Defence`s Feeds

Western Australian-based naval shipbuilder Austal has established a joint venture (JV) with German shipyard Fassmer to support a joint bid to build and supply offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Austal said on 5 May that the JV will be based at a new facility in

Key Points BAE Systems Inc. is anticipating production for electronic systems on the F-35 programme will grow rapidly The company does not see any big shift from Trump's 'Buy American' initiative BAE Systems Inc., the US subsidiary of British giant BAE Systems Plc, is anticipating some boom years

Key Points Boeing's latest KC-46 tanker type test aircraft flies again The programme is inching closer to delivering aircraft Boeing's newest KC-46 aerial refuelling tanker made its second flight on 2 May after making its first on 29 April, according to a company spokesman. Boeing spokesman

China has reiterated its opposition to US involvement in the disputes over parts of the South China Sea (SCS). "The issue of the South China Sea is between China and some members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN], rather than between China and the entire ASEAN or between

EVENT On 2 May 2017, Moscow Mayor's office published a list of 4,566 residential buildings to be demolished under the citywide Soviet-era housing renovation programme. This includes buildings with about 1.2 million residents in 85 districts of Moscow; similar housing in further 40 districts was

Key Points Cobham reports rights issue gains 98% subscription Targeted revenue generation from issuance to help company's cash balances Embattled aerospace systems and services company Cobham reported on 5 May that it had received acceptances for 98.01% of the rights issue that was launched on 28

Americas

• Boeing has pulled its Harpoon anti-ship missile out of a US Navy contract aimed at procuring an over-the-horizon (OTH) cruise missile for its Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and frigates. Proposed upgrades to the current Harpoon Block II would have initially extended its range to 150 miles, along with providing a new, more powerful warhead. However, the company stated that changing service requirements “would have to take a lot of capability out of this existing system and really deliver a less-capable weapons system.” Boeing added that they would continue to deliver upgrades for the missile. This leaves the Raytheon/Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile (NSM) and Lockheed Martin Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) as the likely candidates in the OTH effort.

• However, Boeing has reached an important milestone in bringing its KC-46 tanker program closer to serial production, announcing that it now has a total of six units ready for its testing program. The newest, of the planes, which is the second to be produced under a low-rate production order, conducted its first test flight on April 26, and future testing will be largely focus on ensuring that the tanker can stand up to electromagnetic fields—radars and powerful radio towers are capable of scrambling aircraft electronic systems if they are not carefully shielded. Boeing intends to eventually produce as many as 179 KC-46 tankers for the USAF.

• Raytheon has claimed that its Patriot air defense systems have downed more than 100 ballistic missiles in worldwide combat operations since January 1, 2015. Of those 100 or so intercepts, more than 90 involved the low cost Raytheon-made Guidance Enhanced Missile (GEM) family of interceptors. First introduced as an improvement to earlier PAC-2 missiles, early GEMs added a new, faster proximity fused warhead, alongside upgraded seekers to improve performance, and has been subsequently improved into four variants over the last two two decades. The missile operates by flying at extremely high speeds to close in on the threat and then detonating a blast-fragmentation warhead at precisely the right moment.

Middle East & North Africa

• Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is looking to use its facilities to provide engine sustainment and support for Pratt & Whitney F135 engines used on Israeli F-35i Adir fighter jets. Yosi Melamed, general manager of IAI’s Bedek group subsidiary, believes its engine division is the right place to maintain and overhaul F135 engines, and while Israeli F-35s would be the first receive maintenance, the company suggests that this could be expanded to include overhaul work for other aircraft that utilize the US-made engine, but only once an agreement has been reached with Pratt & Whitney. IAI already manufactures wings for the F-35 as a subcontractor to Lockheed.

Europe

• Russian media has reported that the Sukhoi T-50/PAK-FA stealth fighter will be armed with the upgraded Kh-35UE anti-ship missile. An upgrade of the Kh-35, the integration of the tactical cruise missile will give the fighter an added anti-surface mission capability, and add to the aircraft’s weapons load which includes the Kh-38 air-to-surface missile and Kh-58UShK anti-radiation missile. Nikolai Vasilyev, chief designer of the Kh-35UE at the Korolev-based Tactical Missiles Corporation, said that the missile has already demonstrated itself effectively on the carrier-based variants of the MiG-29K and MiG-29KUBR fighter planes, and on the Ka-52 attack helicopter.

