21 Jun 12. India’s MoD is scheduled to approve an Rs120bn ($2.14bn) proposal for acquisition of new-generation air defence missiles to help replace the Indian Army’s 2K12E Kvadrat surface-to-air missile system (SAM). According to reports from local media, the proposal is likely to be given go ahead by the MoD’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) at a meeting. Army officials said that a global tender would be floated by the service following DAC’s approval, for purchase of a total of eight regiments of the quick reaction surface-to-air missiles (QRSAMs) to replace the obsolete Russian-Kvardrat missile systems. A request for information was floated by the army earlier this year, asking manufacturers to provide a system, which can efficiently engage targets at a range of 15km, at a minimum altitude of 6,000m in less than six seconds. Global missile manufacturers including French MBDA and Israeli Rafale have responded to the information request, which also asked the vendors to agree for a transfer of technology (ToT) to allow the Indian companies to domestically manufacture the missile. (Source: armytechnology.com)

21 Jun 12. Plasan breaks into soft armour. Israeli protection specialist Plasan showed off a new family of ‘soft’ material armour fits at the DVD exhibition in the UK in mid June. The Ultra Flex Fence (UFF) package is based on the same basic premise as other ‘textile’ and soft armour packages that have emerged over the past couple of years that are designed to defeat unitary warhead rocket-propelled grenades (RPG). (Source: Jane’s, IDR)

15 Jun 12. Rafael expands Samson family. Rafael unveiled three modified versions of its Samson remote weapon station (RWS) family at Eurosatory 2012 in Paris. At the heaviest end of the scale, a Piranha III infantry fighting vehicle was fitted with a thoroughly revised version of the Samson 30 that enables the crew to reload or conduct maintenance from under armour, a substantial improvement on the original system, which required external access. Like the original configuration, this new iteration – known as Samson 30 Mk 2 – has very little intrusion into the vehicle, but it now features a main hatch to access the turret’s innards. (Source: Jane’s, IDR)

13 Jun 12. SkEye slips into the open. Elbit Systems has revealed it is working on a new Wide Area Airborne Surveillance (WAAS) system, known as SkEye. The system is being designed to provide persistent video surveillance over an area of some 10 km 2 and to be fitted to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), fixed-wing aircraft and aerostats/balloons. Speaking to IHS Jane’s at Eurosatory 2012, a spokesman from Elbit’s operational research and definition unit, said that one SkEye unit could capture high-resolution, full-motion video of large area footprints “in one mega computer” and allow up to 10 individual streams – he called them “straws” – of imagery to be drawn and passed to 10 users in real time. (Source: Jane’s, IDR)

14 Jun 12. UK cancels Fire Shadows Afghanistan deployment. UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has cancelled the deployment of the MBDA Fire Shadow loitering munition to Afghanistan because of concerns over the long term future of the weapon system, IHS Jane’s understands. Royal Artillery personnel had been in the final stages of preparing the UK’s first loitering munition for a combat capability demonstration in April 2012 when the plug was pulled on the project as a result of the Ministry of Defence’s annual spending round (PR12). (Source: Jane’s, JMR)

14 Jun 12. Pentagon says JLENS essential to national security following cost cap breach. The Pentagon has restructured Raytheon’s Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS) programme to now consist of two engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) systems, which will allow the US Army to complete scheduled EMD test and evaluation by the end of Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13). In a 24 May letter to members of Congress, acting Pent