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UNITED KINGDOM AND NATO
27 Sept 24. UK organisations selected in first AUKUS Innovation Challenge. Projects from 4 UK organisations will share £2m in the inaugural AUKUS Pillar 2 Electronic Warfare (EW) Innovation Challenge.
Through AUKUS Pillar 2, Australia, the UK and the US are pooling the talents of their defence sectors to develop at pace the delivery of advanced capabilities. Four UK companies have been selected by the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) to receive a share of the funding to develop solutions in electromagnetic targeting and protection.
The competition was run to find low cost, disposable, high volume and highly autonomous electromagnetic technology that can detect enemy actions or protect against them.
The four successful UK organisations to receive research funding are:
- Amiosec Ltd
- Autonomous Devices Ltd
- Roke Manor Research Ltd
- University of Liverpool
The trilateral AUKUS EW Challenge was run as 3 individual competitions by DASA in the UK; the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA), in Australia; and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in the US. The EW competition was the first in what will be a series of AUKUS Innovation Challenges, setting the template for future advanced defence technology competitions run by the 3 partners.
National winners of the 3 EW Challenge competitions were announced at the AUKUS Defence Ministers’ Meeting on 26 September in London by UK Secretary of State for Defence, the Right Honourable John Healey MP; Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, the Honourable Richard Marles MP; and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III. The three Defence Ministers together emphasised the value of the collaboration to a free and open Indo-Pacific, with the potential to enhance joint defence capabilities, ensuring national, regional and global stability.
The 3 innovation competitions called for proposals to identify electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) technology solutions to help give the AUKUS nations a strategic edge in targeting and to provide protection against adversarial electromagnetic-targeting capabilities. EMS is a heavily congested, contested, complex and competitive environment and there is an increasing need for low cost, disposable, high volume and highly autonomous capabilities to achieve advantage.
In total, across all 3 national innovation challenges, 173 qualified suppliers applied, in a show of strength of the AUKUS nations’ defence innovation capabilities.
The winning UK supplier organisations:
- Amiosec Ltd: This project is seeking to create fake radio activity, masking the true location of friendly military forces to support missions. The research will focus on extending previous work on AI-generated traffic to boost realism to defeat adversary EW systems. It will be delivered by Amiosec in conjunction with its Australian defence technology partner, Penten.
- Autonomous Devices Ltd: Is developing and flight-demonstrating the novel combination of an EW payload and a small Uncrewed Air System platform.
- Roke Manor Research Ltd: The ability to transmit and receive on identical frequencies simultaneously has been an operational and technical challenge for decades. The Smart STAR Jammer project sets out to combine a Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (STAR) Transceiver jointly developed by Roke and the University of Bristol.
- University of Liverpool: This project aims to improve the ability to detect multiple individual faint signals in close geometric proximity to one another. This will be achieved using a combination of machine learning and statistics.
AUKUS is a landmark security and defence partnership to support a free and open Indo-Pacific by strengthening regional global security. A major part of the partnership, named Pillar 1, is helping Australia to acquire its first conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
Through AUKUS Pillar 2 which includes advanced capabilities such as Artificial Intelligence, autonomy, quantum technologies and electronic warfare – the 3 national partners seek to strengthen trilateral capabilities in cutting-edge military technologies, increase interoperability, and drive knowledge-sharing and innovation. One of the aims of Pillar 2 is to “foster deeper integration of security and defence-related science, technology, industrial bases, and supply chains”. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
26 Sept 24. UK shortlists four developers including Rolls Royce for small nuclear projects. Britain has short-listed four companies including Rolls Royce and GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy for the next stage of its competition to develop small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), the government said on Thursday.
Britain’s new labour government has said small nuclear plants will play an important role in helping the country meet its net zero targets and has a competition to decide which technology it should choose.
The other two companies which will go to the next stage, which involves negotiating with the government on possible deployment of units, are Westinghouse and Holtec Britain.
Two companies are likely to be ultimately chosen with the aim of deploying projects in the 2030s.
Large new nuclear projects with high upfront costs have struggled to attract financing and the government hopes some older plants could be replaced by a fleet of SMRs that can be made in factories with lower costs and faster construction. (Source: Reuters)
EUROPE
26 Sept 24. 20 years of Eurofighter service directly at the customer’s site. The Technical Diagnostic Cell (TDC) in Laage near Rostock has been in existence for 20 years this year. Based directly at the German Air Force base, HENSOLDT Services helps to keep the German Eurofighter fleet operational. In particular, customer proximity has created trust and long-standing relationships over the years. The use of automated diagnostic procedures and advanced tools, combined with customer proximity, was uncharted territory at the time.
