Defence`s Feeds

Pratt & Whitney is eying the two-year mark of parent United Technology Corp’s (UTC’s) New York digital accelerator for determining whether the USD300 million investment is paying off, according to a key executive. Robert Leduc, Pratt & Whitney president, told Jane’s on 12

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed on 11 June that it has acquired both Belarussian Polonez and Israeli LORA precision surface-to-surface missile systems. The MoD released photographs showing three Polonez launchers and at least two LORA launchers to publicise a visit by

Americas

• Q.E.D Systems is being awarded a contract in support of the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) class. Valued at $15 million the cost-plus-incentive fee, cost-plus-fixed fee, cost-only contract allows for the procurement of long lead time material in support of the LCS class ships’ maintenance and sustainment availabilities. The $35 billion LCS program is the Navy’s idea for the low-end backbone of its future surface combatant fleet. At 115 – 127 meters in length and 2,800 – 3,100 tons of displacement the US LCS is almost the size of Britain’s Type 23 frigates. LCSs can be reconfigured with a variety of mission modules. In addition, the vessels are armed with a 57mm naval gun, .50 caliber machine guns, plus defensive systems including automated chaff/flare dispensers and a launcher for Raytheon’s RIM-116 RAM, which allows the ship to intercept anti-ship missiles, aircraft, UAVs, helicopters, and even small boats. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $237 million. Work will be performed in San Diego, California and Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by June 2019.

• Lockheed Martin has changed suppliers for the Distribute Aperture System (DAS) integrated into the F-35 Lightning II. Lockheed is contracting Raytheon in place of the incumbent Northrop Grumman. The Lightning II shares a “sensor fusion” design advance with the F-22, based on sensors of various types embedded all around the airframe. These sensors are connected to a lot of computing power, in order to create single-picture view that lets the pilot see everything on one big 20? LCD screen and just fly the plane. As part of that sensor fusion, the F-35 is the first plane in several decades to fly without a heads-up display. Instead the pilots use a special helmet designed by Visions Systems International. The F-35’s DAS uses six infrared cameras mounted around the aircraft to project augmented reality images into the helmet. By projecting the DAS video stream onto the helmet’s display, the F-35 pilot can see through the aircraft structure to view the surrounding environment. The system also automatically identifies and tracks threats, such as incoming missiles, in the headset display. According to Lockheed Martin, the decision to switch DAS supplier will result in more than $3 billion in life-cycle cost savings. The Raytheon-built DAS will be integrated into the F-35 starting with Lot 15 aircraft, expected to be delivered in 2023.

Middle East & Africa

• Jane’s reports that Denel Dynamics is making good progress in the development of its Mongoose 3 counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) missile. The Mongoose 3 is part of the close area protection system (CAPS) project funded jointly by Armscor and the South African Department of Defense (DoD). The CAPS project seeks to develop a system to provide close area protection against rocket, artillery and mortar threats. It uses the Mongoose 3 to intercept these and detonate them at a maximum range of about a kilometer. The Mongoose 3 was initially designed to shoot down heavy anti-tank missiles as far as 300 meters from the vehicle and deflect a high-velocity kinetic energy “long-rod penetrator” fired by a tank, causing it to fall short or hit at an oblique angle at which it will not penetrate a tank’s armor. The 28 lb., 3.9 ft. Mongoose 3 is a highly agile, vertical-launch missile that uses side-thrust motors to tip it over after launch. It then uses synchronized dorsal and tail fins to steer it towards its target, guided by its active radar seeker. The transonic Mongoose 3will complement the also newly developed supersonic Cheetah missile. In addition to its primary C-RAM role, the Mongoose 3 will also be able to engage unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including small types that present difficult targets for other systems and helicopters that come within range. It is also intended as a self-protection weapon for helicopters.

Europe

• Germany’s parliament has now approved a deal to lease Heron TP UAV’s from Israel. The approval puts an end to a long-running series of debates and protests. Last year a German court rejected a protest against the Heron-TP selection by rival bidder General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. Additionally, many politicians opposed the idea of acquiring a UAV that could potentially be armed. The Heron TP is reportedly capable of flying for over 35 hours at a time at altitudes around 45.000 feet. It has a maximum range of about 3,000 km and can carry a maximum payload weighing 2204 lbs. As a large MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) UAV, it’s built to carry multiple payloads at a time for a variety of missions. Choices include electro-optical and thermal surveillance equipment, SAR radars for ground surveillance, maritime patrol radars and sensors, signals and other intelligence collection antennas and equipment, laser designators, and even radio relays. The deal is valued at $1.17 billion and allows the German army to carry out long endurance intelligence-gathering missions.

• The British Army’s new Ajax armored fighting vehicle (AFV) is currently undergoing field trials, before the first variants are delivered to operational units early in 2019. The Ajax is part of the multi-billion pound “Future Rapid Effects System” (FRES) program. FRES aims to recapitalize the core of Britain’s armored vehicle fleet over the next decade or more. Ajax vehicles are developed upon a highly-adaptable and capable Common Base Platform, maximizing commonality in mobility, electronic architecture and survivability. Each Ajax platform variant has extensive capabilities, including acoustic detectors, a laser warning system, a local situational awareness system, an electronic countermeasure system, a route marking system, an advanced electronic architecture and a high-performance power pack. Ajax will be the medium weight core of the British Army’s deployable Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capability. It enables the soldier to be at the point of collection of accurate all-weather commander information within a network-enabled digitized platform. The current trials are the final phase of a series of evaluations to approve the vehicle for land warfare operations before it enters full service with the British Army.

• French defense contractor MBDA is teaming up with the Estonian unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) specialist Milrem Robotics to develop a vehicle designed to conduct anti-tank missions. The proposed system would integrate MBDA’s Missile Moyenne Portée (MMP) medium-range anti-tank missile onto Milrem’s THeMIS UGV. The MMP is designed to be France’s next portable anti-armor missile for troops and vehicles. Its attack modes include fire and forget, man in the loop mode, re-assignment in flight, and even seeker lock-on after launch. As a medium missile, it is able to destroy targets up to main battle tanks. The Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System, or THeMIS for short, is the first hybrid fully modular unmanned ground vehicle in the world. Unlike other UGVs that are commonly able to perform mostly one task, the THeMIS is designed so it can be equipped with a vast variety of payloads to perform a number of different tasks. These include functioning as a remote weapon station outfitted with large or small caliber weapons, detecting IED’s, operating as a drone platform or a remote surveillance station.

Asia-Pacific

• The Royal Thai Army plans to buy six more attack helicopters to replace three of its Cobra helicopters which are marked for retirement after having served for more than 30 years. The Thai government is currently examining different offers made by US, French, Russian, and Turkish manufacturers. It is yet unclear which platform will be chosen, however considering the high cost of US-made Apaches, it seems likely that the Army will closely look into cheaper options like the Z-10 from China, the Russian KA-52 or French Tiger. The Royal Thai Army’s attack helicopter requirement is long-standing but has previously been hindered by a lack of funds. The country’s 2019 defense budget, which was announced in early June, outlines military spending of $7.1 billion.

Today’s Video

• Mi-8s and Mi-24s from Russia’s Baltic Sea Fleet participate in firing drills.

FRES-SV PMRS
(click to view full)

Many of Britain’s army vehicles are old and worn, and the necessities of hard service on the battlefield are only accelerating that wear. The multi-billion pound “Future Rapid Effects System” (FRES) aims to recapitalize the core of Britain’s armored vehicle fleet over the next decade or more.

The best one can say is that FRES has gone far better than America’s comparable and canceled “Future Combat System.” That doesn’t mean the rise has been smooth. FRES was spawned by the UK’s withdrawal from the German-Dutch-UK Boxer MRAV modular wheeled APC program, in order to develop a more deployable vehicle that fit Britain’s exact requirements. Those initial requirements were challenging, however, and experience in Iraq and Afghanistan led to decisions that changed an already-late program. So, too, have subsequent budgetary crises…

FRES: The Program Program Goals

CVR (T) Scimitar
(click to view full)

The UK Ministry of Defense’s FRES Integration Project Team described it this way:

“FRES will be the central pillar of a capable and highly deployable medium force which will be able to project power rapidly world-wide, complementing our existing heavy and light forces. The key drivers are the need for a rapid effect land capability, the ability to meet a wide number of operational roles, maximum interoperability with other UK forces and our allies, and addressing the obsolescence of existing vehicles. It is a challenging project, faced with the conundrum of balancing capability, affordability and early delivery.”

The roles FRES-Utility and FRES-Scout vehicles will undertake, and the number of vehicles to be bought, were determined by initial Assessment Phase studies. FRES is expected to provide Britain’s future medium-weight armored vehicles, and may replace current British armored vehicles such as the CVR (T) Scimitar/ Sabre/ Sultan/ Striker light tanks (1,255 vehicles), FV 430 family tracked Armored Personnel Carriers (1,492), and Saxon wheeled APCs (622) in the Army’s inventory.

The original plan for the FRES fleet involved as many as 3,000-3,500 vehicles, including as many as 2,000 wheeled Utility APCs. It began as the largest ever British Army program, with an expected cost of around GBP 16 billion for purchases, and through-life costs of about GBP 60 billion.

Subsequent plans under Britain’s budget-driven Army 2020 plan look set to slash those numbers drastically. Britain’s MoD won’t just how drastically, but a total buy of just several hundred is a likely outcome.

Program History

The first European Defense Agency head, Britain’s Nick Witney, may have made “reducing the number of national infantry fighting vehicles from 22 to 12” one of the EU’s Top 5 defense priorities – but his own government initially followed a very different script. FRES came to the fore after Britain pulled out of the MRAV “Boxer” Infantry Fighting Vehicle> project, which Germany and The Netherlands are still pursuing.

Technology Demonstrator Programme (TDP) contracts began the cycle in February 2005, and ran to late 2007. Their goal was in order to assess of what was possible, but changing battlefield requirements also elbowed their way into the process. MoD objectives for the vehicles solidified somewhat over this period, and included 4 main areas:

• Survivability via armor and other self-protection systems; experience in Iraq and Afghanistan has influenced this requirement, and changed it somewhat.

• Deployability by the A400M aircraft, which has a 35-tonne capacity. The original target vehicle weight of 17 tons, which would be deployable in the RAF’s C-130J Hercules, was abandoned; expected vehicle weight shifted to 20-27 tonnes (22-30 tons), and is likely to reach 30 tonnes/ 33 tons for FRES-UV. FRES-SV can carry up to 42t, but getting there would involve adding new equipment that could be removed for transport, or developing new variants.

• Networked-enabled capability via digital communication technology.

• Through-life upgrade potential throughout its anticipated 30 year service life.

Jane’s characterized FRES as a transformational system for the British armed forces, and the UK initially adopted a “Systems House” approach to its development, instead of having the military run it directly. The similarly-tasked U.S. Future Combat Systems program was also led and managed by Boeing and SAIC as Lead Systems Integrators, rather than by a military office. Under these systems, military reviews play a role at various pre-decided stage gates, and the military also plays an ongoing advisory role regarding changing requirements and capabilities, but a contractor is responsible for moving the program ahead and making key decisions, without the same level of red tape found in government programs. Under the UK’s approach, a Systems House who was “independent of product or manufacturing capability” led the initial Assessment Phase (iAP). Atkins played that role, which evaluated Britain’s options and issued technology development program (TDP) contracts. iAP lasted until 2008, when the Ministry of Defence itself stepped forward to declare finalists, conduct trials, and begin declaring its winners.

In total, 9 TDP contracts were issued, many of which are discussed in more detail in the Appendices. The FRES Technology Demonstrator Programs included:

• Stowage & Capacity (placed Feb/05, complete May/06) – DSTL, the Defence science and technology laboratory
  
• Hard Kill Defensive Aid System (placed May/05, completion due Dec/06) – Akers Krutbruk
  
• Chassis Concept TDP1: AHED (placed Aug/05, due Feb 07) – General Dynamics UK
  
• Chassis Concept TDP2: SEP (placed Dec/05, due Feb/07) – BAE Systems Haaglunds
  
• Electronic Architecture TDP 1 (placed Aug/05, due March/07) – Lockheed Martin UK
  
• Electronic Architecture TDP 2 (placed Aug/05, due March/07) – Thales
  
• Electric Armour TDP (placed Dec/05, due June/07) – Lockheed Martin / Insys
  
• Integrated Survivability (placed Dec/05, due Nov/06) – Thales UK
  
• Gap Crossing (placed Dec/05, due Oct/07) – BAE Systems

There can be… none?
(click to view full)

Boeing and Thales UK won the competition to play a similar role as the system-of-systems integrator (SOSI) during the FRES program’s production phase.

In the end, however, changes on the battlefield and criticism over the pace of FRES led the UK MoD to reach for more of an off-the-shelf vehicle solution. Neither of the vehicles involved in the TDP efforts was among the 3 finalists announced in June 2007, all of whom participated in the ministry’s FRES-UV ‘trials of truth’ in late 2007.

The FRES-UV winner wasn’t announced until May 2008, when General Dynamics’ Piranha-V beat France’s VBCI and the German-Dutch Boxer MRAV program that had been FRES’ origin. Negotiations subsequently stalled, however, and FRES-U/Medium Armor is now on the backburner indefinitely.

The program’s focus is now squarely on the FRES-SV Specialist Vehicle family. It includes the FRES Scout SV, the turretless Protected Mobility Recce Support base variant for Ambulance, Command, and Engineer Recce roles, the Recovery SV model, and the Repair SV model. Instead of replacing Britain’s Warrior IFVs in the armored infantry battalions, Scout SV vehicles will initially serve alongside them in the armored cavalry niche. Britain’s Warriors are getting upgrades, but they’l have to retire around 2030. What happens after that isn’t clear yet.

Phase 1: FRES-SV

GD’s pitch: Part 1

The FRES integration and build contract remained up for grabs, and expected contenders included BAE Systems, General Dynamics UK, and Lockheed Martin UK. The FRES-SV reconnaissance version was also up for grabs, and was tied to a companion program a program to modernize Britain’s Warrior light IFVs.

General Dynamics UK eventually won FRES-SV, beating an upgraded model of BAE’s popular CV90 family with an ASCOD-2 variant of the infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) that serves in Austria and Spain. Modifications included a drive train designed to last the 30-year life of the vehicle, and the ability to support up to 42 tonnes/ 46.3 tons – a weight that would place FRES-SV at the low end for main battle tanks. A signed development contract followed in June 2010.

Variants will include Protected Mobility Recce Support (PMRS SV), a turretless variant that will be used for the Ambulance, Command, and Engineer Recce roles. Turretless Repair SV and Recovery SV variants are also planned, but their roles are so different that they become their own individual designs. The turreted Scout SV will be the most produced variant.

GD’s Pitch: Part 2

The turret’s novel design and impressive performance make it a key component for Scout SV. Indeed, the government mandated the use of BAE/Nexter’s 40mm CTAS gun system for both FRES-SV and Warrior WCSP. The core of its uniqueness resides in the “caseless telescoped” ammunition: the projectile is encased inside a cylinder, with the propellant packed around it instead of behind it. That cuts round length by about 50%, and improves space efficiency by about 33% for a given level of performance, which mitigates the natural space penalties that accompany a larger 40mm gun. Telescoped ammunition also allowed CTAI to replace the normal breech arrangement with a static ammunition feeder that feeds into a novel rotating breech, via a hollow trunion. That allows a more maintainable feeder that cuts the number of parts by over 50%, and can be located farther forward out of the crew’s way.

Best of all, the 1 kg HE (high-explosive) round has 3 times the hitting power of the Warrior’s previous 30mm Rarden shell, and its high explosive air burst (HEAB) capability allows detonation in mid-air at precise ranges. That’s very useful for firing into urban strongpoints, or over enemies hiding behind outside cover.

GD UK’s FRES-SV turret delivery team has a goal of 75% British content, and includes:

• Rheinmetall Land Systems (turret structure, cannon mounting structure, CT40 integration)
  
• Lockheed Martin UK Ampthill (fire control and training, turret integration authority)
  
• Curtiss Wright (turret drives and stabilization control)
  
• Defence Support Group (assembly integration and test)
  
• Meggitt (ammunition handling system)
  
• Moog (slip ring)
  
• Ultra Electronics (power management)

FRES-SV: Plans

SV: initial options
(click to view full)

The FRES SV requirement originally involved up to 3 “blocks” of up to 1,300 Reconnaissance, Medium Armour, and Manoeuvre Support vehicles, and a wide variety of potential variants. As of August 2009, the plan was down to 1,238:

• Recce Block 1: 589 Scout, Repair, Recovery, and Protected Mobility variants. Seen as the highest priority.
  
• Recce Block 2: up to 141 vehicles
  
• Recce Block 3: up to 280 vehicles
  
• Medium Armour: up to 193 vehicles
  
• Manoeuvre Support: up to 35 vehicles

The current Army 2020 plan looks set to cut those totals significantly, with FRES-SV vehicles equipping just 1 armored cavalry regiment within each of 3 armored infantry brigades. FRES-UV numbers also look set to take a cut, equipping only each of the 3 brigades’ Heavy Protected Mobility battalion.

At the same time, the in-service date for FRES has slipped from 2009, and is now no earlier than 2015 for FRES-SV. FRES-UV remains without a contract, or a planned in-service date. A 2008 UK Parliamentary report conveyed the Atkins system house’s doubts that FRES vehicles would be operational in any significant numbers before 2017. That was seen as shocking when they said it – but it may prove to be optimistic.

FRES: Contracts & Key Events 2012 – 2018

CT40 gun qualified; FRES-SV
PMRS variant moving ahead; How secure is FRES-SV funding.

GD on SVs

June 15/18: Ajax trials The British Army’s new Ajax armored fighting vehicle (AFV) is currently undergoing field trials, before the first variants are delivered to operational units early in 2019. The Ajax is part of the multi-billion pound “Future Rapid Effects System” (FRES) program. FRES aims to recapitalize the core of Britain’s armored vehicle fleet over the next decade or more. Ajax vehicles are developed upon a highly-adaptable and capable Common Base Platform, maximizing commonality in mobility, electronic architecture and survivability. Each Ajax platform variant has extensive capabilities, including acoustic detectors, a laser warning system, a local situational awareness system, an electronic countermeasure system, a route marking system, an advanced electronic architecture and a high-performance power pack. Ajax will be the medium weight core of the British Army’s deployable Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capability. It enables the soldier to be at the point of collection of accurate all-weather commander information within a network-enabled digitized platform. The current trials are the final phase of a series of evaluations to approve the vehicle for land warfare operations before it enters full service with the British Army.

September 19/17: General Dynamics Land Systems UK has commenced live firing trials for its AJAX armored vehicle program. The trials are being held in West Wales, Great Britain, and will last for approximately five months, starting with static firing positions against immobile point targets and gradually progressing to a moving vehicle engaging moving targets. It is armed with the CT 40 autocannon and a coaxial 7.62mm chain gun for lighter targets. Used by both the UK and French armed forces, the CT 40 ustilizes a type of telescoping 40mm ammunition designed to take up less space and reduce the necessary size of the gun. It can fire armor-piercing discarding sabot and high-explosive airburst ammunition out to an effective range of 2500 meters. It has a maximum rate of fire of up to 200 rounds per minute.

Sept 13/14: Industrial. Defense News reports that there’s a problem with the cost of assembling the FRES-SV vehicles in Britain, when compared to lower costs for vehicles from GD Santa Barbara Sistemas in Spain. That’s a problem for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that General Dynamics’ industrial proposals in Britain were reportedly a key element in their contract win (q.v. March 15/10). To make matters worse, the FRES-SV decision also led to closures at BAE that included their Newcastle armored vehicle plant in 2012 (q.v. May 31/12).

So much for promises that 80% of ASCOD SV’s full rate production and 70% of its total supply chain will be based in the UK, securing or creating “over 10,600 jobs.” The original plan was to build 100 vehicles entirely at GD Santa Barbara Sistemas, in order to efficiently reach Initial Operational Capability. After that, the Spanish plant would provide hulls only, with the remainder of assembly and manufacturing taking place at Britain’s state-owned Defence Support Group (DSG).

The whole thing begins to look like a very poor policy decision if DSG is very inefficient by comparison, or even a bait-and-switch. The government has asked General Dynamics to go over the figures again, but one could be forgiven for wondering what leverage the government actually has at this point. If the additional costs of DSG-built vehicles are too high, the size of the FRES-SV program would leave the government with a very unpleasant decision to make. Sources: Defense News, “British MoD Reconsiders Assembling Scout in UK”.

Dunne in FRES-SV PMRS
(click to view full)

Sept 3/14: FRES-SV. The UK Ministry of Defence orders 589 FRES Scout-SV tracked vehicles, in 6 variants, to be delivered between 2017 – 2024. General Dynamics UK will also provide initial in-service support and training under the GBP 3.5 billion ($6 billion) contract.

The vehicles will be delivered in 6 variants. The UK MoD double-counts Engineer Reconnaissance, and omits the base turreted vehicle and the touted Ambulance variant. Correcting for those faults, one possibility looks to known variants promoted by General Dynamics, and lists:

• Scout-SV base. Only variant with a full 40mm turret.
  
• Turretless PMRS SV (Protected Mobility Reconnaissance Support) – incl. Ambulance role, and Engineering Reconnaissance carrying specialist engineering equipment and personnel.
  
• Command and Control – derived from PMRS.
  
• Reconnaissance – derived from PMRS, role includes targeting and fire control.
  
• Repair SV – turretless, with crane.
  
• Recovery SV – turretless, with winch and dozer blade.

The announcement is made on the eve of NATO’s Wales Summit, while Russian forces are fighting semi-openly in eastern Ukraine. It’s meant to underscore the fact that Britain is the only major NATO member other than the USA who is meeting the 2% of GDP target for defense spending, and Britain presses more allies to follow Poland’s example and commit to more defense spending. Sources: GD UK, “General Dynamics UK awarded £3.5 billion to deliver 589 SCOUT SV platforms to the British Army” | BBC, “NATO summit: £3.5bn armoured vehicle deal to be signed”.

FRES-SV: 589 vehicles in 6 variants

June 25/14: FRES-UV. The British Army will conduct renewed 8-month trials of a heavily-modified VBCI, as a follow-on to the The Lancaster House agreement (q.v. Nov 2/10) regarding the 2 countries’ defense industries. Activities will begin before the end of 2014 at France’s Canjeurs military base, before moving to Mourmelon. VBCI’s export version has some important changes:

“Speaking to IHS Jane’s at Eurosatory 2014 in Paris, Philip Dunne, UK Minister for Defence Equipment, Support, and Technology, said the VBCI had fallen down on three elements in the original competition: accessibility to the vehicle’s powerpack, the vehicle’s armour protection levels, and its growth potential…. “VBCI has undergone a significant upgrade”, he added…. [Nexter’s] new export variant of the VBCI…. included the ability to remove the vehicle’s powerpack in the field (a British but not a French requirement), and an improved suspension and transmission to increase the VBCI’s maximum weight from 29 tonnes to 32 tonnes – meeting the British need for growth potential and improved protection…. Other improvements include fourth-axle steering, a repositioned fuel tank, upgraded cooling and engine performance, and small hull reconfigurations to increase the vehicle’s internal volume.”

The bad news? Under the revised “Army 2020” plan, FRES UV has dropped from initial estimates of around 2,000 vehicles to just 1 Heavy Protected Mobility (HPM) battalion in each of 3 mechanized brigades. There’s no firm date for that buy, either, as relatively new 6-wheeled Mastiff v-hulled vehicles already occupy the HPM role. Sources: DID, “VBCI: France’s Wheeled APC” | IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, “British Army to trial VBCI”.

June 16/14: Weapons. The WSCP’s 40mm Cased Telescoped Armament System has achieved qualification certification from the UK and France for the 40mm cannon and 2 tracer round types: APFSDS armor piercing and TP full target practice rounds.

CT40 qualification certification allows manned firing demonstration phases to begin for Britain’s FRES-Scout and WCSP programs, and for the French DGA’s EBRC wheeled light tank program. The program will work to certify the other initial ammunition types (A3B anti-aerial airburst, Point detonating and Airburst general purpose tracer rounds, and a low-cost reduced range TPPR-T training round) over the next 2 years, in time for the first delivery of the UK’s series production vehicles. The French EBRC program is expected to start full development in 2015. Sources: CTAI, “CTA International achieves Anglo-French qualification for the 40mm Cased Telescoped Cannon and Ammunition”.

April 28/14: PMRS CDR. The UK Ministry of Defence passes FRES-SV’s turretless Protected Mobility Recce Support (PMRS) base platform through the Base Platform Critical Design Review (CDR). The review covered mine and ballistic survivability; human factors design; PMRS system architecture; its sub-systems, such as the running gear, suspension, auto controls and propulsion; and PMRS specific design interfaces, including for the vehicle’s electronic architecture, C4I equipment, towing and storage.

Note that when the demonstration contract was signed (q.v. July 1/10), full trials of the prototype vehicle were expected to begin no later than 2013. They’re a bit behind.

