showed an unassuming small-scale mock-up of its concept at its booth at the symposium that featured its partner Moog’s Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform.
The platform would provide a choice of sites, direct-fire weapons and missiles, Ed House, DRS Land Systems’ business development manager, told Defense News at the show. The system would be able to integrate both Stinger and Longbow Hellfire missiles, requirements for the service’s IM-SHORAD solution.
It also would come equipped with a complement of direct-fire weapons and sites to include the M230 chain gun and the 7.62mm coaxial machine gun. But the solution also has non-kinetic defeat capabilities and Rada’s onboard multimission hemispheric radar.
And that dark horse has won the opportunity to provide the mission equipment package for the IM-SHORAD prototype program.
The system will also have Hellfire rails as well as an onboard sensor, according to Worshim.
The Army decided to choose DRS to provide the mission equipment package because of the flexibility of its reconfigurable turret, which allows for growth opportunities should the threat change or something else change that requires a new interceptor or another capability, Worshim said.
The solution also posed less intrusion to the existing Stryker platform, he added, and provided an increased level of protection as the crew reloads ammunition, which can be done under armor.
While the Avenger solution was deemed technically acceptable and met requirements, one of the reasons the Army decided against using the Avenger on Stryker as the solution was because the government felt it would require major modifications to the Stryker, according to Worshim.
The Army has a desire to keep the Stryker as common across the fleet as possible, Worshim said.
Boeing was also looking to the government to supply Avenger turrets, of which a limited amount of those exist readily in the service’s inventory, which would have been problematic when considering the Army’s goal to deliver 144 IM-SHORAD systems by fiscal 2022, he explained.
Now that vendors have been selected, the Army will move into a negotiation period expected to wrap up in mid- to late July. The service expects to officially award the contract to build nine prototypes by Aug. 31, but has the intention to possibly move that date up, Worshim said.
Once the contracts are solidified, DRS will provide the first mission equipment package, complete with a new digital Stinger missile launcher in February 2019. Then GDLS will fully integrate the SHORAD prototype by April 2019.
The final prototypes will be delivered to the service by the first quarter of fiscal 2020.
As the prototypes are coming along, the Army will conduct prototype testing to see if the systems are meeting requirements. “From there, the Army will decide if this solution truly meets requirements in this respect,” Worshim said. If the solution does meet requirements, production efforts to build 144 systems — a total of four battalions — will move forward.
The Army’s goal is to provide the first battery no later than the fourth quarter of 2020, but that will depend on funding. If funding is lower than expected, the Army will deliver the first platoon by about that time, according to Worshim.
The service has moved from receiving a directed requirement in late February 2018 to selecting vendors for the IM-SHORAD solution in just about four months, which, Worshim noted, is moving at “lightning speed” for a typical acquisition process.
The hope is the process to build an IM-SHORAD solution will be used as a model for Army procurement that incorporates the “fly before you buy” concept and creates a way to rapidly understand capabilities moving forward, he said. (Source: Defense News)
28 Jun 18. USAF procures new and improved ‘bunker buster’ bombs. The US Air Force (USAF) has issued a contract for a new penetrator warhead to replace its current BLU-109/B and BLU-109C/B systems. The award on 27 June will see Superior Forge and Steel Corporation deliver 300 (possible rising to 3,500) of the improved BLU-137/B penetrator warheads. Valued at USD476.9m, the indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity award will run through to 3 May 2020. The USAF first declared its intention to procure an improved ‘bunker buster’ bomb with a draft request for proposals (RFP) that was issued in December 2016. The draft RFP actually covered the procurement of up to 15,000 of the 2,000 lb warheads running through to 2021. No technical specifications for the BLU-137/B were given in either the draft RFP or the contract notification, except to say that it is intended to provide improvements in capability and survivability over the BLU-109/B and BLU-109C/B.
As with the incumbent BLU-109, the BLU-137/B will be used to defeat hardened targets, such as secure command-and-control bunkers and other protected facilities. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
28 Jun 18. Leonardo DRS, Inc. announced today it has been down-selected by the U.S. Army, and will begin negotiations, to provide its mission equipment package for the service’s accelerated Initial Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD) effort. The mission equipment package includes kinetic and non-kinetic defeat capabilities and an on-board radar. The Leonardo DRS system, when integrated on the Stryker A1 platform, will provide maneuver Brigade Combat Teams with a full “detect-identify-track-defeat” capability required to defeat UAS, rotary-wing and fixed-wing threats. Leonardo DRS expects to receive the prototype contract in August of this year.
The system, developed by Leonardo DRS’s Land Systems business unit, integrates mature technologies from industry teammates and partners, including Moog’s Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP), Raytheon’s Stinger missiles and Rada’s Multi-mission Hemispheric Radar. The IM-SHORAD solution provides both hard and soft kill capabilities to the warfighter while minimizing impacts on the mobility of the Stryker.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to work with the Army to deliver this critically important capability to our soldiers. We understand the challenges associated with an accelerated acquisition strategy and will leverage our recent successes with counter-UAS to meet the Army’s schedule,” said Aaron Hankins, Vice President and General Manager, DRS Land Systems. “Our long term investments and continuous work with the user-community to create a multi-mission turret for the soldier has been successful. We are happy to see the Army select RIwP to meet their IM-SHORAD requirements,” said Jim Riedel, Group Vice President, Moog Defense Sector.
The unique RIwP turret supports multiple weapon configurations to give tactical commanders flexibility in various combat scenarios. The Leonardo DRS solution has the mobility, firepower and soldier protection required to fight forward at the lowest tactical levels. When fielded, this IM-SHORAD capability will provide tactical level commands the precision ground-to-ground and ground-to-air lethality necessary to fight and win across a multi-domain battlefield. This down-select decision is part of the Army’s IM-SHORAD effort to deliver prototypes in 2019.
27 Jun 18. Russian forces receive Malka self-propelled gun. An artillery formation of the Russian armed forces’ Central Military District stationed in the Kemerovo region has received 12 new 203mm Malka self-propelled guns, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced on 25 June.
With a firing rate of up to three rounds per minute, the gun is intended to eliminate targets at distances of up to 50km. The Malka gun will also be used for the field training of artillery units at the Yurgensky training ground in the Kemerovo region in July 2018. (Source: Shephard)
28 Jun 18. Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) and SeeByte are collaborating to incorporate AQS-24B mine hunting sensor data into the SeeTrack system to enhance its Autonomous Target Recognition (ATR) capability. The AQS-24B scans the ocean floor at a speed of 18 knots, which is nearly twice as much as any other operational towed minehunting device in the world. It utilizes a high-resolution, side scan sonar for real time detection, localization, and classification of mines at high coverage rates and a laser line scanner to provide precision optical identification. The AQS series minehunter is used globally and has logged thousands of hours of operation.
“The merging of the unmanned surface vessel-based AQS-24B with the SeeByte ATR will provide international navies with a better probability of detection and classification of bottom mines than is currently possible with an operator-only system,” said Alan Lytle, vice president, undersea systems, Northrop Grumman.
Northrop Grumman and SeeByte began their collaboration over a year ago and will be ready to demonstrate an initial release of this new capability during the Australian Navy’s planned Autonomous Warrior 18 exercise in Jervis Bay, Sydney, NSW in November.
“This will be the first ATR in existence directly supporting the highest-speed synthetic aperture sonar in the world, and marks a true advancement in the state of the art for such capabilities,” said Bob Black, CEO of SeeByte.
The product of this collaboration will be available for upcoming new mine countermeasures ship and payload programs across Europe, the Middle East and Pacific Rim.
SeeByte provides clients in the military and oil and gas sectors with advanced software to enhance the capabilities of their underwater sensors, vehicles, and systems. SeeByte partners with leading hardware manufacturers to provide enhanced capabilities for its sensors and systems to provide cues to enhance the warfighter’s ability to find undersea explosives.
27 Jun 18. USMC to test wireless rifle control system. Australian company Kord Defence has signed a contract with the US Marine Corps (USMC) for the testing and evaluation of a wireless rifle control system, the Australian Department of Defence announced on 26 June.
The contract will extend the current testing and evaluation of Kord Defence’s Rifle Input Control (RIC) technology to a wireless control system for use on a new USMC rifle.
The wireless control system was originally developed for the Australian Defence Force. The RIC technology
provides soldiers with a fast and simple way of controlling their electronic devices without having to take their hands off their weapon or eyes off task.
Christopher Pyne, Minister for Defence Industry, said: ‘Kord Defence is now able to export a similar technology to the US Marine Corps. This is a great example of Australian innovation taking advantage of support from this government, to provide world leading technology to support both Australian and allied soldiers.’ (Source: Shephard)
27 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin’s (NYSE: LMT) Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) system has successfully passed its Defense Acquisition Board review and achieved milestone C. The signed Acquisition Decision Memorandum approves the JAGM system to enter into Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP). JAGM is a multi-sensor air-to-ground missile that is the successor to the combat proven HELLFIRE Romeo and HELLFIRE Longbow missiles. Backward compatible with all rotary wing and fixed wing platforms that fire the HELLFIRE® family of missiles, JAGM employs a multi-mode guidance section that offers enhanced performance on the battlefield. The multimode seeker combines improved Semi-Active Laser and millimeter wave radar sensors providing precision strike and fire-and-forget capability against stationary and moving land and maritime targets in adverse weather and obscured battlefield conditions. JAGM flight tests, including ten Limited User Test flights, were completed across the performance envelope and target requirements over a period of months leading up to the successful milestone C decision. The test results demonstrated the system’s combat effectiveness and technical maturity. Additionally, the program successfully conducted supplier and prime contractor production readiness reviews establishing the program’s readiness to move into LRIP. The U.S. Army and U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a 24-month contract for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the JAGM program which included JAGM production, test qualification and integration on the AH-64E Apache and AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters. The EMD phase also established an initial low-rate manufacturing capability in support of three follow-on LRIP options, with U.S. Army Initial Operational Capability expected early 2019. The JAGM system hardware that demonstrated over 95 percent reliability in flight testing is built on the active HELLFIRE® missile family production line by the same team that has produced over 75,000 missiles with a fielded reliability exceeding 97 percent.
26 Jun 18. South Korean Raybolt spotted in Yemen. A manportable anti-tank missile system that appeared to be a South Korean-made LIG Nex1 Raybolt has been seen in a video attributed to the Fourth Brigade that is fighting the Yemeni rebel group Ansar Allah (Houthi). The Raybolt is an advanced system that can be locked on before launch so the operator does not have to guide it to its target. The video, which was released on or shortly before 21 June, appears to show this fire-and-forget capability as the vehicle it is launched against moves behind high ground during the missile’s flight, obscuring the target from the launch location. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. Leonardo DRS, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a contract worth $193m to provide the U.S. Army with TROPHY active protection systems for its Abrams tanks in support of immediate operational requirements. Under the terms of the contract, Leonardo DRS will provide the Army with TROPHY systems, countermeasures, and maintenance kits. Developed by long-time partner Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. of Israel and currently fielding some 1,000 systems to all major Israeli ground combat platforms, TROPHY provides combat-proven protection against anti-armor rocket and missile threats.
“Leonardo DRS is proud to be a part of this important effort to bring life-saving technology to our warfighters, and we are actively investing to ensure TROPHY provides a solid, American-made foundation for the Army’s coming Vehicle Protection Suite program,” said Aaron Hankins, Vice President and General Manager of the Leonardo DRS Land Systems division. “This award is the culmination of several years of hard work by a strong, bi-national government/industry team to protect our warfighters and address a critical capability gap in our armored formations,” Hankins said.
As a combat-proven capability already in full-rate production, TROPHY provides a high level of performance, safety, and life cycle affordability.
“Rafael has provided protection solutions to U.S. service members for over two decades via lifesaving passive and reactive armor on vehicles such as Bradley, Stryker and AAV7. We are excited to continue to do so with TROPHY,” said Moshe Elazar, Executive Vice President and Head of Rafael’s Land and Naval Division. “The majority of TROPHY components are manufactured by the American Defense Industry and we are excited by the opportunity to increase manufacturing in the U.S., including for Israeli systems, as the U.S. acquires additional systems.”
26 Jun 18. US Army plans to upgrade long-range precision fire capabilities. The US Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), PEO Ammunition and the Army Rapid Capabilities Office have collaborated to improve long-range precision fires. This will help improve strike accuracy at significant distances during ground operations in any theatre.
Currently, experts at Picatinny Arsenal have partnered to deliver new technologies that can extend the range of cannon artillery.
Known as the US Army’s Center of Excellence for Guns and Ammunition, and the Army Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), Picatinny Arsenal is the service’s acquisition shop that helps rapidly address critical capability gaps.
The long-range cannon project focuses on evaluating capability by quickly prototyping and equipping an artillery battery with the M777 Extended Range howitzer, a new projectile tracking system, survey device and rocket-assisted projectile in less than three years.
If the project is successful, the long-range cannon will almost double the range of cannon artillery for the US Army and the US Marine Corps.
This will offer an interim solution that would bridge a significant capability gap, while supporting the development of future long-range precision fires systems. The long-range cannon project offers this interim solution to the US Army before the service delivers the major long-range precision fires systems under development. The interim solution will also enable the operating forces to prepare for near-peer threats. (Source: army-technology.com)
25 Jun 18. MHTK transitions to EMD phase. The US Army Cruise Missile Defense Systems Project Office has awarded Lockheed Martin a USD2.6m contract to progress its Miniature Hit-to-Kill (MHTK) interceptor solution for the developmental test and evaluation (DT&E) phase for the Extended Mission Area Missile (EMAM) programme.
The award effectively transitions the MHTK programme from the science and technology (S&T) phase to the engineering, manufacturing, and development (EMD) phase.
The EMAM solution will be the second interceptor qualified for the army’s Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2-Intercept Block 2 (IFPC Inc 2-I) requirement. IFPC Inc 2-I Block 1 counter-unmanned aircraft systems and cruise missile defence (CUAS/CMD) will be delivered by a Raytheon AIM-9 class interceptor solution. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. KC-130J Completes Successful Harvest HAWK Plus Testing.
The Tactical Airlift Program Office (PMA-207) Integrated Warfighting Capability (IWC) Weapons team celebrated a successful five-week developmental and integrated test (DT/IT) live fire event utilizing a newly configured KC-130J with the Harvest Hercules Airborne Weapons Kit (HAWK) Plus (HH+) installed. The HH+ flawlessly completed multiple sorties, demonstrating successful strikes on both fixed and moving targets.
“The successful employment of this capability during live fire closed out the developmental and integrated test and positioned us to move into the follow-on test and evaluation phase of the program. The KJ IWC team did an outstanding job with our industry partners to correct hardware and software deficiencies with such dramatic results. The HH+ weapons kit will provide a significant combat multiplier to the Marine Air Ground Task Force,” said CAPT Steve Nassau, PMA-207 Program Manager.
The live fire test, conducted at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California also included four dedicated tactical integration flights to support operational test objective in conjunction with the weapons tactics instructor (WTI) course at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona.
“These flights proved to be some of the most fruitful flights of the entire detachment,” said Major Nate Houle, test pilot/project officer for Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX-20). “The repeated ability of multiple fleet operators to rapidly learn and employ the system in an operationally relevant tactical scenario within a short time span became a staple of each flight. To a Marine, each operator left the flight impressed with the system and eager for fleet deployment.”
Houle goes on to recommended that any opportunities to integrate DT/IT with WTI courses in the future should be capitalized on.
“The success of the live fire event was directly attributed to the selfless dedication and hard work of the KJ IWC IPT, Fleet Marines, VX-20 test personnel, China Lake Range personnel, industry partners and MAWTS-1 Marines. This is a testament to inter-agency cooperation and team work that needs to be nutured for future efforts as a recipe for success,” said Brian Katafiaz, PMA-207 KC-130J Integrated Warfighting Capability IPT Lead.
The HH+ mission is to provide the U.S. Marine Corps with extended endurance multi-sensor imagery, reconnaissance and on-call close air support capabilities. The HH+ is an upgrade to the original Harvest HAWK roll-on, roll-off precision strike package weapons system.
Not to rest on their successes, the KJ IWC team is developing an engineering change proposal (ECP) to improve the Hellfire weapons capacity and allow for future capability expansion. This ECP will ensure the KJ platform is a sensor is shooter, electronic warfare and is digitally interoperable capable, and in line with the Deputy Commandant for Aviation’s goal.
The Tactical Airlift program office is responsible for research, development and acquisition of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps C/KC-130 aircraft as well as the light, medium and executive lift transport aircraft including the C-40, C-38, C-37, UC-35, C-26, C-20, C/UC-12 and C/DC-9. (Source: ASD Network)
25 Jun 18. US Army’s long-range, surface-to-surface missile getting new life with $358m contract. The U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin a $358m production contract for the Army Tactical Missile System, which allows for a service life-extension program for old missiles, the company announced Monday. The firm will also produce new missiles for a Foreign Military Sales customer, Lockheed added.
ATACMS is the Army’s only surface-to-surface, long-range, 300-kilometer missile system. According to a Lockheed spokesperson, the missile system performs well in operations and is highly reliable.
But the Army is burning through a variety of its precision missiles in operations that have been heating up in various theaters, and the service is taking steps to ensure its inventory is refreshed and robust going forward.
The service life-extension program, or SLEP, will allow customers to be able to upgrade existing Block 1 and Block 1A missiles with new technology and double the range, a Lockheed statement notes.
When an old ATACMS comes through the SLEP line, it’s “essentially a brand-new missile, and it’s reset to [a] 10-year shelf life,” a Lockheed spokesperson told Defense News.
In December 2014, the Army awarded Lockheed a contract to modernize the ATACMS weapon system, and the company embarked on an effort to upgrade and redesign all the internal electronics, developing and qualifying a new capability for a proximity sensor that enables ATACMS to have a height of burst.
ATACMS has a 500-pound class Harpoon warhead intended for point detonation, but giving the missile a height-of-burst capability increases its area effects for imprecisely located targets, the spokesperson said.
As part of the SLEP program for expired or aging ATACMS, Lockheed will clean up the old motors and then go through a remanufacture and final assembly process that incorporates the installation of the upgraded electronics.
Lockheed is set up, under the current contract, to update or build new missiles at a rate of 320 a year at its Camden, Arkansas, Precision Fires Production Center of Excellence, but there is a surge capacity of 400.
Still, the company is posturing to reach a rate of 500 new and upgraded ATACMSs per year based on interest and anticipated orders, the spokesperson said.
Lockheed has produced over 3,850 ATACMS missiles, and more than 600 of them have been fired in combat. ATACMSs are packaged in a Guided Missile Launch Assembly pod and is fired from the Multiple Launch Rocket System family of launchers. (Source: Defense News)
25 Jun 18. SIG SAUER, Inc. announced that the Danish Ministry of Defense (MoD) has selected the SIG SAUER P320 X-Carry to replace their standard service pistol covering the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Special Operations Command (SOCOM). The Danish MoD is the ministry within the Danish government charged with ensuring peace and security, both nationally and internationally, and is comprised of the Danish armed forces, the Danish Defense Intelligence Service, and the Danish Emergency Management Agency. The procurement process for the Danish MoD’s new standard service pistol lasted four weeks in which the Glock 17 Gen 5, Beretta APX, Canik TP 9 SF, and the SIG P320 X-Carry, were tested under all possible conditions and varying circumstances that the pistol would be used. Testing for accuracy, night shooting, and field testing were conducted by the Army, Navy, Air Force, and SOCOM. Additional drop, penetration, and precision testing were conducted by various selected experts for each of the contenders.
25 Jun 18. The international impact of Israel’s underground Iron Dome. The U.S. and Israel are continuing joint work to improve tunnel detection, specifically those used by militant organizations such as Hamas and the Islamic State group. The collaboration will continue through 2020, and this year’s budget is expected to reach similar levels as the $80m the U.S. contributed in 2016-2017. Tunnel warfare isn’t new, and the joint effort against the threat brings together experience that Israel and the U.S. have from current and previous conflicts. The U.S. confronted extensive tunnel systems in Vietnam. However, militant groups are increasingly resorting to tunnels as a way to avoid surveillance by drones and other aerial assets.
As technology improves, adversaries have sought to counter such innovation by digging deeper and more complex tunnel systems. In Iraq, for instance, ISIS honeycombed cities with tunnels whose exits were contained inside civilian homes, hidden from aerial view.
The U.S. Marine Corps trained with Israeli paratroopers in March on combating the tunnel threat, and research and development funding stands to benefit both countries in developing technology, such as acoustic-detection systems, that will aid in future battlefields and modern threats.
As part Juniper Cobra 2018 exercise in March, the Marines and the Israel Defense Forces participated in a variety of drills. The sub-exercise Kaya Green, for example, included training aimed at learning from Israel’s experience in tunnel warfare. This built on major strides Israel has made over the last decade in engineering, intelligence and use of technology to find and destroy tunnels.
“We did a joint training session with them, fighting side by side, with the armored vehicles, and the way they used them was really effective,” Lt. Ron Semel told the Times of Israel.
In the last six months, Israel has detected and destroyed several impressive tunnels constructed by Hamas. One of these tunnels sought to reach into Egypt and was struck in January. Israel has called its strategy of using technology and intelligence to combat the tunnel threat a “steel dome” in contrast to its Iron Dome system that confronts missiles.
In the first week of June, the IDF destroyed a tunnel in Gaza with an airstrike. Unlike most of the tunnels built by Hamas ― which are built to penetrate Israel or used for smuggling from Egypt ― this one was built underwater to allow Hamas seaborne commandos to move undetected at sea. It was almost 3 meters deep and only 3 kilometers from Israel’s border, an IDF spokesman said.
But the tunnel-detection systems Israel has been pioneering with U.S. support has wider implications.
Geographically speaking, U.S. lawmakers have pointed to North Korean subterranean tunnels as a reason to boost U.S.-Israel research and development efforts against this growing threat.
In March, 56 members of Congress wrote in a joint letter to the Committee on Appropriations‘ Defense Subcommittee that “our own nation faces similar threats [to those in Israel]. In Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, ISIS has used subterranean passages to smuggle weapons, avoid detection, ambush troops and launch tunnel bomb attacks.”
For their part, Reps. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., and Dan Donovan, R-N.Y., have sought to pass the United States-Israel Anti-Tunnel Defense Cooperation Act to enshrine the tunnel cooperation in legislation.
In December, the United States’ fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act included continued monetary support for the joint tunnel program. According to the legislation, 50 percent of that funding must be used for “research, development, test and evaluation activities in the U.S. in connection with such support” ― and the program was extended through 2020.
So far, more than $82.5m was spent in 2016-2017 on the joint program, and similar figures are expected in the coming years. The anti-tunnel efforts build on previous successful collaborative efforts to counter missile threats that have seen Israel develop the Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling systems. But the tunnel-detection technology goes beyond purely military applications.
Elbit Systems reportedly wants to export some of the technology that it has helped develop as a partner in the program. The detection system could be used to combat tunnels used for smuggling drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, among other areas. In April 2016, the U.S. uncovered a tunnel stretching half a mile from Mexico into San Diego, California. It was the largest of 13 uncovered since 2006.
There is also a network of tunnels left over in areas liberated from ISIS in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria. These continue to bedevil the return of civilians, who suffer casualties from improvised explosive devices and fear ISIS may be hiding out in elaborate tunnel systems that have not been fully explored or destroyed. (Source: Defense News)
24 Jun 18. US Army is Spending Half a Billion to Train Soldiers to Fight Underground. U.S. Army leaders say the next war will be fought in mega-cities, but the service has embarked on an ambitious effort to prepare most of its combat brigades to fight, not inside, but beneath them.
Late last year, the Army launched an accelerated effort that funnels some $572m into training and equipping 26 of its 31 active combat brigades to fight in large-scale subterranean facilities that exist beneath dense urban areas around the world.
For this new type of warfare, infantry units will need to know how to effectively navigate, communicate, breach heavy obstacles and attack enemy forces in underground mazes ranging from confined corridors to tunnels as wide as residential streets. Soldiers will need new equipment and training to operate in conditions such as complete darkness, bad air and lack of cover from enemy fire in areas that challenge standard Army communications equipment.
Senior leaders have mentioned small parts of the effort in public speeches, but Army officials at Fort Benning, Georgia’s Maneuver Center of Excellence — the organization leading the subterranean effort — have been reluctant to discuss the scale of the endeavor.
“We did recognize, in a megacity that has underground facilities — sewers and subways and some of the things we would encounter … we have to look at ourselves and say ‘ok, how does our current set of equipment and our tactics stack up?'” Col. Townley Hedrick, commandant of the Infantry School at the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, told Military.com in an interview. “What are the aspects of megacities that we have paid the least attention to lately, and every megacity has got sewers and subways and stuff that you can encounter, so let’s brush it up a little bit.”
