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27 Oct 22. Chad and Niger to receive Hurkus aircraft from Turkey.
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has confirmed orders for its Hurkus turboprop from Chad and Niger, with deliveries set to begin at the end of this year.
In November 2021 it was reported that Turkey would supply Hurkus light attack/trainer aircraft to Niger along with several Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and armoured personnel carriers from Nurol Makina. Hurkus deliveries were originally scheduled to begin in mid-2022 but two aircraft are now set to be delivered from the end of this year, Daily Sabah reports, quoting TAI Deputy General Manager Atilla Dogan. The first batch of Nigerien pilots are being trained ahead of deliveries.
Roketsan will be supplying missiles and smart rockets to Niger, which will likely be used to arm the Hurkus and TB2 aircraft – Roketsan manufactures the MAM and MAM-L guided munitions and UMTAS missiles used by the TB2. The Hurkus-C can carry L-UMTAS anti-tank guided missiles, Cirit laser-guided rockets, bombs, and cannon pods, although it is not clear which variant of the Hurkus Niger will be getting.
Chad has become the next African Hurkus customer, with TAI revealing the order in July this year. Chad’s aircraft will be configured for light attack as well as training. Dogan told Daily Sabah that three aircraft will be delivered in the first quarter of 2023.
“We know that the returns will be good after we deliver the first planes to Niger and Chad and once they start using them,” Dogan said. “Then we know that additional orders will come from both Niger and Chad as well as other potential countries.”
Libya has apparently also ordered Hurkus aircraft, but this has not been confirmed by the manufacturer. The Libyan deal apparently was concluded in May this year with the Libyan government, which apparently acquired an undisclosed number of Hurkus C trainer and close support aircraft.
The Hurkus is a tandem two-seat, low-wing, single-engine turboprop aircraft that was designed as a new-generation trainer as well as a platform for performing light-attack and armed reconnaissance combat missions. The Hurkus-A is the basic version that can be used by non-military customers while the Hurkus-B is a more advanced version with more sophisticated avionics.
The Hurkus-C is an armed variant that can be used for close air support. It is fitted with a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor and can carry 1 500 kg of weaponry. It has been seen fitted with L-UMTAS anti-tank guided missiles, Cirit laser-guided rockets and external fuel tanks. It will also be able to carry bombs, 12.7 mm machineguns and 20 mm cannon pods.
The Hurkus-A first flew in August 2013 and the aircraft is in production for the Turkish military. Powered by a PT6A-68T turboprop, the aircraft has a maximum cruise speed of more than 570 km/h, an endurance of over four hours and a range of nearly 1 500 km.
TAI is working on an improved Hurkus II, and the jet-powered Hurjet trainer. (Source: https://www.defenceweb.co.za/)
28 Oct 22. Rohde & Schwarz’s SigBadger emerges at AUSA. Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) has developed a mobile system to provide electronic warfare awareness training and support for ground force exercises, which it provides as a training service to the US Marine Corps (USMC) at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Centre (MCAGCC) at 29 Palms in California.
The SigBadger system consists of two vehicles, each with signals intelligence (SIGINT) capability. According to R&S documentation, this consists of direction finding (DF) and geolocation in the 300 kHz–6 GHz frequency band; signal analysis and spectrum monitoring of more than 300 kHz–26.500 GHz; and electronic intelligence (ELINT) of more than 20 MHz–40 GHz. The two vehicles have identical capabilities but only one is manned by operators, who exercise remote control over the equipment, in the other vehicle, which only needs a driver.
R&S showcased the SigBadger capability at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 2022 annual convention in Washington, DC, in October, displaying the control vehicle, which contains a suite of intercept and analysis equipment plus two operator workstations. (Source: Janes)
27 Oct 22. Pakistan Air Force personnel train to operate Akinci UAVs. Dozens of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) personnel have completed training to operate Baykar Tech’s Bayraktar Akinci (Flying Fish) armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). This suggests that the Pakistan Air Force is on schedule to induct the UAV. In a statement on 23 October, Baykar said that 110 pilots and staff from three countries had successfully graduated from the sixth term of the Akinci training programme. The countries included Pakistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.
Baykar did not specify the number of graduates from Pakistan. A Janes assessment of images of the graduation identified about 44 PAF personnel. Baykar said that the graduates included pilots, payload operators, mechanics and engine technicians, electronic and ground control station operators, and weapons operators. (Source: Janes)
25 Oct 22. Exercise Points to Ways DOD Can Collaborate With Latin American, Caribbean Partners to Combat Security Impacts of Climate Change. This fall, Hurricane Fiona tore through the Caribbean and battered Puerto Rico, followed shortly by Hurricane Ian, which decimated parts of Florida. Taken together, the two storms serve as the most recent reminder that ever-more frequent climate shocks threaten people’s lives, livelihoods and stability.
The National Security Strategy President Joe Biden released on Oct. 12 calls climate change the “existential challenge of our time.”
