Bofors Archer system

BAE Systems Bofors’ Archer is a light, air-portable, and highly automated 155/52 light mobile artillery system. Archer began as a Swedish project, administered by their FMV procurement agency. Funding was provided for system development and some initial production, but the project’s future had been shadowed by anemic Swedish defense budgets.

In May 2007, however, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Norway’s FLO procurement agency, which evolved into a joint production venture. Now, initial production orders have moved the Archer system from concept to imminent reality.

Buffalo, arrivé

The French DGA procurement agency recently announced [in French] that its 2009 urgences operations (UO, formerly “crash programs”) budget doubled from EUR 131 million in 2008 to EUR 260 million in 2009. This change is in line with a broader international trend, as front-line operations in Afghanistan and beyond reveal limitations in existing equipment, as well as new equipment needs. One change from 2008 was an increased emphasis on naval systems, as 4 of 36 UO programs focused on counter-piracy efforts.

Key 2009 programs included 32 armoring kits for France’s Puma and Cougar medium helicopters, 200 vehicle up-armoring kits, 150 IED jammers, 5 Buffalo mine-clearing vehicles, 60 RWS remote-control turrets for vehicles, The Venus project for on-the-move communication with the Syracuse satellite system, 10 SATCOM on-the-move stations, integration of America’s Remote Operational Video Enhanced Receiver (ROVER) ground-to-air communications into 25 Mirage 2000 fighters, and retrofitted IRST optical systems for existing French frigates that allow long-range passive scans, and identification of even small naval targets like pirate vessels.

HITROLE Light
(click to view larger)

Finmeccanica subsidiary Oto Melara and the Italian Ministry of Defense recently signed a sole-source EUR 20 million (currently $29.7 million) contract to acquire 81 HITROLE Light turrets for Italy’s Light Multirole Vehicles (LMV, or Lince). The Linces have served well in Afghanistan, using their blast protection to save lives during land mine attacks. The first HITROLE turret will be delivered for operational testing in about 4 months, with most delivered by the second half of 2010.

Small Remote Weapon Systems (RWS) offer a package of advanced sensors, as well as a 7.62mm or 12.7mm/ .50 caliber machine gun, or a 40mm grenade launcher, all controlled from inside the vehicle, using a joystick and screen. While their field of view is narrower than an exposed human’s, and they do not transmit auditory cues, they do offer long-range day and night surveillance, and protected firepower that is not vulnerable to snipers. Some high-end systems are even stabilized to ensure accurate fire from moving vehicles, though HITROLE does not appear to have this capability. American CROWS/ CROWS-II systems on its Humvee jeeps, many MRAPs, Stryker APCs, and M1A1 TUSK tanks offer just one example of growing RWS usage by armies who are increasingly forced to fight in complex terrain and urban areas. Italy has ordered 1,286 Lince blast-resistant vehicles as of June 2009, however, so 81 RWS systems aren’t – yet – a fleet-wide contract like CROWS.

Dutch Bushmasters’
first Afghan patrol

Despite ongoing US procurement of M1151/M1152 Hummers, the retreat from Jeep-like vehicles is accelerating among Western militaries. Insufficiently protected against land mine threats in modern conflict zones, and insufficiently protectable due to inherent design limitations, conventional vehicles like G-Wagens, Land Rovers, and HMMWVs are being replaced in manufacturer lineups and military acquisitions by more protectable truck-based models, or by dedicated mine-resistant patrol vehicles. A wide array of countries are buying these vehicles for the first time. Meanwhile, nations that were ahead of the curve continue to add to their stocks.

ISAF, S. Afghanistan

Australia’s move to more than double its original order of 300 Thales-ADI’s Bushmaster IMVs, which have proven themselves with Australian forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, offers ample evidence of the seriousness with which they view the global trend toward IED land mines in conflict zones. First-time buyer The Netherlands has also adopted the Bushmaster, to strengthen its own Afghan force.

The Dutch move to field mine-resistant vehicles was concluded in close cooperation with 2 friendly foreign governments, and it has just placed its 6th order…

• The International Trend [NEW]
• The Dutch Decision
• 3 Governments in a Cooperative Effort
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

Iveco LMV

Austria has been a neutral power since World War 2, but contingents from its small armed forces are sometimes made available for international deployment. The growing realization that blast resistant vehicles are an essential piece of equipment in any combat zone appears to have finally reached Austria’s priority list, spawning a EUR 104 million (about $138 million) contract for 150 “protected multipurpose vehicles.”

