PJ-10 BrahMos
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Back in November 2005, The Hindu newspaper reported that India’s government has given the go-ahead for exporting missiles, and that India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is looking to market several of its products internationally. The DRDO will participate in international expos as part of its marketing strategy, and government officials have claimed interest from African, Gulf and South-East Asian countries. They have also noted, however, that India’s government would be required to approve any foreign sales to specific countries.

The missile systems in question include:

• Trishul (“trident”) short-range surface-air missile (SAM)
• Akash (“sky”) medium-range SAM
• Nag (“cobra”) anti-armor missile; and the
• Indo-Russian BrahMos medium-range supersonic cruise missile, which is primarily designed as an anti-ship weapon but can also perform land attack.

DID describes each of these programs, then adds some analysis that offers insights into these long-running missile programs and their competitive prospects. Updates have also been added, including the Indian Air Force’s agreement to begin manufacturing and fielding the Akash system…

• The Missiles: IGMP set, and BrahMos
• Program Updates [updated]
• Appendix A: India’s Export Prospects – DID Op/Ed Analysis (Dec 1/05)
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources – Related Reports & News
• Appendix C: Additional Readings & Sources – The Missiles
  
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NETFIRES concept
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The basic concept of NETFIRES (a Future Combat Systems program) is to develop a family of artillery-like precision attack missiles based upon a vertical launcher design. Yet the idea goes far beyond that simple description. The NETFIRES CLU box launcher is intended to be be fully autonomous, meaning it can be dropped off anywhere and operate on its own without a support vehicle. The launch unit includes power generation and control systems as well as a total of 15 missiles, each with a warhead similar in size and capability to a 155mm artillery shell.

The system is also known as Non Line-Of-Sight, Launch System, or NLOS-LS, and remains one of Future Combat systems’ most promising programs, slated for early fielding to the Army and even for integration with US naval forces.

This will be DID’s focus article for the NETFIRES program, and it will be updated as new events and contracts enter the picture. The latest news involves successful logistics and field tests for the platform, as it gears up to be part of FCS Spinout Phase 1.

• The NETFIRES Concept
• NETFIRES Missiles
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Appendix A: Lockheed’s Successful Design Improvement Workshops
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources
  
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Pandur II w. RCWS-30
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In January 2006, the Czech Republic selected General Dynamics’ European Land Combat Systems subsidiary Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug GmbH of Austria to supply its army with 199 new eight-wheeled Pandur II armored personnel carriers (APCs) between 2007-2012. The vehicles would replace Soviet-era OT-64 SKOT APCs, and would be produced in Austria and the Czech Republic.

As DID noted in its coverage of the initial contenders, the contract includes an option for 35 additional vehicles for a total of 234, and has a potential value of Koruna 23.6 billion ($1-1.4 billion). Steyr’s Pandur II was a finalist, and eventually won the competition. But questions arose, the deal became a political football, and delivery issues jeopardized deal. Steyr recently issued a pair of releases that aim to put the Czech government in a tight spot, while detailing the project’s industrial arrangements… but it wasn’t enough. In the end, 3 issues killed the contract… or did they?

• Selection and a Winner
• Pandur II Industrial Arrangements
• Contracts & Updates [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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Yak-130
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In an earlier February 1, 2006 report, DID noted that a $4 billion arms sale was brewing between Algeria and Russia involving fighter aircraft, tanks, and air defense systems, with the possibility of additional equipment. Those options would appear to have come through, as numerous sources are now reporting that a high-level Russian delegation in Algeria has closed $7.5 billion worth of arms contracts. The Algerian package would be post-Soviet Russia’s largest ever single arms deal, and compares to annual Russian weapons exports to all customers of $5-6 billion per year over the last couple of years.

T-90 tank
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Reuters South Africa quotes Rosoboronexport chief Sergei Chemezov as saying that “Practically all types of arms which we have are included, anti-missile systems, aviation, sea and land technology.” Reports regarding the exact composition of the deal vary, and many don’t add up when measured against a $7.5 billion total. DID has found reports that seems closer to the mark based on the package’s value, however, and the structure of the deal itself and Algeria’s past pattern of arms acquisitions are highly consequential and so worth discussing.

