31 Mar 22. Close Combat Symposium Call For Papers Deadline Approaching.
Aim
The aim is to bring together the military, academia, and industry to discuss current and future developments in close combat and dismounted technologies and procedures. It will also consider current and future equipment programmes out to 10 years.
Futures Mil Cap Plans (formerly Cap GM) in Army HQ have expressed an interest in the following subject areas on which presentations would be particularly welcome:
- Future equipment and technologies deliverable in the 5-10 year timeframe to include potential small arms replacements.
- ’24-hour digital lethality’ that provides an all day and weather capability
- Developing a roadmap to the 24/7 future force
- ‘Close in self-defence’ to include platoon organic fire support, in particular filling the light mortar and anti-armour gaps
Thank you to our Range Day Sponsor for their continuing support
Format
The event is planned to be held over three days.
- Day 1 is at the Defence Academy of the UK in Shrivenham and provides insight from Army HQ and other customers on their intent for the future. This is supplemented by presentations from academia and industry.
- Day 2 takes place at Cranfield University’s COTEC range facility on Salisbury Plain. This involves live-firing demonstrations from industry as well as an opportunity for delegates to fire small arms from different manufacturers and with different optics and technologies. There is also the opportunity to showcase and demonstrate autonomous and remote technologies.
- Day 3 is back at Shrivenham and provides more technology briefs from industry and academia.
Call for Papers
If you wish to present a paper please Submit an abstract of around 200 words by e-mail to Leanne no later than Monday 25 April 2022. Papers should be planned to take 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes for questions.
Sponsorship
There are unique opportunities for sponsoring at various levels during this event: individual activities such as the Dinner Evening, or collectively for the whole event with generous concessions.
More Details
For more details on the event, including registration, please check our website or contact Leanne.
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Contact: Julian Nettlefold –
Leanne Lawson
Event Organiser
Cranfield Defence and Security
Shrivenham WH30, Cranfield University, Shrivenham, Swindon. SN6 8LA
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W: www.cranfield.ac.uk
31 Mar 22. US Army conducts first amphibious insertion of Patriot missile system in Philippines. The US Army has demonstrated its ability to rapidly deploy a Patriot anti-missile package in the Asia-Pacific region by conducting the first-ever amphibious insertion of the weapon system. This capability was demonstrated by the Bravo Battery of the US Army Pacific’s 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment (1-1 ADA) at Exercise ‘Balikatan’ 2022, an annual military engagement held between the US and Philippine armed forces. As part of the operation, 1-1 ADA inserted a Patriot Minimum Engagement Package (MEP) at the Aparri municipality in the Cagayan region of Philippines’ Luzon island, the service announced on 30 March. The package was delivered from the US Navy’s Whidbey Island-class amphibious ship USS Ashland via two landing craft air cushions (LCACs) operated by Naval Beach Unit (NBU) 7. These units mainly operate out of the US Navy’s base in Sasebo, Japan. (Source: Janes)
30 Mar 22. Saab’s MSHORAD Stays Ahead of Evolved Threats. Saab reveals its finalised Mobile Short Range Air Defence System (MSHORAD) to meet the evolving and proliferating air threats over the battlefield. A wide range of established airborne threats such as fighters, helicopters, and missiles are being joined by newer threats such as armed UAV’s and loitering munitions. The need to both detect and counter them all, while deploying with speed and mobility, has been at the forefront of Saab’s MSHORAD system development. Based on RBS 70 NG and Giraffe 1X multi-mission 3D radar respectively, MSHORAD’s vehicle-based Mobile Firing Unit (MFU) and Mobile Radar Unit (MRU), combined with a Saab command and control (C2) system, are designed and available from Saab as its MSHORAD air defence system. MSHORAD’s rapid mobility provides for a tactical advantage to be exploited on the battlefield or to avoid enemy fires. It delivers a 360°, 75 km situational awareness and the capability to target the most challenging UAV threats thanks to Giraffe’s Drone Tracker, an enhanced functionality for low, slow and small objects. The ability to destroy attackers comes from the unjammable RBS 70 NG missile system that operates at day and night, with rapid reloading in the field. MSHORAD’s ease of integration means customers can choose from a wide range of vehicle types. It also has a dismounted capability such as from atop buildings where it can provide an additional form of operational advantage.
“With the evolved threats, such as the expansion of military UAVs, it’s a great milestone to have a fully working system ready to be offered to our customers. The combination of our first-class range and altitude coverage of the Mobile Firing Unit, together with the small size and multi-role capabilities of Giraffe 1X makes our MSHORAD solution the most modern and state-of-the-art solution out there,” says Mats-Olof Rydberg, head of Marketing and Sales at Saab’s business unit Missile Systems.
Successful system integration and test firings have already been conducted in the last 12 months in cooperation with the Czech company SVOS using their new generation of modular armoured vehicle 4×4 named MARS. Live firing demonstrations will be performed for potential customers in the near future. (Source: ASD Network)
29 Mar 22. LM Demos New Layered Missile Defense Integration for US Army. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the U.S. Army successfully further integrated the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptor into the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Weapon System – resulting in a more tightly integrated, layered missile defense system.
During a test today, the THAAD system successfully launched a PAC-3 MSE to intercept a tactical ballistic missile target using proven Hit-to-Kill technology without the support of a Patriot fire unit, yielding greater flexibility for the warfighter. Integration into the THAAD Weapon System allows the PAC-3 MSE to launch earlier, enabling a longer flyout and the full use of the MSE’s kinematic capability.
“This integration is another Lockheed Martin contribution to joint all-domain operations and offers a critical capability in 21st century security that gives the warfighter more options with existing equipment so they can choose the best interceptor for any threat they face,” said Scott Arnold, vice president, Integrated Air & Missile Defense at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
The test also validates the flexibility of our PAC-3 missiles, which have now successfully launched from THAAD, Patriot and the U.S. Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) in flight tests.
Several flight tests led to today’s integration of PAC-3 MSE within THAAD. In a 2020 flight test, a PAC-3 MSE intercepted a target using data provided by THAAD. In an earlier test this year, the THAAD Weapon System launched a PAC-3 MSE interceptor against a virtual threat, demonstrating the successful integration of the PAC-3 MSE interceptor into the THAAD system.
THAAD is the only U.S. system designed for endo-and exo-battlespace, using Hit-to-Kill technology to execute its lethal aim-point accuracy to intercept a threat with direct impact.
PAC-3 MSE is an evolution of the battle-proven PAC-3 Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI) and also uses Hit-to-Kill technology to defend against threats through direct body-to-body contact that delivers exponentially more kinetic energy on the target than can be achieved with blast-fragmentation mechanisms. (Source: ASD Network)
30 Mar 22. 8 mortars in 90 seconds and loitering munitions: Army showcases tech experiments. Soldiers in the “blue force” set up to assault a compound. The opposing force set up an expedient minefield in their path. The blue force team began targeting their foes’ drone operators. The opposition force aimed to take out the blue force platoon leader.
The scene devolved into a shootout. And the entire episode was over in about 10 minutes.
That was just one of a range of events that planners with the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, saw unfold as part of the service’s annual Expeditionary Warrior Experiments this past year.
From these live, force-on-force, unscripted exercises, Harry Lubin, chief of the Manuever Battle Lab’s live experimentation branch, shared one key lesson.
“Bottom line: it is getting harder and harder to hide on the current battlefield,” Lubin said.
That previous blue force and opposition force clash unfolded into a savage shootout because soldiers didn’t have a clear way to counter opposition drones or mask themselves effectively on the battlefield.
On Tuesday, MCOE highlighted a batch of the technologies and capabilities they’ve been working with alongside government and industry entities to get after tactical, small unit and soldier problems.
Those problems need fixing to ready soldiers for what looks to be a faster, deadlier and more challenging future battlespace.
Lubin laid out some of the technologies they’ve seen in this year’s AEWE.
The presentation included everything from soldier-borne power generators that run off windshield wiper fluid to an extremely precise way to destroy an entrenched enemy with a fraction of the firepower that would typically require a mortar section.