The multi-role combat aircraft Eurofighter has been in service in Europe and numerous export nations since 2003. However, the TDC in Laage is of particular importance here, because it allows all components of the radar and the self-protection system to be repaired on site within a very short time and approved for flight operations. The model served as a blueprint for all subsequent TDCs: just six months later, the Technical Diagnostic Cell in the UK was set up using the same model, followed by Spain and Italy. The Technical Diagnostic Cell concept is also being applied outside of Europe. Within Germany, another TDC was set up in Neuburg an der Donau in 2011 to support the country’s ever-growing aircraft fleet with the same standards of efficiency, service quality and customer focus.
More specifically, the TDCs of Hensoldt Services act as a direct partner of the German Air Force on-site and take over a malfunctioning device removed from the aircraft via the shortest route for fast and targeted repair. Our technicians in the TDCs are supported by Hensoldt’s own diagnostic and test systems. In the background, logistics teams, technicians and engineers from Ulm work to supply the TDCs with spare parts and continuous technical expertise. In this way, we support the on-site staff in carrying out even complex repairs efficiently and with consistently high quality. In tandem, the two TDCs in Laage and Neuburg an der Donau support the entire German Eurofighter fleet.
In total, there are about 20 radar and ESM/ECM-related line replaceable items (LRIs) in the Eurofighter, that is, main assemblies that are repaired in our local workshops. From the outset, the key to the success of the model was the rapid repair of LRIs. The targeted replacement of defective subassemblies from the LRIs makes it possible to reduce aircraft downtime to a minimum while also reducing costs. This method is particularly advantageous for large and complex assemblies such as the CAPTOR radar or the PRAETORIAN self-protection system, and it conserves resources because only small subassemblies have to be transported for more extensive repair. The service staff in the TDCs not only repair HENSOLDT LRIs, but also the LRIs of the partner companies Indra, Elettronica and Leonardo, which are also participating in the CAPTOR and PRAETORIAN joint projects. The defective LRIs identified during the repair process are always returned to the respective manufacturer for repair.
Depending on how critical the situation is – for example, on the eastern border – the use of the German Eurofighters increases and with it, of course, the need for repairs. The high level of commitment of TDC employees makes it possible to react flexibly to such changes. This flexibility was proven during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the TDC was never closed. Defects include electrical faults, damage, mechanical damage and corrosion.
The 20th anniversary is a milestone in the support of complex systems such as the Eurofighter. What once began as a novelty has developed into a frequently adapted concept. The efficiency that was made possible by the rapid exchange of subassemblies continues to have staying power: upgrades such as the DP4 package on the Praetorian self-protection system, the extension to an E-scan radar or even the possibility of supporting further systems, underpin the TDC’s concept for the future.
25 Sept 24. Dutch Navy to buy armed sidekick ships for its air-defense frigates. The Netherlands plans to buy two support vessels that will act as sidekicks to its air-defense frigates, packing additional missiles to defeat swarms of anti-ship missiles and drones, for an investment in the range of €250m to €1bn (US$279m to $1.1bn).
The support vessels will also be able to provide fire support for amphibious operations using long-range loitering munitions, as well as equip underwater drones to track and identify suspicious activity in the North Sea, Dutch State Secretary for Defence Gijs Tuinman said in a letter to parliament on Tuesday.
The Royal Netherlands Navy needs to strengthen its air defenses and firepower for operations in the “higher violence spectrum,” as well as capabilities to protect critical North Sea infrastructure such as drilling platforms and data cables, according to the Ministry of Defence.
“These vessels are needed to better protect the Netherlands and allies in the event of a threat,” Tuinman said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, describing the two future support vessels as “sailing toolboxes” for the lead vessel. “The ships are capable of carrying a lot of equipment, such as additional firepower and long-range anti-aircraft missiles.”
Dutch shipyard Damen will build the vessels, with Israel Aerospace Industries supplying its Barak ER surface-to-air interceptor, Harop long-range loitering munition as well as electronic-warfare equipment. Buying the missiles, long-range munitions and EW equipment from a single supplier will simplify integration work, the defense ministry said.
The vessels will have a length of about 53 meters and a beam of 9.8 meters, for a displacement of 550 tons, a MoD spokesman told Defense News. That compares to a length of around 144 meters and displacement of more than 6,000 tons for the De Zeven Provinciën-class air-defense and command frigates operated by the Dutch Navy.
The service’s air-defense frigates will continue to be equipped with RTX’s SM-2 surface-to-air missile, and the frigate’s radar and fire-control systems will handle launch and targeting for the missiles on the support vessels.
The support ships will each have a crew of at least eight sailors. While current technology isn’t sufficiently mature for fully autonomous vessels, the new ships will provide the Navy with experience in operating with small crews, as a first step toward unmanned vessels, Tuinman said.
The first iteration will be available for the North Sea in 2026, and both vessels will be fully operational in 2027. Equipment on the support vessels will be packed in containers, meaning air-defense kit can be swapped out for long-range munitions based on the specific needs of the mission, according to the letter.
The Barak ER air-defense missile that will equip the support ships has a range of up to 150 kilometers and can target anything from fighters to tactical ballistic missiles and glide bombs, with eight missiles packed in a vertical launcher, according to the company’s spec sheet.
The Netherlands also looked at MBDA’s Aster missile, which the minister said can’t be fired from a container, while Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ Stunner missile didn’t entirely fit the Dutch requirements.
The Netherlands needs to be prepared for swarming tactics, with massive and simultaneous attacks of anti-ship missiles and drones, which require larger stocks of missiles, Tuinman told parliament. Additionally, RTX is halting production of the SM-2, and the successor missile SM-2 Block IIICU isn’t compatible with the fire control on the Dutch air-defense frigates, the minister said.
Adversaries in coastal areas increasingly have access to advanced sensors and long-range weapons, which is changing doctrine for amphibious operations to a larger number of simultaneous landings, according to Tuinman. The IAI loitering munitions have a range of several hundreds of kilometers, and will be able to linger in the target area for some time before use, he said.
Meanwhile the threat to Dutch infrastructure in the North Sea remains undiminished, with Russia continuing to map the infrastructure in what appear to be preparations for disruption and sabotage, the minister said. The Navy escorted a Russian research vessel in June and July that spent several days in the Dutch part of the North Sea, with intelligence services suspecting the Russians were investigating opportunities for potential future sabotage.
The Ministry of Defence plans to buy off-the-shelf underwater drones equipped with long-range sensors to spot suspicious activity, while the support vessels will also be fitted with sensors to record suspicious vessels. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
25 Sept. 24. US, Romania to sign $920m defence loan agreement. The United States will sign a $920m direct loan agreement with Romania on Wednesday to support its defence modernisation program, the Romanian government said. The deal comes as Romania seeks to boost its defence purchasing plan following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Romania, a member of NATO and the European Union, aims to spend 2.5% of its GDP on defence.
Romania shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine and Russian drone fragments have repeatedly strayed into its territory over the past year. Some areas are also close to Ukraine’s Danube River ports which are frequently targeted by Russia.
Under the loan agreement, the defence ministry will directly access $700m, while up to $220m will go towards state-owned ROMARM, which controls 15 companies that manufacture weapons and ammunition ranging from gunpowder to guided missiles.
The loan, granted by the United States through its Foreign Military Sales (FMS) mechanism, has a 12-year repayment plan.
In August, the Romanian government allowed the country to tap a total of $4bn in direct loan agreements through FMS, as well as up to $8 bn from the financial markets with U.S. government guarantees.
(Source: Reuters)
24 Sept. 24. Italy plans to spend 1.6bn euros on new aerobatic aircraft. The Italian government has proposed spending around 1.6bn euros ($1.78bn) on new jets for its aerobatic display team, a parliamentary document showed on Tuesday. The purchase of the 20 T346 jets built by defence group Leonardo (LDOF.MI) will run until 2038 and includes five aircraft for training purposes.
Parliamentary committees are due to give their opinion by next month on the plan, which is part of a three-year defence spending programme as Italy looks to increase its military budget.
“The programme also includes technical and logistical support, in order to ensure the maintenance of the 20 aircraft,” as well as courses to train pilots and personnel, the document said.
The Frecce Tricolori, the aerobatics team of the Italian Air Force, perform at public ceremonies where they fly in formation, leaving behind a trail of smoke in the red, white and green colours of the national flag.
Under the 2024-26 defence spending plan Italy is also looking to buy an additional 25 F35 Lockheed Martin Corp fighter jets by 2035, at a cost of around 7bn euros, bringing the national fleet to 115 aircraft.
In July, the government submitted to parliament a request to boost armaments on those F35s that are already operational, at a cost of some 680m euros.
Rome is also planning to spend just under 7.5bn euros over the next 11 years on 24 new Eurofighter jets.
Italy’s defence spending makes up around 1.5% of GDP — below a 2% NATO alliance target. Other European nations have sharply increased their defence budgets since Moscow launched an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. ($1 = 0.8985 euros) (Source: Google/Reuters)
USA
26 Sep 24. Cuashub.com said today that the U.S. Army seeks radar modules for remote weapon systems. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, on behalf of the Product Director for Crew Served Weapons at Picatinny Arsenal, has issued a request for information (RFI) to identify companies that can provide C-UAS radar modules designed for remote weapon systems (RWS). This initiative aims to enhance the Army’s ability to detect, track and neutralise sUAS with minimal modifications to existing technologies.
The Army’s inquiry seeks mature radar technologies capable of rapidly integrating with RWS to address increasing threats posed by class 1 and 2 unmanned systems, which include low, slow and small drones. The Army emphasises its need for radar systems with multi-target tracking capability and the ability to detect sUAS targets up to 2km away.