Left unmentioned were the recent studies the Army has undertaken to shore up this effort. The Army completed a four-month review last year of its outdated approach to underground combat, and published a new training manual dedicated to this environment.
“This training circular is published to provide urgently needed guidance to plan and execute training for units operating in subterranean environments, according to TC 3-20.50 “Small Unit Training in Subterranean Environments,” published in November 2017. “Though prepared through an ‘urgent’ development process, it is authorized for immediate implementation.”
A New Priority
The Army has always been aware that it might have to clear and secure underground facilities such as sewers and subway systems beneath densely-populated cities. In the past, tactics and procedures were covered in manuals on urban combat such as FM 90-10-1, “An Infantryman’s Guide to Combat in Built-up Areas,” dated 1993.
Before the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mission for taking large, underground military complexes was given to tier-one special operations units such as Army Delta Force and the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, as well as the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment.
But the Pentagon’s new focus on preparing to fight peer militaries such as North Korea, Russia and China changed all that.
An assessment last year estimates that there are about 10,000 large-scale underground military facilities around the world that are intended to serve as subterranean cities, an Army source, who is not cleared to talk to the press, told Military.com.
The Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group — an outfit often tasked with looking ahead to identify future threats — told U.S. military leaders that special operations forces will not be able to deal with the subterranean problem alone and that large numbers of conventional forces must be trained and equipped to fight underground, the source said.
The endeavor became an urgent priority because more than 4,800 of these underground facilities are located in North Korea, the source said.
Relations now seem to be warming between Washington and Pyongyang after the recent meeting between U.S. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But in addition to its underground nuclear missile facilities, North Korea has the capability to move thousands of troops through deep tunnels beneath the border into South Korea, according to the Army’s new subterranean manual.
“North Korea could accommodate the transfer of 30,000 heavily armed troops per hour,” the manual states. “North Korea had planned to construct five southern exits and the tunnel was designed for both conventional warfare and guerrilla infiltration. Among other things, North Korea built a regimental airbase into a granite mountain.”
For its part, Russia inherited a vast underground facilities program from the Soviet Union, designed to ensure the survival of government leadership and military command and control in wartime, the manual states. Underground bunkers, tunnels, secret subway lines, and other facilities still beneath Moscow, other major Russian cities, and the sites of major military commands.
More recently, U.S. and coalition forces operating in Iraq and Syria have had to deal with fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria operating in tunnel systems.
Learning to Fight Underground
To prepare combat units, the Army has activated mobile teams to train the leadership of 26 brigade combat teams on how prepare units for underground warfare and plan and execute large-scale combat operations in the subterranean environment.
So far, the effort has trained five BCTs based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska; Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; Camp Casey, Korea; and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. Army trainers have a January deadline to finish training 21 more BCTs located at bases including Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Fort Drum, New York; Fort Bliss and Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Richardson, Alaska, the source said.
The 3rd BCT, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado is next in line for the training.
Army officials confirmed to Military.com that there is an approved plan to dedicate $572m to the effort. That works out to $22m for each BCT, according to an Army spokeswoman who did not want to be named for this article. The Army did not say where the money is coming from or when it will be given to units.
Army leaders launched the subterranean effort last fall, tasking the AWG with developing a training program. The unit spent October-January at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, developing the tactics, techniques and procedures, or TTPs, units will need to fight in this environment.
“Everything that you can do above ground, you can do below ground; there are just tactics and techniques that are particular,” the source said, adding that tactics used in a subterranean space are much like those used in clearing buildings.
“The principles are exactly the same, but now do it without light, now do it in a confined space … now try to breach a door using a thermal cutting torch when you don’t have air.”
Three training teams focus on heavy breaching, TTPs and planning and a third to train the brigade leadership on intelligence priorities and how to prepare for brigade-size operations in subterranean facilities.
“The whole brigade will be learning the operation,” the source said.
Army combat units train in mock-up towns known as military operations in urban terrain, or MOUT, sites. These training centers often have sewers to deal with rain water, but are too small to use for realistic training, the source said.
The Defense Department has a half-dozen locations that feature subterranean networks. They’re located at Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Story, Virginia; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Indiana; Tunnel Warfare Center, China Lake, California and Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, according to the new subterranean training manual.
Rather sending infrastructure to these locations, units will build specially designed, modular subterranean trainers, created by the AWG in 2014. The completed maze-like structure is fashioned from 15 to 20 shipping containers, or conexes, and sits above ground.
Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, talked about these new training structures at the Association of the United States Army’s LANPAC 2018 symposium in Hawaii.
“I was just at the Asymmetric Warfare Group recently; they had built a model subterranean training center that now the Army is in the process of exporting to the combat training centers and home stations,” Townsend said.
“I was thinking to myself before I went and saw it, ‘how are we going to be able to afford to build all these underground training facilities?’ Well, they took me into one that wasn’t underground at all. It actually looked like you went underground at the entrance, but the facility was actually built above ground. But you couldn’t tell that once you went inside of it.”
Shipping containers are commonplace around the Army, so units won’t have to buy special materials to build the trainers, Hedrick said.
“Every post has old, empty conexes … and those are easily used to simulate working underground,” Hedrick said.
Specialized Equipment
Training is only part of the subterranean operations effort. A good portion of the $22m going to each BCT will be needed buy special equipment so combat units can operate safety underground.
“You can’t go more than one floor deep underground without losing comms with everybody who is up on the surface,” Townsend said. “Our capabilities need some work.”
The Army is looking at the handheld MPU-5 smart radio, made by Persistent Systems LLC, which features a new technology and relies on a “mobile ad hoc network” that will allow units to talk to each other and to the surface as well.
“It sends out a signal that combines with the one next to it, and the one next to it … it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” the source said.
Off the shelf, MPU-5s coast approximately $10,000 each.
Toxic air, or a drop in oxygen, are other challenges soldiers will be likely to face operating deep underground. The Army is evaluating off-the-shelf self-contained breathing equipment for units to purchase.
“Protective masks without a self-contained breathing apparatus provide no protection against the absence of oxygen,” the subterranean manual states. “Having breathing apparatus equipment available is the primary protection element against the absence of oxygen, in the presence of hazardous gases, or in the event of a cave-in.”
Soldiers can find themselves exposed to smoke, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, methane natural gas underground, according to the manual.
Breathing gear is expensive; some apparatus cost as much as $13,000 apiece, the source said.
Underground tunnels and facilities are often lighted, but when the lights go out, soldiers will be in total darkness. The Army announced in February that it has money in its fiscal 2019 budget to buy dual-tubed, binocular-style night vision goggles to give soldiers greater depth perception than offered by the current single-tubed Enhanced Night Vision Goggles and AN/PVS 14s.
The Enhanced Night Vision Goggle B uses a traditional infrared image intensifier similar to the PVS-14 along with a thermal camera. The system fuses the IR with the thermal capability into one display. The Army is considering equipping units trained in subterranean ops with ENVG Bs, the source said.
Units will also need special, hand-carried ballistic shields, at least two per squad, since tunnels provide little to no cover from enemy fire.
Weapon suppressors are useful to cut down on noise that’s significantly amplified in confined spaces, the manual states.
Some of the heavy equipment such as torches and large power saws needed for breaching are available in brigade engineer units, Hedrick said.
“We definitely did put some effort into trying to identify a list of normal equipment that may not work and what equipment that we might have to look at procuring,” Hedrick said.
Jason Dempsey, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for new American Security, was skeptical about the scale of the program.
Dempsey, a former Army infantry officer with two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, told Military.com that such training “wasn’t relevant” to fights in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He questions spending such a large amount of money training and equipping so many of the Army’s combat brigades in a type of combat that they might never need.
“I can totally understand taking every brigade in Korea, Alaska, some of the Hawaii units — any units on tap for first response for something going on in Korea,” said Dempsey, who served in the combat units such as the 75th Ranger Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division.
“Conceptually I don’t knock it. The only reason I would question it is if it comes with a giant bill and new buys of a bunch of specialized gear. … It’s a whole new business line for folks whose business tapered off after Afghanistan.” (Source: Military.com)
25 Jun 18. UUV Aquabotix Ltd (ASX:UUV) (“Aquabotix” or the “Company”) today announces that its wholly-owned subsidiary Aquabotix Technology Corporation has been granted an award of US$78,000 in non-dilutive hardware integration funding from the United States Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center (“NUWC”) to deliver a solution geared towards unexploded ordnance missions for the United States Navy. After delivery, this solution will be incorporated into Aquabotix’s key product SwarmDiverTM or other unmanned underwater vehicles manufactured by Aquabotix, to support unexploded ordnance detection missions by the United States Navy and allied forces.
Ordnance that was disposed of or did not explode when deployed in previous conflicts poses a risk of detonation, even decades later, and is found in shallow waters across the globe. A Texas A&M University study estimated there are over 13.6 million kilograms of ordnance just in the Gulf of Mexico alone. To avoid accidental detonation of these explosives, mission support is required to detect, locate, and neutralise them.
Current methods of detecting and locating unexploded ordnance are time consuming and expensive to conduct; however, adding unexploded ordnance detection and location capability to the Aquabotix product lines changes this. Because of the low cost of Aquabotix’s products, the Company is able to provide a solution to its navy customers at a “disposables” price point, yet its products are recoverable for continued use rather than disposable, a substantial and attractive point of difference for end-users. Further, the fact that Aquabotix’s products are also capable of taking readings at multiple locations simultaneously, enables U.S. and allied forces to more efficiently find and neutralise these threats using the products. This initial funding from the Navy supports continued SwarmDiverTM product development that is tailored to provide a solution for a sizable and currently otherwise unaddressed governmental need.
Detection and neutralisation of unexploded ordnance is one of many uses for SwarmDiverTM, and the Company is actively pursuing multiple opportunities for a range of uses and modifications of SwarmDiverTM with the various branches of the United States military.
Aquabotix’s Chief Executive Officer, Whitney Million, remarked, “We are grateful to the United States Navy for this initial order. Governmental procurement processes can take extended periods of time, yet NUWC obligated the funds within one month after we started our discussions about the issue with them. Aquabotix’s products are the platform for the solution to this immediate military need, and we look forward to this first phase of our co-operation with the Navy, and to fully productising our solution in a range of versions tailored for different uses.”
23 Jun 18. FN SCAR Review – The Most Refined Assault Rifle in the World. The HK416 that DevGru used to introduce Osama bin Laden to his seventy dark-eyed virgins was itself an evolutionary offshoot of the space age weapon that Gene Stoner and a few others conjured up way back in 1958. While its ergonomics are unparalleled and its design undeniably inspired, the basic chassis is more than half a century old. Back in 1958 a telephone was tethered to the wall, weighed as much as a frying pan, and was nearly as large. Surely this deep into the Information Age we could do better.
About every twenty minutes, somebody in the US Army posts a list of specifications that drives the flower of modern engineering prowess into an apoplectic furor of frenetic gun design. The carrot that drives all this capitalistic chaos is the prestige and subsequent vast market share that opens up to the weapons company that supplies the guns that American grunts pack downrange. In addition to the obvious monetary benefits of a fat government production contract, everybody knows that the coolest kids on the block serve with the US Special Operations Command. If Uncle Sam’s Bad Boys are humping a particular smoke pole then everybody else on the planet will want one just like it.
Most of these fishing expeditions don’t amount to much. Everybody gets tooled up for a while, but budget priorities change, somebody new moves into the White House, or we go to war someplace else and the process starts anew. Such boondoggles brought us the XM8 assault rifle as well as the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System. These weapons were both undeniably awesome, but you can’t find one outside a museum nowadays. However, every now and then something truly magical happens.
Sig’s new M17 Modular Handgun System made such a splash. Uncle Sam now wants more than 400,000 copies. Additionally, everybody’s aunt out here in the civilian world is waiting in line for one as well. A proper government arms contract can put a company firmly on the map. With this as an impetus in 2004, Fabrique Nationale rejoiced when their newest rifle system was selected as the new Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle.
SCAR—The World’s Coolest Acronym (Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle)
It was decided soon after the turn of the century that our boys and girls in SOCOM needed something spiffier than a fifty-year-old M16 variant. They go places and do things that others don’t, so their requirements might be a bit more stringent than is the case for the rest of us mere mortals. After a competitive comparison wherein the baddest operators in the business did their dead level best to tear up everybody’s newest toys the FN offering reigned supreme. The end result was indeed a spanking piece of iron. Modularity is the new gospel in modern firepower, and the FN SCAR just drips with it. The upper receiver starts out as an extruded bit of aluminum, while the polymer lower contains the fire control system and secures the magazine. There are two major subtypes. The SCAR-Light (SCAR-L) runs 5.56x45mm. The SCAR-Heavy (SCAR-H) chambers 7.62x51mm. There were rumors of conversions allowing these guns to fire 7.62x39mm and 6.8x43mm Remington, but these variants never really made it to prime time. The SCAR-H can also be fitted with a conversion kit allowing it to run smaller 5.56x45mm rounds. The SCAR-L cannot be scaled up, however.
Both versions run off of a gas tappet design similar to that of the M1 Carbine. This particular method of operation keeps all the crud up front in the weapon so the operating parts stay clean and cool. The bolt carrier is a fairly massive piece of kit, so the rifle has plenty of spare energy to keep the action running when it gets dirty. The barrels are chrome-lined, free-floated, and easily exchanged. This allows a single chassis to be used for long-range engagements, mid-range assault rifle chores, and close-range CQB missions. There’s that modularity again.
Starting at the nose, the SCAR uses a proprietary muzzle brake/flash suppressor that looks like a Jackson Pollack painting but remains undeniably effective. The gas system of the SCAR is easily adjustable without tools. Top quality backup iron sights fold when not needed yet deploy quickly for use when life goes truly sideways. The front sight is adjustable for zero, while the rear sight readily compensates for bullet drop. The gun sprouts enough Picatinny rail space to mount a tactical crockpot along with a modest pinball machine.
The charging handle is rigid and reciprocates with the action so it can be used as a forward assist device if needed. This appendage is easily reversible at the user level, but one needs to mind one’s fingers lest they get pinched when rushed. The magazine release is in the expected place on both sides of the rifle, while the bolt release runs exactly like that of an M4. You can drop the bolt just as easily by giving the charging handle a quick snatch to the rear.
The safety/selector is bilateral and in the same spot as that of the M4. However, it only rotates through maybe 80 degrees. In this regard, it more closely resembles that of an HK G36. The SCAR-L is designed to feed from any NATO-standard 5.56mm magazine. The SCAR-H uses proprietary FN magazines.
The real magic happens with the rear end of the rifle. The stock on the SCAR is as adjustable as your favorite recliner. Once you get it tweaked the gun fits you like your most beloved pair of broken-in boxer shorts. In addition to a readily adjustable length of pull and comb height, the whole shebang pivots to the right for storage if need be. The rifle will still shoot fine with the stock folded, but nobody in his right mind would run it that way for real. By my count, there are six different sling attachment points. If you can’t find a handy place to hook a sling you are being too picky.
Tactical Glass
I topped my SCAR with a new EOTech EXPS2 Holosight sporting a green reticle in concert with a flip-up magnifier. These two items are hardly cheap, but the last thing Osama bin Laden saw as he embarked for his well-earned eternal reward was the angry end of a Holosight. I can think of no higher accolade.
The perception of color is a billion dollar industry. The good ladies in my medical clinic will order blue t-shirts calling them periwinkle and pink ones titled mauve. Out here in guy-world where I live such things are much simpler. Blue is just blue, while pink is simply pink. However, our eyes do typically get a lot more mileage out of green than red.
Take laser sights as an example. Both green and red laser sights may put out the same 500mw of power, yet the green sort is perceived as being much brighter. Green dots seem to throw much farther than red. In the case of the newest Holosight, the same cool laser-born holographic reticle seems to magically hover out over your target, but the green reticle is six times easier to see in daylight than is the red sort.
I have more than half a century on my eyes so I suffer from the inevitable age-related Presbyopia. This means I can see fine at a distance but need reading glasses up close. However, that weird Holosight reticle projected onto a little pane of indestructible glass two inches from my eyeball remains crystal clear just like my distant target. I have no idea how it works. Fairy dust maybe.
Trigger Time
A tricked-out SCAR is an absolute dream on the range. The controls are all easily accessible, and once properly adjusted the buttstock fits me like a second skin. Recoil is a joke, and the gun stays flat and true at reasonable assault rifle ranges. The reciprocating charging handle takes a little getting used to, but it’s not a chore. Care must be exercised, however, not to pinch your fingers between the charging handle and the Holosight.
The gun is bulkier than your M4 though no heavier. The safety doesn’t seem quite so easy to re-engage, but I’ve been running an M16 since I was seventeen. Some things are tough to unlearn.
They say a direct gas impingement AR is more accurate, but that’s nuance at best. The SCAR shoots great as far as my eyes will allow. Anybody who splits those hairs is just a snob.
Particularly with a can in place the gun is pleasantly front-heavy. This means doubles are fast and easy. Muzzle rise on semi auto with the SCAR is not a real thing. After a proper afternoon turning ammo into noise I find I must agree with SOCOM. The SCAR is the ultimate shooting machine.
The Rest of the Story
After a great deal of fanfare, USSOCOM bought enough SCAR-L rifles to outfit a Ranger Battalion and then sent them downrange with their best wishes. By all accounts the weapons performed admirably, but, like a dog chasing a squirrel, Uncle Sam got distracted, ran out of money, and called the whole thing off. By 2013 all those lovely SCAR-L rifles had been pulled out of inventory and likely, knowing the government, ended up chopped up into beer cans or something comparably ignoble.
The SCAR-H still soldiers on with alacrity albeit in markedly smaller numbers. A conversion kit indeed allows this rifle to run 5.56 ammo if desired, and the SCAR-H occupies the Designated Marksman Rifle role that had been filled by antiquated though updated M14 variants previously. Internet chatter claims that the Navy SEALs are still particularly fond of the gun. That is likely true. However, the Internet also tells me that Caitlyn Jenner is carrying the Loch Ness Monster’s baby and that the moon landings were faked on a soundstage in New Mexico. One mustn’t believe everything one reads. FN is quick to point out that the SCAR got binned for budgetary reasons and not something more sinister. Nobody disputes that the SCAR is a better rifle than the M4. It is simply that Uncle Sam discovered more pressing places to spend our hard-earned cash. After a little trigger time on mine, I find myself quite taken with the gun as well.
Denouement
The FN SCAR 16S is the semiauto civilian version of the SCAR-L. It’s an undeniably great rifle that is pretty crazy expensive. If you are in possession of a robust credit card you can usually find a couple right here at GunsAmerica. I bought mine at a good price at a Sheriff’s auction of seized guns, of all places. The rifle is in fine condition, but I am intrigued by the story. How someone on the wrong side of the law ended up with such a rarefied combat rifle is thought provoking to say the least. The SCAR rode its SOCOM cred to be adopted by twenty-seven different countries as well as LAPD SWAT. Belgium adopted the SCAR as their standard Infantry arm. Though our snake-eaters took a step back to their old M4 carbines I suspect we will still see more of the SCAR in the future. The FN SCAR really is tomorrow’s high-end combat rifle. (Source: GunsAmerica Blog)
21 Jun 18. USAF looks to quadruple B-52 external weapons load. The US Air Force (USAF) is looking to quadruple the weight of bombs that the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress is able to carry externally.
According to a request for information (RFI) issued on 21 June, Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) is seeking a new external weapons pylon that will take the B-52’s current 10,000 lb (4,536 kg) maximum external load (across two underwing pylons) to 40,000lb (18,144kg). “The current Improved Common Pylon (ICP) … was designed in 1959 and has been in service since the 1960s. When it was introduced, there wasn’t a requirement nor did anyone foresee a need to carry weapons heavier than 5,000 lb. It was modified in the late 1990s … and has performed exceptionally well … [but] it has limitations when it comes to heavy weight capacity. With current heavy weapons exceeding 5,000 lb there is a new requirement for a replacement external carriage pylon assembly,” the RFI said, adding that the new replacement pylon will not exceed 5,000lb in weight while being capable of carrying multiple weapons in the 5,000 lb to 20,000lb weight class. The RFI provided no details as to planned costs and timelines for the pylon upgrade, except to say that the total effort from development to fielding should be accomplished between 36 and 72 months. Responses to the RFI are due by 15:00 hrs Central Standard Time on 20 July. The new pylon would enable the B-52 to carry any of the air-launched munitions in the USAF inventory up to the 22,000 lb Massive Ordnance Air Burst (MOAB) bomb. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. New Grom air-to-surface missile undergoes flight tests. Russia’s Tactical Missiles Corporation (KTRV) new Grom tactical air-to-ground missile is undergoing flight tests in readiness for commencing series production in November, according to a company presentation). Flight tests of the Grom, carried out on an Su-34 fighter-bomber, began at the end of 2017; according to the presentation, state evaluations will continue until September 2018.
KTRV’s 9A-7759 Grom (Thunder) is a new tactical missile development revealed in 2015. The Grom design is based on the Kh-38M missile, which was cleared for series production in 2015. KTRV director general Boris Obnosov said in 2015 that wings were added to the Kh-38M and the design was partially modified. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
21 Jun 18. One of these 3 missiles could be the Army’s pick to protect against indirect fires. The U.S. Army has awarded three $2.6m contracts in the first phase of a program to find a second interceptor to defend against rockets, artillery, mortars, cruise missiles and drones. Lockheed Martin was awarded one contract to mature its Miniature Hit-to-Kill (MHTK) missile out of the science and technology phase and into the development phase. And Raytheon received two awards: one to qualify Sky Hunter — which is the U.S. version of Israeli company Rafael’s Tamir interceptor — and another based on the Accelerated Improved Interceptor Initiative (AI3). The U.S. Army indicated in its fiscal year 2019 budget documents that it wanted a new surface-to-air missile to provide capability to counter RAM, cruise missile and drone threats and plans to hold a competition to procure it. The missile the Army is calling the Expanded Mission Area Missile, or EMAM, will be the second interceptor qualified for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 program, or IFPC Inc. 2, which has been in development to counter RAM threats for years.
The service has already chosen one interceptor for the system — the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, but since IFPC will feature a multi-mission launcher, or MML, the Army wants to qualify a variety of interceptors for the system over time.
“This award brings us one step closer to addressing a top battlefield priority — having an effective and cost-efficient solution to defeat rockets, artillery, mortars and other airborne targets,” Hal Stuart, the force protection program manager within Lockheed’s Missiles and Fire Control business, said in a statement issued at Eurosatory, one of Europe’s largest land warfare conferences, June 13.
The Army and Lockheed have worked together to mature the MHTK missile from basic research to a concept demonstration with two configurations — a semi-active radio frequency seeker and an active radio frequency seeker, according to the Lockheed statement.
The MHTK is just under two-and-a-half feet and an inch-and-a-half in diameter and weighs in at about five pounds.
“A key element of phase 1 is creating a high fidelity, integrated flight simulation of the EMAM offerings to support US Army down-select for an accelerated [engineering and manufacturing development] program,” Raytheon said in a statement. “Raytheon is working hard to provide capable and proven solutions for both IFPC 2 and [Maneuver- Short-range Air Defense] programs.”
The Tamir missile is the interceptor for the Israel-U.S.-developed Iron Dome air defense system that is deployed in Israel and is used to protect the country from incoming rockets, artillery and mortars.
The Israeli and U.S. governments have a co-development and production agreement to produce parts for Iron Dome and build the interceptors. Rafael and Raytheon are the co-producers for the program. About 55 percent of the work is done in the U.S. while the remaining work is done in Israel.
Raytheon and the Army teamed up to design and build the AI3 interceptor missile during a 19-month development and demonstration program. The missile is specifically designed to counter RAM threats but could also serve as a drone buster in both the IFPC and SHORAD missions.
The U.S. Army has already test fired Tamir, MHTK and AI3 from its multi-mission launcher that is also still in development.
The IFPC Inc. 2 system isn’t expected to be fielded until roughly 2023 and there’s push in Congress to try to find an interim solution to defeat cruise missiles until it’s ready. Rafael’s Iron Dome and Tamir interceptors is a system being floated to serve in that role. (Source: Defense News)
22 Jun 18. Joint Strike Missile enters final development phase. The Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace Joint Strike Missile (JSM) has entered its final phase of development following the successful conclusion of its last qualification flight test (FTM-5) in March this year.
Pending a Final Design Review in June, development of the missile is scheduled for completion by the end of 2018, following which it will be prepared for integration, carriage, and release trials with the Royal Norwegian Air Force’s (RNoAF’s) F-35A Lightning II multirole stealth fighter.
