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EUROPE
08 Nov 23. Sweden charts next-generation fighter development. Sweden is considering its future next-generation combat aircraft requirements, having now launched Phase 1 of a concept exploration phase of a national study. Speaking at the IQPC International Fighter Conference (IFC) 2023 under the Chatham House Rule, an official said that the national work followed the official termination of the country’s participation in the UK-led Future Combat Air System (FCAS) in 2022.
“We walked away from trilateral studies with [the] UK and Italy about a year ago, and launched a national study. I will not answer questions why it didn’t work with the UK and FCAS,” the official said on 7 November at the event in Madrid, adding only that had Sweden known in July 2019 when it signed up to FCAS what it knows now about its requirements, it would not have joined. (Source: Janes)
07 Nov 23. Spain may roll out LTE upgrades across wider Eurofighter fleet. Spain may retrofit Long Term Evolution (LTE) enhancements for the Eurofighter combat aircraft (C.16 in national service) to its wider fleet, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Janes on 6 November. Timed to coincide with the IQPC International Fighter Conference 2023 (IFC 2023) in Madrid, the MoD response to a Janes question on Spanish Air and Space Force (Ejército del Aire y del Espacio: EdAE) interest in the LTE upgrade, the MoD said this could be rolled out across the already existing Eurofighter fleet as well as those Halcon I/II aircraft now under contract and/or selected for future procurement.
“Halcon I and Halcon II will not be acquired with the LTE standard, which is under development. However, Halcon I and Halcon II, as well as earlier tranches, might be upgraded to LTE standard in the future,” the MoD said. (Source: Janes)
07 Nov 23. Spain rows back earlier stated interest in F-35. Spain has rowed back its previously stated interest in procuring the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II as a potential partial replacement for its current Boeing EF-18 Hornet and McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II aircraft. Having told Janes in November 2021 that it had requested information on both the conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) F-35A and short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B at the same time as requesting information on the enhanced Long Term Evolution (LTE) version of the Eurofighter, it appeared to discount the F-35 on 6 November.
“We have no information about the interest of Spain in the acquisition of another weapons system other than the Eurofighter,” the Spanish ministry of defence (MoD) told Janes. The MoD’s statement was issued at the same time as the IQPC International Fighter Conference (IFC) 2023 was being held in Madrid. On the day of the MoD’s response to Janes (Source: Janes)
USA
06 Nov 23. U.S. Army Seeks Market Info on ED4MS SkyWiper Drone Gun. The United States Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), located at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is preparing for the potential need to procure the SkyWiper (EDM4S) man-portable directional Electronic Drone Mitigation System. This acquisition will aid in advancing the Building Partner Capacity efforts. The primary objective of this notice is to assess the level of interest, capabilities, and qualifications of businesses capable of supplying the SkyWiper (EDM4S) system under fixed-price and cost-reimbursable terms. This announcement is in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 10, which mandates market research as an essential requirement. This is a Sources Sought Announcement for market survey purposes only. This is not a solicitation for proposals. No contract shall be awarded, nor will reimbursement be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement.
Required Capabilities for the SkyWiper Portable Drone Mitigation System
The contractor shall be capable of delivering up to 100 handheld C-UAS systems (SkyWiper (EDM4S)) to ensure mitigation of control, video, and navigation signals. The system requirement includes one (1) collimator sight; one (1) battery plus one (1) spare battery; one (1) battery charger; one (1) transportation box, and one (1) transportation backpack. The overall requirement includes an additional 100 batteries and 50 battery chargers.
These systems are required to have a robust frame and be ready for use by activating the trigger. The system shall be man-portable (less than 16 lbs.). High-gain directional antennas are required for accuracy and efficiency. The system shall provide at least six (6) Radio Frequency (RF) modules to include 2.4GHz; 2xGNSS 1.5GHz, and 1.2GHZ; 5.8GHz and at least 2 custom frequency modules to be specified upon ordering. Each module is required to operate at full power independently of other frequencies in use. Frequencies shall not be programmable by the user. The minimum operational range required is 5 km. (Source: https://cuashub.com/)
REST OF THE WORLD
09 Nov 23. Austal, Civmec, and Navantia unite to propose corvettes for Australia’s navy. Austal, Civmec and Navantia Australia have united to propose advanced Tasman Class Corvettes for Australia’s naval power boost.
A collaboration between Austal, Civmec, and Navantia Australia aims to deliver a fleet of Tasman Class corvettes, meeting Australia’s naval strike capability needs.
