ASTROS 2020 MLRS: Brazil Moves to Revive Avibras

Saudi ASTROS-II

At the end of August 2011, Brazil’s Ministerio da Defesa announced the beginning of a BRL 1.09 billion (about $685 million) project to update Avibras’ ASTROS (Artillery SaTuration ROcket System) multiple rocket launcher system to the ASTROS 2020 configuration. It will also develop a GPS-guided short-range rocket, and an AV-TM300 missile option that gives the new system a 300 km strike range. That level of reach would stand out in the global market, as it would rival the USA’s MLRS(Multiple Launch Rocket System)/ATACMS(Army Tactical Missile System) combination.

The initial funding amounts belie the importance of this program, on 2 levels. One source of importance is industrial. The other is ASTROS 2020′s status as an indicator, pointing the way toward the future spread of advanced precision strike technologies.

US Modernizing its FPS-117 Surveillance Radars

Early brochure

The L-band, solid-state, 3-D AN/FPS-117 remains a very popular air surveillance radar around the globe, and can support both military and civilian functions. They’re designed for relatively good range and minimal maintenance, even in extremely harsh environments like northern Alaska and Greenland.

Lockheed Martin MS2 Radar Systems in Liverpool, NY has long since taken over from GE as the contractor who makes and maintains them, while the Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, UT handles contracts, with a goal of maintaining current system coverage until 2025…

Rapid Fire Dec. 17, 2013: Projected Defense Purchases by US State (Sans Sequestration)

• The US DOD’s Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) released the 2012 update to the DEPPS dataset [PDF] projecting defense purchases by state and industry for 2011-2017 (calendar years). These expenditure estimates reflect the FYDP(Future Years Defense Program) as of the February 2012 President budget so they do not include sequestration and thus may soon prove to be too optimistic.

• The GAO reviews progress made by the Pentagon in implementing the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 that led to the creation of a bunch of new offices: CAPE, Systems Engineering (SE), Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E), and Performance Assessments and Root Cause Analyses (PARCA). DOD has implemented that legislation for the most part, but input does not necessarily translate into output and for the GAO “it is too early to tell if the Reform Act is going to result in systemic change to DOD’s weapon acquisition process.”

• The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei has a report on the state of Taiwan’s defense that underlines the asymmetric nature of their capabilities, as they cannot expect to keep up with the mainland’s level of spending.

• The Council of the European Union’s latest incantations express (again) their will to enhance the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. In typical fashion this will be achieved with another EU summit a year from now with little concrete to show for it.

• Patrick Boissier, president of DCNS, is calling for [in French] rationalization of European naval programs, and between the lines, for a consolidation of suppliers on the continent: “Europeans can no longer afford the luxury of developing in parallel 6 frigate programs, 4 submarine programs and 3 torpedo programs.”

• In the same testimony to the French lower chamber, Boissier underlines how naval programs have turned into massive software projects. The Combat Management System on FREMM frigates weights 25 million lines of code, about the same scale as TCSE and other naval software used on US Zumwalt destroyers, almost 3 times the amount of code developed for F-35s, or an order of magnitude more than on a Rafale.

• Researchers from Cornell University present a quantum-secured imaging system that “uses a photon’s position or time-of-flight information to image an object, while using the photon’s polarization for security. This ability allows us to obtain an image which is secure against an attack in which the object being imaged intercepts and resends the imaging photons with modified information. [...] In order to jam our imaging system, the object must disturb the delicate quantum state of the imaging photons, thus introducing statistical errors that reveal its activity.”