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12 Jan 23. US Army to spend $290m on cloud uptake in coming months.
The U.S. Army plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in cloud migration and uptake in the next year or so, amid a push by the military’s largest service to be digital-first and access data anytime, anywhere.
Roughly $290m will be spent over the coming months, Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo said at the Army IT Day conference, hosted by the Northern Virginia chapter of the communications- and electronics-focused group AFCEA.
Camarillo described the expenditure as an indicator of “how seriously” the service “is taking on this mission,” adding that “2023 is very much, in my mind, a year of acceleration.”
The Army has migrated hundreds of legacy applications to the cloud. Other services — such as the Air Force, with its Cloud One and Cloud One Next initiatives — are making similar moves.
The Army in October announced the multi-award, multi-vendor Enterprise Application Migration and Modernization deal, or EAMM, which is meant to make it easier and cheaper to advance comprehensive cloud goals, including rapid software development, data-driven decision-making and zero-trust cybersecurity.
The $1bn EAMM contract, described by Army Chief Information Officer Raj Iyer as “the easy button,” is expected to coexist with the Pentagon’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, a separate $9 bn arrangement in which Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle are competing to provide unprecedented connectivity across unclassified, secret and top-secret designations.
“JWCC will be an avenue for the [Department of Defense] to actually procure, compute and store directly from the cloud service providers, like the Amazons and the Googles of the world,” Iyer said in October. “What EAMM does is it’s the vehicle to actually modernize your application, get it to be cloud native and then migrate to the cloud, right? You’re going to need both.”
The Army requested $16.6bn in cyber and information technology funding for fiscal 2023, a little more than 9% of the service’s $178bn blueprint. The bulk of the IT ask, roughly $9.8bn, was flagged for the Army network, a modernization priority spearheaded by the Network Cross-Functional Team and the Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, among others.
Camarillo on Thursday told C4ISRNET it is “premature” to project where Army cloud funding will land in 2024 or 2025, as budget work is ongoing. But key to success, he said, is a steady, reliable stream of resources, including for the Enterprise Cloud Management Agency, an entity that oversees the service’s cloud efforts.
“As we all know, over the last year,” Camarillo said, “the digital tools that accompany our capabilities — software, infrastructure on the digital side, data and security — are all going to be absolutely critical to our ability to win the next conflict.”
(Source: Defense News)
11 Jan 23. Navy frustration building over late weapons, ship deliveries.
Exasperation is growing over the U.S Navy’s inability to get missiles and weapons delivered fast enough to keep its own magazines full, let alone offer more assistance to Ukraine or other partners in need, several leaders said at this week’s annual Surface Navy Association conference.
“I’m not as forgiving of the defense industrial base,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, the commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said Jan. 11. “I am not forgiving the fact that they’re not delivering the ordnance we need, I’m just not.”
“All this stuff about COVID this, parts, supply chain this, I just don’t really care,” he continued. “I need [Standard Missile]-6s delivered on time. I need more [torpedoes] delivered on time.”
Caudle oversees the readiness-generation of all ships, submarines and aircraft on the Atlantic side of the Navy. He said the service is working internally to boost its readiness, including announcing this week the surface fleet would aim to have at least 75 mission-capable ships at all times to send on missions with little notice — but this progress is being hampered by backlogs in industry.
The Navy is buying two submarines a year, but industry is only delivering at a rate of 1.2 a year.
“In five years, instead of delivering 10 fast attack submarines, I got six. Where’s the other four? My force is already four submarines short,” Caudle said. Ships coming out of maintenance availabilities late, both at Navy public yards and private industry yards, worsens the problem. While the Navy should have 10 of its 50 subs in deep maintenance, 19 are in or awaiting repairs.
“Imagine if I was on time, my submarine force would be nine ships larger. That is a significant number,” he said.
Caudle noted that if the Navy had ready its 75 mission-capable ships, “their magazines wouldn’t all be full.”
He said the Navy knows which missiles would make the most impact during a fight, and the Navy wants to see defense contractors prioritize these top programs, even at the expense of other production lines if needed.
“We are spending large amounts of money with these companies. … When they don’t deliver, that impacts the national security that we provide this country,” the four-star said. “If there’s areas that we need to do better … where they can go build more stable workforces, go buy more early materials, go get more certainty and buy down their risk because we’re more committed to larger buys of ordnance or ships or whatever it is, we’ve got to have those conversations.”
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday told Defense News on Jan. 10 at the conference he prioritized readiness — including ordnance — in the fiscal 2023 spending request and would do so again in the FY24 plan expected out this spring.