FTM-5 was the culmination of a four-year flight test campaign to qualify the missile for integration with the RNoAF’s F-35A. In a first end-to-end flight test for the missile, a JSM equipped with a live warhead was launched from a legacy F-16C/D Fighting Falcon from the US Air Force’s 445th Flight Test Group against a ‘realistic’ land target at the Utah Test and Training Range in the United States.
Kongsberg conducted the first flight test (FTM-1) of JSM in October 2015; in October 2016 the company conducted the first long-range powered flight test (FTM-2) of the missile over the Utah Test and Training Range – although FTM-2 was a re-run of an earlier failed flight test. In the May/June timeframe 2017, the company conducted the FTM-3/FTM-4 trials. In both tests the missile was flown without a seeker capability.
While the JSM development is technically independent of Norway’s participation in the F-35 programme, its progress, including an initial operational capability (IOC), is essentially being driven by the F-35 timeline, with the missile integration into the F-35A assigned to the Block 4.1 software release in the 2021 timeframe. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
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27 Jun 18. World Economic Forum starts Drone Innovators Network. The World Economic Forum, the international organization for public-private cooperation, has created the Drone Innovators Network as a platform to bring together pioneering aviation authorities to share research, best practices and innovative new policies. The mission of the network, the first of its kind, is to inspire and accelerate the responsible use of drones across society.
Supported by aviation and aerospace industry leaders, the Drone Innovators Network will spotlight countries, like Rwanda and Switzerland, which have found new ways to regulate airspace alongside new technology that could advance the management of drones.
“Drones and autonomous flying vehicles, key parts of the fourth industrial revolution, provide an opportunity to revolutionize mobility networks. The Drone Innovators Network launch event at ETH Zurich brings together government, industry, academia, and civil society to co-design the principles and protocols which will maximize the benefits to society and mitigate the risks of drone technology,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman at the World Economic Forum.
“It’s all about access to airspace,” said Timothy Reuter, Head of Drones at the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “Drones are playing an increasingly important role in saving lives, promoting food security and enabling economic growth. But the kind of regulations needed to scale up this technology is not there yet. We created the Drone Innovators Network to bring together a community of government pioneers to inspire and show what is possible.”
“There are challenges ahead for businesses and regulators,” said Jana Rosenmann, Head of the Unmanned Aerial Systems at Airbus Defence & Space. “We need a place for both to share learnings and best practices. The Drone Innovators Network will help further the conversation to accelerate the use of drones around the world.”
“It is not by chance that the first international Drone Innovators Network meeting is taking place in Switzerland; Switzerland is a leader in drone technology,” said Doris Leuthard, Federal Councillor, Switzerland. “The close collaboration between institutes of technology, industry and the authorities makes Switzerland an attractive location for start-ups, companies and academic research. Switzerland is, therefore, playing a pioneering role in this area today.”
Spotlighting new technology is a key component of the new network. The first nationwide demonstration of an Unmanned Traffic Management system took place today. For the first time in Europe, a user can track in real-time, on one screen, all registered drones in flight. It is the equivalent of putting digital “stop signs” in the sky. It lowers the barrier to entry for new pilots and improves overall safety.
The system can alert registered drone users when they are about to enter a no-fly zone or when to avoid certain areas where emergency responders are working. For the first time, a system will be able to see if a drone has permission to access airspace, bringing much-needed accountability and trust to the industry.
The test was carried out by the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation, which worked alongside drone manufacturers Matternet, Parrot and senseFly and air-navigation service providers AirMap and Skyguide.
About the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Based in San Francisco, the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution brings together governments, leading companies, civil society and experts from around the world to co-design and pilot innovative approaches to the policy and governance of new technologies. Its vision is to shape the development and use of emerging technologies in ways that will maximize the benefits and minimize the risks. The centre will develop, implement and scale agile and human-centred pilot projects that can be adopted by policy-makers, legislators and regulators worldwide to address the challenges presented by emerging technologies.
(Source: UAS VISION)
27 Jun 18. US, European Air-Safety Agencies Follow Different Paths on Drone Regulation. Europe’s commercial-drone industry likely faces slower growth and tighter initial safety restrictions than U.S. operators, based on comments by the head of the European Aviation Safety Agency.
In an interview Wednesday during a U.S.- European air-safety conference here, executive director Patrick Ky sketched out a more conservative vision for overseeing the burgeoning realm of unmanned aircraft than regulatory plans evolving on this side of the Atlantic.
Mr. Ky indicated that for package-delivery drones to be allowed to fly over densely populated areas, early versions may need to be equipped with parachutes. Or at the beginning, they may be restricted to taking off and landing on or near a river bank.
Eventually, he said, such unmanned aerial operations by companies such as Amazon.com Inc. probably would have to undergo a formal safety evaluation culminating in full-blown EASA safety certification of the vehicle itself.
“If you want to fly in a city” and “your vehicle presents a risk for population on the streets,” according to Mr. Ky, certification may be essential.
EASA’s leader talked about principles rather than specific requirements, and his staff won’t even have authority to regulate most commercial drones until early 2019. The agency’s direction also could change if it shifts toward another approach, resembling the one Mr. Ky has laid out for conventional airplanes and helicopters, emphasizing industry cooperation, voluntary standards and avoidance of rigid, technically prescriptive rules.
Still, Mr. Ky’s general description appears to differ markedly with the seemingly more flexible and user-friendly environment envisioned by leaders of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The divergence is most evident when it comes to early package-delivery applications, which some FAA and U.S. industry officials have predicted could begin on a limited scale as early as the end of the year.
Top FAA officials have emphasized their willingness to use waivers of existing rules, combined with lessons learned from federally sanctioned test sites and novel fast-track regulatory procedures, to clear the way for widespread drone access to U.S. airspace. At the same time, senior Transportation Department and White House officials increasingly are prodding the FAA to move more quickly and find ways around traditional, time-consuming rule-making.
FAA experts have talked about relying on cutting-edge software, plus advanced air-ground command and communication links, to deal with drone malfunctions. Such systems would be designed to put problem drones into a safe holding pattern, automatically return them to their takeoff point or immediately instruct them to make an emergency landing. But for many operations, the FAA has indicated full-blown vehicle certification may not be necessary.
Mr. Ky, by contrast, said that Australia and some countries that already are aggressively courting drone operators, don’t appear to have a reliable way to assess the entire range of hazards. In many instances, he suggested, governments are merely relying on what a manufacturer is telling them about drone reliability. But “who will validate what it is telling you?”
“From my own personal perspective, and I think that’s the way we are going to do it in Europe,” he said, “your vehicle will need to be certified” to fly over cities. Notwithstanding the time and expense that entails, “someone will have to say and guarantee that this thing will not fall” and hurt people on the ground, he said.
Mr. Ky told the conference it typically takes EASA four years to finalize a safety rule, from proposal through public comments to final publication.
In a speech to the same conference, Dan Elwell, the FAA’s acting administrator, said his agency wants to demonstrate it “can nimbly respond to innovation.” (Source: UAS VISION/Wall Street Journal)
26 Jun 18. US Navy funds underwater drone swarms. The U.S. Navy has awarded a grant to an underwater drone producer to help the service locate “unexploded ordnance.”
The $78,000 grant from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center assigns Aquabotix’s SwarmDiver technology to support Navy and allied vessels.
The SwarmDiver can record temperature, depth and salinity, and can be used for “external navigation and positioning, mine countermeasures, port security, harbor management and torpedo countermeasures,” according to Whitney Million, Aquabotix CEO.
The 3.7-pound, 30-inch drones are deployed into the water from a boat, and then centrally controlled from a human operator to move in coordination with each other. The SwarmDiver can drop to a depth of up to 164 feet.
The Navy has been expanding its unmanned underwater vehicle use. Near-peer competitors like Russia and China have also invested in this field.
“Aquabotix’s products are the platform for the solution to this immediate military need,” Million said, “and we look forward to this first phase of our cooperation with the Navy.” (Source: Defense News)
27 Jun 18. Expanding our eyes and our reach, the Australian Triton purchase. The Australian Prime Minister’s recent announcement of an initial $1.4bn purchase of six Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial systems has been a long time coming. But what does it mean for the nation’s maritime surveillance capabilities and wider regional alliances?
In March 2014 when then Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that Australia would commit itself to being the first foreign customer of Northrop Grumman’s MQ-4C Triton UAS, the nation had already settled on replacing it’s ageing PC-3 Orions with Boeing P-8A Poseidon’s, and many questioned the necessity and usefulness of such a large purchase of a relatively new, untested system.
Designed from the ground up to focus on high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, Northrop Grumman’s Triton seemed perfect for meeting the Abbott government’s ‘Stop the Boats’ and border security policies. However, increasing tensions in the South China Sea (SCS) have provided a new suite of mission requirements for Australia’s future surveillance drone fleet.
Remotely flying out of RAAF Edinburgh, South Australia, the Triton’s are capable of monitoring 40,000 square kilometres a day and seamlessly flying a round trip for sustained surveillance and in support of allied Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP) in the SCS from the Northern Territory – increasing Australia’s interoperability with key allies, particularly the US.
“The advent of programs like Triton, like the F-35 and these aircraft arriving in Australia, and the P-8A (Poseidon) and Wedgetail (E-7A) … And LAND 400 in fact in the land domain and then these future frigates (SEA 5000), allow Australia to really have a very integrated approach to the future development of a joint force,” said Ian Irving, chief executive of Northrop Grumman.
Designed to operate in conjunction with Australia’s planned fleet of 12 manned P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and anti-submarine aircraft, the Triton’s provide a quantum leap in the nation’s surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, while the facilities and crew required to operate, train and maintain will be part of the initial $1.4bn investment, which includes $364m on new facilities at RAAF Bases Edinburgh and Tindal (in NT).
“The first of the Triton aircraft is expected to be introduced into service in mid-2023 with all six aircraft to be delivered and in operation by late 2025, based at RAAF Edinburgh, South Australia,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.
Defence Connect spoke with Irving in mid-2017 to discuss the Australian government’s planned Triton procurement and it’s impact for Northrop’s operations in Australia.
“Triton AIR 7000 is probably the largest of amongst those that allow us to continue to grow our capability (domestically) with the reachback from North America that we would be seeking to invest in those programs. We’re still keeping an eye on acquisition but most of our growth now will be winning programs and investing in ourselves,” he said at the time.
This major announcement follows on from other recent announcements by the Australian government regarding the nation’s continuing commitment to contributing to regional peace and security, such as Defence Minister Payne’s $22m announcement of Australian investment at Royal Malaysian Air Force Base Butterworth, which has been a pivotal base for Australian forces rotating through the region for the past 60 years.
It is clear from this and the upcoming announcements around SEA 5000 and LAND 400 Phase 3 that the government is committed to enhancing Australia’s capacity as a regional actor, with a highly competitive, sustainable defence industry base. (Source: Defence Connect)
26 Jun 18. Facebook ditches plan to build drones. Facebook has ditched its efforts to build high-altitude drones that would provide internet service in hard-to-reach areas as part of an ambitious plan to bring everyone in the world online. The project, called Aquila, dates back to Facebook’s 2014 acquisition of Ascenta, a tiny British drone maker. It was part of a vision laid out by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive, to use drones, satellites and lasers to “deliver the internet to everyone.” From its base in the UK town of Bridgwater, the Aquila team designed and developed a solar-powered, unmanned test aircraft with the wingspan of a Boeing 737. Aquila flew two full-scale test flights over the Arizona desert, the first of which ended in a crash landing that snapped off part of the craft’s wing, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board. After four years of development, the project’s head, Ascenta founder Andrew Cox, left Facebook in May. On Tuesday, the company said it was scaling back its ambitions. Mr Cox’s departure was first reported by Business Insider. “As we’ve worked on these efforts, it’s been exciting to see leading companies in the aerospace industry start investing in this technology too — including the design and construction of new high-altitude aircraft. Given these developments, we’ve decided not to design or build our own aircraft any longer, and to close our facility in Bridgwater,” the company wrote in a blog post. Facebook said it would continue to work on high-altitude connectivity technology with partners including Airbus, and as well as on components such as flight control computers and batteries. (Source: FT.com)
26 Jun 18. Boeing [NYSE: BA] today announced its investment in Matternet, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup pioneering safe, on-demand unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) delivery operations in urban environments. Matternet’s advanced logistics platform – combined with Boeing’s expertise in complex logistics, integration and manufacturing capabilities – will further enable reliable, efficient cargo air transportation.
Matternet became the world’s first company to receive authorization to launch UAV operations over densely populated areas in Switzerland in 2017. Leveraging its Matternet Station, M2 drone and Cloud platform, the company has achieved safe flights over densely populated areas and partnered with Swiss Post for on-demand deliveries of medical samples to hospitals in Switzerland.
“Matternet’s technology and proven track record make the development of a safe, global autonomous air mobility system a near-term reality,” said Brian Schettler, managing director of Boeing HorizonX Ventures. “Our investment will allow Matternet to scale its operations while strengthening Boeing’s position as a leader in next-generation transportation solutions.”
In May 2018, Matternet was selected to participate in a joint U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration program aimed at accelerating integration of unmanned aircraft into national airspace. As part of the program, Matternet will work with hospitals, universities and transportation agencies in California and North Carolina to facilitate on-demand delivery of medical supplies and samples.
Today, Matternet joined an initiative to shape the future of mobility as part of the World Economic Forum. The company will participate in the Drone Innovators Network to accelerate a safe, sustainable, global mobility system focused on improving people’s lives.
“We are excited to partner with Boeing, the pioneers of safe commercial aviation, to make this new mode of transport mainstream,” said Matternet Founder and Chief Executive Officer Andreas Raptopoulos. “As we expand Matternet’s U.S. and global operations, we will work with Boeing to make next-generation aerial logistics networks a reality and transform our everyday lives.”
Boeing HorizonX Ventures led the $16m, Series A investment in Matternet, with participation by Swiss Post, Sony Innovation Fund and Levitate Capital. The Boeing HorizonX Ventures investment portfolio is made up of companies specializing in technologies for aerospace and manufacturing innovations, including autonomous systems, energy and data storage, advanced materials, augmented reality systems and software, machine learning, hybrid-electric and hypersonic propulsion, and Internet of Things connectivity.
26 Jun 18. Thailand expands ties with Israel through UAV acquisition. The Royal Thai Army (RTA) has taken delivery of four Hermes 450 long-endurance tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Israel’s Elbit Systems, further strengthening Thailand-Israel defence ties. The UAVs are operated by the 21st Aviation Battalion at the Army Aviation Centre at Lopburi and are used for operations including target designation; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); and mapping. The system is also expected to be used to track insurgency movements and drugs smuggling. The procurement of the Hermes 450 UAVs and an associated ground-control system and remote video terminals was valued at around USD30m and was finalised in 2017, following demonstrations and trials, Jane’s understands. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. Australia’s $1.4bn commitment to MQ-4C Triton purchase. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has committed Australia to the $1.4bn procurement of the first six Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton long-range surveillance drones, which will be used to support maritime border security and freedom of navigation operations (FONOP) throughout the region. The Prime Minister, along with Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne, announced the long-awaited procurement of the giant Northrop Grumman unmanned aerial systems (UAS) today as part of a joint program with the United States Navy.
“The Triton will complement the surveillance role of the P-8A Poseidon through sustained operations at long ranges as well as being able to undertake a range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks,” said the Prime Minister.
The initial $1.4bn investment in the Triton system will also include $364m on new facilities at RAAF Bases Edinburgh and Tindal, as well as the necessary ground control systems, support and training required to implement a project of this scope.
PM Turnbull said, “The first of the Triton aircraft is expected to be introduced into service in mid-2023 with all six aircraft to be delivered and in operation by late 2025, based at RAAF Edinburgh, South Australia.”
(Source: Defence Connect)
25 Jun 18. On July 10-11, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA‑ASI) plans to make the first-ever trans-Atlantic flight of a Medium-altitude, Long-endurance (MALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). GA-ASI’s company-owned MQ-9B SkyGuardian RPA is scheduled to fly from the company’s Flight Test and Training Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA, to Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford in Gloucestershire, UK. The aircraft will then be on static display July 13-15 for the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) airshow being held at RAF Fairford. The flight and display will commemorate the RAF’s centenary celebration (RAF100).
“GA-ASI is proud to have supported the RAF over the past decade with our MQ-9 Reaper®. In honor of the RAF100 celebration, and to demonstrate a new standard in RPA flight endurance, we will fly SkyGuardian across the Atlantic,” said Linden Blue, CEO, GA-ASI. “Given the distinguished 100 year history of the RAF, we believe that this flight is an appropriate way to celebrate the RAF’s position as a leader in innovation.”
In 2017, GA-ASI and the RAF marked the 10-year anniversary of RAF MQ-9 operations, which coincided with the RAF completing 100,000 flight hours with its Reaper force. The entire Reaper fleet has completed over two million flight hours to date and is comprised of over 300 aircraft within the NATO alliance. The RAF is acquiring MQ-9B SkyGuardian as part of its PROTECTOR RG Mk1 program.
MQ-9B is the latest evolution of GA-ASI’s multi-mission Predator® B fleet. GA-ASI named its baseline MQ-9B aircraft SkyGuardian, and the maritime surveillance variant SeaGuardian. MQ-9B is a “certifiable” (STANAG 4671-compliant) version of the MQ-9 Predator B product line. Its development is the result of a five-year, company-funded effort to deliver a RPA that can meet the stringent airworthiness type-certification requirements of various military and civil authorities, including the UK Military Airworthiness Authority (MAA) and the U.S. FAA. Type-certification, together with an extensively tested collision avoidance system, will allow unrestricted operations in all classes of civil airspace.
Several important MQ-9B milestones were achieved in recent months, including the first FAA-approved flight for a company-owned RPA through non-segregated civil airspace without a chase aircraft, and an endurance record of more than 48 hours of continuous flight.
As part of the trans-Atlantic flight, GA-ASI has partnered with Inmarsat, the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications (SATCOM) services. Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband SATCOM will be used by the MQ-9B’s ground control station to communicate and control the aircraft and also will be used in the RPA’s final configuration for capabilities such as automatic takeoff and landing.
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28 Jun 18. Samsung Networked Mobile Devices Approved for United States Air Force Use. Samsung Electronics America, Inc. has received United States Air Force approval for Samsung Galaxy series smartphones and select handheld computing devices. The U.S. Air Force can now easily purchase Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets through its cellular Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) from major telecommunications carriers.
“The Air Force recognizes how critical mobile technology is to driving workforce transformation and tactical productivity,” said Chris Balcik, Vice President for Federal Government. “Our goal is to maximize capability wherever the mission takes our military with Samsung’s hardware and software solutions.”
This milestone now gives the Air Force the same ability to leverage the advanced and customizable features of the Samsung solution and join other Samsung federal customers across DoD, the intelligence community, and civilian agencies. Samsung’s flagship smartphones and tablets are based on the Android operating system and are supported by Samsung’s defense-grade Knox security platform. As a testament to Samsung’s unique approach to mobile security through the Knox platform, its devices are regularly used for classified work by the military.
“As an Air Force veteran, it’s so exciting to see our solutions being tested and used to drive tactical advantage and business process improvement,” said Don Logan, Samsung Air Force Account Executive. “We are committed to helping the Air Force fully leverage the benefits of a mobile smart device ecosystem through our technology, training and services expertise.”
Samsung’s latest S9 smartphone – equipped with Band-14 for public safety – is now on the Department of Defense Information Network Approved Products List (DODIN APL), and Samsung is working to have this device added to the Air Force BPA. Samsung specializes in active, hardened and tactical editions of smartphones and tablets recognizing the need for these solutions as a part of integrated military mobility systems. The DoD is also currently evaluating the Samsung DeX portable docking solution which delivers a full desktop computing experience through the smartphone, eliminating the need for a laptop and empowering personnel to be productive wherever the mission takes them. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
27 Jun 18. NATO researchers investigating new JISR, communications for maritime gliders. NATO researchers are working on new add-ons and communications capabilities to shift undersea gliders to a bigger role in joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (JISR) for the allies. The goals include hiking the accuracy of the gliders’ acoustic detection, and refining their ability to communicate with other gliders and maritime platforms by implementing new kinds of data compression, signal processing, and encryption.
“This will be a difficult technical challenge because there is only limited transmission capacity due to sonar’s low frequency,” said Catherine Warner, director of NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) in La Spezia, Italy. “We have a lot of signal processing and acoustics folks who will be working on this,” she said.
(Source: IHS Jane’s)
27 Jun 18. Delay for proposed DISA elimination clears key hurdle. A measure intended to delay the Defense Information Systems Agency’s proposed elimination was added to the House’s annual defense spending bill Tuesday.
But will it work? That’s complicated.
Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Md., said his amendment to the proposed fiscal 2019 defense appropriations bill would bar the Pentagon from spending money to draft plans to transfer DISA’s functions elsewhere in the Defense Department.
The amendment passed the House by voice vote, while the bill itself is expected to come to a vote in the House on Wednesday night.
Through the FY19 National Defense Authorization Act, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has targeted DISA for elimination in a larger search for efficiencies militarywide. U.S. Cyber Command would absorb DISA by January 2021, under his plan.
In a floor speech Tuesday, Brown claimed his amendment “prevents from executing this change.” The idea is to push the timeline back for long enough so that a different Congress might re-address the issue.
However, a Republican aide to the House Armed Services Committee said the amendment does not do what Brown intends it to do. That’s because its language mentions the transfer and not any study.
“We didn’t oppose it because it doesn’t do anything,” the aide said. “There isn’t any [proposed] funding to impact DISA reorganization until 2021.“
DISA oversees the operation of DoD networks and IT, as well as significant parts of federal communications, mobility, satellite communications and cloud services.
The agency has a total budget of nearly $10 billion and more than 5,000 employees and 7,500 contractors. Officials at the agency have repeatedly declined to discuss a possible closure, saying they do not comment on pending legislation.
Brown, in his speech, cited the White House’s opposition, from a May 22 statement of administration policy on the House NDAA.
Then, the Office of Management and Budget said, “This action would increase the cost of acquiring information technology, weaken the Department’s ability to secure its cyber networks, and inhibit DISA’s mission to provide seamless communication to warfighters and senior leaders.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/C4ISR & Networks)
27 Jun 18. Soldiers Train to Detect, Defend Against Electronic Warfare. Knowing your location and the location of the enemy is paramount on the battlefield, and with the advent of satellites and GPS, soldiers can pinpoint their positions down to the meter. But what happens when that signal is jammed?
Ohio Army National Guardsmen trained here with a team from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command to identify and mitigate electronic warfare measures that target GPS systems.
“There are adversaries out there with the capability to deny, degrade and disrupt our capabilities,” said Army Capt. Kyle Terza, chief of home station training for USASMDC. “The threat is out there and, while we may not be facing it right now, if we are looking towards the future, we have to be trained and ready to operate without it.”
Terza’s team provides training and resources to soldiers maintaining communication and data networks and those out in the field who are most likely to encounter electronic warfare.
“We’ve been so focused on counterinsurgency, it’s good to train for dealing with adversaries with comparable technologies,” said Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Merzke, a squad leader with the Ohio Army National Guard’s 1487th Transportation Company, located in Piqua, Ohio. “It’s out there and we need to know how to deal with it.”
Great Training Opportunity
Most soldiers are familiar with the Defense Advanced GPS Receiver, or DAGR, commonly referred to as a “dagger.” It’s a hand-held GPS receiver that is used in conjunction with many Army systems such as satellite receivers and battlefield command systems, but how they work is a mystery to many.
“A majority of our younger soldiers have probably never even heard of electronic warfare or have been exposed to it,” Terza said. “It was a great training opportunity for them.”
Soldiers were able to get hands-on with their DAGRs, learning how to recognize when they were being jammed and how to mitigate the electromagnetic interference. With the team from USASMDC offering guidance, soldiers were able to triangulate and find the device that was blocking their signals.
“This is stuff we need to know to be able to train better … to keep [soldiers] safe and bring them home alive,” Merzke said.
By the end of the training, the soldiers had learned enough to be able to bring the instruction back to their units to help others understand the challenges and how to adapt.
“They understand how to recognize it, how to report it and who to report it to.” Terza said. “If they do enter a contested environment, they are prepared for it.” (Source: US DoD)
26 Jun 18. Why Project Maven is a ‘moral hazard’ for Google. Capt. Sean Heritage strode to the stage on Tuesday wearing a white Navy uniform, holding up a black hacker hoodie with military stripes on the sleeve. The home-brew sweatshirt represented a fusion of two mindsets that can have different priorities ― hacker and sailor.
Like the hoodie, Heritage is a combination of two worlds: He is acting head of the Defense Innovation Unit ― Experimental, a military project investing in Silicon Valley.
But despite the peace offering from Heritage, disagreements between the two communities were on display Tuesday at a Defense One conference in Washington, D.C., over the uses of artificial intelligence. Current and former military officials criticized tech-giant Google for “creating a moral hazard,” by dropping out from a top military program called Project Maven, and called on the company to rethink its decision.
Project Maven uses machine learning to recognize objects from moving or still imagery, according to the Defense Department, and that learning could be used to develop targets for drone strikes. But Google reportedly plans on ending its partnership with the program in 2019 after a backlash from the company’s employees, who argued in an open letter signed by more than 3,000 workers that it did not want to “build warfare technology.”
Google employees “say look this data could potentially, down the line, at some point, cause harm to human life. And I say ’Yeah. But it might save 500 Americans or 500 allies, or 500 innocent civilians from being attacked,” said Robert Work, the former deputy secretary of defense, at the conference. He called the Google employees’ logic “a bank shot,” adding the AI data would be reviewed by humans before it was used in a strike.
Work also criticized Google employees for apparently not speaking out against a planned artificial intelligence center that the company is planning in China.
“Anything that is going in the AI center in China is going to the Chinese government and then will ultimately end up in the hands of the Chinese military,” Work said. “I didn’t see any Google employee saying, ‘hmm … maybe we shouldn’t do that.’”
Josh Marcuse, executive director of the Defense Innovation Board, which is also charged with outreach to new tech communities, said that those who take issue with the government’s AI approach should work with the government to ensure that ethics and safety are incorporated.
“With respect to privacy and respect to civil liberties, we are going to have to defend these democracies against adversaries or competitors who see the world very differently,” Marcuse said.
Heritage downplayed tensions with Silicon Valley and called the issues “small in number.”
On Capitol Hill, Google’s Chief Scientist for AI and Machine Learning, Fei-Fei Li, did not appear to directly address the company’s operations in China during a testimony to lawmakers. But she said “it is critical that we have ethical guidelines different institutions from government to academia to industry will have to participate in this dialogue together and also by themselves.”
Li’s testimony took place at the same time as the comments from the current and former defense officials. She was speaking in her capacity as co-founder of AI4ALL, a group that promotes artificial intelligence. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The disagreement represents longstanding issues between government officials and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley. It is a regression for top intelligence officials, who last week said it needs to work with the private sector to defend against cyberattacks and other threats.
“The government has to figure out how we get good at finishing with the commercial entities,” said Rob Joyce, senior adviser at the NSA, adding the public sector should be playing a supporting role for the private sector. Other officials warned that the standards for AI needed to be lowered. For AI “to have to be perfect is not going to work. We are never going to be able to trust automation if perfection is what we are going for,” said Stacey Dixon, Deputy Director at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. Lawmakers on Tuesday said that the U.S. could fall behind in the race for artificial intelligence.
“By some accounts, China is investing $7bn in AI through 2030,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas., during a hearing. “Yet, the Department of Defense’s unclassified investment in AI was only $600m in 2016 while federal spending on quantum totals about $250m a year.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
26 Jun 18. Networks, Innovation Key to Air Force Philosophy. Building networks and continuing innovation are key to success in the future, Air Force leaders said at the Defense One Tech Summit here today.
Richard J. Joseph, the Air Force’s chief scientist, and Mark Tapper, a special advisor on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at the service, spoke to Military.com’s Oriana Pawlyk during a panel discussion.
Both men said that Air Force culture must change to ensure the service can handle future threats.
“Everyone seems to recognize that the threat we face has evolved to the point where it is a real challenge to us,” Joseph said. “In order to address that, we are going to do things differently — not just having new technologies, but we’re going to have to have new approaches.”
If the service fails to adapt to this new culture, it will lose confidence of leaders and innovation will then lose priority, Joseph said. “It is up to us to fix all these things at once,” he added.
Seeking Dominance
China and Russia and some of the smaller players have access to technology that allows them to become significant opponents. “We should not be just following their lead. We should be looking at this in a grand way and try to decide where we need to go to retain dominance,” the chief scientist said.
New technology is great, Tapper said, but he wants an answer to the question, “New technologies to do what?” It comes down to using new tools and data to combat what leaders believe the future threats will be, he explained.
At its core, the Air Force projects American military might with speed and power, and, if necessary, with persistence, the officials said. But some communities within the service look at problems via a narrow lens, they acknowledged — the airlift community, for example, would come up with an airlift solution, the air combat community with an air combat community, and so on.
Joseph said there needs to be a way for communities to share a common viewpoint and that these communities should also share data so all communities can benefit.
Both men agreed that the United States shouldn’t just look at the threats posed by Russia and China and devise counters to them. Rather, they said, the military should look to see where potential threats are not operating in order to be ahead of potential threats and to force potential adversaries to invest in ways to counter American developments, rather than the other way around. (Follow Jim Garamone on Twitter: @GaramoneDoDNews)
25 Jun 18. The US Army is most excited about these 3 capabilities. A current Army exercise seeks to inform operational concepts and capability needs based on putting emerging technologies into the hands of soldiers for their direct feedback.
The Army is staging its third annual Cyber Quest, which started June 11 and runs through June 27, and top officials spoke to the media about the capabilities that most excited them.
Situational understanding
Multiple officials discussed the importance of situational understanding tools that provide a view inside the unseeable cyber domain, allowing commanders to see enemy cyberspace, friendly cyberspace and even gray cyberspace.
“What we’re seeing is, to many of us, cyber is something that is pretty amorphous, you don’t really see it, you can’t really overlay it onto what you’re trying to accomplish operationally,” Maj. Gen. John Morrison, commander of the Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Gordon, which hosted the exercise, said during a media call.
This is especially important, he added, because it allows a typical commander to visualize and understand these effects, making it easier to incorporate into operations. As the Army moves toward the notion of multidomain operations in the future situational understanding tools will be critical for helping them integrate cyber and electrometric spectrum effects into operations.
“As the Army’s moving toward multidomain operations, which also includes cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum, [Cyber Quest] is a chance for us to really refine those staff procedures from an operational unit perspective,” Morrison said.
“The unit that is leaving here on Tuesday actually developed their standard operating procedures and tactics, techniques and procedures for operating in the cyberspace domain while they were here. That’s going to help us proliferate across the rest of the Army.”
Reprogramming technologies
In the world of electronic warfare, the ability to maneuver back and forth between frequencies in response to or to gain an advantage over adversarial measures is crucial.
One of the capabilities being tested at Cyber Quest will allow for remote reprograming of sensors from various vendors inside a tactical operations center.
“The reason that’s so important to us is it means that it’s the first step toward being able to look at other services equipment, equipment from different years or different software in it and being able to remotely tell that equipment to change what it’s doing within the spectrum,” Col. Mark Dotson, the Army’s officer in charge of setting requirements for electronic warfare, told reporters.
Radio location
Dotson also mentioned another capability at the exercise that could allow the Army to more accurately identify targets from farther way just by geolocating their signal in the electromagnetic spectrum.
important to us, especially as we look at longer-range targets,” Dotson said. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
25 Jun 18. Mattis declares vigilance to be the best cyber defense. Scrawled in ink at the bottom of the memo, Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ warning could not be clearer: “Be alert!”
In the lineage of warnings like “loose lips sink ships,” Mattis warned Department of Defense employees in a memo to “remain vigilant” in a world where secrets can fall into the hands of digital intruders, coming after a series of high-profile data breaches that has embarrassed America’s top defense officials.
For the estimated 2 million Defense Department employees, the secretary’s warning served as more of a pep-talk than a crash course in digital security. “There can be no complacency,” the memo warned. “Vigilance is our best defense” against losing sensitive data, it added.
Of course, there are already virtual reams of regulations that the department’s officials are expected to follow when it comes to handling America’s most tightly held secrets. The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s publications can be as comprehensive as they are tedious.
But the memo’s timing is auspicious.
Chinese hackers stole “massive amounts of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare” from a Navy contractor, the Washington Post reported June 8, The episode is one of the most publicized raids on American digital secrets at the hands of a foreign government in recent memory.
On June 20, lawmakers appear to have been briefed on the hack. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., lashed out at the military for its lack of cyber preparedness.
“It was shocking how disorganized, unprepared and, quite frankly, utterly clueless the branch of the military was that [it] had been breached,” Smith said during a hearing on June 21. “Even in this day and age, we still have not figured out how to put together a cyber policy to protect our assets.”
And baked into the secretary’s memo appears to be at least one other reference to a high-profile breach of sensitive Defense Department information.
“Protect your health, biometrics and financial information,” Mattis warned in the memo, which was written seven months after sensitive military outposts were revealed using data from the Strava fitness app.
While Mattis’ memo did not address the alleged China hack or Strava incident by name, it was clear-eyed regarding the consequences for poor cyber hygiene.
“The potential consequences of compromised data could be serious, not just for you and your families, but for the readiness and resiliency of this department.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
25 Jun 18. Harris boosts security, interoperability for USSOCOM’s future radios. The US Special Operations Command’s (USSOCOM’s) next-generation software-defined radios (SDRs) will feature Suite B encryption services to enhance interoperability with partner countries, senior company officials at Harris Corporation have revealed.
Christopher Aebli, vice-president of international business for Tactical Communications at Harris, told Jane’s that the company is in the process of integrating Suite B algorithms into USSOCOM’s AN/PRC-163 Next-Generation Handheld (NGHH) radio as well as the Next-Generation Manpack (NGMP), both of which are being developed as part of the Special Operations Force (SOF) Tactical Communications (STC) programme.
The AN/PRC-163 STC is due to enter low-rate initial production (LRIP) towards the end 2018 with Suite A (US Government Type 1) and Suite B capabilities, Aebli confirmed, providing operators with “critical interoperability at the flick of a switch”.
Harris originally announced the launch of the Suite B security capability for its Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multi-band manpack radio on 12 September 2017. However, Aebli told Jane’s that the company will unveil plans to upgrade legacy USSOCOM SDRs such as the AN/PRC-152A handheld and AN/PRC-158 manpack radios last in the year.
“This secure capability allows our NATO partners to use [tactical SDRs] to their fullest extent in battlefield scenarios that require multi-mission capabilities, while still maintaining independent communications capability for their own training and operations,” Chris Young, president of Harris Communication Systems, confirmed.
Suite B encryption, which essentially comprises the AES-256 commercial security algorithm, will also enable customers to securely send secret-level communications across the battlespace, explained Jeff Kroon, tactical programme manager for waveforms at Harris. The company’s Suite B network encryption has also been designed to interoperate with the NATO Standard Nine network encryption, which also comprises Suite B-based protocol. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
25 Jun 18. MacB’s EITC develops CLE to detect unknown threats for US DoD. National security company MacAulay-Brown’s (MacB) subsidiary Enlighten IT Consulting (EITC) has developed a Cyber Learning Engine (CLE) for the US Department of Defense (DoD). The CLE is trained to detect previously unknown threats to a network without human supervision. The engine has been designed to meet the rising requirements for a faster and more flexible solution that would help manage both the volume and complexity of cyber data across the US defence department. EITC has developed the tool based on a Deep Learning (DL) concept of using artificial neural networks to process information in layers. With more data entered, the tool becomes capable of providing more accurate conclusions about bad actors in the network over time, according to the company.
EITC senior vice-president and general manager Duane Shugars said: “Within the field of Artificial Intelligence, DL models that can search through terabytes of data and reach accurate conclusions without human intervention are essential for future success.
“I’m proud that our team has worked so hard to address these critical network challenges and produce a true production-ready CLE that will help protect DoD networks.”
The new CLE has reportedly progressed from a 75% probability of correctly identifying malicious content to up to 95% accuracy, said MacB.
Also, the model has been capable of significantly identifying signs of a network breach, which is also known as indicators of compromise (IOC).
Previously, this network breach was not reported in any open or non-open source data and was later identified as a threat.
MacB focuses on delivering advanced engineering, cybersecurity and product solutions to the DoD, Intelligence Community (IC), Special Operations Forces (SOF), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and federal agencies. (Source: army-technology.com)
25 Jun 18. Nato UV18 trial tests new threat detection technologies. Nato has tested new threat detection technologies under its Unified Vision 18 (UV18) trial, which is being held for two weeks across Nato territories in Europe and North America.
The bi-annual UV18 event has been designed to bring the latest and advanced national intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) technologies together.
This will enable the Nato territories to communicate, thereby facilitating the earliest possible detection of potential threats, which will eventually help protect the citizens of the Allied nations.
The UV18 trial will see the participation of members from 17 Nato nations, in addition to participants from the partner countries Finland and Sweden.
“The UV18 trial will see the participation of members from 17 Nato nations, in addition to participants from the partner countries Finland and Sweden.”
During the event, the participants will have the opportunity to connect multinational and collective Joint ISR capabilities.
With approximately 1,250 participants in Europe and North America, the UV18 trial includes the operations of a mixture of aerial, ground and maritime surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, and sensors.
It helps to test the way data collected by individual Allies can be processed, analysed by different Allies and shared across the Alliance.
Also, the trial tests advanced technologies that can help increase the speed and accuracy in which the information is gathered and processed.
Currently, UV is Nato’s main trial to practice and evaluate new technical and operational concepts for conducting joint ISR in Nato operations.
UV18 operates multiple sites and collection assets, which work together across various networks across several Nato nations. The first trial was held in 2012 in Norway at Ørland airbase. (Source: army-technology.com)
25 Jun 18. Paradise Announces Two New Compact, Outdoor
This week at CommunicAsia 2018, Teledyne Paradise Datacom, a business unit of the Teledyne Defense Electronics Group, will be unveiling two new outdoor Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) featuring unsurpassed power density and compact size. Visit Paradise at Stand 1Q2-08 on Level 1 of the show. The first amplifier is a 500W C-Band SSPA that delivers 0.40 Watts per cubic inch. The second unit is a 300W Ku-Band SSPA that provides 0.24 Watts per cubic inch. Both compact outdoor SSPAs have a total footprint of 1268 cubic inches with dimensions of 19.5 x 10.0 x 6.5 inches and a base unit weight of 44 lbs (20 kg).
The new SSPAs are both CE and MIL-461 compliant, and can also be used in popular “Outdoor PowerMAX” modular systems from Paradise. PowerMAX systems provide soft-fail redundancy and high reliability, and their High MTBF and low MTTR make these systems a perfect fit for high power installations.
These Compact Outdoor SSPAs have a long history of robust operation in demanding environments. Having these higher power levels available in a legacy package allows easy RF power upgrades for existing antenna and hub designs. The higher linear power allows offshore maritime customers to better maximize satellite bandwidth for higher data throughput.
Stephen Turner, Vice President of Engineering (High Power Amplifiers) for Paradise, commented, “Our goal has always been to deliver the highest usable, linear power for our customers. Utilizing second generation GaN technology, these new SSPAs are very well suited for broadband-multicarrier operation.” (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
23 Jun 18. Can industry help government make sense of artificial intelligence? National security and defense officials are expressing concerns that the U.S. as a whole lacks a strategy for artificial intelligence on par with America’s competitors, so the House Armed Services Committee is engaging with key stakeholders in this space to establish an artificial intelligence commission.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., held a closed Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee roundtable on AI with various experts and members of industry, according to a release from the committee.
Stefanik earlier this year introduced a bill (since included in the annual defense policy legislation) seeking to develop a commission to review advances in AI, identify AI needs and make recommendations to organize the federal government for threats in AI.
“We are encouraged by the department’s aggressive efforts with Project MAVEN, and are interested in exploring other applications of AI that combine the strengths of government, industry and academia to forge strong and lasting public-private partnerships,” Stefanik said.
“We have seen progress in Department of Defense artificial intelligence pilot programs, but now we must scale to success.”
The roundtable included participants with expertise in small business, cybersecurity and AI best practices. Specific companies that participated included Pilot.ai, FireEye, Accenture and Boston Consulting Group.
Their participation enabled the committee to understand industry’s approach in the AI sphere, as well as opportunities and challenges.
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning are topics of regular conversation and deep interest among the members of this subcommittee,” Stefanik said.
“Over the last year, we have explored technology issues that could drastically change the way wars are fought, impacting not only our national security, but our economic security as well. Yesterday was a good next step in identifying where corollary successes exist within the commercial sector and artificial intelligence solutions have already demonstrated quantifiable results.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
23 Jun 18. Lockheed expands to support the next-gen cyberwar. In a sign that the Air Force is readying to ramp up work on a next-generation cyberwarfare platform on behalf of U.S. Cyber Command, Lockheed Martin will be stationing some members of it staff associated with the project right next door to the Air Force facility in San Antonio, Texas.
In a ceremony June 22, Lockheed announced it will be the first tenant at Project Tech, which the company described in a news release as a facility within a campus specifically tailored to support the growth of the region’s cybersecurity and technology.
Project Tech is the outgrowth of Port Antonio, a public organization created by the state legislature in 1998 on the old Kelly Air Force Base, right next to Air Forces Cyber, to act as a strategic partner and interface between the Air Force and business.
“We thought where better to put a facility that can host this type of work than within a couple hundred yards of the front gate of” 24th Air Force, Jim Perschbach, the Port’s interim president and CEO, told Fifth Domain in an interview.
“What we’re hoping to do is to create an entire campus of people who want to do the mission support in the contractor community, the academic support, people who are really more focused in on the commercial side but maybe looking to put those technologies into government service or maybe the government is looking for the commercial sector as well,” he added.
Lockheed’s operations will reside in a 15,000-square-foot workspace onsite with a local team comprising of systems engineers, software developers and cyber architects. Their work will primarily focus on development and testing of full-spectrum cyber tools and platforms, the company said, to include Henosis, Lockheed’s prototype for the Unified Platform competition.
Acting as U.S. Cyber Command’s executive agent, the Air Force is in charge of the Unified Platform, described by some as a cyber carrier that will allow cyberwarriors to launch offensive and defensive operations and tools, among other purposes.
With the elevation of Cyber Command as a full unified combatant command and its cyberwarriors reaching a key staffing milestone recently, the command is now transitioning from a building period to one of readiness and operations. As the force continues to mature, it will need a platform to run operations.
The Air Force is beginning to ramp up the competition for Unified Platform.
“We are inspired by our customers’ missions and seek to partner with them to make the world a safer place,” said Deon Viergutz, Lockheed Martin vice president of cyber solutions.
“By increasing our investment in the area of cyberspace mission support, we are better positioned to support the growing needs of organizations on or near the Port, such as the 24th and 25th Air Forces and the National Security Agency.”
Perschbach explained that while business in today’s day in age can be done remotely, there’s no substitute for physical proximity.
“If you’re really trying to work with somebody, you’re trying to meet their needs … that requires communication collaboration,” he said. “If you have people who are working on this solution, particularly something as important as Unified Platform, and they’re a stone’s throw away, then you build up that level of communication.”
Perschbach added: “What we offer is something where you’re within walking distance of the gate where the military customer can come right out talk to you or you can go right to the gate and talk to the military customer.”
Lockheed said it expects to grow more than 100 professionals in the next five years at the Port. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
22 Jun 18. Germany shortlists R&S for VJTF communications. Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) has been selected as the preferred partner to supply its SDxR and SVFuA communications systems to the German Army when it supports NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) in 2023, industry sources have revealed. Jane’s understands that the company emerged as the leader following an extensive trials process conducted over the first two quarters of 2018, which saw R&S competing against Thales and Telefunken Racoms. Initial trials conducted in February and March generated “unsatisfactory” results from all participants. A re-test was initiated on 11 April, incorporating a series of revised parameters including requirements for a five-minute-long voice transmission as well as capability to transfer data and voice between vehicle and dismounted soldiers at ranges out to 150-200m. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
21 Jun 18. The US made the wrong bet on radiofrequency, and now it could pay the price. The Pentagon’s belief in its technology drove the Department of Defense to trust it would have control over the electromagnetic spectrum for years to come, but that decision has left America vulnerable to new leaps in technology from China and Russia, according to a top military official.
Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has now concluded that the Pentagon needs to ensure it is keeping up with those near-peer nations, let along reestablishing dominance of electronic warfare and networking.
“I think we assumed wrongly that encryption and our domination over the precision timing signals would allow us to evade the enemy in the electromagnetic spectrum. I think that was a bad assumption,” Selva said Thursday at the annual Center for a New American Security conference.
“It’s not that we disarmed, it’s that we took a path that they have now figured out,” Selva said. China and Russia instead focused on deploying “digitally managed radio frequency manipulation, which changed the game in electronic warfare.”
He added that a DoD study looking at the next decade concluded “We have some work to do.”
Specifically, the United States needs to discover what Selva dubbed “alternative pathways” for communications and command and control systems.
“It doesn’t have to be a [radiofrequency] game. It’s an RF game because we choose to make it so. And we’re going to have to do some targeted investments in expanding the capacity of the networks that we use for command and control and battle management,” he said. “If we fail to do that, we’re going to kick ourselves into the force-counterforce game inside the electromagnetic spectrum for the balance of the next couple of decades.
“We have to adapt to that, and adapt quickly. The work has been done to characterize the problem, and the problem is, we’re locked in this point-counterpoint fight with two potential competitors who have taken alternative paths. So we have to unlock a different way to do that work.”
(Source: C4ISR & Networks)
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Spectra Group Plc
Spectra has a proven record of accomplishment – with over 15 years of experience in delivering secure communications and cybersecurity solutions for governments around the globe; elite militaries; and private enterprises of all sizes.
As a dynamic, agile, security accredited organisation, Spectra can leverage this experience to deliver Cyber Advisory and secure Hosted and Managed Solutions on time, to spec and on budget, ensuring compliance with industry standards and best practices.
Spectra’s SlingShot® is a unique low SWaP system that enables in-service U/VHF tactical radios to utilise Inmarsat’s commercial satellite network for BLOS COTM. Including omnidirectional antenna for the man, vehicle, maritime and aviation platforms, the tactical net can broadcast over 1000s miles between forward units and a rear HQ, no matter how or where the deployment. Unlike many BLOS options, SlingShot maintains full COTM (Communications On The Move) capability and low size and weight
On 23 November 2017, Spectra Group (UK) Ltd announced that it had recently been listed as a Top 100 Government SME Supplier for 2015-2016 by the UK Crown Commercial Services
Spectra’s CEO, Simon Davies, was awarded 2017 BATTLESPACE Businessman of the Year by BATTLESPACE magazine and is a finalist in the inaugural British Ex-Forces In Business Awards in the Innovator Of The Year category.
Founded in 2002, the Company is based in Hereford, UK and holds ISO 9001:2015, ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation.
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INTERNATIONAL PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITIES
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EUROPE
27 Jun 18. Czechs to upgrade T-72s. The Army of the Czech Republic (ACR) plans to upgrade its fleet of T-72M4 CZ main battle tanks (MBTs) in order to retain their operational effectiveness until 2025, the chief of general staff of the ACR has said. Lieutenant General Ales Opata said plans call for modernising the MBT’s primary weapon system, including upgrading the Tank Universal Reconfigurable Modular System (TURMS-T) fire-control system (FCS), in particular the replacement of the Attila thermal camera, which is considered to be obsolete. The ACR currently fields 30 T-72M4 CZ MBTs, with another five held in storage.
“By 2025 the leadership of the Ministry of Defence and ACR will need to decide whether to replace all tanks of Russian design. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. F-35s Delivered to Turkey as Congress Considers its Next Move. Lockheed Martin formally delivered Turkey’s first two F-35A Joint Strike Fighters on June 21. However, the milestone occurred amidst various moves within the U.S. Congress aimed at blocking further deliveries of the new fighter to that country.
The Senate’s version of the FY19 defense authorization bill includes three provisions related to Turkey and the F-35. One provision expresses the sense of the Senate that sanctions should be imposed on Turkey should it proceed with a potential deal to acquire the Russian S-400 air defense system. A second provision calls for the U.S. Defense Secretary to prepare a plan to remove Turkey from the F-35 program, and prohibits F-35 deliveries to Turkey in the meantime. The third provision requires that the Pentagon provide a briefing to congressional defense committees regarding the role of Turkish industry in the F-35 supply chain and the impact that a removal of Turkish-sourced components would have on the program.
The House version of the FY19 authorization bill would bar deliveries of major defense equipment to Turkey until the Defense Secretary submits a report on the U.S.-Turkey relationship.
Meanwhile, Senate appropriators inserted an amendment to their version of the FY19 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill that would stop F-35 deliveries to Turkey if the S-400 purchase is not canceled.
Turkey is a significant participant in the F-35 program. Overall, Turkey plans to acquire 100 F-35s, the same number as Australia. This total exceeds the planned F-35 acquisitions of all other program partners except the U.S. and the U.K. The F-35 variant being procured by Turkey is the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing version, which is the same model that is being acquired by the U.S. Air Force.