All of the items shared are still in phases of experimentation or development. A few have cycled through AEWE in the past and been used in the Army’s big-ticket event, Project Convergence. Others recently came into the AEWE aperture and will require more work before handing it off to an Army program.
The AEWE has been running in one form or another for at least the past 15 years. In recent years, Army leaders focus the experiments on cross-domain maneuver for tactical-level units. That means synchronizing forces and capabilities in multiple domains.
So, it’s more than better bullets and new drones.
To meet that challenge, AEWE has seen artificial intelligence-driven sensors faster-firing weaponry help units step out of the shadows to fire on the enemy and then fade quickly back into the blind.
One such innovation is the Ground Launched Effects or GLE. That’s a Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided missile that can loiter, providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, before striking.
More importantly, the weapon allowed units to target forces on the fly and hit a “high payoff” target list without revealing their division-level fires units, Lubin said. That small-unit ability allowed division cavalry to run screen and zone reconnaissance quickly.
While steel on target is the money-maker for maneuver forces in combat, units can’t get in the fight if they’re destroyed once their systems go live. To meet that vulnerability, the exercise used a system called “Cyberboss” to simulate electronic warfare attacks in their experiments.
Cyberboss gives soldiers a real feel for what it will take to mask themselves in the electromagnetic spectrum and also use their own EW assets against the enemy.
Back on fires, a fire-control system dubbed “Firestorm” managed sensors and shooters to hit a variety of targets from a range of platforms, Lubin said.
But to the mortar-loving soldier, one of the coolest add-ons is “Spike Firefly,” a mini-loitering drone system capable of entering doorways and windows and able to pack a warhead with the equivalent firepower of a 60mm mortar.
For perspective, Lubin noted that the standard Army tactical manual estimates that 60mm mortar rounds are needed to neutralize a platoon-sized enemy force in an entrenched position.
The Spike Firefly-warhead combo did the same task with six shots.
That falls in with the battle lab’s Squad 10X project, which aims to make an individual nine-soldier squad 10 times more lethal through added technology.
Another mortar system ratchets up larger mortar fire rates, too.
The ALAKRAN light mortar carrier lets a crew emplace, aim and shoot eight mortar rounds in less than 90 seconds, Lubin said. That’s part of its “shoot and scoot” capabilities.
A “soldier favorite” Lubin said was the new Modular Advanced Weapon Laser, which allows for infrared and visible green laser aiming and illumination for both individual and crew-served weapons. It could replace the AN/PEQ-15 if adopted and is already in use by special operators.
Connecting many of these fires and sensors and moving a small unit around a cluttered and dangerous battlespace are Robotic Autonomous Systems platoons and companies, central to humans running all of this gear.
They are constructed, systems-focused units, with standard infantry roles but enabled by robotics and sensors to do more tasks with fewer soldiers.
Those platoons are not going to be filled with highly specialized long-schooled techie soldiers. The Army aims to have these platoons filled and run by about any MOS. Right now, infantry soldiers or supply specialists with a dozen hours of training can run the autonomous resupply that keeps the unit in the fight.
But the tech at AEWE isn’t all about hitting targets or reconnoitering the area.
Soldier health is key to keeping troops going. And soldiers in some of this past year’s experiments wore a slender, adhesive sensor on their skin, about the length of a cigarette and thinner than a credit card.
That sensor allowed medics and commanders to see their heart rate, core temperature, activity level, heat strain index and breathing rate.
Leaders could track performance over time and, Lubin said, they already see potential for tracking casualty location and vital biometric data en route during a medical evacuation.
Oh, and CASEVACs are getting an upgrade if these experiments prove fruitful.
Soldiers flew a 70-pound mannequin from a wooded area over 4km in under four minutes in a test phase.
They also flew loads of gear weighing as much as 326 pounds more than 3km at speeds up to 92mph.
Experimenters didn’t forget they’ve got to fuel and power all these platforms.
A cargo trailer tinkered with during the experiments can recharge batteries, run a tethered drone and offload AC/DC power. Another individual vehicle can carry soldiers and equipment with a quiet-running, all-electric motor.
