Archive for December, 2011

Intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, communication and navigation as the thrust areas for India’s Defence Space Vision 2020 Phase-I to be met by the year 2012. However, even these basic capabilities will remain inadequate in the absence of devoted military satellites

Singapore has the largest defense expenditure in South East Asia, and, in 2008, the country had the world’s fourth-largest per capita defense expenditure, behind only Israel, the US and Oman. The country’s defense expenditure is high due to the small size of the country’s armed forces and consequent ever-present requirement [...]

Japan formally announced today the selection of the F-35 for its future F-X fighter. Tokyo will receive 42 F-35 Lightning II multirole stealth fighters, to be built by Lockheed Martin, replacing Japan’s aging fleet of F-4s, F-2s, and F-15s.

Both MMRCA Bids are “Significantly Higher than Goal | Japan Formally Announces F-35 Selection | Indian Air Force Opts for More Su-30MKI, Despite Problems | Cheongung – a New MR-SAM for the South Korean Multi-Tier Defense System | Stealth Infiltration Boats for South Korea | Australia Revamps Reserve Brigades under Plan BeerSheba | Russia to Lease Nuclear Submarine, Offers Conventional subs to India | Navantia to Build 12 landing crafts for Australia | Australia Selects Hawkei for its Future Protected, Light Tactical Vehicle | Australia Beefs up Route Clearing Pathfinders | Thailand Minehunters to get the SeaFox | South Korea Favors JASSM for its U.S. made Fighters | Embraer Flies Indian Bound EMB-145 AEW Aircraft | Australia opts for the Spartan | Brunei Orders 12 S-80i Black Hawk Helicopters | Indonesia to Expand Su-27/30 Fleet to a full Squadron |First NH90 Delivered to New-Zealand | India Plans Doubling its Maritime Reconnaissance Fleet with 12 Additional P-8Is | Underwater Surveillance Vehicle for japan’s Coast Guard

In 2013 the IAF plans to invite a number of foreign air forces to a multi-national joint exercise, to further elevate international cooperation with friendly nations. The IAF has been training extensively with foreign air forces in recent years, particularly with Italy, Greece and Romania, following the Turkish government decision to terminate joint training with Israel. Last week a joint training exercise with the Italian Air Force was held at the southern Negev base of Ovda.

Despite recent the recent problems with the engines and flight controls that have caused the crash of a Su-30MKI, the Indian Air Force stands behind its first line strike fighter, increasing the planned fleet to 272 aircraft. An order for 42 additional planes was signed yesterday. The IAF demanded quick resolution, paving the way for the new orders

The growing threat of missile attack by North Korea has concerned Seoul for decades, but only recently defensive systems are showing progress, with interceptor technology becoming available on the domestic and world market. Last week Seoul unveiled the Cheongung, a new medium-range Surface to air Missile system designed to beef up the country’s air and missile defense.

Cyber soldiers will eventually become a familiar sight on all and every battle front to ensure smooth bug free operation of command and control combat capabilities during the next war.

Plan BeerSheba announced by the Australian Defence on December 12, 2011 aims to ensure that the country continues to contribute forces to operations including Afghanistan and successfully transition to a force that is able to respond effectively to future challenges, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and other operations.

The U.S. Air force has awarded General Atomics a contract to build a third prototype of the stealthy Predator C Avenger unmanned aircraft. General Atomics has already built two such aircraft and is planning to build two more, at least one is now being funded by the U.S. Government. According to David A. Fulghum of Aviation Week, these new ‘Avenger’ versions will be more powerful and will carry more payloads than the first two prototype competed in 2009. A second Avenger flew for the first time in April 2010. The Air Force has allocated $15 million for the first aircraft but the program is expected to grow in size.

The Australian Defence has selected Hawkei light tactical vehicle design from Thales Australia as the preferred design for LAND 121 Phase 4. The government plans to buy 1,300 vehicles at a cost of A$1.5 billion. Government approval of the project is expected in 2015 with production work to commence in Australia by 2016. To bridge production gap at the manufacturing plant in Brisbane, the government considers to order more Bushmaster vehicles.

The unsettling appearance of a Chinese aircraft carrier has created quite a stir in the Pacific among those nations that rely heavily on the United States for warfighting protection and military hardware. With the Chinese carrier now underway on its second round of sea trials, the Pacific community is looking with increased urgency to improve air defenses. Taiwan and Japan in particular are in critical need of an upgrade to their existing air-superiority fighter forces.

