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16 Sep 24. Saab Delivers British Army’s Next Generation Artillery Hunting Radars.
- Saab announces the successful delivery and acceptance of five next generation Arthur systems to the British Army, providing a Deep Find Weapon Locating Radar Capability for the future.
As of 22nd July 2024, five next generation Arthur systems, named TAIPAN by the British Army, have been delivered, accepted, and are now with 5th Regiment Royal Artillery.
Replacing MAMBA – last generation Arthur radar – TAIPAN offers the British Army rapid deployment and re-deployment, high operational mobility, and precise counter-battery operations, locating an increased number of targets at greater range with reduced electronic warfare signatures, leveraging Saab’s Digital Antenna technology. This ensures survivability, reliability and high availability. The Royal Artillery formally accepted TAIPAN as 5th Regiment’s Colours on June 28th at Larkhill Camp.
“We are immensely proud to support the British Army with our state-of-the-art TAIPAN systems. Our relationship with the Army and the Arthur system builds on years of experience extending back through service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The team at Saab looks forward to continuing our support for the UK as it become the first user of the new Arthur current generation and next generation systems,” said Andy Fraser, Group Managing Director, Saab UK.
“Saab are our key partner for both MAMBA and now TAIPAN and what it as a company have and continue to deliver to our Armed Forces is hugely impressive. MAMBA has more than proved its worth and TAIPAN is a step change in capability.” said Lt Gen Sir Andrew Gregory KBE CB, Master Gunner St James’s Park.
Future maintenance and additional work will be supported at Saab’s UK-based Centre of Radar Excellence in Fareham as part of Saab’s strategy for expanding its global industrial base outside of Sweden. Beyond the UK, Arthur is in-service with an additional 12 countries, including 6 NATO countries and South Korea.
(Source: ASD Network)
20 Sept. 24. NATO tests counter drone tech during interoperability exercise. From 10 to 20 September, 450 participants from 22 countries, including Ukraine for the first time, gathered in the Netherlands to increase their ability to counter malicious drone activity.
The fourth edition of NATO’s Counter Unmanned Aircraft System Technical Interoperability Exercise (C-UAS TIE24) brought together military, scientific and industry specialists to test high-tech commercial solutions designed to detect, identify, and neutralise drones. Over 60 systems and technologies – including sensors, effectors, jammers and threat drones – were tested live to ensure that they can connect instantly and operate together.
The exercise was organised by the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), and hosted by the C-UAS Joint Nucleus within the Dutch Ministry of Defence.
“The commercial and military use of drones has grown rapidly, and unfortunately, so has their misuse, particularly by non-state actors. This presents an increasing threat to NATO’s operations and everyday defence activities,” said NCIA Chief of Staff Major General Hans Folmer, while visiting the exercise. “In response, NATO has been fully committed to better understanding drone detection and to developing effective countermeasures. This exercise stands as a clear demonstration of that commitment.”
NCIA, through its C-UAS Centre of Expertise, is working closely with NATO’s Emerging and Security Challenges Division to ensure interoperability and standardisation in data exchange among diverse C-UASs and components across the Alliance. Part of this work includes the development of NATO’s first counter doctrine, which will provide a robust framework for NATO to efficiently detect, track and neutralise the threat.
Previous iterations of the TIE exercises identified C-UAS optimal architectures and standards to be adopted by NATO. Building upon these achievements, C-UAS TIE24 further tested technical standards and solutions to assess interoperability of systems used to counter Class I UASs with existing air and missile defence capabilities.
Ukraine’s first active participation in the exercise is part of the NATO-Ukraine Innovation Cooperation Roadmap endorsed at the Washington Summit earlier this year. TIE24 provided an opportunity to learn from Ukraine’s battlefield experience in countering small drones and help address the most pressing challenges, such as drone autonomy and interoperability in a collaborative and mutually-reinforcing way. (Source: www.unmannedairspace.info)
18 Sept. 24. Smartshooter adds new detect and intercept C-UAS to the Smash range. Smartshooter has introduced a new counter-drone system. The Smash Dome is a tactical, lightweight and portable system that combines sensors for detecting and tracking uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) with a kinetic interceptor for covert and overt operations.