Last but not least is the “honey badger,” a windshield-wiper fluid-fueled, single-soldier wearable power generator and battery charger.
That system has been improved over at the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command with added venting to reduce noise and thermal signature. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Army Times)
30 Mar 22. US Army’s short-range air defense capability will grow to a battalion by year’s end. The Army plans to field a complete battalion equipped with Short-Range Air Defense systems by the end of 2022, service officials in charge of the effort told Defense News. The service has already outfitted a platoon within the 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, in Europe with the interim Stryker-based SHORAD systems, but is now fulfilling its full fielding plans beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 and wrapping up in the first quarter of FY23, Maj. Gen. Robert Rasch, the Army’s Program Executive Officer for Missiles and Space, said in a recent interview. The moves will be “based upon all the production time,” he added. The first platoon of the Maneuver-Short-Range Air Defense System has been in Europe for nearly a year in response to an urgent capability gap former U.S. Army Europe Commander Gen. Ben Hodges identified in 2016. The M-SHORAD is a Stryker A1 combat vehicle-based system that includes a mission equipment package designed by Leonardo DRS. That package includes Raytheon’s Stinger vehicle missile launcher. General Dynamics Land Systems is the lead integrator and received a $1.2bn contract to build and deliver the system in October 2020. The system was developed in record time. The service received the requirement to build the system in February 2018. It took just 19 months from the time the service generated the requirement to the delivery of prototypes for testing in the first quarter of 2020.
“It continues to be a relatively new thing for the hands of air defenders and for our Army and they’ve road-marched it all over Europe and put this into play and they continue to learn with it,” Maj. Gen. Brian Gibson, who is in charge of the Army’s air and missile defense modernization, told Defense News in the same interview. “They’ve live-fired the weapon system, both the gun and the Stinger [missile] and they’ve had good success with those.”
While Rasch and Gibson did not want to pinpoint where the M-SHORAD platoon was in Europe at the time of the interview, it did participate in Saber Strike, a U.S. Army exercise, at Bemowo Piskie Training Area, Poland, in late February.
In a publicly released video from the 118th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, a vehicle commander described the system as much easier to use than the Avenger SHORAD system, previously used by the U.S. military in the 1990s, but maintained in the National Guard.
Reaching full-battalion strength, Gibson said, “really gives you a lot of capability to use it and train and exercise with maneuver partners in Europe and to do a follow-on assessment in theater, in Europe, later next year. That’s sort of the big path.”
Nothing in feedback so far from soldiers has altered that path, he added, nor required significant redesign.
By the time the platoon was fielded in Europe, the Army had already gathered “a lot of feedback” through the operational assessment conducted stateside, Rasch noted.
New equipment training that took place in Germany was based on the feedback from the operational assessment. The Army also added some software improvements and some hardware modifications based on that feedback, Rasch added.
“Since that time we actually completed another government software verification test on another set of improvements,” he said. The improvements mostly consist of “interface things,” Rasch said, such as “how to get control and how many button clicks on the interface does it take to get to a particular screen, really kind of tailoring it around that soldier input.”
The Army will field 144 systems to four battalions, followed by an enduring capability for additional battalions.
Future variants of the system will include other kinetic interceptors and a directed-energy weapons that will not only defend against unmanned aircraft systems and manned aircraft but also rockets, artillery and mortars.
The current contract will allow the Army to continue to make improvements over time on the current system, Rasch stressed, “as well as trying to maintain flexibility with the overall design as the Army has new requirements based upon new and evolving threats.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
30 Mar 22. Squad-level US sniper rifle to complete fielding by next year. Every close-combat squad will have a sniper-like capability in its soldiers’ hands by late 2023, when the last of the 6,000 squad designated marksman rifles are delivered. The SDMR gives squad-level fires a chance to reach out and touch a target at the 600-meter range with precision for combat engineers, scouts, and of course, infantry units. The M1101A1 is a semi-automatic, 7.62mm rifle. It is based on the Heckler & Koch G28/HK417 system, according to a company release and Army officials. The SDMR was adopted under the Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System, or CSASS, which kicked off back in 2008 with the Knight’s Armament Company SR-25. The lower-recoil M1101A1 SDMR winner was announced nearly five years ago but had to undergo testing and evaluation before it began fielding in 2020.
