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11 Aug 23. Saudi Arabia pushes to join fighter jet project with UK, Italy and Japan. Saudi Arabia is pushing the UK, Japan and Italy to allow it to become a full partner in the landmark next-generation fighter jet project that the three countries signed in December. The request, confirmed by five senior officials in London, Tokyo and Rome, has already created strains within the tri-national alliance. While the UK and Italy are open to the idea of Saudi membership, Japan is firmly opposed and has made its position clear to the other two. The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), which seeks to deliver a highly advanced and exportable combat aircraft by 2035, was a significant advance for all three signatories, particularly for Japan which had historically restricted defence exports and never collaborated on a programme of this scale and complexity. Efforts by Saudi Arabia to join GCAP and expand the programme into a four-nation project have intensified significantly in recent weeks, according to officials in London and Tokyo. These efforts have included a direct request to the government of Japan in July when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah. The Saudi involvement would also involve a potentially significant financial contribution to a project whose costs are estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, said people briefed on the matter. While talks remained at an early stage, the Saudi proposal could include an offer to contribute engineering expertise at various stages of the project, they said.
A senior British defence source said: “The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the UK’s strategic partnerships and UK Defence is keen to deepen work on GCAP. We see Saudi Arabia as a key partner in the fighter programme and we are working to ensure strong progress as soon as possible.” Japan overturned its decades-long ban on arms exports in 2014 and is debating relaxation of the restrictions to allow it to reach more foreign markets with GCAP. But Japanese officials say adding Saudi Arabia to the mix would further complicate discussions on which countries Tokyo can sell its arms to. A fourth member would also complicate negotiations on a project that already faces a tight deadline. One person with knowledge of the talks said Japan was focused on having an aircraft delivered by 2035 and was concerned that involving the Saudis now would create delays. Despite Italy and the UK’s tentative support for Saudi membership, people briefed on the matter said that it came with substantial caveats. Those include doubts over whether the new partner would have anything significant to offer on the technological side. There are greater concerns about security, already a source of friction within the existing three-nation alliance because of the project’s reliance on sharing sensitive technology and information. Ahead of GCAP the UK pushed Japan to improve its cyber security and introduce a more stringent framework for security vetting of people involved in the project, said people familiar with negotiations that led to the deal. For Saudi Arabia, its interest in GCAP follows delays in getting a second tranche of Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft from the UK. The oil-rich kingdom is one of the world’s biggest spenders on weaponry, mostly from the US. But Riyadh is also spending billions of dollars to develop a domestic arms industry and is seeking partnerships with defence manufacturers as it looks to become a producer. Germany, one of four partner nations in the Eurofighter consortium, imposed a weapons embargo against the kingdom in 2018 following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents and the country’s involvement in the Yemen war. Berlin said last month it would not back the delivery of the Typhoon aircraft to Saudi any time soon. Germany’s stance threatens to stymie a follow-on order for more Typhoons promised under a memorandum of intent between the UK and Saudi Arabia in 2018. A large proportion of Eurofighter components are manufactured in the UK, but some come from the other partner nations, Germany, Italy and Spain, and the countries can veto exports of the planes to other nations. The UK, which has longstanding historic ties with Saudi Arabia, launched a feasibility study with the kingdom earlier this year to explore future collaboration on combat air capabilities. At the time, however, the UK said the accord was distinct from GCAP. The defence ministries of Japan and Italy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Source: FT.com)
11 Aug 23. Danish defence minister dismisses key staff member after Israel arms purchase. Danish Defence Minister Jacob Ellemann-Jensen dismissed his ministry’s permanent secretary of state on Friday after criticism over the handling of an artillery arms purchase from Israel.
Denmark agreed in January to purchase artillery systems from Israel’s Elbit Systems (ESLT.TA) worth 1.74 billion Danish crowns ($256 million) after having donated much of its own weapon systems to Ukraine.
Ahead of the deal, the ministry rushed parliament’s finance committee to approve the purchase, saying the company’s offer would expire at the end of the month. But the ministry acknowledged earlier this week that Elbit’s offer expired only at the end of June.
Ellemann-Jensen apologised earlier this week for his handling of the case and said he had not deliberately provided incorrect information to parliament.
But he called a meeting with members of parliament on Friday and told them he had learned that information he had communicated to parliament earlier in the week was missing important details.