In partnership, the three industry leaders have come together to propose the creation of the Tasman Class corvettes, combining Navantia’s design, Austal’s workforce, and Civmec’s facilities and experience in constructing the Arafura Class vessels, marking a stride towards establishing a robust regional shipbuilding enterprise in Western Australia.
To bolster Australia’s naval capabilities, Austal, Civmec, and Navantia Australia have joined forces to present a proposal to construct six corvettes, known as the Tasman Class, to respond to the Australian Navy’s need for enhanced strike capabilities.
The three maritime industry players have been working on this venture since November 2022, with the proposal recently named the Tasman Class Corvette. These vessels aim to combine the manoeuvrability of a Tier 2 ship with the firepower of a major surface combatant, all while maintaining the advantage of a smaller crew complement.
The result is a naval vessel equipped with integrated anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine, electronic, and asymmetric warfare capabilities, including the Saab Australian combat system and CEA Technologies radars.
Austal’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Paddy Gregg, emphasised the significance of this program in establishing a regional shipbuilding enterprise in Western Australia, “Building Australia’s corvettes in Western Australia will establish both a genuine long-term shipbuilding enterprise at Henderson and the platform for continuous naval shipbuilding in the region – an enterprise that brings together the Commonwealth, regional shipbuilders, and their supply chains to establish a new warship construction hub.”
In recent years, Austal Australia has successfully delivered Evolved Cape-class Patrol Boats to the Royal Australian Navy. Austal Australia also received orders for a Guardian-class Pacific patrol boat from the Australian Government.
With a crew complement of fewer than 100, Navantia’s corvettes exhibit the lowest risk transition into service in their class, streamlining Australia’s naval capability upgrade.
As of 2022, reports indicate that Australia is ordering 100–12 new ASW corvettes with a proposed programme outlay of about $3.2 (A$4.9bn) to $3.8bn (A$6bn).
The new corvettes are likely to be larger than the Arufara-class OPVs. They are projected to be armed with missiles as well as torpedoes. They are likely to play a pivotal role in securing Australian interests while countering the growing capability of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, the China Coast Guard, and even the Maritime Militia, according to GlobalData’s “Australia Defense Market 2023-2028” report.
The partnership between Austal, Civmec, and Navantia Australia represents a step toward establishing an integrated shipbuilding enterprise in Western Australia. This collaboration aims to promise the delivery of a fleet of advanced Tasman Class corvettes, meeting the naval needs of the Australian Government and enhancing the country’s maritime capabilities for years to come.
According to GlobalData’s “The Global Naval Vessels and Surface Combatants Market 2023-2033” report, the global market for corvettes is valued at $3.2bn in 2023 and is projected to register a CAGR of 5.5% to reach $5.5bn in 2033. (Source: naval-technology.com)
07 Nov 23. RoK Mulls Financing Options to Support Arms Export to Poland. South Korea is mulling financing options with major commercial banks to help clear hurdles for local defense firms’ bid to export some 30 trillion won (US$23 bn) worth of weapons to Poland, military officials said Monday.
Last year, South Korean companies secured major deals worth 17trn won — South Korea’s largest-ever arms deal — to supply K2 tanks, K9 self-propelled howitzers, FA-50 light attack aircraft and Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers to Poland.
Their bids to sign additional contracts worth 30 trillion won with Poland this year have faced obstacles as the state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) is unable to provide loans and guarantees for the proposed sales after hitting its upper limit from last year’s mega deals.
A bill calling for an increase in the Eximbank’s equity capital and maximum legal cap on loans and guarantees is currently pending in the parliament.
In response to calls for the government’s support for what would be the nation’s largest-ever arms exports, the defense ministry held a working-level meeting with senior officials of five commercial banks — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and Nonghyup — earlier in the day to discuss financial measures, according to ministry officials.
“The government and local companies have been consulting measures to support arms exports to Poland,” a ministry official said, without elaborating on the specific plan citing the ongoing discussions.
Among the potential options is a syndicated loan provided by the commercial banks to fund the comprehensive agreements with the Polish government, according to multiple sources familiar with the issue. A syndicated loan refers to a form of financing offered by a group of lenders when a project requires large loans for a single lender.
The latest move comes as South Korea is seeking to capitalize on its robust weapons exports to Poland with the goal of becoming the world’s No. 4 arms exporter by 2027, up from eighth place in 2021.
(Source: https://www.defense-aerospace.com/ Yonhap News Agency)
09 Nov 23. Rheinmetall Defence Australia Seeks Industry Partners for RAN’s MASS.
- Key contract with Royal Australian Navy means more specialised roles
- Seeking industry partners in Australia including electrical; electronics and artillery experts
- Sovereign Capability
- More than 30 roles at Rheinmetall Defence Australia
- Bolstering of capability within the Defence Industry
Rheinmetall Defence Australia, a key strategic industrial partner to the Australian Defence Force, this year signed a landmark contract for the supply of the Multi Ammunition Softkill System to the Royal Australian Navy.