During the development of the F-35, Turkey was a Level Three participant in the program’s System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase, in which the level of participation was determined by the amount of funding that each country contributed. (Other Level Three participants were Australia, Canada, Denmark, and Norway.) Turkey contributed some $175m to the SDD effort. In addition, Turkey contributed approximately $6.2m to the F-35 program’s earlier Concept Demonstration Phase, which essentially involved the down-select from two JSF design concepts to one.
The structure of the F-35 program was such that, once a country became a partner in the program, the industries in that country became eligible to become F-35 suppliers. Turkish companies have significant industrial participation in the program.
Turkish industry has had considerable experience partnering with Lockheed Martin, particularly on the F-16 fighter program where Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) engaged in licensed production of that aircraft. This experience and expertise combine to make Turkish industry a valued partner on the F-35 program. Lockheed Martin has said that total F-35 industrial opportunities for Turkish companies are expected to reach $12bn. At least 10 Turkish companies are involved in production of the F-35 and its F135 engine. Examples include Alp Aviation (airframe structure and assemblies, landing gear components, and engine components), Ayesas (sole-source supplier for the missile remote interface unit and the panoramic cockpit display), MiKES (aircraft components and assemblies), and TAI (center fuselages, composite skins, weapon bay doors, composite air inlet ducts, and various other components).
The question thus becomes what would happen to this industrial participation should future F-35 deliveries to Turkey indeed be barred by the U.S. government. The legislation, when passed and signed into law, may or may not specifically prohibit Turkish industrial participation in the F-35 program as well. If it does not, then the future role of Turkish companies in the program becomes quite uncertain. There is apparently no formal process in place to strip a country of its workshare should its plans to acquire the aircraft be dropped (whether voluntarily or not).
Unless mandated otherwise by the U.S. government, it seems likely that work by Turkish firms would continue on F-35s already on order for various customers, and that any changes in the supply chain (if they do take place) would occur sometime down the road in regard to future F-35 orders. Work share decisions are essentially made by Lockheed Martin.
If a decision is made to reallocate Turkey’s industrial work share to other countries, this would set off a long process involving discussions between Lockheed Martin and its partners, a search for alternative sources for the affected components, and re-qualification of those components on the aircraft. It would not be impossible to accomplish, but it would be a painful and difficult process for all involved. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/Forecast International)
25 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin, Esterline sign Belgian F-35 agreement. Lockheed Martin and Esterline Belgium have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to facilitate potential work with relation to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter should Brussels select the aircraft as the replacement for its F-16 fleet. The MOA would cover work on avionics and rugged displays primarily, and builds on an agreement that Esterline signed alongside Ilias Solutions, Sabca, and Sonaca with Lockheed Martin in September 2015 to explore opportunities for the F-16 replacement programme.
“I am pleased that we signed this MOA with Lockheed Martin,” said Kristof Vierin, vice-president of sales for avionics systems at Esterline Belgium. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
USA
28 Jun 18. USAF procures new and improved ‘bunker buster’ bombs. The US Air Force (USAF) has issued a contract for a new penetrator warhead to replace its current BLU-109/B and BLU-109C/B systems.
The award on 27 June will see Superior Forge and Steel Corporation deliver 300 (possible rising to 3,500) of the improved BLU-137/B penetrator warheads. Valued at USD476.9m, the indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity award will run through to 3 May 2020.
The USAF first declared its intention to procure an improved ‘bunker buster’ bomb with a draft request for proposals (RFP) that was issued in December 2016. The draft RFP actually covered the procurement of up to 15,000 of the 2,000 lb warheads running through to 2021.
No technical specifications for the BLU-137/B were given in either the draft RFP or the contract notification, except to say that it is intended to provide improvements in capability and survivability over the BLU-109/B and BLU-109C/B.
As with the incumbent BLU-109, the BLU-137/B will be used to defeat hardened targets, such as secure command-and-control bunkers and other protected facilities. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
27 Jun 18. DoD IG questions army AH-64E procurement quantities, cost. Key Points:
- The IG questioned the army’s plan for acquiring AH-64E helicopters
- This could increase the cost of the programme, which is already expected to tally USD3.5on
The US Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) questioned the US Army’s planned procurement quantities and total cost of acquiring Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, saying the service cannot ensure that 167 of the aircraft will meet the needs of the army.
The IG, in a 25 June report, said army officials justified planned procurement quantities of the AH-64E designated for regular US Army and US Army National Guard fleets. However, army G-8, G-3/5/7, and G-4 officials could not justify the planned procurement quantities of 85 training, 67 float, and 15 test AH-64Es. Float helicopters are used by the army to provide a temporary replacement when AH-64Es need maintenance, modification, or repair.
Army officials could not justify the procurement quantities because service procurement officials did not conduct the analyses required by the Pentagon and army guidance to determine the necessary training, float, and test quantities before the deputy chief of staff of the army, G-8, approved the acquisition objective on 15 June 2017.
“As a result, G-8 officials cannot ensure that 167 AH-64Es for training, float, and test, valued at USD3.5 billion, will meet the needs of the army,” the IG said. “Additionally, G-8 officials have no assurance that the AH-64E programme is affordable.”
The IG noted that if too few AH-64Es are procured, the army may not be able to train enough pilots to meet operational needs, provide replacements for AH-64Es that cannot be repaired in time to meet readiness objectives, or test and evaluate other weapon systems that are added to the AH-64E. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. Lockheed exec downplays impact of Korea contracting snafu on T-X trainer jet competition. As the U.S. Air Force prepares to announce the results of the T-X trainer jet competition this summer, the head of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is confident its joint bid with Korea Aerospace Industries won’t be hampered by a recent scandal involving KAI executives. Last week, The Washington Post reported that KAI had won a U.S. Air Force contract to maintain F-16 jets without disclosing that several of its current and former executives had been indicted in a corruption case. The executives were accused of bribery, embezzlement and defrauding the South Korean government, and experts told the Post that — should KAI had altered its previous filings, as required — the company could have come under greater scrutiny.
Orlando Carvalho, Lockheed’s executive vice president of its aeronautics division, said he doesn’t expect that trouble to bleed over to the T-X competition, where KAI and Lockheed are partnered to offer the T-50A.
“The KAI matter is between KAI and the Air Force and the government,” he told Defense News in an exclusive interview Friday. “We have no involvement or participation in any of that. It revolves around a contract that KAI has directly with the Air Force, that’s outside of anything that we do with KAI.”
Lockheed has not been contacted by the U.S. Defense Department or the U.S. Air Force for additional information regarding its relationship with KAI, he said.
“Our expectation is that KAI will continue to address and ultimately resolve this issue they have, and our hope [is] they will do it in an expedient matter and allow everything to progress appropriately on the APT side,” Carvalho said, using an acronym that stands for Advanced Pilot Trainer, another name for the T-X program.
KAI was thrust into the spotlight earlier this month, when it was revealed that the company had paid $150,000 to Michael Cohen — best known as U.S. President Donald Trump’s former private lawyer — for consulting services.
The bad press comes as the Air Force is on the verge to award the T-X trainer contract, which is expected sometime this summer. The entire 350-aircraft program is valued at $16.3 billion, and further sales internationally or to the other U.S. services could be possible.
Lockheed and KAI’s T-50A will compete against a clean-sheet design proposed by Boeing and Saab as well as a version of Leonardo’s M-346 trainer, which is operated by Italy, Singapore and Israel and is being marketed in the United States as the T-100.
The T-50A is a version of the Korean firm’s supersonic T-50 trainer in use by South Korea, Indonesia, Iraq and the Philippines.
Lockheed’s decades-long relationship with KAI continues to be “very strong,” Carvalho said. The partnership dates back to the 1990s, when KAI produced a version of the F-16 domestically in South Korea. The T-50, South Korea’s first indigenous supersonic aircraft, is heavily influenced by the F-16.
The T-50 is seen as a front-runner to the competition by some analysts, who attribute that to the aircraft’s high-performance capability and the fact that it is already in production. Lockheed’s experience on the F-35 program is also seen as an advantage, as the T-X will be used to train a generation of F-35 pilots.
The projected T-X contract date had already slipped once, from before the end of 2017 to sometime this summer, but the Air Force maintains it will keep to its current schedule. Carvalho said the U.S. government’s rate of questions to the competitors is slowing, and the hope is that it could soon request final pricing data from the companies — a sign that a down-select is soon on the way.
“Our expectation is that we’ll see that request soon,” he said. “Our hope is that we’ll see the request in July, and hopefully that will enable a source selection in August or earlier.”
If the T-50 fails to win T-X, Carvalho said, Lockheed will look for other opportunities to help KAI sell the aircraft in the international market. One possibility is the eventual replacement of the U.S. Navy’s T-45 trainer jet, although the companies would need to ensure that the T-50 could be qualified to land on a carrier deck. (Source: Defense News)
25 Jun 18. US Army releases Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft competitive prototype draft RFI. Key Points:
- The US Army wants information on a FARA prototype
- The service wants an optionally manned aircraft to make first flight in early 2023
The US Army on 22 June released a draft request for information (RFI) for a Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) competitive prototype with an eye on first contract award in the third quarter of 2019.
The army currently cannot conduct armed reconnaissance, light attack, and security with improved stand-off and lethal and non-lethal capabilities with a platform sized to hide in radar clutter and for urban canyons of mega cities. To close this gap, the army envisions an optionally manned, next-generation rotorcraft with attributes of reduced cognitive workload, increased operational tempo through ultra-reliable designs and extended maintenance-free periods, and advanced teaming and autonomous capabilities. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. USAF to replace UH-1N Huey helicopter fleet with new aircraft. The US Air Force (USAF) has confirmed that each air force base (AFB) with a UH-1N Huey military helicopter will receive a new replacement aircraft.
USAF locations that currently host the UH-1N Huey aircraft include the Eglin AFB’s Duke Field, Florida; Fairchild AFB, Washington; FE Warren AFB, Wyoming; Joint Base Andrews-Naval Air Facility Washington, Maryland; Kirtland AFB, New Mexico; Malmstrom AFB, Montana; and Minot AFB, North Dakota. The UH-1N Huey replacement programme has been designed to support the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) primary commitment to maintaining a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent that helps protect the homeland, assure allies and deter adversaries.
Replacement helicopters will facilitate significant upgrades in speed, range, endurance, payload capacity and survivability.
New aircraft are being acquired by the airforce to help replace the 46-year-old UH-1N Huey twin-engine medium military helicopter fleet.
Once in service, replacement aircraft will help support four USAF missions, the nuclear deterrence operations, the continuation of government operations, survival school support, as well as test and training.
The acquisition has been approved by the 2016 vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Requirements Oversight Council.
A contract for the delivery of the new aircraft fleet is expected to be awarded later this year and the helicopters are planned to be distributed between 2020 and 2032.
Built by Bell Helicopter / Textron, the UH-1N Huey is a light-lift utility helicopter used to support a wide range of missions such as emergency services airlift, security and surveillance of off-base nuclear weapons convoys, and distinguished visitor airlift.
The 17.44m-long helicopter can also be deployed for additional operations, including disaster response operations, airborne cable inspections, aircrew survival school support, aerial testing, and routine missile site support. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
REST OF THE WORLD
28 Jun 18. BAE triumphs in £20bn Australia frigate contract. UK defence group beats bids from Italian and Spanish rivals. BAE Systems has beaten Italian and Spanish rivals to win a multibillion-dollar contract to build Australia’s new fleet of warships in a victory that should strengthen defence ties between London and Canberra just as Britain exits the EU. The UK defence giant will supply nine of its new Type 26 submarine hunters to the Royal Australian Navy in the landmark programme, in what is the first overseas order for the new generation of British-designed frigates. The total value of the programme is estimated at A$35bn (£20bn) over its 30-year life, although analysts estimated the contract for the build phase will be valued at between A$15bn and A$20bn. Canberra chose BAE over rival designs from Spain’s Navantia and Italy’s Fincantieri in a competitive tender, which is part of a A$200bn spending programme by Australia to upgrade its military hardware. BAE’s win over Fincantieri’s Fremm-class frigate, a Franco-Italian design, is significant for both the company and for the UK’s plans to revive naval exports. The Fremm-class has been operational for five years while work on the first Type 26 for the Royal Navy only started last year and the ship is not due to enter service until 2027. Apart from some exports of smaller offshore patrol vessels, the Australian contract for the Type 26, known in Australia as the Hunter-class, is the first one for a new advanced UK-designed warship in decades. The contract award represents a coup for BAE, which is under pressure from the UK government to cut the costs of shipbuilding as it embarks on an expensive renewal of its naval fleet. Exports are seen to be crucial to reining in cost. Although the Australian vessels will be built in a government-owned shipyard in Adelaide, and few UK jobs will be created as a result, some of the ships’ systems will be built by UK subcontractors and the higher volumes should allow them to cut costs. In addition, UK design and engineering teams will be involved, retaining expertise for future naval requirements. Michael Shoebridge, an analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the decision by Canberra to choose BAE probably reflected some emotional and strategic factors, which went beyond the technical criteria in the tender. “The UK and Australian defence partnership is long and deep. There is also a lot of emotion around Brexit, which may have played a role given the potential for a deeper partnership with the UK into the future,” he said. The UK has embarked on a diplomatic charm offensive over the past 12 months in Australia, including visits by Boris Johnson, foreign secretary, and Michael Fallon, former defence secretary. It has pledged to upgrade defence co-operation with Canberra and play a more prominent role in the Asia Pacific, where China has begun to militarise islands in the contested waters of the South China Sea. BAE’s Type 26 global combat ship is scheduled to start replacing the Royal Navy’s existing Type 23 frigates in the late 2020s and is expected to remain in service until the middle of the century. The UK ministry of defence ordered eight frigates and started building the first of class last year. Analysts said the Australian Navy’s decision to choose the Type 26 should help BAE compete for other overseas orders, including an ongoing tender by the Royal Canadian Navy for 15 frigates worth an estimated $50bn. However it carried some risk, given that the first Type 26 was still under construction and previous shipbuilding programmes have run into significant cost and technology issues, said Francis Tusa of the defence consultancy Defence Analysis. “This is the most amazing turnround of events,” he said. “The first Type 26 is not due to enter service with the Royal Navy until 2027. It is quite a serious risk to select a ship or any piece of equipment which doesn’t exist.” It suggested that the Type 26’s quiet hull technology — crucial to any submarine hunting vessel — had been compelling, Mr Tusa added, given that the country historically had closer ties to BAE’s Spanish rival and the Italian vessel was operational. Nigel Stewart, who headed the BAE bid, said UK production of the Type 26 could help to reduce the risks to Australia. “We have a live production line in the UK so this de-risks the Australian programme,” he told the FT in an interview before the contract award was decided. (See: BATTLESPACE ALERT Vol.20 ISSUE 16, 28 June 2018, Australian SEA 5000 winner revealed) (Source: FT.com)
26 Jun 18. Defence Ministry Sets Up Committee to Check HAL’s ‘High Bill’ for Tejas Mark1A. The euphoria within the defence establishment over the induction of the first indigenous Light Combat Aircraft into the IAF appears to have subsided with the Defence Ministry forming a committee to look into the “high price” demanded by Bengaluru-based public sector manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), for Tejas Mark1A.
Sources told The Indian Express that in response to a request for a proposal for 83 Tejas Mark1A fighter jets issued by the IAF in December last year, HAL quoted a price of Rs 463 crore per jet in April. This raised eyebrows in the government, sources said, as the price compared unfavourably even with more modern foreign fighters.
“The HAL supplies the more modern Russian Sukhoi fighter, which it assembles at Nashik, at Rs 415 crore. The Russians supply it at Rs 330 crore. The Swedish Gripen was offered to us for Rs 455 crore, and F-16 for Rs 380 crore, and both were to be made in India. The HAL itself gave us Tejas Mark1 at Rs 100 crore less. This price for an improved version seems high,” sources said.
Concerned about the price for an indigenous fighter jet, which the government has been keen to promote under Make in India scheme, the committee set up by the Defence Ministry will look into the pricing of military equipment manufactured by defence PSUs. The committee is headed by Principal Advisor (Cost) in the ministry and is likely to submit its report in the next few weeks.
Once the committee submits its report, the ministry will form a commercial negotiations committee (CNC) to bring down HAL’s price for the jet. The contract for 83 jets, sources said, will take another year before it is finally signed.
According to sources, the Defence Ministry is also concerned about the delay in supply of the existing order of the first lot of 40 Tejas fighter jets. In last three years, only nine fighter jets in Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) mode were supplied against an order of 20. The order for another 20 Tejas jets in Final Operational Clearance (FOC) has not even begun, as the FOC has not yet been attained by the aircraft. The ministry has also agreed that the HAL will supply eight trainer aircraft out of 40, after the 36 Tejas Mark1 have been supplied.
“The idea was that HAL will produce 18 Tejas fighters every year. That is the only way we can provide IAF to make up its numbers as its older fighters go out of service. But there has been a delay and we are in touch with HAL about it,” sources said. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/The Indian Express)
25 Jun 18. Boeing gets one step closer to landing two more Poseidon customers. South Korea and New Zealand have moved closer to acquiring the Boeing P-8A Poseidon multi-mission aircraft for their respective maritime patrol requirements. Reuters, quoting a senior Boeing executive and a spokesman from South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Procurement Administration or DAPA, has reported that the country will acquire the P-8A for its next maritime patrol aircraft via the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. The Reuters report quoted DAPA spokesman Kang Hwan-seok as saying that the decision was made after a comprehensive review of legal aspects, cost, schedule and performance, with the unnamed Boeing source estimating that the value of the acquisition is expected to be approximately $1.71bn. The Reuters report did not specify the number of aircraft South Korea will acquire, although Defense News had previously reported that South Korea was seeking six aircraft.
The decision by South Korea to sole-source the Poseidon will disappoint other aircraft manufacturers, who had hoped that the Asian country will seek to acquire its aircraft via a competitive tender process. European defense contractors Airbus and Saab had been hoping for an opportunity to market their maritime patrol aircraft offerings, the C295 Persuader and Swordfish respectively, to South Korea.
Meanwhile, New Zealand defense minister Ron Mark has accepted the country’s proposal to purchase up to four P-8As to the government’s Administration and Expenditure Review Committee earlier today, according to reports in local media.
The proposal will then go to the cabinet who will make a decision on the acquisition. The date for the proposal to go to cabinet had not been set, but the minister said he expected that to happen before the end of July.
New Zealand has already received State Department approval in April 2017 to acquire four P-8As following a $1.46bn FMS request, however Mark had put the acquisition on hold when the new government took power late last year so he could understand the decision-making process taken by the previous government.
He has since told a government select committee hearing held earlier this year that following his review, he was confident that the recommendation to acquire the P-8A “stacks up, that it is robust, it’s justifiable.”
Both New Zealand and South Korea will use the P-8A to replace the Lockheed-Martin P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft currently operating for their air forces in the maritime patrol and anti-submarine role.
For New Zealand, operating the P-8A will also maintain synergy with neighboring Australia, who is currently in the midst of taking delivery of 15 P-8As it has on order to replace its own P-3s. Defense News understands that the New Zealanders have already held discussions with their Australian counterparts on how to maximize the advantages of both countries operating a common platform. (Source: Defense News)
24 Jun 18. Bahraini F-16V contract awarded. A USD1.12bn contract for F-16V Fighting Falcon combat aircraft for Bahrain was awarded to Lockheed Martin on 22 June. The fixed-price-incentive-firm deal for 16 F-16V aircraft will run through to 30 September 2023.
The contract comes some nine months after the US State Department approved in September 2017 the sale to Bahrain of 22 new F-16Vs, and upgrades to its existing 20 F-16C/D Block 40 aircraft to bring them up to the same configuration. A contract for an undisclosed quantity of GE F110-GE-129 engines related to the wider F-16V procurement was award in November 2017.
Also referred to as the F-16 Block 70/72, the F-16V features the Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar (derived from the F-16E/F Block 60 AN/APG-80 and also known as the Scalable Agile Beam Radar [SABR]), a new Raytheon mission computer, the Link 16 datalink, modern cockpit displays, an enhanced electronic warfare system, and a ground-collision avoidance system. Bahrain is the launch customer for this latest standard of F-16.
In terms of the Bahraini procurement, the proposed deal includes ancillary equipment, training, and support. The contract to modernise the existing aircraft includes a simulator, ancillary equipment, training, support, targeting pods, and limited quantities of air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
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American Panel Corporation
American Panel Corporation (APC) since 1998, specializes in display products installed in defence land systems, as well as military and commercial aerospace platforms, having delivered well over 100,000 displays worldwide. Military aviators worldwide operate their aircraft and perform their missions using APC displays, including F-22, F-18, F-16, F-15, Euro-fighter Typhoon, Mirage 2000, C-130, C-17, P-3, S-3, U-2, AH-64 Apache Helicopter, V-22 tilt-rotor, as well as numerous other military and commercial aviation aircraft including Boeing 717 – 787 aircraft and several Airbus aircraft. APC panels are found in nearly every tactical aircraft in the US and around the world.
APC manufactures the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Large Area Display (LAD) display (20 inch by 8 inch) with dual pixel fields, power and video interfaces to provide complete display redundancy. At DSEI 2017 we are exhibiting the LAD with a more advanced design, dual display on single substrate with redundant characteristics and a bespoke purpose 8 inch by 6 inch armoured vehicle display.
In order to fully meet the demanding environmental and optical requirements without sacrificing critical tradeoffs in performance, APC designs, develops and manufactures these highly specialized displays in multiple sizes and configurations, controlling all AMLCD optical panel, mechanical and electrical design aspects. APC provides both ITAR and non-ITAR displays across the globe to OEM Prime and tiered vetronics and avionics integrators.
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UNITED KINGDOM
AIR
28 Jun 18. Inzpire Limited have been awarded a new contract to continue their provision of airmanship and human factors training to ab-initio students in the UK Military Flying Training System. Inzpire’s Human Factors and Safety Division has been providing this training to the UK military for almost 10 years, and this new phase of training delivery will see Inzpire’s provision develop to include an introduction course during elementary flying training and a more advanced foundation course during basic flying training. Inzpire’s experts will be delivering at fast jet, rotary, & multi-engine training schools to pilots, crewmen, ISTAR and Royal Navy observer students. The new introductory course will prepare students for the processes involved in UK military flying training, giving them an insight in to what will be expected by their future flying instructors. The foundation course will expose students to the more advanced concepts of airmanship, and help to prepare them for the intensity of future flying courses and what will be required of them when they reach the frontline.
EUROPE
LAND
25 Jun 18. Denmark-Ballerup: Hand guns – 2018/S 120-274893 – Contract award notice for contracts in the field of defence and security.
Directive 2009/81/EC
Section I: Contracting authority/entity
I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)
Forsvarsministeriets Materiel- og Indkøbsstyrelse
Lautrupbjerg 1
For the attention of: Poul Mariegaard Kristensen
2750 Ballerup
Denmark
Telephone: +45 72814197
E-mail:
II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract
New Danish Service Pistol
II.1.4)Short description of the contract or purchase(s):
The motivation for this acquisition is to purchase a pistol, to be used as secondary weapon for Army, Maritime, Air Force and Special Operation Forces and as primary weapon for Military Police and other special units. The pistol shall also be used by pilots and crew members on helicopters and airplanes. Accordingly the pistol must be highly durable and be able to withstand rough usage under different environmental and physical conditions.
The Danish Defence requires a light modern pistol, including spare parts and services, with focus on large magazine capacity, day and night sights, rails for accessories e.g. Tactical Light andLaser. The pistol should have good ergonomics and comfort. The pistol shall be a striker fire caliber 9x19mm, available in a regular sized variant and a variant for concealed use with high hit probability and effect at 30 meters.
It is DALO intention to perform a user test regarding both variants, expected to start 10.11.2017. The tenderers are to provide 5 (five) regular sized variant and 1(one) variant for concealed use, including accessories, documentation and technical support for this test.