Army officials previously told Army Times that the SDMR was designed to be smaller, lighter and more ergonomic. The 82nd Airborne Division tested it in parachute operations back in 2019.
The shorter barrel — 16.5 inches, compared to most sniper systems with 20-inch barrels — and sound suppressors came in handy for airborne training, snipers said in an Army statement.
Part of the ergonomic differences include an adjustable stock both for transport and ease of use, experts said. That’s helpful when dismounting vehicles, whether a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Humvee or Stryker.
The new rifle can also fire a more punishing round — the M80A1 Enhanced Performance Round and the XM1158 Advanced Armor Piercing Round — that might damage weapons not designed for higher velocity rounds.
The package weighs in at about 10 pounds
During the 2019 testing, Spc. William Holland, a sniper with the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, said the compact design made the weapon more manageable, especially for post-drop operations.
The weapon’s “zero” also maintained itself, soldiers found after jumping and then moving to shoot on nearby ranges. The scope that held that zero is another new feature for squad shooters.
In 2018, the Army selected the Sig Sauer TANGO6 as the rifle’s scope. A variant of the 1-6×24 Riflescope is a “second focal plane” scope that was chosen by U.S. Special Operations Command in 2019.
According to Sig Sauer, the optic has the following features:
- Flat, dark earth anodized aircraft-grade aluminum main tube.
- An M855A1 bullet drop compensation illuminated reticle with holds for close-quarters to medium range engagements.
- An ultra-bright red Hellfire fiber optic illumination system for fast daylight target acquisition.
- A locking illumination dial.
- A power selector ring throw lever.
- A laser-marked scope level indicator for intuitive mount installation.
Another new optic, made by Vortex Optics with their subsidiary Sheltered Wings, could swap on and off of the rifle easily. The Next Generation Squad Weapon-Fire Control was selected by the Army in January. It’s slated to sit atop the new NGSW, which will fire a 6.8mm round. The fire control is practically platform agnostic, Army officials told Army Times in January, and it has ballistic tables for nearly all individual small arms in the Army inventory. (Source: Defense News)
30 Mar 22. Successful flight test of upgraded ASMPA missile paves way for refurbishment. France has approved the mid-life refurbishment of its Air-Sol Moyenne Portée Amélioré (ASMPA) air-launched nuclear missile inventory after a successful second qualification firing.
Announced by France’s Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) on 24 March, the firing of the unarmed ASMPA missile was undertaken from a Dassault Rafale combat aircraft operating from Cazaux Air Force Base in southwest France. In its statement, the DGA said that the second successful launch, performed the previous day, makes it possible to start the production of serial missiles.
Constituting the airborne component of France’s strategic deterrent, the MBDA-developed ASMPA is a supersonic medium-range ‘pre-strategic’ missile equipped with a nuclear payload. The ramjet-powered missile entered service with the air and space force (l’Armée de l’air et de l’espace) in 2009, and with the navy (Marine nationale) the following year.
The ASMPA mid-life refurbishment programme, launched in December 2016, is intended to address obsolescence issues and improve missile performance to maintain the weapon’s credibility into the mid-2030s. A first test of the upgraded ASMPA was conducted in December 2020. (Source: Janes)
29 Mar 22. Pentagon budget 2023: Biden administration seeks to continue landmine development. The Biden administration wants to buy and continue developing new landmines in 2023 despite the lingering interagency review into Washington’s policy on the controversial weapon.
On 28 March the White House submitted a USD773bn request to fund the Defense Department in fiscal year (FY) 2023 and the measure includes USD129 m to procure and continue developing US Army landmines.
Initial budget documents detail plans to spend USD53m next year buying Close Terrain Shaping Obstacle (CTSO) weapons, and an additional USD76m on two “landmine warfare and barrier” development activities — USD64m for advance development, and USD12m for engineering development.