Nathan Poyner, Managing Director, Rheinmetall Defence Australia, said that The Royal Australian Navy had ordered the Multi Ammunition Softkill System, or MASS, which will initially be used to equip 12 platforms. Following extensive trials, MASS was selected on account of its unique capabilities.
“For Rheinmetall, the order represents €125 m in sales. The first systems will be delivered by the end of 2023. This is Rheinmetall’s single-biggest order for ship protection technology and the contract includes an option for equipping Australia’s entire fleet,” he said.
Mr Poyner said the MASS systems ordered by the Royal Australian Navy will be assembled at Rheinmetall’s Centre of Excellence at Redbank in South-East Queensland.
“This will result in new possibilities for expanding the Group’s Australian supply chain. MASS offers potential partners in the Australian defence sector the chance to cooperate with Rheinmetall and the Royal Australian Navy in realising this important defensive capability,” he added.
Rheinmetall Defence Australia is seeking Australian-based specialised suppliers with expertise in electronics; electrics and artillery for strategic partnerships to produce components for MASS.
“Not only will this maritime order ensure the sovereign capability within Australia, MASS will also bolster employment in defence industry.
“More than 30 new roles are expected at Rheinmetall as result of MASS, with flow on benefits for Australian jobs, through these partnerships,” Mr. Poyner said.
MASS protects ships and boats from multifaceted threats from anti-ship guided missiles and laser-guided weapons – on the high seas, in littoral waters and on rivers.
Offering unique protection against modern sensor-guided missiles in all relevant wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, MASS can be installed on vessels of all sizes and readily integrated into existing shipboard command and weapon engagement systems or operate as a standalone system.
In the standard version, MASS consists of up to six trainable launchers, each of which can fire up to 32 Omni Trap decoy munitions.
Rheinmetall continues to perfect its tried-and-tested MASS family, assuring that in future, ships and their crews will have the best possible protection when operating on the high seas and in coastal waters. (Source: ASD Network)
07 Nov 23. BAE Offers Evolved, Up-Armed Hunter For Australia.
The proposal adds 64 additional VLS cells and eight more anti-ship missiles to the design. BAE Systems Australia is offering an up-armed, evolved version of the Hunter class frigate to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as a way of rapidly increasing the firepower of the surface fleet. BAE argues that their proposal, which effectively replaces the Hunter class mission bay with additional missile tubes, offers an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, approach to delivering additional capability to the RAN.
Craig Lockhart, Managing Director at BAE Systems Australia, described the proposal as the “closest thing to off the shelf” available to Australia.
The concept, which BAE is proposing for Batch II of the class, uses the space allocated for the mission bay on the Hunter class to insert 64 Mk41 Vertical Launching Systems (VLS) and 16 Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) into the ship for a total of 96 VLS cells.
If the RAN elected to remove the 5 inch Mk 45 gun, Lockhart said, it would enable the VLS count to grow even more to 128 cells – which surpasses even the United States Navy’s (USN) Ticonderoga class Guided Missile Cruisers.
Scale model of Hunter-class frigate exhibited at Indo Pacific 2022
According to BAE the up-armed, Batch II Hunter, maintains 85% commonality with the existing ships that are under construction at Osborne, South Australia. The most significant difference is the removal of the Thales Sonar 2087 towed array and various other unspecified Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) systems.
It would also involve “minor” changes to the ship’s propulsion and power systems to accommodate for the increased top weight of the high-mounted VLS cells.
The proposed modifications would have a “minimal” impact on cost and a “negligible” impact on schedule so long as build of the modified design commenced with Batch II, rather than Batch I ships, Lockhart said.
BAE is also exploring alternative ways to up-arm the frigates through the use of containerised air-defence and surface-to-surface missiles.
Right now, however, a decision has not been made and BAE is simply “offering options” to its customer which is the Australian Department of Defence and RAN. The original Hunter class contract, signed in 2018, always included scope for redesigns between each batch of three ships.
BAE Systems Australia Hits Back
The BAE proposal comes amid criticism of the Hunter class program in Australian media, think tank and industry circles.
Last month BAE System Australia’s Craig Lockhart hit back at the criticism, much of which has focused on the ship’s lack of VLS cells and delays in delivery, arguing that the frigate program offers the only timely path towards achieving new capability for the RAN.
