Jane's Defense News

Airbus has announced the appointment of the president of its Brazilian subsidiary Helibras as the head of all of the country’s operations in Brazil. The promotion of Richard Marelli was announced on 23 November. Marelli will report to Alberto Robles, who is the head of Airbus activities in

Event Four more Australian parliamentarians have resigned over dual citizenship during the past two weeks, bringing the number of resignations to nine since July. From the ruling Liberal party, Senator Stephen Parry resigned on 1 November and Representative John Alexander announced his resignation

An upgrade that enables the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress bomber to carry smart weapons internally has been declared ready for combat by the US Air Force (USAF). The USAF announced on 20 November that the first upgraded Conventional Rotary Launcher (CRL) has now been transported from Barksdale Air

BAE Systems said on 23 November that it has teamed with the UK government in offering to provide Australia with 5,000 ‘work years’ of technical design capability if the company is successful in its bid to supply the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) with next-generation frigates. BAE Systems

Event On 20 November 2017 the Belarusian security service (Kamitet Dziarzhaunay Byaspeki; KDB) confirmed that it had detained Pavlo Sharoiko, a Ukrianian journalist. Sharoiko’s employer, Ukrayinske Radio in Kiev, said he had been detained by the Belarusian KDB in Minsk on 25 October after

The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced the first contract related to Saudi Arabia’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) programme on 22 November. Awarded to Lockheed Martin, the USD22.7 million contract covers “services in support of foreign military sales” of the LCS to Saudi

India is set to commission its indigenously designed, missile-tracking ocean surveillance ship (OSS) in 2018 to support the country’s classified strategic weapon and ballistic missile defence (BMD) programmes, official sources have told Jane’s . Designated VC11184 after the yard in the

The Polish Armament Inspectorate (AI) has issued two documents inviting industry to start a technical dialogue for two separate systems that would expand the current observation capabilities of the nation’s armed forces. A document published on 30 October is for an onshore

Vessels from the Royal Saudi Naval Forces’ (RSNF’s) Gulf-based Eastern Fleet have been seen in the Red Sea port of Eritrea for the first time, satellite imagery has confirmed. Two Badr-class corvettes and an Al-Jawf (Sandown)-class mine countermeasures vessel were present at Assab on 15

AT LEAST 50 people were killed and at least 38 others were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated their explosives at a mosque during morning prayers in Mubi in Nigeria's Adamawa state on 21 November, Reuters reported. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though Wilayat Gharb

AT LEAST 23 people were killed and 60 others wounded when a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED) - described in reports as a truck bomb - detonated near a marketplace in a predominantly Shia Muslim and ethnic Turkmen area in the town of Tuz Khurmatu in Iraq's Salah ad Din

The US Air Force’s (USAF's) 71st Flying Training Wing has grounded its fleet of Beechcraft T-6A Texan II trainer aircraft following a series of physiological events affecting pilots. The temporary suspension of flight activities was announced by Vance Air Force Base (AFB) in Oklahoma on 20

Russia is looking to secure additional helicopter sales to Thailand following the recent signing of a bilateral military-technology collaboration agreement, Jane’s understands. Officials from Russian export agency Rosoboronexport told Jane’s on 8 November at the Defence & Security

India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has invited responses by 20 December to its global request for information (RFI) to develop and build 1,770 multipurpose Future Ready Combat Vehicles (FRCVs) for the Indian Army (IA) to replace the service’s ageing fleet of T-72 main battle tanks (MBTs).

Key Points Saad Hariri’s resignation is most likely to have been driven by Saudi Arabia, reflecting its intent to expand its regional confrontation with Iran to Lebanon, having already been engaged in proxy wars in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. The resignation stands to destabilise Lebanon’s

State-owned Russian defence and industrial group Rostec announced on 7 November that it has begun to seek a buyer for a 49% share in weapons manufacturer High Precision Systems (Vysokotochnye Kompleksy). The company’s activities in the defence sector, though focused on missiles and precision

Azerbaijan has based IAI Heron medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at a new airbase that has been constructed west of the capital, Baku. Digital Globe satellite imagery shows two Herons present on 16 September. Earlier imagery indicates that Azeri forces began

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) is pitching to meet a Royal Thai Army (RTA) requirement for attack helicopters with its T129 ATAK platform, a company official told Jane’s at the Defence & Security 2017 show in Bangkok on 8 November. Tamer Ozmen, TAI’s vice-president for corporate

The United Kingdom now regards Southeast Asia as its biggest growth market for defence and security sales, a regional executive of the UK’s Department for International Trade's Defence and Security Organisation (DSO) has told Jane’s . Alexis Hammer, DSO’s director of the Americas

An AW139 helicopter simulation facility was officially opened at Qatar’s Al-Udeid Air Base during a visit by Turkish Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli on 5 November. Havelsan, the Turkish company that built the facility, has previously announced that the project was launched in May 2013 and