MALE Performance Enhancement: Piaggio’s P.1HH Hammerhead UAV

At present, the USA and Israel have strong global leads in the UAV field, especially in the area of plane-sized Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) class or larger machines. That lead is eroding quickly, however, as new countries and firms decide that UAVs offer a useful niche with manageable development costs.

Poor US policy is also helping to drive this trend, and the new P.1HH “Hammerhead” UAV is a classic example. Italy is likely to become the initial customer for this high-performance UAV, but the platform itself and the Italian firm that makes it have strong connections to the UAE…

Hydra, Awakened: Guided Air-Ground Rockets

Sen. Leahy’s [D-VT] worked in the mid-2000s to keep the Hydra 70mm rocket family alive through special appropriations, just in time for the Hydras’ potential on the battlefield to rise again. The key was the addition of low-cost precision guidance, which would expand the number of precision weapons carried by helicopters, aircraft, and even UAVs.

Over the last few years, the US Army’s 2nd attempt at an APKWS 70mm guided rocket had a near-death experience, before righting the program with Navy funding. Meanwhile, private development efforts are introducing new competitors into the precision-guided rocket space: Lockheed Martin, Thales TDA, and a raft of international partnerships involving major defense firms and partners in Korea, the UAE, Canada/Norway, and Israel. This DID FOCUS article covers the most prominent competitors within the guided rocket trend. Their products will sit between full anti-armor missiles like Hellfire, TOW, and Brimstone, and an emerging class of ultra-small precision attack weapons like Northrop Grumman’s Viper Strike, Raytheon’s Griffin, etc.

All Over Again: Egypt Looks Beyond the USA for New Arms

M1: 2011 Revolution

For most of the Cold War, Egypt’s military was a Soviet client. Every war with Israel was fought with weapons that were predominantly Russian. Russian pilots, air defense troops, and other specialists even fought in combat beside their Egyptian counterparts.

All that changed with the Camp David accords. Egypt slowly flipped, as the flood of American military aid dollars soon translated into a military whose high-end equipment was predominantly American.

Now, hostility from the current US administration after the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power in Egypt is changing the relationship again. Egypt is looking beyond the USA for equipment, and the Russians are seizing an opportunity to begin bringing Egypt back into the fold. The Egyptian military’s stocks haven’t wholly been purged of Russian equipment, either, which adds plausibility to the idea. Is Egypt about to flip again? And who else is in the mix?

UAE Orders AMV IFVs

AMV at IDEX

Patria recently announced a deal with the United Arab Emirates to buy its Armored Modular Vehicle 8×8 wheeled armored personnel carriers. The Finnish vehicle offers a strong mix of features, and is the only vehicle of its class to submit to and pass the South African ARMSCOR’s mine resistance tests. Variants include an armored personnel carrier (APC), up-gunned infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), AMOS heavy mortar system, command post, workshop and battlefield ambulance. Defense Aerospace reports that all substantive information re: numbers, types, delivery dates, et. al. is being kept private at the customer’s request. Reports indicate that the UAE’s Bin Jabr Group will support the vehicle in-country, and that local production in the U.A.E. is being studied as a supplement to production in Finland.

Rockets & Reach: UAE Doubles Down on HIMARS, ATACMS

M142 HIMARS

In September 2006, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced the United Arab Emirates official request High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (M142 HIMARS) as well as associated equipment that included GPS-guided missiles with a 300 km reach.

Subsequent years have seen that request fulfilled, and additional requests have been placed for rocket, missiles, and now a second set of HIMARS systems…

The UAE’s Falcon Eye Satellites: Quis custodiet?

Pleiades 1B

The United Arab Emirates’ AED 3.4 billion (EUR 703 million/ $925 million) “Falcon Eye” optical observation satellites are meant to provide a wholly new capability to their military by 2018, and represented the most advanced optics France had ever sold to another country. France’s CNES cites 0.7m / 2′ 4″ spatial resolution for the Pleiades Class at nadir, and a field of view of 20 km. EADS DS/ Astrium touts up to 100 km x 100 km in strip mapping mode.

The deal has had a rough road lately, and is currently hung up in re-negotiations…

AMMROC to Maintain UAE’s Entire Air Fleet Under a PBL Contract

Performance-Based Logistics has become a way of life in Britain’s military, and has also been adopted for some programs in the USA, Canada, France, and other countries. Now, a $5.8 billion contract will add the UAE to that list, and support every aircraft and helicopter in the UAE’s armed forces: Air Force, Army, Navy, Special forces, and the Presidential Guard.

UAE Upgrading Its Air Defenses With GM200 Radars

GM200 radar

In July 2013, reports announced that the United Arab Emirates had just bought 17 mobile Ground Master 200 medium range radars. The GM200 is a useful air defense radar, but all radars of this type are most useful as part of a larger network. Fortunately, the UAE has been making steady investments in that kind of network, and so the new radars will be plugging into an existing framework, rather than acting as a core to build around.

UAE Looking to Become a Regional C2 Leader

Saab S340-AEW

The 21st century has seen a quiet transformation of the UAE’s armed forces. Advanced AWACS airborne early warning planes and air and missile defense systems are just the outward signs of a push from a collection of purchased weapon systems, to an integrated defense force that can cope with the most modern threats.

Making that happen requires more than just planes, or missiles. It requires extensive back-end systems that help turn information from advanced radars and airborne surveillance into a coherent whole, and allow command staff to direct battles based on that information. DID explains the larger picture and where things stand now, as the UAE continues its strong Command, Control, Computing, & Communications (C4) push.

UAE Buys C-17s, Seeks Tactical Transports

UAE C-17: 1st delivery

The biggest news from the 2009 IDEX exhibition was the UAE’s twin selections of medium (12 Lockheed C-130J) and heavy (4 Boeing C-17) transport aircraft. Estimates at the time placed the total value at AED 10.7 billion (about $2.78 billion), but the estimates were low for the C-17, and would likely rise further if the C-130 order also goes through. The C-17 order later rose to a confirmed contract for 6 planes, and negotiations remain in progress for the C-130J-30 buy.

Given the country’s geographic position, and the global shortage of military airlift capacity outside of the United States, a force of this size and quality can be parlayed into international influence by supporting multi-national military deployments and humanitarian efforts from Africa to South Asia, and around the world.