Defence`s Feeds

Americas

L-3 Communications won a $38 million contract modification for contractor logistics support of the Air Force C-12 fleet. Originally developed by Beechcraft, the Raytheon C-12 is a short-range personnel and cargo lift aircraft for the US military. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines, the low-wing, all-metal aircraft is the military version of the civilian Super King Air 200 aircraft. The pressurized cabin is capable of an altitude of 35,000 feet and can be reconfigured to accommodate a mix of passengers, and cargo. The first C-12s were fielded to the US Army in 1974 and the aircraft has undergone a series of upgrades since then. Work will take place in Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, California, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Honduras, Hungary, Maryland, Kenya, Morocco, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Thailand. Work is expected to be finished by December 31, 2021.

The Defense Department has a four-month supply of personal protective equipment as it anticipates an increase in COVID-19 cases, a statement released. The supplies include respirators, gloves and masks for use by military personnel and families, and was purchased and stockpiled by the Defense Logistics Agency. Much of it will be used for patient care at medical treatment facilities worldwide. The increase in supplies comes as the number of COVID-19 infections has risen sharply in the United States since September. On Monday, the Defense Department reported a total of 99,389 infections and 113 deaths among its military and civilian personnel, dependents and contractors. Last week it announced the award of a $6.18 million contract to Illinois-based Medline Industries Inc. to increase domestic production capacity of surgical masks.

Middle East & Africa

A detachment of US Air Force F-16 fighter planes moved from Germany to the United Arab Emirates, the US Central Command announced. Planes of the 480th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Wing, deployed at Spangdahlem Air Base, arrived last week at Al Dhafra Air Base, UAE, the command said. Although CENTCOM did not offer specific information about the move, the UAE base has been the center of operations for planes patrolling the Persian Gulf to monitor activities by Iran’s military.

Europe

The French Defense Ministry seeks a drone capable of intercepting radio communications transmitters, a request for proposal indicates. A “call for projects for a mini-payload of electronic support on drones” was revealed by France’s Defense Innovation Agency for “an electronic support payload that can be integrated into drones with a maximum take-off mass of less than” 55 pounds. “This payload must be able to detect, locate, identify or even interact with or block telecommunications transmitters,” the agency said in a press release.

Asia-Pacific

Lockheed Martin won a $12 million contract modification, which provides continued support required to establish the common reprogramming tool development network and selection of a service-oriented architecture for the development of enhanced reprogramming tools, which is essential for all standing labs in support of the F-35 aircraft for the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and the governments of Australia and Great Britain. The F-35 is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. Work will take place in Texas and Florida. Estimated completion is in December 2021.

Complaints from local residents in South Korea has forced US Forces Korea (USFK) to cancel a live-firing exercise for its attack helicopters on November 16. The training was supposed to be conducted at the range in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. The helicopters had moved there for their training after the traditional training ground at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province was abandoned earlier this year, due to noise complaints as well.

Today’s Video

Watch: The C-12 Variants for U.S Army

What Are Bump Helmets?

 

Americas

General Dynamics won a $23.1 million deal for additional fiscal 2021 development studies, design efforts and material for Virginia Class submarines. The contract modification provides additional development studies and design efforts related to Virginia Class submarine design and design improvements. The contractor will continue development studies, design efforts and procurement of material required to fully evaluate new technologies for Virginia Class submarines. The Virginia Class attack submarine is an advanced stealth multimission nuclear-powered submarine for deep ocean anti-submarine warfare and littoral (shallow water) operations. The US Navy awarded several modification contracts to General Dynamics Electric Boat over the years in support of the Virginia-Class attack submarine programme.

Rockwell Collins Simulation won a $19.6 million modification, which is for the production and delivery of one 2F211 S/N 5 aircrew procedures trainer device, associated technical data and proposal preparation in support of the E-2D Hawkeye Integrated Training System program. The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye is the latest version of the Hawkeye early warning aircraft and features a new radar system. It brings new capabilities including the new and powerful AN/APY-9 radar, which is a two-generational leap in technology. The APY-9 radar is an Ultra High Frequency (UHF) surveillance system that provides both mechanical and electronic scanning capabilities designed to “see” smaller targets as well as more of them at a greater range, particularly in coastal regions and over land.

Middle East & Africa

MD Helicopters won a $34 million contract modification for logistics support for the Afghanistan Air Force MD-530F aircraft fleet. The MD-530F is an evolution of the fabled OH-6 Cayuse light observation helicopter, known for speed, safety, agility and the ability to operate with ease in confined spaces, the Armed MD-530F Light Scout Attack Helicopter delivers increased operational capabilities, greater mission versatility and superior performance in the execution of a broad range of mission profiles. Work will take place in Arizona and Afghanistan. Estimated completion date is May 31, 2021.

Europe

Raytheon won a $51.1 million contract modification for the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) production program. This modification provides for the procurement and upgrade of test environment/equipment for AMRAAM production capacity. The AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM) is a new generation all-weather, missile manufactured by Raytheon. The AMRAAM has been delivered to more than 36 countries. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales to Norway, Denmark, Australia, United Kingdom, Japan, Slovakia, Poland, Netherlands, Kuwait, Qatar and Spain.  Work will take place in Arizona. Expected completion is in January 2025.

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory won a $133.5 million modification to provide research into the applications of technologies to meet guidance requirements for operations on the Common Missile Compartment for the US Columbia Class program and the United Kingdom Dreadnought Class program; provide specialized technical knowledge and support for the hypersonic guidance, navigation and control application; and provide technical and engineering services to support the guidance, navigation and control system that will support the Navy’s hypersonic flight experiments. The Columbia Class is an upcoming class of nuclear submarines. The Columbia SSBN program consists of a minimum of 12 submarines to meet the requirements for U.S. strategic deterrent force structure as set forth in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. The Columbia Class program completed Acquisition Milestone B on January 4, 2017 and is in the Engineering and Manufacturing Development Phase. The British Navy has also planned to acquire Columbia-class submarine under the name of Dreadnought-class SSBN. This submarine will be armed with eight D-5 SLBMs, or half the number to be carried by the Columbia class. The modular design of the CMC (Common Missile Compartment) will accommodate this difference. The UK provided some of the funding for the design of the CMC, including a large portion of the initial funding. Work will take place in Massachusetts and California. Estimated completion date is September 30, 2021.

Asia-Pacific

VAQ-131 has completed its first expeditionary deployment at NAF Misawa, Japan on November 6 and was relieved by VAQ-135. That was the unit’s first expeditionary deployment. But due to COVID-19, the EA-18Gs did not detach to any other places. As an expeditionary squadron, VAQ-131 deploys their EA-18G Growlers to air bases worldwide and fluidly integrates with US Air Force and foreign entities. While deployed to NAF Misawa, VAQ-131’s primary objective shifted from their previous mission of supporting combat operations while deployed to the Middle East, to supporting security and stability operations within the Indo-Pacific Area of Responsibility.

Today’s Video

Watch: Meet The AIM-260: The Air Force And Navy’s Future Long-Range Air-To-Air Missile

Length of video : 120'

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, 2020 - EP

Polish Borsuk Infantry Fighting Vehicle

Length of video : 67'

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, 2020 - EP

We are now in a day where there is an app for everything, our lives are pretty much run by small program applications from everything from deciding what to eat for tonight’s dinner to personal banking.

So what are the best apps out there? Well, I can’t answer that as there are so many but I can give you an overview of the apps I use, why I use them and where to get them.

1. Adium (Mac)
This is a one-stop shop for Instant Messaging on the Mac. You can organise hundreds of contacts within one main window which allows for organisation and structuring. What I like about this program is you can connect different types of chat accounts in one place; I currently use MSN, Google Talk, MobileMe and Facebook but there are 18 different options to choose from so it gives massive amounts of flexibility! The only thing it lacks for me is the use of video chat. Chuck that in and this would be a massive winner!

You can download Adium for free from www.adium.com

2. Checkpoint Widget 2.2 (Mac)
This widget allows you to compare the brightness and colour differences thus checking “Checkpoint 2.2” of the “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0”. You can check the colours either by using hex references or RGB values.

This I feel is really useful and convenient when designing for screen and can be downloaded for free from the www.dirkeinecke.de.

3. Crypt3 (Mac)
This program allows you to easily encrypt files and folders so sensitive material doesn’t get ‘accidentally read’. It’s really handy if more than one person uses your machine or you save material externally to a hard drive or server with shared access.

You can download this for free from here

4. Cyberduck (Mac)
This is a basic FTP client which I tend to use for general uploading and downloading of files, it allows for bookmarking and the storing of passwords in your keychains.

This is available to download for free from www.cyberduck.com

5. Echofone (iPhone App)
This is a basic Twitter app for the iPhone that I use, it’s probably for more of a ‘social user’ such as myself as it probably doesn’t allow for the functionality of other Twitter apps, but I like it. It’s fast, allows for push notification and multiple accounts. You can also download it as a Firefox browser plugin, which I use. This places a tiny Twitter icon in the bottom right hand corner of the browser window which when clicked shows you a quick insight into the world of your twitter contacts. This is great for quickly sharing links and thoughts without having to log in to the Twitter main page, again this saves you a little time but it’s worth it!

This can be downloaded for free from www.echofon.com/

6. iCal, Address Book and Mail (Mac)
For me this is a bundled package that comes with every Apple Machine and its awesome! We use it throughout the Creativitea Studio and are all synched in together; we share contact lists, calendars and to do lists, etc, on all our machines and iPhones and find that the programs work seamlessly together as if they were one. Without this we would be completely lost and its already included!

To find out more visit Apple’s website.

7. IE Tester (PC)
The bane of every web developer’s life is cross browser testing (and IE6 support). With this program, which is free to download for the PC, you can look at your websites side by side throughout IE versions, ensuring the sites work and are looking great! There is a debug bar which is also available to download for free which allows you to look at any snagging you may have to do along the way.

You can download this for free from www.my-debugbar.com/

8. iPlotz (Air Desktop Application and Online)
iPlotz is essentially a wire framing and sitemap generating application that can be used as an online tool or as a desktop application run through Air. What I like about this program is it is so fast to put complex page structures together and elements in place. You can quickly link up all the main pages of your websites and share it as a preview URL so you and your clients can experience the new website in wire frame format. Building the pages couldn’t be simpler; you have the option of drawing out websites using a complex number of web elements, from forms, tabs and media placements. This program has it all!

iPlotz is available from a limited free account or from $15 a month subscription, visit their website at www.iplotz.com

9. Lorum Ipsum Generator Widget (Mac)
This is basically a widget that generates dummy copy to be used within your designs. You can choose from a selection of preset options; paragraphs, lists, sentences, titles and single words. You also have the custom length option, say 200 characters for instance. This simply copies the text to your clipboard to paste into place.

You can download this for free from the Apple website.

10. Navicat Lite (Mac and PC)
I haven’t really had much to do with this program, however I can see massive potential with it and have found it quite useful so far. It is basically an online database administration tool, which is built for simplifying database management. If your familiar with FTP clients, etc, you’ll find the GUI intuitive, secure and easy to use. So far I have only used it for testing my SQL connections so I haven’t fully explored the program but I will be looking into it in the near future.

Check it out at www.navicat.com. The lite version is free but for more advanced usage you can upgrade for a small fee.

So like I say, there are thousands of apps out there just destined to help us all out with our day to day lives-I can’t mention them all! If you have a recommendation, let us know and we’ll check it out.

Ways for Military Service Members to Prosper

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

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The US has taken delivery of the first of two Multi-Mission Radars (MMR), the powerful tracking system behind Israel's Iron Dome air defense system. Washington bought two Iron Dome batteries from Israel to fill an urgent close-in air defense need.

The projected victory of Joe Biden in the US presidential election will not affect the contracts for the supply of F-35 fighters and air-defence system Patriot to Poland, as the defence deal is mutually beneficial, Michal Dworczyk, the head of the Chancellery of the Polish Prime Minister, told Radio Poland on Monday.

The Russian military earlier said its Mi-24 helicopter was downed from a man-portable air defence system (MANPADS) over the territory of Armenia, which Azerbaijan has claimed responsibility for, saying it shot down the aircraft by mistake.

Azerbaijan apologized for accidentally shooting down a Russian Mi-24 military helicopter near the Azerbaijan-Armenia border on Monday, which killed two Russian servicemen.

Esper's spokesperson earlier dismissed rumours of him filing for resignation, while media outlets reported that Trump was not considering replacing him in the near future.

US President Donald Trump has fired his defense secretary, Mark Esper, amid political chaos gripping his administration after his refusal to concede the election defeat.

"The abrupt firing of Secretary Esper is disturbing evidence that President Trump is intent on using his final days in office to sow chaos in our American Democracy and around the world. Continuity and stability are always important during a presidential transition; they are absolutely imperative at this moment, as this historically erratic Administration prepares for its departure."

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he has fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

U.S. President Donald Trump Monday announced via Twitter that he has fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

In Libya, the two power rivals have opened UN-led talks aimed at ending nearly a decade of political turmoil and warfare by arranging elections across the country.