So, too, are recent developments, as Algeria’s complaints over weapon quality are causing something almost unheard-of in the global arms market: a refund request. The rumors are flying. What’s going on? Could a large chunk of Russia’s arms order book be in jeopardy? What’s really behind it? And how does this tie in to larger industrial issues for Russia’s arms industry, as shown in contracts like the Gorshkov carrier refit? DID explains, as the MiG-29 deal crashes, and the ripple effects begin stalling other elements of the arms package…

• Detailing the Deal: The Algerian Package [updated]
• Structuring the Deal: Anatomy of a Euro Squeeze Play
• Updates & Developments [updated]
• Appendix A: Algeria’s Appetite for Advanced Arms
• Appendix B: Russia’s Arms Industry Woes
• Appendix C: Additional Readings [updated]
  
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RB 57 NLAW
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The Soviet tank threat may be history for now, but missiles that can attack moving trucks, armored vehicles, and bunkers remain in demand. This is especially true in urban situations, where the ability to fire a rocket or missile safely from inside an enclosed space is a very important plus.

In 2000, the UK Ministry of Defence carried out a series of trials to evaluate missiles for their “NLAW” program. In the summer of 2002, the Saab/Thales MBT-LAW team beat the Predator/Kestrel system from Lockheed Martin, MBDA and Insys. The Swedish FMV and British Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) followed by ordering final development of the RB 57 NLAW for the United Kingdom and Sweden. Assembly will take place at Thales Air Defence in Belfast.

Saab Bofors Dynamics of Sweden and Thales Air Defence in the UK have a marketing agreement that lets customers buy the system from Saab Bofors Dynamics or Thales Air Defence – and now Saab as added another customer to the list, while expanding the Swedish order…

• The RB57 NLAW/ MBT-LAW
• Contracts and Key Developments
• Additional Information & Sources
  
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Tiger HAP & HAC
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A formal contract concerning an HAD version of Eurocopter’s Tiger scout/ attack helicopter was recently signed in Bonn, Germany between Eurocopter Tiger and OCCAR, a French/European organization for armament cooperation. This agreement supersedes the official launch ITP for the multi-role HAD (Helicoptere Appui Destruction) version of the Tiger, signed on December 8th, 2004 by France and Spain. It also set out initial procurement numbers for Spain. This was followed by the French DGA’s official announcement re: the restructuring of its own 80 helicopter order.

Eurocopter’s Tiger had always had a very odd setup in that it came in two seemingly incomplete versions (HAP and HAC/UHT), severely limiting its flexibility. The new Tiger HAD variant helps to rectify this, and has entered a new stage thanks to testing, and ancillary weapons orders from France and Spain…

• Tiger Species: HAP, HAC-UHT, ARH, and HAD [updated]
• Contracts & Related Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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Tiger HAD w. Spike
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The Spike missile family is designed around 2 key principles: low life cycle cost, and simple but reliable operation. Low life cycle cost comes from keeping prices down for all components by using “good enough” solutions that offer high quality without gold plating. The high-end option of integrated training as part of the system is included, however, because it improves the system’s cost profile over its entire lifetime. While Spike is less capable in some ways than high-end missiles like the Javelin, it’s also far more affordable, and hence useful as a more readily available fire-support option. The 2006 Lebanon war saw guided anti-armor missiles employed as a substitute for artillery, a role in which even very old designs like the AT-3 proved highly useful.

In Spain, 2007 was the Year of the Spike. January 2007, Spain chose Spike-LR as the next-generation anti-armor missile to equip its army and marines, as the RAFAEL/ General Dynamics partnership beat MBDA’s Milan-ER and the Raytheon/Lockheed Javelin. In December 2007, Spain bookended its earlier commitment with approval for the larger Spike-ER to equip its helicopter force – and that contract is now signed and detailed…

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Leo2 fires Lahat -
time-lapse photo
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Ever since anti-tank missiles proved their lethality on the battlefield, designers and officers have wanted to create tank rounds that could act like guided missiles. The pursuit hasn’t always gone well. The force created by a tank gun’s firing isn’t very hospitable to delicate electronics, which has resulted in some prominent failures. The M551 Sheridan light tank and its MGM-51 Shillelagh missile, for instance, became a negative example to the industry as a whole during its brief career in the 1960/70s.

