Jane's Defense News

Fighting between the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and militant groups in Afghanistan intensified during the last three months of 2019, with the NATO-led ‘Resolute Support’ (‘RS’) mission registering a 15% increase in the number of enemy-initiated

Saab has officially launched the flight evaluation phase of its Gripen E/F fighter and GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft for Finland’s HX programme. Gripen E test aircraft 39-10 arrived at Tampere-Pirkkala Airbase north of Helsinki the day prior to Saab’s

The government-owned vessels being sent by Beijing to waters around the Japan-controlled but China-claimed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands are China Coast Guard (CCG) ships, some of which include the service’s 10,000-tonne Zhaotou-class cutters. A Japan Coast Guard (JCG) official in Tokyo told

The Pentagon’s latest Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOTE) annual report questioned the reliability of key vessel systems aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78), currently continuing aircraft compatibility testing in the Atlantic Ocean. The report, released on 30

Key Points The Pentagon’s top weapons tester is not sold that new approaches to the F-35’s ALIS will fix the system These include replacing ALIS with a government-owned and -managed system called ODIN It is unclear whether the Pentagon’s new approaches to fixing the Lockheed

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced an improved version of its Heron medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on 29 January, saying it will be displayed during the Singapore Airshow in February. Avi Blesser, vice president of marketing at IAI's Military Aircraft

Northrop Grumman’s sales rose 7% to USD8.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019, as gains in three of the company’s four business segments more than offset a decline in the fourth. Northrop Grumman’s operating income totalled USD1.1 billion in the fourth quarter, up 20% from the

Key Points Singapore has commissioned all eight Littoral Mission Vessels it ordered in 2013 All vessels were delivered, and commissioned according to schedule The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) has commissioned its final three Independence-class Littoral Mission Vessels (LMVs). The warships,

South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and the country’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) signed an agreement on 30 January to collaborate on developing turbofan engines for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In a statement, MOTIE said that the

The Bundeswehr is increasingly overburdened by foreign deployments and NATO commitments and is still waiting for the reversal in the downward trend in personnel and equipment, according to a German parliamentary report published on 28 January. Germany’s parliamentary commissioner for the

The French Special Operations Command (COS) is seeking to enhance its night vision capabilities for small teams operating in West Africa, officials have disclosed. A pair of representatives from the COS said there is an urgent operational requirement for Africa’s Sahel region, where French

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree at the end of 2019 ordering the restructuring and writing-off of significant debts held by defence enterprises, a top banker has revealed. Andrei Kostin, head of VTB, Russia’s second-largest state lender, told Russian national television in

US industrial conglomerate Curtiss-Wright has announced plans to expand its naval footprint by buying 901D Holdings, which makes ruggedised shipboard enclosures and electronic subsystems for the US Navy. Curtiss-Wright, whose existing naval products include electronic monitoring systems and nuclear

The Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) militant group in Afghanistan remains “an enduring threat to US and allied interests in South and Central Asia”, the Lead Inspector General (Lead IG) at the Pentagon for the US Operation ‘Freedom’s Sentinel’ said in his latest quarterly

Iran launched three ballistic missiles between March and June this year, the Israeli ambassador to the UN informed the Security Council in a letter released on 27 November. Ambassador Danny Danon said an unidentified missile was launched from Jalnabad in March, a Fateh-110 variant from Kuh Gitchen

MBDA Deutschland is pitching an air-launched version of its Enforcer missile to Germany and beyond, a senior company representative told Jane’s on 27 November. Speaking at the Berlin Security Conference 2019 in the German capital, Head of Sales and Marketing, Guido Brendler, said that

Roketsan medium-range anti-tank missiles that were test fired from moving Pars 4×4 and Kaplan armoured vehicles hit their targets, Turkey’s Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) tweeted on 25 November. Qualification testing is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year and

British Army Watchkeeper tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have deployed to the UK air base in Cyprus for a six-month training mission. The deployment by 47 Regiment Royal Artillery, the British Army’s only unit equipped with the Watchkeeper, is aimed at boosting the pilot competency

Key Points China is expanding support infrastructure at Yulin Naval Base on Hainan Island The new facilities could support long-term operations of an aircraft carrier Commercial satellite imagery captured on 19 November shows that China is expanding support infrastructure at the Yulin Naval Base

A new type of surface-to-air missile was used with a Mersad system during a recent air defence exercise, Iranian media coverage from 22 November showed. Photographs and TV news footage showed the modified system in action during Exercise ‘Guardians of the Velayet Sky 98’ earlier in the