Defence`s Feeds

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This analysis focuses on developments in European Union (EU) security and defence since the Versailles Summit, held on 10–11 March 2022. It shows how the Union’s response to Russia’s war on Ukraine has unleashed and spurred on a range of operational, industrial and political initiatives that will influence security and defence policy for the years to come. The EU is presently trying to grapple with the growing relevance of deterrence and defence while affirming the importance of projecting stability beyond Europe’s borders. In this study, we argue that the next institutional cycle offers an opportunity to balance those priorities. We advance two sets of recommendations: a) the need to rebalance the focus of EU defence policy instruments such as EDF, PESCO or EPF towards generating the skillsets, technologies and capabilities required for deterrence, and strengthen EU-NATO relations; and b) the need to rethink the EU’s approach to external crisis management and adapt to the requirements of non-permissive political and operational environments.
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

The Bundeskartellamt, Germany's Federal Cartel Office, approved Rheinmetall's joint venture with the Ukrainian Defence Industry (UDI) group, formerly Ukroboronprom, the...

Seven EU Member States have placed orders with European industry through the European Defence Agency’s fast-track joint procurement scheme for 155mm ammunition. More orders, for instance for national replenishment purposes, could materialise in the coming weeks and months. 

High Representative Josep Borrell, who is also Head of the European Defence Agency, said: “We have put an ambitious framework in place to support joint procurement of ammunition – to replenish stocks and to support Ukraine. The European Defence Agency played a crucial role in this endeavour. Several Member States are buying 155-mm artillery ammunition together, thanks to the contracts negotiated by the EDA with the European defence industry. More are expected. We need this for Ukraine, but also for the EU. Joint procurement is the best way to spend better more efficiently and effectively together. This is a new step towards a more coordinated and capable EU defence.”  

EDA’s Chief Executive Jiří Šedivý said: “This is proof of the confidence placed in EDA and in European defence collaboration. Joint procurement is the best option to support Member States in purchasing ammunition according to their national needs or for Ukraine. It also sends a strong signal to industry, showing the EU’s commitment to the European defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB).” 

The EDA’s fast-track for 155mm ammunition covers all-up-rounds and elements thereof (fuses, projectiles, charges, primer) for four different, modern firing platforms designed and produced in Europe (France’s Caesar, Poland’s Krab, Germany’s Panzerhaubitze 2000 and Slovakia’s Zuzana) and most used by the Ukrainian armed forces.  

Nine framework contracts with industry are currently in place. The seven Member States’ orders, signed for both all-up-rounds and elements, are eligible for European Peace Facility reimbursement. EDA cannot divulge contractual details at this stage. 

The EDA fast-track procedure for joint procurement was set up in record time, allowing for the tendering process to be simplified, and contracts finalised at short notice. It has been designed to reach the whole EDTIB, including both major companies as well as subcontractors, to provide Member States with flexible options and to speed up deliveries.  

Three-track approach 

Joint procurement is the best option to achieve cost reduction through economies of scale and interoperability. The overarching EDA project arrangement has been signed by 26 Member States and Norway. Flexible and inclusive, it allows all EDA Member States to join the initiative.

EDA’s joint procurement efforts are part of a three-track approach to deliver more artillery ammunition and missiles to Ukraine, agreed by the Council of the EU in March 2023. 

Through these three tracks, the EU is supporting Member States to deliver artillery ammunition and missiles from national stockpiles, to aggregate demand and jointly procure 155mm ammunition, and to ramp up the production capacity of the European defence industry. 

EDA’s wider role

EDA supports all EU Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks spanning the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.

Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here. 

Following the adoption of the EP Resolution on the implementation of civilian CSDP and other EU civilian security assistance, on 9 October SEDE Members will exchange views on the state of implementation of the new Civilian CSDP Compact, which was a concrete deliverable in the Strategic Compass.
The new Compact, which incorporated a number of EP priorities in the Resolution, should result in the enhancement of the effectiveness and capabilities of civilian CSDP missions through 20 concrete commitments taken by the EU Members States and institutions.

Members will also discuss in an in camera session the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the observations of the EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA) as well as the fragile security context in the Sahel, including as a result of the accelerated withdrawal of the UN Mission in Mali and the role of the Wagner Group.
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

The European Defence Agency has overseen the final demonstration of coordination between aerial and ground unmanned systems in the detection of explosives. 