Asia Pacific

• India has conducted two successful tests of the BrahMos Block III land attack cruise missile in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Conducted on May 2 and 3, an MoD statement confirmed that both missiles were were in full operational land-to-land configuration and fired from Mobile Autonomous Launchers (MAL). This is the fifth consecutive time that the Block-III version of the munition has been successfully launched against a land-based target in “top-attack” mode. Developed in conjunction with Russia and based on the P-800 Oniks cruise missile, both governments are planning on the development of a BrahMos variant capable of operating in the 600 km-plus range.

• Rheinmetall Defense Australia has picked NOIA as its supplier of ammunition and armament services as part of its bid to win an armored vehicle competition launched by the Australian government. The firm is offering its Boxer CVR armed with a LANCE turret and Northrop Grumman’s C4ISR architecture as a solution to Canberra’s Land 400 Phase 2 program, and faces competition from BAE Systems, who have teamed with Patia to offer the AMV35 Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle (CRV)—a solution that combines Patria’s Armoured ModularVehicle (AMV) and BAE Systems Hägglunds’ E35 turret system. Rheinmetall is also starting a military vehicle center of excellence, creating a program for the design, building and support for its military vehicles in Australia and the Asian region.

• China’s Hongdu Aviation Industry Group (HAIG) has unveiled a B variant prototype of its L-15A Lead-In Fighter Trainer (LIFT) aircraft. The new model is said to be a more combat capable and better armed version of its predecessor and is being touted as potential competition for Korean Aerospace Industries’ (KAI) FA-50. Additions to the L-15B include two afterburning turbofans with Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC), an extended nose section housing a passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radar with a reported 75 km range, and an electronic systems structure, which is most likely to be a radar warning receiver (RWR), located atop the vertical stabiliser. The jet also has nine weapon hardpoints and attachments for a 3.5-tonne payload, with reports stating that the aircraft’s wingtip mounts are strong enough to carry heavy short-range air-to-air missiles.

Today’s Video

• Indian Army test firing of BrahMos Block III:

German Heckler and Koch HK433 Assault Rifle

The US Navy has launched its future America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) after completing the transition from land to the dry dock at Huntington Ingalls Industries' (HII) shipyard.

Raytheon Missile Systems has secured a contract modification worth $78.72m for the sustainment of the AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II tactical missiles operated by the US Air Force, US Navy and other foreign militaries.

The SENER engineering and technology group has signed a partnership agreement with the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Rijeka, Croatia, and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Naval Architecture at the Unive…

Science Applications International (SAIC) has received a task order from the US Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC) Pacific to provide comprehensive cyber support and protection services to the US Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Comman…

The US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Point Mugu, California, has selected LCR Embedded Systems for the supply of its new 3U VPX solution.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Length of video : 150'
You may manually download this video in WMV (1.4Gb) format

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

will take place on Thursday 8 June 2017, 9.00-12:30 in Brussels.

Organisations or interest groups who wish to apply for access to the European Parliament will find the relevant information below.

Further information
watch the meeting live
Access rights for interest group representatives
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the notorious leader of Hezb-e Islami, returned to Kabul today. After several years of on-and-off talks, between the Afghan government and envoys of the party’s leader-in-hiding, a deal allowing his return was finally signed in September 2016. Several months of negotiations on the finer details of the deal’s implementation followed. An overview of AAN’s past reporting on the winding road that led to the deal provides indispensable background to the questions that still surround Hekmatyar’s return to public life.

For AAN’s most recent analysis on Hekmatyar’s return read this dispatch (3 May 2017):

Charismatic, Absolutist, Divisive: Hekmatyar and the impact of his return

 For analysis on the practical impact of the recent deal – on the UN’s sanctions list and on the situation in Shamshatu refugee camp, long the de facto HQ of Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami – see these two dispatches (11 February 2017 and 14 April 2017):

Hekmatyar taken off UN sanctions list: Paving the way for his return – and Hezb-e Islami’s reunification?

