Defence`s Feeds

General Atomics (GA) has been awarded the sole source production contract modification for the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), which is to be fitted on the US Navy's Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 80).

General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works has laid the keel and conducted authentication for the US Navy's third and final Zumwalt-class (DDG 1000) guided missile destroyer, USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002).

Americas

• Raytheon has been contracted to deliver Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) to the USAF. While the exact value of the contract modification was undisclosed, the company received $62 million at the time of the award. The contract calls for the delivery of low-rate initial production for 312 SDB II Lot 3 munitions for the branch, and also includes 413 SBD Lot 3 single weapon containers, 20 weapon conversions for guided test vehicles, 20 production reliability incentive demonstration effort captive vehicles and training and maintenance services. SBDs are being integrated on a number of USAF and US Navy aircraft, and provide warfighters with the ability to engage their targets when faced with poor weather and other adverse conditions.

• A once available report, questioning the logic in the Canadian procurement of an interim fighter to replace its fleet of of CF-18s, was pulled from the Department of National Defence website once Ottawa decided to procure F/A-18 Super Hornets as an interim fighter. The report had recommended against buying a “bridging” fighter aircraft, citing “disproportionately high costs during the bridging period.” In response, the government stated that “the aggregate of the information contained in the report speaks to the capability of the Canadian Armed Forces and is sensitive in nature,” hence its pulling.

• While no contract details have been announced, US President Donald Trump has claimed that the Lot 10 production for 90 F-35s will be $600 million cheaper, thanks to his pressure. The comments come after weeks of hand wrangling with lead contractor Lockheed Martin over pricing. Trump had criticized the fifth-gen fighter during his election campaign, but during his recent comments called the F-35 a “great plane” that’s “now in good shape.” Despite the detente, Trump added that Boeing will still be asked to compete for orders against the F-35 saying “they [Boeing] will be competing during the process for the rest of the planes because there are thousands of more airplanes coming.”

• The latest variant of the Predator B UAV, SkyGuardian, has been launched. Developed by General Atomics with collaboration from the German Military Aviation Authority, SkyGuardian meets international standards for flying in civilian airspace and is fully compliant with NATO’s UAV System Airworthiness Requirements (defined in STANAG 4671) and Britain’s DEFSTAN 00-970 standards. Once operational, the UAV will be used to protect ground forces as well as participate in non-military missions like border-surveillance, maritime patrol, and relief over-watch in cases of natural disasters. It can also carry a variety of sensor and communications payloads and can transmit high-resolution video to manned aircraft and ground forces.

Middle East & North Africa

• Efforts are being made by the US DoD and Iraqi diplomats to allow Iraqi F-16 pilots effected by President Trump’s controversial travel ban enter the USA. The executive order on immigration, which suspended travel for citizens from several Muslim majority countries, including Iraq, to the US for a period of 90 days, prevents the pilots from continuing their training in the US with the US Air Force. It is hoped that an exemption would be granted to the pilots under the reasoning that Iraq is a significant ally in defeating the Islamic State.

Europe

• A light-weight version of the Indo-Russian designed BrahMos cruise missile is to be developed for Russia’s 5th-gen T-50 PAK FA fighter aircraft. Already available in naval, submarine, and land variants, Indian and Russian developers will now collaborate on designing smaller variants of the short-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile with the specification that it will “fit the size of a torpedo tube and be almost 1.5 times smaller by its weight.” Other potential warfighters that could have the new munition integrated include the MiG-35, recently selected to operate as Russia’s newest multi-purpose fighter.

Asia Pacific

• India has reversed a policy to give big-ticket orders only to state-owned companies announcing that its first homemade 155mm/52-caliber towed artillery gun, the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), will be built jointly by private sector companies. Next year will see New Delhi award private industry a $350 million award for the production of 114 guns, with production expected to start two years from the order’s placement. Developed by the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in partnership with two private sector firms — Kalyani Group and Tata Power SED- the Indian Army has a requirement for more than 1,500 towed guns, with a potential value of up to $4.5 billion.

• Claims made by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte-that US troops were building arms depots in five Philippine bases in defiance of a security deal has been rejected by the US ambassador to the South-Asian nation. Duterte claimed on Sunday that the US had stockpiled weapons, including tanks, in three locations in the Philippines, which could provoke China and put his country in harm’s way. In response to the claims, Ambassador Sung Kim said that his country could not build anything on Philippine bases against the consent of the Philippine government, and its facilities are “not related to weapons.” Instead, any planned facility building was for the purpose of storing equipment for disaster response.

Today’s Video

The fifth test of David’s Sling:

Singaporean Terrex 2 Amphibious Armored Personnel Carrier

The European Union sees its relationship with Russia as a ‘key strategic challenge’. Its members are alarmed by Russia’s violations of international commitments and increased military activity in Europe. Russian recently updated basic strategic documents are full of indications about Moscow’s world vision and security concerns. They indirectly point to a tension between Russia’s internal (economic, demographic, societal) weaknesses and its claim to be recognized as one of the ‘centers of influence’ in the emerging multipolar world order. The West, including the EU, is clearly perceived as the major challenger to both Russia’s great power ambition and security. At the same time, various indicators suggest that Moscow is probably not fully confident that it will obtain a gratifying role in the emerging new international landscape. All this has led Russia to rely massively on its restored military capabilities, while pursuing a very active diplomacy, in which the relative importance of the EU has declined in recent years. The EU nonetheless has an important role to play in promoting the second engine of the ‘double-track Russia strategy’ that the West (the EU, NATO, the United States) has been pursuing –– strengthening defenses on the one hand, pursuing dialogue and cooperative engagement on the other hand.
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Curtiss-Wright's INDAL facility combines a high level of engineering and manufacturing capability with expertise in the management of large and complex defense programs to produce specific solutions for the world's navies.

Curtiss-Wright's Defense Solutions division today announced that its INDAL business unit will give a presentation on its innovative low-cost, single operator Manual Aircraft Straighten and Traverse (MAST) Aircraft Handling System (AHS) at Surface War…

Poland’s Lodz-based WZL-1 (Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze Nr 1 S.A. (Military Aviation Works No. 1) has completed the modernisation, conducts maintenance, repair, overhaul of a Mil Mi-24V (6W-HCA) attack helicopter for the Senegal Air Force. The secondhand rotorcraft is understood to have been acquired from a former Soviet-era operator.

Acceptance flights were conducted on 12 January by a team of Polish and Senegalese personnel, and witnessed by the customer air force’s commander-in-chief, Brig Gen Birame Diop. This is the first Mi-24 to have been acquired by Senegal, and it is unclear whether the West African nation intends to field additional examples.
Flight Fleets Analyzer records the Senegal air force as already operating a pair of 11-year-old Mi-35s, which it acquired directly from Russia.

WZL-1 is one of the leading aviation companies in Europe. The company established its position on local, national and foreign market thanks to untypical activity which generally covers:
• overhaul, maintenance and modernization of the following helicopters: Mi-8, Mi-14, Mi-17, Mi-24, W-3 Sokół and SH-2G Kaman;
• general overhaul of SO-3/W aviation engines and TW3-117 (III s, M, MT, W) family engines.

Tag: SenegalMi-24Poland

Americas

• Northrop Grumman has remained coy on their participation in the USAF T-X trainer competition, with CEO Wes Bush remaining non-committal to the program despite having designed and developed a prototype. Bush’s tone shocked some analysts and has led some to speculate that the company would rather lose out on the $16 billion competition than have a price war eat away at its bottom line. Northrop recently won the development contract for the USAF’s next long-range bomber, the B-21 Raider, a greater priority.

• In other T-X news, Raytheon’s withdrawal from collaboration with Leonardo boiled down to pricing disagreements. The team was set to offer a variant of the Italian firm’s M-346 trainer, however Raytheon wanted to drop the cost of the trainer by a third. Disagreements within the camp initially surfaced last October in a row over control of the program, but the final straw seems to have come over the ultimate cost of the procurement.

• A US Navy contract has tasked Charles Stark Draper Laboratory with Trident D5 MK 6 guidance system production. Valued at $53 million, work carried out under the deal will include the performance of several services for the submarine-launched ballistic missile including failure verification, testing, repairs, recertification of inertial measurement units electronic assemblies, and electronic modules. The Trident II D5 program will replace the current Polaris and Poseidon systems currently used by the US and UK armed forces.

Middle East & North Africa

• In what has been a rather hectic week for the White House (and those reporting on it), US Senator John McCain has spoken out against President Trump’s recent travel ban. The measure, according to McCain, will prevent Iraqi F-16 pilots from training with Arizona Air National Guard’s 162nd Wing. McCain stated that he has expressed his concerns with director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David Petraeus, saying, “I talked with Gen. Petraeus last night, he is very concerned about the special visas for those interpreters whose lives are literally in danger as we speak.”

Europe

• The MiG-35 has been selected by the Russian military to act as their new light multi-purpose fighter. Flight tests on the 4++ generation jet commenced last Thursday and it is expected that serial production of the fighter will commence in 2019. Developed on the basis of the serial-produced MiG-29K/KUB and MiG-29M/M2 aircraft, the MiG-35 will have eight weapons bay points (up from six), and the potential for the integration of new weapon technologies such as lasers.

• Israel and the US government have granted Israeli manufacturer Rafael permission to discuss the David’s Sling air-defense system with Poland as part of a wider export push for co-developed interceptor systems. The announcement comes as the anti-ballistic system was recently cleared during a fifth round of trials. Tel Aviv has been developing multi-tiered missile defense system with US and local industry for some years now, with their Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling systems all being offered to foreign customers.

Asia Pacific

• North Korea has expressed concern over “mad-cap drills” conducted by US and South Korean marines during recent military drills. Pictures of shirtless marines on the ski slopes of Pyeongchang, site of next year’s Winter Olympics, seemingly worried and/or confused Pyongyang, where up to over 300 marines from the USMC and RoKMC practiced hand-to-hand combat drills. The annual drills will run between Jan. 15 and Feb. 3.

• Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has completed their first swap out of foreign-made equipment on their Hawk MK132 advanced trainer aircraft. Designated as Hawk-i, the jet had imported mission computer and data transfer units upgraded with Indian-made components and includes additional capabilities such as digital map generation. Other additions include a secured voice communication and data link capability by integration of Softnet Radio.

Today’s Video

South Korea completes deployment of upgraded AH-64E helicopters:

David’s Victory
(click to view larger)

David didn’t need high technology to defeat Goliath, just some stones and a sling. But in the modern world, David is getting some high-tech help from the likes of Raytheon and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, who are developing a missile defense system called David’s Sling Weapon System (DSWS).

The DSWS is a joint short-range ballistic missile defense program between the US Missile Defense Agency and the Israel Missile Defense Organization. The system is designed to defeat short-range ballistic missiles, large-caliber rockets and cruise missiles in their terminal phase of flight.

Raytheon received 2 contracts from Rafael worth more than $100 million to build DSWS components.

The 1st contract was awarded to codevelop the missile component of the DSWS called the Stunner Interceptor. Stunner is a hit-to-kill interceptor designed for use in the DSWS and allied integrated air and missile defense systems.

The 2nd contract was awarded for the development, production and integrated logistics support of the missile firing unit (MFU), the launcher component of the DSWS. The MFU will provide the DSWS with vertical interceptor launch capability for 360-degree extended air and missile defense.

Other joint US-Israel missile defense efforts include coproduction of the Arrow missile defense system interceptors and an initiative to provide Israel an upper-tier missile defense system. According to Defense Update, the United States and Israel have begun development of an upper-tier component to the Israeli Arrow 3 missile defense architecture. According to Arieh Herzog, director of Israel’s Missile Defense Program, the main element of this upper tier will be an exo-atmospheric interceptor, to be jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing.

Updates

January 31/17: Israel and the US government have granted Israeli manufacturer Rafael permission to discuss the David’s Sling air-defense system with Poland as part of a wider export push for co-developed interceptor systems. The announcement comes as the anti-ballistic system was recently cleared during a fifth round of trials. Tel Aviv has been developing multi-tiered missile defense system with US and local industry for some years now, with their Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling systems all being offered to foreign customers.

January 30/17: Israel and the US have completed a fifth series of tests on the David’s Sling missile defense system. The Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) and US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) collaboration was tested at the Yanat Sea Range in Israel, with the system’s Stunner interceptors successfully engaging its targets. The David’s Sling project is for defense against large-caliber rockets and short-range ballistic missiles.

March 4/16: The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has begun to take possession of the David’s Sling Weapon System (DSWS). The first phase of the gradual delivery of components include multimission radar by Elta Systems; Stunner interceptors by Rafael and its US partner, Raytheon Missile Systems; and the Golden Almond Battle Management Center by Elbit Systems Elisra. Once these are in place, an integration testing of all system components will take place prior to a declaration of initial operational capability by the IAF. The DSWS has been developed to bridge the gap between the lower and upper tiers of Israel’s four-layer active defense network, deployed above Israel’s Iron Dome and below the upper-atmospheric Arrow-2 and exo-atmospheric Arrow-3.

Israeli X95 Carbine

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The Gradual Emergence of Second Generation Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone

CSG Paper No. 15

KITCHENER, CANADA – The Centre for Security Governance (CSG) is pleased to announce the publication of a new CSG Paper by CSG Senior Fellow Ibrahim Bangura. It is the second of two papers on Sierra Leone and the product of a wider series of papers that has come out of the CSG’s multi-year research project, titled Exploring the transition from first to second generation SSR in conflict-affected societies. Led by CSG Executive Director Mark Sedra, the project assesses and evaluates the impact of orthodox security sector reform (SSR) programming in conflict-affected countries. Employing a common methodology, the project features original research on four case study countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, El Salvador, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste.

The project has produced two reports per case study country—eight in total. The first phase of the project answered: a) to what extent and how have SSR efforts in the case study countries followed the orthodox SSR model as described in the OECD-DAC Handbook on SSR; b) in assessing SSR efforts in each case study country, how have orthodox SSR approaches succeeded and failed and why. The second project phase, which this paper captures, explores what alternative approaches or entry-points for security and justice development are available. Are they used, and if so, how? If not, why?

Sierra Leone’s initial approach to SSR was state-centric, ad-hoc and shaped by immediate events, as the country was mired in a civil war. However, the post-war period opened space for the adoption of a human security lens to SSR, which, in turn, enabled greater opened public participation and leadership in the process from civilians and non-state actors. The Gradual Emergence of Second Generation Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone argues that the new direction and opportunities this second generation SSR process presented leaves little doubt that orthodox interpretations of security sector reform are ill-suited to achieve systemic change in contexts like Sierra Leone. The second generation SSR model can refocus transition countries towards prioritizing the needs and aspirations of their people within a wider security context, rather than limiting reforms to serving the exclusive needs of the traditional political elites.

Funding for this project was provided by the Folke Bernadotte Academy.

Download the Report

The peer-reviewed CSG Papers series provides a venue for comprehensive research articles and reports on a variety of security sector reform and related topics. The series endeavors to present innovative research that is both academically rigorous and policy relevant. Authored by prominent academics, analysts and practitioners, the CSG Papers cover a range of topics, from geographic case studies to conceptual and thematic analysis, and are based on extensive research and field experience.

All CSG publications are freely accessible and downloadable on our website at www.secgovcentre.org.

CONTACT:

Andrew Koltun, CSG Project Officer
Tel: +1-226-241-8744, Email: akoltun@secgovcentre.org

_______________

The CSG is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to the study of security and governance transitions in fragile, failed and conflict-affected states. Based in Canada, the CSG maintains a global, multi-disciplinary network of researchers, practitioners and academics engaged in the international peace and security field.

will take place on Monday 6 February 2017, 15:00-18:30 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
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Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Israeli Galil MAR Compact Assault Rifle

American AAV7 Survivability Upgrade Amphibious Armored Personnel Carrier

A new EDA project aimed at understanding the different forces influencing innovation has just been launched. This initiative represents a first try to identify ways and means by which innovation activities could be more systematically managed in order to create additional value for the Agency and its stakeholders.

Fostering innovation is key in strengthening Europe’s defence capabilities as it has been clearly stated in the new EU Global Strategy (EUGS) and its implementation plan as well as in the European Commission’s European Defence Action Plan which emphasises the multidimensional role of innovation in defence.

In this context, innovation can be perceived as the creation and application of new products, services and processes. This includes the creation of a new technology, product, process or service, as well as the application of existing technology to a different problem or domain.

By introducing innovative technologies developed in other domains, both the initial investment risk and the time from ideation to military capability are minimized. Nevertheless, innovation is not only focused on the creation of new concepts. It also focuses on the value that the new concept will create for end-users. In this regard, innovation in the defence sector should aim at enhancing military capability.

The new project takes the form of two studies to be carried out by RAND Europe and Indra Systemas S.A respectively and dealing with different aspects of innovation. The project’s objectives are the following:

• Analysis of the current defence research innovation strategies and identification of best practice in terms of organisational structures, supporting policies and incentives for research innovation management
• Analysis of stakeholders, environment, specific defence requirements related to innovation and identification of appropriate organizational structures applicable to defence
• Identification of candidate technologies for innovation injection and preparation of scenarios for a follow on proof of concept
• Identification of innovation management methods and state-of-the-art practices, such as design thinking and transfer of knowledge to be used within the EDA’s research and innovation communities.

The kick-off meetings of both studies, which took place on 16th and 20th of January respectively, set the ground for a very promising project. The working teams have already discussed in depth the transformation of the objectives into tangible outcomes for the Member States in support to the European efforts of fostering innovation in defence.

The envisaged outputs will help EDA to provide better support to the innovation activities of Member States as well as those innovation actions foreseen under the Preparatory Action for Defence Research and the future European Defence Research Programme.

The kick-off meeting was attended by EDA and staff from the aforementioned contractors. The project is led by Dr. Panagiotis Kikiras Head of Unit Innovative Research.

Gresham Power Electronics has extended its power supply distribution portfolio and updated its power supply homepage to offer visitors easy access to its wide product range and has added a simple to use product search facility.

IPSAS are to present at International Defence Exhibition and Conference 2017.

Key Points High-velocity exo-atmospheric hit-to-kill interceptor will be integrated with Israel's Arrow Weapon System Software block increments will increase the interceptor's capabilities appropriate to the evolving threat set The Israel Missile Defence Organization (IMDO), a division of the