The Batch II design effectively addresses both of those criticisms, by promising both more VLS, and the quicker delivery of capability than most competitors. (Source: News Now/https://www.navalnews.com/event-news)
06 Nov 23. Rolls-Royce trains Australian cohort for AUKUS submarine development. Australian nationals are training among Britain’s defence industry as part of the UK’s AUKUS commitments, but can the US and UK deliver on their end?
Rolls-Royce hosted the UK and Australian Defence Ministers, Grant Shapps and Richard Marles, at its nuclear reactor manufacturing site in Derby on 3 November 2023 to meet the first group of Australian personnel learning how to develop conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarines.
Imparting this critical insight into the nuclear submarine process comes under the trilateral AUKUS agreement established in September 2021.
The aim of the programme is to simply furnish Australian defence with the knowledge and resources to acquire and maintain nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), which will in turn deter Chinese military aggression and secure western interests in the Indo-Pacific.
Over the next seven weeks, 13 Australian nationals will begin training and familiarisation of the nuclear-powered submarine development process across Britain’s supply chains, including visits to companies such as BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Babcock.
“These Australian industry placements provide us with an invaluable opportunity to learn from our experienced partners in the UK, and to better understand the functions and scope of the work,” Marles stated.
This follows another round of knowledge and technology sharing at the UK Royal Navy base at Faslane in early October, in which the three nations formed an Advance Verification Team (AVT) to understand the maintenance and industrial skills required for nuclear submarine upkeep.
This initiative follows a similar visit to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in August this year, where the AVT focused on establishing an Australian-based facility capable of supporting both UK and US maintenance activities during forward-deployed submarine missions in the region.
Preparing Australia’s domestic industry for the job
Building these vessels is one of the most complex, expensive and time-consuming projects a shipyard and navy can undertake. As a result, Australia’s indigenous industry has expanded to meet the needs of this ambitious project.
In the 8 September release, Defence Industry Minister Paul Papalia said: “Western Australia already carries out sustainment and maintenance of [Royal Australian Navy’s conventionally powered] Collins-class submarines and we will be the only place in Australia to do the same for the rotating Astutes, and Virginias as well as the AUKUS class, when they are built and come into service.”
At Rolls-Royce, the first cohort will have the opportunity to observe how the UK develops and maintains some of the most advanced submarine technology in the world to help build their expertise and accelerate the training required to operate a nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
There will be significant new opportunities for small, medium and large enterprises across all AUKUS partners. The co-operation will result in benefits to industrial capability across all three nations with enhanced resilience of trilateral supply chains.
Delivering AUKUS commitments other than knowledge
Increasing production capacity in allied states is a wise move given the punishing schedule ahead for both the UK and US’s SSN yards: Barrow-in-Furness has begun work on three of the four Dreadnought-class ballistic missile submarines, and work is still ongoing on the final two Astute attack boats – Agamemnon and Agincourt.
This pushes the likely date for SSN-AUKUS to begin work into the mid-2030s with a service entry of the late 2030s or early 2040s, according to a GlobalData Analyst Briefing: AUKUS braces for a leap in industrial efforts.
Likewise, the US will have to find time for the interim Virginia boats at a time when General Dynamics and HII are reporting issues in simultaneously maintaining the current fleet and building the minimum of two new subs annually.
The number of SSNs either in maintenance or idle (awaiting maintenance) has increased from 11 boats (about 21% of the SSN force) in FY2012 to 18 boats (about 37%) as of May 2023. (Source: naval-technology.com)
06 Nov 23. Australia Needs Tier 2 Combatants, and They Need Punch When They Show Up. The Gibbs & Cox Australian Light Frigate (AUSLF) delivers serious combat impact in an affordable ANZAC-sized hull. AUSLF offers the most combat power of any western light combatant now available, with 32 strike length VLS cells and 24 NSM box cells, more than double the missile loadout of typical corvettes.
The platform system architecture and equipment fit is very similar to the US Navy’s Constellation-class frigate, giving AUSLF 30+ knot performance, plus quiet electric drive, while providing benefits in commonality with the USN’s frigate supply chain and sustainment network over the next four decades. All this in a smaller, leaner package, by applying advanced technologies to reduce manning requirements, resulting in sub-100 crew.
Intended for delivery in Australia by Australian suppliers, AUSLF is based on a reference program which is delivering two hulls in 2026 for an IndoPac regional navy, offering a production lead program to mature the system ahead of Australian delivery.
Backed by Gibbs & Cox’s legendary 94-year history of design excellence, on-time engineering delivery, and tough, reliable ships that work, in the tradition of the RAN’s G&C designed Perth class DDGs and Adelaide class FFGs. (Source: https://www.defense-aerospace.com/ Gibbs & Cox Australia)
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