In January 2009, Austria made its vehicle choice. Now, it has made its weapon choice…

Dutch G-Wagen, XA-188 APC

The Netherlands’ Ministerie van Defensie has announced a EUR 250+ million project to replace nearly 8,000 light, medium and heavy wheeled logistics and patrol vehicles between 2011-2018. This will not include tactical vehicles such as the Landmacht’s Fennek reconnaissance vehicles, CV90/ YPR/ BvS10 armored personnel carriers, tanks, et. al., but it will replace a significant percentage of the Dutch patrol vehicle and truck fleet.

The project is looking to acquire 7,018 vehicles (including civilian vehicles) plus 3,617 modules, trailers et. al. to adapt the vehicles for specific tasks. The project also expects to order 1,020 modular protection kits, 120 Remotely controlled weapon systems and 1,260 gun mountings.

The accompanying briefing states that the operational vehicles, as opposed to vehicles bought under this program for civilian/domestic use, should be able to operate in the upper levels of the violence/war spectrum. This includes the option of modular add-on protection that can be changed as threat levels from projectiles, shrapnel, land mines, et. al. The mounting of electronic jammers to defeat remotely-detonated IED land mines is also contemplated, and the vehicles should be able to operate in extreme high and low temperature conditions.

The ‘light freight/cargo vehicle’ should be CH-47 transportable, either in the helicopter or underslung, as well as C-130 transportable. All of the operational vehicle types should be transportable in the C-17, AN-124 and A-400M, as well as with the country’s Rotterdam Class LPD ships, by civilian transport vessels and by train. Operational life should be at least 2 years, with a total lifespan of 10-15 years. MvD announcement [Dutch language] | Many thanks to DID subscriber David Vandenberghe for his translation assistance.

MV-22 Osprey

Every once in a while, a defense-related controversy becomes large enough to hit mainstream news outlets. Making the cover of TIME Magazine is often a good sign for world leaders, but it’s almost always a very bad sign for military programs. Especially a program that is just making its combat debut. TIME’s Oct 8/07 cover story “V-22 Osprey: A Flying Shame” pulls few punches:

“The saga of the V-22 – the battles over its future on Capitol Hill, a performance record that is spotty at best, a long, determined quest by the Marines to get what they wanted – demonstrates how Washington works (or, rather, doesn’t). It exposes the compromises that are made when narrow interests collide with common sense. It is a tale that shows how the system fails at its most significant task, by placing in jeopardy those we count on to protect us. For even at a stratospheric price, the V-22 is going into combat shorthanded. As a result of decisions the Marine Corps made over the past decade, the aircraft lacks a heavy-duty, forward-mounted machine gun to lay down suppressing fire against forces that will surely try to shoot it down. And if the plane’s two engines are disabled by enemy fire or mechanical trouble while it’s hovering, the V-22 lacks a helicopter’s ability to coast roughly to the ground – something that often saved lives in Vietnam. In 2002 the Marines abandoned the requirement that the planes be capable of autorotating (as the maneuver is called), with unpowered but spinning helicopter blades slowly letting the aircraft land safely. That decision, a top Pentagon aviation consultant wrote in a confidential 2003 report obtained by TIME, is “unconscionable” for a wartime aircraft. “When everything goes wrong, as it often does in a combat environment,” he said, “autorotation is all a helicopter pilot has to save his and his passengers’ lives.”

Recent developments are about to address one of these concerns, but TIME has hardly been the Osprey’s only critic, or the most thorough. That distinction probably belongs to a report published by the left-wing Center for Defense Information, which makes a number of very specific allegations re: the V-22’s technical and testing failings:

• The V-22: Controversy, Turrets & the CDI Report
• Key Allegations & Excerpts [updated]. Includes sections covering Firepower, Flight control, Performance, Reliability & maintainability, and Survivability.
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

Militaries around the world are moving to modernize and transform themselves to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Our mission is to deliver a regular cross-section of relevant, on-target stories, news, and analysis that will help experts and interested laypeople alike stay up to speed on key military developments and issues. Stories are broken down by military category and presented as fast bullet points that orient you quickly, with accompanying links if you wish to pursue more in-depth treatments.