During the demonstration, one aerial unmanned system and two ground unmanned systems, each equipped with different sensors, undertook a complete autonomous search to detect mock-ups of explosives and improvised explosive devices, including unexploded ordinance – both in rural and urban areas. The demonstration took place on 7 September 2023 in Belgium at the bomb detection centre DOVO/SEDEE.  

The €1.55 million project, Artificial Intelligence for Detection of Explosive Devices, or AIDED, was granted funding through the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) in the 2019 call. PADR is a precursor to the European Defence Fund (EDF), of which the European Commission has overall responsibility. Monitored by EDA, AIDED is managed by a consortium of four entities, including Germany’s Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and headed by the Belgian SME Space Applications Services.  

September’s demonstration shows the maturity of the system so far, reaching a Technology Readiness Level of three-to-four. While that TRL was the goal, it also means the technology still needs to be taken further to ensure it is fool-proof. 

Powerful laser beam

Different sensors were used for the demonstration and there was a specific focus on each of them. The sensors used for detection were: 

• The EMI (EM metal detector); the Ground Penetrating Radar for  more accuracy – although it is sensitive to the movements of the carrier; the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, using a powerful laser beam to create a small plasma of the area to be analysed by a spectrometer; and a bigger sensor used for final identification.
• Neural networks were trained for each type of sensor signal processing, based on labelled data sets acquired during the project. Labelling the detections by the different sensors was an important part of the trials, and although time consuming, it was a major step in showing the improvements made by the AI algorithms. 
• Other sensors were used for localization and mapping algorithms for robot navigation and to cope with situations such as in an environment where the Global Positioning System was denied or degraded. 

The consortium faced issues such as the sensitivity of some sensors to soil humidity and to the movements of the carrier, the sensitivity of the systems to high temperatures and the precision of the navigation. The consortium showed their 'detect and avoid' system for avoiding collision between the UAV flying at very low altitude for good detection and the UGVs. 

Next steps - 'AIDEDex'

Overall the demonstration, as part of the project’s concluding phase, showed how artificial intelligence can be used effectively in several aspects in an unmanned systems operational environment such as mission planning, self navigation, team working and last but not least explosive devices detection, tasks that have been performed autonomously with minimal human intervention.  

A follow-up project, known as AIDEDex, has been selected from the European Defence Fund 2022 call and will take further the efforts on unmanned ground and aerial systems for hidden threat detection. The project will have a duration of 48 months with six partners from five EU Member states.

EDA’s wider role

EDA supports all EU Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks spanning the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.

Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here. 

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The post UK Birmingham PhD Student Charged With Terror For Designing Drone For ISIS appeared first on The Aviationist.

The only dedicated European exercise for the C-27J Spartan military transport aircraft launches today for two weeks of intensive joint training. Now in its seventh edition, the ‘European Spartan Exercise’ will take place at 90th airlift base - Otopeni, Romania with four participating nations: Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, and Lithuania. In this edition, the European Spartan Exercise will be tailored to the Tactical air transport including air Medevac.

The European Spartan Exercise brings together three C-27J’s and around 150 personnel and will run from 2-12 October and marking the second time Romania has hosted the exercise. The core planning team composed of personnel from participating nations and the EDA already began work on 27 September for final preparations of the exercise. All planning cells include a representative of the participating nations, while medical personnel will plan dedicated missions for medical evacuation.

Tactical training

The C-27J Spartan transport aircraft is designed to perform tactical missions in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, providing direct air transport to the theatre, day and night. The Spartan Exercise is also focused on peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, training C-27J crews to fly low level tactical navigation in different scenarios. The second week of the exercise will be dedicated to Tactical Medevac activities. Several airfields in Romania have been chosen for training with crews due to perform tactical approaches, material (CDS) and personnel airdrops, also using unprepared runway and short airfield for take-off and landing.

European C-27J community

This annual flying exercise, which is part of the EDA’s dedicated C-27J project that gathers five participating Member States that are C-27J users (the four afore-mentioned countries plus Slovakia), works to identify and develop common projects in the domains of operations, training, logistics, procurement, airworthiness and Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) to achieve a high level of interoperability and cost-efficient operating and maintenance models.

EDA’s wider role 

EDA supports all EU Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks spanning the whole spectrum of defence capabilities. 

Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here. 

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