Defence`s Feeds

The Security and Defence Subcommittee will hold a debate with High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/European Commission Vice-President Josep Borrell Fontelles, on 26 May. The discussion will focus on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on security and defence, including on CSDP missions and operations. The use of military means to support the fight against the pandemic, and the EU response to cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns will also be looked into.
Meeting agenda and documents
Live streaming
EU Fact Sheets: Security and defence
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Belarusian MAZ-6303KH Railroad Vehicle

What You Need to Know When Playing Military Lottery

The Russian government has described the United States’ decision to unilaterally leave the Open Skies Treaty as “the next step” in Washington’s dismantling of the...

US Marines and sailors are continuing to train and prepare for their upcoming deployment with a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Southern Command...

China has announced a 2020 defence budget of CNY1.268 trillion (USD178 billion). The government said the figure was a year-on-year increase of 6.6%, the lowest rate of...

Georgian Iamani Submachine Gun

China's KZ-1A Mobile Satellite Launch System

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Turkish ZAHA Amphibious Armored Personnel Carrier

Russian Rubezh-ME Coastal Defense Missile System

EDA’s Steering Board has given its green light for the launch of a new project designed to improve the receiver performance of electronic radio frequency (RF) sensors used in military platforms in adverse and heavily contested environments. Dubbed SPICE (‘Superior Performance in Contested Environments’), the project builds on the successful work already accomplished at the Agency in the same critical domain. 

At this stage, the Netherlands and Sweden are participating in this new project which is however open to all Member States. It aims to further develop the excellent results of two previous EDA ad hoc projects on Switched Applications (SWAP) and Switched Applications-Complementary (SWAP-C), local RF power generation and amplification based on switched technology. These projects were focused on narrow band transceivers to improve the performance of radars for naval applications and on wideband transceivers for electronic warfare for combat aircraft. Both of them demonstrated the superior performance of gallium-Nitride (GaN) technology for the transmit path compared to other technologies previously used.
 

Improving the receivers

Over the next 36 months, SPICE will take this work forward with the aim of improving the performance of the receive channel of the transceiver (dynamic range, linearity, efficiency etc.). This is done in an integral approach over the complete RF chain, while taking into account additional requirements such as cost and other system-imposed constraints (including cooling). The work will start with investigating, defining and specifying concepts with which the linearity and performance of receivers can be achieved. This also includes an assessment of all the technologies currently available. 

As part of an exploration and experimentation phase, the consortium will work on wideband receivers, narrowband receivers and packaging and integration technologies. The consortium involved in the afore-mentioned projects remains the same, contributing to increase the expertise of the European defence industry and create a stable supply chain around key European players.

Turkish BMC Tugra Tank Transporter

Turkish Koluman Derman Heavy Utility Truck

Ukrainian Bastion 3 Multiple Launch Rocket System

Belarusian Uragan-M Multiple Launch Rocket System

The EU’s annual report on arms export control presently lags behind the national reports of many countries. The introduction of a searchable online database will be a substantial step in increasing the user-friendliness of the report. This paper makes recommendations with regard to readability, comprehensiveness and comparability. Perhaps the principal recommendation is that steps be taken to harmonise the data provided under the categories ‘licensed value’ and ‘actual exports’, which are presently not consistently interpreted across the EU. The main argument of this paper is that the EU should move towards using data visualisation to complement the lengthy statistical tables in the annual report and thus make it more readable. The EU and its Member States should also explore opportunities to enhance the data contained in the report to include additional identified data fields, narrative sections to complement the statistical data, and disaggregated data on licence denials. In identifying additional data fields that could be included, the paper also examines the challenges associated with the provision of the data in each case.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Ukrainian KrAZ-7634 Special Wheeled Chassis

Following his appointment by the EDA Steering Board on 5 March, Jiří Šedivý has officially taken over on 4 May as the Agency’s new Chief Executive for an initial 3-year mandate, extendable for two additional years. 

“It is a great honour and privilege for me to take up the position of Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency. As European defence cooperation has made significant progress over recent years with the establishment of new EU defence tools, the importance of the Agency has considerably grown. The current global COVID-19 pandemic and its economic, budgetary and security-related repercussions make EU defence cooperation even more indispensable. New challenges notwithstanding, we must preserve the continuity and dynamics in the area of collaborative defence capability development. Therefore, and perhaps more than before, we need a strong, effective and reliable Agency supporting its Member States, enhancing cooperation with all relevant EU bodies and institutions as well as partners”, Jiří Šedivý stated when taking up his duties. 
  

Defence experience 

Mr Šedivý has extensive experience in the defence domain, having served as Defence Minister of the Czech Republic (2006-2007), Deputy Defence Minister (2010-2012), NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning (2007-2010) and Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to NATO (2012-2019). 
 

More information:

• Jiří Šedivý, EDA Chief Executive

 

Turkish Korkut Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun