• A European Defence Agency (EDA) official is confident that member states will have identified potential pilot cases for its Common Off The Shelf Procurement initiative by the end of 2011.

• Diehl BGT and Israel’s RAFAEL have unveiled the PILUM long-range glide bomb concept. With a reported range of 60-100 miles, PILUM will use RAFAEL Spice’s combination of GPS/INS and imaging infrared, in Diehl’s HOSBO bomb system. This JSOW Block III competitor will be integrated on Tornado and Eurofighter aircraft – wonder if the Saudis, who fly both, will want any?

• The Dixmude, France’s 3rd Mistral Class LHD/BPC, has arrived in Toulon for final fitting and testing. It was ordered with French economic stimulus funds in April 2009.

• Britain’s 3rd Type 45 air defense destroyer, HMS Diamond, has officially joined the Royal Navy.

• As part of its efforts to build a strong UAV industry in the state, Oklahoma is petitioning the US FAA to create an unrestricted UAV corridor in civil airspace.

• Despite the presence of a Eurocopter EC645 at CANSEC, there is still little movement in Canada’s plans to replace the Griffon.

• Lockheed Martin delivers its National Source Tracking System (NSTS) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to assist in the tracking of radioactive source material.

• Saab agrees to divest its shares in the 3D mapping company C3 Technologies AB. The transaction is expected to be closed by the end of the 3rd quarter FY11.

• Research and Markets adds DoD UAS Forecasts, Missions and Initiatives FY2012 DoD Budget Justification Analysis and The Venezuelan Defense Industry – Market Opportunities and Entry Strategies Analyses and Forecasts to 2015 to its list of publications.

• The Air Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) plans to follow up the recent graduation of its first group of third generation fighter pilots by introducing a new training program for the next cohort.

• EADS Astrium Space Technologies’ Chief Executive touts its Spirale satellites as the backbone for a future French, European or NATO missile defense capability. Speaking at the Paris Air Show, Alain Charmeau also announced the company hopes to test a ballistic missile interceptor by 2016.

• The Chief Executive of ThalesRaytheonSystems also sees the company playing a major role in missile defense for Europe. Jack Harrington also confirmed that security against unconventional threats – particularly in the missile defense and cyber-security domains – will remain the partnership’s focus for the foreseeable future.

• Following recent comments that it has not given up hope of selling its Gripen fighter to India, Saab announces that it has entered into agreement with Mahindra Satyam to establish the Saab India Technology Center (SITC). The SITC will seek to facilitate aerospace and defense projects in India.

• Rafael’s President and CEO offers his perspective on the company’s success and the importance of acquiring foreign companies and developing partnerships to its global business strategy.

• Northrop Grumman continues to test its Fire-X unmanned helicopter, confirms that the US Navy’s adoption is ‘not a done deal’, and claims that there has been foreign interest.

• Cassidian Systems’ ECTOCRYP BLACK encryption device receives approval to participate in this month’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID). The device seeks to enable interoperability across geographically dispersed secure voice communications systems.

• New Zealand-based LanzaTech announces that it has been awarded funds from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to undertake research on low cost production of jet fuel from carbon monoxide-rich sources.

• Australia’s Minister of Defence announces that the Government is to undertake a Force Posture Review. Issues to be considered include the increasing strategic importance of the Asia-Pacific region and the security implications of Australia’s expanding offshore resource exploitation. The Review will also build upon the White Paper Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030 [PDF] and consider force posture and requirements.

• UAS Vision reports on the impact that the Indian firm Serial Innovations has upon US unmanned aircraft’s ability to send live video feeds smoothly.

• Defense Tech’s latest report from the Paris Air Show notes an abundance of small “civilian-looking” aircraft equipped with sensor packages that make them ideal for spying missions.

• The latest companiesandmarkets.com report predicts that the global aerospace and defense sector will achieve revenues of $399 billion by 2015. While the United States will retain its position as the largest aerospace and defense market, the Asia-Pacific region will experience the fastest growth during the reporting period.

• The head of the French Navy tells The Telegraph that he was ‘stunned’ by the Royal Navy’s decision to axe its aircraft carriers and Harrier jump jets.