“It is an overall assessment that the close and trusting cooperation that is needed between a minister and a permanent secretary is no longer possible, especially in light of the large and important tasks facing the armed forces,” Ellemann-Jensen told reporters after the meeting.
NATO-member Denmark has pledged to increase defence spending to 2% of GDP and said it will spend 143 billion crowns on defence over the next 10 years.
In January, the finance committee was also told that other weapons manufacturers, including France’s Nexter Systems and South Korean Hanwha Systems, would have longer delivery times than the one year offered by Elbit Systems.
However, Nexter Systems said in late January it could deliver new weapons to Denmark at the end of 2023, and has denied telling the Danish defence ministry that the company could deliver only after two years. ($1 = 6.7940 Danish crowns),(Source: Reuters)
11 Aug 23. Montenegro: Political instability will persist despite likely formation of pro-Western government. On 10 August, President Jakov Milatović nominated the leader of the pro-Western Europe Now Movement (PES), Milojko Spajić as the country’s prime minister-designate. The nomination follows weeks of negotiations after the PES won the 11 June parliamentary elections but failed to secure a majority of seats. Spajić now has 90 days to propose a cabinet and will need the support of at least 41 lawmakers to hold a majority in parliament. He has reportedly secured the backing of 44 of 81 lawmakers, largely from the PES but also smaller parties representing ethnic minorities. While this indicates that Spajić is likely to form a cabinet, the small majority of seats and the uneasy mix of several parties will sustain government stability risks. A government led by Spajić will highly likely pursue a pro-EU agenda, though political instability and pervasive corruption will possibly hinder its ability to pursue such objectives. (Source: Sibylline)
11 Aug 23. UK Armed Forces retirement age may be raised to boost numbers. The retirement age for military personnel may be raised to boost forces, a defence minister has said.
Andrew Murrison, the minister for defence people, veterans and service families, has said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) should be open to raising the average age of retirement above 60 for those serving in the Armed Forces.
Dr Murrison said there is “no philosophical barrier as to why we couldn’t look at extending the age of retirement”.
Defence sources said that currently, when a serving member of the Armed Forces reaches 60, “they will be mandatory retired as is everyone who is not a general”.
However, Dr Murrison, the Tory MP for South West Wiltshire, told the Financial Times that “as the workforce ages, as we compete for available talent, I think we have to look at hard cut-offs for service personnel”.
He said it was “quite difficult” to currently serve over the age of 55, and anyone still serving over the age of 60 is an “exception” unless they are very senior.
“I’m not happy with recruitment and I’m not happy with retention,” said Dr Murrison,
He also said the MoD needed to “ensure that we have a workforce with the right skills to reflect a modern UK Armed Forces”.
“As we focus on developing a skills-based workforce, we are continually looking at how we recruit and retain personnel and this includes looking at ways to support those who would like to continue serving later in life,” he said.
However, the defence source added that this “won’t be for all people” but will instead “be for the people we need with key skills”.
It comes as the number of people joining the UK Armed Forces fell by nearly a quarter over the past year, compared with the previous 12-month period.
It currently stands at 133,570 full-time trained personnel.
Low morale
Meanwhile, morale in the Army has fallen to a record low, with complaints having jumped by a quarter in a year, according to the Armed Forces service complaints ombudsman.
In order to combat the declining number of soldiers, troops are now being offered £500 recruiting bonuses for every new person they bring to the Army.
The launch of the incentive comes at a time when the MoD is actively cutting troop numbers to its smallest size since the Napoleonic era. It aims to get to 73,000 by 2025.
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, recently announced that in order to retain talent within the military, troops would be able to move to the Civil Service more easily under new zig-zagging rules.
The Prime Minister said he wanted Army medics, military nuclear engineers and other service personnel to be able to take other jobs in the public sector to avoid losing them to private companies.
Dr Murrison also said he wanted to explore recruiting people with autism and ADHD. He said they “have skills and attributes which other people do not have”.
(Source: Daily Telegraph)
10 Aug 23. Germany will own NATO’s 2nd largest helicopter fleet after Chinook purchase, air force chief says. Germany will own NATO’s second largest helicopter fleet with the 60 Chinooks it announced it was buying last month, German Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz was quoted as saying on Friday.
