Defence`s Feeds

Moog Space and Defense Group has developed and tested the Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP), designed to be installed on newbuild tracked and wheeled armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) to enhance their firepower. The RIwP has a dual-axis stabilised base platform, which in its

The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency's (PMSA's) Maritime Patrol Vessel (MPV) programme is progressing fast, according to Pakistani media reports. Under the programme six new patrol vessels - now confirmed to be four 600-tonne and two 1,500-tonne platforms - are being sourced from China

Pyongyang will launch retaliatory nuclear strikes against the United States if it determines that Washington is planning a pre-emptive strike against North Korea, the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper warned on 5 October. The North's latest threat comes after South Korea and the US carried out

Americas

• AM General has been awarded a $151 million contract to provide High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (Humvees) to Afghanistan, Ukraine, and the US National Guard and Reserves. The deals cover new vehicles, automotive kits, spare parts, and training. Afghanistan will receive 360 M1152A1B2 and 73 M1151A1B1 variants while Ukraine and US forces will receive 40 M1152 and 237 M997A3 ambulance vehicles respectively.

• In order to fill a capability gap before the introduction of what comes from the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, the US Army is considering a new block upgrade of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. This new AH-64F variant will have an improved radar, forward-looking infrared sensor, and a new helmet, according to Col. Jeff Hager, the service’s program manager. However, a better look at the time frame for FVL’s introduction will be necessary in order to judge the need for a full block upgrade.

Middle East & North Africa

• Three US Navy warships have been dispatched to the coast of Yemen following an attack on an Emirati HSV-2 by Houthi forces. The USS Nitze (DDG-94), USS Mason (DDG-87) and the afloat forward staging base USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15) are now stationed near Bab Al Mandeb strait where the missile attack took place. Prior to its use by the UAE, the HSV-2 was once used by US Military Sealift Command.

Europe

• A pooling initiative is to commence between the French and German defense ministries for the purchase and joint use of C-130J transport aircraft following the signing of a declaration of intent in Paris. Berlin announced plans to purchase between four and six of the aircraft from Lockheed Martin which would be added to those recently ordered by France. The move is part of a solution to fill a German cargo and transport aircraft capability gap caused by delays and limitations of the larger A400M from Airbus and the retirement of their older Transall cargo planes.

• Raytheon and Kongsberg have successfully test-fired an extended range version of Raytheon’s Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) from the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS). By simply pairing the sensor from the AMRAAM to an Evolved Sea Sparrow missile (ESSM) the new variant gives a 50% in maximum range and 70% in maximum altitude. Modifications undertaken to accommodate the new missile include extending the top row of three canisters by a foot, and Raytheon is targeting first deliveries of the missile in the 2020 timeframe.

• A lack of orders alongside a complex production process has seen production of the Eurofighter Typhoon suspended and potentially removed from the German market, at least until 2018. A joint European offering, the Typhoon receives components manufactured at four plants in Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain, which makes the production very complicated and expensive. It’s believed that Spain may soon follow in suspending production but production lines are likely to remain open in Italy and the UK. This is due to orders arranged between Italy and Kuwait as well as UK ambitions to shift Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia.

Asia Pacific

• Disclosures made by a South Korean lawmaker have revealed that the two Green Pine radars bought from Israel’s Elbit Systems have been failing repeatedly. Data submitted to Rep. Lee Chul-gyu showed that the radars have stopped working 21 times over the past three years which resulted in the anti-ballistic missile radars being out of operation for up to nine days at a time. An anonymous air force official said the reason was because moisture entered the radars, condensing inside the antennae. A temporary solution by the service was to install air conditioners inside the units and plans are in motion to house them inside “radomes” next year.

• India is anxious to close a number of defense and nuclear related deals with the Pentagon as the Obama administration enters its final months. Deals including the purchase of 22 MQ-1 Predator UAVs are in advanced stages of negotiations and should be finalized within the coming months. But with a potentially radical regime change on the cards in Washington, New Delhi may want to capitalize on the good relationship between leaders Modi and Obama as the prospect of an “America First” Trump administration may spark a US pullback from Asia.

Today’s Video

Elta’s Green Pine:

Top 10 Destroyers

Bisalloy Steels CEO and managing director Greg Albert announced today the appointment of Shane Gleeson to the position of group general manager sales and marketing.

SNC-Lavalin has announced that it has secured a two-year contract extension from the Government of Canada to provide In-Service-Support (ISS) to the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) minor warships and auxiliary vessels.

The New Zealand Defence Force's (NZDF) future ice-capable fleet replenishment tanker is scheduled to be delivered in January 2020.

The refit programme of the UK Royal Navy’s Duke Class Type 23 Frigate HMS Westminster has been completed.

Hosted by the National Aviation Authority of Portugal (Autoridade Aeronáutica Nacional, AAN), the Annual Military Airworthiness Conference kicked off in Lisbon this Wednesday with keynote speeches delivered by EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq and General Manuel Teixeira Rolo of AAN.

The two-day event (5/6 October) brings together key stakeholders from national authorities, industry, European agencies, NATO and international organisations for presentations and discussions on a variety of topics related to harmonization of military airworthiness requirements , implementation experiences and integration into a global context.

In his speech, Mr Domecq stressed that standardisation, including in the area of airworthiness requirements, was a "key enabler" for the implementation of the EU Global Strategy. "The application of common standards and recommended best practice is a key enabler for defence cooperation and helps strengthen the European Defence Technological and Industrial base. Most importantly, from a defence perspective, such standardisation would support effective cooperation and improve interoperability", he said. 

He also recalled that since the establishment of the Military Airworthiness Authorities (MAWA) Forum, a lot of work has been done particularly in the area of European Military Airworthiness Requirements, the EMARs. “With the EMARs that are now developed, nations have created a baseline for a common approach to processes like certification, organisational approvals and the preservation of airworthiness”. However, “a real common approach can only be established if EMARs are also implemented in a uniform way, which is a national responsibility of the Member States”, he stressed.

Based on an earlier EDA funded study by Eurocopter, it is estimated that the adoption by Member States of optimised and harmonised military airworthiness regulations through the European Military Airworthiness Requirements would deliver a reduction of up to 50% of the development time and at least 10% of development costs up to initial-type certification. Significant further cost savings could also be achieved during the in-service phase.
 

Positive trend

Currently, the status of implementation of the EMARs varies from nation to nation, and at this stage the application is still mostly limited to some multinational aircraft programmes like A400M. “That said, there are signs that things are moving in the right direction. For example, NAHEMA has decided to use EMARs for the certification framework of its NH90 programme. And the participating nations in the MRTT programme will make use of the EMARs to benefit from a common approach”, Mr Domecq said. In the next years, the focus should be on the standardisation of how the Member States ensure and preserve their military airworthiness, Mr Domecq said.

The ultimate outcome Member States should aim for, he said, should include:

1. a single certification approach for multinational programmes, which would result in less development costs and optimised use of certification resources;

2. the development and application of common agreed industrial standards which would strengthen the position of the European defence industry in the global market;

3. optimised pooling and sharing of spare parts and maintenance resources within a single regulatory and oversight system (of key interest in relation to civil-derivative aircraft, but also with regard to military platforms such as A400M, Eurofighter, NH90 and others);

4. optimised use of oversight resources by collaboration in oversight obligations;

5. minimised gaps or differences between national regulatory and oversight systems, which would in turn minimise safety risks in multinational materiel cooperation programmes.

 

More information:

• EDA project page on European Military Airworthiness Authorities Forum (MAWA)
• MAWA Annual Conference 2015 

This month the Royal Navy is hosting a large-scale demonstration of maritime autonomous systems, which will see 40 participants from industry, academia and defence operating unmanned and autonomous vehicles. Katie Woodward finds out more about the Un…

EDA’s Personnel Recovery Functional Area Service Advanced Technology Demonstrator (PR FAS ATD), a sophisticated information management and Command & Control (C2) tool recently developed within the European Defence Agency to increase the efficiency of personnel recovery actions during military operations and missions, has now started being used by Member States in national PR courses.

Poland broke the first ground with two national Personnel Recovery (PR) courses, one in May and the most recent one from 12-23 September at the National Defence University in Rembertów in which the PR FAS ATD was successfully deployed and used. Organised on a regular basis by the Personnel Recovery Branch of the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command (AFOC), these courses aim at familiarising Polish military staff with PR. More than 60 students were trained on how to collect information and plan the recovery of isolated personnel in challenging and realistic scenarios. EDA facilitated the on-site training of users and provided information and technical support. The demonstrator almost completely replaced the usual ‘table-top’ exercise.
 

Easy to handle

After the courses, students agreed that the demonstrator was easy to use and intuitive. They especially praised its accuracy and considered it an important step in the delivery of PR education and training. “I believe that PR FAS ATD is a very handy tool for exercise purposes and I liked using it” said Major Robert Kietliński, one of the trainees. “Although it is just a technical demonstrator, I can see its potential benefits for real-life missions”.

Lt. Col. Zbigniew Zblewski, the chief of the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command Personnel Recovery Branch, welcomed the new possibilities offered by the demonstrator as a “significant leap forward” in PR training. According to him, “it is time to use the demonstrator on a much wider scale and to introduce it to more students”. “Every piece of available information that matters for PR is centralized in a single tool, everything is stored within the system which is very convenient for students and future controllers alike”, he commented.

The National Defense University in Rembertów was also engaged in the project; its representatives noted that “PR FAS ATD is an important step towards modernizing Personnel Recovery and unifying this field of knowledge within the Polish Armed Forces”. Moreover, an evaluation of the course results showed that students with varying degrees of knowledge of PR consistently found the system to be user friendly and comprehensive; they also concluded that it had improved their knowledge of PR significantly.
 

Demonstrator ready for other deployments

PR FAS ATD is the latest operational output developed in the context of the EDA’s Project Team Personnel Recovery. The tool supports planners and controllers with a number of functionalities and improved situational awareness. While it is usually possible to use the demonstrator through a standard PR FAS physical workstation, an internet-based (on-line) solution was chosen for the Polish course with the connection of six different computers each running an independent system.

EDA has distributed the tool to all its participating Member States (pMS), the European Union Military Staff (EUMS) and the European Personnel Recovery Centre (EPRC). The Capability, Armament & Technology Director, Air Commodore Peter Round, underscored that” the EDA is always ready to provide deployment support and training”. The Agency is also working to address the various aspects of the through-life management of the tool to ensure its operational functionality in the long-term. “An important objective of the EDA is to support member states in the development of the capabilities required to effectively recover isolated personnel and save lives”, Pete Round stated.

 

More information:

• Polish MoD link to PR course
• EDA Personnel Recovery project page
• Hungary hosted EDA Personnel Recovery course (June 2016)

 

The US Army has accepted its first seven Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) at the end of September and is soon shipping those to test sites, programme officials told reporters on 4 October. Some JLTV testing was deferred during an engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase, as the

The first full version of a large turboshaft engine being developed for the US Army as an option for its Future Vertical Lift (FVL) programme has begun testing, manufacturer General Electric (GE) Aviation announced on 3 October. The Future Affordable Turbine Engine (FATE) began full-scale rig

QinetiQ North America (NA) has unveiled two new unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) at the annual Association of the US Army (AUSA) 2016 in Washington, DC, and announced a new teaming arrangement with Estonia's MILREM. QinetiQ's new platforms build on their two most popular UGVs: the Talon and Dragon

Roboteam unveiled a new operational capability for its Micro Tactical Ground Robot (MTGR) unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) and details of countries evaluating its larger Probot platform and opportunities at the annual Association of the US Army (AUSA) 2016 conference in Washington, DC.

Havelsan has completed its acquisition of US-based flight simulation company Quantum3D, the Turkish firm announced on 4 October. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Quantum3D will be operated as two companies by Havelsan, with Quantum3D Government Systems as the business facing US and foreign

India's state-owned shipyard, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), delivered the first of a new class of eight in-house designed Mk IV Landing Craft Utility (LCU) vessels to the Indian Navy (IN) on 30 September. According to the Indian Ministry of Defence, L-51 is expected to be

Russia announced on 3 October that it would suspend a major arms control agreement with the United States meant to de-weaponise at least 34 tonnes each of excess weapon-grade plutonium, about enough for 17,000 nuclear weapons, by converting it to mixed oxide fuel (MOX). The Plutonium Management and

In a bid to bolster its strike capabilities amid growing threats from Pyongyang, South Korea is planning to buy additional Taurus KEPD 350K air-to-surface cruise missiles that can be carried by its F-15K Slam Eagle fighters, Yonhap news agency reported on 4 October. "The military has recently