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UNITED KINGDOM AND NATO
12 Sep 22. The UK MoD recently issued a Request For Information (RFI) for a GSUP, General Support Utility Platform (GSUP) for the British Army, writes Bob Morrison.
According to the RFI: “The [British] Army are seeking market information as to military light utility platforms as part of an initial scoping of options to replace Land Rover and other similar vehicles as part of the General Support Utility Platform Programme. Companies are invited to provide information on current and developing military utility platforms. Variants of interest include General Support, Ambulance and Fitted for Radio particularly when these are all included within the same vehicle family. Platforms should be no more than 3.5T and be driven on Cat B licence (potentially less ambulance variant).”
- When we published the UK Military Medium Utility Vehicle Doldrums feature last month we were unaware that an RFI had been circulated, which is unsurprising as not only was no Public Sector Notice published on the Government’s Find A Tender website, but even some potentially interested suppliers appear not to have been aware. It will be interesting to see which companies receive formal Invitations To Tender.
Some potential candidates which I did not cover in my last article could include the Ford Ranger, the Jeep J8 and the STI Steyr LMV which are all already in military service. I photographed the Ford and the Steyr, which are two different approaches to the same utility vehicle requirement, at MSPO 2022 earlier this week and plan to produce a brief article on the latter in due course. The Jeep J8 featured here was displayed by Spanish company EINSA at FEINDEF 2021 in Madrid last November.
- Incidentally Supacat yesterday announced via social media that they will be displaying a J8 at Defence Vehicle Dynamics 2022 later this month: “Working closely with AADS-Gib, we will be presenting the J8 Light Patrol Vehicle at DVD, an affordable solution to Light Mobility Requirements.”
Some might have spotted that the RFI only mentions the Army and not the Royal Marines and the RAF Regiment, who both also use the ageing Land Rover ‘Wolf’ Defender. We suspect the Marines might be going down the NSPA route, as they did with the Polaris MRZR. We believe there is also a separate requirement for UK SpecOps vehicles, including a replacement for the WMIK Wolf variants, but that is another story. Interesting 4×4 times ahead? (Source: www.joint-forces.com)
EUROPE
15 Sep 22. Lithuania’s Defence Ministry Budgets €36M for Procurement of Drones. The Lithuanian Defence Materiel Agency under the Defence Ministry has launched procurement procedures for 35 sets of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The plan is to buy 26 sets of “mini” and nine sets of “small” UASs for around 36m euros, the ministry said on Wednesday.
“The acquisition of these systems will significantly improve the Lithuanian Armed Forces’ intelligence capability,” Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas said.
“Currently, the Lithuanian Armed Forces has no such military-purpose tactical-level UASs for reconnaissance tasks,” he added.
Lithuania also plans to acquire US-made Switchblade combat drones with the support of the US administration, according to the ministry. (Source: UAS VISION/Lithuanian National Radio and Television)
12 Sep 22. Germany vows to relax its caveats on European arms exports. The German government will work to ease its restrictive export policy when pursuing joint weapon programs with European partners, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Monday. The pledge follows a provision in the governing coalition’s charter, approved last year, that envisions a complete revamp of Berlin’s bureaucracy, famous for its secrecy and, as critics would argue, the appearance of political doublespeak on sales to problematic regimes like Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, Lambrecht argued Germany “owes” to its European partners a guarantee it will refrain from derailing exports of jointly developed weapons those countries need to offset their initial investments. “We make cooperation hard because we insist on special provisions and veto power,” Lambrecht said.
If countries like France, Italy or Spain see no problem with giving arms to a given country, Germany won’t invoke its “values caveats” and hold up sales, she added. “We’re not talking about delivering to rogue states,” Lambrecht clarified.
Arms exports have been an evergreen topic in Berlin policy circles, as the issue combines thorny questions on military and morality for which no muscle memory exists in modern Germany.
The country’s cabinet agency devoted to economic affairs has the lead for arms exports, combining input from the Defense and Foreign Affairs departments.