The Pentagon has not yet released budget justification documents outlining its development plan and its five-year acquisition strategy. However, it is continuing to invest in landmine development even though the administration has asserted that it is reviewing US policy.
(Source: Janes)
29 Mar 22. DIMDEX 2022: MBDA’s Marte ER achieves full-scale production. The Marte Extended Range (ER) anti-ship missile is in full-scale production, an MBDA spokesperson told Janes at the DIMDEX exhibition, held in Doha, Qatar, in late March. The N/G-H/C (naval/ground – helicopter) and F/J (fighter jet) variants will feature a high degree of commonality, the spokesperson added. The Marte ER successfully completed its final test-firing with an inert warhead in November 2021 at an Italian test range in Sardinia. The high subsonic, fire-and-forget missile is an all-weather, fast reaction, long stand-off range weapon with multiple missile firing with simultaneous time on target (STOT) capability. It has been designed for use with air (helicopter and fast jet) and surface (naval vessel and coastal) platforms. The Marte ER version has an extended range of 100 km compared with the 30 km range of the Marte Mk2/N. The sea skimming missile is propelled by two boosters and an additional turbojet engine (without boosters for F/J). (Source: Janes)
29 Mar 22. Arquus selected to provide mobility for new CAESAR © MK II SPG. On February 19, 2022, the Prime Minister, Mr. Jean CASTEX, announced the notification to Nexter Systems of the contract for the development of the new generation CAmion Equipped with an ARtillery System (CAESAR ©), also known as CAESAR © MK II. As a long-time supplier of tactical and logistical mobility to the armed forces, Arquus is delighted to have been selected by Nexter to supply the new rolling base for the CAESAR MK II. Already the designer of the mobility base for the French Army’s current generation Caesar, Arquus is very proud to continue this demanding partnership to provide the next generation mobility capabilities for the Army’s artillery units. The selection of Arquus by Nexter Systems is a recognition of the company’s expertise in tactical mobility. It is also a recognition of the excellence of the current CAESAR © carrier, produced by Arquus from the start. World reference in mobility for a self-propelled gun, the first-generation CAESAR © is indeed based on a Sherpa Medium chassis designed and produced by Arquus.
29 Mar 22. EuroTrophy GmbH, a new German-based company for Trophy APS is established. EuroTrophy GmbH, a new German-based company for the marketing, sales and production of the advanced Active Protection System (APS) for wheeled and tracked armored vehicles “Trophy” was incorporated on March 28th by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems (Rafael). EuroTrophy GmbH focuses its business activities on NATO and EU customers in Europe. The company will also provide qualified vehicle integration services and related through-life support for the APS. A transfer of technology will allow for the local production of the Trophy APS in Germany. The transfer of state-of-the-art technology, local production, maintenance and services will significantly improve the security of supply of the Trophy APS in Europe. Mr. Mark Stockfisch, Ms. Daniela Müller and Mr. Dan Kalfus are appointed management board members and will lead the newly established company.
29 Mar 22. Hypersonix and partners win $2.95m CRC-P grant for reusable hypersonic UAV. Aerospace engineering business Hypersonix Launch Systems together with the University of Southern Queensland, LSM Advanced Composites and New South Wales-based Romar Engineering, have been awarded a $2.95m Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) grant from the Federal Government. The project, titled ‘DART CMP Airframe – a reusable hypersonic platform’, is a hypersonic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that can travel at up to Mach 12. It is powered by the company’s SPARTAN hydrogen fuelled scramjet engine. Scramjets take oxygen from the atmosphere which reduces their weight by 60% compared to rockets. The development of new high temperature composite materials in this project will enable DART CMP to be reusable. With zero CO2 emissions thanks to the green hydrogen fuel, Hypersonix is leading a new era of ‘Green access to space’. The project will deliver a new sovereign manufacturing capability for high temperature oxide-oxide ceramic matrix composites. The deliverables include a complete UAV airframe including composite aeroshell and aerodynamic control surfaces, flight avionics, and hydrogen fuel system.
