Defence`s Feeds

Australian steel makers Bisalloy and BlueScope have signed contracts with Naval Group Australia to produce up to 250 tonnes of specialised steel for the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN’s) Future Submarine programme. “The steel produced will be tested to determine whether it meets the

Key Points OMT has joined the Babcock-led Team 31 bidding for the UK’s Type 31e frigate programme Babcock has confirmed a distributed modular build strategy for Type 31e with pre-outfitted modules to be integrated at Rosyth Danish ship design consultancy Odense Maritime Technology (OMT) has

The Belgian Ministry of Defence has awarded Jankel a contract for 199 Light Troop Transport Vehicles (LTTVs). Following approval by the Belgian Council of Ministers in June 2017, the contract, first announced by Jankel on 27 March, will see the vehicles delivered between 2019 and 2021. Based on the

The first of the US Navy’s (USN’s) F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets arrived at the Boeing plant in St Louis, Missouri, on 5 April from Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia for aircraft service life modernisation (SLM). The plan is to increase the service life of all Super Hornets to 9,000 hours

The US Army on 30 March awarded contracts to Endeavor Robotics and QinetiQ North America to competitively develop the service’s 25 lb (11 kg) Common Robotic System (Individual), or CRS(I), unmanned ground vehicle. “With this award, the army will begin a competition expected to last

The Chilean Navy is set to put some of its Pilatus PC-7 Turbo Trainers through a service life extension program (SLEP) with upgrades aimed at keeping those aircraft operational well into the 2030s, senior military sources told Jane’s . After studying replacement options that included the

Key Points Hamas’s leadership is domestically weak and seeking to exploit protests to achieve public support and delegitimise the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. The Israeli response will avoid direct military escalation but elevates the likelihood of a prolonged period of IDF

South Korea’s Hanwha Group have established a new subsidiary, Hanwha Aerospace, to expand its market share in aero-engine and aero-structure manufacturing domains. The new company’s capabilities will be sourced from Hanwha Techwin, which will now be solely focused on security video and

Spanish infrastructure and defence electronics company Indra announced on 6 April that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Chilean aircraft company Empresa Nacional de Aeronáutica de Chile (ENAER). The deal, which was signed at the FIDAE trade show in Santiago, will see the two

MEDIA reports on 2 April stated that 10 civilians had been killed when a landmine, emplaced by unidentified militants, detonated targeting civilians travelling in a donkey-cart in Bulo Burde town in Somalia's Hiiraan region on an earlier unspecified date, Radio Risala reported. No group immediately

AT LEAST four civilians were killed and seven others wounded when a landmine, emplaced by unidentified militants, detonated targeting their vehicle near Godey School on Sanaa Junction in Karaan district in the Banaadir area of Somalia's capital Mogadishu on 4 April, Radio Kulmiye reported. Reports

Pan-European missile manufacturer MBDA revealed on 5 April a goal of expanding its presence in Spain, with comments made to local press by its CEO Antoine Bouvier and the director general of its Spanish subsidiary Daniel García Guelbenzu indicating a goal of establishing production facilities

The Portuguese Army expects to receive its first vehicle-mounted short-range air defence (SHORAD) systems in 2019, it has told Jane’s . The request for proposals (RFP) is expected to be launched through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) in 2018, as is the contract signing. The

Two Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF) pilots are presumed dead after their F-15K fighter aircraft crashed on 5 April in the South Korean county of Chilgok in North Gyeongsang Province. The incident took place at 14:38 h (local time), about an hour after the aircraft had taken off on a mission

The US State Department has approved the sale of 180 M109A5/A6 self-propelled howitzer (SPH) structures to Saudi Arabia, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced on 5 April. These structures will be converted into 177 M109A6 Paladin SPHs and three static training devices. Estimated

Spanish defence manufacturing company Escribano Mechanical and Engineering began construction of an expanded facility on 6 April, in a ceremony attended by the country’s defence minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal. Ms De Cospedal used the occasion, which came the day after a state budget

A MEMBER of the provincial council and a religious scholar were killed and a security guard was wounded when an unidentified suicide bomber detonated their explosives in Watapor district in Afghanistan's Konar province on 30 March, Tolo News TV reported. No group immediately claimed responsibility

Americas

• Huntington Ingalls received Monday, April 2, a $179 million cost-plus-incentive-fee modification for for services related to production of the new USS Enterprise, the Navy’s third Ford-class aircraft carrier. The contract covers the procurement of the long-lead-time material for the USS Enterprise, which is currently within the fabrication phase of production. Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by February 2027. The agreement follows a $55.8 million award announced by the Pentagon the previous Friday, which tasked Huntington with providing services to support the USS Gerald R. Ford, the class’ flagship vessel that is expected to leave on its first deployment in 2021. Work on this contract will occur in Hampton Roads, Va., and is expected to be complete in June 2019. Washington so far plans to build ten Ford-class carriers with three currently in various stages of construction.

