DID would like to wish all of our readers a Happy New Year!

• So, what milestones does India’s Ministry of Defence want to highlight from 2011?

• Dynamint Nobel is still working on its classic Panzerfaust, whose modern versions have proven quite popular. The lightweight versions are strong urban warfare weapons, and the next step is integrating them with remote weapons stations for roles like harbor defense.

• Switchblade UAVs to launch from subs? While they could retain their kamikaze capabilities, the reality is that sub-launched UAVs are going to be 1-shot items at first. Why not adapt an existing UAV designed for that?

• InnoCentive offers a $15,000 reward for a concept or design of a medical transportation device that would enable a rescuer to quickly and safely transport an injured person away from an active combat site.

• Range remains a significant challenge for nonlethal weapons.

• Aviation Week Intelligence Network really doubts that the US Navy will be able to keep its resolutions about fielding modernized DDG-51 Flight III destroyers. Worse, operations and maintenance costs are going to be a problem for the existing fleet. Meanwhile Walter Pincus is challenging the Navy’s numbers and Bloomberg View bemoans how LCS has turned out so far.

• At least the US Navy is not facing a fire on one of its nuclear submarines, unlike its Russian counterpart yesterday.

• Thursday was not a good day for the Russian military since they also had a Su-24 crash. These crashes have happened like clockwork over the years [in Russian]. Nobody died in either incident yesterday though some people appear to have been injured in the submarine fire.

• Yet another cybersecurity acquisition for Raytheon: Henggeler Computer Consultants, Inc. It’s the 2nd this month and the 10th in the last 4 years.

Canberra concept

Program update. (Dec 13/11)

In May of 2006 the Royal Australian Navy announced its decision to expand its naval expeditionary capabilities. HMAS Manoora and Kanimbla would be replaced with substantially larger and more capable modern designs, featuring strong air support. Navantia and Tenix offered a 27,000t LHD design that resembled the Strategic Projection Ship (Buque de Proyeccion Estrategica) under construction for the Spanish Navy. The DCNS-Thales Australia team, meanwhile, proposed a variation of the 21,300t Mistral Class that is serving successfully with the French Navy.

Navantia’s larger design eventually won, giving the Spanish firm an A$11 billion clean sweep of Australia’s “Air Warfare Destroyer” and LHD programs. These 5 ships will be the core of Australia’s future surface navy. The LHDs will be able to serve as amphibious landing ships, helicopter carriers, floating HQs and medical facilities for humanitarian assistance, and launching pads for UAVs or even short/vertical takeoff fighters…

• Winner: The Navantia-Tenix LHD
• Program & Construction Plans [updated]
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings [updated]
  Continue Reading… »

PB-301, Umm Qasr

6th ship delivered. (Sept 29/11)

Swiftships’ 35-meter coastal patrol boat (CPB) contracts are part of a larger program that’s also delivering spare parts, guns, ammunition, training, naval simulators and infrastructure to the Umm Qasr Naval Base in southern Iraq. That total program for the Iraqi Navy was the country’s 3rd largest foreign military sale case, according to the Pensacola Council of the Navy League’s Bullhorn newsletter. That’s probably an appropriate priority level, as Iraq seeks to monitor and protect its southern oil export infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the US Army Corps of Engineers is partnering with Iraq by managing a $53 million pier and seawall project. This set of projects in southern Iraq will provide the Iraqi Navy with new port facilities as it continues to expand its military naval capabilities – but in the end, it all comes down to boats on the water, manned by well trained crews. The Swiftships are currently the medium tier of those capabilities…

• Iraq’s Swiftships
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

Pandur II w. RCWS-30

Pandurs in Afghanistan; IAI provides RCWS-30 components. (May 18/11)

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 KBVP vehicles would replace Soviet-era OT-64 SKOT APCs, and would be produced in Austria and the Czech Republic.

In 2005 the contract included an option for 35 additional vehicles for a total of 234, and had 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 the deal into oblivion. Or so it seemed. Despite the economic crisis gripping Eastern Europe, the Czechs reinstated a scaled-down version of the deal in late February 2009.

• Selection and a Winner
• Pandur II Industrial Arrangements
• Contracts & Updates [updated]
• Additional Readings [updated]
  Continue Reading… »

Dingo 2, Afghanistan
(click to view larger)

39 more Dingo-2 GEs. (April 13/11)

Mine-resistant vehicles are emerging as a basic requirement for international deployments, and many advanced armies are making the shift. One of the quiet hotbeds for that trend has been Germany. They were an early adopter and fielder of mine-resistant vehicles, and appear to be building up KMW’s mine-resistant Dingo-2 as an important vehicle in their future force.