The result of the prequalification process is expected to be announced primo August 2017
II.2.1)Total final value of contract(s)
Value: 25 000 000 DKK
V.3)Name and address of economic operator in favour of whom the contract award decision has been taken
CT Solutions ApS
Østre Alle 6
9530 Støvring
Denmark
E-mail:
Telephone: +45 40500057
VI.4)Date of dispatch of this notice:
22.6.2018
(Source: Europa TED)
26 Jun 18. Estonia on Tuesday signed an agreement with South Korea for the purchase of K9 Thunder self-propelled 155mm howitzers. The €46m contract, one of the most significant defence procurements of the decade, includes 12 artillery systems, training, maintenance and spare parts. The first howitzers are scheduled to arrive in Estonia in 2020, the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments (ECDI) announced. The process of selecting the most suitable artillery system for Estonian conditions began in 2016. In the course of the process, experts from the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF), the Ministry of Defence and the ECDI assessed various weapons systems, and the results of the analyses indicated that the K9 Thunder was the most modern self-propelled artillery system with the greatest combat power, according to a press release. (Source: news.err.ee)
SEA
26 Jun 18. The U.S. State Department has cleared Spain to purchase five Aegis weapon systems, potentially worth $860.4m. The systems would be placed aboard Spanish frigates, which are interoperable with NATO allies such as the U.S. Spain currently operates five existing Aegis-equipped frigates. Adding the systems to Spain’s fleet will “afford more flexibility and capability to counter regional threats and continue to enhance stability in the region,” according to an announcement posted by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. In addition to the five systems, the package includes six shipsets Digital Signal Processing, five shipsets AWS Computing Infrastructure MARK 1 MOD 0, five shipsets Operational Readiness Test Systems (ORTS), five shipsets MK 99 MOD 14 Fire Control System, five shipsets MK 41 Baseline VII Vertical Launching Systems (VLS), two All-Up-Round MK 54 Mod 0 lightweight torpedoes, twenty SM-2 Block IIIB missiles and MK 13 canisters with AN/DKT-71 warhead compatible telemeter, as well as other equipment. Being cleared by the State Department does not guarantee a sale will be completed. Congress can still intervene, and final price and quantity are often altered during negotiations. The proposed sale is being handled under a Foreign Military Sales vehicle. Should the sale clear, it primary work would be done by Lockheed Martin in Moorestown, NJ, and Manassas, VA; Raytheon in Waltham, MA; and General Dynamics in Williston, VT. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
AIR
29 Jun 18. The Hungarian Ministry of Defence has ordered 20 H145M military helicopters equipped with the innovative HForce weapon management in the frame of the military modernisation programme Zrinyi 2026. Together with the helicopters, Airbus will provide an extensive training and support package. With a maximum take-off weight of 3.7 tonnes, the H145M can be used for a wide range of tasks, including troop transport, utility, surveillance, air rescue, armed reconnaissance and medical evacuation. The Hungarian fleet will be equipped with a fast roping system, high-performance camera, fire support equipment, ballistic protection as well as an electronic countermeasures system to support the most demanding operational requirements. The HForce system, developed by Airbus Helicopters, will allow Hungary to equip and operate their aircraft with a large set of ballistic or guided air-to-ground and air-to-air weapons.
USA
LAND
26 Jun 18. L3 Technologies Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, was awarded a $7,234,658 firm-fixed-price contract for the Remote Operated Video Enhanced Receiver hardware production. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of June 29, 2021. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-17-D-0081).
26 Jun 18. Leonardo DRS, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a contract worth $193m to provide the U.S. Army with TROPHY active protection systems for its Abrams tanks in support of immediate operational requirements. Under the terms of the contract, Leonardo DRS will provide the Army with TROPHY systems, countermeasures, and maintenance kits. Developed by long-time partner Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. of Israel and currently fielding some 1,000 systems to all major Israeli ground combat platforms, TROPHY provides combat-proven protection against anti-armor rocket and missile threats.
25 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced a $364m production contract for Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles for the U.S. Army and a Foreign Military Sales customer. The program will allow the military services to upgrade their existing Block 1 missiles with new technology and double the range, while extending the missiles’ shelf life by more than 10 years and providing warfighters the latest surface-to-surface missile capability. Both the SLEP and new ATACMS rounds will be produced at Lockheed Martin’s Precision Fires Production Center of Excellence in Camden, Arkansas. All missiles under this contract are scheduled to be delivered by January 2021. Lockheed Martin has produced more than 3,850 ATACMS missiles. More than 600 ATACMS have been fired in combat, and the system has demonstrated extremely high rates of accuracy and reliability while in theater. Each ATACMS missile is packaged in a Guided Missile Launch Assembly pod, and is fired from the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) family of launchers.
25 Jun 18. Saab has received an ammunition order from the Department of Defense (DoD) for the Carl-Gustaf® man-portable weapon system. The order value is approximately $16m (MSEK 135). The order is placed under the terms of contract H92222-14-D-0008 originally announced with DoD in August 2014 for the 84-mm recoilless rifle system known in the U.S. as M3 MAAWS (Multi-role, Anti-armor, Anti-personnel Weapon System). Deliveries are expected to take place during 2019. In addition to the munition types already in service with operators of the system, DoD has also placed their first order for the MT 756 (Multi Target) round. The 84 mm MT 756 is designed for combat in urban areas and for incapacitating an enemy under cover inside a building or similar types of fortification. The MT 756 uses a tandem charge to penetrate hardened structures and affect the targets within.
SEA
27 Jun 18. Aquabotix providing USN with unexploded ordnance detection system. The US Navy (USN) has awarded Aquabotix a contract for an unexploded ordnance detection system that will enable the USN to both find and neutralise underwater threats. The navy will eventually incorporate the capability into Aquabotix’s SwarmDiver, micro unmanned surface vessel (USV) or other unmanned underwater vessels (UUVs), manufactured by the company, providing the navy with an affordable technology to support unexploded ordnance detection missions. The USD78,000 contract with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) will provide a recoverable system at a ‘disposables’ price point, according to Aquabotix. Additionally, Aquabotix’s UUVs are capable of taking readings at multiple locations simultaneously, enabling the navy and allied partners to detect, locate, and neutralise unexploded ordnance, the company said in a statement. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
28 Jun 18. Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) today announced that it has been awarded a contract valued in excess of $28 million to provide valves for the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class submarines. The award was received from Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc. (BPMI) to support ship construction and spare parts procurement. The contract includes FY18 orders for two ship sets of submarine propulsion plant valves and spares. Curtiss-Wright is performing the work at its facility in East Farmingdale, N.Y., a business unit of Curtiss-Wright’s Industrial division within the Commercial/Industrial segment. Engineering and manufacturing has commenced and will continue through 2022.
28 Jun 18. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News Shipbuilding Inc., Newport News, Virginia, is awarded a not-to-exceed $200,446,196 undefinitized fixed-price, incentive firm target modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-16-C-2116) for the purchase of additional long lead time material in support of USS Enterprise (CVN 80). Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, is expected to be completed by February 2027. Fiscal 2018 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $200,446,196 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The statutory authority for this sole-source award is in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii) – only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.
AIR
22 Jun 18. Aerojet Rocketdyne, Canoga Park, California, has been awarded a $69,804,323 modification (P00014) to a previously awarded other transaction agreement (FA8811-16-9-0003) for the development of the AR1 booster engine and the RL10CX upper stage engine for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. This action implements Section 1604 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2015, which requires the development of a next-generation rocket propulsion system that will transition away from the use of non-allied space launch engines to a domestic alternative for National Security Space launches. Work will be performed in Canoga Park, California; Sacramento, California; Centennial, Colorado; Huntsville, Alabama; Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. The work on the AR1 is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2019, and the work on the RL10CX is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds in the amount of $63,014,148; and fiscal 2018 RDT&E funds in the amount of $20,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, California, is the contracting activity.
28 Jun 18. BAE Systems, Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc., Hudson, New Hampshire, is awarded $224,331,310 for modification (P00001) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price delivery order (N0001918F2505) on indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity contract (N00019-17-D-5517). This modification provides for the production and delivery of an additional 10,185 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems II (WGU-59/B) under full-rate Production Lot 7. The procurement of the additional units will upgrade the current 2.75-inch rocket system to a semi-active laser-guided precision weapon in support of the Air Force, Army, and foreign military sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in Hudson, New Hampshire (70 percent); and Austin, Texas (30 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2019. Fiscal 2016 Special Defense Acquisition funds (Navy); fiscal 2017 procurement ammunition (Air Force); fiscal 2018 procurement ammunition (Air Force and Army); and FMS funds in the amount of $224,331,310 will be obligated at time of award; $17,137,820 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This modification combines purchases for the Air Force ($144,188,996; 64 percent); Army ($58,590,322; 26 percent); Navy ($17,137,820; 8 percent); and FMS ($4,414,172; 2 percent). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
28 Jun 18. The Boeing Co., Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, was awarded an $80,729,096.00 cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order for four new build MH-47G rotary wing aircraft. This action is required to satisfy an urgent need to sustain U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) heavy assault, rotary wing aircraft and to mitigate the impact of the MH-47G aircraft availability in light of increased SOF operational demands. This delivery order is a non-competitive award in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. Fiscal 2018 procurement funds in the amount of $33,729,096; and fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement, Army (APA) funds in the amount of $47,000,000 shall be obligated at time of award. A majority of the work will be performed in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. U.S. Special Operations Command, Tampa, Florida, is the contracting activity. The contract number and delivery order are W91215-16-G-0001/H92241-18-F-0022.
25 Jun 18. General Dynamics-OTS Inc., Williston, Vermont, is being awarded a $9,638,485 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 19 M61A2 20MM gun systems as government furnished equipment in support of the F/A-18E/F aircraft production lots 39 and 40, including program support, non-recurring production costs and operational security. Work will be performed in Saco, Maine (51 percent); Lyndonville, Vermont (6 percent); Miami, Florida (5 percent); Charlotte, North Carolina (5 percent); Westfield, Massachusetts (5 percent); Jacksonville, Florida (4 percent); St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin (2 percent); Saint Laurent, Canada (2 percent); Carson City, Nevada (2 percent); Los Angeles, California (2 percent); and various locations within the U.S. (16 percent), and is expected to be completed in May 2021. Fiscal 2016 and 2017 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,638,485 are being obligated at time of award, $2,712,292 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-18-C-1023).
25 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin Rotary Mission Systems, Owego, New York, is awarded a $64,696,365 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the design, development, and integration of the Advanced Digital Receiver/Processor (ADRP) and Active Front End (AFE) upgrades to the existing E-2D AN/ALQ-217 Electronic Support Measures (ESM) Receiver/Processor and AFE Weapons Replaceable Assemblies in support of the E-2D aircraft. This contract includes the delivery of 16 ESM ADRP upgrade hardware kits. Work will be performed Owego, New York (98.7 percent); and Clearwater, Florida (1.3 percent), and is expected to be completed in June 2022. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $20,422,911 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-18-C-1066).
25 Jun 18. Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems, Redondo Beach, California, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $47,000,000 undefinitized contract for Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Polar Space Vehicles 1 and 2. This contract provides for system and payload requirements analysis and risk reduction efforts leading to a system requirements review. Work will be performed in Redondo Beach, California, and is expected to be completed by June 25, 2020. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $9,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (FA8810-18-C-0006).
22 Jun 18. Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems, Melbourne, Florida, is awarded a $15,301,379 firm-fixed-price modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-15-C-6318) to exercise options for fabrication, integration, testing, system production and delivery of peculiar support equipment for the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) program. ALMDS detects, classifies and localizes near-surface, moored sea mines. The ALMDS is integrated with the MH-60S helicopter to provide rapid, wide-area reconnaissance and assessment of mine threats in littoral zones, confined straits, choke points and amphibious objective areas. Work will be performed in Melbourne, Florida (69 percent); and Tucson, Arizona (31 percent), and is expected to be completed by June 2020. Fiscal 2018 other procurement (Navy); and fiscal 2017 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $15,301,379 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.
28 Jun 18. Raytheon Co. Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a $93,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, for Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) F/A-18E/F integration. This contract provides for the testing, analysis, support and sustainment of SDB II weapon onto the F/A-18E/F platform with developmental and operational testing. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by July 1, 2023. No funds are being obligated at the time of award. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA8672-18-D-0011).
26 Jun 18. Raytheon Co., Tucson, Arizona, is awarded a $29,688,168 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Low Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) Innovative Naval Prototype (INP). Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and work is expected to be completed by Jan. 25, 2020. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $7,129,599 will be obligated at the time of award. No funds will expire at end of current year. This contract was competitively procured under N00014-18-S-B001 entitled, Long-range broad agency announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology. Since proposals will be received throughout the year under the long-range BAA, the number of proposals received in response to the solicitation is unknown. The Office of Naval Research. Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00014-18-C-1020).
26 Jun 18. SpaceX wins $130m contract for USAF’s AFSPC-52 mission. The US Air Force (USAF) has awarded a $130m Air Force Space Command (AFSPC)-52 launch services contract to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
Under the firm-fixed-price contract, the company will provide Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) launch services to deliver AFSPC-52 satellite to its intended orbit. SpaceX will provide the US Government with a complete launch solution that includes launch vehicle production and mission, in addition to mission integration, launch operations and spaceflight worthiness activities. The AFSPC-52 is a classified mission that is planned to be launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, US, in the late fiscal year 2020. The current launch service contract is the fifth competitive procurement under the current Phase 1A strategy of the mission and offers a balance between operational needs and reducing launch costs through the reintroduction of competition for national security space missions. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
TECHNOLOGY
25 Jun 18. The US Air Force (USAF) has awarded a new task order to global consulting and digital services provider ICF for comprehensive cyber support across the enterprise. Valued at more than $50m, the task order has been awarded by the USAF’s Air Combat Command (ACC) under the US General Services Administration’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity contract.
The contract will continue for a period of three and a half years and includes a base period of one year, as well as two one-year options and one six-month option. Under the deal, ICF will be responsible for delivering comprehensive technical and programmatic expertise and advisory services to help transition the USAF’s cyberspace core function from the Air Force Space Command to the ACC. The project includes providing ACC with recommendations on how to manage, deploy and invest in cyber capabilities to help the organisation achieve its vision for delivering cyberspace superiority to US commands. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
28 Jun 18. Radiant Solutions, a Maxar Technologies company (formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.) (NYSE and TSX: MAXR), has been selected by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to become a prime contractor for its Janus Geography program. Radiant Solutions leads a team of more than 25 industry and university partners with proven production capacity and innovation to provide content management of topographic and human geography data from a variety of sources. The contract has a potential 10-year period of performance worth as much as $920m and validates Radiant Solutions’ trusted partnership with NGA as well as the value our commercial mindset delivers to solving our customers’ challenges. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
REST OF THE WORLD
LAND
22 Jun 18. BAE Systems Land & Armaments, York, Pennsylvania, is awarded an $83,629,301 firm-fixed-price contract to provide the necessary material and technical engineering to build, integrate, test, and deliver 30 Assault Amphibious Vehicle, Personnel Vehicles 7A1 (AAVP7A1); four Assault Amphibious Vehicle, Command Vehicles 7A1 (AAVC7A1); and two Assault Amphibious Vehicle, Recovery Vehicles 7A1 (AAVR7A1). This effort also includes support and test equipment, spares, publications, training, engineering services, logistics, and other technical support required. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales under the Taipei Economic Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) Foreign Military Sales (FMS) case TW-P-SEQ. All work will be performed in York, Pennsylvania, and is expected to be completed by July 22, 2020. FMS revolving funds in the amount of $83,629,301 will be obligated at time of award and do not have an expiration date. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii) – only one responsible source and no other supplies or services that will satisfy agency requirements. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity (M67854-18-C-0007).
27 Jun 18. Rheinmetall subsidiary Rheinmetall Denel Munition today announced that the company had secured another order for artillery shells and components for an international client to the value of €52m. This comes shortly after a €28m artillery order was booked earlier this year, which included fuzes, charges and various projectiles. Commenting on the sharp increase in demand of the company’s high-technology munitions, especially the artillery range, the company said that the unique features of the projectile variants are increasingly attracting the interest and recognition of the artillery user community around the globe. The company’s current projectile development activities are focused on enhanced product features that meet increasing customer demands and future needs of the user in terms of range, precision and on-target effect. Furthermore, all variants are compatible with both NATO and non-NATO designed 39- to 52 calibre guns. Thanks to long-established relationships with customers around the world and its comprehensive expertise, the Düsseldorf, Germany-based Group can point to a steady inflow of important orders in this domain.
SEA
28 Jun 18. BAE Systems has welcomed the Australian Government’s announcement of its selection as the preferred tenderer for the SEA 5000 program to deliver nine Future Frigates for the Royal Australian Navy. The overall announced program is expected to be in the region of AUD $35bn for the design, build and support of the ships. The Global Combat Ship – Australia is based on BAE Systems’ Type 26 frigate, one of the world’s most advanced anti-submarine warships, which the Company is currently constructing in Glasgow for the Royal Navy. Once contracted, the new ships, to be called the Hunter class, will be built in South Australia by an Australian workforce, using Australian suppliers from every state and territory. BAE Systems welcomed the Commonwealth Government’s announcement that ASC Shipbuilding will become a subsidiary of BAE Systems, subject to contract negotiations. Through BAE Systems, ASC Shipbuilding will be responsible for the delivery of the Global Combat Ship – Australia. The project is expected to create and sustain at least 5,000 highly skilled jobs, providing a significant contribution to the development of Australia’s continuous naval shipbuilding capability and a boost to the nation’s manufacturing industry. The company will soon commence negotiations with Australia’s Department of Defence on the initial design part of the contract, which is expected to be in place by the year end, with production expected to commence in 2020.
26 Jun 18. Argentina orders OPVs from France. Argentina signed a EUR280m (USD324m) contract on 22 June to acquire four offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) from France, an Argentine Navy high-ranking source has told Jane’s. The contract signed by the Navy Material General Directorate (DGMM) and French shipbuilder Naval Group is in accordance with a government-to-government agreement resulting from an international tender, the source said. The contract includes the ship FS L’Adroit (P725), which was self-funded by Naval Group and has been serving with the French Navy since 2011. Delivery of the ship to Argentina is planned for 2019. Three OPV-87 vessels, which are 87 m long and displace 1,650 tons, are also part of the deal, with two to be delivered in 2021 and one in 2022. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. Saab Receives Order for Naval Radars. Saab has signed a contract for delivery of the multi-role naval radar Sea Giraffe AMB and associated equipment including spare parts. The work for the initial phase of the contract will be carried out during the period of 2018-2019. The contract also includes options for more than 10 additional Sea Giraffe AMB. The industry’s nature is such that due to circumstances concerning the product and customer, further information about the customer will not be announced. Saab has sold Sea Giraffe in various configurations to customers around the world, including Sweden, Poland and the US, where it is currently part of four separate US Navy programmes.
AIR
27 Jun 18. The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is awarded a $1,504,995,240 fixed-price-incentive-firm contract that provides for the production and delivery of 22 F/A-18E and six F/A-18F Super Hornets in support of the government of Kuwait. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California (41.4 percent); Hazelwood, Missouri (28.2 percent); Fort Worth, Texas (4.7 percent); Santa Clarita, California (4 percent); Bloomington, Minnesota (3.3 percent); Greenlawn, New York (2.8 percent); Endicott, New York (2.3 percent); Santa Ana, California (1.9 percent); Clearwater, Florida (1.5 percent); Clifton, New Jersey (1.3 percent); Mesa, Arizona (1.3 percent); Torrance, California (1.2 percent); Ontario, Canada (1 percent); Vandalia, Ohio (0.9 percent); Kalamazoo, Michigan (0.8 percent); Fort Walton Beach, Florida (0.8 percent); East Aurora, New York (0.7 percent); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (2.1 percent), and is expected to be completed in January 2021. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $1,504,995,240 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-18-C-1060).
22 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas; and Lockheed Martin, Greenville, South Carolina, have been awarded a $1,124,545,002 fixed-price-incentive-firm contract for F-16 production. This contract provides for the production of 16 F-16 V Block 70 aircraft. Work will be performed in Greenville, South Carolina; and Fort Worth, Texas. The work is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2023. This contract involves 100 percent foreign military sales (FMS) to the Kingdom of Bahrain. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. FMS funds in the amount of $551,027,050 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8615-18-C-6058).
25 Jun 18. The Australian Department of Defence officially announced its plan on June 26, 2018 to purchase six Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC)-built Triton aircraft system, further cementing the company’s commitment to a longstanding U.S. ally. An unmanned aircraft system with an autonomous capability built for maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Triton is the first Northrop Grumman-built aircraft system Australia has purchased. The system will be operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Triton can fly at altitudes of 55,000 feet for 24 hours at a time and is equipped with sensors that provide high-resolution imagery and near real-time video. Pilots and sensor operators fly the Triton from ground stations, which can command flights all over the world.
TECHNOLOGY
25 Jun 18. Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (Nasdaq: CMTL) announced today that during its fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, its Orlando-based subsidiary, Comtech Systems, Inc., which is part of Comtech’s Government Solutions segment, has received an order totaling approximately $31.0 million for its Modular Transportable Transmission System (MTTS) troposcatter terminals from a foreign subsidiary for a U.S. based top-tier prime contractor. The transportable troposcatter system will be utilized by an international end-customer as part of a deployable communications network for an Asia Pacific military. Comtech has not sold troposcatter systems to this end-customer before. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
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MANAGEMENT ON THE MOVE
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LOCATIONS
LAND
29 Jun 18. Global defence giant inks Mubadala deal for Abu Dhabi HQ.
Raytheon signs agreement with Mubadala Investment Company to set up its new UAE headquarters at Abu Dhabi Global Market Square.
Global defence giant Raytheon has announced a long-term lease with Mubadala Investment Company, establishing its new UAE headquarters at Abu Dhabi Global Market Square.
Raytheon Emirates, a wholly owned subsidiary of the US parent, said the new HQ will be spread over nearly 1,837 square metres once it is completed and ready for occupancy later this year.
“The lease agreement with Mubadala for our new headquarters further solidifies Raytheon Emirates’ long-term commitment to bringing value and diversification to the UAE economy and providing increased indigenous capability for products, systems and solutions for the UAE Armed Forces and commercial customers throughout the region,” said John Brauneis, chief executive of Raytheon Emirates.
“We greatly value our partnership with Mubadala in securing a prime location for Raytheon Emirates to operate and contribute to the thriving business in Abu Dhabi.”
The lease provides for some flexibility for future expansion of Raytheon Emirates’ headquarters, he added.
Ali Eid Al-Mheiri, executive director of the Real Estate and Infrastructure division at Mubadala, said: “We are proud to welcome Raytheon to ADGM Square where they will locate their UAE headquarters. ADGM Square boasts a growing number of industry leaders, further establishing Al Maryah Island as Abu Dhabi’s premier business hub.”
Raytheon Emirates was incorporated in the UAE in 2017 and is initially focusing on four business areas – cybersecurity, effectors, air and missile defence, and advanced technology. (Source: News Now/www.arabianbusiness.com)
29 Jun 18. U.S. forces chief says South Korea paid for 90 percent of biggest overseas base. The chief of the U.S. military forces commended South Korea for shouldering nearly all the cost of building the largest U.S. overseas military base, in a speech at the formal opening of the new headquarters in Pyeongtaek.
“This was a project that cost nearly $10.8bn to build over 10 years and the Republic of Korea investment was over 90 percent of the cost,” Commander Vincent Brooks said at the base, around 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Seoul.
“For that 90 percent, the United States remains with you 100 percent.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly stressed since before taking office that Seoul should burden more of the expenses needed for the upkeep of some 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea.
After his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, Trump made a surprise announcement that the United States will stop joint military drills with South Korea, saying they are “very expensive” and paid for mostly by Washington.
Officials in both the United States and South Korea have declined to specify how much the exercises cost each party.
The two countries are currently in talks over how to share the costs of keeping the U.S. troops in South Korea starting 2019. An existing accord, signed in 2014 and due to expire at the end of 2018, requires Seoul to pay about 960bn won ($856.6m) this year.
The previous headquarters of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) had been located at the heart of Seoul since the 1950-53 Korean conflict, which had ended in a ceasefire and not a peace treaty.
Brooks has said the joint U.S.-South Korean Combined Forces Command (CFC) will remain in Seoul, moving into the South’s defence ministry complex. Brooks commands both the USFK and CFC. The USFK’s previous base in Seoul will be transformed into a public park. The base in Pyeongtaek, Camp Humphreys, is the largest overseas U.S. base in the world, straddling an area of 14.7 million square metres. It is also the largest in terms of personnel. As of April 30, the base had 19,904 U.S. personnel in total, according to the USFK, which expects the population to reach 27,702 by the end of 2021. The relocation project, initiated in 2004, initially intended to streamline and incorporate some 40 U.S. bases across South Korea into Pyeongtaek and the southern city of Daegu by 2008.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in lauded the opening of the new headquarters, saying recent steps toward denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula were only possible due to the deterrent provided by the US-South Korea alliance, and the allies’ efforts to engage North Korea diplomatically. (Source: Reuters)
25 Jun 18. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC), joined by Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant and members of Mississippi’s federal and state delegations, officially opened a new operational area of their Moss Point facility today and announced new manufacturing jobs for the region. Elected officials joined local employees to cut the ribbon on the new machine shop section that delivers important capabilities at Northrop Grumman’s Moss Point manufacturing center. For more than a decade, Gulf Coast employees have manufactured rotary and fixed wing autonomous systems in Moss Point that support the U.S. and its global allies. Recent facility upgrades have allowed for new work on manned aircraft to come to the site, diversifying the portfolio of work and bringing new jobs to the region.