• Almost three months after RAFAEL’s ASPROA-/Trophy active protection system was used to intercept an anti-tank missile fired at an IDF tank in the Gaza Strip, reports suggest that the U.S. military is close to combining two active protection systems into a single defense for armored vehicles in Afghanistan.

• Turkey is reportedly nearing agreement on a limited sale, within its Dec 3/09 DSCA request for up to 14 CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters.

• South Korea has placed its 2nd KDX-III AEGIS destroyer, ROKS Yuglok Yi I, into operational service.

• Aéro Montréal, Québec’s aerospace cluster, launches the MACH initiative to help companies improve their performance and better position themselves in future aircraft program supply chains.

• Tognum AG welcomes Engine Holding GmbH, the joint venture between Daimler AG and Rolls-Royce Holding plc, as the new majority shareholder in the engine manufacturer.

• Rosvertol, the attack helicopter arm of Russian Helicopters, says it is in talks with Algeria concerning an export deal for its night-capable Mi-28NE.

Barak launch

Over a development timeline measured in decades, India’s indigenous “Akash” and “Trishul” programs for surface to air missiles have failed to inspire full confidence. Trishul was eventually canceled entirely. Akash had a a long, difficult development period, but seems to have found customer acceptance and a solid niche in the rugged terrain of the northeast. India still needed longer-range advanced SAMs to equip its navy and army, however, and decided to try to duplicate the success of the partnership model that had fielded the excellent Indo-Russian PJ-10 BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.

In February 2006, therefore, Israel and India signed a joint development agreement to create a new Barak-NG medium shipborne air defense missile, as an evolution of the Barak-1 system in service with both navies. In July 2007 the counterpart MR-SAM project began moving forward, aiming to develop a medium range SAM for use with India’s land forces. Both missiles would now be called Barak-8. In between, “India to Buy Israeli “SPYDER” Mobile Air Defense System” covered India’s move to begin buying mobile, short-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems for its army, based on the Python and Derby air-to-air missiles in service with its air force and naval aircraft. These projects offer India a way forward to address its critical air defense weaknesses, and upgrade “protection of vital and strategic ground assets and area air defence.” This DID FOCUS article will cover the Barak-8 and closely related programs in India, Israel, and beyond:

• The Barak, and Barak-8
• India’s Barak Programs [updated]
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  Continue Reading… »

• Manufacturing Institute releases their “Roadmap for Education Reform for Manufacturing” – download full report here [PDF].

• Sen. Shaheen [D-NH] unveils Inspiration School Grant Program initiative to close the US robotics gap with Asian nations.

• US Army 2nd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment provides lessons learned from Afghanistan [PDF].

• US-supplied W76-1 arming device would make Britain’s Trident SLBMs more accurate, Sandia National Lab test shows.

• BAE Systems to repair and maintain 6 Ticonderga-class (CG-47) guided missile cruisers under a US Navy MSMO dry dock contract.

• In addition, BAE snags US Navy contract, worth up to $165 million, to supply 40 Mk 38 Mod 2 25mm close defense gun mounts in 2011 and 2012.

• DARPA awards $2.7 million contract to Lockheed Martin to develop resilient command and control (RC2) for the US military.

• American Small Business League sues [PDF] the Department of Defense for refusing to release subcontracting reports on contracts awarded to Raytheon to ensure compliance with small business contracting rules.

• Fresh from its success in Gaza while mounted on a Merkava main battle tank, RAFAEL’s ASPRO-A/ Trophy active protection system against incoming shells, rockets and missiles (see video) has now finished tests in the USA, mounted on a Stryker/ LAV-III wheeled APC. The need for Trophy was one of the lessons learned from the 2006 Syrian-Iranian-Israeli war in Lebanon.

• In blast-resistant MRAP vehicles, ammunition is from MARS. Which solved a perplexing problem.

• “We can’t afford to stay fat, dumb and happy.” US Air Force Global Strike Command’s A9 directorate is working to apply critical self-assessment, and lessons learned.

• HMS Albion, HMS Sutherland and RFA Cardigan Bay, together with elements of 40 Commando Royal Marines, set sail as lead element of the UK’s Cougar 11 deployment to the Mediterranean and Middle East. RFA Cardigan Bay is a sister ship to Largs Bay, which was just sold off to Australia.