Some of This Month’s Targets of Opportunity Include: Aging aircraft; F-22; F-35; India’s big fighter contest; 2018 bomber; Next-gen gunships; Japan’s stealth aircraft; JCA – just confusing; Poseidon down under; Boeing’s invisibility man; Odd new satellite; unmanned fighters & swarms; Cell phones & Patriots; Huge IT contracts; DARPA’s Deep Green; Lots of MRAP; FCS spinouts; Fire Ball; Better body armor; Australia’s new fleet; Korea: us too!; Britain’s new carriers; US Navy’s new bills; Russia’s stealthy Stereguschiy; Remote firefighting; Coast Guard cutters; ADVENT of breakthrough jet engines; $1M wearable power prize; Sub-finding ‘shark’; UK’s Grand Challenge & flying saucers; Boeing’s new plane design; DARPA’s robot dog; New Russian nukes; Britain’s new maintenance concept works; Israel prepares; Counter-insurgency air needs; Export controls and their blowback; CSAR-X: rescue me!; And much, much more:

• Air & Space Sector
• C4SI Dimension
• Land Sector
• Maritime Sector
• R&D: Far Out Concepts
• Strategic Weapons & Missile Defense
• Supply & Support
• Policy & Doctrine

This briefing comes from a team that includes professional publications Defense Industry Daily and The Aviation Week Group, and covers events over the summer season.

M93 Fox

General Dynamics Land Systems Inc. in Sterling Heights, MI received a $56.5 million modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to upgrade 18 Fox Nuclear Biological Chemical Reconnaissance System (NBC-RS) Vehicles from M93 (14) and M93A1 (4) Configurations to M93A1P1. Work will be performed in Sterling Heights, MI; Anniston, AL; Lima, OH; and Germany and is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2009. This was a sole source contract initiated on April 24, 2007 by the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (DAAM01-96-C-0028). General Dynamics release.

The amphibious Fox (Fuchs) vehicle is actually a German design, first fielded in 1979 by a firm that became part of Rheinmetall Landsysteme. The NBC-RS variant, or Spurfuchs in German, has become popular with a number of countries, and is in service with the US Army and Marines. The wedge-shaped cover over the rear door is a key identifier, and all M93 NBS-RS variants have an over-pressure filtration system that permits the crew to operate in a fully protected environment.

Fox in Husseiniyah

The upgraded M93A1 reduces the crew complement from 4 to 3, and contains an enhanced NBC sensor suite consisting of the M21 Remote Sensing Chemical Agent Alarm (RSCAAL), MM1 Mobile Mass Spectrometer, Chemical Agent Monitor/Improved Chemical Agent Monitor (CAM/ICAM), AN/VDR-2 Beta Radiac, and M22 Automatic Chemical Agent Detector/Alarm (ACADA). The NBC sensor suite has been digitally linked with the communications and navigation subsystems by a dual-purpose central processor system known as the Multipurpose Integrated Chemical Agent Detector (MICAD), which fully automates NBC warning and reporting to other units and integrates with the vehicles Global Positioning System [GPS] and Autonomous Navigation System. The M93A1P1 is the most up-to-date configuration and features a survivability improvement package that includes slat armor, improved protection against land mines, and firepower improvements via the CROWS remote-controlled weapon station.

M1134 Stryker

The Canadian Department of National Defence has awarded Genertal Dynamics Land Systems – Canada a C$ 49.2 million (about $46.3 million) contract to take 33 of the 71 LAV-III chassis originally manufactured under a previous contract for LAV-III TOW Under Armour (TUA) vehicles, and use them as infantry carriers, instead of inegrating the Kvaerner TUA turret from older M113s. GDLS Canada will oversee the LAV-III TUAV conversion and act as the lead integrator. Rheinmetall Canada of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, will supply the Remote Weapon Station, which will feature a universal gun cradle capable of mounting 5.56, 7.62 and 12.7 mm armaments and a cooled thermal sight system. Delivery of the converted Infantry Section Carriers will occur from June 2008 – March 2009. GDLS release.