Defence`s Feeds

Key Points The attack in Tripoli was the latest of a series of attacks mounted by Islamic State militants targeting election-related sites and individuals in a number of countries where the group has a presence, notably Iraq and Afghanistan. Those attacks followed a 22 April audio message issued

Key Points President Putin's fourth term in office is expected to herald changes to how Russia's defence sector is managed Military modernisation has been a key tenet of the Putin Administration Russian President Vladimir Putin’s swearing-in for an unprecedented fourth term in office on 7

US ammunition and rocket motor manufacturer Orbital ATK generated revenues of USD1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2018, a rise of almost 21% year-on-year, according to financial results published on 3 May. The company’s operating income in the three months to 1 April also rose, reaching

The US Department of Defense (DoD) says it is certain recent laser attacks near Djibouti on US military aircraft were conducted by Chinese nationals and put US military personnel at risk. “They are very serious incidents,” DoD spokesperson Dana White said during a 3 May press conference

German defence and automotive group Rheinmetall AG released financial results for the first quarter of 2018 on 4 May, with figures showing an annual decline in both sales and income. Total company revenue was EUR1.26 billion (USD1.5 billion) for the quarter, a fall of 6.6%, while earnings before

Freewave Technologies has unveiled its Zumlink 900 MHz ISM-band radio, designed for use in low-bandwidth environments, during the Xponential 2018 conference in Denver, Colorado. The Zumlink is available in different bandwidths and has a fully enclosed module with a radio on an interface card with

Datron World Communications has introduced its latest handheld radio, the multi-band Spectre M HH3100. The company has developed three variants: the HH3100V which covers the 30-88 MHz frequency range; the HH3100A covering 30-136 MHz; and the HH3100M covering 30-512 MHz. The HH3100A, in particular,

Specialist video surveillance firm Digital Barriers has developed a new body-worn system to provide live, low-latency recording and streaming of video for the dismounted soldier or covert operator, which it displayed for the first time at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2018 exhibition in Kuala

Hanwha Defense Systems of South Korea has teamed with the Malaysian firm AVP Engineering to offer the 6x6 Tigon armoured personnel carrier (APC) for a potential Malaysian Army requirement. The first example of the Tigon, which was completed early in 2018, is expected to undertake a limited number

A CIVILIAN was killed when an improvised explosive device (IED), emplaced by unidentified militants, detonated in the village of Kebeiba, near the town of Dibis, in Iraq's Kirkuk province on 2 May, Iraqi News reported. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the Islamic State

The Indonesian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has facilitated an agreement between national finance company PT Askrindo and private-sector defence companies to support their development in national and international markets. The MoD said on 3 May that through the agreement – signed by PT Askrindo

AT LEAST 12 people - including two security forces personnel - were killed and seven others were wounded by Islamic State militants during a small-arms and suicide attack targeting the High National Election Commission headquarters in Libya's capital Tripoli on 2 May, Reuters reported. Reports

On 2 May, the Dutch Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a contract with Prox Dynamics of Norway to procure dozens of Black Hornet rotary-wing micro unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the Royal Netherlands Army and Marines. Buying the micro-UAVs off the shelf will avoid teething problems and therefore

On 15 May, SEDE organizes a public hearing on soldiers' rights in EU Member States with representatives of the European Organisation of Military Associations (EUROMIL), the Geneva Centre for the Democratic control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the EEAS (tbc).
Further information
Draft programme
Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

SEDE organizes a public hearing on soldiers' rights in EU Member States with representatives of the European Organisation of Military Associations (EUROMIL), the Geneva Centre for the Democratic control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the EEAS (tbc).
Location : Altiero Spinelli, room A3E-2
Further information
Draft programme
Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

On Tuesday 15 May, the European Commission and the European External Action Service will present their Action Plan on Military Mobility to the Subcommittee of Security and Defence. Facilitating the movement of troops across the continent is a vital for Europe's defence and Members will discuss the measures proposed such as the development of common military requirements and the infrastructure policies that will have to be implemented.
Further information
meeting documents
Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

will take place on 15 May, 9:00-12:30 and 14:30-18:00 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, 2018 - EP

Soviet R-3 Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile

Americas

• Special Operations Command is contracting AAI Corp., Hunt Valley for the continuation of its MEUAS II-B services. The contract is valued at $120 million and provides for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) services on its mid-endurance unmanned aircraft systems. AAI Corp., a Textron subsidiary, so far has received similar contracts in 2012 and 2016. AAI Corp. manufactures the Aerosonde and the Shadow v2 UAV’s. Currently it cannot be confirmed which UAV will be chosen. However considering past purchases, one can assume that AAI’s Aerosonde will be the likely winner. The Aerosonde and the Shadow v2 are direct competitors to Boeing’s/Insitu ScanEagle UAV system.