Moving Out of Shamshatu: Hezb-e Islami’s refugee followers between hope of return and doubts about the peace deal

To see how the agreement with Hezb-e Islami features within the larger context of the issues facing Afghanistan this year, see here (27 January 2017):

What to Watch? Key issues to follow in Afghanistan in 2017

For background on why Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami is controversial, and how the past still reverberates today, read this dispatch (14 December 2016):

Afghan War Criminal Zardad Freed: No protection for witnesses

For AAN’s analysis on the importance and impact of the deal, as it was being negotiated and signed, see these two dispatches (21 May 2016 and 29 September 2016):

Almost Signed? The peace agreement with Hezb-e Islami

Peace With Hekmatyar: What does it mean for battlefield and politics?

AAN’s paper on the influence of radical Islamic groups – other than the Taleban – among Afghanistan’s youth, includes an in-depth look the role of the Hezb-e Islami youth, including at Afghanistan’s universities (23 June 2015):

Beyond Jihad and Traditionalism: Afghanistan’s new generation of Islamic activists

The following dispatches trace the emergence and development of the negotiations with Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami, both under president Karzai and president Ghani (most recent first):

19 February 2014:

Bomb and Ballot: The many strands and tactics of Hezb-e Islami

6 May 2013:

Adding the Ballot to the Bullet? Hezb-e Islami in transition

7 June 2012:

Another Hezb-e Islami U-Turn – with more to follow? (amended)

26 April 2012:

The second line of talks: Hezb-e Islami in Kabul

 6 November 2010:

Gulbuddin ante portas – again (2)

22 March 2010:

Gulbuddin ante portas – again (Updated)

Finally, see this dispatch for more background on Afghanistan’s ‘Amnesty Law’ that allows the search for peace to take place through blanket amnesty (22 February 2010):

After two years in legal limbo: A first glance at the approved ‘Amnesty law’

The larger a military operation is in size (Member States, troops, equipment involved), the more sophisticated and complete the medical support tends to be. The military medical support options in Europe used to be designed and optimised for military operations of a larger scale. For some of the current missions conducted in the context of the European Union’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), such as antipiracy or training missions, a far smaller number of personnel has to be deployed than in the operations mentioned above.

Against that background EDA carried out the study “Medical Support to Light Footprint Operations” which involved EDA’s ‘Project Team Medical’ and other Ad Hoc Medical Working Groups. The key issue investigated by the study was to keep the quality of medical support at the highest possible level for missions of smaller scale.

The overarching goal was to provide participating Member States with the analytical means to identify new ways of providing effective medical support to so-called ‘Light Footprint Operations’ (LFO) in the context of CSDP. As LFOs are not formally described in current EU or NATO doctrines, there is no agreed set of principles or best practices to tailor medical support to this type of missions.

The study commissioned by EDA analysed key elements of LFOs provides recommendations on a way forward on how to tailor and improve medical support for LFOs, namely:

• EU Medical Concept - requirements for medical support for LFOs and best practices for the provision of medical support must be introduced into the current EU Medical Concept;
• Further harmonization of qualification, material and concepts – based on lessons identified in recent CSDP missions, including difficulties and major obstacles, the study describes options for improved interoperability between units providing medical support, including to facilitate harmonisation and standardisation;
• Categorization of Medical Treatment Facilities (MTF) - based on lessons identified in recent CSDP missions, the study analyzed that the concept of allocation roles should be revisited to consider modularization of medical units as a cost-effective way;
• New technologies and research activities - the study indicates opportunities for multinational cooperation in development and research activities for new technologies, that could be used for both reduce the footprint of medical support in LFOs and the improvement of medical care;
• Engagement between military and civilian medical community - the study identified a number of crossovers in the domains of training of medical professionals and the make-up of deployed medical staff, medical practices of information sharing and medical technologies. To address the synergies and concerns, the study suggests that EDA should seek opportunities to serve as a forum to build trust between the consumers of the technology, the developers and the manufacturers.

 

More information:

• Medical support (EDA project page) 
• EDA symposium discusses EU deploy capabilities for CSDP operations (EDA webnews, June 2016)

Length of video : 97'
You may manually download this video in WMV (1Gb) format

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Length of video : 62'
You may manually download this video in WMV (645Mb) format

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP