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Defence`s Feeds
UNITED STATES : Marks, link between Trump and Kiev's pro-Kremlin oligarchs
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EGYPT : Sisi creates own DNI
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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES : Baathist officers hired to train Yemeni militia fighters
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UNITED STATES : Mark Cowan, former CIA official, guides Sinopec in Washington
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FRANCE : Security firm skirmish : Tardy placed under formal investigation
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Ten missing after US destroyer collides with oil tanker | F-35 nears Block 3F software IOC | RAAF fields PC-21s in Victoria
Americas
- The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is one more weapons delivery accuracy (WDA) test away from having its initial operating capability (IOC) declared for its Block 3F software. The news comes after a surge by the F-35 Developmental Test team in early August, which saw multiple test events accomplished over the course of a number of days. Speaking on the surge, Torrey Given, a weapons integration engineer with the 461st Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Base, said that the testing allowed the development team to “accomplish some complex air-to-air demonstrations with the (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) in order to show the full capability of the aircraft.” Upon achieving its IOC, the aircraft will then move to operational test organizations so they can be combat proven.
- Israel’s RADA Electronic Industries has been contracted by the US military to deliver its Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radar systems. Valued at $8 million, the company stated that the radars will be used by a “key US military force” for air surveillance with “an emphasis on counter-UAS with the most advanced on-the-move capabilities,” adding that dozens of the system will be delivered this year for immediate fielding. More than 300 Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radar systems have been delivered to various defense customers. It is an S-band, software-defined, pulse-Doppler, active electronically scanned array systems with beam forming capabilities and advanced signal processing.
- Lockheed Martin Space Systems has won a $21.9 million US Navy contract modification for support of the Trident II D5 submarine launched ballistic missile. Work will be split between Sunnyvale, Calif., Cape Canaveral, Fla. and other locations across the US with a completion date expected by Sept. 30 2017. The Trident II D5 is the submarine-launched ballistic missile deployed by both the US and British Royal Navy, and is the sole nuclear weapon system deployed by the UK.
- The Hermes 900 UAV is likely to have its full operational capability (FOC) declared by the Israeli Air Force before the end of the month. Developed by Elbit Systems, it is expected that the number of Hermes 900s in use with the air force will be increased once FOC is awarded. The MALE UAV was first used in combat during Israel’s 2014 Protective Edge operation in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, accumulating hundreds of flight hours throughout the campaign, flying in excess of 100 times with what the service described as an extremely high success rate. Switzerland and Brazil have also expressed interest in purchasing the UAV.
- Norwegian firm Nammo A/S has come to a landmark agreement with the Finnish Defense Forces (FDF) to supply its newly developed artillery shells. Helsinki is the first international customer for Nammo’s 155 mm insensitive munitions, high explosive, extended range ammo (IM-HE-ER)—which has been under development since 2002 and partly funded by the state-owned Norwegian Defense Material Agency (NDMA)—which covers almost twice the distance of Nammo’s previous precision-strike artillery ammunition offerings. The ammo purchase forms part of a long-term project by Finland to reinforce the Army’s artillery capability and fire-power, which has already seen the February purchase of second-hand K9 Thunder 155 mm/52 caliber self-propelled artillery systems from South Korea. Training with the K9s will commence in 2019 following a modernization with Finnish sub-systems that include battle management, global positioning, communications and camouflage bolt-ons.
- After 72 years, a lost World War 2-era heavy cruiser has been discovered 18,000 feet (5.5km) beneath the surface. The USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine torpedo on 30 July 1945 somewhere in the Philippine sea between Guam and Leyte, resulting in the deaths of 880 seamen—the largest loss of life at sea in the history of the US Navy. Notoriety of the the ship’s sinking intensified after news of the vessel’s final mission, completed just days before the Japanese attack—it carried parts for the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima as well as enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear reaction. Those supplies were delivered to an American base on Tinian island, in the final year of the war which launched the world’s first nuclear bombing. A spokesman for the survivors, 22 of whom are still alive, said each of them had “longed for the day when their ship would be found”.
- Ten US Navy personnel remain missing after the guided missile destroyer USS John S McCain collided with a Liberian-flagged oil tanker off the coast of Singapore. The collision was first reported at 05:24 local time on Monday, east of the Strait of Singapore, as the US warship was planning to perform a routine port stop in Singapore. Authorities stated that the McCain sustained damage to her port side, while the tanker sustained damage to a tank near the front of the ship 7m (23ft) above the waterline, with no injuries to her crew. A US-led rescue operation with support from the Malaysian and Singaporean navies and coast guards is ongoing.
