Americas
* Northrop Grumman has landed a $108 million Navy contract to provide 10 MQ-8C Fire Scout drones. The unmanned system provides intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, target acquisition, laser designation, and battle management and can operate from any air-capable ship or land base. Delivery of the new systems will be completed by August 2019.
* The USAF has established a set of weapon system baselines to accelerate export approvals for select countries in an effort to help trim their bureaucratic foreign military sales process. Each baseline establishes which countries are approved for certain technologies or weapons, as well as a list of technologies the US refuses to export. The reform comes as a proactive approach on FMS, especially as the US develops new radar technology that could be useful to allies.
Middle East & North Africa
* Katmerciler Ekipman, a Turkish firm which holds sway in the country’s provision of water cannons and anti-riot vehicles, is moving into the armored-vehicles market. The company said that images broadcast worldwide of Turkish protesters fleeing the company’s anti-riot water cannon trucks helped generate business for the Izmir-based company in nations from Brazil to Libya that face social unrest. Now the company plans to produce 1,500 armored personnel carriers and 500 armored weapon carriers annually at its production unit in Izmir and has just started another production unit in Ankara that will produce 1,000 armored vehicles annually.
Europe
* Russia’s Army 2016 International Military and Technical Forum saw the debut of Concern Kalashnikov’s new VSV-338 high-precision sniper rifle. The company claims that the modular long-range sniper rifle is all-weather and is accurate to a range of about 4,900 feet. Also unveiled was a prototype of their SVK semi-automatic sniper rifle, which contains two modifications: one uses the standard Russian 7.62x54R cartridges, while the other uses the world’s most common cartridges, the NATO standard 7.62×51.
Asia Pacific
* Russian Helicopters have won contracts to provide support services for the Thai and Indonesian air forces. The Indonesian contract involves the supply rotor blade sets for their fleets of Mi-35P helicopters while the Thai contract will see the company supply aviation inventory for the Mi-17V-5 helicopters operated by that force, including lifting rotor and anti-torque rotor sets. As a result of the deals, both air forces will now receive a steady flow of Russian parts.
* BAE Systems is to provide the Royal Australian Navy an improved anti-ship missile test capability in a deal worth $25.5 million. The deal will see the provision of a Future Advanced Threat Simulator (FATS) system suite, an airborne radar that closely emulates the in-flight behavior of a range of anti-ship missiles. FATS is capable of simulating the flight profile of a sea-skimming anti-ship missile while also closely emulating the behavior of the missile’s seeker.
* Elbit Systems has won a $90 million contract from an Asia-Pacific country for the supply of advanced electro-optic systems. The Israeli firm said the systems will be delivered over the next four years. Spectro XR is an ultra-long-range, day/night electro-optical system. Its fully digital sensors and lasers can be installed on a variety of platforms including rotary and fixed-wing airborne platforms, aerostats, naval vessels and land applications.
* South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has warned of the imminent threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. Tensions have been escalating since the North’s fifth nuclear test last week and promises of more to come. Whether or not it will come any time soon, any attempts to deescalate the situation have been ineffective.
Today’s Video
Turkey’s first female squadron commander:
