Jane's Defense News

China’s defence budget in 2018 will increase by 8.1% to CNY1.11 trillion (USD175 billion), the official Xinhua news agency reported on 5 March. The increase – announced at the start of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing – is slightly higher than the 7.6% and 7.0%

Key Points President Juan Manuel Santos has reached his term limit and his legislative coalition is unlikely to survive the 27 May 2018 presidential election. Legislative elections on 11 March will determine the stability of the next administration, which is likely to be formed of a coalition of

Sweden’s System Engineering Solutions 37 (SES 37 ) has acquired Finnish command and sensor developer Conlog. Newly-formed SES 37 is a subsidiary of Stockforsa Invest, and aims to offer its integrated solutions expertise to offer modular and standardised command and sensor systems alongside

Key Points The agency requested USD102 million in FY 2019 for TBG testing DARPA and US Army join up for programme to extend long-range fires In its fiscal year 2019 (FY 2019) budget request, the US Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking increased funding to enable the Defense Advanced Research

Key Points The Lürssen/TKMS joint venture has been eliminated from the contest to provide the German Navy's MKS 180 multirole combat ships German Naval Yards and Damen remain in the bidding On 1 March the German Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced a downselection in the MKS 180 multirole

Event On 4 March, the centre-left Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands: SPD) announced that a majority of 66.02% of its 463,723 members voted in an internal poll to renew the so-called grand coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right Christian

Analysis of commercial satellite imagery suggests that the Korean People’s Navy’s (KPN’s) West Sea Fleet is continuing a refit programme for its ageing fleet of ‘Romeo’-class (Project 033) diesel-electric conventional patrol submarines (SSs). Captured on 30 November

Event Provisional election results from Italy’s 4 March general election suggest political gridlock, with none of the main parties or coalitions being able to secure a parliamentary majority on their own. The biggest gains were made by the country’s populist parties, in particular the

The Polish Armament Inspectorate published a paper on 1 March that initiates a technical dialogue with potential suppliers of a system to detect and counter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Given the programme codename Nida (after a river in southern Poland), the system is expected to itself use

Event On 4 March, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced the removals from office of Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura and Security Minister Henry Tumukunde, replacing them with Deputy Inspector General of Police Martin Okoth Ochola and General Elly Tumwine, respectively. Both

As part of China’s military reforms, the size of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been reduced to approximately 2 million troops. Speaking in Beijing at the start of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) on 5 March, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China had

The Spanish government has approved a EUR550 million (USD677 million) credit from its contingency funds toward the cost of overseas military peacekeeping missions for 2018. Announced on 2 March by the cabinet, the funding comes when the country is still rolling over its budget from 2017 until the

AT LEAST one girl was killed and six other people wounded when a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED) was detonated targeting a NATO convoy in the Qabl Bai area in the ninth district in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on 2 March, Al-Jazeera and Reuters reported. No group

The US Marine Corps (USMC) is in the final stages of preparation for the first operational shipborne embarkation of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), with the arrival of an advance detachment of aircraft on USS Wasp (LHD-1) on 5 March. An undisclosed number of the

Poland’s Wojskowe Zakłady Elektroniczne (WZE) received a contract on 1 March to repair and maintain Polish radars, mainly RO-94, RW-32, RT-22, RA-83, and RSWP-18 systems that are also a part of the NATO air defence infrastructure. The contract is worth PLN13.9 million (USD4 million) and

India and Vietnam have agreed to deepen defence trade ties through New Delhi’s provision of military aid to the Southeast Asian country. In a joint statement issued on 4 March during Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang’s visit to India, the two governments also highlighted expanding

Raytheon Missile Systems has been contracted by the US Navy to embody a new maritime targeting software load into the Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile to support a flight test and subsequent fleet release. Awarded on 25 January, the USD627,000 contract introduces a Maritime Targeting Capability

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) plans to indigenously develop an armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar announced during a 15 February ceremony held to mark the induction into service of the Tsaigumi UAV. The Tsaigumi is “just a stepping stone to

Romania’s commitment to raise its defence budget to the NATO-stipulated target of 2% of GDP has led to the new Romanian government approving on 15 February the procurement of a number of previously requested US-sourced land systems – notably artillery rocket systems – as well as

Russia is set to begin final qualification of the TOR-M2DT (9K331MDT) Arctic short-range air defence (SHORAD) system. Initial test firings of the TOR-M2DT were planned for 15 February at Kapustin Yar test site in Astrakhan Oblast, with the system scheduled to enter serial production and Russian