PMRS is the 1st variant-specific CDR for the SCOUT-SV program, and it will produce a turretless vehicle carrying 2 crew and just 4 soldiers. Variants will be used for Ambulance, Command, and Engineer Reece roles. Delivery of the first PMRS variant pre-production prototype is expected in 2014, following PMRS’ overarching CDR. The Scout SV infantry fighting vehicle, Recovery SV, and Repair SV will follow later. Sources: GD-UK, “General Dynamics UK completes Base Platform Critical Design Review for Specialist Vehicle variant”.

Feb 13/14: NAO Report. Britain’s National Audit Office releases their 2013 Major Projects Report, as well as their review of Britain’s 2013-2023 Equipment Plan. With respect to FRES Specialist Vehicles, the number of vehicles planned is redacted. The NAO report adds:

“It should be noted that Specialist Vehicles does not have a single Main Gate Approval. The size of the programme, together with previous lessons learned in other programmes, determined that a two stage Main Gate approach should be used; Main Gate 1 for entry into Demonstration for Recce Block 1 and Common Base Platform only, with a second Main Gate (2) for entry into production, the latter being the major investment decision. Later approvals (in effect sub- Main Gates) will approve Demonstration and Manufacture of the remaining Protected Mobility Recce Support roles and any future needs.”

Jan 29/14: Parliamentary Report. The House of Commons Defence Committee publishes a report regarding Britain’s fuzzy “Army 2020” plans. Key excerpts:

“We are surprised that such a radical change to the Army’s structure, reflecting a reduction of 12,000 personnel from that announced in SDSR 2010, was not discussed at the National Security Council (NSC)…. As well as setting out the proposed new structure for the Army, the plan announced there would be 17 fewer major units in the Army with a reduction of 23 units from the Order of Battle[51] in total by disbanding and merging several units….

We note that the Secretary of State for Defence accepts that Army 2020 was designed to fit a financial envelope. We are concerned that this consideration took primacy over the country’s abilities to respond to the threats, risks and uncertainties contained in the National Security Strategy. We were also concerned to hear that it was the Ministry of Defence’s Permanent Secretary who told the Chief of the General Staff the future size of the Army under the Army 2020 plan. We call on the MoD to explain the apparent lack of consultation and involvement of the Chief of the General Staff in the decision-making process that has affected his Service so fundamentally….

In its response to this Report, we recommend that the MoD provide us with an assessment of how the Army 2020 plans will affect the “Fighting Power” of the Army providing comparable assessments of both current fighting power and projected fighting power following the completion of the Army 2020 plans.”

Sources: UK Parliament, “Defence Committee – Ninth Report
Future Army 2020“.

Jan 13/14: -SV plans. Britain’s MoD endorses an update to the FRES-SV Acquisition Strategy. The turretless Protected Mobility Recce Support vehicle variant will be used with minor sub-system changes for the Ambulance, Command, and Engineer Recce roles. Further studies have been contracted to assess requirements for the turreted Scout SV, and the Repair and Recovery variants. Sources: NAO Major Projects Report 2013.

Sept 10/13: -SV Testing. The lead contractor for FRES-SV touts testing efforts to date:

“Since [DSEI 2011], General Dynamics UK has been putting its Mobile Test Rig (MTR) – the precursor to a prototype Specialist Vehicle (SV) – through an extensive series of trials…. The MTR is similar in design to the Protected Mobility Recce Support (PMRS) variant of SV, which itself is capable of carrying a crew of two and up to four dismountable troops.

The MTR began its tests [in June 2012]…. To date, the MTR has undertaken… cold weather and Operational and Tactical (O&T) mobility trials… over 1,800km. The O&T trials demonstrated the vehicles ability to withstand extreme lower temperatures and to meet the demanding mobility requirements of the SV programme, during which the MTR towed a total of 92 tonnes train weight over 300km. The next phase of trialling will be the grueling Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) schedule…. On completion of the ALT activities, MTR will have covered over 10,000km and will have provided crucial reliability and performance data to inform the design and manufacture of the six demonstration phase prototype SV platforms.”

Sources: GD-UK, “General Dynamics UK unveils Specialist Vehicle Mobile Test Rig at DSEI 2013”.

July 2013: Army 2020. The British MoD clarifies its reduced force structure plan under Army 2020. British armored forces will see an especial cut, with 3 mechanized brigades and 16 Air Assault Brigade in the “Reaction Force,” while the “Adaptable Force” would include 7 infantry brigades as its combat force.

The initial 2012 document (q.v. May 26/12) made it clear that FRES-SV would only have a role in the armored cavalry regiments. Each mechanized brigade has just 1 of those, which pairs FRES-SV and Challenger tanks. The rest of the brigade includes 1 full Challenger tank regiment, 2 armored infantry battalions with Warrior IFVs, and a Heavy Protected Mobility battalion with blast-resistant Mastiff vehicles. The HPM battalion might be outfitted with FRES-UV wheeled armored vehicles later on, but neither type of FRES armored vehicle was listed for the “Adaptable Force,” which will supposedly rely on standard wheeled patrol vehicles.

This structure seems to represent a drastic cut to the overall FRES program, but Britain’s government and ministry are avoiding those kinds of details. Sources: UK MoD, “Transforming The British Army: An Update – July 2013” and “Transforming The British Army, July 2012”.

June 19/12: Weapons. At the Eurosatory 2012 show, French operators give the Javelin anti-tank missile high marks for performance in Afghanistan, and the Javelin JV is in talks with 2 French firms to integrate Javelin with the BAE/Nexter CT40 turret. Nexter is the first firm, of course.

At the same time, Panhard General Defense is working with Lockheed Martin UK to develop its Sphinx medium 6×6 wheeled armored vehicle concept for France’s EBRC light tank competition. Lockheed Martin UK expects to leverage its turret work from the British FRES-SV and WCSP programs for EBRC, and the Javelin missile is already a mainstay in British service. Which means that any Javelin integration work performed for the French market could eventually filter back to those British armored programs. Sources: Army Recognition, “Lockheed Martin at Eurosatory 2012”.

May 31/12: Industrial. BAE closes its main armored vehicle production facility at Newcastle-on-Tyne.

“BAE said the proposal to close the Newcastle site at the end of 2013 followed a business review which concluded that there was no prospect of new UK armoured vehicle manufacturing work once production of the Terrier ends next year.”

Sources: Daily Mail, “Tank builder shuts after 165 years because of slump in orders” | Mirror, “Tanks and goodnight: Historic defence factory to close with loss of hundreds of jobs”.

May 26/12: FRES-SV delay? Defense News quotes unnamed British sources, who say that the new Army 2020 plan is likely to extend FRES SV’s GBP 500 million pound demonstration phase, cut the total number of planned vehicles, and delay operational introduction to 2020 or beyond. Excerpt:

“The MoD has never publicly acknowledged the expected in-service date for the Scout vehicle, although Army officers at last year’s DSEi exhibition in London said it was 2015…. A MoD spokeswoman said: …The funding for the [GBP 5.5 billion] vehicle pipeline, which also includes the Warrior Capability Sustainment Program, a [FRES] utility vehicle and improvements to Challenger 2, will be prioritized, according to the Army’s requirements. In the case of Scout, production numbers and delivery dates will be confirmed at Main Gate…”

Sources: UK MoD – Transforming The British Army, July 2012″ [PDF] | Defense News, “U.K. May Delay Major Vehicle Buy”.

May 14/12: Politics. The UK MoD confirms in its Planning Round 2012 (PR12) announcement that GBP 5.5 billion in funding is available for its future Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) pipeline, which includes the FRES-Specialist Vehicle program. GD-UK is predictably pleased:

“We welcome the announcement by the Secretary of State for Defence confirming that the SV programme is secure in the MoD’s future AFV pipeline and core programme of committed funding,” commented Dr. Sandy Wilson, president and managing director of General Dynamics UK…. A recent audit study by Ernst & Young concluded that the SV programme would generate total economic output of over [GBP] 9.8 billion, with a corresponding Gross Value Added1 (GVA) of [GBP] 4.7 billion over the life of the programme. To this end, General Dynamics UK recently invested £12 million in state of the art facilities in Wales, establishing a Centre of Excellence for Land Systems…”

Sources: GD-UK, “UK MoD confirms commitment to Specialist Vehicle programme in Armoured Fighting Vehicle pipeline”.

2010 – 2011

GD’s ASCOD 2 is preferred base design for FRES-SV; Sub-contractors picked; FRES-SV survives SDSR review; Testing contract for novel CT40 gun system.

ASCOD-2 Scout
(click to view full)

May 4/11: Sub-contractors. Curtiss-Wright Corporation announces a contract from Lockheed Martin to provide the Scout reconnaissance vehicle’s servo system for weapon stabilization.

The demonstration phase contract has an option for production deliveries, and continues through December 2013. Curtiss-Wright will design, develop and manufacture the turret drive servo system at their Motion Control facility in Neuhausen, Switzerland.

March 23/11: Industrial. Lockheed Martin UK announces 60 new jobs at their Ampthill site, now that they have secured a contract to deliver the turret for the new FRES SV.

March 6/12: Sub-contractors. ViaSat Inc. is picked by General Dynamics UK Ltd. to design and develop the on-board encrypted data storage systems for FRES-SV, scheduled to begin trials with the British Army in January 2013.

ViaSat has developed the only hardware based data encryption technology approved by Britain’s CESG for the protection of Top Secret data at rest. The system also includes purge controls to delete data encryption keys. Overall, its EDS systems will allow FRES-SV vehicles to securely capture, analyze, store, and share over 6 TB of intelligence data. The Specialist Vehicle Encryption and Purge Solution will be modular, able to be switched out as needed, and more easily upgraded over the vehicle’s lifetime. ViaSat.

Jan 17/11: Political. IHS Jane’s reports that:

“The biggest hit for the British Army in the Government’s economy package falls on what had been known as the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) programme, focused on delivering medium weight armour. Already long-delayed and effectively in abeyance, the programme has now seen army officers drop bids for funding to build both the medium armour [DID: FRES-U] and manoeuvre support FRES variants from the service’s 2011 spending and planning round (PR11) pitch…. “

Being left out of PR11 isn’t a death sentence in and of itself, but the more time FRES variants spend as a lower-priority item, the lower their long-term fielding odds become. Other programs expected to be on the “unfunded” list for PR11 include UOR electronic countermeasures for use against IED land mines, bringing satellite communication equipment into the core force, fielding blast-resistant Wolfhound/ Husky/ Coyote supply vehicles across the wider army, new chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear protective equipment; arming Watchkeeper MK450B UAVs, and funding ongoing improvements to the Bowman communication system beyond 2015.

Dec 2/10: Sub-contractors. Lockheed Martin UK announces that General Dynamics UK has issued a contract to deliver 3 turrets for the FRES Scout reconnaissance vehicle, to be used in the Demonstration Phase Integration and Test efforts.

As previous entries indicate, Lockheed Martin has been working on this for some time. Some of that happened during the bid phase. Other work was covered by UK MoD advance funding ahead of a full contract agreement with prime contractor General Dynamics UK, in order to ensure that the FRES-SV Demonstration Phase schedule remained fully on track. While contract negotiations continue between General Dynamics UK and the UK MoD, Lockheed Martin UK is also in negotiations with its suppliers, in order to finalize industrial arrangements for the turret.

Nov 2/10: UK-France. The “UK-France Summit 2010 Declaration on Defence and Security Co-operation” includes the intent to create “a Combined Joint Expeditionary Force suitable for a wide range of scenarios, up to and including high intensity operations.”

The VBCI may have lost the original FRES-UV competition (q.v. May 8/08), but GD’s Piranha V couldn’t hold on to its win (q.v. Dev 11/08). A combined JEF would benefit from armored vehicle commonality, if Nexter can fix the flaws that cause it to lose in 2008.

UK-France defense MoU

Oct 19/10: SDSR. Britain releases its Strategic Defence and Security Review. Heavy units take the brunt of land cuts, with Challenger tank forces cut by 40%, and AS90 Braveheart self-propelled artillery by 33%. FRES escapes obvious cuts, but the government does not give firm fleet size guidance. It says only that the future force will include:

“…a new range of medium weight armoured vehicles, including Terrier engineer vehicles and the Scout reconnaissance vehicles and in due course the Future Rapid Effects System Utility Vehicle (FRES UV) which will be the core of the Army’s armoured manoeuvre fleet;”

SDSR

July 1/10: A Conservative/Liberal Democrat alliance has become Britain’s government, and their comprehensive defense review isn’t done yet; even so, a major FRES-SV contract is signed by the UK MoD and General Dynamics UK. The GBP 500 million (about $760 million) contract covers FRES-SV’s demonstration phase. The firm will design and deliver 7 prototypes for the ASCOD-2 Scout reconnaissance vehicle, supporting variants built on the ASCOD SV Common Base Platform, and associated training equipment. The Common Base Platform can support variants such as the base Infantry Fighting/ Scout vehicle, a turretless Armored Personnel Carrier, Ambulance, Bridge-Laying, Command, Assault Gun/ Fire Support, Repair, and Recovery, as desired.

The trials of the prototype vehicles are expected to begin with the Army no later than 2013. If and when the demonstration phase is successful, the program can advance to the Manufacture Phase. UK MoD | General Dynamics UK.

FRES-SV Demonstration Phase

June 24/10: Sub-contractors. General Dynamics UK unveils its Scout SV turret for ASCOD SV at Britain’s Defence Vehicle Dynamics 2010 exhibition. The turret is designed around the CT40 Cased Telescoped Cannon System, which was successfully integrated and fired by turret provider Lockheed Martin UK Ampthill at the beginning of 2010. Over 75% of turret-related work will be done in the UK.

The ASCOD SV turret has a turret-ring diameter of 1.7m, which is wider than older vehicles such as the Warrior. The hull is also designed to accommodate a 2.1m turret ring, which would offer the ability to carry a 105mm or 120mm gun in order to field a fire support variant (the CV90 family has already fielded and tested the CV90-120). ASCOD SV’s turret design places the main ammunition feed under-armor, but outside the turret crew compartment. This gives soldiers in the turret more room, even wearing full body armour and future wearable systems, and offers room for additional systems (probably power) to be added inside. General Dynamics UK.

March 22/10: -SV preferred bidder. The UK Ministry of Defence announces that General Dynamics UK is the preferred bidder for FRES-SV, but doesn’t specify the amount. News reports describe a potential GBP 1 billion (about $1.5 billion) contract to provide 580 vehicles in both the Scout variant and the Common Base Platform for other specialty roles like recovery, command and control, etc. Note that Preferred Bidder status is not a contract yet – GD UK had the exact same status for FRES-U, but couldn’t come to an agreement and ended up losing the contract.

The base ASCOD design for FRES-SV is a collaboration between 2 General Dynamics subsidiaries: Santa Barbara Sistemas in Spain, and Steyr Daimler Pusch in Austria. Earlier versions of the ASCOD serve with the Spanish and Austrian militaries, where they are known as the Pizarro and Ulan, respectively. General Dynamics says that their FRES ASCOD-2 design can grow up to 42 tonnes thanks to its drive train – almost the weight of a Russian T-72 main battle tank, and heavier than BAE’s CV90. The firm adds that 80% of ASCOD SV’s full rate production and 70% of its total supply chain will be based in the UK, securing or creating over 10,600 jobs for British workers at headquarters in South Wales, and other regions. General Dynamics UK has sub-contracted Lockheed Martin UK INSYS to produce the Scout variant’s CTAS-based 40mm turret, and will transfer full rate production of the entire ASCOD SV program to DSG in Donnington.

The deal is not wholly out of the woods yet, however. The opposition Conservative Party is criticizing the awards just before a general election, whose aftermath is certain to feature a broad strategic review. The party says that existing programs will be assessed on 5 criteria: affordability, capability, adaptability, exportability and interoperability. UK MoD | General Dynamics UK | UK’s Daily Telegraph | UK’s The Guardian | UK’s The Independent | AP | Defense News.

ASCOD-2 picked for FRES-SV

March 15/10: -SV Competition. BAE Systems announces plans to save and create a total of 800 jobs (400 layoffs canceled, 400 jobs added) at its Newcastle manufacturing site, shifting away from its initial plans to build the base CV90 platform on the current manufacturing line in Sweden, and then fit it out and finish it in the UK. The move comes in response to a March 13/10 report in the Financial Times the British government is ready to award the FRES-SV contract to General Dynamics.

Media reports say that BAE was initially told it was in the “box seat” to win the order, after spending GBP 50 million and 5 years designing a CV90 variant that it believes to be technically superior to its competition, a General Dynamics ASCOD variant. Reports now indicate that the General Dynamics proposal had a more attractive industrial component. Defence Management | Defense News | IBTimes | Reuters | London Telegraph.

Feb 26/10: -SV Competition. Jane’s reports that the FRES-SV industrial programs have become an issue in the competition. General Dynamics UK reportedly said it expects to safeguard or create more than 10,500 jobs in 8 regions of the UK, if its ASCOD vehicle wins. This presumably includes jobs at component suppliers, and possibly economic multiplier effects.

At the same time, BAE Systems had warned that its UK military land vehicle concerns will become a “dwindling support services business” should the group fail to be selected to meet the UK FRES-SV and the Warrior Capability Sustainment Plan. In other words, significant layoffs.

Feb 25/10: -SV Competition. The MoD’s Investment Approvals Board (IAB) meets, with discussions including the GBP 1 billion Warrior Capability Sustainment Program upgrades to Britain’s Warrior IFVs, and MoD Defence Equipment & Support’s recommendation in the FRES-SV competition. Jane’s report | PURCON | Defense News re: IAB’s agenda.

Feb 22/10: Weapons. BAE Systems announces that they’re starting to build a GBP 4.5 million Turret Test Rig (TTR) for the FRES Scout and Warrior upgrade programs. The rig is closely modeled on BAE Systems’ Mission Equipment Vibration Table (MEVT) in Minneapolis, built for the US Future Combat Systems program. Indeed, systems modeling and analysis manager Vince Whelan relocated from Minneapolis.

The TTR is designed to take a turret through a 20-year life-span in 12-18 months by subjecting it to “shake, rattle and roll” tests under extremes of temperature. Electronic components in particular tend to dislike vibration, but the life of an armored vehicle makes a lot of vibration inevitable. Testing must be done, but field testing is inefficient and expensive. Hence the development of facilities like TTR/MEVT.

Feb 8/10: Weapons. The CTA International (CTAI) joint venture between BAE Systems and France’s Nexter signs a GBP 11 million contract with the French and British ministries of defence, in order to fund qualification of their 40mmm CTCA caseless cannon system. CT40 qualification will begin in early 2011, including freezing, baking, humidity, “shake, rattle and roll” trials, etc. The UK and France have already signed a Government to Government Technical Arrangement for a jointly-funded qualification program, which will require around 15,000 rounds.

The final ammunition requirements will be defined once the prime contractors are announced in the next few weeks. Nexter has secured an ammunition supply contract from the French government, while BAE Systems Global Combat Systems – Munitions (GCSM), recently submitted a proposal to produce that 40mm ammunition through Britain’s existing MASS munitions supply contract.

While the system has been passed for manned firing and considerable data has already been collected, these trials will formally pass the system for use by the British and French armies. CTCA will be used in the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme (WCSP), the FRES Scout reconnaissance vehicle for the British Army and in the French Army’s future reconnaissance vehicle. In Britain, however, the WCSP/FRES turrets and the FRES Scout chassis will be selected through competition. BAE Systems release.

CT40 testing

2008 – 2009

GD’s Piranha V wins FRES-U, until FRES-UV is shelved; Boeing & Thales sign integrator contracts; FRES-SV competition bids are in.

CV90, urban camo
(click to view full)

Nov 5/09: -SV Competition. General Dynamics UK announces that its FRES-SV bid is in, and cites the design’s weight and growth potential. Its ASCOD SV will use Lockheed Martin UK INSYS as its turret designer and provider.

Nov 1/09: -SV Competition. A BAE release adds more details about their bid for the initial GBP 2 million “Recce Block 1” FRES-SV phase, including information about expected production. The chassis will be built at the company’s existing production line at Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, using parts from a number of UK suppliers. The Scout turret and UK mission fit will be built in the UK, and integrated onto the chassis in the UK.

According to the release, BAE’s demonstrator vehicle has already begun mobility trials at Millbrook proving ground, and fired its weapon system at the Shoeburyness range.

Sept 9/09: -SV Competition. BAE unveils its FRES-SV Scout demonstrator at DESi 2009. It’s based on a lowered CV90 chassis, with upgraded electronics and the requisite stabilized CTAS 40mm turret.

CTAS will form the foundation for the FRES Scout and the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme (WCSP), and its 40mm high explosive round has more than 3x the explosive power of the 30mm Rarden that equips the current Warrior vehicles. Testing is underway. The WSCP and FRES-SV turrets will be somewhat different, but will be based on a common gun and electronic architecture. Defence Management.

July 9/09: -SV Competition. The UK Ministry of Defence has announced that it will extend FRES-SV’s draft Invitation to Tender to BAE Systems Global Combat Systems, and to General Dynamics UK. Their competing models are intended to provide reconnaissance and reconnaissance support vehicles to replace the British Army’s existing CVR (T) Scimitar and Spartan vehicles. The final Invitation to Tender is expected to be issued later in July 2009, following this initial assessment phase.

BAE has at least 2 main choices for FRES-SV. Reports to date indicate that it is likely to offer its tracked SEP/Thor modular vehicle, a new design whose wheeled model could easily become the back-door choice for FRES-U/MA – if the tracked variant wins FRES-SV, and if subsequent negotiations go well. The other option is its popular CV90 series, which is already combat tested and in service with several countries. It offers a more proven solution, a wide array of developed variants, and allied interoperability benefits, at the price of having less cross-over potential.

General Dynamics is offering an upgraded ASCOD 2 IFV. This joint project of General Dynamics’ subsidiaries Santa Barbara Sistemas and Steyr-Daimler-Puch has been fielded by Spain (as the Pizarro IFV) and Austria (as the Ulan IFV); several specialty variants are already in service.

Dec 15/08: Industrial. Bloomberg News quotes BAE spokesman Mike Sweeny as saying that BAE will review the future of its UK Land Systems unit following the UK MoD’s FRES decision. BAE had lost 2 critical opportunities to participate in FRES so far, and had pinned its hopes on becoming the manufacturing contractor for the modified FRES- Utility Piranha V design. When talks collapsed between General Dynamics MOWAG and the UK over ownership of the vehicles’ intellectual property, and placed the FRES-UV vehicle on the back-burner, that opportunity evaporated.

BAE is also competing for the FRES-SV scout vehicle, offering its Thor/SEP vehicle which comes in wheeled and tracked variants. The SEP is designed by BAE’s Hagglunds unit in Sweden, however, and would not enter service until 2013 at the earliest.

In November 2008, BAE Land Systems said it would cut as many as 200 jobs because production work has dwindled to the Pinzgauer armored truck and Terrier general support engineer vehicle, plus an unspecified project for a Middle Eastern client. Upgrade and integration work on systems like the AS90 mobile howitzer, FV430 Mk3 Bulldog APC, Warrior IFV, and others wasn’t deemed sufficient. BAE has now said that it said it can’t rule out further plant closures and job cuts in Britain.

SEP, tracked
(click to view full)

Dec 11/08: FRES-UV shelved. The UK Ministry of Defense announces a sweeping set of changes to a number of procurement programs. FRES is the most seriously affected, as GD MOWAG’s refusal to transfer its newest Piranha-V vehicle’s full intellectual property to the UK MoD ownership scuttles the deal. The firm’s preferred bidder status for FRES-Utility is revoked. At the same time, the SoSI integrator position is removed from the program.

The government also concludes that conditions in Afghanistan, which have not been kind to very similar wheeled vehicles, place a higher priority on the FRES-SV, which is very likely to be a tracked offering. UK Defence Secretary John Hutton:

“We have concluded that, in the context of current operations, and bearing in mind the considerable recent investment in protected mobility, the highest priority should now be accorded to delivering the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme and the FRES Scout vehicle as quickly as possible. Against that background, we have decided to restructure the FRES programme, giving priority to FRES Scout over the FRES Utility Vehicle.”

Hutton admits that this move will delay the FRES program, again. A government looking to move FRES out of the way of other needs would see that as a positive feature. UK MoD | Bloomberg.

SoSI removed, FRES-UV shelved, FRES-SV prioritized

Nov 3/08: FRES-UV. The Financial Times of London writes:

“Six months after selecting General Dynamics [MOWAG] to provide the design for the first variant of the new vehicles, the MoD has been unable to agree final contractual terms with the US group [DID: GD MOWAG is in Switzerland]…. the two parties have been unable to agree certain elements of the final contract. The protracted negotiations have also delayed the competition for the vehicle integrator, the job of assembling the vehicle, fitting it out and making sure it can work with all the other high-tech systems in the forces. BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Finmeccanica are all in the running for the role.”

The article reports that the UK MoD is revisiting the acquisition process, and that elements of FRES could be delayed as a result of the impasse.