Meanwhile, German firms are innovating with new mine-resistant designs for a number of future roles, presaging the widespread hardening of the German Bundeswehr against land mine threats. The German Bundeswehr continues to buy the Dingos, as that process continues…

• The Dingo-2 Family
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

Patria AMV w. NEMO turret

Slovenia tries to cancel and is blocked – but they have a Plan B. (March 25/11)

On June 12/06, the Slovenian Ministry of Defence announced that Patria’s Armored Modular Vehicle (AMV) had been selected as the preferred vehicle for the its armored vehicle program. Patria notes that the order will include 135 wheeled armored personnel carriers in 4 different versions, including one variant with Patria’s new unmanned NEMO 120mm mortar turret. The deal had been negotiated at EUR 278 million (about $367 million), with deliveries to take place from 2007-2013.

An ongoing bribery investigation led to the resignation of Patria’s President and CEO. That investigation has become significant enough to be added to this article, especially now that it has resulted in a pair of arrests that include Patria’s former CEO – and led a new government to try and cancel the contract…

• The Slovenian Sale
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
  Continue Reading… »

Desert Chameleon

In mid-January 2011, Advanced Defense Vehicle Systems (ADVS) announced an initial delivery of their new 6×6 wheeled armored personnel carrier (APC) design to Kuwait’s Ministry of the Interior. The vehicle’s full size cannon may be unusual for policing forces, but it is not unusual for interior ministry troops around the world to use full-scale military equipment, and similar APC designs are already serving with police forces, including police forces in the USA.

There is no shortage of wheeled APC designs in the global marketplace, but Kuwait chose to develop its own, in conjunction with a new firm…

• ADVS, and the Desert Chameleon
• Contracts and Key Events
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

VBTP concept

Major 30mm unmanned turret order for Elbit. (Jan 6/11)

In December 2009, Brazil signed a EUR 2.5 billion deal with Italy’s Iveco that aims to renew its wheeled armored personnel carrier fleet, and revive Brazil’s land vehicle defense industry in the bargain. The 6×6 Guarani Viatura Blindada Transporte de Pessoal, Media de Rodas (VBTP-MR) is envisaged as a vehicle family that can replace Engesa’s EE-11 and EE-9 wheeled vehicles. Those platforms have suffered from age-related problems, questionable protection levels, and a shortage of ready spares since Engesa’s 1993 bankruptcy.

Iveco is best known around the world for its trucks, but its Iveco Fiat Oto Melara joint venture has designed and fielded the core of Italy’s tank, wheeled APC, and tracked IFV fleets. The firm already has the new Puma wheeled 6×6/ 4×4 APC in its offering set, but the VBTP will offer them a new market, a new joint venture, and new export opportunities…

• VBTP: The Need
• VBTP Guarani: The Vehicles
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

Eagle IV w. RWS

Another 195 vehicles. (Dec 20/10)

The German Bundeswehr’s GFF program plans to replace the core of its wheeled and light tracked combat vehicle fleet with entries from 4 categories: the lightweight 5.3-tonne GFF 1, the 7.5-tonne GFF 2, the 12.5-tonne GFF 3 and a 25-tonne GFF 4 all-terrain utility vehicle.

In November 2008, General Dynamics’ Swiss MOWAG subsidiary announced that its Eagle IV wheeled vehicles had come out on top in one of Germany’s GFF Klasse 2 competitions for “protected Command and Function vehicles.” GFF Klasse 2 reportedly comprises over 5,000 vehicles, to go with an already-awarded contract for the Bv206S tracked all terrain vehicle from BAE and Rheinmetall. This GD MOWAG contract would be followed by additional orders…

• Australia details of A$ 1.1 billion in multi-year plans for equipment to protect deployed soldiers.

• Frost & Sullivan: Military demand for satellite capacity contributes to industry’s resurgence.

• As the military and intelligence turn to the web and wikis, scientists wonder: what effect does that have on brain activity and comprehension?

• HMAS Dechaineux returns to service, doubling Australia’s operational submarine fleet.

• Australian troops to get new “Tiered Body Armour System” soon.

• Software glitch highlights US military’s heavy reliance on GPS-based navigation systems used in weapons and vehicles, a reliance that could make these systems vulnerable to disruption, warns defense expert.

• A murder of CROWS: EOS, Northrop Grumman look to dethrone Kongsberg in coming CROWS-3 competition.

• US Marines train with Romanian troops using non-lethal weapons such as pepper spray and Tasers.

• USJFCOM meeting grapples with radiofrequency spectrum management issues posed by proliferation of UAVs.