The trinational Future Combat Air System of Germany, France and Spain — now hindered by work-share disagreements among key industry players Dassault and Airbus Defence and Space — almost died some years ago because of export disagreements. French officials were pushing against a German veto caveat for eventual exports of the aerial weapon, going so far as to threaten abandoning the project over the disagreement.
In the end, officials decided to table the issue, as Germany instituted a policy of approving exports by default if components included few Teutonic contributions.
It remains to be seen how Lambrecht and Chancellor Olaf Scholz can wrangle their party, the Social Democrats, as well as the Greens into a compromise. Both parties have vocal opponents to loosening arms export controls. According to Lambrecht, finding a more permissive policy could give a needed push to European Union defense-related development programs. (Source: Defense News)
13 Sep 22. Berlin wants a pan-European air defense network, with Arrow 3 ‘set’ as first step. The plan fits into a broader vision, laid out in recent weeks by German chancellor Olaf Scholz, of a united air defense front throughout Europe.
The former commander of the German Air Force has confirmed that Germany intends to buy the Arrow 3 air defense system from Israel, as a central part of what German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has described as a pan-European air defense network
In a telephone interview on Sept. 12 with Breaking Defense, retired Lt. Gen. Karl Müllner said the choice had been set and confirmed at a defense conference in Koblenz, Germany, two weeks ago.
Discussions about buying the Arrow 3 system have been reported by both German and Israeli media since early April. But Müllner said the decision is already more or less “set,” confirming a report from Reuters on Sept. 12.
The most important issue in the area of air defense is not “short-range air defense, the army’s air defense or even modernizing the Patriot missile system. It is [ballistic] missile defense,” writ large, Müllner said.
In an Aug. 29 speech at Charles University in Prague, Scholz laid out a vision of Germany at the heart of a pan-European air defense network, stating “we have a lot of catching up to do in Europe when it comes to defense against airborne and space-based threats” — something Müllner said was most likely driven by the threat from Russia’s Iskander missiles based in Kaliningrad, just 328 miles from Berlin.
Germany “will be investing very significantly in our air defense over the years ahead. All of those capabilities will be deployable within the framework of NATO,” Scholz continued in Prague. “At the same time, Germany will, from the very start, design that future air defense in such a way that our European neighbors can be involved if desired — such as the Poles, Balts, Netherlanders, Czechs, Slovaks or our Scandinavian partners.”
However, a number of these countries have been making their own air defense arrangements for years, and several have stepped up procurement plans over the summer in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
- Poland will be getting a short-range air-defense system using MBDA’s Common Anti-air Modular Missile (CAMM) with a range of more than 25kms. Originally slated for procurement in 2027, the first of two fire modules of the system, known as Narew, will be delivered later this month, with the second at the end of the year.
- Baltic states Latvia and Estonia signed a letter of intent (LoI) on June 30 to jointly procure an air-defense system, and on Sept. 7 Estonia and Poland signed an agreement to jointly procure the PIORUN Polish-developed short-range man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS).
- Finland has downselected two Israeli systems: Rafael’s David’s Sling and IAI’s Barak MX. A final decision will be taken in 2023.
- The Netherlands wants to buy 96 GEM-T missiles for the Patriot air defense system, in service with the Dutch military since 1987. In late July it was announced that the US State Department had approved the proposed sale worth an estimated $1.2 bn.
- As for the Czech Republic, it is helping provide air defense for neighboring Slovakia. Its JAS-39 Gripen aircraft started performing air policing missions earlier this month and will continue to do so until at least the end of 2023 when Slovakia’s new F-16 fighters should be operation to replace the Russian MiG-29s which are being decommissioned early.
But Müllner said, the Chancellor “doesn’t have in mind a political project because you always have to compromise and it will take longer, so this program will be decided nationally. But at the same time others are invited to participate.” He explained that participation from the neighbors in question “could range from decision-making procedures in NATO to financial participation or even buying their own missiles. It all depends on what they think both politically and militarily.”
Doug Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Breaking Defense that there was “a lack of clarity” in the announcements, remarking that if the Arrow were a short-term, albeit very expensive fix at around $2bn, “it would still be less expensive than losing something strategic.”