Electronics have moved on since then, however, and advances in electronics’ size and composition are beginning to make the concept thinkable once more. Israel’s laser-homing Lahat missile equips some Merkava tanks, will reportedly equip India’s new Arjun tanks, and has been qualified for use with the Leopard 2 tank family. It can be fired from missile launchers, and also offers 105mm or 120mm tank guns a range boost to 8km, the ability to kill heavily protected tanks from the top, and effectiveness against slow flying aerial targets like helicopters and UAVs. Russia’s shorter-range 9M119M Refleks (NATO designation AT-11 Sniper) round is also available on the market, to equip late-model Russian and Chinese tanks.

XM1111 MRM-CE
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The USA’s 160+ billion Future Combat Systems program aims to revive the light tank with its Mounted Combat System variant of its MGS tracked vehicle family. It won’t have the M1 Abrams’ armor protection, and its light 120mm gun won’t have that tank’s firepower punch, either – unless a guided round can even the odds, and give it beyond line-of-sight capabilities. Enter the XM1111 Mid-Range Munition…

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TOW-2A cutaway
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The TOW 2A is an improved version of the original Tube-launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided missile that’s designed for “bunker busting” attacks on fortifications, bunkers and urban structures. It can also defeat reactive armor if used against tanks et. al. The TOW 2A has a range of 3,750m.

The TOW 2B, meanwhile, features a dual-mode sensor and a new armament section equipped with 2 warheads substantially different from those used in other TOW versions. Earlier TOWs are direct-attack missiles with nose-mounted warheads that fire forward. The TOW 2B is designed to fly over the top of a tank and destroy it from above, where it is less heavily armored, by simultaneously detonating the missile’s two Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) warheads downward. The fly-over shoot-down flight profile also permits the attack of targets in defilade, or protected by berms or other fortifications. TOW 2B resembles the TOW 2A, with a 6-inch diameter warhead section in front, but without the standoff probe.

TOW w. ITAS sensors
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TOW RF variants add a new wireless radio frequency command data link, rather than the wire connection that the anti-armor missile has used since it was introduced more than 30 years ago. Canada was the first TOW2 RF export customer, but Israel has also requested the missiles. Now Kuwait has added its own request, which follows up on a 2005 DSCA request for TOW-2A and TOW-2B missiles….

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MBDA Meteor
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As part of its Defense Industrial Strategy, the UK looked at the missile sector in 2007 and concluded that a 50% reduction in “complex weapons” funding was expected over the next 5 years. In response, they set up a joint MOD-industry team, including MBDA (UK), Thales, BAES Underwater Systems Ltd and QinetiQ; and talked to lower tier suppliers such as Roxel, SELEX and Ultra. When the song and dance ended, Raytheon was left without a seat, as “Team Complex Weapons” (MBDA UK, Thales, Roxel, and QinetiQ) was set up to provide for the UK’s future needs. A GBP 500+ million contract for a Loitering Munition Demonstration and Manufacture program would follow, conditionally single-sourced to Team CW.

As a next step, Britain and France have launched a multi-million pound Innovation and Technology Partnership (ITP) focused on materials and components for missiles. The ITP will be jointly funded by the British and French governments and an industry and academic consortium led by arms company MBDA. Total funding is expected to be GBP 10.3 million (about $23.5 million): GBP 2.5 million from the UK MoD, GBP 2.65 million equivalent from the French DGA Armament Procurement Agency, plus matching contributions from industry over the ITP’s 3 year period. In the words of the UK MoD release:

“The ITP has been set up to fulfil joint research needs of UK and France for missile technology, identifying common capability and technology needs and examining emerging technologies for future equipment. The ITP aims to consolidate a future European guided weapon capability by building the technological base and allowing a better understanding of common future needs, and prepare for future cooperative programmes.”