18 Mar 13. New Zealand Issues Request for Frigate Combat Systems. Anticipating the next phase of the upgrade to the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Anzac-class frigate combat systems, itself part of the frigates’ platform system upgrade, New Zealand’s Ministry of Defence has issued request for tenders for anti-ship missile defense soft kill (ASK) underwater systems and an electronic support measures suite. The upgrade was approved in November 2007 at an estimated cost of 57.6m New Zealand dollars ($47.6m) and the request for the ASK suite says current life is “to at least until 2030.” (Source: glstrade.com/Defense News)
20 Mar 13. The Army is developing a new Advanced Multi-Purpose 120mm tank round, known as AMP, that combines six different capabilities into a single round, service officials said. The AMP is ready to enter into the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase after a prototype successfully demonstrated Technology Readiness Level 6 through a science and technology program at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., in 2006. The new round will replace a rapidly aging inventory of tank munitions, said Col. Paul Laughlin, the 47th chief of Armor and commandant of the Armor School at the Maneuver Center of Excellence, Fort Benning, Ga. (Source: ASD Network)
21 Mar 13. India tests submarine-launched Brahmos missile variant. The Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has successfully test-fired the submarine-launched version of its supersonic cruise missile, Brahmos, from a submerged platform off the coast of Vishakhapatnam in the Bay of Bengal. During the trials, the missile was launched vertically from an underwater pontoon and following a pre-defined trajectory, hit the designated target successfully, while meeting all the mission objectives. In order to increase offensive power of the vessel while maintaining its defensive capability, Brahmos has been vertically installed in a modular launcher in the pressure hull of the submarine to enhance fire-power in underwater weapon delivery capabilities. Based on the Russian-built P-800 Oniks/Yakhont supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, the 290km range weapon has a speed of Mach 2.8 and can be launched from land, naval and air platforms. The naval variant of Brahmos missile also validated its capability from moving warships in both vertical and inclined launch configurations. BrahMos ground and ship-launched variants have been successfully inducted into service with the Indian Army and Navy, while the Indian Air Force (IAF) is planning to equip Sukhoi SU-30MKI Flanker-H aircraft with aircraft-launched variant, BrahMos A. (Source: naval-technology.com)
18 Mar 13. Raytheon Company delivered its eighth AN/TPY-2 radar to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in support of the U.S. combatant commands. An integral capability of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), AN/TPY-2 is a mobile, X-band phased-array radar that helps protect the U.S., deployed forces, and America’s friends and allies by searching, acquiring and tracking threat ballistic missiles and discriminating between threats and non-threats. The AN/TPY-2 radar Raytheon delivered will serve in terminal mode as the fire control radar for the U.S. Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile defense system. Other forward-based AN/TPY-2’s that are deployed around the globe cue the BMDS by detecting, tracking and discriminating enemy ballistic missiles in the ascent phase of flight. AN/TPY-2 is a high resolution, mobile, rapidly deployable X-band Radar capable of providing long-range acquisition, precision track and discrimination of all classes of ballistic missiles, from Short-Range Ballistic Missiles to Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
* AN/TPY-2 has performed flawlessly in both terminal and forward-based mode in all major tests.
* On Oct. 25, 2012, two AN/TPY-2 radars – one terminal and one forward-based – participated in FTI-01, the MDA’s largest and most complex exercise. In a complex raid scenario involving multipl