Defence`s Feeds

The Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) are looking to laser scan US Navy (USN) ships to better assess the vessels and conduct related work on them. Previously, yard workers and supervisors would have to rely on hand drawings for ship checks, but navy engineers say

A slew of Pentagon programme cuts could be on the horizon across the services if US Army Secretary Mark Esper takes the department’s helm. During his 16 July Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearing to become the next Secretary of Defence, Esper said he is committed to the National

The Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) Unit (MMU) has been established, the Luftwaffe announced on its website on 10 July. Multinational MRTT Force (MMF) programme executive board chair, Royal Netherlands Navy Commodore Dick Kreiter, handed over command of the MMU to its first

Senior officials of the four organisations signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the European Defence Agency (EDA), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and the Computer Emergency Response Team for the EU Institutions, Bodies and Agencies (CERT-EU) met today at the EDA premises.

The purpose of the meeting was to update each other on relevant developments and to assess the progress made so far in the implementation of the MoU. The Memorandum, signed in May 2018, provides a framework for cooperation through which the four organisations can leverage synergies  in order to achieve a safe and open cyberspace and to promote civil & military synergies. 

Significant progress has been achieved since the MoU entered into effect in June 2018, notably a continuous exchange of views on top cybersecurity aspects (including policy, technical, operational items), reciprocal participation to events and a better understanding by respective staff of how the four organisations can work together..

The collaboration roadmap prepared by the MoU working group, which contains concrete activities and deliverables scheduled throughout 2019, has been reflected in the signatories' respective work programmes, ensuring improved coherence. The main focus of the roadmap is on training and cyber exercises, building on the cooperation capacity and the improved exchange of information on respective projects and events. The aim is to complement the respective work of the four partners and avoid duplication of efforts, also taking into account broader EU initiatives in the cyber domain. 
 
As part of the cooperation, the four partners are planning to organise another major event in the second part of 2020. They also want to pay additional attention to improving incident response mechanisms and processes as well as increased joint participations at high visibility events in the Cybersecurity and Cyber Defence area.
 

More information:

• Four EU cybersecurity organisations enhance cooperation

 

Chernobyl, Behind the Scenes

Picture: vibration test on a munitions lot

Last June, EDA’s 2019 ‘Round Robin Test’ was launched with the participation of nine laboratories from seven EDA Member States (Poland, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Cyprus) as well as from Norway (which has signed an Administrative Agreement with the Agency). The initiative is designed to compare test results obtained in different Member States laboratories working on ammunition safety.

These multinational tests, organised on a yearly basis under the auspices of EDA, are a central tool established by the European Network of National Safety authorities on Ammunition (ENNSA) whose objective is to enhance cooperation and interoperability between national authorities in charge of ammunition safety. 

In a Round Robin Test (RTT), the results of different laboratories are all considered to be at the same level of quality: the intent is thus not to verify the accuracy of the results obtained from each and every laboratory by comparing them with the reference exact result, but rather to verify the dispersion of the data and the possibility of using a certain standard to obtain reliable results (within a certain range of errors considered tolerable), under different conditions. Therefore, what is evaluated in an RRT is the standard itself, not the performance of the laboratories. A successful RRT provides the assurance that the standard used is suitable to generate ‘reproducible’ results. A failed test, on the other hand, can help to highlight the need to amend and/or supplement the standard.
Focus on Energetic Materials

This year’s RRT is focused on the characterization of Energetic Materials, which are key components of any kind of ammunition, and more specifically on propellants (single-base nitrocellulose) and high explosives (HMX). All nine participating laboratories will soon receive samples from the same explosive batch and will be required to perform identical tests, all referring to explosive sensitivity and thermal stability, in particular: impact sensitivity, friction sensitivity, Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA),

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Heat Flow Calorimetry (HFC), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The test is led by one of the most experienced European laboratories in this field, the Polish Laboratory of Combat Assets Testing of the Military Institute of Armament Technology (MIAT), located in Zielonka, near Warsaw. Coordinator of this test is Agata Kamieńska-Duda, Head of MIAT’S Ammunition Test Laboratory.
 

Room for improvement

Bogdan Krysiński, the current chairman of ENNSA, is responsible in MIAT for testing ammunition after long-term storage. He insists on the substantial added value provided by the annual Round Robin Tests initiative but also believes it could be further improved.  “The RRT initiative is very valuable in many aspects. First of all, it allows everybody to compare research capabilities among the institutes and exchange experience among the researchers. However, it would be wrong to claim this is enough. Science never stops. Better methods of ammunition performance should be continuously sought for in order to provide a more precise assessment of its safety and operational reliability”, he commented. 