Australia is moving forward to with Project Overlander, with the selection of Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles Australia and Thales Australia. MAN will provide medium and heavy armored and unarmored trucks while Thales will deliver the Hawkei light tactical vehicle, in protected and unprotected configurations. The two programs are part of an investment of A$7.5 billion, providing the Australian Defence Force with around 7,500 new vehicles over the next decade.

Libyan and American bomb disposal teams have secured thousands of shoulder-held man portable air defense missile systems (shoulder fired missiles) originally owned by the Libyan military, however, about 15,000 such missiles are still at large. While some are believed to have been destroyed by NATO bombings, the majority of weapons, considered extremely valuable by terrorist and criminal groups, are believed to have reached terrorists organizations in the region.

In a step further deteriorating relations between Pakistan and NATO, Islamabad announced today its air defense forces will shoot down any aircraft, manned or unmanned, penetrating its borders, turning the airspace over Waziristan along the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderline into a ‘contested access’ airspace for aircraft, helicopters and UAVs.

We are happy to announce the deployment of new and improved search service implemented across Defense-Update. Unlike the search we have used since our last upgrade in July, the new search indexes the entire site, including the ‘legacy’ pages of our past versions that were omitted from recent searches. The new search [...]

The US Department of Defense awarded Lockheed Martin four billion US$ for the procurement of 30 F-35s as part of the fifth F-35 Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP V) batch. LRIP V represents a drop the F-35 production program, compared to LRIP IV which included 32 aircraft, including two export variants. The next production batch, LRIP VI is expected to introduce even deeper cuts, down from 80 to 38.

Russian Airborne Forces to Receive Austrian Sniper Rifles | Russian Military Spending to top $30 Billion in 2012 | IRKUT to Deliver 55 YAK-130 Trainers to the Russian Air Force | Beriev Aircraft Company completes major overhaul of Indian Tu-142ME long haul ASW aircraft | Russian Navy to Add a Second Missile Cruiser after 2012 | Sevmash shipyard Expects New Orders for Seven Nuclear Submarines | Almaz-Antey Expand Production Facility to Meet Demand for S-500 | BrahMos Successful in a Test in the Baltic Sea | Russia Taps German Expertise to Train Brigade Combat Teams

The SeaFox mine hunting system developed by Atlas Elektronik incorporates a remotely controlled surveillance system and autonomous ‘hunter’. The SeaFox I underwater surveillance vehicle is used for target identification and mine hunting. The system was employed recently to clear sea mines along the Libyan coast during the naval blockade on Libya.

L3, Elbit, L3 to seek New Business Opportunities in Canada | Fire Scout Demonstrates Support for Manned-Unmanned Naval Operations | CICADA Micro-Drones Opens New Opportunities for Future Covert Surveillance | Cooperative Engagement to Enhance Naval Anti-Air Capability | Lockheed Martin to Develop an IRST for the Super Hornet | Riverine Group Evaluates Using USVs in Littoral, Riverine Operations | Laying the keel for DDG1000 Zumwalt

On December 8 Tehran came out open displaying footage of the captured drone which seems in pristine condition. Although the drone was reportedly shot down by Iran’s air defense, its upper surface seems to be intact while the bottom, covered by propaganda billboards and camouflage net may hint about more extensive damage caused by hard landing.

CICADA is a concept for a low-cost, GPS-guided, micro disposable air vehicle that can be deployed in large numbers to “seed” an area with miniature electronic payloads. These payloads could be interconnected to form an ad-hoc, self-configuring network. Communication nodes, sensors, or effectors can then be placed in a programmable geometric pattern in hostile territory without directly over-flying those regions or exposing human agents on the ground.

Cobham to Develop an Aerial Refueling System for KC-390 | NATO Upgrades BMD C2 System | Norwegian Navy Receives a New Naval Helicopter | Kongsberg to Upgrade Norwegian NASAMS Air defense Systems | French Senate Caps UAV Spending to Favor Reaper Procurement | Chief of RAF: Britain Should Reconsider Sentinel Phaseout | Roll Out of the First F-35 for the UK | Swedish Army Gets its first Kodiak | EU short on anti-piracy ships due to budget cuts | Sweden Delivers BvS10 to France | BAE Systems Invests in Data Visualisation Systems | Terma Introduces ALQ-213 ECM-Pod Enhancements | Opening the Night For Danish F-16 Pilots | MAMBA (SAMP/T) Scores First Hit in an Operational Test

Elbit Systems has won an initial order worth $11 million to develop a light Remote Weapon Station for the IDF, equipping Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) and Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFVs). The two finalists in the program were Elbit Systems and IMI.