“Northrop Grumman has expanded our operations in Moss Point and grown our aerospace workforce at the site by more than 40 percent since 2017 through partnerships with the Mississippi Development Authority, the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation, the Jackson County Board of Supervisors, and the Jackson County Port Authority,” said Kevin Mitchell, sector vice president, global operations, Northrop Grumman. “We greatly appreciate the strong support from state and local partners and our federal delegation.”
In April 2004, Northrop Grumman broke ground in Moss Point with site construction beginning in 2005. In April 2006, Northrop Grumman contributed to aerospace industry growth in southern Mississippi when the ribbon was cut on the 101,000 square-foot facility. The company celebrated its 10 year anniversary at the site in 2016 and recently extended its lease adjacent to Trent Lott International Airport through 2026. Last week, Northrop Grumman celebrated another important milestone in the state, with an event recognizing 50 years of supporting military customers and the Mississippi Gulf Coast community in Ocean Springs. Mississippi Lt Gov. Tate Reeves as well as local dignitaries and elected officials were on hand for the event recognizing Northrop Grumman’s Maritime Systems leadership in designing and developing combat management systems and electronic suites for over 50 ships in four major ship classes.
The Northrop Grumman facility at Ocean Springs, Mississippi, celebrates 50 years of designing and developing combat management systems and electronic suites for domestic and international customers.
“For five decades, Northrop Grumman’s presence in Mississippi has contributed to our worldwide presence and reputation in support of our warfighters and the defense of our nation and its allies,” said Northrop Grumman Ocean Springs Site Manager David Robertson. “I could not be more proud to lead the dedicated professionals at Northrop Grumman Maritime Systems in Ocean Springs.”
25 Jun 18. Australia to invest USD16.3m in RMAF base Butterworth. Canberra will invest AUD22m (USD16.3m) into upgrading facilities at the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base Butterworth, which is also used by the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Minister for Defence Marise Payne announced in a 25 June statement.
“Australian Defence Force personnel have had a presence at Butterworth for 60 years and the investment reflects the ongoing importance of the base to Australia and Malaysia,” said the minister during the inaugural Malaysia–Australia High Level Committee on Defence Co-operation meeting, which was held at the base.
“It is fitting that we are able to agree to this investment as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of Australia’s presence at the base. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
MARITIME
28 Jun 18. Mexican Navy and Damen to build long-range ocean patrol ship.
Mexican Navy’s POLA vessel. The Mexican Navy has collaborated with Damen Shipyards Group to construct a technologically advanced vessel through the Directorate General of Shipbuilding. Dubbed long-range ocean patrol (POLA), the 107m-long navy vessel will be the Mexican version of the SIGMA 10514 ship built by Damen. With a beam of 14m, the Mexican ship POLA will be capable of travelling at speeds of more than 25k and sail for more than 20 days at sea.
Damen Shipyards Group representative said: “This vessel will be capable of carrying out various missions such as safeguarding Mexican sovereignty, international security cooperation, long-range search-and-rescue operations, and humanitarian aid.
“POLA will allow the Mexican state to increase its surveillance coverage and the protection of Mexican maritime interests beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone.”
Through this project, the Damen Technical Cooperation (DTC) will transfer its knowledge of constructing complex vessels to the Mexican Navy.
Two of the six modular sections of the vessel will be constructed at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS) facility in Vlissingen, the Netherlands, while the remaining four modules will be developed in Mexico.
Construction of the four modules and their integration will be performed at a Mexican yard that will cooperate on this with Damen.
The flagging ceremony of the Mexican Navy ship is expected to be carried out in November. A fully integrated process of setting to work, commissioning, training, tests and trials of POLA will continue in 2019. (Source: naval-technology.com)
28 Jun 18. JFD completes open sea trials for Indian Navy’s first DSRV.
UK-based underwater technology provider JFD has successfully completed the first open sea trials for the Indian Navy’s deep search-and-rescue vehicle (DSRV). The DSRV is the first of two third-generation submarine rescue systems being delivered by the company. During the open sea trials, the vessel carried out a full-launch deployment, dive and recovery in open sea, simulating the operating conditions of a real submarine rescue operation.
JFD India DSRV project director Ben Sharples said: “The system was tested in the harsh environment presented by the seas off Mumbai pre-monsoon, an entirely different set of challenges compared to those experienced during harbour trials in Scotland earlier this year.
“To properly evaluate the system’s performance, it is crucial to ensure that the system can be operated safely within its environmental envelope of current, sea state, depth, temperature and humidity.
“Sea trials afford the opportunity for the team to experience the operation of the equipment in a real setting, ensuring they are equipped with the necessary skills to conduct a safe and successful submarine rescue operation.”
The first DSRV was delivered to the Indian Navy in April when the company deployed a team of 30 expert personnel to the west coast of India to support the mobilisation and a period of rigorous sea trials.
Featuring a new system design and tightly integrated components to ensure time-to-first-rescue (TTFR), the third-generation submarine rescue system has been designed to optimise speed and manoeuvrability in order to conduct successful rescue operations.
Weight optimised for maximum payload and optimum transportability, the search-and-rescue vehicle is capable of operating at greater depths than most other submarine rescue vehicles. (Source: naval-technology.com)
28 Jun 18. US Navy receives delivery of Virginia-class submarine Indiana. The US Navy has received the delivery of the newest Virginia-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, the future USS Indiana (SSN 789).
Being the eighth Virginia-class vessel delivered to the navy by Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding division, SSN 789 is the 16th submarine of the class.
Slated to be commissioned with the US Navy in September, the vessel was constructed in 2012 under a partnership agreement between HII and General Dynamics Electric Boat.
Once in service, the future USS Indiana will provide the navy with the capabilities required to maintain the undersea superiority of the US.
The nuclear-powered submarine successfully concluded its sea trials earlier this month.
US Navy Virginia-class programme manager captain Christopher Hanson said: “Indiana’s delivery marks the culmination of millions of man-hours of work by thousands of people across this country to bring the world’s foremost undersea asset to the fleet.”
Indiana is the fourth ship named after the 19th US state and the sixth Virginia-class Block III submarine, which features a redesigned bow with increased payload capabilities.
The 377ft-long ship replaces 12 individual vertical-launch tubes with two large-diameter Virginia payload tubes, each capable of launching six Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The redesign features a large-aperture bow (LAB) water-backed array, which replaces the traditional air-backed spherical array.
With a submerged displacement of 7,800t, SSN 789 is capable of travelling at a submerged speed of more than 25k and at a greater depth than 800ft.
The Virginia-class ships are designed to operate in the littoral and deep waters across the world, while carrying out a wide range of missions such as anti-submarine, anti-surface ship and strike warfare, as well as special operations forces support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, irregular warfare, and mine warfare missions. (Source: naval-technology.com)
27 Jun 18. UK plans new fast patrol launches for RN Gibraltar Squadron. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has disclosed plans to procure two new fast patrol launches for the Royal Navy’s (RN’s) Gibraltar Squadron. In a contract notice issued on 1 June asking for expressions of interest, the MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation said it planned to prequalify between three and six companies to bid. Potential bidders have been given until 27 July to submit a prequalification questionnaire response. The new fast patrol launches, which will be based at the RN Naval Base in Gibraltar for operations in British Gibraltarian Territorial Waters and the wider western Mediterranean, are to be capable of speeds in excess of 35kt, and capable of operations in day/night and all weathers up to Sea State 6-7. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. Italian Navy’s logistic support ship Vulcano completes launch. The Italian Navy’s new logistic support ship (LSS) A5335 Vulcano has been launched at Fincantieri’s Muggiano facility within the Naval Integrated shipyard in La Spezia.
The vessel was ordered from Fincantieri as part of the navy fleet’s ongoing Naval Modernisation Plan.
Defense Staff chief general Claudio Graziano said: “Vulcano will play a role in extending the projection capacity of our military instrument through her characteristics of strategic versatility and operational flexibility to the advantage of naval training engaged in international operation.”
The Italian Navy’s LSS features a fully equipped hospital with operating rooms, radiology and analysis centres, and a dentist’s office, as well as hospital rooms that will be able to host up to 17 seriously injured patients at a time.
The support vessel has the capacity to transport and transfer to other transport vessels used for liquids such as diesel fuel, jet fuel and freshwater, in addition to solids such as emergency spare parts, food and ammunition.
It can also be deployed to carry out sea repairs and maintenance works for other navy vessels.
The LSS’s defence capabilities are limited to command and control in tactical scenarios, as well as communications and dissuasive, non-lethal defence systems.
However, the ship is capable of integrating more complex defence systems to allow it to serve as an intelligence and electronic war platform.
The 193m-long LSS Vulcano can travel at a speed of approximately 20k and is able to accommodate 200 persons, including crew members and specialists.
It features four replenishment stations abeam and one astern, and is also capable of providing drinking water and electricity to land-based sites when required.
The Italian Navy vessel can be deployed to carry out rescues at sea via recovery and seabed operations, while also providing a base for rescue operations using helicopters and special vessels. (Source: naval-technology.com)
22 Jun 18. Colombian Navy launches latest amphibious ship.
The Colombian Navy launched its fifth amphibious landing vessel (BDA), ARC Bahia Colombia, in Cartagena on 15 June. ARC Bahia Colombia is the sixth BDA and built by Colombia’s state-owned shipbuilding company COTECMAR and the fifth of the MK II series. Honduras received another version of the ship modified for logistics and humanitarian support known as BAL-C. ARC Bahia Colombia is the first example of the new rapid reaction unit (URR) variant, which, while retaining amphibious operations capabilities and logistic support, has been designed for use as a support vessel for maritime interdiction duties, Vice Admiral Javier Diaz Reina, CEO of COTECMAR, told Jane’s. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. Colombian Navy commissions new hydrographic multipurpose vessel. The Colombian Navy commissioned a new hydrographic multipurpose vessel into service on 14 June. Originally built as an offshore supply vessel (OSV) by Chinese shipyard Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding, ARC Caribe was procured by Colombia in December 2017 and modified to meet navy requirements. While the ship will primarily perform hydrographic and oceanographic investigation duties, it will also be able to provide support services to Colombia’s offshore oil exploitation platforms and logistics support to the navy fleet. ARC Caribe has an overall length of 59.6m, a beam of 15.2m, and a displacement of 2,195 tonnes. It can achieve a top speed of 12.5kt. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. Russian Navy commissions first Ivan Gren-class landing ship. The Russian Navy’s first Ivan Gren-class (Project 11711E) large landing ship was commissioned at the service’s Baltiysk naval base in Kaliningrad on 20 June. Ivan Gren will be based with the Northern Fleet. It is the first of two vessels in the class being built by Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad. Construction of the lead ship began in December 2004, but funding and technical issues significantly delayed the programme and the ship took almost 14 years to complete. Displacing 6,600 tonnes, with an overall length of 120m, a 16.5m beam, and a 3.8m draft, Ivan Gren has a top speed of 18kt, a range of 3,500n miles at 16kt, and an endurance of 30 days. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
AIR
27 Jun 18. Argentina receives further Texan IIs, assigns Tucanos to border patrol mission. The Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Argentina: FAA) has received a second batch of two Beechcraft T-6C+ Texan II trainer and light combat aircraft. The twin-seat turboprops were ferried from the United States to the Military Aviation School in Cordoba, arriving on 28 June. With six aircraft now delivered, a further two of the 12 ordered in 2016 are set to arrive before the end of the year with the remainder to follow shortly after. The FAA has a total requirement of 24 such aircraft. With the arrival of the Texan IIs, a number of the Embraer EMB-312 Tucanos that they are replacing in the trainer role have now been made available for border patrol missions, mainly along the boundaries with Bolivia and Paraguay. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
27 Jun 18. Boeing [NYSE: BA] and the U.S. Army celebrated a major CH-47F Block II program milestone with the loading of the first engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) helicopter into final assembly on June 27.
“The CH-47F Block II represents tomorrow’s heavy lift readiness for the United States Army and her allied partners,” said Col. Greg Fortier, U.S. Army project manager for Cargo Helicopters. “Whether it is increasing total payload, improving the transmission, advancing the Chinook rotor blade, or setting the conditions for supervised autonomous flight, this aircraft provides ground tactical commanders immense capability to win in the multi-domain battle.”
The contract to develop the next-generation Chinook for the U.S. Army conventional and Special Operations Forces was awarded to Boeing in July 2017. The Block II program incorporates several upgrades to increase lift capability, including Advanced Chinook Rotor Blades, an upgraded fuselage, new fuel system, and new drivetrain. These updates greatly increase the commonality between U.S. Army and allied fleets, thus reducing maintenance costs.
“Our progress from contract award to final assembly in less than a year is a direct result of the efficiency and reliability of the program,” said Chuck Dabundo, vice president, Boeing Cargo Helicopters and H-47 program manager. “Block II upgrades will help keep Chinooks in operation for the U.S. Army into the 2060s.”
The first Block II aircraft is expected to be completed in 2019, with flight testing scheduled shortly thereafter. First delivery is expected in 2023. Eventually, the Army will upgrade more than 500 Chinooks to the new configuration.
22 Jun 18. A400M nations qualify aircraft for air-to-air refuelling. European air forces procuring the A400M are qualifying the transport aircraft for air-to-air refuelling.
The Luftwaffe reported on 25 June that an A400M of its Lufttransportgeschwader (Air Transport Squadron) 62 has conducted aerial refuelling of Spanish Air Force EF-18s to demonstrate the German aircraft’s capabilities to do so.
The German A400M recently flew from its base at Wunstorf to Zaragoza, from where it took off the next day to dispense 14 tonnes of fuel to a total of 10 EF-18s through air-to-air refuelling pods mounted on its wings tips. After a second day of testing, the German A400M’s aerial refuelling capability was proven, according to the Luftwaffe.
Earlier in June, the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA), the French defence procurement agency, reported that its flight trials unit had conducted a campaign demonstrating a French Air Force A400M’s capability to refuel Rafale combat aircraft. This included tests simulating a failure of the A400M’s engine and flight controls, in the dark with night-vision goggles, and with the Rafale in various configurations.
(Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. Indonesia’s PTDI delivers two NC212i transports to PAF. State-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) has delivered the two NC212i light utility transport aircraft ordered by the Philippine Air Force (PAF) in January 2014. The twin-turboprop transports were photographed on 14 June after arriving at an airport near the Philippine capital of Manila. PTDI had already announced in a 6 June statement that two platforms would be delivered to the Philippines by the end of June along with three other ones to Vietnam. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. Piaggio Aerospace will participate in the 2018 edition of Farnborough International Airshow (FIA2018) staged in Hampshire, UK, at the Farnborough Airport between 16th and 22nd July, 2018.
The Italian aircraft manufacturer will be present at the indoor display (HALL 1 1190) and will exhibit a full-scale mockup of the P.1HH HammerHead and a P.180 Avanti EVO. P.1HH is an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and the only remotely piloted Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) program in Europe. Designed for aero, marine and terrestrial surveillance and reconnaissance, it achieves an innovative combination of autonomy and speed. First deliveries are expected in 2018. The turboprop Avanti EVO is the latest generation of the P.180 Avanti. Its five blade scimitar propellers and three-lifting surface configurations work together to provide unique aerodynamic performance. Combining style, attention to details and technology, it offers superior climb performance and low emissions. The two aircraft are entirely designed, developed and manufactured in Italy at the aerospace center of excellence in Villanova d’Albenga, Liguria.
“Farnborough International Airshow represents the most valuable opportunity to promote our excellence in both defense and business aviation industries. We started a new transformational path, which is already boosting production line and orders”, Renato Vaghi, Chief Executive Officer of Piaggio Aerospace, commented.
PLANT CLOSURES, JOB LOSSES AND STRIKES
25 Jun 18. France retires Mirage 2000N nuclear bomber. The French Air Force (Armée de l’Air: AdlA) marked the retirement of its Dassault Mirage 2000N nuclear-capable strike aircraft on 21 June. A ceremonial flypast to mark the withdrawal of the aircraft after 30 years of service was held at the type’s homebase of Istres-Le Tubé, in southern France. The type will reportedly be withdrawn over the coming weeks. The removal of the aircraft that first became operational in 1988 marks another milestone in the AdlA’s transition to an all-Rafale combat aviation fleet. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT
PERSONNEL
26 Jun 18. Poland plans fourth division. Poland plans to form a fourth army division, Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak has said.
In a speech delivered to the General Command of the Armed Forces on 21 June, he said the division would be “essential for our security” and would be based east of the Vistula River, adding that the 1st Warsaw Mechanised Division was disbanded in 2011 despite the “growing threat from the east”.
Błaszczak reported that work was under way on the deployment of the new division’s individual units, equipping them, and on the operational employment of the division. Pointing out that the creation of such a large formation is complex and takes time, he explained it would take place in several stages in accordance with NATO procedures. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Jun 18. Control over China Coast Guard to be transferred to CMC. Transfer of the China Coast Guard (CCG) from civilian to military control will take effect on 1 July and will enable the service to “play a bigger role in emergencies and crises, including war”, according to an article published by the state-owned Global Timesnewspaper on 24 June.
Legislation passed by the National People’s Congress (NPC) on 22 June will implement changes announced in March that the CCG will come under the control of the People’s Armed Police Force (PAPF) and, ultimately, the command of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC).
Although there is no explicit difference in the assigned tasks from when the CCG was under the civilian control of the State Council and the State Oceanic Administration, reports in state-owned media such as the China Daily newspaper state that the legislation will expand the enforcement powers of the CCG. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
25 Jun 18. NATO certifies Bundeswehr’s Panzerlehrbrigade 9 as Very High Readiness Joint Task Force. The Bundeswehr’s Panzerlehrbrigade (Armour Demonstration Brigade) 9 has received certification for the NATO Response Force (NRF) Very High Readiness Joint Task Force Land (VJTF(L)) during an exercise held at Germany’s combat training centre in Altmark between 9 and19 June. The exercise involved about 1,700 German, Dutch, and Norwegian troops and more than 80 armoured fighting vehicles.
The core of the over 8,000-strong VJTF(L) is formed by the brigade’s Panzerlehrbataillon (Armour Demonstration Battalion) 93, plus five other German Army battalions and medics, as well as infantry from the Royal Netherlands Army’s 45 Armoured Infantry Battalion and the Norwegian Army’s Telemark Battalion.
Armour involved in the exercise included German Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), Norwegian Leopard 2A4s and CV9030 IFVs, and Dutch CV9035s.
The exercise included a rapid assault on the Schnöggersburg exercise town prepared by MBTs and Dutch armoured infantry, with German panzergrenadiers (armoured infantry) and jäger (light infantry) and Norwegians involved in simulated house-to-house fighting.
The VJTF(L) will demonstrate its cross-border mobility in NATO Exercise ‘Trident Juncture 18’ in Norway in October-November, said German Army chief Lieutenant General Jörg Vollmer, who observed the certification exercise. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Jun 18. Third Atlantic Resolve Aviation Brigade Arrives in Europe. Equipment belonging to the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division began arriving here, June 20, marking the third heel-to-toe Atlantic Resolve aviation rotation.
The Fort Carson, Colorado-based brigade will support U.S. Army Europe’s Atlantic Resolve mission, with units in numerous NATO partner countries, providing opportunities to train alongside allies and demonstrating America’s commitment to peace and stability in the region.
Enhancing NATO Partnerships
Rotations like this enable the Army to enhance NATO partnerships. The Dutch-American partnership is vital in the NATO alliance, and this deployment through Rotterdam enhances that partnership.
“Practicing with the Dutch, our times get better, we get more efficient, things become faster, relationships are stronger,” said Army Col. Geoffrey De Tingo, 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s chief of staff. “And, we just get better at what we’re doing by working with the Dutch.”
“The relationship we have with the Dutch — it’s great. It’s symbolic of the bigger relationship and commitment we have to all of our NATO Allies that we’ll be here.”
With more than 80 helicopters and 1,700 soldiers, 4th CAB will primarily be based in Germany with a forward presence in Latvia, Romania and Poland.
Once established, the brigade will continue building relationships with other NATO allies and partner nations.
“The importance of training with our Allied nations is to reassure them through the process,” said Army Lt. Col. Ryan Guthrie, commander of the 404th Aviation Support Battalion, 4th CAB. “We build a muscle memory so that future units behind us can also perform well, and even better than we do.”
U.S. APPOINTMENTS
26 Jun 18. Cyber services get new cyber commanders. U.S. Cyber Command has undergone a series of rapid changes in only a few short weeks.
Since the beginning of May, the command has been elevated to a full unified combatant command, received a new leader in Gen. Paul Nakasone, reached a critical staffing milestone for its cyber mission force known as full operational capability and unveiled a new cyber nerve center called the Integrated Cyber Center/Joint Operations Center that will coordinate global cyber operations.
At the same time, leadership is turning over at each of the service cyber components.
Here’s a rundown of the new service cyber component commanders:
Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command: Maj. Gen. Matthew Glavy
Fifth Domain learned June 26 that Glavy is taking over for Maj. Gen. Lori Reynolds, who has been nominated for a third star and to serve as the recently established deputy commandant for information.
Previously, Glavy served as Deputy Director of Current Operations at Cyber Command and mostly recently served as the commander of the 2d Marine Aircraft Wing.
He will assume command during a ceremony on July 2.
Army Cyber Command: Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty
Fogarty officially assumed the role of commander of Army Cyber Command during a June 1 ceremony over which Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley presided.
Fogarty takes over for Gen. Paul Nakasone, who is now commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of NSA.
Before heading ARCYBER, Fogarty was mostly recently chief of staff at Cyber Command serving as the commander of the Army’s schoolhouse, the Cyber Center of Excellence, prior to that.
In his new role, Fogarty will also take the reins as the commander of Joint Task Force-Ares, the cyber offensive against the Islamic State group.
10th Fleet/Fleet Cyber Command: Vice Adm. Timothy White
White, whose posting was announced in February, assumed command of Fleet Cyber on June 18.
White was most recently the commander of the Cyber National Mission Force, one of three headquarters elements of U.S. Cyber Command responsible for defending the nation against cyberattacks of significant consequence.
White also served as the master of ceremonies for the Cyber Command change of command ceremony held in the new Integrated Cyber Center/Joint Operations Center May 4.
White takes over for Vice Adm. Michael Gilday, who is going on to be the director of operations on the Joint Staff.
24th Air Force/Air Forces Cyber: Maj. Gen. Robert Skinner
Skinner, who will assume his role this summer, will take over 24th Air Force in a transitionary period for Air Force cyber as the service recently announced 24th will be realigned from Air Force Space Command to Air Combat Command.
This decision has been at least a year in the making, with officials noting that the move better aligns the service’s cyber capabilities beneath the global intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance steward, effectively fusing the two.
However, an ACC spokesman told Fifth Domain via email, that the long-rumored merging of 24th Air Force, the sole cyberspace operations component for the service, and 25th Air Force, which provides the cyber ISR personnel resulting in a breakdown of personnel roughly 60/40 from 24th and 25th, will be dependent on an assessment.
After the transfer, ACC will conduct a mission analysis to determine how 24th will be integrated in ACC, they said. Skinner, currently the deputy commander at Air Force Space Command, previously served as the deputy commander of U.S. Cyber Command’s global defensive arm, Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Networks. Skinner takes over for Maj. Gen. Christopher Weggeman, who will move on to Air Combat Command to be the special assistant to the commander. (Source: Fifth Domain)
26 Jun 18. The National Reconnaissance Office has appointed Brig. Gen. Mark A. Baird as its new deputy director, according to a June 25 agency tweet. As deputy director, Baird will assist the director and principal deputy director in managing strategic and tactical operations. Baird will also serve as the commander, Air Force Element, where he will manage Air Force personnel at NRO and act as senior adviser to the director on military matters. NRO operates intelligence satellites that support the Department of Defense and other members of the Intelligence Community. It was created in 1961 and declassified to the public in 1992. Prior to his position at NRO, Baird served as director of space programs at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, and vice commander at the Space and Missile Systems Center at the Los Angeles Air Force Base. In those positions Baird worked on space technology and acquisition. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
25 Jun 18. New CIO to Lead DoD Cloud Initiative. Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan announced that Dana Deasy, chief information officer, will lead the department’s cloud initiative, effective June 22.
This initiative is part of a larger effort to modernize information technology across the DOD enterprise. A modern digital infrastructure is critical to defending against cyber attacks as well as enabling machine learning and artificial intelligence. As the CIO, Deasy serves as the principal staff assistant and senior advisor to the secretary of defense and deputy secretary of defense for information technology. Under Deasy’s leadership, the department will gradually consolidate its disparate networks, data centers and cloud efforts to manage them at the enterprise level. Different DOD components manage many of the department’s networks, data centers and clouds. Consolidating these disparate efforts at the enterprise level will enable the CIO to provide greater security and ensure greater reliability of the department’s digital infrastructure, while achieving cost savings. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
23 Jun 18. Ellen McCarthy, former chief operating officer of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, has been nominated to serve as assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research by the White House. At NGA, McCarthy oversaw daily business activities and advised the director on issues including strategic planning and corporate governance. INR is a bureau of the Department of State that provides analysis on all-source intelligence and ensures intelligence activities support foreign policy and national security for the department. Currently, McCarthy is a member of the board of directors on the National Security Institute at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School. McCarthy has also served as president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, director of Human Capital Management Office and acting director of security within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
INDUSTRY
28 Jun 18. Bournemouth, UK-based, specialist defence and security recruitment company Vigilant Resourcing Solutions (VRS) was launched today, June 28th, 2018. Vigilant Resourcing Solutions (VRS) is a privately owned and highly specialised recruitment company focused solely on serving the UK Defence and Security sector.
“We believe we offer a very different option for both employers and candidates in this unique environment. VRS team members have previously worked extensively in the sector in a broad range of roles. They have an in-depth understanding of what it takes to succeed in a wide range of professions that aid in delivering cutting edge technical capabilities for the UK’s armed forces, government agencies and specialist policing units.” Founder and Managing Director David Small said.
“We find and place the right people in a diverse sphere of areas including (but not limited to) executive management, business development, project management, research and science, mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering, software design and testing, manufacturing and training.”
VRS continuously seeks to work with the highest calibre candidates for both permanent and contractor positions. For contract roles we offer a unique payroll and benefits package, taking the administrational burden away from the employer and allowing the employee to focus purely on performance.
“VRS engages with a range of employers from start-ups and SME’s, through to prime contractors and government. We very much pride ourselves on going the extra mile in finding absolutely the right person for each role employing a laser targeted yet open and friendly approach.” David Small concluded.
INDUSTRY TEAMINGS
26 Jun 18. Fincantieri enters agreement with Australian firm Titomic. Fincantieri, a bidder in Australia’s programme to procure next-generation frigates under the Sea 5000 project, has entered an agreement with local additive manufacturing specialist Titomic to test alloys for shipbuilding. The ‘material science testing’ agreement was announced on June 26 and will support Titomic in performing tests on Fincantieri-specified alloys “to achieve desired mechanical and chemical properties”. The testing capabilities will include hardness, strength, porosity, and chemistry analysis, said Titomic. It added that the outcome of the tests will provide Fincantieri with technical information on material properties, performance, strength, durability, and cost efficiencies of Titomic’s additive manufacturing process. The new agreement follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) by the two companies in May to evaluate the potential for Titomic’s additive manufacturing process to be applied in Fincantieri’s shipbuilding activities. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
21 Jun 18. RADIALL and TECHWAY signed a distribution agreement on rugged high-speed optical FMC board. RADIALL, a specialist in Optical Interconnect Solutions for harsh environments is now distributing WildcatFMC boards from TECHWAY. In order to improve signal-processing performance, FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) became a key component during the last few years. Embedded on complex but well defined mother board architecture, FPGA is the Swiss-knife for processing many different signals in video systems, radars or mission computers. The new paradigm for modern FPGA is extreme high-speed I/O which requires optical links.
WildcatFMC enhances the modularity of the FPGA board equipped with mezzanine VITA 57 site by providing a plug-in and turn-key multichannel optical interface. This advantage, allows the FPGA board to achieve high speed I/O for applications requesting massive data-transfer without requiring an expensive redesign. The core of the WildcatFMC board is made of Radiall 10+ G range D-Lightsys® optical transceivers, running up to 12 Gbps. The ultra-compact package of these components fits the FMC standard form factor even for boards handling 24 optical channels. WildcatFMC is designed to meet the military and aerospace environmental constraints and is qualified to fulfill the MIL standard specs.
PERSONNEL
EUROPE APPOINTMENTS
28 Jun 18. Martek Aviation have announced the official appointment of highly-acclaimed aviation expert Mark Wharry as their Head of Aviation. Mark brings over 20 years of unparalleled aviation experience to Martek, in both high-profile leadership and training roles. The drone industry is booming and Martek are the driving force behind the most disruptive and talked about UAS technology that’s taking the market by storm! The appointment of Mark fulfils a crucial element of Martek’s strategy, which will help to cement them as world leaders in unmanned aerial services. Mark began his flying career as a Qualified Flying Instructor with the RAF, training students going through the RAF’s Basic Fast Jet Training course. He was later selected to fly Tornado GR4 aircraft and flew his first front line missions from RAF Lossiemouth. His time there took him on detachments across the world, including combat missions flown in Afghanistan.
U.S. APPOINTMENTS
27 Jun 18. CACI International Inc (NYSE: CACI) announced today that it has appointed Executive Vice President Mike Hale to lead CACI’s National and Cyber Solutions group responsible for its Intelligence Systems and Support, Cyber Security, and Space Operations and Resiliency market areas serving customers in the Intelligence Community, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. He reports to CACI President of U.S. Operations DeEtte Gray. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
27 Jun 18. Kellstrom Defense Aerospace, Inc. (“KDA”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Juan Forero as Vice President and General Manager of the Global Distribution and Supply Chain (GDSC) operating segment. Mr. Forero will be responsible for the operation and business leadership of the international distribution management business, including ownership of the segment P&L, segment warehouse operations and kitting team, key OEM and supplier relationships, and customer service. As general manager, he will focus on forecasting and inventory management with our supplier partners to maximize global product sales and improve overall distribution customer satisfaction. He will be based in Miramar, Florida and will report to Andy Trosper, President of Kellstrom Defense GDSC and Repair Services and the South Florida site leader.
26 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced today that its board of directors has elected Vicki Hollub to the board effective July 2, 2018. Hollub, 58, is president and chief executive officer of Occidental Petroleum Corporation and has been a member of Occidental’s board of directors since 2015. She joined Occidental more than 30 years ago and has held a variety of management and technical positions. Most recently, she served as Occidental’s president and chief operating officer, overseeing the company’s oil and gas, chemical and midstream operations. Prior to that, she was the company’s senior executive vice president, and president of Oxy Oil and Gas, where she was responsible for operations in the United States, the Middle East region and Latin America. Hollub serves on the boards of the American Petroleum Institute and Khalifa University for Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi. She is the U.S. chair for the U.S.-Colombia Business Council.
26 Jun 18. PEI-Genesis, a global leader in the design and assembly of custom engineered connectors and cable solutions, has expanded its footprint into the Indian market, naming Manesh Pratap Singh as Country Manager for India, it was announced today by Jane Fishetti, General Manager, Distribution & International Sales. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
27 Jun 18. The board of directors of Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has elected Marta R. Stewart as a director, effective immediately. Stewart, 60, retired last year from Norfolk Southern Corporation after a distinguished 33-year career with the company. She most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, a position she held since 2013. Her tenure at Norfolk Southern included roles of increasing responsibility in finance, serving as vice president of accounting and controller, and vice president finance and treasurer. She also served as a strategic advisor to the CEO and was an advocate for change throughout the company. Prior to Norfolk Southern, she spent four years at Peat Marwick (a predecessor to KPMG). Ms. Stewart immigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1961 and graduated from The College of William and Mary in 1979 with a business administration degree in accounting. She is a Certified Public Accountant. She also serves on the board of Simon Property Group.
21 Jun 18. Viasat’s Dave Ryan to Lead Space Systems Division Effective Immediately. Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), announced that, effective immediately, Dave Ryan will lead the Company’s Space Systems business. Ryan will provide strategic guidance and oversight for the satellite system design, fabrication, test and operations of Viasat’s highly-technical and complex global satellite constellation roadmap. In addition to leading overall spacecraft development, Ryan will also lead the teams focused on satellite and launch system procurement and partnerships.
Dave Ryan joined Viasat in 2016. He brought a wealth of experience leading programs, teams and businesses in the space systems industry, having served as President of Boeing Satellite Systems International and having held similar senior-level roles at Northrop Grumman.
Rick Baldridge, president and chief operating officer, Viasat said that Dave is a natural choice and leader to help execute their global space systems communications vision. He is an influential business and technical leader with deep industry knowledge, experience and passion. He thinks outside the box and brings unique perspectives to drive the future of their space systems business. Further, Dave’s proven career success will help drive Viasat’s satellite system development and production efforts—which is critical as Viasat breaks further away from traditional satellite methods to bring high-quality, satellite-based internet directly to more people, more geographies and more markets. Ryan added that Viasat has been and will continue to be a disruptor in the satellite communications marketplace. The Company is altering the technology’s future, challenging traditional satellite thinking and bringing new techniques to market to solve the unique problem: how to bring affordable, secure internet anywhere. He is proud to be leading the Company’s next-generation space systems initiatives, which will enable Viasat’s commercial, government and consumer customers to connect to content that matters—using the most advanced spacecraft technologies.
Ryan will oversee teams based in both Carlsbad, California, as well as Tempe, Arizona. The Arizona facility includes Viasat’s clean room high bay, which is used for state-of-the-art satellite payload assembly and test. (Source: Satnews)
REST OF THE WORLD APPOINTMENTS
25 Jun 18. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) today announced Robert (Bob) S. Harward will expand his role to lead the company’s growing Middle East business as the Chief Executive for Lockheed Martin in the Middle East. In this new role he will be responsible for the company’s strategy, operations and growth in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. Harward previously served as the company’s Chief Executive for the United Arab Emirates. A lifelong national security leader, he served on the National Security Council for the Bush Administration, commissioned the National Counter Terrorism Center, and has extensive combat and counterterrorism experience as a United States Navy SEAL. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin in 2014, he was a Vice Admiral (SEAL) in the United States Navy.
28 Jun 18. Quickstep Holdings, has announced the appointment of new chief financial officer Alan Tilley. Tilley comes to Quickstep with extensive experience from across the manufacturing, fast-moving consumer goods and services sectors. His wide-ranging financial background, including executive roles with NRMA Motoring and Services Group, Brambles Industries Limited, Transfield, Price Waterhouse and most recently as the interim CFO with Murray Goulburn. (Source: Defence Connect)
25 Jun 18. New board for AMD. The South African Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Industry Association (AMD) has announced a new board of directors and chairperson who will steer the industry body over the next couple of years. AMD said the newly appointed board was elected at the recent AMD Annual General Meeting which took place on 14 June Aurecon’s facilities in Pretoria. The Board of Directors met on 21 June at the Special AMD Board meeting to elect the Chairperson, office bearers comprising the Vice Chairperson, Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer.
Florence Musengi is the new chairperson of AMD, replacing retired Brigadier General Damien de Lange. Musengi is from Floida Engineering Services, which caters to the aerospace and defence industry and specialises in radar and sensor technologies. Her previous experience includes positions at Saab and Reutech. She was Vice Chairperson of AMD since June 2016.
The new Board consists of members with experience in the aerospace and defence sector across various fields including business, finance, law and leadership. They are:
Ms Florence Musengi (Floida Engineering Services): Chairperson
Mr Petrus Pelser (Parsec): Vice Chairperson
Ms Sefale Montsi – Zuma (Damen Shipyards): Honorary Treasurer
Mr Simpiwe Balfour (Clearbec): Honorary Secretary
Ms Nana Sabelo (TUB): BEE, SMME, Skills Development Committee Chairperson
Lt Gen (ret) Carlo Gagiano (Paramount Group): Policy and Strategy Committee Chairperson
Ms Thabisa Mgwebi (Reutech): Marketing Committee Chairperson
Mr Themba Zwelibanzi (Denel): Arms Control Committee Chairperson
Ms Teresa De Risi (Denel Vehicle Systems): DIP/NIP Committee Chairperson
Mr Thivash Moodley (TMi Dynamatics): Risk and Audit Committee Chairperson
Mr Ben Ash (Hensoldt Optronics): Remuneration Committee Chairperson
Mr Mike Kgobe (Denel)
Mr Benny Jiyane (SVI Engineering)
Mr Cornelius Grundling (DCD Protected Mobility)
Mr Sihle Mayisela (Hensoldt Optronics)
Mr Tinus van Wyk (GEW Technologies)
Mr Peter van der Bijl (Reutech)
Mr Norbert Schulze (Rheinmetall Denel Munitions)
Mr Trevor Raman (Saab Grintek Defence)
Mr Thabo Mdluli (F & R Catai)
Ms Keobakile Mpolokeng (M-Tek)
Adm Jacobus Louw (ret) (MTU-SA)
Mr Hans Kriek (OTT Technologies)
Mr Rasheed Hargey (Tellumat)
Ms Nana Sabelo (TUB)
Mr George Chimbuzi (Thales SA Systems)
Brig Gen (ret) Damian de Lange (Twiga Services)
Mr Linda Moni (CSAS)
Dr Naledi Moyo (FMM)
AMD said the first board meeting with the newly elected members will take place on 19 July followed by a strategic planning session scheduled to take place on 30 August where the strategic goals for 2018 – 2020 will be formulated to ensure AMD’s continued value and relevance to the South African Defence Industry (SADI).
Several initiatives will be pursued, including operationalisation of the National Defence Industry Council (NDIC); Establishment of the Defence Industry Fund (DIF) and. getting the BEE Charter signed by the Department of Trade of Industry.
AMD said it will also expand its scope to include security and will strive to increase exports and improve stakeholder engagement.
(Source: http://www.defenceweb.co.za)
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EXHIBITIONS AND CONFERENCES
25 Jun 18. Close Combat Symposium
09 – 11 July 2018
Event time: 10:00
Location:
Defence Academy of the United Kingdom Shrivenham and Salisbury Plain – COTEC
Overview
Close Combat 2018 will be held at the Technology School Conference Centre, Defence Academy of the UK, Shrivenham and at COTEC, Market Lavington on Salisbury Plain over 9-11 July 2018. Monday 9 July will be led by HQ Army. Tuesday 10 July will be the range day run by the Infantry Trials and Development Unit. Wednesday will be a more industry and academic focused day in the style of previous ‘Canons and Small Arms’ events.
Theme
The overall aim is to examine future capability requirements for Ground Manoeuvre Close Combat forces to identify current capability gaps, and to examine current and future threats. The themes of this year’s event are: Dismounted Threats and Counter-threats; Future Vision and Capabilities; Dismounted Situational Awareness; Systems Requirements for Small Arms, Light Anti-tank Weapons, Mobility and Unmanned Aerial Systems. In addition there will be updates on the latest trends and developments in ballistics and small arms.
Format
This symposium aims to bring together representatives from the defence sector and from around the world. Through presentations by Army Headquarters, DE&S, Dstl and industry, and through plenary discussion the purpose is to encourage a cross-fertilization of ideas, new perspectives and the challenging of current thinking.
Programme
The programme is split into three days:
Day 1 is led by Army HQ and aims to discuss the challenges facing the infantry and close combat role more broadly. It will be supported by input and findings from the Army Warfighting Experiment and other exercises. In the afternoon it is intended to look at a future equipment programme supported by industry perspectives.
Day 2 is the range day with travel provided in coaches to and from the principal Swindon hotels used. The day will include the opportunity to live-fire with exhibitors weapons and sights, as well as a display of more unusual weapons. Breakfast is provided onsite as is a barbeque lunch. In the evening we will hold the traditional dinner night at the GWR Museum ‘STEAM’.
Day 3 is industry and academia led with presentations that include:
- Russian Approaches to Technology Development, Capt W Shepherd USN, Navy SEAL, US Space Shuttle Astronaut and International Space Station Programme, consultant to Systems Engineering and Research Center at Stevens Institute of Technology
- Modern Trends, Threats and Developments in Global Ordnance, Dan Shea, General Director Phoenix Defence and EiC Small Arms Defense Journal and Review
- Maritime Close Combat, Lt Cdr John Sutcliffe, HMS Prince of Wales
- Future Individual Lethality System, Darrren Stinchombe, SEA
Sponsorship
There are unique opportunities for sponsoring at various levels during this event: individual activities such as the event dinner, the barbeque on the range, or collectively for the whole event with generous concessions.
More Detail
For more detail on the event, including Registration, booking display space, booking range space and sponsorship, please check our website or contact Leanne Lawson direct on +44 (0) 1793 785648 or .
www.symposiaatshrivenham.com
PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS
29 Jun 18. MOD must learn lessons from ‘lamentable’ accommodation provision and uphold the Forces’ Covenant, says Defence Committee. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) must show that it has learned the lessons of the lamentable record, in managing Service accommodation, of CarillionAmey, Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and the Ministry itself. So says the Defence Committee in its latest report, published on the 2018 Armed Forces Day, into the Armed Forces Covenant. (The Covenant expresses the moral obligation that the Government owes to those who serve or have served in our Armed Forces, and to their families.)
It is clear to the Committee that the accommodation contract was ‘not fit for purpose’ and it is unacceptable that there are no enforcement measures that can be imposed on CarillionAmey for their shortcomings. In addition, the MoD’s agreement with Annington Homes has proved to be a disastrous failure and has exposed the Department to considerable risk. That flawed agreement is yet another example from which the MoD, the DIO, and wider Government—especially the Treasury—must quickly learn lessons.
Mark Francois MP, Defence Committee member and former infantryman, says, “For years, Service personnel have received a sub-standard accommodation service from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and their contractors. This has gone on long enough and simply has to change. The DIO is a frankly dysfunctional organisation and the Committee is now calling on MoD Ministers to get a grip—and come up with a radical action plan to reform the DIO and show Service personnel and their families that they are indeed valued and will be treated as such in the future.”
The Committee is asking the MoD to show how it will learn lessons from the appalling accommodation story and how it will apply them to future contracts. Failure to improve the maintenance of Service accommodation will have a major adverse impact on recruitment and retention in the Armed Forces.
1% pay cap
If the MoD retains the 1% pay cap for Service personnel while other departments increase their pay, it will undermine morale and have an increased negative effect on recruitment and retention. While the Government has signalled that there is some flexibility for departments to move away from the public sector pay cap of 1%, it seems that no additional funding will be made available to the MoD to pay for increases above this level for Service personnel.
Chairman of the Defence Committee, Julian Lewis MP, says, “It would be disgraceful if our Service people missed out on an increase in pay while they watched others who work for the Government receive pay awards. What kind of message does that send to soldiers about how much we value the difficult and sometimes dangerous job that they do?”
The Veterans Board
The report welcomes the creation of a new Veterans Board, even though it lacks formal Cabinet Sub-Committee status. The Committee calls for the status of the Veterans Board and the frequency of its meetings to be kept under review so momentum is not lost in terms of its work.
The Armed Forces Covenant is a UK-wide commitment and the report is therefore asking the Government to ensure the full participation of the devolved administrations in its governance. Therefore, the report calls for the devolved administrations to have full-member representation on the Veterans Board. This would provide an opportunity for best practice from every area of the UK to be shared and adopted, leading to better co-ordination and delivery of the Covenant across the country.
As a priority, the Veterans Board must develop the appropriate mechanisms to hold Government departments to account within their areas of responsibility. As a first step in focusing each department’s work on the Covenant and veterans’ issues, the report calls for relevant Government departments to include a section in their Annual Reports and Accounts on how they have discharged their responsibilities for these matters.
War Widows
The Committee was concerned to hear that war widows and widowers believe that they are at risk of being forgotten and that they have been neglected for a long time. The MoD must do whatever it has to in order to reverse this view. The Government should urgently address the concerns raised that a War Widow’s Pension is often incorrectly perceived as a benefit rather than compensation for loss of a spouse or partner. If it were treated as compensation—as it should be—it would not result in the loss of, or reduction in, income-related benefits.
Similarly, the Government must “urgently address the absurd anomaly where a war widower or widow, who lost his or her pension upon cohabitation or remarriage, and did not get it reinstated because it was before the reinstatement date, could … get it restored by temporarily splitting up and then reuniting with the former spouse or partner”.
Use of LIBOR Grants
An element of independent scrutiny must be built into the monitoring of the Covenant. This is particularly important as the Government proceeds with the new and comprehensive Veterans Strategy, informed by such valuable initiatives as the Veterans Gateway and the Map of Need. There are concerns following the NAO’s findings that the Treasury and the MoD still cannot confirm that charities properly spent all their grants that were awarded to them through the distribution of the benefits of the LIBOR fines. The Committee says that delay in the Government’s review is unacceptable and has resulted in heightened concerns about the use of LIBOR funding for Covenant projects.
28 Jun 18. Defence Committee. Armed Forces Covenant Report 2017, Saturday 30 June at 00.01am. Embargoed copies of the report will Friday 29 June from 11.00 am.
25 Jun 18. Defence Committee renews spending demand for 3 per cent of GDP, to maintain the UK-US military relationship and the UK’s role in NATO. In advance of the NATO summit in July, the Defence Committee has published a report which concludes that only if its Armed Forces are properly resourced can the UK retain its influence in NATO and in Washington. In an inquiry begun during the previous Parliament, the Committee concluded:
- The NATO mission has diversified and expanded. It now encompasses the need for territorial defence of Europe and the protection of sea lines of communication, as well as the stabilisation of areas at risk of terrorism in the European neighbourhood.
- To support this wider NATO mission, the UK needs to bolster its anti-submarine warfare capability and increase the overall readiness of its Armed Forces generally.
- The UK must lead by example, filling NATO capability shortfalls and personnel gaps, where we have expertise available, and ensuring that decisions taken within the Modernising Defence Programme are co-ordinated with the NATO Defence Planning Process.
- Just as the UK-US military relationship is vital to the functioning of NATO, the UK’s leading contribution to NATO helps to sustain the UK-US relationship. The UK, US and NATO are interlinked and interdependent.
- US military power is vital for the defence of Europe. Were there to be an attack on a NATO member in Europe, an Article 5 response would not work in practice without US support and participation.
- However, the US has increasingly been critical of its allies’ (including the UK’s) unwillingness to share the burden within
House of Commons and House of Lords Hansard Written Answers
Q
Asked by Gareth Snell
(Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Asked on: 20 June 2018
Ministry of Defence
Capita
155898
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the award of the Defence Fire and Rescue Project contract to Capita and previous contracts with that company withdrawn or ended by the Government early, what assessment his Department has made of the ability of Capita to deliver (a) that service and (b) value for money in the delivery of that service.
A
Answered by: Mr Tobias Ellwood
Answered on: 27 June 2018
The Defence Fire and Rescue Project will deliver improvements in the safety of firefighter personnel through greater investment in improved firefighting technology, training and equipment whilst ensuring the Ministry of Defence continues to receive the global fire and rescue capability it needs.
Bidder proposals for the project were evaluated by subject matter experts against criteria which included technical deliverability, commercial and financial aspects. The proposals have also been subject to a rigorous scrutiny, assurance and approvals process undertaken by Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office and HM Treasury staff.
Q
Asked by Gareth Snell
(Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Asked on: 20 June 2018
Ministry of Defence
Capita
155899
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what contingency plans his Department has in place in the event that Capita is unable to complete the Defence Fire and Rescue Project contract.
A
Answered by: Mr Tobias Ellwood
Answered on: 27 June 2018
Capita’s proposal has been subjected to the fullest range of testing and scrutiny across Government to ensure that the services will be delivered in a sustainable and resilient manner.
Maintaining contingency plans is Defence’s routine approach when outsourcing and this includes the DefenceFire and Rescue project in the event of a change in circumstances with Capita. The contingency plans ensure that if the contract was to fail there would be minimal disruption to the delivery of appropriate fire risk management services to Defence.
Q
Asked by Mrs Madeleine Moon
(Bridgend)
Asked on: 20 June 2018
Ministry of Defence
AWACS
155705
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the number of Sentry aircraft required to fulfil the UK’s commitments in (a) Syria, (b) Iraq and (c) the Baltic states.
A
Answered by: Mark Lancaster
Answered on: 27 June 2018
The RAF has sufficient Sentry aircraft to meet its current defence commitments.
Q
Asked by Mrs Madeleine Moon
(Bridgend)
Asked on: 20 June 2018
Ministry of Defence
Defence: Procurement
155709
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many defence procurement contracts his Department has awarded to (a) BAE, (b) Airbus, (c) Leonardo, (d) Raytheon and (e) Marshalls since 2012.
A
Answered by: Guto Bebb
Answered on: 27 June 2018
Information on how many contracts the Ministry of Defence has awarded since 2012 to these companies is provided below.
BAE Systems: 420
Airbus: 50
Leonardo: 317
Raytheon: 40
Marshall: 23
It should be noted that, due to shared ownership, some contracts will appear more than once. This is the case, for example, where contracts have been awarded to MBDA, in which BAE Systems, Leonardo and Airbus all have a share. For completeness, any such contract is included in each of the company totals.