“The message that I’m trying to send there is, not only am I trying to fill magazines with weapons, but I’m trying to put U.S. production lines at their maximum level right now and to try and maintain that set of headlights in subsequent budgets, so that we continue to produce those weapons. That’s one thing we’ve seen in Ukraine, that the expenditure of those high-end weapons in conflict could be higher than we estimated,” Gilday said.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro weighed in as well, telling reporters Jan. 11 the Navy and Pentagon are offering a combination of carrots and sticks to weapons-builders.
For example, he said, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks and her office are seeking to incentivize companies building weapons needed by the U.S. but also potentially helpful in Ukraine to increase their maximum production rates.
“They had a set production rate before Ukraine occurred; now the U.S. government is asking them to increase their production rates,” he said. “There’s a desire on the part of those companies to do that in a responsible fashion.”
Del Toro too said the pandemic and supply chain challenges are no longer acceptable excuses for mission delivery dates.
“If they’re having a problem set on their side, I don’t want to just hear about it at the final hour,” he said. “I want to hear about it as these problems develop, and if we’re the cause of some of these problems, then fine, let’s talk about them and let’s try to fix them early on so we can deliver that on time.”
Del Toro said the solution can’t simply be “us throwing money at industry.”
“The money that we do make available for workforce development has to be carefully laid out,” he continued. “We pay attention to how the money is actually being spent to ensure that it’s being spent effectively, efficiently, there are metrics and data that actually support, hopefully, the results that get returned on that investment.” (Source: Defense News)
10 Jan 23. DOD Aims to Shield Warfighters From Novel Biological Agents.
The Department of Defense is modernizing its approach for developing medical countermeasures to protect warfighters from novel biological agents. This is made clear in a new document, “Approach for Research, Development and Acquisition of Medical Countermeasures and Test Products,” which was recently published by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense. This office oversees the Department of Defense’s Chemical and Biological Defense Program. The CBDP’s mission is to anticipate future threats and deliver capabilities that enable the Joint Force to fight and win in CB-contested environments.
The CBDP has always prioritized medical countermeasures, which consist of vaccines, medical tests and drugs. “No matter how good our boots, suits, gloves and masks perform, there’s always going to be the risk that our warfighters don’t necessarily have their equipment on when they need it. So having medical countermeasures as an added layer for protection makes sense,” Dr. Kevin Wingerd, CBDP’s medical director, said.
What has changed is the nature of the threat.
“The convergence of different sciences and technologies is transforming the biological threat landscape,” Wingerd said. “In particular, it has created a nearly limitless number of potential threats we must defend against.”
This contrasts to the past, when DOD developed medical countermeasures against a defined list of specific threats, typically ones adversaries had already weaponized. But this “one bug, one drug” approach isn’t viable in the face of the exponentially larger number of potential threats, including novel ones.
Nor is the Department solely focused on deliberate biological threats. In his Biodefense Vision Memo published in November 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III directed the Department to be postured against agents that are naturally occurring as well as those that may have been released accidentally, alongside traditional deliberate ones. The new medical countermeasures approach provides a roadmap to address this more challenging problem set.
According to the document, nonspecific medical countermeasures will enable warfighters to remain on the battlefield after being exposed to an agent. After that agent has been identified, rapid development of medical countermeasures that eliminate the specific threat will be given to all warfighters, including those newly entering the battle.
Nonspecific medical countermeasures are broad-spectrum acting and are designed to target a set of similar agents, diseases or symptoms. Nonspecific medical countermeasures are particularly vital for novel agents that have no medical countermeasures. Administrating nonspecific medical countermeasures could alleviate symptoms, slow down disease progression and reduce transmission of the agent, allowing troops to remain in the battle with little impairment. While the agent may be suppressed for a given period, a medical countermeasure that targets and eliminates the novel agent is still required.
As Wingerd puts it, “Using nonspecific medical countermeasures allows the agent’s effects to be mitigated and the warfighter to remain operational and combat ready, while simultaneously allowing for rapid development of specific medical countermeasures that can be used to completely get rid of the agent and protect incoming warfighters.”
To rapidly develop narrow-spectrum medical countermeasures, the CBDP will leverage cutting edge technology including artificial intelligence and machine learning and establish partnerships with known pharmaceutical manufacturers. The CBDP considers manufacturing capacity a strategic challenge, which the new approach addresses as a goal.