• Last month saw a landing signals officer (LSO) successfully was able to remotely take over a F/A-18 Super Hornet on the glide path and bring it aboard an aircraft carrier for a touch-and-go. Taking place at sea on board the Nimitz-class USS Abraham Lincoln, the event was made possible by the use of an ATARI, or aircraft terminal approach remote inceptor, which allows LSOs to take over an aircraft from up to five miles away. Though not intended to be a primary method for recovering aircraft, it does provide a relatively inexpensive backup system in the case an LSO needs to step in and use their expertise and training to safely guide an aircraft. Along with the ATARI, a van outfitted with the ATARI system was brought aboard and setup behind the LSO platform to allow the engineers to watch the approaches in real-time, monitor safety-of-flight data and ensure passes were going smoothly. The van recorded flight data for engineers to analyze later and allowed the Air test and Evaluation Squadron VX-23 to test their system without having to install it Abraham Lincoln. No plans are yet in place for fleet-wide deployment.

Middle East & Africa

• Turkey has reaffirmed its commitment to buying the S-400 Triumf air defense system from Russia despite threats of sanctions from Western allies if the sale was to continue. The news comes as the US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Tina Kaidanow, who heads the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the State Department, was in Ankara to attend the 5th gathering of Turkey—US Defence Trade Dialogue, following a 2-year hiatus, where the US delegation had offered to sell Turkey the Patriot missile system as an alternative to the S-400. Previous negotiations over Patriots have stalled over issues such as the price and technology transfer. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirum, however, said last week that Turkish efforts to buy the Patriot system would continue, but added, “These are not an alternative to the S-400. Turkey has already made its S-400 decision.” This sentiment was echoed by Turkey’s strongman President Tayyip Erdogan at a press conference in Ankara on Tuesday, who said that his government could cooperate with Russia on defense projects besides the S-400 missile defense system, without giving any further details. Russian media quoted its President Vladimir Putin as saying the S-400 deal was a priority in military cooperation between Moscow and Ankara.

Europe

• Swedish media reports that sensitive data on the RBS-15 anti-ship missile system has been freely available online since 2017. According to the daily newspaper Aftonbladet, the data was obtained by a regular visitor to the War Archive in Stockholm who then took pictures of hundreds of pages of data using his mobile phone and posted it on a website. The information was subsequently posted on a Russian forum. Designed by Saab Bofors Dynamics, the RBS-15 is a is a long-range fire-and-forget surface-to-surface and air-to-surface, anti-ship missile. It arms various naval vessels as well as Saab’s JAS-39 Gripen fighter. An extended-range variant is being developed for the Gripen E will also come with an upgraded seeker and will have a reduced launch weight and increased range compared to earlier incarnations.

• The radar that will operate with the S-500 air defense missile system has been unveiled to the public for the first time. Known as the Yenisei, the phase-array radar was shown by the Rossiya-1, with the report also showing footage of the newly upgraded Pantsir SM short to medium range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon system. While not much public information is available about the Yenisei, Sputnik News says it features a phased-array antenna to spot and track aerial targets across an entire range of altitudes, provide “friend or foe” identification and determine priority targets. When working in automatic mode, the radar is capable of identifying four types of objects: planes, helicopters, drones and missiles. The S-500, is also billed as the only missile defense system around capable of engaging hypersonic targets.

Asia-Pacific

• The Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) KUH-1 Surion helicopter has wrapped up several months of de-icing tests in the US, with the helicopter on its way back to South Korea. Testing took place at Sawyer International Airport, Michigan, with staff from both KAI and the South Korean Army joining US Army personnel for the work. This is the second year in a row that Seoul has brought aircraft to Sawyer for testing.

• Chinese UAV experts have said that a drive to gain a carrier-borne UAV capability will need government support if it is to be successful. Speaking to a press conference on Monday, Shi Wen, the chief engineer and designer of China’s Caihong (CH) UAV series said that while there have already been “efforts to promote artificial intelligence (AI) for UAVs to allow manned aircraft to co-pilot UAVs,” he added that “considerable resources are needed in carrier-based UAV research,” so it would be risky to attempt without “government support.” Shi’s team is under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), and his team has developed a series of UAVs, including the CH-3, CH-4 and the advanced CH-5, which can now engage in surveillance and attack missions. The CH series of drones is popular among nations along the Belt and Road initiative, especially in some Middle East and African countries, which have a huge demand for weapons.

Today’s Video

• Russia complete’s third test-fire of 53T6M ABM interceptor:

North Korean KN-09 Multiple Launch Rocket System