The Defense Department and militaries and security forces in Latin America and the Caribbean often support civilian agencies in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. Given the increasing frequency, scale and complexity of military missions and the demand for defense support, the DOD has undertaken several efforts to identify the ways that climate change is irrevocably altering the context in which the department operates.
Daniel P. Erikson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and Principal Deputy Director for Logistics for the Joint Staff, Kristina O’Brien, helmed a tabletop exercise dubbed Precipitous Storm in June to assess opportunities for DOD and the U.S. to deepen engagement in Latin America and the Caribbean to prepare, respond and reduce climate change-related security and defense risks.
The exercise brought together representatives from across the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Southern Command, Department of State and the Agency for International Development for an initial U.S. government strategic and policy-level dialogue.
As a next step, Southcom will host an exercise with Latin American and Caribbean partners in 2023 focused on deepening our regional humanitarian assistance and disaster relief cooperation mechanisms in the context of climate stressors.
The exercise presented significant climate change-driven catastrophic conditions 15 years out to 2037, including direct impacts, such as degraded critical infrastructure, environmental damage, economic decline and food supply insecurity. The exercise also examined longer-term secondary effects on security and defense, such as conflict and instability, economic realignments, migrant flows and competition among major powers.
The exercise underscored that in the near and medium-term, environmental security challenges will threaten U.S. national security interests and adversely impact partners by exacerbating state fragility, fueling conflicts and contributing to large-scale instability and migration, creating conditions that state and non-state actors can exploit.
Participants recognized that DOD’s personnel and logistics capabilities are often the difference between life and death for those affected.
The exercise underscored the need and willingness for DOD to work with and within the interagency to deepen collaboration with regional partners to help further develop their shared capabilities and interoperability.
These initiatives build on other tabletop exercises, like Elliptic Thunder set in East Africa, that similarly brought together several DOD components to assess the impacts of climate change and related defense and security challenges. “We’re trying to increase understanding of all the ways climate change is impacting the missions of the Department of Defense — and particularly how it impacts the warfighter,” said Iris Ferguson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and global resilience.
Erikson noted that these exercises help DOD “adopt a more climate-informed posture, enhance security cooperation to increase military capacity to support civilian authorities’ humanitarian assistance and disaster response, and facilitate even deeper cooperation regionally.”
“Exercises like Precipitous Storm can play an important role in enabling DOD to refine its tool to engage with regional partners on how the changing climate impacts regional defense, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean,” he added
The U.S. and the DOD are accelerating and broadening efforts to address climate security implications. Speaking at the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas in Brazil last July, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said, “No country can find lasting security without tackling the climate crisis.”
DOD, along with several federal agencies across the government, recently released its 2022 Climate Adaptation Plan Progress Report summarizing the significant steps DOD has taken to address climate-related threats across the five lines of effort outlined in the 2021 Climate Adaptation Plan the defense secretary signed September of last year.
“Climate change is not a problem the United States can solve on its own,” Joe Bryan, the defense secretary’s senior climate advisor, said. “We need to work with the international community to build the capabilities we need to meet the climate crisis.” Bryan will lead a DOD delegation to the 27th UN Climate Change Conference in November in Egypt. (Source: US DoD)
24 Oct 22. RAF hones air combat skills with mass ASRAAM firing. The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has honed its aerial combat capabilities with a major missile firing exercise off the coast of Scotland in September.
Announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on 22 October, the exercise saw Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 and Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning combat aircraft launch multiple MBDA AIM-132 Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missiles (ASRAAMs) during a 10-day period.
“The Missile Practice Camp took place over the sea in the Hebrides Air Weapon Ranges last month and was the largest mass firing of the infrared guided ASRAAM from Typhoon FGR4 and F-35B Lightning II,” the MoD said. “Typhoon pilots from 1(F), II(AC), 6 and IX(B) squadrons based at RAF Lossiemouth, as well as from 3(F), and 41 Test & Evaluation Squadron at RAF Coningsby, worked with Lightnings from 207 and 617 squadrons based at RAF Marham in the event.” (Source: Janes)
20 Oct 22. Royal Navy’s HMS Tamar tests mine-hunting concepts during MiWEx 22. The exercise allowed navies to counter realistic mine threats, while exchanging mine warfare techniques. The UK Royal Navy’s (RN) River-class offshore patrol vessel (OPV) HMS Tamar has carried out a series of mine-hunting operations during Mine Warfare Exercise (MiWEx).
The latest iteration of MiWEx is held in the waters off the coast of South Korea.
Britain is one of the 12 nations to take part in this exercise. Other countries include the US, South Korea, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Belgium, Italy, Columbia, Turkey Japan, Singapore.
The exercise allowed participating navies to work together to counter a realistic mine threat, while exchanging several mine warfare techniques.
The tests conducted under this exercise aimed to support RN’s plan to discontinue the deployment of separate mine hunting vessels.
The Navy is rather focusing on promoting the use of specialist teams with mine hunting equipment, including a crewless boat, that can be operated/launched from an OPV, such as HMS Tamar.
The equipment can also be used with Inspiration-class or Type 31 frigates and Type 26 City-class vessels.
According to the RN, this process is referred as ‘modularisation’ or ‘crane-on/crane-off capability’ and all the five River-class OPVs are equipped with such a crane.
During the exercise, Tamar hosted a Guam-based US Navy’s mobile diving/explosive ordnance disposal team to test different associated concepts.
The team launched Remus 100 uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUV) from HMS Tamar’s sea boat to gather data from a depth of 100m for analysis.
HMS Tamar commanding officer commander Teilo Elliot-Smith said: “Recognising that Tamar can bring real capability options to the table is an important part of our purpose in being permanently deployed here.
“The US detachment was impressive and the ship’s company were great in ensuring that working together we became greater than sum of our parts.”
(Source: naval-technology.com)
25 Oct 22. Navies of US and Brunei commence maritime exercise CARAT 2022.
Naval forces of the US and Brunei have begun the 28th iteration of the annual maritime exercise Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2022. The exercise is being conducted from 24 to 31 October in Brunei. CARAT 2022 aims to strengthen regional security cooperation, as well as maritime interoperability and partnership, among the participating forces.
The edition seeks to address a wide range of existing maritime security issues through different training scenarios that were customised based on inputs from the US and allied nations.
Furthermore, the exercise intends to promote and support the US Navy’s existing long-term commitment to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations partners.
Every year, the US Navy deploys a different set of naval assets and task forces to execute the CARAT exercise.
Assets to participate in CARAT 2022 include the US Navy’s Spearhead-class vessel USNS Brunswick (T-EPF 6), a P-8A aircraft from Patrol Squadron 10 (VP-10) and an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter onboard Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Charleston (LCS 18).
Participation in the exercise also marks LCS 18’s rotational deployment to the US Seventh Fleet area of operations.
LCS 18 is a part of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON)-7 that is forward-deployed to promote an open and free Indo-Pacific region.
USS Charleston commander commanding officer Clay Beas said: “Bilateral exercises like these are essential to learning how our navies can operate together in times of peace and conflict to ensure regional security, stability and prosperity.”
Other participant units from the US include Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 5, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Marine Expeditionary Force, DESRON-7, Commander, Task Force (CTF)-72, CTF-73, CTF-75, as well as Seventh Fleet and CTF 71 as the lead planner for CARAT Brunei.
(Source: naval-technology.com)
25 Oct 22. British Army’s five brigade HQs take part in Exercise Cerberus. Personnel are being assessed in multiple capabilities and in their ability to rapidly deploy on a large scale.
British Army troops from five different brigade headquarters within the warfighting division are taking part in Exercise Cerberus-2022 held in Germany.
The command post exercise seeks to test and validate the operational readiness of the 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team, 12 Armoured Brigade Combat Team, 7th Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team, 101 Operational Sustainment Brigade, and 1st Aviation Brigade Combat Team.
The latest exercise in central Europe follows drills conducted at Salisbury Plain Training Area in the UK and is also meant to assess the brigades’ capability to rapidly shift both personnel and equipment on a large scale.
Soldiers from the American 1st Cavalry Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team are also part of the field army exercise.
Luke said: “This exercise is also about building our interoperability with US forces, as well as aligning with Nato procedures and working under Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.”
(Source: army-technology.com)
21 Oct 22. Kraus Hamdani Aerospace to demonstrate drone teaming at US Army exercise. Kraus Hamdani Aerospace (KHA) plans to highlight the teaming capability of its K1000ULE unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) during the US Army’s ‘Project Convergence 2022′ exercise, according to an official at the US-based company. At Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California, KHA will operate multiple UAVs simultaneously, demonstrating their ability to work together to cover a wider area, KHA chief technology officer and co-founder Stefan Kraus said on 20 October. The flights are scheduled to begin the week of 24 October and continue through mid-November. The aircraft will fly in a ‘swarm’ but not as the menacing mob that the term might suggest. “People typically think of swarming in terms of formation flying,” Kraus told Janes. “This is not that. This is machines teaming together to solve problems autonomously in the air. They don’t have to be physically next to each other to do that.” (Source: Janes)
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InVeris Training Solutions combines an agile approach with an unmatched expertise in training technology to design and deliver customized, cutting-edge, first-rate training solutions that keep military, law enforcement and commercial range customers safe, prepared and ready to serve – Because Seconds Matter™. With a portfolio of technology-enabled training solutions, and a team of 400 employees driven to innovate, InVeris Training Solutions is the global leader in integrated live-fire and virtual weapons training solutions. With its legacy companies, FATS® and Caswell, InVeris Training Solutions has fielded over 15,500 live-fire ranges and 7,500 virtual systems globally during its 95-year history. The Company is headquartered in Suwanee, Georgia and partners with clients in the US and around the world from facilities on five continents.
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