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15 Jul 22. U.S. State Department approves potential arms sales worth $1.5bn. The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of HIMARS rocket systems to Estonia, missiles to Norway and torpedoes to South Korea in separate deals that could be worth more than $1.5bn in all, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The sales comes as European countries increase arms purchases after Russia invaded Ukraine, heightening security fears across the region.
HIMARS systems donated by the United States and allies are being employed by Ukraine in its fight with Russia.
The package approved for Estonia would include up to six M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers, munitions, support equipment, spares and technical support, the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the possible sale to Estonia alongside the two other foreign military sales on Friday.
The State Department’s separate approvals of the potential sale of medium-range air-to-air missiles and related equipment for Norway in a deal valued at up to $950 million, and MK 54 Lightweight Torpedoes to South Korea for an estimated value of $130m also were made public on Friday.
Despite approval by the State Department, the notification does not indicate that contracts have been signed or that negotiations have concluded.
The Pentagon said Lockheed Martin Corp was the prime contractor for the HIMARS systems and Raytheon Technologies was the prime contractor for the up to 205 AIM-120 C-8 or D Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air missiles. (Source: Reuters)
14 Jul 22. U.S. House passes bill boosting Biden’s record defense budget. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday paving the way for the defense budget to exceed $800bn next year, authorizing $37 bn in spending on top of the record $773bn proposed by President Joe Biden. The House passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which sets policy for the Pentagon, by a vote of 329-101. The Senate has yet to pass its version, but the Senate Armed Services Committee has already backed an even larger increase, $45 bn, over Biden’s proposal.
The two chambers will decide the ultimate level when they meet in conference at a future date. Their compromise bill would come up for a vote in both chambers later in the year.
The NDAA, one of the only major pieces of legislation Congress passes annually, is closely watched by a broad swath of industry and other interests because it determines everything from purchases of ships and aircraft to pay increases for soldiers and how to address geopolitical threats.
For example, this year’s House bill rebuked Biden’s policy on Turkey. Lawmakers approved an amendment that would restrict Biden’s ability to sell F-16 fighter jets to the NATO ally.
Lawmakers also approved provisions to repeal the 2002 Iraq War authorization and raise the troops’ pay by 4.6%. It would also put into law Biden’s executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 per hour. The bill faced opposition from lawmakers who objected to increasing Pentagon spending.
“On the whole, the National Defense Authorization Act exemplifies the basic fact that we spend far too much on military-first solutions and far too little on diplomacy and on human needs at home and around the globe,” said Democratic Representative Andy Levin, a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who voted no. (Source: Reuters)
12 Jul 22. Biden to sign Defense Production Act directives targeting hypersonics development. President Joe Biden is poised to sign two directives that would allow the U.S. Department of Defense to invest in its hypersonic weapons industrial base as adversaries demonstrate advanced capabilities. As China and Russia tout recent progress in developing hypersonic weapons, which are unique in their ability to maneuver at speeds higher than Mach 5, the Pentagon wants to address potential supply chain disruption in key technology areas.
Michael White, principal director for hypersonics in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, said Tuesday that the presidential directives “about to be signed” that would enable the Pentagon to invest Defense Production Act Title III funds to bolster hypersonic engine and guidance and control subsystem suppliers.
Speaking during a virtual July 12 Executive Mosaic forum, White said there are “a number of different industrial base investment mechanisms that are being leveraged and being actually enhanced for hypersonic activities.”
The department’s five-year spending plan for hypersonic programs is just under $25bn for efforts ranging from early research to prototyping to fielding.
“The funding levels are increasing significantly to allow us to get through those first three phases of our programs,” White said.
Under DPA Title III, the president can establish domestic industrial base incentives for critical technology areas to encourage things like increased production capacity and higher quality. Before the Pentagon can target DPA funding for a particular project, the president must certify to Congress that the capability is critical to national defense and that the Title III mechanism is the most efficient and cost-effective option.
The White House has expressed concern about the hypersonic industrial base as well as recognized its importance to national security. In February 2021, Biden signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to conduct a comprehensive supply chain review of four areas, including kinetic capabilities like hypersonics. And earlier this year, the administration updated its list of critical technologies to include hypersonic capabilities.
Pentagon leaders have also been sounding the alarm on the importance of quickly fielding hypersonic technology, convening a meeting with industry executives in February to better understand the impediments companies are dealing with.
Hypersonic engine capacity
As the Pentagon awaits the impending presidential directives, its DPA Title III program office wants to better gauge the industrial capacity for hypersonic engine production.
In a July 8 notice, the office asked industry for details on its ability to produce hypersonic engines at scale and said its target is to have enough capability across the industrial base to support an initial production capacity of four to six hypersonic missiles per month.
Hypersonic engines undergo a high degree of stress compared to the systems that power a more traditional strategic missile, largely because of how fast they move. As a hypersonic missile’s speed accelerates, it creates “extraordinary thermal, mechanic and acoustic stresses,” according to the notice. These conditions require a specialized industrial base for components and tooling and novel manufacturing techniques.