- The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has fielded its first six Pilatus PC-21 basic trainers at its East Sale air base in Victoria. The Swiss-built turboprops are the first of an eventual 49 PC-21s that will be operated by the RAAF, replacing a 30-year old fleet of PC-9/As in the training of Australian pilots from 2019. A new basic training school will be equipped with 42 of the aircraft, along with seven simulators and related training equipment, four will be assigned to the RAAF’s 4 Sqn to support operational training needs, with the final three will be operated from its Pearce air base in Western Australia for research and development.
- Interview with USS Indianapolis survivors:
Categories: Defence`s Feeds
GA requests relaxing of UAV export controls | DSCA clears HIMARS for Romania | B-1B Lancer drops LRASM
Americas
- Raytheon has been granted a $103 million contract to supply its AGM-176 Griffin precision guided missile and associated support to the US Air Force. Work will be conducted in Tuscon, Ariz., and is expected to be finished by Dec. 31, 2018. Originally designed for MC-130 special operations gunships, the light attack missile comes in eitheraft-launch or forward firing variants for aircraft and can also be deployed from ground and naval units.
- The US Navy and Lockheed Martin have completed the first tactical configuration of a Long Range Anti-ship Missile (LRASM) from a B-1B Lancer bomber based out of Edwards Air Base. The free-flight launch was conducted over the Point Mugu Sea Range in California. A Lockheed statement announcing the success stated that the missile “navigated through all planned waypoints, transitioned to mid-course guidance and flew toward the moving maritime target using inputs from the onboard multimodal sensor. The missile then descended to low altitude for final approach to target area, positively identified and impacted the target.” The LRASM is slated to start entering operational service with the B-1B by next year and the F/A-18 Super Hornet by 2019.
- Upgrades planned for the RIM-116C Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Block 2B will include improved seeker and missile-to-missile link (MML) capability. Known as the RAM Block 2B Raid Engineering Change Proposal (ECP), the enhancements will increase the missile’s ability to deal with complex multi-missile raids—in effect allowing missiles to talk to each other. Raytheon’s Block 2B upgrades have aimed to increase the use of kinematic and sensor upgrades, designed to expand the missile’s engagement envelope, so as to defeat more manoeuvrable and higher-speed anti-ship cruise missiles.
- General Atomics has called on the US government to clarify and relax export controls of UAVs to non-NATO customers as the firm announced that it is chasing a sale for its Predator C Avenger UAV. The Avenger, which so far has only been supplied to the US military, is classified by the international missile technology control regime (MTCR) agreement as a Category 1 and is rarely licensed for export. As the Trump administration considers setting new MTCR export policies, GA-ASI chief executive Linden Blue urged the White House to make short-term changes, such as relaxing State Department-imposed policies on UAV exports. Blue added that while US industry had once been the leading exporters in UAVs, the export control regime had given competing suppliers, namely non-MTCR adherents China and Israel, an edge in the global market.
- L3 Vertex Aerospace is to conduct maintenance and logistics on Kuwaiti-operated KC-130J Hercules tanker aircraft, following the award of a $8.9 million US Navy contract. The agreement covers equipment and logistical support for three KC-130J tankers until August 2022 and work will be conducted at Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base, Kuwait. As well as its usual mission to provide mid-air refueling of military aircraft, the aircraft is capable of strike actions using the Harvest Hawk weapons pod—a system that gives the KC-130J the ability to launch laser-guided Hellfire and Griffin missiles.
- The Lebanese Army has commenced military operations against Islamist militants along its shared border with Syria. Operations conducted at the weekend saw the military assault an Islamic State enclave on the northeastern border, as the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah aiding the Syrian government announced an assault on the militants from the Syrian side of the frontier. During the move, the Lebanese Army also took over positions formally held by the once Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front, finding arms caches that included surface-to-air missiles and US-made TOW anti-tank missiles.
- The US State Department has cleared the sale of mobile artillery rocket systems to the government of Romania. Estimated at a value of $1.25 billion, the foreign military sale includes the delivery of 54 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and associated equipment and support, with Lockheed Martin acting a lead contractor. Bucharest announced last month that it planned to buy HIMARS and 36 F-16 fighter jets by 2022, part of a larger plan to spend roughly $11.6 billion on military procurements in the years 2017 through 2026. It also plans to acquire Bell Helicopter combat helicopters and a Patriot air and missile defense system.
- Japan’s Ministry of Defense has requested $179 million in funding to go towards research on Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) radar technology for the better detection of stealth aircraft. The funding, if approved, will go towards developing and fielding a prototype radar and it is expected that the technology will be ready to roll out in 2024. Tokyo also plans to build a radar system to monitor space junk and other nations’ space-based weapons ahead of its first participation in space-related international war games backed by the US military.
- The multi-capable Griffin missile:
Categories: Defence`s Feeds
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