13 Jun 12. NEXTER showed its much rumoured CT40 turret for the Thales RAPIDFire system at Eurosatory. The system on a 6×6 unarmoured vehicle looked like something more from World War 2! A Thales spokesman said that a launch customer was going to fund the required anti-aircraft ammunition as none exists now as neither does a qualified canon or turret! We hpe that customer has deep pockets and patience as to develop an AA canon using the CTA system will cause huge barrel wear as experienced today with the anti-tank AP version. The AA round will need more propellant to reach the required distances and that is just what NEXTER and BAE is trying to avoid with the existing system! M. Hollande’s failure to attend Eurosatory says that he is looking at the French Defence Budget, CTA will almost certainly be looked at and be seen as the huge waste of money and cancelled, by the French. We wish David Leslie a happy retirement on his farm in France.
12 Jun 12. The U.S. Navy proved the ability of Raytheon Company’s Griffin® B missile to engage rapidly moving small boats during a recent live-fire demonstration. During the demonstration, which took place late in the first quarter of 2012, three Griffins were fired from a sea-based launcher at three separate speeding-boat targets more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away. The weapons were guided by laser, and scored direct hits on the target, achieving all demonstration objectives.
11 Jun 12. The U.S. Marine Corps successfully fired two Raytheon Company Excalibur 155mm precision-guided artillery projectiles from a range of 36 kilometers (22.3 statute miles) in theater. These shots mark the longest distance the Excalibur round has been fired in combat since its fielding in 2007. With more than 500 rounds fired in theater to date, Excalibur is the revolutionary family of precision projectiles for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps artillery. The Marines have significantly increased the operational use of Excalibur in the last year, firing as many as 32 rounds in one week. By integrating Excalibur into close-combat formations, U.S. forces avoid collateral damage even when warfighters are in close proximity to the target.
11 Jun 12. The Finnish Air Force (FAF) has successfully conducted its first test flight of the Saab-built BOL advanced countermeasures dispensing system (CMDS) from its F-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft in Finland. The dispenser was installed on the fighter by Saab as part of FAF’s Hornet Mid Life Upgrade 2 (MLU2) programme under a €14m (SEK137m) contract awarded by the air force in September 2009. The contract, which also included the supply of an extensive industrial participation (IP) package for the Finnish industry, was completed in 2011. BOL is a high-capacity, 160-cartridge, electro-mechanical chaff dispenser designed to safeguard the aircraft against a wide range of both heat-seeking and radar guided missiles threats. Featuring vortex generators which provide chaff blooming characteristics and a chaff cloud Doppler response, the system is installed in the aircraft’s fairings under the wingtip-mounted radar warning pods, to provide pilots with the sustained defensive capability required for the successful completion of missions. The systems are usually mounted in a symmetrical twin or quadruple configuration on the wings, so as to avoid radar cross-section, if used with chaff or the extension of the infra-red (IR) radiating source, if used with IR payload. According to the company, the integration of the BOL dispenser on F-18 Hornets enhances the amount of countermeasure payload carried by each aircraft, subsequently improving its combat survivability. BOL is in service with the Australian, UK, US and Swedish F/A-18, F-15, Tornado ADV, Harrier GR7, Gripen and EF-2000 Typhoon aircraft respectively, and has also been recently installed on the Saab 2000 surveillance aircraft. (Source: airforcetechnology.com)
12 Jun 12. Russia’s Eastern Military District has taken de