Last month, Reuters reported Germany would buy 60 Chinook helicopters from Boeing (BA.N) in a package that will cost up to 8bn euros ($8.7bn), including necessary infrastructure for the aircraft.
“We will be the second largest helicopter nation in NATO after the U.S.,” Gerhartz was quoted as saying by RND media network.
Almost 50 Chinook helicopters would be stationed at the Holzdorf/Schoenewalde site in eastern Germany, where 1,000 additional soldiers will be also stationed, Gerhartz added.
“The Schoenewalde site will play a unique key role for the Air Force, the entire Bundeswehr and Germany’s security,” he said. (Source: Reuters)
10 Aug 23. Unintentional data leak poses significant physical security risk to PSNI, On 8 August, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) disclosed a data leak that affected 10,000 serving police officers and civilian staff in Northern Ireland. The leak occurred following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request whereby a spreadsheet containing sensitive data was published accidentally on the FOI website. The data included names, ranks, departments and locations of all the serving officers, as well as sensitive roles such as members of the organised crime unit, intelligence officers stationed at ports and airports and officers at MI5 headquarters. It was removed two hours later, however, the PSNI cannot tell if the information was downloaded prior to removal. According to some new reports, the spreadsheet has already been circulated on social media. This breach is likely to endanger police officers and impact police services in the immediate term, amid elevated tensions between dissident republican groups, unionist paramilitary groups and the police services. While the breach was not intentional, it highlights ongoing concerns over the effectiveness of cyber security safeguards in the UK, especially as this immediately follows a cyber attack on the Electoral Commission. (Source: Sibylline)
09 Aug 23. Poland: General election on 15 October will be tightly contested; policy and civil unrest risks are low. On 8 August, President Andrzej Duda announced that the country will hold its general election on 15 October. Polls indicate the nationalist ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party will secure a larger share of votes than the main opposition party, Civil Platform (PO), but that it will likely fall short of a parliamentary majority. The government’s plans to increase child benefit payments under its flagship 500+ programme and present itself as the party of defence, have so far failed to boost its support in the polls. The radical right-wing Confederation party is currently polling in third place and there is a realistic possibility that the party would support a PiS-led government. While the tightly contested election will elevate policy uncertainty for businesses, the next government will likely maintain broadly pro-business policies, given the consensus on this issue. Large demonstrations in the build-up to the election are likely, though these will remain largely peaceful. (Source: Sibylline)
09 Aug 23. Kosovo: Resignation of pro-Western defence minister underlines ongoing tensions over North Kosovo policy. On 8 August, Prime Minister Albin Kurti confirmed that the pro-Western Defence Minister Armend Mehaj had resigned, citing ‘health reasons’. However, it is likely that the resignation was at least partly driven by tensions between Mehaj and Kurti over the recent deterioration in relations between Kosovo and its Western allies over Kurti’s handling of recent tensions in the predominantly ethnic-Serb North Kosovo. This underlines the extent to which divisions within the government over its posture towards North Kosovo and relations with the West can undermine its stability. As a result of tensions with the West, Kosovo was excluded from military drills with the US and NATO, which were considered a priority for Mehaj. He will be replaced by Colonel Ejup Maqedonci, who shares a past with Kurti in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Although tensions in North Kosovo and with Belgrade have decreased in recent weeks, it is possible that Mehaj’s exit will make Kurti less susceptible to Western pressure in the event of future stand-offs. This will sustain the risk of prolonged disruption to businesses operating in North Kosovo in the event of a renewed bout of unrest. (Source: Sibylline)
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Founded in 1987, Exensor Technology is a world leading supplier of Networked Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) Systems providing tailored sensor solutions to customers all over the world. From our Headquarters in Lund Sweden, our centre of expertise in Network Communications at Communications Research Lab in Kalmar Sweden and our Production site outside of Basingstoke UK, we design, develop and produce latest state of the art rugged UGS solutions at the highest quality to meet the most stringent demands of our customers. Our systems are in operation and used in a wide number of Military as well as Homeland Security applications worldwide. The modular nature of the system ensures any external sensor can be integrated, providing the user with a fully meshed “silent” network capable of self-healing. Exensor Technology will continue to lead the field in UGS technology, provide our customers with excellent customer service and a bespoke package able to meet every need. A CNIM Group Company
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