Since many of the private sector companies that would be certified under the new cyber threat information law to obtain classified information, are also multinational companies, it is prudent to adopt a policy whereby the individuals who are entitled to receive information under the law, are also charged with the safeguarding of the information and the administration of legal framework guidelines.

A recent technology demonstration conducted by the U.S. Air Force and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) validated the use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) aero-mobile low-profile Ka-band terminal over DOD Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) system. Test criteria included an airborne bi-directional video teleconferencing session while simultaneously running IP file transfer applications.

Norwegian Vingtags II Optronic Systems for Malaysian AV8s | Singapore Navy Commissions The First Archer Submarine | Australian Aerospace Delivers Final Tiger To Australian Defense Force | China Pledges to Increase Military Assistance to Seychelles | Sri-Lanka, Indonesia Order More Bell-412 Helicopters | China’s Aircraft Carrier Begins Second Sea Trial | Lockheed Martin UK offers Vigilance AEW system to Malaysia | Eurocopter Delivers Six EC145s to Kazakhstan | Indonesia to Spend over 1.5 Billion Shopping for Surplus Weapons | Second Air Surveillance radar Deployed in Eastern Indonesia

Russia has transferred a number of Kvant 1L222 Avtobaza Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) systems to Iran in October, RIA Novosti news agency announced. Each 1L222 system includes an passive ELINT signals interception system and a jamming module capable of disrupting airborne radars including fire control radars, terrain following radars and ground [...]

Iran’s semi-official news agencies released today some details about a possible intercept and downing of a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel jet-powered stealth unmanned aerial vehicle.

CBRNe Asia is Asia’s first and largest CBRNe conference, exhibition and exercise. CBRNe Asia 2012 on 3-7 September in Bangkok, Thailand will bring together experts, end users, policymakers, industry and procurement staff and is being organised in full partnership with the Royal Thai Government

Russia has supplied two Bastion coastal missile systems to Syria, concluding a controversial $300 million arms deal inked with the Syrian government four years ago. These missiles could put at risk elements of the Six Fleet patrolling the eastern Mediterranean, as well as Israel navy vessels and Israeli offshore rigs.

The United States and her allies in the Asia-Pacific region are in need of an immediate response to the military challenge posed by China while continuing to maintain friendly relations with the Chinese on the economic front – a double-edged task that will require firm leadership, diplomacy, thoughtful strategy, perseverance, and considerable amounts of money. The manner in which all of this is accomplished may determine the real players on the future world stage.

Iran Claims it Shot Down a U.S. Stealth Drone | Syria Receives 72 Yakhont Missiles from Russia | JDAMs to Arm the Emirate’s F-16s | Iran Equips Navy with Highly Advanced Anti-Ship Cruise Missile

Despite massive cuts in defense procurement North America is expected to account for the largest share of the global military aircraft market sharing 42.9% of the total global expenditure on military aircraft during the next 10 decade. Two programs dominate this procurement – the development and production of 2,456 F-35 [...]

The Australian Government has approved an upgrade of all ANZAC class frigates to the full anti-ship missile defense standard. Saab have teamed with BAE Systems and CEA Technologies to create the variant of the 9LV combat management system (CMS) introduced with HMAS Perth frigate earlier this year. The upgrade includes the integration enhanced 9LV combat management system, phased array radar and missile director, infrared sensors and an advanced navigation radar system.

Night Attack The Royal Danish Air Force has validated the use of Night Vision Cueing and Display/ Aviator’s Night Vision Imaging System (NVCD/ ANVIS) on its F-16s, offering a night vision enhancement for the daylight functionality provided by standard Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS). The system was flown for more than 300 hours as part of Operation Unified Protector during the summer of 2011.

Terma is launching an upgrade for the AN/ALQ-213 Electronic Countermeasure system, offering a modern version of the Countermeasures Management System Processor otherwise known as the Electronic Warfare Management System (EWMS). The enhanced processor will support new capabilities including Radio Frequency sensor integration, sensor fusion, geo-location capabilities, networking, and situational awareness improvements.