Designed for area defence against Category I UAS, the Smash Dome offers RF active detection and passive optical detection. (Source: www.unmannedairspace.info)
19 Sept 24. Anduril announces IVAS team-up with Microsoft. “This project is my top priority at Anduril, and it has been for some time now. It’s one of the Army’s most critical programs being fielded in the near future, with the goal of getting the right data to the right people at the right time,” said Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, who made his tech breakthrough with commercial Oculus headset.
By Ashley Roqueon September 19, 2024 at 12:01 AM
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is officially throwing his defense firm Anduril’s hat into the ring to help develop a combat-suitable mixed-reality device for soldiers, announcing a new partnership with Microsoft.
After teasing his tech startup’s broader entrance into the military mixed-reality space, Palmer is now disclosing at least one entry point: the integration of new sensors and the firm’s Lattice platform into the US Army’s latest version of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS).
“This project is my top priority at Anduril, and it has been for some time now. It’s one of the Army’s most critical programs being fielded in the near future, with the goal of getting the right data to the right people at the right time,” Luckey said in an announcement today.
Details about the two companies’ current and future IVAS arrangements remain under wraps, but spokespeople from both said Anduril’s Lattice platform has been “successfully integrated” into Microsoft’s hardware and software platform for both the IVAS 1.1 and 1.2 versions. The 1.2 version of IVAS is currently going through testing with the Army, while industry awaits the Army’s official greenlight to kickstart a recompete program under an initiative dubbed IVAS Next.
“This is Anduril’s bread and butter, and we’ve been building the backbone for this for years,” Luckey said.
Lattice is billed as an open software platform that gleans data from different sensors and systems and moves that data into a “single integration layer” where high-value information is filtered for users. For the Army system, the companies say that means that as incoming airborne threats like drones home in on a soldier’s location, they are “autonomously” detected and soldiers donning the upgraded IVAS are warned.
Robin Seiler, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for mixed reality, said the aim is to “expand the impact” the system could have on the battlefield.
“Soldiers using IVAS get instant alerts and can track movements in real-time, without needing to be involved in the detection process. This speeds up the early warning system, which is critical for improving response times and increasing soldier survival,” a Microsoft told Breaking Defense.
While the collaboration sheds new light on Microsoft’s plans to upgrade its current IVAS offering, a host of questions remain about the path ahead for the tech giant’s mixed-reality program and just which alliances are forming to compete anew if the Army greenlights a new competition.
In 2018, the Army first selected the Washington-based tech company for its coved IVAS program and tasked the team with militarizing the commercially available HoloLens 2. By 2021, the service awarded Microsoft with a production deal valued up to $22 bn with plans to begin fielding the device that same year. But behind the scenes, soldier testing suggested it was a technology not suitable for combat, leading Army leaders to pause development and reset the program.
After several false starts, the Army rolled out an iterative development plan based around three different versions — 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2. That 1.2 version was billed as the big leap ahead and one that could potentially push past tech and user complaints that had ranged from software glitches to physical side effects like dizziness and nausea.
Microsoft overhauled the 1.2 form factor by ditching the helmet-like display that soldiers were not able to easily take off and replaced it with a display that could be flipped up. The field of view was also shrunk from 70-degree down to around 60-degrees to provide more clarity and better alignment with a user’s eyes.
Testing with this new version is still ongoing and could last through an operational assessment slated for early next year. And while the design improvements are headed in the right direction, reports started trickling up the chain that at least some of the testing “wasn’t going the way we wanted it to,” a service official recently told Breaking Defense.
As a result, Army leaders including Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George have tasked Army Rangers with racking and stacking all of the service’s night vision devices to include IVAS. That analysis is expected back this fall and could help decide how the Army envisions soldiers using IVAS and just which units and individuals should have it. The feedback may also help drive requirements for a new IVAS form factor.
