29 Jun 05. 130 transportability dropped for FRES. The UK MoD has now dropped its requirement for the British Army’s Future Rapid Effects System (FRES) to be transportable in a C-130 aircraft, since this would have placed the upper weight limit for FRES at a mere 11 tonnes. Only a relatively small number of C-130s will still be in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) by the time that FRES enters service. Instead, the Airbus Military A400M will be expected to carry one smaller, or possibly one larger (30t), FRES variant to a range of 2,000nmi (3,700km). The RAF has ordered 25 A400Ms, which it is expected to begin receiving around 2012. The larger Boeing C-17, of which the RAF is currently leasing four, is expected to carry two larger or three smaller variants of FRES to a range of 3,000nmi (5,559km).

28 Jun 05. The Indian Army has sounded a SOS to the Indian defense ministry saying that nearly fifty per cent of the total tank strength of around 3200 would be scrapped by 2008. The Indian Army has already decided to scrap the entire fleet of 800 Vijayanta tanks
By 2008, around 1000 more tanks in addition to the Vijayanta would be ready for junk as the Arjun tank has yet to be inducted 30 years after the project was taken by the Defense Research and Development Organisation, DRDO and the modernization of the T-72 tanks has yet to take off at full swing.

28 Jun 05. Following UPA government’s first ever limited tender only for Indian companies, several private companies are now forging tie ups with global giants to compete in the multi million dollar tender for acquisition of 228 Light Armored multi-purpose reconnaissance vehicles. The US global giant General Motors is tying with India’s Tata group to participate in the bids while the state owned Ordnance Factories Board is tying up with Kerametal of Slovak Republic while IAI of Israel has tied up with Mahindra Defense.

DVD NEWS IN BRIEF

29 Jun 05. Sjaak Bontje of Powell Electronics, the US component specialist told BATTLESPACE that at their debut for DVD the firm had received so many enquiries in the first morning that they had signed up immediately for 2006. “We have found that EMI shielding problems are occurring across the board in military vehicles. This is because of the increased complexity of electronic control systems now on modern vehicles. This RFI problem often becomes apparent only when sophisticated radio equipment is installed on the vehicle after delivery RFI leaks can be very difficult to locate, Powell can supply complete suppression systems from new metal control boxes thru graphite filtered connectors to sealed harnesses,” he said.