Oct 16/08: Lockheed Martin UK announces an study contract from Atkins, the FRES program’s system house. The study will work to help the UK MoD refine the FRES-SV scout vehicle’s user and systems requirements, cost estimates and schedule to delivery, with a particular focus on integrating the FRES mission systems into a combat-effective, affordable and low-risk Scout turret concept. The work will also build upon the FRES Electronic Architecture Technology Demonstrator Programme (EATDP) that Lockheed Martin UK and its teammates delivered for MoD through Atkins in 2007.

Lockheed Martin’s principal sub-contractors will be SciSys and Ultra Electronics. Lockheed Martin UK release.

FRES-U:
Piranha-V concept
(click to view full)

May 8/08: FRES-UV. General Dynamics UK’s Piranha-V wins Britain’s FRES-Utility competition, beating Nexter’s VBCI and the ARTEC consortium’s Boxer MRAV. General Dynamics employs prople around the UK, including 1,000 in South Wales at Oakdale and Newbridge.

As noted below, even this win is still a development contract of sorts. Subject to satisfactory completion of the package of work on risk reduction, General Dynamics UK Limited and its team will develop the new Piranha-V 8×8 wheeled armored personnel carrier as the British Army’s FRES Utility Vehicle. The company will now enter negotiations with the MoD to determine the scope of development work required. A spokesman for the MoD said the risk-reduction phase was “aimed at increasing confidence in the maturity of the vehicle design across performance, cost and time issues.” At present, there is no schedule for this next phase; that will be one of the items negotiated. UK MoD release | General Dynamics UK release | Defense News | iCWales news site report | Forbes report.

FRES-UV picks Piranha V

March 11/08: Not Off-the-Shelf. The House of Commons issues its 2007-08 defence equipment report. With respect to FRES, the report describes the MoD’s go-forward approach – which is not about an off-the-shelf purchase:

“We note that the FRES Utility Vehicle design which has been recommended is a “developmental vehicle” and that the MoD considers that this is the best option as it can be upgraded and its capability increased over time. We also note that the MoD considers that acquiring an “off-the-shelf” vehicle would not provide scope for increasing capability and would have a very limited life. While we recognise that these are strong arguments for acquiring a developmental vehicle for the FRES Utility Vehicle, such an option is also likely to involve higher costs and increased risks to the in-service date because of unforeseen problems during the further development. If the recommended design is approved, the MoD needs to ensure that it identifies the key risks on the programme and how these are to be managed.”

Read: “Britain Releases Defence Equipment 2008 Report” for more information and links.

Feb 6/08: SoSI. Boeing and Thales announce that their System of System Integrators contract (see Oct 5/07) has been signed by the UK MoD. The initial 6-month contract is valued at GBP 4 million (about $8 million). It gets the process started, and defines the framework for the firm’s ongoing role in the subsequent phases of the FRES program. Boeing release | Thales Group release.

Integrator contracts

2006 – 2007

Initial study contracts; System integrator finalists & FRES-UV finalists picked, but program delayed.

Boxer MRAV:
in from the cold
(click to view full)

Nov 29/07: Delayed. Bob Ainsworth, the UK’s Minister of State for Armed Forces, announces a slight delay:

“The Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) has a vital role to play in the future of the British Army. We stated that we would announce the outcome of the utility vehicle design trials by the end of November. I am delighted to announce today that these trials have been successfully completed on schedule, and that a recommendation has been produced based on technical design considerations. Further work with all three possible providers will be undertaken over the next few weeks in order to clarify the commercial implications of their proposals. Following this, a definitive announcement will be made on the preferred design to be taken through the remainder of assessment phase of this part of the FRES programme.”

Nov 22/07: Competition. With the stakes growing after 2 losses in the FRES competition, BAE Systems unveils its bid team for the FRES integration and build contract: BAE Land Systems, BAE Insyte, SAIC, QinetiQ, SELEX S&AS, GE Aviation, and Cranfield University.

Nov 6/07: Competition. A Defense News report reads the tea leaves and believes the French VBCI has an edge in the FRES competition. Meanwhile, assessment-phase contracts have been awarded in the tracked FRES-Recon for BAE Systems’ CV90 (not SEP) and General Dynamics UK’s ASCOD for scout, indirect fire control, ground-based surveillance and other roles.

They quote BAE Systems Land Systems Managing Director Andrew Davies as saying that BAE, who has been eliminated from the FRES-Utility finals and Systems of Systems contracts, “must win the last piece of the FRES utility program – the integration-and-build contract – or consider shutting the Newcastle plant.”

Oct 5/07: SoSI. The UK MoD announces that Thales UK and Boeing’s Defence UK subsidiary have been selected as the preferred bidders for the role of System of Systems Integrator (SOSI) for the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) program. The SOSI team is supposed to act as an independent, honest broker between industry and the MoD to co-ordinate FRES procurement, providing service elements including: systems of systems engineering and integration; alliance development and management; development of the MoD’s SOSI competence; through-life capability management; and through-life technology management.

The selection represents the second important loss for BAE in the FRES program, the first blow being the elimination of its SEP wheeled/tracked vehicle family from the finalists’ roster.

The MoD announcement also mentions their appointment of the legal firm Herbert Smith to provide the FRES team with intellectual property, commercial and legal advice. Their role is to ensure that the Intellectual Property, Design Authority, and systems architecture for FRES will reside in the UK, per the government’s Defence Industrial Strategy. UK MoD release | Thales release | Boeing release.

Sept 13/07: Competition. Jane’s reports from DESi 2007 that General Dynamics UK is making an offer its competitors won’t be able to match:

“General Dynamics UK has confirmed that…. there is a potential export market for up to 2,000 Piranha Vs (8×8) over a 10-year period. These would all be supplied from the UK production line, because the UK would have a complete technology transfer package, as well as the full intellectual property rights as stipulated by the UK Ministry of Defence.”

Boxer modular concept
(click to view full)

June 14/07: Politics. Stung by criticism that the MoD has wasted years in order to select off-the-shelf vehicles that may not be survivable enough, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support Lord Drayson fires back in a public forum:

“Yes, the Boxer was a programme the MoD pulled out of when it was known as the MRAV programme. We took that decision in 2002 in light of the requirement at the time. We have since reviewed the FRES requirement in light of recent operational experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. Force protection in theatre now has a higher priority than strategic deployability – I don’t think anyone would argue with that view. When the situation changes our procurement process must be capable of responding to that change….. Iâ€m not going to go into the details of the protection FRES will have in a public forum…. But to suggest that we are ignoring the threats we face in Iraq and Afghanistan today when we set the requirement for our future vehicles is wrong. And the idea that taking into account the full range of threats FRES will be less well protected than the patrol vehicles you list (such as the Mastiff) is also wrong. Finally, let’s all be clear that FRES is neither a protected patrol vehicle nor a replacement for Warrior….”

Given Canada’s poor experiences with wheeled vehicles in Afghanistan, and the Stryker’s emerging difficulties against new IED land mines in Iraq, this may become a recurring subject.

VBCI
(click to view full)

June 8/07: FRES-UV Finalists. Britain’s MoD announces the FRES finalists. Surprisingly, the SEP vehicles don’t make that list, nor do other test platforms. All of the finalists are wheeled: General Dynamics MOWAG’s Piranha V, Nexter (formerly Giat’s) VBCI – and the KMW-ARTEC Boxer, which program Britain abandoned several years ago in order to pursue FRES.

The vehicles will go on to the “trials of truth,” and the MoD says the outcome of the trials will be announced by the end of November 2007. At that point, “one or more utility vehicle designs will go forward for detailed assessment.” UK MoD release | Nexter release | Nexter DESi PDF brochure | KMW release.

FRES-UV finalists

June 5/07: SoSI. The UK MoD recently announced its intention to form a Ministry of Defence/ Industry Alliance for FRES. A key role in this Alliance is that of the System of Systems Integrator. Thales UK and Boeing Defence UK have now announced that they will jointly bid for the SOSI role. Thales UK will be the lead firm in the partnership.

If selected, Thales and Boeing would be partnered with the MoD to deliver a timely and coherent through-life capability to the British Army that would include both the vehicles and long-term support services, while meeting UK industrial goals under the Defence Industrial Strategy and retaining key intellectual property rights for the MoD. Thales UK touts its “excellent understanding of the Armored Fighting Vehicle domain,” systems integration skils, and “in-depth understanding of UK doctrine and concepts.” Boeing touts its “proven experience and expertise in successfully executing system-of-systems integration programs” (it’s one of the SOSI-type leads for the USA’s Future Combat Systems, with SAIC), and “world-class program management… and supply chain management skill.” Boeing release | Thales UK release.

March 19/07: Competition. BAE Hagglunds announced that its new SEP 8×8 modular vehicle system is now ready for the UK Ministry of Defence’s upcoming trials for FRES Utility Vehicles.

Feb 21/07: Report. The UK’s Parliamentary Defence Committee published its Seventh Report of Session 2006-07: The Army’s requirement for armoured vehicles: the FRES programme, HC 159 [PDF] | Committee release: “Make Up Your Mind On Army’s Armoured Vehicles, Defence Committee Tells MoD.” The report is highly critical of the UK MoD’s multiple plans over the years to replace Britain’s medium armor, expresses concern over weight requirements/ air transportability, lack of joint cooperation with any other country, a potential lack of soldier input, and expresses doubts that FRES vehicles can be fielded before 2017.

The UK MoD’s reply asserts that risk reduction requires the current pace, and alludes to the fact that past Parliamentary complaints re: the MoD have involved excessive risk and project overruns.

For a summary of February events, including links to and excerpts from these publications, see the DID article “Britain’s FRES Program has a Full February.”

Feb 19/07: Jane’s Defence Weekly reports that BAE Systems Hagglunds has completed the first of two new 8×8 Integrated Demonstrator armored fighting vehicles on schedule. These SEP-based vehicles were developed using company funding, in close co-operation with BAE Systems Land Systems of the UK. As noted above, BAE is competing against a General Dynamics UK vehicle to meet the British Army’s Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) Utility Vehicle (UV) requirement.

BAE MGV-T

Feb 12/07: Competition. Following the endorsement of the FRES Acquisition Strategy and the publication of the EOI for the Utility Vehicle competitions, the latest FRES requirements documents are now being made available in order to keep industry informed as the requirements mature prior to final release later [in 2007]. See MoD bulletin.

Jan 26/07: Competition. Jane’s Defence Weekly reports that The UK Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) has begun seeking expressions of interest from companies for the delivery of the FRES-UV (Utility Vehicles) phase. The DPA release to industry, via the Defence Contracts Bulletin (DCB) on January 25th, offers an invitation to tender (ITT) for both the vehicle integrator and design packages of the UV programme. The move will end FRES’ initial assessment phase as it begins a transition toward acquisition.

July 31/06: Study contract. The FRES programme is part way through its initial assessment phase (iAP). One of the key objectives is to confirm the requirements for the FRES Initial Operating Capability (IOC) utility variants and enshrine these in an appropriate System Requirements document (SRD). The IOC Variant SRD (V-SRD) will not be finalised until the end of the iAP, but Atkins is “keen to ensure that industry has the opportunity to have sight of and influence the nature of the SRD well in advance of its finalisation.” As such, an initial draft release is available to industry for information and comment. See full release for details.

Initial study contracts

July 17/06: Industrial. Boeing announces that it is expanding its presence in the UK with the establishment of a new facility in Bristol, England, to support its growing defense business activities. The new facility is part of Boeing Defence UK, Ltd. and will support Boeing’s efforts on the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) program.

Jan 4/06: TD contracts. Thales UK, teamed with Boeing, was selected to lead the Integrated Survivability (IS) programme. “Integrated survivability” is a combination of vehicle design (stealth, shape, layout), sensors, armor, and active defensive systems inside and out. In this case, it also includes something called “electric armor.” Sources: UK MoD | DID coverage all received contracts in this area.