Service officials have been preparing tech companies for an upcoming IVAS Next competition that could replace Microsoft as the prime contractor, and multiple industry sources have told Breaking Defense they are waiting for the service to release a formal solicitation, possibly before the end of the year.
That solicitation is expected to shine a light on the Army’s path ahead for the program and could be a key marker as potential competitors set themselves on the starting block. (For now, most are remaining tightlipped about their exact plans, although both Microsoft and Kopin have said they will compete.)
As for Anduril’s IVAS Next ambitions, the company has not released any details. But during AWE 2024 in June, Luckey teased a new headset underdevelopment saying he is “still very much in the hardware space.”
“I’m actually building a new headset right now,” Anduril’s founder told the audience. “It’s driven … by military requirements, but it’s also going to be used for non-military stuff.”
What Luckey did not disclose is whether this was a personal project he was tinkering with, a more formal internal development initiative, or even if it is being built with combat in mind.
(Source: Breaking Defense.com)
17 Sept 24. Forcys sees record sales of Sentinel intruder detection sonars. Forcys brings together leading technologies, offering a comprehensive naval and subsea capability to the world defence market
Global maritime defence company Forcys has seen a significant surge in sales of Sentinel IDS®, the world’s leading Intruder Detection Sonar this year.
Sentinel, developed by Covelya Group technology partner Wavefront Systems, detects, tracks and classifies divers and uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) approaching a protected asset from any direction and alerts security personnel to the threat.
It can be deployed on demand by expeditionary teams or installed permanently as part of a network of multiple sonar heads to provide underwater situational awareness.
Able to identify divers at ranges of up to 1,000 m and UUVs at 1,500 m, Sentinel takes reliable, long range underwater intruder detection to a new level and is used in defence, Critical National Infrastructure, vessel and VIP protection duties around the world.
Ioseba Tena, Forcys MD, commented; ”With tense security levels across much of the globe, increasing numbers of navies and defence organisations are relying on Sentinel to protect their assets. It’s no surprise that this year has seen our largest volume of Sentinel sales to date, and I am particularly proud that the Forcys teams across Australia, the UK and the US have played a significant part in achieving this. We are thrilled to continue to lead the way in protecting the world’s underwater spaces and grateful for our customer’s ongoing trust in our products and services.”
Sentinel protects assets that range from naval ports and vessels to other potential sabotage targets. As an example, Wavefront supplied Sentinel to protect the River Seine during the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, a demonstration of the level of confidence customers place in the system on the world stage.
19 Sept 24. HENSOLDT, a global leader in defence and security electronics, announced the launch of its new-generation airborne imaging system, the ARGOS-15, at the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) Expo 2024. This highly anticipated system represents a significant advancement in multispectral sensor technology and is set to become the go-to solution for modern intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The ARGOS-15, a state-of-the-art 15-inch gimbal system, builds on the success of HENSOLDT’s renowned ARGOS family. It offers unparalleled performance for medium-to high altitude missions on both manned and unmanned airborne platforms. Featuring an advanced, modular design and AI-powered functionalities, this next-generation system is an essential solution for modern defence and security applications.
“HENSOLDT has been at the forefront of airborne imaging technology for over 35 years. With the launch of the ARGOS-15, we are reinforcing our position as a leading provider of airborne imaging technologies. This system’s superior capabilities will ensure that our customers remain at the forefront of modern surveillance and reconnaissance missions,” says Sunette van Rensburg, Head of Sales of HENSOLDT’s Optronics business in South Africa.
Advancing the legacy of ARGOS-II
Building on over three decades of experience in airborne electro-optical systems, the ARGOS-15 follows on the widely deployed ARGOS-II, integrated on more than 34 platforms worldwide. It offers the optimal blend of legacy performance and next-generation innovation, bringing together decades of experience with the latest technologies.
17 Sept 24. Saab delivers fifth GlobalEye aircraft to UAE. The UAE first contracted Saab for the GlobalEye in November 2015; this latest delivery marks the transfer of five aircraft in less than ten years.
Saab has delivered its fifth GlobalEye Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) according to a statement on 17 September 2024.
This delivery marks the transfer of five aircraft in less than ten years.
The airborne surveillance aircraft is capable of air, maritime and ground surveillance from a single platform with the ability to switch different roles at any point during an ongoing mission.
UAE GlobalEye activity
Though, the UAE first contracted Saab for the GlobalEye in a deal worth $1.27bn (Dh4.66bn) in November 2015, the platform was first launched at the Singapore Airshow several months later in 2016.
The nation has now reached its initial order of five units, though it has yet to acquire the two additional GlobalEye aircraft the government ordered back in 2021. Likewise, the user expanded its GlobalEye services with Saab at the start of 2024 with an order for a three-year in-service support period that runs until 2026, valued at $190m.
The Middle Eastern nation, located in the Persian Gulf, initially sought the GlobalEye for its ‘swing role surveillance’ capability integrated with a new variant of the Saab 2000 Erieye radar system.
GlobalEye also ensures a maximum mission endurance of more than 11 hours. It allows for operations from short runways in small airports.
GlobalEye sensor suite
GlobalEye uses an array of active and passive sensors that provide long-range detection and identification of objects across all domains.
The main sensor of the GlobalEye system is the Erieye extended range S-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) multi-mode radar. Saab designed this radar to collect and target data in a large air volume and/or across a vast surface area, in heavy clutter and jamming environments.
Likewise, the long-range airborne radar offers all-domain surveillance, while offering an increased detection range in comparison with ‘stealthy’ low observable air targets. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
16 Sept 24. Honeywell launching new counter-UAV system focused on countering swarm attacks. Honeywell announced on 16 September 2024 that it is launching a new counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system particularly focused on addressing the threat from UAV swarms.
By combining beyond-visual-line-of-sight communication with command-and-control capabilities, the multi-layered system is able to detect, track and then counter UAV swarms. It can either be mounted on vehicles or put in a fixed location to protect valuable assets.
The US Air Force Global Strike team via its STRIKEWERX/AFWERX innovation hub recently selected Honeywell’s Stationary And Mobile UAS Reveal And Intercept system to demonstrate the protection of high-value assets from swarming UAVs while on the move. The demonstration will take place in January 2025.
“Modern warfare is rapidly changing and the threat swarming drones pose to high-value assets can have a devastating effect on military operations,” Matt Milas, president for Defense and Space at Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, was quoted as saying in a company press release.
“Our Stationary And Mobile UAS Reveal And Intercept system is a highly reliable, scalable and fully integrated defensive system that has been developed after extensive research and testing with the needs of military operators in mind,” Milas added. “This system’s multi-layered defensive capabilities set it apart in the industry and enable it to not only track and detect but also defeat multiple threats. We’re excited to demonstrate this technology for the air force and are confident the system can provide critical new capabilities on the battlefield.”
The system has been developed by integrating components from defence manufacturers such as Blue Halo, Leonardo DRS, Pierce Aerospace, Silent Sentinel, Walaris, Rocky Research and Versatol. These components include a radio frequency detection capability combined with sensor technology that uses light to detect, track and identify objects, including offensive UAVs, to counter swarm attacks. (Source: ESD)
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Echodyne is a U.S. designer and manufacturer of advanced commercial radar solutions for defense and national security applications. The company’s proprietary metamaterials electronically scanned array (MESA®) architecture, a rare breakthrough in advanced radar engineering, leverages a physics-design approach to adapt conventional materials and deliver unexpected and beneficial behavior. The result is a solid-state, low-SWaP unit coupled with advanced software capabilities that delivers superior radar performance and unparalleled data integrity, radically improving system performance and enhancing safety for people and machines. With leading positions in counter-UAS, force protection, base security, and portable ISR, Defense Agencies and Suppliers rely on Echodyne radar for extraordinary accuracy and consistent, reliable operation. For more information, please visit: Echodyne.com.
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