Americas
L3Harris has announced that its new electronic warfare suite “Viper Shield” is nearing another major milestone ahead of planned production in 2025. Company official Anna Gragossian told Breaking Defense that the next program milestone will demonstrate the system’s ability to detect enemy radar activities, helping military pilots evade threats. The demonstration is expected to take place in December this year.
The Canadian military’s acquisition of medium altitude armed drones is being delayed to allow for more development work to enable the aircraft to operate in the Arctic region. The Remotely Piloted Aircraft System project was to deliver a fleet of drones for the Royal Canadian Air Force that would be operational by 2025. That date has now shifted and the delivery of the first aircraft is expected in 2028. Ottawa is focused on acquiring the General Atomics MQ-9B Reaper in a project budgeted with as much as $3.6 billion. It’s hoping to have a contract in place by the end of this year or early next year.
Middle East & Africa
According to Military Africa, Morocco has been facing challenges in modernizing its main battle tank fleet due to the unintended consequences of conflicts taking place in various parts of the world. Morocco’s plans to acquire Merkava MK3 tanks from Israel, M1A1 Abrams tanks from the United States, and T-72M tanks from the Czech Republic have all been hindered by the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Europe
The Romanian government has solicited bids from defense manufacturers for short-range air defense systems at a cost of up to $2.1 billion, setting up a race between between French and Israeli suppliers with longstanding ties to the European country. Per a tender notice published by the Romanian Ministry of Defense earlier this month, the country is seeking so-called short-range air defense and very short-range air defense systems, known, respectively, by the acronyms of SHORAD and VSHORAD.
Asia-Pacific
North Korea is restoring front-line guard posts that it had dismantled during a previous period of inter-Korean rapprochement, South Korea’s military said Monday, after animosities spiked between the rivals over the North’s recent spy satellite launch. The two Koreas previously dismantled or disarmed 11 of their guard posts inside their heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarized Zone, under a 2018 deal meant to ease front-line military confrontations. But the deal is now in danger of being scrapped as both Koreas openly threaten to breach it.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Australian Defense Force (ADF) conducted a joint air patrol over the South China Sea as part of their inaugural Maritime Cooperative Activity. The operation involved a fleet of aircraft, including the Philippine Air Force’s A29B Super Tucano and N-22 Nomad, the Philippine Navy’s BNI2A aircraft, and the ADF’s P-8 Poseidon Maritime Surveillance aircraft.