Initial study contracts

Appendix 1 – The British Army’s Armored Vehicle Fleet, late 2006 Vehicle Fleet Size Role Challenger 2 385 Main battle tank AS 90 Braveheart 146 Self-propelled 155mm artillery Warrior 793 Infantry fighting vehicle CVR [1] 1255 Variety of roles FV430 series 1492 Roles include APC, recovery and repair vehicle, mortar carrier and radar
vehicle Saxon 622 wheeled armored personnel carrier (APC) Fuchs 11 Recon, incl. NBC BvS10 Viking 108 Amphibious armoured all-terrain vehicle Striker 48 Overwatch and anti-armour guided weapon Spartan 478 Engineer reconnaissance vehicle Challenger Armored Repair and Recovery Vehicle (CHARRV) 81 Heavy Repair & Recovery (R2) vehicle Chieftain AVRE/AVLB/ARRV 119 Engineer recovery vehicles Combat Engineer Tractor (CET) 73 Clear obstacles, dig gun pits, prepare barriers and tow vehicles Shielder 30 Creates anti-tank barriers Hippo 4 Beach armoured recovery vehicle [1] = Spartan, Scimitar, Samson, Samaritan and Sultan are all variants of the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked)
Source: UK MoD, via Defense Committee Feb 2007 Report “The Army’s requirement for armoured vehicles: the FRES programme, HC 159”. Since that date, the army has placed orders for additional BvS10 vikings to act as UAV transports/launchers, 248 Mastiff mine-resistant vehicles, 130 Supacat MWMIK light recon vehicles, and 400 more FV430 Mk3 “Bulldog” builds/upgrades.

A New Procurement Approach: The System House Challenges

FV432 mortar carrier

The crucial Systems House contract was placed with Atkins on Nov 16/04. Could Atkins cut the fat, successfully slim down the procurement process, and deliver the promised results?

In some ways, it’s hard to determine, because battlefield needs and other pressures ended up taking the entire competition in a very different direction. The broad aims of the Assessment Phase were:

• To further define the FRES capability required given the military operational concepts that underpin the concept, and develop a series of affordable options for meeting the FRES requirement.

• To develop optimum procurement and support strategies for future phases in order to present a robust case at the point of go/no-go decision.

• To manage technology and supplier risk to acceptable levels.

FV430 Mk3, Iraq
(click to view full)

In the UK, some of these goals were certainly achieved. The FRES program has been criticized in Parliament for its delays, but the combination of very new technologies to evaluate and changing requirements on the customer end could hardly have produced anything else. In the USA, the capabilities and effects based (vs. specifications based), system integrator led FCS process has run into difficulties on the very points noted above, plus a couple of areas that are unique to the American program’s vast breadth.

In both cases, however, the countries involved are attempting to sidestep the disconnected and slow processes associated with developing each weapon in the system as an individual military-run project with detailed specifications at all stages. Given that conventional military design and procurement programs can take anywhere from 8-20 years on average, the speed of technology’s advance has made compressing this process something of a necessity.

These kinds of attempts are definitely an industry trend in Western countries. Whether FCS and FRES succeed or fail, procurement structure experiments will continue to be tried around the world as advanced armies embark on “military transformation” projects that tax both existing technology limits and military procurement systems’ ability to deliver.

FRES: Key Challenges for the Contractors

BOWMAN
(click to view full)

The contractors face two key challenges in designing the FRES. One has to do with its electronic architecture, an extremely important facet of any vehicle built with network-centric warfare in mind. The other challenge has to do with balancing the more conventional variables of weight, protection, and firepower in light of modern anti-armor threats that range from increasingly sophisticated anti-tank rockets to IED land mines.

Electronic Architecture Technology Demonstrator Programme (EA TDP) contracts are currently underway for the FRES system. Britain’s Ministry of Defense wrote that:

“The programme, which will last around 18 months, will define a scalable open architecture that may be a candidate electronic architecture solution at the core of the FRES fleet.”

In other words, it is possible that none of the presented electronic architecture solutions will be adopted. The challenging requirements may help to explain why.

The EA TDP solution must look at how FRES could be integrated within the MOD’s network enabled communications system providing enhanced Command and Control, Communications and Intelligence, local situational awareness via integrated sensors plus image and data handling, target acquisition and precision engagement, survivability and mobility. The Electronic Architecture must therefore integrate with the new General Dynamics UK-led BOWMAN communications system and the Bowman Combat Infrastructure and Platform Battlefield Information Systems Application (BCIP) program, providing seamless communications with all combat, combat support and combat service support systems. A sophisticated Health & Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) for the weapons systems is also envisioned, helping to reduce the logistical footprint, increase availability and ensure that the whole life cost for the FRES system is tightly controlled.

As if that wasn’t enough, mission-specific reconfiguration and the ability to grow the electronic system’s capabilities by incremental acquisition are also important target criteria.

Given the extent of these wished-for capabilities, it’s possible that re-prioritization of these electronics requirements will occur down the road.

On the physical side, advanced militaries are finding that their expensive systems need to be amortized over a long service life. In response, they’re beginning to plan for this. Meanwhile, demands for longer service life usually work to drive initial program costs even higher. The US Marines’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) are looked at addressing this issue through steps like different hardware architectures, but the need to remain compliant with standard off-the-shelf commodity components became an issue. Given that long service life is likely to remain a budgetary necessity, more experiments are sure to follow.

Challenger 2
(click to view full)

With respect to vehicle design, the British Ministry of Defence notes:

“The FRES requirement sets demanding targets including limits to weight and size to allow rapid deployment by air, while at the same time calling for the delivery of military effect and survivability in excess of that currently available from vehicles of this class. FRES will also seek to minimise the logistic footprint and through life support costs.”

In other words, they want something that can be flown in by their C-130J-30 stretched Hercules transports, but it has to be able to survive mine/IED, artillery, RPG, missile, and 25-30mm cannon attacks more effectively than existing modern vehicles like the British Warrior light tank, the U.S. Stryker family, et. al. Oh, and they’d also like a hybrid powered vehicle, rather than diesel or gas.

This, too, is a very challenging set of capabilities to deliver.

Finally, there have been some comments re: having FRES vehicles replace the Challenger 2 main battle tanks when those go out of service. The lessons of urban warfare encounters from the Global War on Terror have made that something of a fantasy, barring some major technology breakthroughs in lightweight armor protection (ACAVP isn’t it yet, and may never be).

In the end, these capabilities proved too challenging to deliver. The weight limits were lifted, the vehicles’ role shifted back to medium armor, and the engine/drive systems are likely to be far more conventional.

Appendix 4 – FRES Experiments: Electronic Architecture TDPs

In Britain’s “Anti-US” Procurement Policies – and the Future Dynamics of Global Procurement, DID looked at one example of political blowback from European defense integration efforts, and highlighted the importance of C4SI platforms to procurement decisions. One of the authors we used as an example was Dr. Richard North, who wrote, inter alia, The end of independence: The implications of the “Future Rapid Effects System” for an independent UK defence policy. He believed that C$SI decisions were forcing Britain toward a European platform.

In September 2005, FRES Systems House integrator Atkins placed two Electronic Architecture Technology Demonstrator Programme (EA TDP) contracts with teams led by Lockheed Martin (UK) Ltd, and Thales UK, plus one contract for vehicle chassis design with General Dynamics UK. Amounts were not disclosed.

For the electronic architecture TDP, placing 2 concurrent contracts was pitched as a better way to address program risks across the huge range of technologies and potential solutions. This may or may not be so; what is clear is the priority being placed on this aspect of the FRES program.

Gary Balthrop is Lockheed Martin’s FRES program director. He leads a FRES EA TDP effort that also includes UK companies Ultra Electronics, Smiths Aerospace, SciSys, PA Consulting and Cranfield University (Team ISIS).

The Thales UK Team includes BAE Systems and QinetiQ, and will be based at the Thales UK site in Staines.

Thales UK proposes to demonstrate the EA by integrating it into a candidate vehicle chassis, and simulation techniques will be widely employed as well through the use of System Integration Laboratories (SIL). This use of simulation is expected to save both time and money and allow for more rigorous de-risking. The Thales UK Team will also be undertaking a competitive selection of suppliers for the sub-systems and work packages that comprise the EA TDP, providing industry opportunities but also introducing potential schedule issues.

At this point, the project is clearly in early stages and it’s difficult to make strong predictions re: the direction of technical compatibility beyond integration with General Dynamics UK-led BOWMAN. The U.S. JTRS program, whose software-defined electronics would allow fast reconfiguration and addition of any communications waveform, is currently in trouble and doesn’t exist as a strong bridging option.

What is clear is that Dr. North’s expressed fears were not realized, and corporations with very strong American ties are participating at all levels in the critical electronic architecture definition process. The overall competition, however, has swerved sharply for reasons that have little to do with electronics. It will be interesting to see what emerges.

Appendix 5 – FRES Experiments: Vehicle-Related TDPs

AHED Cutaway
(click to view full)

Meanwhile, the FRES Chassis Concept (CC) Technology Demonstration Program (TDP) is an 18-month effort to demonstrate the readiness of in-hub electric-drive engine, its ability to meet the FRES platform requirements, and the integration of a third party Electronic Architecture (EA) into the chassis. It’s also an opportunity for the teams to demonstrate their ability to work with SH Atkins, in order to help them meet both the program timeline and the information requirements for main gate go/no-go approval.

Hybrid power architectures are valued for a number of reasons. Lower fuel costs and fuel logistics loads, of course. The potential for lower lifetime maintenance via fewer moving parts, which could mean smaller spares inventories as well if reliability is good. Finally, there’s an important combat-related reason: stealth. While the U.S. Army’s new Stryker vehicle family doesn’t use hybrid engines, other modifications make them significantly quieter than the rival M113 or M2 Bradley APCs. As DID has reported, Stryker Brigade soldiers who served in Iraq considered this an important tactical advantage, and any armored vehicle with a hybrid engine and wheels or rubber band tracks would be quieter still. Indeed, some experimental projects report noise levels comparable to civilian vehicles. A hybrid engine would also reduce FRES’ thermal profile for infrared detection, no small benefit given the proliferaton of thermal sights on today’s battlefields.

The key question for the program to answer is whether the technology is sufficiently powerful and mature to be trusted in an armored vehicle of this size.

Notwithstanding Dr. Richard North’s contention that Rheinmetall DeTec was in the pole position, Atkins awarded the chassis concept project to General Dynamics UK Ltd., in partnership with General Dynamics Land Systems USA. Note that General Dynamics Land Systems was also selected by the USA’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) lead system integrators, forming an integrated design team with BAE Land Systems to create a similar class of FCS manned ground vehicles.

General Dynamics’ Advanced Hybrid Electric Drive (AHED) 8×8 vehicle will provide one baseline from which to evaluate the integration challenges and potential benefits of transformational technologies for the Future Rapid Effect System program. Its interchangeable modular in-hub electric drive, and hybrid power architecture, are intended to dramatically reduce the vehicles’ fuel logistics footprint. It is also hoped to reduce whole life cost of ownership, including costs associated with unique components, large repair part inventories, and training for both operators and maintenance personnel. The AHED vehicle already has over 4,200 km of road and cross-country testing, and General Dynamics intends to conduct over 4,500 km of additional reliability testing for the FRES CC TDP.

The General Dynamics UK FRES industry team comprises General Dynamics UK Limited (project lead), and General Dynamics Land Systems in Sterling Heights, MI, USA.

SEP: tracked, or wheeled
(click to view full)

A second option was pursued via a January 2006 award to BAE Systems for its own chassis concept technology Demontration program (TDP). It will build on work done on the Swedish SEP program by BAE Hagglunds. SEP is a family of modular vehicles, utilizing emerging technologies like hybrid drives and allowing different role modules to be configured on either a wheeled or tracked chassis. The purpose of the TDP is to examine the ability of the electric drive system developed for SEP to meet the requirements of some or all of the envisaged FRES roles.

The BAE Systems Chassis TDP effort will be led from facilities in the UK in close co-operation with BAE Systems colleagues in Sweden, and will be focused primarily on reducing risk to allow a successful transition to the next phase.

BAE also received a “Gap Crossing” TDP for combat bridge-laying.

Additional Readings Background: FRES Program

• British Army – Armoured Fighting Vehicles. Has sub-pages for the Combat and Reconnaissance vehicles FRES is slated to replace.

• General Dynamics UK – Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV). See also their Scout SV microsite, and note that Piranha IV manufacturer MOWAG is a General Dynamics subsidiary.

• Atkins (to July 2013) – FRES: News & Events. They maintained an archive of all FRES-related news releases from Atkins, The UK Ministry of Defence, and all companies involved in the project during the Initial Assessment Phase. Snapshot ends July 2007.

Background: Existing Platforms

• Wikipedia – Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked). FRES-SV will partly replace these.

• Wikipedia – Warrior tracked armoured vehicle. FRES-SV will be complementary to the Warrior’s modernization program.

• General Dynamics UK – Bowman – Command Battlespace Management (Land) (CBM(L))

Background: FRES Competitors FRES-SV

• Army Technology – ASCOD (Pizarro / Ulan) Tracked Armoured Fighting Vehicles, Spain. Base design for FRES-SV.

• Army Technology – CV90 Tracked Armoured Combat Vehicles, Sweden.

• Anthony G williams – Light AFV guns and the WFLIP and FRES Scout projects.