Key requirements for radar modules
- Radar Module Design: The U.S. Army is seeking a system compatible with RWS applications requiring minimal design changes for integration. Providers are expected to submit detailed radar characteristics, including system growth potential, operating frequency bands, control system types and system dimensions. A specific form factor is required, as the radar will need to physically mount on an RWS.
- Interface and Interoperability: The radar system must interface with existing communication protocols, including ethernet, RS232 or RS422. Data transmission and seamless integration into the RWS architecture are critical components of the system’s expected performance.
- Environmental and Power Specifications: The radar must comply with stringent environmental standards and power requirements and capable of functioning in extreme temperatures. The U.S. Army also seeks a a 15-year procurable life, with a mean time between failures of 15,000 hours.
Meeting the growing C-UAS challenge
The request highlights the growing importance of C-UAS technologies as small drones become increasingly integrated into modern warfare, with sUAS being regularly deployed in Ukraine for surveillance and offensive capabilities. The radar module must enable RWS to detect and respond to such threats autonomously or with minimal human intervention.
Given the rapid advancement of UAS technologies, particularly from near-peer adversaries, the U.S. Army’s search for innovative radar solutions reflects its need to modernise and enhance its defensive capabilities. Drones used for reconnaissance and attacks pose an increasing risk to military operations, and systems that can effectively identify and neutralise these threats are a priority.
https://cuashub.com/en/content/u-s-army-seeks-radar-modules-for-remote-weapon-systems/ (Source: https://cuashub.com/)
23 Sept. 24. Protest puts US Army’s $990m loitering-munition contract on hold. The month-old sole-source award went to AeroVironment for its Switchblades.
The U.S. Army has stopped work on an up-to-$990m contract to buy AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions after a second company lodged a protest, according to an AeroVironment filing published Monday.
The protest was filed by Mistral, according to one industry executive speaking on background. The U.S. Government Accountability Office is to issue a decision on the protest by Dec. 16.
The Army awarded AeroVironment the five-year, sole-source contract on Aug. 27 to fill a need for “organic, stand-off capability to dismounted infantry formations capable of destroying tanks, light armored vehicles, hardened targets, defilade and personnel targets.” At the time, AeroVironment said it would begin filling the order for Switchblades within months.
In a research note cited by MarketWatch, analysts at William Blair wrote that the original contract winner generally retains 95 percent of these types of protests.
The award serves the Army’s lethal unmanned systems, or LUS, requirement, according to AeroVironment. More specifically, it is part of the Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance, or LASSO, program, which seeks to supply infantry brigade combat teams with loitering munitions to take out tanks, an Army spokesperson told Janes.
Switchblades are used by, among others, newly created units in the 101st Airborne’s second brigade such as the LUS platoon and the Multi-Functional Reconnaissance Company. The United States has also sent AeroVironment’s Switchblade 300 and 600 systems to Ukraine. The larger Switchblade 600 is designed to take out hardened targets, like tanks.
In May, the Defense Department announced that it would “accelerate fielding” of the Switchblade 600 to U.S. troops under the Replicator program. The program is an effort to field multiple thousands of affordable autonomous systems such as drones by August 2025.
“U.S.-supplied Switchblade drones have already demonstrated their utility in Ukraine, and this system will provide additional capability to U.S. forces,” the Defense Department said. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense One)
REST OF THE WORLD
26 Sept 24. Details emerge on Lockheed Martin’s F-16 offsets proposal to Thailand. Lockheed Martin has proposed technology upgrades and direct industrial investment as part of offsets in its proposed sale of F-16V Block 70/72 fighter aircraft to the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF), according to a source familiar with the situation.
The RTAF seeks to procure an initial batch of four fighter aircraft to partially replace ageing F-16A/B Block 15 Fighting Falcons operational with 102 Squadron at Korat airbase. The new aircraft are to be acquired from 2025 to 2034.
Janes understands that to support its F-16V offer to the RTAF, Lockheed Martin has proposed installing onto F-16A/B aircraft that will remain operational the Link 16 secure datalink system and Mode 5 identification friend-or-foe (IFF), a radar-based identification system.
This will render F-16A/Bs compatible with the new F-16V Block 70/72 aircraft, according to the source. Combining Link 16 and Mode 5 IFF systems together “creates an interoperability solution which will enable both [F-16] fleets to talk to each other,” the source added.
Lockheed Martin submitted its updated offsets proposal to Thailand in late August. The company has valued its offsets proposal at USD1.7 bn, according to the source.
The upgrade is also expected to enhance the interoperability of RTAF legacy F-16A/Bs in deployments with aircraft from other regional air forces similarly equipped with the Link 16 system, the source said.
Other elements of the proposed offset package include offers to upskill through university partnerships and to invest in Thailand’s aviation industry, the source said. (Source: Janes)
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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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