Hypersonix Managing Director David Waterhouse said DART CMP is the composite version of the DART AE that is due for launch in 2023.
“AE stands for Additive Engineering and is the fully 3D printed version out of high temperature alloys that are already available in Australia,” Mr Waterhouse said. “The type of high temperature composites we require for DART CMP are currently not available here, therefore there is an urgent need to develop these materials in Australia. “We are thankful that the government acknowledged this gap and responded with accepting our application. We can’t wait to have these materials ready in mid 2025.”
Hypersonix CTO Michael Smart added, “And we are proud to support three PhD students with this project as well, we need more experts in this developing industry.”
The University of Southern Queensland’s Institute for Advanced Engineering and Space Sciences is focussing the institution’s support by applying its research expertise in the field of hypersonics and future materials to help realise an innovative mission, Executive Director Professor Peter Schubel Professor Schubel said. “Our role in the project will be to develop and test the prototype ultra-high temperature composite material needed,” he said. “Our expertise in liquid moulding technologies, automated fibre placement, pultrusion and filament winding capabilities with exotic materials allows us to develop revolutionary structures.
Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing will be used where possible and will be covered by Romar Engineering with Steve Milanoski, formerly of SpaceX, leading the steadily growing additive manufacturing team.
The DART CMP UAV will undergo hardware in the loop bench testing as part of flight readiness.
Hypersonix won an Accelerating Commercialisation grant from DISER which it completed by the 31 March deadline. The This is not the first Federal government grant awarded to Hypersonix. Similarly, Romar Engineering was awarded a $5.85m Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) Space grant in 2021 for the development of its fluid and motion control business. LSM Advanced Composites will focus on the development of high temperature ceramic composite components. (Source: Rumour Control)
28 Mar 22. DSA 2022: Nexter, ADS pursue CAESAR opportunity in Malaysia. Nexter and Malaysian firm Advanced Defence Systems (ADS) have completed the delivery of 105 mm LG1 light towed artillery systems to the Malaysian Army and are promoting collaboration on the French firm’s CAESAR 155 mm gun system. Company officials at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2022 in Kuala Lumpur told Janes on 28 March that 18 105 LG1 Mk III Light Guns are operational in the Malaysian Army’s 1st Royal Artillery Regiment. The guns were assembled in Malaysia by ADS under a contract signed in 2018. The Malaysian Army took delivery of its first LG1 gun in early 2020, and the guns were declared fully operational in late 2021. ADS said that additional orders of the LG1 system were possible to fulfil another “two or three” Malaysian Army artillery regiments. The air-portable guns are expected to replace the Malaysian Army’s ageing Oto Melara Model 56 105 mm pack howitzers, 100 of which are thought to be operated by the service. (Source: Janes)
28 Mar 22. India’s DRDO tests medium-range surface to air missile. The MRSAM is capable of destroying uncrewed and crewed aircraft, helicopters, and cruise missiles. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in India, has tested an army version of the Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) system.
According to the Indian Ministry of Defence statement, DRDO conducted two flight tests of the MRSAM at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha.
During the tests, the missiles successfully intercepted and destroyed high-speed aerial targets.
The MRSAM intercepted a medium-altitude long-range target in the first test and a low-altitude short-range target in the second.
DRDO developed the MRSAM in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). It is capable of destroying uncrewed and crewed aircraft, helicopters, and cruise missiles, reported The Times of India.
The system includes a multifunction radar, a mobile launcher system, and other vehicles. The latest flight tests were conducted with the weapon system in deliverable configuration.
The system will be used by the Indian Army.
Following the successful test, the Indian Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO, the Indian Army, and the industry.
“He said both the successful tests established the capability of the weapon system in intercepting targets at critical ranges,” the Ministry of Defence statement said.
DRDO is a government agency that focuses on military research and development.
In December last year, DRDO conducted the first flight test of the surface-to-surface Pralay missile. The test met all mission objectives. This year, India allocated $70bn (Rs5.25tn) for the defence ministry. The figure represents a 4.5% increase over the last revised estimates. (Source: army-technology.com)