• Lesson learned from Libya: don’t expect to fly Swedish JAS-39C/D Gripens on JP-5 naval aviation fuel. JP-5 is less likely to catch fire on board a carrier, but not so good for planes that need Jet A1 (similar to the USAF’s JP-8).

• RAFAEL’s ASPRO-A/ Trophy (and see video) active protection system records its 1st live kill against an enemy anti-tank weapon (reportedly an unguided RPG). The Israeli Merkava tank crew only discovered they had been fired upon after the fact. This is one of the lessons of the 2006 Lebanon War – but the US Army still has nothing like it in the field.

• American Small Business League is suing the US Army for refusing to release subcontracting reports on contracts awarded by Bechtel – reports that the group believes will demonstrate Bechtel violated federal law requiring 23% of federal contracts be awarded to small businesses.

• 3 Dutch Marines held by Libyan government, after an in-country rescue operation of Dutch nationals mounted from the frigate HNLMS Tromp went awry.
  Continue Reading… »

Arrow test concept

In a dawning age of rogue states, ballistic missile defenses are steadily become a widely accepted necessity. Iran is widely believed to be developing nuclear capabilities, and Israeli concerns were heightened after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged that Israel be “wiped off the map” (the fact that America was also placed in that category went largely uncovered).

Because missile defenses are so important, states like India and Israel have taken steps to ensure that they have the ability to build many of the key pieces. The Arrow project is a collaboration between Boeing and IAI to produce the missile interceptors that accompany the required radars, satellites, command and control systems.

• The Arrow System
• Contracts & Key Events, 2004-Present
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

• BAE Systems returns to profitability in 2010, but expects decline in 2011 sales due to reduced volume at its Land and Armaments unit and UK defense cutbacks.

• Arrest made in 2010 theft of 3,000 US special ops laptops – worth $7.2 million – from an iGov Technologies facility in Tampa, FL.

• Pentagon chief Robert Gates and JCS Chairman Michael Mullen face Senate grilling over FY 2012 budget request, after similar treatment by the House.
  Continue Reading… »

• “Most Dangerous Week Ever”?

• India’s foreign direct investment cap is crippling the Indian defense industry, argues Sushant Singh of the Takshashila Institution.

• Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) to merge with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd?

• Fall of Tunisia’s government looks set to affect that proposed SH-60F helicopter sale covered in July 2010.

• Meanwhile, a more natural flood could wash away Brazil’s proposed fighter purchase.

• More US defense funds likely to go into repairing, upgrading older systems.

• US needs to shore up its air superiority vis-a-vis China, warns the American Enterprise Institute.

• Is an arms race in East Asia imminent?

• Are American P-3 Orion sea control aircraft hunting narco-smuggler submersibles in the Caribbean?

• The GAO is expected to rule in March on a protest over the US Army’s $88 million contract award to Boeing for development of 4 ISR aircraft based on the Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350, under the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS) program.

• AM General to lay off 300 workers at its Mishawaka, IN, plant that manufactures Humvees.

• Sikorsky Aircraft opens virtual reality center to identify production and maintenance gaps for the USMC’s forthcoming CH-53K heavy lift helicopters, before the initial builds take place.

• Diamond Anniversary: On the 60th anniversary of North Korea’s invasion of the South, the US and South Korea send North Korea a “gift” of tougher sanctions in response to March 26 sinking of ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772), a Pohang-class patrol combat corvette.

• T-Rays: Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are developing teraherz-based technology to detect IEDs and other explosives; DARPA is also harnessing terahertz frequencies to improve electronics.

• Too Pricey?: The IDF expresses concern about the costs of procuring the Iron Dome rocket/artillery defense system, which completed final testing this week.

• I-95 Gridlock: Virginia officials are asking the US federal government for $406 million to finance road construction to accommodate the 20,000 defense workers being relocated along the I-95 corridor as a result of BRAC implementation.

• ITAR, You TAR: US technology export restrictions under ITAR could cost the US its lead in UAV technology, warns Northrop Grumman CEO.

• Stanley in Arlington, VA secures 2 US Navy contracts totalling $11 milllion: one to provide software that will enable special op forces to send e-mails via radios and the other to provide engineering support to the Naval Sea Logistics Center in Mechanicsburg, PA.