“To date DoD has supported proof of concept and prototyping efforts in this area, however the expansion of industrial base capacity is required to meet expected future demand,” the notice states. “Further, current engine designs are classified and the lengthy supply chain, heat treatment, coating, joining and non-destructive evaluation is disaggregated, causing significant lead-time, cost and security challenges.” (Source: Defense News)
11 Jul 22. US: Latest allegations of Trump links to extremist groups underline enduring threat of unrest during midterms. In an article published today (11 July) the Associated Press says members of far-right extremist groups involved in the 6 January 2021 Capitol riots have told investigators their leaders were in contact with members of former president Donald Trump’s inner circle. The allegations increase suspicions the Trump administration condoned or even orchestrated the riots and raises concerns that these groups could again seek to violently overturn the November midterm elections if Trump-aligned politicians lose. Reportedly, individuals on trial over their involvement in the Capitol riots said figures such as Oath Keepers leader, Stewart Rhodes, were in communication with people with direct access to Trump during and immediately after the incident. Stewart allegedly sought Trump to publicly call on far-right militias “to fight” to keep him in power. The US House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the riots is due to hold another hearing tomorrow focused on the role played by far-right groups, which is likely to produce more revelations and further heighten political tensions. (Source: Sibylline)
11 Jul 22. U.S. weighs possible resumption of offensive arms sales to Saudis. The Biden administration is discussing the possible lifting of its ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, but any final decision is expected to hinge on whether Riyadh makes progress toward ending the war in neighboring Yemen, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Senior Saudi officials pressed their U.S. counterparts to scrap a policy of selling only defensive arms to its top Gulf partner in several meetings in Riyadh and Washington in recent months, three of the sources said ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to the kingdom this week.
The internal U.S. deliberations are informal and at an early stage, with no decision imminent, two sources said, and a U.S. official told Reuters there were no discussions on offensive weapons under way with the Saudis “at this time.”
But as Biden prepares for a diplomatically sensitive trip, he has signaled that he is looking to reset strained relations with Saudi Arabia at a time when he wants increased Gulf oil supplies along with closer Arab security ties with Israel to counter Iran.
At home, any move to rescind restrictions on offensive weapons is sure to draw opposition in Congress, including from Biden’s fellow Democrats and opposition Republicans who have been vocal critics of Saudi Arabia, congressional aides say.
Soon after taking office early last year, Biden adopted a tougher stance over Saudi Arabia’s campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, which has inflicted heavy civilian casualties, and Riyadh’s human rights record, in particular the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist and political opponent Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden, who as a presidential candidate denounced Saudi Arabia as a “pariah,” declared in February 2021 a halt to U.S. support for offensive operations in Yemen, including “relevant arms sales.”
Saudi Arabia, the biggest U.S. arms customer, has chafed under those restrictions, which froze the kind of weapons sales that previous U.S. administrations had provided for decades.
Biden’s approach has softened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March, which has prompted the United States and other Western countries to appeal to Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, to pump more oil to offset loss of Russian supplies.
Saudi Arabia also won White House praise for agreeing in early June on a two-month extension of a U.N.-brokered truce in Yemen, scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Washington would now like to see it turned into a permanent ceasefire.
A person in Washington familiar with the matter said the administration had begun internal discussions about the possibility of removing Saudi weapons restrictions but indicated they had not reached a decision-making stage.
Among the times when Saudi officials raised the request was during Deputy Minister of Defense Khalid bin Salman’s visit to Washington in May, according to a second source. The Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment.
YEMEN CONFLICT
The sources stressed, however, that no announcement was expected around Biden’s July 13-16 trip, which will include stops in Israel and the West Bank. Any decision, they said, is expected to depend heavily on whether Riyadh is deemed to have done enough to find a political settlement to the Yemen conflict. Among the biggest-ticket items the Saudis would likely seek are precision-guided munitions (PGM) such as those approved under former President Donald Trump in the face of objections from members of Congress.
But the Biden administration is expected to move cautiously as it discusses which systems might be offered, two sources said. Amnesty International said U.S.-made precision-guided bombs were used in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on a detention center in Yemen in January that killed scores.
If Washington eases the ban, it may be easier to push through sales of less-lethal equipment such as armored personnel carriers or replenish stocks of less-sophisticated ground-to-ground and air-to-ground weaponry.
Even under existing restrictions, the United States began stepping up its military support for Saudi Arabia earlier this year following Houthi missile strikes on the kingdom.
Washington approved missiles and an anti-ballistic defense system sales to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said in November, and the United States sent Patriot missiles this year as well – all deemed by U.S. officials to be defensive in nature.
The Biden administration has also maintained backing for the Saudis to receive a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system first approved in 2017 to counter ballistic missile threats.
While lawmakers have mostly acquiesced to such sales, Biden could face fallout on Capitol Hill if he decides to sell Riyadh offensive weapons again.
Some have questioned Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia, seeing it as lending legitimacy to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi de facto leader who the U.S. intelligence community concluded was behind Khashoggi’s murder.
Among the likely opponents would be Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a staunch critic of the Saudi campaign in Yemen who praised Biden when he froze offensive arms sales. An aide said Murphy does not believe now is the time to resume such supplies. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Reuters)
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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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