FRES-U

• ARTEC Boxer official site.

• Army Technology – Boxer MRAV Wheeled Multi-Role Armoured Vehicle, Europe

• Army Technology – Piranha V Wheeled 8×8 Utility Vehicle, United Kingdom. Picked as the winner, before FRES-UV was shelved.

• Army Technology – SEP Modular Armoured Tactical System Wheeled and Tracked Vehicles, Sweden.

• DID – Sweden Cancels SEP APC Program – But BAE Does Not. Initially, anyway. After losing in Britain and Sweden, it was eventually put aside.

• Army Technology – VBCI Wheeled Infantry Fighting Vehicle, France

News & Views

• UK Parliament (Jan 29/14) – Defence Committee – Ninth Report
  

Future Army 2020. See also Written submissions.

• UK MoD (July 2013) – Transforming The British Army: An Update – July 2013. Refers to proposed Army 2020 changes. No apparent change to FRES’ future.

• UK MoD – Transforming The British Army, July 2012. Refers to proposed Army 2020 changes. Its initial outlines seem to envision a minor role for FRES, and a far smaller number of vehicles bought.

• CASR (November 2009) – The British Equivalent of the Close Combat Vehicle – FRES SV – Sees a Demonstrator Model Produced & Main Gun Type Chosen.

• UK Defence Committee (May 11/07) – The Army’s requirement for armoured vehicles: the FRES programme: update: Government Response to the Committee’s Seventh Report of Session 2006-07.

• Battlespace Magazine (July/Aug 2005) – FRES/Medium Force – It’s All In The Numbers. It notes that Britain’s wheeled Saxon APCs are the vehicles that must be replaced as soon as possible, but depending on FRES costs-per-vehicle the financial numbers could force interim solutions and/or additional life-extension programs for existing vehicles like the Warrior CVR (T) and FV 430 family. The article also makes note of ITAR and technology transfer issues with FRES.

• Jane’s Land Forces (Aug 27/03) – Future Rapid Effect System leads British forces’ transformation.

tag: fresvehicles, fresapc

The AAN team would like to wish a joyful and peaceful Eid al Fitr to friends and readers, to all Muslims around the world and particularly to the people of Afghanistan. This year, as the Eid ceasefire in Afghanistan begins, there will be more space for festivities around the country.

Stocked dry fruit shop in Kabul before Eid. Photo: Obaid Ali – 2018

As AAN has reported before, Afghans celebrate the end of the month-long fast and the arrival of Eid al Fitr in many ways. As well as the customary Eid prayers, special food is cooked, friends and family visited, and, for those who can afford it, new clothes are worn. People remember those who have passed away that year. There might be local wrestling competitions, agey jangawal (egg-fighting) or ghursai (one-legged fighting).

Happy Eid to all!

 

 

 

The opiate economy, as measured by the farm-gate value of opium, together with revenues from heroin production and trafficking of opiates to the Afghan borders, has become a crucial component of the Afghan economy, a recently released UNODC socio-economic survey found. This has evolved after years of increasing opium cultivation in the country. But, what are the legal means to fight this illicit economy scourge? AAN’s Jelena Bjelica (with input from Ehsan Qaane and Rohullah Sorush) looks atthe counter-narcotics legal provisions and examines whether some of the legal mechanisms might restore benefits for the state from these trends in the illicit economy.

The Afghan opiate economy was worth between 4.1 to 6.6 billion USD in 2017. This represented 20 to 32 per cent of GDP, the UNODC said in its latest socio-economic survey released in mid-May 2018 (see here). This value exceeded by far the value of the country’s licit exports of goods and services in 2016 (6.9 per cent of GDP). It’s worth roughly equalled the value of the entire licit agricultural sector of the country, which constituted 23 per cent of GDP in 2016/2017, the UNODC found. In its press release the UNODC also said that “opium poppy has become a crucial component of the Afghan economy that secures the livelihoods of many Afghans who engage in cultivation, work on poppy fields or partake in the illicit drug trade.”

In 2017, Afghanistan produced more opium paste than ever before, some 9,000 metric tons according to the UNODC estimate. This compared to 4,800 metric tons in 2016 (see this AAN analysis). In the same year, the Counter-Narcotics Justice Center (CNJC), set up by the Afghan Government in May 2005 with a mandate derived from the Counter Narcotics Law to investigate and prosecute all serious intoxicating drinks and drug-related offences from across the country, in its annual report for 2017 said that the primary court of CNJC convicted 671 suspects. Most cases that ended up in the court were for small amounts of drugs that are punishable by a penalty. This, taken together with a symbolic number of seizures by the Afghan law enforcement agencies (more on this below), means that the country which has almost no legal consequences allows, if not nurtures, the production of over 90 per cent of the world’s illicit needs in opiates, ie opium, and it derivatives – morphine and heroin.

The story of the two laws

Since 2001, three counter-narcotics laws have been adopted in Afghanistan. The first was adopted in 2005. This had been drafted with the support of the UK, the then lead donor country on counter-narcotics. This also established the legal foundations for the CNJC. The second was adopted in 2010 and aimed to address rising cultivation levels that had occurred around 2007. It was then that Afghanistan produced 7,400 metric tons of opium; a record high production level until 2017. The most recent revision of the law began in 2015 to address a gap in criminal provisions related to synthetic drugs; the production and consumption of which had become more widespread in the country (see this AAN analysis). Each law resulted in harsher punishments for crime-related law-breaking. While the 2005 law mainly prescribed fines for drug trafficking, the 2010 law introduced prison sentences for the same crimes. Finally, the new 2018 law introduced even harsher prison sentences than 2010 law. However, it seems that the new counter-narcotics law (available here in Dari/Pashto) that replaced the 2010 anti­­-drug law has been ill-fated from its inception. The Afghan media Radio Azadi and Pajhwok reported that the law was sent to the to the lower house of the Afghan parliament (Wolesi Jirga) in 2016 for discussion and subsequent approval (see here and here). This law has been discussed twice in the Wolesi Jirga. The first time was on 18 January 2017, when Muhammad Saleh Saljuqi, the member of the Health and Counter-narcotics Commission, said that the law was not ready to be presented to the house, because at the joint session of the representatives of standing commissions, the conflicting points about the law had not been resolved. The relevant commissions working on the law were justice and judiciary, legislative, health and counter narcotics. He asked the Speaker of the Wolesi Jirga for another chance to discuss the law. The second chance was given on 12 April 2017 but, due to still unresolved differences, the law was again referred to the commissions.

The differences mainly revolved around formalizing the cultivation of opium for medical purposes that had been stipulated in the draft law. Chaman Shah Etemadi, an MP from Ghazni province and the member of parliamentary commission on narcotic drugs told AAN: “The counter narcotic commission recommended to formalize the cultivation, but unfortunately as this was partially against the constitution, it did not secure enough votes, so it was deleted from the law.”  The 2004 Constitution in the article 7 clearly says: “The state shall prevent all kinds of terrorist activities, cultivation and smuggling of narcotics, and production and use of intoxicants.” Although, some MPs were strongly for legalization of the cultivation, such as Nasima Niazi, an MP from Helmand and Saleh Muhammad Saljooqi, an MP from Herat, others, such as MP Abdul Sattar Khawasi from Parwan, remained firm in their position that such a provision would violate the Constitution. Finally, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, the speaker of the lower house, ruled that the article of the law is against the constitution and that it should be deleted. In the session held on 1 May 2017 when 122 MPs were present, the majority voted for the deletion of article in question and approved the remaining law in that same session of the Wolesi Jirga before sending this onto the president’s office.

On 17 June, the Wolesi Jirga speaker, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, complained to Tolo news that of 13 draft laws passed by the Wolesi Jirga and the Meshrano Jirga (Upper House of Parliament) and sent to the president, none had been processed; including the anti-drug law.

The law would stay on president’s desk for another six months until early 2018. It was issued on 24 February 2018, only ten days after the new Penal Code entered into force, ie nine months after it has been published in the Official Gazette on 15 May 2017. By then, the new counter-narcotics law  had been stuck in the Parliament for a year (more or less the same period as the Penal Code) and  had been on President’s desk for at least six months. It contained criminal provisions that had not been aligned with the Penal Code. A regular quarterly report by the US Special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR) published on 30 April 2018 (see here) noted that the new counter-narcotics law criminal provisions “would have superseded the new penal code and nullified the new penal code provisions.” This major oversight in the new law, led to the post-facto (ie after the law has been signed by the President and published in the Official Gazette) series of high-level meetings, which resulted in a decree repealing the criminal provisions part of the new law. (1) According to the SIGAR report:

The Council of Ministers held an extraordinary meeting where they approved the repeal of the criminal provisions of the new CNL [counter-narcotics law]. On March 6, the Ministry of Justice published on its website the decree repealing the criminal provisions of the new CNL. The decree is coupled with an amendment to the penal code (Article 916), which will now include the language repealing the criminal CNL [counter-narcotics law] provisions, thus maintaining the PC [penal code] as the criminal law of the land.

The entire chapter five of the new Penal Code is dedicated to trafficking of narcotics and where the punishments are pretty much aligned with the 2010 Law. This is with the exception of the trafficking of synthetic drugs and acetic anhydride, which have been added as new crimes (see footnote 1). It also carries higher sentences for narcotic drug-related crimes than the 1976 penal code. Also, it authorises confiscating assets (including land, structures, and vehicles) used in, or earned through, illicit drug production, and trafficking.

What has not been repealed from the new law?

Stripped of its criminal provisions, the law still has something to offer. The mechanism for policy-making and its implementation is much stronger. Its authority and duties are much clearer than in the old law and will stay in place. In the new law, the mechanism, as one body, has three parts, including the High Commission for making policies (articles 5 and 6), the provincial and district commissions for implementing the policies (article 7), and the oversight committee for the implementation of the policies (article 8). The Ministry of Counter Narcotics acts as the secretariat of the High Commission (article 5).

The High Commission consists of one member of the Supreme Court, nineteen minsters and four heads of general directorates, ie almost 80 per cent of the cabinet members, and is chaired by the President or one of the vice-presidents (article 5). The commission is in charge of making all necessary and related policies and strategy. In the old law, the High Commission had only ten members at the deputy level and was chaired by the Minister of Counter Narcotics (article 6). It was in charge of implementing policies but without having the authority to make them. Nevertheless, the establishment of the High Commission for counter-narcotics also conforms to the latest trend in Afghanistan. This saw, under President’s Ghani lead, over 15 high commission and councils established since 2014, all being chaired by the president. The high commissions include those working on development issues, eg, the High Council on Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption; the High Council on Land and Water; the High Council on Urban Development; the High Council on Poverty Reduction, Service Delivery and Citizen Engagement; the High Council on Culture, Education and Human Capital and the Economic High Council. It also includes those working on security issues, such as the High Council on National Security, the High Council on Migration, and so.

Under the new law, the implementation of the strategy and policies is given to the provincial and district commissions (article 8). The duties and responsibilities of the commissions remain as they were under the old law. However, the combination of the commissions has expanded to 24 members, including the local governors.These commissions consist of the highest representatives of ministries (except the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which does not have local offices) and general directorates, which are the members of the High Commission, also at the provincial and districts level. The provincial commissions are chaired by the provincial governors and the districts commissions are chaired by the district governors. Principally, it was seen as being wise to involve all pertinent bodies in the implementation processes. However, practically, it would prove difficult to manage this.

The old law did not have a mechanism to oversee the activities of individuals or companies, and that could deal with licences, process, purchase, sell, storage, distribution, commissioning, import and export, traffic and supply of narcotics drugs. In the new law, a committee of seven experts from six ministries will oversee and control the activities of non-governmental companies and individuals and will grant a permit or license for the preparation, process, purchase, sell, storage, distribution, commissioning, import and export, traffic and supply. This, mainly, has to do with the article 19 of the new law, which states:

The confiscated drugs in agreement with International Narcotics Control Board will either be converted to medicine or sold to one of the countries that has licence. If INCB disagrees that the drugs be sold or used in making medicine, the prosecutor will take the case to a court and the court will issue an order to destroy it.

The 1961 Convention on Narcotic Drugs does allow for the release of seized materials for licit use. The head of UNODC office in Kabul, Mark Colhoun, told AAN that this fall under the licit control mechanisms for opiates, as well as other drugs, and INCB works with governments to estimate annual requirements of amounts required for medical use. “The provisions of the law would therefore appear to be in line with the requirements under the international conventions,” he said.