“In a response preparedness posture, we need to invest in unique medical infrastructure designed to rapidly produce new vaccines and drugs, and leverage existing medical infrastructure by adapting them to target new agents quickly,” Wingerd explained.
“What COVID has certainly taught us is that if that industrial base isn’t present, it doesn’t matter how good your ideas are, they’re just not going to go anywhere,” he added, mentioning that partnerships with the interagency, academia and U.S. allies and partners are also critical.
Besides the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is the regulating agency for medical countermeasures, Wingerd mentioned the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as key CBDP interagency partners. Pointing to the recently updated National Biodefense Strategy, Wingerd said, “This effort is really a whole of government approach, and the CBDP’s new approach aligns with and supports the NBS.”
He added that he expects new advances in medical countermeasures to bear fruit beginning as early as next year, with more to follow. (Source: US DoD)
REST OF THE WORLD
11 Jan 23. India to spend $522m on missiles, air defense and naval weapons. India’s top arms buyer on Tuesday approved a budget of 42.76bn rupees (U.S. $522.17m) to acquire weapons solely from domestic companies. The approved projects are for Helina anti-tank guided missiles; very short-range air defense systems for the Army; and the Brahmos missile launcher and a fire control system for Navy ships.
A meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council on Jan. 10, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, granted a so-called acceptance of necessity for three capital acquisition proposals, the Ministry of Defence said. The announcement did not provide quantities nor costs for each program, and the ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
The purchase of the weapons systems will fall under the Buy Indian IDDM procurement category. According to the ministry, this category requires the procurement of arms from an Indian vendor that were indigenously designed, developed and manufactured while containing at least 50% locally made technology.
An acceptance of necessity in India is essentially fiscal approval that paves the way for tenders, which lead to the purchase of new arms and related equipment.
Plans for Halina
The Halina missiles, launchers and associated support equipment are to be integrated into advanced light helicopters. The Helina is a third-generation fire-and-forget system with a 7-kilometer (4-mile) range. The state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation develops the system, which can engage targets via direct- or top-attack mode. The launcher can operate in all weather conditions during the day and night, while the missiles are used to defeat battle tanks with conventional and explosive reactive armor.
The state-run firm Bharat Dynamics Ltd. produces the land-attack version of the missile, called Nag, through technology transfer from DRDO.
DRDO said Bharat Dynamics will serve as the production agency for Helina anti-tank guided missiles. Work on the weapons began about a decade ago, and they will likely be delivered in 2026.
Rajiv Chib, a partner at Insighteon Consulting, said each Helina missile is expected to cost 10m rupees, with an initial requirement for about 500 missiles. “However, DRDO needs to ensure that the missile comes out with a warhead-penetration capability of 1,100-1,300 millimeters of armor,” Chib added.
VSHORAD purchase
India also plans to buy an unspecified number of DRDO-developed very short-range air defense weapons featuring infrared-homing missile systems that can shoot down aerial targets at a range of up to 7 kilometers.
“In view of the recent developments along the Northern borders there is a need to focus on effective air defence weapon systems which are man-portable and can be deployed quickly in rugged terrain and maritime domain,” the ministry said, likely referring to clashes with Chinese forces.
A member of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, a local trade association, said it will take at least eight years for the Army to induct the VSHORAD system because the technology is not yet fully developed nor has it been proved operationally fit. The individual requested anonymity from Defense News in order to speak candidly.
One DRDO scientist said the organization selected two private companies — Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Ltd. and ICOMM Tele Ltd. — as development production partners for the VSHORAD program. The scientist spoke on the condition of anonymity, as he was not authorize to speak to the press.
Naval orders
The new budget approval will also see the acquisition of locally built launcher systems and fire control systems for the ship-mounted Brahmos cruise missiles meant to equip Shivalik-class frigates and next-generation missile vessels. The Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers member noted that state-run Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. builds Shivalik-class frigates, and state-run Cochin Shipyard Ltd. is the production agency for next-generation missile vessels. Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt last month informed Parliament that the government has granted acceptance of necessity to 163 proposals worth 2.46trn rupees that would promote domestic manufacturing. Over the last four years, Bhatt added, the government has reduced its foreign defense procurement spending from 46% to 36%. (Source: Defense News)
11 Jan 23. Indian Navy may repeat Kalveri class submarine order. Indian Navy is all set to bury fresh acquisition under Project 75 I and may go for repeat Project 75 order to MDL with DRDO proven and tested air independent propulsion system fitted into the new submarines under “Aatmanirbhar Bharat.”
When visionary Manohar Parrikar was the Defence Minister of India, he had suggested to then Navy Chief Admiral Robin K Dhowan that Indian Navy should exercise the option of three more Kalveri (Scorpene) class rather than go for fresh acquisition of six of Project 75 I, air independent propulsion equipped, submarines. Admiral Dhowan did not agree because of which the options clause for Project 75, which was approved by Atal Behari Vajpayee government way back in 2003, was cancelled in September 2016.
On July 20, 2021, the Ministry of Defence floated a request for proposal (RFP) for AIP equipped six Project 75 I class submarines at the cost of ₹40,000 crore. Since it is normal for Indian military-civilian bureaucracy to take at least 10-15 years to complete any big acquisition, it means that the current Scorpene submarine line at MDL will go to seed with the next set of 75 I class being built in late 2030s with a fresh massive investment on submarine line. All this appears to be set for a change.
In the meantime, the AIP equipped submarines have been superseded by the latest Soryu class Japanese submarines with higher endurance lithium-ion batteries with faster re-charge capabilities. The lithium-ion batteries have double the storage capacities of traditional lead acid batteries because of which the range of the submarine increases considerably. Given that the French have moved to nuclear propulsion and the German to lithium-ion technology ahead of AIP submarine technology, the Modi government most likely will end up with a single vendor option with South Korea being the only country building AIP submarines. Simply put, this means that by the time the Indian bureaucracy finalizes the vendor, the technology will be outdated and outclassed by the rapidly advancing Chinese PLA Navy. (Source: News Now/https://www.hindustantimes.com/)
10 Jan 23. Singapore MINDEF reveals Type 218SG submarines cost $1.8bn.
The cost of each submarine is estimated to be approximately $450.84m (S$600m). The Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) has revealed that the cost of acquiring the four Invincible-class submarines is approximately $1.8bn (S$2.4bn). This was confirmed by Singaporean Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen in a parliamentary statement released on 9 January. The statement was issued in response to Singaporean Member of Parliament (MP) Gerald Giam Yean Song’s questions regarding the cost of four Invincible-class or Type 218SG vessels being acquired for the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN).
Ng Eng Hen said: “As a general rule, MINDEF does not provide the precise amounts for cost of acquisition or maintenance of our military assets as it might indirectly disclose the capabilities of components such as added weapon or protection systems.”
However, in reference to the Turkish and South Korean militaries that have acquired similar submarine, Ng Eng Hen revealed that the cost of each submarine can be estimated at approximately $450.84m (S$600m) at the time finalising the deal.
“Maintenance costs per year is usually 2% to 3% of the capital cost of platforms,” the statement added.
Responding to Yean Song’s another question enquiring about the reason to replace the RSN’s existing Archer-class and Challenger-class submarines, Ng Eng Hen said the new fleet will also fulfil the country’s security challenges needs for the next three decades.
The new vessels will bolster RSN’s capabilities to maintain maritime security in the region.
The future fleet of Invincible-class submarines is being constructed by German naval company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).
The contract for building first two submarines was awarded to TKMS in 2013, followed by an additional contract for acquiring two more vessels in 2017.
Last month, TKMS launched the second and third Type 218SG submarines that were named ‘Impeccable’ and ‘Illustrious’, respectively. (Source: naval-technology.com)
09 Jan 23. Subs plan on track for Q1 2023, despite concerns from members of US Senate Armed Services Committee. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that he expects discussions with the nation’s AUKUS partners to “come to realisation” over the coming months, despite recent doubts cast by members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee over submarine acquisition.
The concerns were raised by Senator Jack Reed and Senator James Inhofe, who cast doubt over the ability for US industry to construct Virginia Class submarines for Australia while also meeting operational demand from the US Navy.
In a letter addressed to President Joe Biden, and subsequently leaked to news outlet Breaking Defense, the pair allege that the construction of the submarines would push US defence industry to “breaking point”.
“Over the past year, we have grown more concerned about the state of the US submarine industrial base as well as its ability to support the desired AUKUS SSN end state,” the pair wrote.
“We are concerned that what was initially touted as a ‘do no harm’ opportunity to support Australia and the United Kingdom and build long-term competitive advantages for the US and its pacific allies, may be turning into a zero-sum game for scarce, highly advanced US SSNs.”
Senator Reed was the committee chairman and Senator Inhofe the ranking member at the time of writing.
Despite the concerns, Prime Minister Albanese stated that he remained “positive” over plans within the AUKUS trilateral security arrangement to obtain the capability.
Speaking to reporters in Geelong, the Prime Minister explained that he expects the discussions to “come to realisation” in the first quarter of 2023.
Addressing the concerns laid out by the two US lawmakers, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles explained that it was within the United States and United Kingdom’s “strategic interest” to support the development of nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Marles declined to confirm whether the Commonwealth intended to acquire the submarines direct from the US or to begin with local production.
“We’ll need to wait until we announce what the optimal pathway will be. One point that we have consistently made which is relevant in the context of the comments that both Senator Reed and Senator Inhofe have made in the last 24 hours is that we understand that we will need to make our own contribution to the net industrial base of the three countries,” he explained.
“And that’s why we have said that we will develop the capacity in Adelaide to build nuclear-powered submarines and we will do that as quickly as we can.” (Source: Defence Connect)
09 Jan 23. Canada Announces the Procurement of the F-35 Lightning II. The Government of Canada announced today it is procuring Lockheed Martin’s 5th Generation F-35 Lightning II aircraft as a result of the Future Fighter Capability Project competition. The Royal Canadian Air Force will receive 88 F-35A multirole stealth fighters, a sustainment solution tailored to Canada’s sovereign requirements and a comprehensive training program.
“Canada is our friend and a close ally. Their decision to procure almost 90 jets underscores the value of the incredible F-35 Lightning II,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Mike Schmidt, program executive officer, F-35 Joint Program Office. “The F-35 is the best in the world, providing unmatched interoperability to America, Canada and the additional 15 nations that have selected the fighter. It is a global game-changer. Through power-projection, the F-35 is at the tip of the spear for deterrence. Its forward presence will continue to ensure that potential adversaries choose diplomacy over armed conflict.”
“We are honored the Government of Canada has selected the F-35, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian defence industry to deliver and sustain the aircraft,” said Bridget Lauderdale, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager of the F-35 program. “The selection of F-35 strengthens allied airpower in Canada, North America and around the world.”
The F-35 strengthens Canada’s operational capability with its allies as a cornerstone for interoperability with NORAD and NATO. As a critical node in the 21st Century Security mission space, the F-35 gives pilots an advantage against any adversary and enabling them to execute their mission and come home safe.
“Together with our Canadian industry partners, we are honoured by this selection and the sustainment of critical jobs that will continue to equip Canadian workforces with advanced skills,” said Lorraine Ben, chief executive, Lockheed Martin Canada. “The F-35 program yields tremendous economic benefits for Canada’s aerospace and defence industry, and we look forward to continued growth.”
To date, the F-35 operates from 27 bases worldwide, with nine nations operating F-35s on their home soil. There are more than 890 F-35s in service today, with more than 1,870 pilots and 13,500 maintainers trained on the aircraft.
06 Jan 23. Shipbuilders near and far line up for Latin American naval upgrades. Latin American countries are seeing the beginnings of a resurgence in naval shipbuilding following a decades-long lull that has left industrial capacity there languishing.
European yards have taken notice of the market, as heavy hitters like Naval Group, Thales, Fincantieri, MBDA, Navantia, Damen Schelde, Saab, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Kongsberg, BAE Systems, Indra and Babcock flocked to exhibit at ExpoNaval, the region’s main maritime show, held in Chile in December. Pairing proven designs from across the Atlantic with national requirements in Latin America is already beginning to boost local naval industries.
The trend was highlighted by Colombia, which in November awarded a contract to state-owned naval shipbuilder COTECMAR for a series of five frigates for the country’s Navy. The vessels will replace Colombia’s current squadron of four light frigates. The cost of the first new frigate will be $440m, with the total fleet cost expected to reach $2bn.
The Netherland’s Damen Schelde yard will be the main subcontractor, providing a tailored version of its Sigma 10514 frigate design as well as technical support to the Colombian shipbuilder.
Meanwhile, COTECMAR is also building a series of two missile patrol corvettes, using an improved and larger version of a design by German shipbuilder Fassmer.
To the north, Mexico’s state-owned shipbuilder Astilleros de Marina, or ASTIMAR, which runs five shipyards in the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the country, has built its expertise constructing patrol vessels based on a Spanish design for the Mexican Navy.
After building the series of offshore patrol vessels of the Holzinger, Sierra, Durango and Oaxaca classes — each locally designed with increased size and advanced capacities — ASTIMAR started the construction of its first modern warship in 2017 using Damen’s Sigma 10514 design.
The result was the 2,900-ton frigate ARM Benito Juarez, completed in 2019 and declared operational in Mexico’s naval fleet in 2020. Known as the first ship in the Long-Range Oceanic Patrol effort, locally known as the POLA program, it is the first oceanic ship operated by the Mexican Navy since 2004.
The Benito Juarez is fitted with a comprehensive suite of sensors coupled with advanced anti-surface, anti-submarine and air defense systems. It includes Boeing’s RGM-84L Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles and Raytheon Technologies’ RIM-162 Evolved Seasparrow Missile air defense missiles, both in Mk 141 vertical missile launchers, as well as a launcher of Raytheon’s RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile II point air defense system. The vessel will serve as test ship, to be followed by a series of seven sister ships, with building to start from 2025 and to continue into the 2030s, using an improved design that could like increase in size and displacement.
The POLA program, which could cost $3bn if all seven planned frigates are ordered, could become the largest surface naval combatant program launched in Latin America. The ships are required under Mexico’s plans to deploy a squadron of frigates on each coast of the country.
And in Brazil, after a protracted process, the construction of the first of four 3,400-ton Tamandaré-class frigates started in September, with steel planks cut at a ThyssenKrupp shipyard in the southern state of Santa Catarina.
Original plans were to use an enlarged and improved version of the Barroso-class missile corvette. But the idea was discarded in favor of foreign expertise, after finding that the local capacity to design and build surface ships — developed between the 1970s and 1990s with the construction of British-designed Niteroi-class frigates and the indigenous Inhauma/Barroso-class corvettes — had vanished after a long lapse when nothing was built.
A contract worth $2bn for the first series of four frigates was awarded early in 2020 to Águas Azuis Consortium, a joint venture formed by Germany’s ThyssenKrupp and Brazilian defense company Embraer. The ships will be built using a version of ThyssenKrupp’s Meko A100 design tailored to Brazilian Navy requirements.
The keel of the first-of-class Tamandaré frigate will be laid in the first trimester of 2023, with deliveries to start in late 2024 and be completed in 2029.
Meanwhile, Chile deploys what is currently the most modern surface combat fleet in South America, with five upgraded frigates of Dutch and British origins, and two air defense frigates acquired secondhand from Australia in 2019. But while those ships will serve well into the 2030s, Chile’s naval service is not idle about the future.
The Chilean Navy’s ambitions are to replace its fleet of eight frigates with a series of new 5,000-ton combat vessels expected to be built locally by state-owned naval yard ASMAR beginning in 2030. The plan has robust political support, and ASMAR has experience from building a series of four 1,800-ton patrol vessels of the Piloto Pardo class between 2006 and 2017.
The shipbuilder is currently building a 10,000-ton icebreaker, to be completed by the middle of 2023, and it’s preparing to build a series of four 8,000-ton amphibious and multipurpose transport ships.
The Chilean Navy’s present interest is Babcock’s Arrowhead 140 frigate design, already ordered by the U.K. and Poland. But it is early days, and the competition for a contract is not expected to start before the 2026-2027 time frame.
Emilio Meneses, an independent analyst based in Santiago, Chile, expects other regional countries to also express their interest in naval technology.
“In the years to come, we will see other Latin American nations with maritime interests, specially at the Southern Cone, to follow the paths of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia as well as potential forerunner Chile,” Meneses told Defense News. “Peru, which has a very capable shipbuilding industry, is likely to build its next frigates using a foreign design. Ecuador and Uruguay most possibly will acquire secondhand vessels with enough service life remaining and space for upgrading, according to their financial resources.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
06 Jan 23. Germany’s Hensoldt plans defence deals with Gulf states – Spiegel. German defence supplier Hensoldt (HAGG.DE) has applied to the government for clearance for a number of politically sensitive projects with Gulf states, the Spiegel news magazine reported on Friday.
Hensoldt, in which the government owns a 25.1% stake, wants to supply components to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the Cobra artillery tracking system, the report said, citing an internal company presentation.
The company expects to get approval for this, it said.
A Hensoldt spokesperson would not comment on current projects when asked by Reuters and said the company had not done anything illegal. No industry is more strictly regulated than the arms industry, the spokesperson said.
The German economy ministry declined to comment on individual cases involving companies. It said the German government “cannot intervene in operational business decisions” of Hensoldt due to its minority shareholding.
The German government is also considering a request from Hensoldt regarding radars for warships that the United States would supply to Saudi Arabia, Spiegel reported.
Saudi Arabia is among the German arms industry top buyers, despite the coalition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz having vowed to refuse arms export permits to countries proven to be directly involved in the Yemen war. The UAE is a member of a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen since 2015.
(Source: Reuters)
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