“How does all this fit together? It’s like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces either missing or in the wrong place,” Barrie said, adding that “Berlin doesn’t have a fantastic history of clarity on land-based acquisitions.”
Müllner explained that the capability gap in Germany’s air defense had its roots in that “10-12 years ago nobody really thought about a war with a peer enemy. The planners at MoD were focused on Afghanistan-type conflicts and never thought about war against an enemy with reasonable air capability. But now is a totally new situation and it’s become an obvious value to defend our own air space, so Germany has to do something.”
In mid-July, prior to Scholz’s speech, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton announced a new €500 m fund to encourage European cooperation in defense matters — notably to acquire portable air defense (MANPADs), anti-tank guided missiles and artillery such as shells and the Caesar or Krab howitzers — to complement the European Defense Fund, which is aimed at R&D projects. That means that the more countries Germany gets involved with to develop air defense capabilities, the more money it could get from this fund, formally the “European Defense Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act” (EDIRPA). But Müllner said he didn’t think there was a link between Scholz’s announcement and EDIRPA.
This new €500m instrument has three objectives:
- First, to help reconstitute EU member states’ weapon stocks, currently reaching dangerously low numbers because so much has been sent to Ukraine
- Despite almost €200bn extra money being pledged for defense by member states, the concern is that investments will be made along purely national lines leading to a fragmentation of efforts, a lack of interoperability and countering the European Defense Fund’s objective of helping to create an integrated European defense industry base. So this fund is a carrot to encourage member states to work together.
- To support European industry to adapt to reality and to the return of high intensity conflict on the continent
The €500m fund will be available for two years (2023-2024) and can only be used to incite member states to cooperate. The European Commission will not be buying weapons itself. The fund will support joint acquisition projects by a minimum of three countries. And the more member states are involved the more financial aid they will get. Eligibility will be the same as for those of the European Defense Fund.
Discussions to approve this initiative are expected to be held by the European Parliament and the European Council (the governments) this fall. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
09 Sep 22. European Patrol Corvette to get fresh money from EU coffers. Nations teaming to build a flagship European corvette with the help of EU funding are looking ahead to a €200m, or $202m, investment from the bloc’s defense coffers next year to build the first prototype.
The so-called European Patrol Corvette (EPC) program, which teams Italy, France, Spain and Greece as launch partners has already received a €60 m ($60.5 m) cash injection from the European Defense Fund (EDF) this year for development of the vessel.
But the funding will continue in 2023, an Italian navy official told Defense News.
“Next year the EDF will issue a ‘call’ for participants to push on with the program, with an EU grant of around 200m euros to be available, leading to the production of the first prototype,” said Captain Andrea Quondamatteo, the EPC project coordinator and head of the Capability Development Office at the Italian Navy General Staff in Rome.
Up to 110 meters long and displacing up to 3,300 tonnes, the European Patrol Corvette is being touted as a poster child for European defense integration, with Denmark and Norway joining the original members last year.
The EDF signed off on the first 60 m euros in July, with the cash available by year end for development work covering areas like propulsion, integration of unmanned platforms and modular design which will allow nations to put their own radars, combat systems and armaments on board.
Studies are also underway to cut the crew count by 30 percent from previous standards.
Beyond the core industrial involvement of Spain’s Navantia, France’s Naval Group, Italy’s Fincantieri and Navaris – the joint venture launched by the latter two firms – 40 firms from 12 nations are now on board, including Kongsberg, Siemens, Rolls-Royce, MAN and MTU.
The large number of propulsion specialists involved reflect work underway to see if full electric propulsion is an option for the vessel.
As talks have continued, Italy and Spain have come out in favour of a full combat variant of the corvette, while France and Spain are opting to pursue a long range version.
“The full combat version would be designed for use in the Mediterranean with anti-air, anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare capabilities including surface-to-air missiles and torpedoes,” said Quondamatteo.
An Italian version might feature a 3 inch caliber gun, a Close In Weapon System and a Point Defense Missile System, while all versions would host a medium-size helicopter and a modular mission bay, he said.
“By 2027 or 2028, about half the corvettes in service in the world will be near the end of their operational lives, so I believe this new and innovative naval program may find a market inside and outside the EU,” he said.
Italy has sped ahead with national funding already for the program, while this year’s defense budget document suggests it is also working on a national program for a smaller patrol vessel dubbed PPX, with a displacement of about 2,000 tonnes.
That vessel could enter service as soon as 2026, four years ahead of the corvette. The defense document cites a need for a total of eight vessels, including both PPX and corvettes.
France and Spain are meanwhile both expected to order six corvettes.
The €60m for development work is to be topped up to €90m ($91m) by the partner nations and the program will also receive a boost thanks to being inserted in the EU’s so-called Permanent Structured Cooperation, or Pesco, list of recommended pan-European defense programs designed to create synergies among EU defense firms.
According to EU rules, programs awarded European Defense Fund cash get a 10 percent bonus in the funding rate if they are already PESCO projects.
The teaming of Italy and France on the program follows the two nations’ work together on the Horizon frigate program.
Enrico Bonetti, COO at Naviris, told Defense News that one lesson learned from the Horizon program was the need for partners to continue to work together after the vessels go into operation.
“The fleets were operated separately, but software becomes obsolete fast. This time the nations need better structures to manage the vessels jointly during the operational lives,” he said. (Source: Defense News)
USA
15 Sep 22. Lockheed investing $100m into F-35 controlled combat drones under ‘Project Carrera.’
“The underlying behaviors, the autonomy, the way in which the rest of the ecosystem works together — that is exactly what we want to uncover in these series of experiments, to understand how you would actually field this type of capability,” said a Lockheed executive.
On a battlefield a decade or so in the future, a C-130 drops a pallet loaded with small, expendable drones, which break off and immediately begin flying toward a formation of F-35s.
As the F-35 pilots fly toward an enemy surface-to-air missile site, they issue commands to the drones under their control: “Collect data,” “go forward and draw fire,” or “find this target.” Based on data gathered by some of the drones, the pilots are alerted to a probable threat, and an alternate route is suggested using information from other drones that have scouted ahead.
This is the kind of technology Lockheed Martin hopes to prove out in its newly-revealed “Project Carrera,” a multi-year investment wherein the company plans to sink $100 million of its own money into drones, artificial intelligence, upgrades to the F-35 and novel communications technologies that will connect all the pieces together, John Clark, vice president of Lockheed’s secretive Skunk Works advanced development cell, said during a briefing to reporters on Wednesday.
The upcoming demonstrations will see an F-35 pair with up “a network” of Lockheed’s Speed Racer drones, an expendable aircraft the company disclosed in 2020. However, the most significant element of the effort will concentrate on figuring out how fighter pilots can actually operate drones in the field, what advantages those drones can confer for human pilots, and how to establish trust between human pilots and the AI guiding the drones.
“This is not going to be a one-off stunt where, ‘Hey, look, we’ve connected an F-35 to this uncrewed system, and we passed a track and yay, success, we now have a media headline that says that we did crewed-uncrewed teaming,’” Clark said. “What we’re really focusing on is a systematic build up where we can evaluate that human and uncrewed system interaction, and understand how those behaviors build up over time.”
Lockheed’s $100 million investment in Project Carrera is split into three areas:
- $20 million for upgrades to the F-35 and for the development of uncrewed assets
- $42 million for “teaming enablers” that include AI development, net-enabled pylons, advanced waveforms such as 5G, and open architecture technology
- $38 million for “battlespace multipliers,” an interesting pot of money that includes low-Earth orbit satellites that will provide beyond line-of-sight communications between the fighter and drones, as well as “forward survivable platforms” that could include a “penetrating sensor”
Clark said Project Carrera will inform what Lockheed eventually proposes for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) effort, an assortment of uncrewed combat drone that will augment the F-35, F-22 and the upcoming sixth-generation fighter slated to be the centerpiece of the Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems.