• Raytheon Missile Systems Co., Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a contract modification in support of ballistic missile defense efforts. The contract is valued at over $387 million and allows Raytheon to procure a limited subset of items necessary to maintain schedule for eventual manufacture, assembly, test and delivery of 20 Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA missiles and related efforts. SM-3 Standard missiles, also known as Ballistic Missile Killers, have been the backbone of the US Navy’s ballistic missile defense plans for many years now. The missile will be the mainstay of naval Anti-Ballistic Missile defense and can also fulfill an “outer air” role via long-range kills of bombers carrying cruise missiles. The SM-3 uses the RIM-156 test program’s airframe and propulsion/booster, then adds a third-stage rocket motor, a GPS/INS guidance section and a LEAP) kinetic warhead. At present, SM-3 is in naval service with the USA and Japan, may be ordered by the Netherlands for its air defense destroyers, and is set to play a key role in Europe’s land-based missile defenses from bases in Romania and Poland. The modification increases the total cumulative face value of the contract to $1.1 billion. The work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona and is set to be completed by April 2022.
  
• The US Navy is looking to extend its “Group 5” fleet of unmanned air systems within the next decade. “Group 5” fleet includes the largest and most capable UAS in the US inventory. So far only three aircraft types are in development or production. The systems in question are the MQ-9 Reaper, the RQ-4 Global Hawk and the MQ-4C Triton. By design, these large and long-endurance aircraft operate in secluded airspace as far as possible from manned aircraft, each performing their singular missions in safe isolation. The next addition to the “Group 5” will be the MQ-25 Stingray. With its implementation the US Navy seeks to close the gap with between UAS and manned aircraft by adding a system that is designed from the outset to operate within meters or less of large manned aircraft. For the first time in an aircraft development program, the Navy will assume the role as the lead systems integrator and will responsible for the development of the MQ-25’s carrier-based cockpit as well as for delivering the upgraded Carrier Vessel and Nuclear Segment which includes modifying the joint precision approach landing system and the airborne launch and recovery equipment systems. The Navy has earmarked about $2.2 billion in the budget through fiscal year 2022 to spend on the air system component of the MQ-25 program.

Middle East & Africa

• Israel has postponed a planned live test of its Arrow-3 ballistic missile interceptor to improve the system’s readiness. The Arrow system is a more advanced weapon than the Patriot and possesses far more range, undertaking high altitude interceptions and covering a wide area as a Theater Missile Defense (TMD) system. Unlike the USA’s THAAD, PAC-3, or SM-3 which all use “hit to kill” technology, Israel’s Arrow relies on a directed fragmentation warhead to destroy enemy missiles. It can work in conjunction with a number of systems. The system passed its first full interception test over the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 and was deployed in Israel in 2017. The cancelled test in Alaska was scheduled for June 2018 and was supposed to test the missile’s interception distances. Arrow-3 is jointly manufactured by Israel Aircraft Industries and Boeing and is regarded as bulwark against Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah and serves as the top tier of an integrated Israeli shield built up to withstand various potential missile or rocket salvoes.

Europe

• The German arms manufacturer Heckler and Koch Defense, Inc. has been awarded a contract for the purchase of up to 15,000 M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle systems. The overall value of the contract is about $29.4 million under of a five-year, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, with the Marine Corps being the main contracting activity. The M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle is a lightweight, magazine-fed select-fire weapon that originally was billed to replace the aging M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. The Marine Corps is considering replacing the service’s M4 and M16 service rifles with the M27 IAR. Most of the work will be performed at Oberndorf, Germany. Other locations include Columbus, Georgia and Ashburn, Virginia and is scheduled for completion by April 2023.
  
• The Spanish-German defense contractor Airbus Defense and Space has recently unveiled a 1:1 model of its Medium Altitude Long Endurance / Remotely Piloted Air System (MALE RPAS). The EuroMALE has been developed in a partnership with the Dassault Aviation (France) and Leonardo (Italy) and is the direct successor to the failed EuroHawk project. The drone is slightly bigger as IAI’s Heron TP has a turboprop engine and will be capable of carrying various weapon systems. EuroMALE is the second biggest European defense project and costs about $356 million. The drone has a wingspan of 26 meters, can carry up to 992 pounds of equipment and can fly for about 24 hours on an altitude of 49.000 feet. Currently there are between 300-400 drone projects worldwide, with the US covering about three-quarters of the market followed by Israel and Europe.

Asia-Pacific

• The Indian government has announced its wish to amend a deal with the Pentagon. Instead of buying 22 unarmed Guardian naval surveillance drones, New Delhi now favors the acquisition of armed drones that can boost ‘Hunt and Kill’ capabilities. With this bid the Indian government seeks to substantially enhance India’s so-called stand-off weapon capabilities. The Trump administration had agreed to supply long endurance high-altitude surveillance armed unmanned aerial vehicles in June 2017 at a cost of $2-3 billion. Manufactured by General Atomics, Predator-B has both land and naval versions and can be armed with air-to-land missiles, anti-ship missiles and laser guided bombs and are capable of hunting and destroying targets across seas and over land borders. This matter will be likely discussed in further detail during the two-plus-two dialogue between the Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Sawaraj and Minister of Defense Nirmala Sitharaman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary Defense Jim Mattis.