However, the article in the new Afghan Law does not specify which kind of drugs. AAN’s reading of the article 24/5 (b) of the 1961 Convention is that the release of seized material for licit use only applies to opium. The quoted article says that a country, which is a party to the Convention, is not prevented “from producing opium sufficient for its own requirements; or from exporting opium seized in the illicit traffic, to another Party in accordance with the requirements of this Convention.” Hence, a question arises as to whether the wording of article 19 of the new Afghan counter-narcotics law was, as usual, sloppy, or whether there was something more to it. AAN sent an email to INCB in mid-April 2018 with a request for a comment, but had not receive an answer by the time this dispatch was published.

Can this work in practice?

The new law’s remaining enforceable parts seem to intend to restore opiate-related economic trends to benefit the state. However, for the state to benefit from the illicit economy, seizures of drugs in Afghanistan would have to increase significantly. According to UNODC, Afghanistan in 2016 (see page 69 of the latest socio-economic survey), seized around 47 tons of opium out of the 4,800 metric tons produced in the same year (see this AAN analysis). This represents less than one per cent which, if added to the 4.6 tons of heroin seized in 2016 equals approximately 46 tons of opium (using a conversion rate for opium to heroin of 1:10). Together, this still makes for less than two per cent of overall’s country opium production in 2016. No morphine had been seized in 2016, according to UNODC. In fact, the new US Special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR) report on counter-narcotics, published on 14 June 2018 noted that “the amount of opium seized over the last ten years is equivalent to about five percent of the estimated opium production in 2017 alone.”

There are other considerations to be taken into account. David Mansfield, Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics International Drug Policy Unit and long-term adviser to AREU warned that past attempts by other countries to export products derived from seized opium were thwarted by the protests of those who produce licit opium and incur the costs of control and regulation. Past practice suggests it will not simply be a case of finding a buyer for illegally produced opiates and selling them on. The outcome will be governed by the INCB and diplomacy,” he said.

Another challenge has to do with a commercial nature of the problem, which is a bigger one. “There are few pharmaceutical companies that want raw opium these days,” he said, adding that is far better to have derivatives that have “higher value to weight ratio, are easier to transport and control, and contain less or no waste.” Yet, if the international demand is not for opium, then Afghanistan would have to invest in its own processing capacity, which would need to meet international pharmaceutical standards. Mansfield added:

“Turkey received international donor support for its processing in Bolvadin in Afyon in the 70s. It’s hard to believe in the current environment in Afghanistan there would be either international support from donors or the private sector – particularly given the challenges above that would indicate an uncertain international market for the final product.”

Conclusion

The story of the new counter-narcotic law shows the extent to which a lack of coordination creates stumbling blocks, as well as all the unnecessary work it generates for some parts of government. Yet, it raises the question: what was the purpose of harsher punishments for smaller traffickers and drug users, stipulated in the repealed criminal provision of the new counter-narcotics law?Presumably, such policies had been inserted to target local drugs consumption market, which according to UNODC’s latest socio-economic survey (see here) is estimated to be worth around 0.5 per cent of the country’s GDP. (2) This compared to a value of 20 to 32 per cent of GDPof an entire illicit agricultural sector, shows that the legislators and the drafters have been more concerned with a single tree, while the forest is on fire. It also shows that a visual proximity of the problem, a number of drug users hanging around Pol-e-Soktha bridge (see this AAN analysis), located in west Kabul, prompt harsher legal responses when it should have prompted a more human approach. Nevertheless, it is also interesting that the Parliament stumbled for six months in the discussion about legalization of cultivation as to whether this was against the Constitution. Meanwhile, at the same time, it passed the law that suspended the new Penal Code. All together, it seems as though, aside from the usual sloppiness in managing the legal matters, counter-narcotics remain very low on the agenda of the Afghan government, and that the problem continues to be addressed from an exclusively Kabul perspective.

 

 

(1) What has been repealed from the new law?

The repealed criminal provision of the counter-narcotics law included all crimes that have been listed in the old law (for an English version of the old law see here) and, in addition, two new provisions related to trafficking of acetic anhydride and synthetic drugs. The sentences, for example, for trafficking of acetic anhydride – a key substance used as precursor to process opium paste into morphine or heroin, and the trafficking of synthetic drugs, such as MDMA or methamphetamine (see this AAN analysis about booming synthetics drugs industry in Afghanistan) – could be from six months to 15 years in prison, depending on the amount of acetic anhydride or synthetic drugs. However, the gravity of the sentence for amounts of these two substances, of course, differed. For acetic anhydride, six months punishment is given for trafficking of less than 25 grams of this substance, while the same punishment is for less than one gram of synthetic drugs. The Penal Code, on the other hand, foresees fines in lieu of a short prison sentence for such small amounts.

The punishment of other criminal acts related to the narcotics and intoxicants had been increased extremely in the new law. Thus this was repealed by the Ministry of Justice decree. For the purpose of historical record and to list just a few: in some cases, sentences had been increased 12 times more and, in some cases, the balance between the act of crime and its punishment did not make any sense.For example, in the new law, the act of trafficking cannabis derivate [chars] will be punished by sentence in prison from two to three years if the amount is more than 100 grams and less than 500 grams. In the old law, the same act was punished by two to three months in prison. In the new Penal Code, the same act is punished by 6 months up to one year’s imprisonment.

(2) UNODC estimated from the 2009 drug use survey that, the number of opium and heroin users in the country was 230,000 (210,000-260,000) and 120,000 (110,000-140,000), respectively. These numbers account for poly-drug use, i.e. one person is counted in both groups if using both opium and heroin.

 

 

Lockheed Advanced Development Program Subverted Normal Channels On The Way to Innovation. The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, the F-104 Starfighter, the U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird and the D-21 supersonic drone, the F-117 Stealth Jet, the still secretive SR-72. No one outside of its very opaque walls knows how many projects the secretive Lockheed […]

The 10-mile long Holloman High Speed Test Track (HHSTT) is a United States Air Force aerospace ground test facility used to perform a various variety of tests, including simulated ejections. Located at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, and operated by the 846th Test Squadron, the HHSTT is one of the world’s longest tracks, used to […]

Americas

• The Defense Logistics Agency is procuring support systems for US military aviators. A $49 million fixed-price contract sees for the production of oxygen delivery systems and their spare parts by Pacific Consolidated Inc. Pacific Consolidated manufactures state-of-the-art portable liquid oxygen plants that are used on aircraft carriers and as Aviation Ground Equipment to provide pilot Aviator Breathing Oxygen. Oxygen delivery systems provide fighter pilots with breathable air and provide a function called partial-pressure breathing for G (PPG), which pushes high-pressure air into the lungs during high-g maneuvers, which increases g tolerance. The system provides pilots with sufficient oxygen to prevent hypoxia symptoms. Oxygen delivery systems are deployed on a variety of military aircraft including the F-35, the F-16 and F/A-18. Work will be performed at the company’s location in Riverside, California and is expected to be completed by June 2023. Receiving customers are Army, Navy, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies.

• BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair is being awarded a $18.9 million contract in support of the Navy’s LPD 27 amphibious transport dock ship. BAE system will work towards the accomplishment of the post shakedown availability for the vessel. It will provide efforts including program management, planning, engineering, design, liaison, scheduling, labor and procurement of incidental material in support of the USS Portland. The USS Portland was commissioned on April 21st and is a San Antonio class amphibious assault support vessel. Its mission is to embark, transport, land, and support elements of a US Marine Corps Landing Force. It is designed to operate the Marines’ MV-22 Osprey, hovercrafts and amphibious armored personnel carriers. The Portland and its sister ships will operate as part of larger Amphibious Task Forces (ATFs) in conjunction with a full set of airpowers, additional assault ships, and air and sub-surface defense vessels. San Antonio Class vessels are potential command ships for US and joint task forces and could make excellent UAV hosts and controllers. All work will be performed in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed by July 2019.

Middle East & Africa

• Israel Aerospace Industries and Czech defense contractor Aero Vodochody are partnering to make a late bid for the US Air Force’s OA-X close air support program. Their pitch is an advanced version of the combat proven L-159. The USAF has already invited Textron Aviation and Sierra Nevada/Embraer to take part in an evaluation exercise this summer with their Beechcraft AT-6 and A-29 Super Tucano, respectively. The two companies will equip the L-159 jet trainer with fourth-generation avionics and several weapons integration systems. If chosen to produce the roughly 350 aircraft, both companies could open up a production line and supply chain for the jet within the continental US.

Europe

• Estonia is again opting for the Mistral short range air defense missile. The $59 million deal between the Eastern-European nation and the French missile manufacturer MBDA also includes man portable surface to air missiles, training missiles, simulators and testing and maintenance equipment. Under the terms of the contract, Estonia will continue acquiring Mistral SHORAD missiles in their latest generation which provide increased accuracy and longer service life than missiles of previous generations. The fully autonomous ‘fire and forget’ Mistral 2 missile is equipped with a two-stage solid propellant rocket motor and carries a 3kg high-explosive warhead loaded with tungsten ball projectiles. Guidance is by passive infrared homing using an indium arsenide detector array operating in the three to five-micron waveband. Compared to any other low-level air defense missile, Mistral is more reliable and successful. It has a success rate of 93%. The current contract also includes options for additional missiles up to the amount of $117 million, with the first deliveries to expected by 2020.

• Jane’s reports that Finnish arms manufacturer Patria is currently testing its latest version of its wheeled armored personnel carrier (APC). The Patria AMV is in serial production and more than 1,400 vehicles have been ordered. It has been selected by Croatia, Finland, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and Slovakia. The AMV product family uses the same hull platform fitted with the turrets and mission systems for each of the variants, including an armored personnel carrier, infantry fighting vehicle. The new 6×6 APC can be fitted with a broad range of weapons including a 120mm turreted mortar system or a protected weapon station armed with a .50 machine gun (MG), in addition a 5.56 mm or 7.62 mm MG can be pintle mounted on the roof of the rear troop compartment. The hull is all-welded steel armor with an appliqué modular armor package that can provide protection against mines and IEDs.

Asia-Pacific

• India has requested the purchase of six AH-64E Apache helicopters. The possible US foreign military sale is valued at $930 million. The AH-64E Guardian Block III (AB3) is the helicopter’s next big step forward by incorporating 26 key new-technology insertions. If the deal goes through India would receive the newest Block III helicopters and up to 180 AGM-114L-3 Hellfire Longbow missiles, 90 AGM-114R-3 Hellfire II missiles, 200 Stinger Block I-92H missiles and other equipment ranging from fire control radars to ammunition. The prime contractors will be Lockheed Martin, General Electric, and Raytheon. This proposed sale would strengthen the US-Indian strategic relationship and to improve the security of an important partner in a region that is currently highly contested.

Today’s Video

• Israeli defense contractor Rafael unveils some of its newest military equipment and technology at Eurosatory 2018.

German Mercedes-Benz Arocs 8x8 Heavy Utility Truck

On 13th of June, during the 10th EDA REACH Plenary Meeting, experts from Member States’ Ministries of Defence exchanged views with the European Commission (DG GROW) and representatives of the European defence industry on current developments concerning the European Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and its interaction with defence. 

The aim of the meeting was to jointly explore ways and means to meet REACH’s objectives and ensure a coherent application of the Regulation in the defence sector while, at the same time, minimise its possible impact on the operational capabilities of Member States’ Armed Forces and the EU defence industry’s competitiveness and innovation as an important stakeholder in support of European defence capabilities, including through the implementation of the EDA REACH Roadmap 2018-2020 activities.

The defence industry was represented by the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) / REACH Working Group, National Defence Industry Associations (NDIAs) and individual EU defence industries. REACH experts from the European Space Agency also attended the meeting as observers. 
 

Background

EDA is addressing REACH and its defence implications since 2009, at the request of its participating Member States and in close coordination with the European Commission. 
The Agency’s current work in this field is guided by the EDA REACH Roadmap 2018-2020 adopted by Member States in October 2017. The roadmap encapsulates a wide spectrum of activities and tasks aiming to support in a structured approach the main purpose of REACH, which is to protect human health and the environment, while taking into account the defence specificities. 

EDA regularly invites the European Commission, the European Chemicals Agency and the EU defence industry to EDA REACH meetings, in order to facilitate a closer and more transparent interaction on REACH issues affecting defence, which is considered an important success factor for EDA’s work in this field. 
 

More information:

• EDA REACH Activities 
• EDA REACH Roadmap 2018-2020 
• EDA REACH Portal 

 

U.S. A-10s Thunderbolt II aircraft deployed to Europe to take part in Sabre Strike 18 have conducted “rough field training” in Estonia. Thanks to its engines mounted far from the surface of the runway, the A-10 attack aircraft is practically immune to FOD (Foreign Object Damage) caused by debris flying up from unprepared runways. For […]