Last week, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said that the service could begin a CCA competition as early as fiscal 2024. At the same time, the Air Force must also take steps to figure out how to integrate combat drones with normal fighter operations, said Kendall, who added that the service could pursue demonstrations where fighter squadrons experimented with some of the unmanned systems already on the market.
“You’d be employing an integrated unit at sub scale,” Kendall said. “You’d be integrating these [drones] with existing aircraft in a way which sort of prove out some of the tactics, techniques and procedures, as well as things like maintenance concepts …and organizational structures.”
Go, Speed Racer, Go
Project Carrera’s early flight tests will focus on demonstrating Speed Racer’s airworthiness, starting with captive carry tests (Clark declined to say which aircraft will be carrying Speed Racer, or when flight tests will begin). Then Speed Racer will make its first flight, which will demonstrate whether it can be successfully launched from an aircraft and allow Lockheed to assess its performance characteristics. From there, Lockheed will conduct tests where an F-35 controls one — and then multiple — Speed Racer drones.
However, Clark stressed that the effort is more ambitious than simply proving that fighter jet and drones can operate within the same airspace.
“If you’re playing chess, you don’t want to put all your pawns on the back row, and leave the king and the queen exposed on the front row,” he said. “Just following fighters around is not an effective way to defeat a near peer adversary. You really have to have that ability to push in front of the fighters to either stimulate the integrated air defenses of the adversary, or you have to be providing information that the onboard systems of a fighter can’t organically get themselves.”
Key to Project Carrera is the idea of “flexible autonomy,” an AI brain for unmanned systems that can adapt to the needs and preferences of the user. In Lockheed’s early experiments with autonomous systems during the late 2000s, “we automated everything, and basically, the mission would unfold, and the user would watch this and there would be a lot of feedback of ‘Why did it do that? I don’t understand that. I wish it would have done that [instead],’” said Clark. “There was no easy way for them to interject or drive what the warfighter thought should be happening with the set of autonomous systems.”
In contrast, a flexible autonomy framework will allow the user to decide how much control they have over the uncrewed system at any point of a mission. Pilots with years of experience and a high level of comfort in the cockpit of a fighter can direct every action of the drones under his or her command, while a more novice pilot could opt to take a more hands-off approach.
“The underlying behaviors, the autonomy, the way in which the rest of the ecosystem works together — that is exactly what we want to uncover in these series of experiments, to understand how you would actually field this type of capability,” he said. “Candidly, as we watch the rest of the environment, this is an area that’s not getting as much focus as it should. We’ve got a lot of folks that are emphasizing, ‘Here’s my pretty vehicle.’”
While Speed Racer will take a starring role in Project Carrera, Lockheed also intends to demonstrate other air vehicles and classified payloads during the tests. Speed Racer is slated to cost “considerably less than $2 million” per copy and is currently designed to be expendable, Clark said. However, Lockheed is also making investments in mid- and high-tier drones that could also be offered for the CCA program. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
14 Sep 22. NSA seeks proposals for contract at heart of Booz Allen antitrust case. The National Security Agency issued a request for proposals for a contract at the center of antitrust litigation involving Booz Allen Hamilton, court records show, adding urgency to a case that the U.S. says has national security implications.
The release of the RFP for the Optimal Decision signals intelligence and simulation contract comes as the Justice Department and defendants Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the largest U.S. defense contractors, and EverWatch, a provider of intelligence support services, filed a flurry of arguments to a Maryland district court.
“The timing of the release of the RFP was a surprise to plaintiff’s counsel,” the Justice Department stated in a memo provided to the court Sept. 14. “But the RFP’s release also creates certainty about the timeframe for the final stage of the nearly three-year competition for the OD procurement, which before was missing.”
An inquiry made to the NSA late Wednesday afternoon was not immediately answered. The final version of the RFP is similar to a draft circulated months ago, according to court documents.
The Justice Department in June sued to block Booz Allen — the 22nd largest defense contractor by revenue in the latest Defense News ranking — from acquiring EverWatch. In its complaint, the government alleged the combination would imperil market competition, harm taxpayers and crimp services provided to the NSA.
Booz Allen and EverWatch are thought to be the only serious bidders on Optimal Decision, meaning a merger would produce a monopoly, according to the government. Spokespersons for the companies could not be immediately reached for comment.
Attorneys for Booz Allen have told the court the merger, announced mid-March, would actually stimulate competition and allow it to take on bigger companies, such as Lockheed Martin, and pursue “bns of dollars” in federal contracts. EverWatch, owned by Maryland-based investment firm Enlightenment Capital, supplies artificial intelligence, cloud capabilities, data science, insider-threat analysis and other services. It is smaller than Booz Allen, which employs some 30,000 people. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
12 Sep 22. The Air Force Wants to Retire the F-22 to Make Way for a New Fighter Jet. Should the Air Force retire the F-22 before its replacement arrives?
- The U.S. Air Force wants to retire the F-22 Raptor within ten years.
- The service wants to funnel Raptor funding into the new Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter program.
- Congress wants the Air Force to pump the brakes on retiring the Raptor, at least until NGAD is ready.
The U.S. Air Force and the arm of government that funds it are at loggerheads over the future of the F-22 Raptor. The Air Force wants to retire the jets to make room in the budget for its replacement, the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter. Congress, however, having financed aircraft that experienced significant production delays, is wary of retiring the world’s first fifth-generation fighter jet too soon.
The Air Force currently has 185 F-22 Raptors. One of the little known facts about the F-22, however, is that just 123 jets are in the primary mission aircraft inventory, meaning they are actually capable of combat. The remaining F-22 jets are training, development, and backup planes that are physically incapable of air combat.
Most F-22s are under 16 years old, but the plane’s development goes back to the Advanced Tactical Fighter program of the 1980s. This means that much of the design philosophy behind the jet is fixed to the Cold War era. The F-22 was meant to fly from well-established bases in Western Europe and duke it out against Soviet and Warsaw Pact fighters at medium ranges. It was designed to be the very best at what it does, but it was not designed for operating at very long ranges, for example.
Forty years later, the operating environment is much different. The U.S., once alone in fielding fifth-generation stealth fighters, now must compete against Russia’s Su-57 “Felon” and Chinese J-20 and FC-31 fighters. Air planners must now consider how to operate over the vastness of the Asia-Pacific theater, with fighter jets likely traveling a thousand miles or even more just to engage enemy fighters. The extent of the competition, coupled with the new geographic realities, requires a new aircraft.
The new NGAD plane will incorporate the latest in stealth technology but also, just as importantly, the ability to fly very long distances. Developed, built, and flown in just one year, in 2020, the aircraft still has yet to be revealed. It will be extremely expensive, however, with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall warning earlier this year that each fighter will cost “multiple hundreds of ms of dollars.” (By comparison, the F-35A Joint Strike fighter costs about $70 m each.)
According to Air Force Times, the service wants to retire 33 of the oldest combat-capable planes, known as Block 20, as part of its 2023 defense budget request. Retiring them would not only save money on operating costs, it would also save the $50 m each it would cost to upgrade them to modern standards. The Air Force would then funnel the savings into NGAD development.
Although a prototype NGAD fighter has already flown, the aircraft is not scheduled to begin replacing the F-22 until 2030. The Air Force might divest most of its F-22s before the NGAD can be deployed in useful numbers, just when Russia’s and China’s fifth-generation fighter fleets will likely grow. (Russia’s cratering economy, a direct result of its invasion of Ukraine, might change that.) Congress is wary of allowing the Air Force to retire the F-22 early, especially after the F-35A was several years late and bns of dollars over budget. If NGAD runs into similar headwinds, Congress worries there could be a capability gap in which the Air Force lacks credible F-22 replacement.
The NGAD fighter, and any unmanned fighter jets that fly alongside it, will likely preserve American air superiority to 2050 and beyond. The concern is it could suck all the oxygen out of the room before it arrives, even if it arrives on time. The Air Force seems to believe the risk is manageable, but Congress isn’t so sure. Perhaps if NGAD went public, Congress would be better willing to justify funding the existing fleet of Raptors and buying a $200 to $300 m future fighter plane.
(Source: News Now/https://www.popularmechanics.com/)
09 Sep 22. Pentagon eyes commercial solution to supply chain problems.
The U.S. Department of Defense is looking to commercially available software to help address supply chain disruptions, a growing concern as companies large and small deal with the continued fallout of pandemic-related parts availability issues.
In a solicitation from the Defense Innovation Unit, a Pentagon agency that fosters DoD adoption of commercial technology, the department is seeking software solutions to build new supply pathways for critical components and manage risk across key areas of the industrial base.
Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante said this week during the Defense News Conference in Arlington, Virginia, that he is working on new guidance to help alleviate some of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation have had on supply bases, noting particular concern for small companies operating under firm fixed-price contracts.
“We want to keep our industrial base whole,” he said Sept. 7. “We want to keep them solvent. We need them.”
The pandemic isn’t the only supply chain threat the Pentagon is working to protect against. Dependence on foreign sources for semiconductor technology has driven Congress to take action to revive the U.S. microelectronic industrial base. And just this week, DoD announced it temporarily suspended deliveries of the Lockheed Martin-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter after discovering the raw material used to produce a magnet in the aircraft were made in China.
“Threats to this industrial base are real and actively evolving, specifically for critical technologies,” DIU said in the Sept. 8 solicitation. “Reliance on foreign-owned or controlled hardware, software or services introduces opportunities for exploitation of a product’s availability, integrity, trustworthiness or authenticity.”
DIU’s call for software solutions emphasizes the need for analytic techniques that would allow the department to take in data from commercial, proprietary and government sources to develop computer models of supply chains. DoD wants to use those models to estimate costs, establish digital representations and identify risk.
Proposals are due Sept. 16. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
REST OF THE WORLD
14 Sep 22. Indian Army advances BMP-2 upgrade programme. The Indian Army has initiated trials to upgrade its licence-built BMP-2/2K ‘Sarath’ infantry combat vehicles (ICVs) with three local firms – Bangalore-based Tonbo Imaging, Chennai-based Big Bang Boom, and Thane-based Dimension NXG. The Indian Army plans to upgrade its BMP-2 ICVs with see-through armour, anti-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capabilities, thermal imager-based gunner and panoramic commander sights, a modern fire-control system, and an automatic target tracker.
Lieutenant Commander (retd) D Rajendrakumar, director of programmes at Tonbo Imaging, told Janes that one of the shortcomings of the existing BMP-2 ICVs is that it is not equipped with uncooled infrared (UIR) sensors.
“If the tanks don’t have UIR, that means they are night blind. We have about 2,000 BMP-2 ICVs in the Indian Army, which don’t have UIR. This is why we are installing see-through armour in the tanks so that they can roam around at night,” added Lt Cdr Rajendrakumar. (Source: Janes)
15 Sep 22. Australia to decide on further Triton maritime drone orders after defence review. Australia will decide on whether to order up to four more Northrop Grumman Corp MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance drones after a defence review next year, a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) official said.
Australia, to date the only non-U.S. customer for the remotely piloted high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft, has so far ordered three to compliment its fleet of crewed Boeing Co (BA.N) P-8A Poseidon planes.
The first Australian aircraft was unveiled in California on Wednesday. It is due for delivery in mid-2024, and will be based primarily in Australia’s tropical north but controlled from a base near the southern city of Adelaide.
Australia has been boosting its defence spending over the past few years as China steps up its presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Last year, Australia agreed to buy nuclear submarines from the United States and Britain.
The new centre-left government last month announced a defence strategic review due in early 2023.
RAAF Head of Air Force Capability Air Vice-Marshal Robert Denney said at the Triton unveiling ceremony that the final number to be purchased would be decided after the review was completed.
“That defence review will take into consideration the decision not to proceed on SkyGuardian,” he said, referring to Australia this year scrapping plans to buy up to 12 General Atomics-built MQ-9B armed medium-altitude long-endurance drones.
The addition of Triton will allow Australia’s crewed P-8 planes to focus on anti-submarine warfare (ASW) rather than splitting their time between that and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), said Doug Shaffer, Northrop Grumman vice president autonomous ISR and targeting programmes.
“So a Navy maritime patrol gets 10 times more ISR and they free up the P-8 to focus on the ASW mission, so you get three times more ASW capability,” he said in an interview. “That is really the force multiplier by having a manned-unmanned teaming.”
The U.S. Navy, which also has P-8s, has deployed Triton from Guam and Japan. (Source: News Now/Reuters)
14 Sep 22. Philippines releases initial funds for maritime patrol aircraft procurement. The Philippine government has released the initial funding needed for the country to finance its long-awaited Long Range Patrol Aircraft (LRPA) programme. The funds, which will likely be deployed as a down payment once a supplier is appointed, were released under a scheme known as the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) by the Philippine Department of Budget and Management in August 2022.
It is worth PHP896.4m (USD 15m) and will cover the initial funding requirements of the Philippine Air Force’s (PAF’s) LRPA requirements, the department said in its register of national programmes, for which a SARO has been allocated. The LRPA is a programme that seeks to enhance the PAF’s maritime patrol capabilities by acquiring a fleet of two anti-submarine warfare (ASW)-capable airframes. It is a Horizon 1 project under the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Act. (Source: Janes)
08 Sep 22. Japan outlines funding proposal for new OPVs, anti-submarine helicopters in 2023. The Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) has requested funding for a new class of offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) and a new type of anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter in its 2023 defence budget proposal. Besides these new platforms, the MoD has also included two more Mogami-class multirole guided-missile frigates, a Taigei-class diesel-electric submarine (SSK), and a Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) in its proposal. The new OPV class will likely derive its design from the 95 m concept that was submitted by Japan Marine United (JMU) for the country’s next-generation patrol vessel programme. The helicopter-capable OPV will displace about 1,920 tonnes. It will be powered by engines arranged in a combined diesel-electric and diesel (CODLAD) configuration and it can attain a maximum speed of more than 20 kt. Its primary weapon is a 30mm naval gun in the forward section. (Source: Reuters)
12 Sep 22. US proposes sale to sustain Pakistan F-16s. The US government has proposed a multimillion-dollar defence sale intended to sustain the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF’s) fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters. A US Department of State (DoS) spokesperson said on 8 September that the “United States government has notified Congress of a proposed Foreign Military Sales (FMS) case to sustain the Pakistan Air Force’s F-16 programme”. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) delivered the required certification notifying Congress of the possible sale on 7 September. The possible USD450m sale is in response to a request by the government of Pakistan to consolidate prior F-16 sustainment and support cases. The sale will reduce “duplicate case activities and [add] additional continued support elements”, the DoS said. The DoS added that the proposed sale does not include new capabilities, weapons, or munitions. (Source: Janes)
09 Sep 22. It was published in the Brazilian Army Bulletin (BE) of today, September 9th, the EME/C Ex No. 04.066) of the armored fighting vehicle – current tank (VBC CC Corrente), revoking the previous ordinances, within the Strategic Program of the Army (Prg EE)
With these documents, the Brazilian Army begins the process that began in December 2020, with the EME/C Ex Order No. 279, which aims to modernize the VBC CC Leopard 1A5BR so that they are able to fulfill their function until the arrival of their successor (VBC CC Future Project).
The original project proposed to obtain 116 modernized units, of the 220 under load, extending their useful life for at least 15 years, considering the period until 2037, in addition to the planning and implementation of Integrated Logistics Support (SLI) during this period, however, in a recent presentation by the Material Directorate (DMat) to the Army General Staff (EME), this number dropped to just 52 vehicles, to be modernized between 2024 and 2030, which may be an indication that the program of its successor is next. (Source: LinkedIN)
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Since 1946, Industrial Electronic Engineers, IEE, has specialized in the design, test, support and fielding of display products for use in demanding military and aerospace applications throughout the world. IEE has developed an extensive product portfolio that today includes enhanced flat panel displays, smart displays and handheld devices.
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