Today’s Video

• SIKORSKY CH-53K Display at ILA 2018 Berlin – 1st Flight outside USA

Aerosonde 4.7 from
M80 Stiletto
(click to view full)

It has been a great week for Textron subsidiary AAI. At the end of February, they made a big breakthrough in the US military market, as their Aerosonde-G UAV became 1 of 3 platforms eligible to compete for up to $847 million in US Navy and its allied rent-a-drone contracts. Less than a week later, the firm is walking away with a $600 million sole win of US Special Operations Command’s MEUAS-II UAV services contract, displacing MEUAS incumbent Boeing and its ScanEagle.

The Aerosonde UAV is AAI’s most likely offering for MEUAS-II, but that can’t be confirmed yet…

RQ-7, Iraq
(click to view larger)

The only other candidate is AAI’s Shadow UAV, a runway-using drone in wide service with the US Army, USMC, and foreign customers. It can also be launched via catapult, the 200 version lacks the “go anywhere” deployability needed by special forces. A Shadow 400 variant can be recovered aboard ship, but required ship size may be an issue for Special Forces.

The previous MEUAS incumbent, Boeing’s ScanEagle, can be launched from naval platforms as small as Mk.V SEAL boats, from HMMWV jeeps, or from land-based sites, and is recovered using a portable Skyhook system. AAI’s Australian Aerosonde Pty Ltd. subsidiary makes their other UAS offering, and the Aerosonde’s catapult and net system means it can be launched and recovered from the same sorts of platforms as ScanEagle. Asked about this issue, AAI representatives could say only that:

“Before we can make any formal announcements about this award, we need customer approval. I will get in touch with you as soon as I can share more.”

If SOCOM has in fact chosen an Aerosonde model, the implicit endorsement of their award is another huge advance in the platform’s military competitiveness. Before 2012, Aerosonde had little presence in the global military market, and even their home country Australia had chosen AAI’s RQ-7B Shadow as its mid-tier UAV. With its technology validated by 2 huge American contracts, AAI’s Aerosonde UAVs can be expected to be a much more visible and competitive product in global tenders.

That’s good news for buyers, but less so for Boeing/Insitu’s ScanEagle. Their UAV has gone from the sole-source solution in 2 major American contracts, to forced competition in one and no position in the second. The firm’s ScanEagle UAV still has important advantages in its array of specialized variants, from sniper location to WMD/HAZMAT surveillance. Insitu has also stepped up with a larger RQ-21A Integrator UAV as a follow-on offering, and won a significant USMC contract with it. Even so, the MEUAS-II setback may leave Boeing and Insitu debating the need for further investment and upgrades in their core ScanEagle platform.

Contracts & Key Events

Mk.V launches ScanEagle
(click to view full)

May 02/18: AAI Corp. is back in business Special Operations Command is contracting AAI Corp., Hunt Valley for the continuation of its MEUAS II-B services. The contract is valued at $120 million and provides for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) services on its mid-endurance unmanned aircraft systems. AAI Corp., a Textron subsidiary, so far has received similar contracts in 2012 and 2016. AAI Corp. manufactures the Aerosonde and the Shadow v2 UAV’s. Currently it cannot be confirmed which UAV will be chosen. However considering past purchases, one can assume that AAI’s Aerosonde will be the likely winner. The Aerosonde and the Shadow v2 are direct competitors to Boeing’s/Insitu ScanEagle UAV system.

March 6/12: AAI Corp. in Hunt Valley, MD won a 3-year Mid-Endurance Unmanned Aircraft System II (MEUAS II) contract to provide contractor-owned and operated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance services in support of U.S. Special Operations Command. The value of the contract was approved up to $600 million, but actual spending will be based on task orders. The FBO.gov solicitation stated that:

“The required UAS ISR services require the contractor to conduct all planning, coordination, certification, installation, pre-deployment, deployment, logistics, maintenance, flying, and post-deployment efforts necessary to successfully conduct worldwide missions. The near real time feed of ISR product availability from 300 to 900 hours per site monthly into customer processing systems is required from world-wide locations. Offerors are expected to provide ISR using non-developmental contractor-owned and contractor-operated unmanned aircraft systems… Following contract award, the contractor shall deploy personnel and equipment to commence site operations within 120 days after receipt of order (ARO).”

Boeing’s ScanEagle had been operating under a 5-year MEUAS contract since May 2009, but the somewhat-imprecise wording of public statements and solicitations suggest that MEUAS-II will fully replace the old contract. Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, MD, and overseas. U.S. Special Operations Command Headquarters Procurement Division at MacDill AFB, FL is the contractor.