“For many types of ammunition and their components it will be probably necessary to introduce a broader scope of testing than that used within the current RRT. Another issue is the need to develop unambiguous templates of documents for the preparation of the tests, as well as for the recording and reporting of the test results. Recent experiences confirm the importance of this. Continuous improvement of the Round Robin Test programme is thus something we should keep in mind for the benefit of all”, he stated.
 

Background

In 2010 the EDA Steering Board approved the establishment of the European Network of National Safety authorities on Ammunition (ENNSA) with the primary task to facilitate communication among the national bodies which are in charge of ammunition safety. The focus of ENNSA, as agreed by its members, was to explore the harmonisation of ammunition qualification to improve interoperability and increase cooperation among Member States, in parallel with achieving savings across the ammunition production/procurement cycle. One of the basic tools designed for this purpose is the Round Robin Test (RRT) programme.  It serves to compare and validate test results obtained in different laboratories of the Member States working within the area of ammunition safety.
 

 

Parliament's committees deal with EU legislative proposals by adopting reports, which then are referred to plenary for voting by all Members, and appoint negotiation teams to conduct talks with Council. They adopt non-legislative reports, organise hearings with experts and scrutinise other EU bodies and institutions. Parliament can set up sub-committees and special committees to deal with specific issues. Each committee elects a chair and up to four vice-chairs for a two and a half year mandate.

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On 10 July 2019 the SEDE Committee elects its Chair and Vice-Chairs.
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The EDA SES Military Aviation Board (ESMAB) today held its 7th meeting at policy level. The meeting, which took place at the EUROCONTROL premises, was chaired by EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq.

The meeting was attended by the European Commission’s Director General for Mobility and Transport, Henrik Hololei, the Chairman of the EU Military Committee (EUMC), General Claudio Graziano, the Director General of Eurocontrol, Eamonn Brennon, the Commission Director for Aviation, Filip Cornelis, as well as representatives from a wide range of key aviation stakeholders, notably the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU), the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM), NATO, the European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE), the Performance Review Body (PRB) and the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD). Also present were representatives from the four countries EDA has concluded Administrative Agreements with (Norway, Switzerland, Serbia, Ukraine). The ESMAB policy level is comprising Member States’ military aviation authorities or equivalent.

The meeting allowed participants to have an informal high-level exchange of views between the main civil and military actors involved in this domain, with a particular focus on the challenges and opportunities for civil and military collaboration in on Single European Sky. 

One of the operational conclusions of the meeting was that the ESMAB agreed to support the document “U-Space, Drones and Military Low-Level Flights” including its annex “Operations for traffic below 500ft AGL: a Military view” and to use this document at national and EU level, as a basis to increase awareness of and support for the interests of military aviation in the framework of U-Space developments. This document will be updated as a living document on a regular basis considering other aspects enlarging the scope of the analysis. The Board also welcomed the EDA-EASA guidelines for the accommodation of military instruments flight rules (IFR) for MALE RPAS under GAT (airspace classes A-C) outside segregated airspace and agreed to use the guidelines as a reference for the accommodation of MALE-type RPAS within the European airspace..

Regarding Higher Airspace Operations, the ESMAB agreed to Support the European Defence Agency activities to monitor the work led by EASA as regard the regulatory framework and the work led by SESAR Joint Undertaking and EUROCONTROL as regards the concept of operations for Higher Airspace.

The ESMAB management was also tasked, with the support of EDA, to further investigate the need to establish of a working group involving Member States representatives, as well as representatives of relevant civil and military organisations (NATO, ECTL, EASA, ICAO, etc.) with the objective to together address the cyber security challenges for the air domain, and to revert to the ESMAB (policy level) with a proposal.

The next policy level meeting of the ESMAB is scheduled for end of January 2020.
 

Background

An EDA SES Military Aviation Board (ESMAB) was created by the European Defence Agency Steering Board on 30 September 2015. Ever since, ESMAB meets at two level : - management/expert level and executive/policy level.

Rules and regulations of the civilian world can have an important impact on the military. Consequently, EDA is now recognised as the interface between Member States, EU institutions and agencies. A prominent example is the impact the Single European Sky and its related regulations have on the military. EDA, in its role of interface and facilitator of the coordination of military views is making the military voices heard in this important modernisation process through its successful cooperation with the European Commission, Eurocontrol, and other key EU bodies and agencies involved in SES. This is also achieved thanks to EDA participating Member States’ commitment to the ESMAB which held its first meeting in May 2016.
 

More information: 

• EDA in Single European Sky (project page)
• The Military In SES / SESAR