16 Jun 14. Numerous Innovative Products Unveiled at Eurosatory. New products and new technology were vying to catch the eye of potential new customers as Eurosatory opened its doors on the first day. Among the innovations was a helicopter sporting a 25mm cannon, a shock-absorbing helmet, a mini-jammer and a new medium-tank concept. Israeli firms brought a series of new products to Eurosatory, including Duke Airborne Systems, which showed off an unusual remotely operated 25mm gun designed to fix itself to the underside of a Black Hawk helicopter during flight.
Created to give unarmed helicopters firepower while in flight, the gun is normally stored in the cabin of the helicopter. But when required, two mechanical arms flip the gun out of the side of the helicopter, reach around and fix it to a plate underneath. Too large to allow the helicopter to land, the gun is then retrieved before landing. The gun, an ATK Bushmaster, is coupled with an electro-optical sensor, weighs half a ton with ammunition, costs $1.2m and has yet to find a customer.
Israel Military Industries unveiled its new Combat Guard armored vehicle, which is designed for off road, extreme terrain and has an option to carry the firm’s Bright Arrow defense system, a gun with threat detection systems and countermeasures against rocket-propelled grenades and missiles. No orders have yet been placed for the four-wheel-drive vehicle. Allen Vanguard’s UK arm debuted a lightweight jammer to combat radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (RCIED). Known as Solo, the new jammer weighs 4.5 kilograms and can be plugged into a vehicle’s 12-volt outlet or into a stand-alone battery pack. The Canadian-based company said the low-cost Solo jammer comes factory programmed to address prevalent regional RCIED threats and is useable out of the box with virtually no training. British smart materials specialist D30 is showing a prototype shock-absorbing helmet that it said sets new standards in combating blunt trauma head injuries. The Trauma Reduction and Unrivaled Shock Technology (TRUST) helmet has been developed with British government funding. The helmet has been developed in response to the significant rates of traumatic brain injuries suffered by allied troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The company, which has previously developed protective head gear for use by American football players, said the helmet offers unrivaled protection, comfort and shock absorption. At the other end of the product scale, at least in size terms, is the new CMI Defence offering combining the new Cockerill XC-8 turret with a BAE Systems CV90 chassis. CMI had a concept demonstrator on public display for the first time at Eurosatory. While the turret is combined with the Swedish-built CV90, the 25-ton system could be employed on a number of platforms to create a medium-sized tank. The turret offers 105mm or 120mm firepower in a two-crew configuration. Users can switch between the two gun sizes as the remainder of the turret equipment is standard, said a CMI executive. Both the guns fire NATO standard ammunition types as well as the Belgian company’s Falarick 105 or 120 gun-launched anti-tank guided missile. (Source: Defense News)
20 Jun 14. Vote of confidence. CTAI (Nexter, Outside Stand A600) announced at Eurosatory that its 40mm Case Telescoped Armament System (CTAS) received formal qualification from the French and UK ministries of defence late in May 2014 and CTAI issued its certificates of design on 10 June. The qualification certification is a major vote of confidence for Anglo-French co-operation because both nations can now move towards the procurement of serial production weapons and ammunition, which is being led by the UK MoD. The first phase of the qualification programme, which took three years, covered the 40mm cannon. The first two natures of ammunition are armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot – tracer (APFSDS-T) and target practice tracer (TP-T). Now undergoing qualific