The Australian government has approved the first stage of a $2 billion LHD Amphibious Ships project that will provide the Royal Australian Navy with two new multi-purpose ships that would have air support, amphibious assault, transport and command centre roles. They will replace the Navy’s two existing Kanimbla-Class LPAs (HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Manoora) from about 2010, significantly upgrading Australia’s force projection capabilities.
The government has now given first pass approval to the project and committed $29.8 million towards the Design Development Phase. The finalist ship designs include:
Earlier this month, DID covered changes in the USA military’s organizational structure around UAVs. A Joint UAV Center of Excellence is being established at Creech Air Force Base, NV, concentrating on UAV-systems technology, joint concepts, training, tactics, and procedural solutions to the warfighters’ needs across all services.
The U.S. Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, AL has now been designated as the new U.S. Army Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Center of Excellence, to serve an integrating hub for all 12 Army installations which currently have a UAV component. This will also create one Army voice to be able to represent UAVs at headquarters, to the joint centers of excellence, and to the joint structure.
The United States has concluded a deal to allow Japan to license produce Lockheed Martin’s Patriot PAC-3 surface-to-air missiles which will constitute the core of a joint missile defense system. The PAC-3 is the USA’s most modern ground-based air defense system.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that the two governments sealed a memorandum of understanding in March 2005 on the licensed production of Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) interceptor missiles, and Lockheed Martin Corp. is expected to sign a contract before March 2006 to license Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. for PAC-3 production. At the same time, Japan has also said that foreign export of such weapons may be considered under certain circumstances.
The Swiss cabinet has approved the sale of 180 armored personnel carriers to the United Arab Emirates, which will in turn present them to Iraq. The M113 “Gavin” Armored Personnel Carriers have a value of SFR 12 million (USD $9.4 million) and are part of a Swiss army surplus. They are in good condition. As DID has reported, they will join 77 refurbished T-72 tanks from Hungary as the Iraqis move to build up an armored division.
In order to support recent U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) policies “for the Unique Identification (UID) of Tangible Items” The Uniform Code Council, Inc. announced today that it has published the Guidelines for Application of EAN.UCC Unique Identification (UID) Markings to Items in the Supply Chain. The Uniform Code Council is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the development and implementation of standards-based global supply chain solutions, including the Universal Product Code (UPC) bar-coding system.
Four Canadians killed by U.S. friendly fire in Afghanistan were honoured by their American fellow soldiers of 187th Infantry Regiment. Amid the echoing strains of a lone bugler and the sharp report of a 21-gun salute, the men’s names were unveiled in a granite block, part of the 187th’s memorial to members who have died in conflicts dating back to the Second World War.
Sgt. Marc Leger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pte. Richard Green and Pte. Nathan Smith died April 18, 2002, when an American fighter pilot mistakenly dropped a bomb on Canadians who were conducting a night exercise near Kandahar, Afghanistan. The four men, who served alongside U.S. soldiers as part of Task Force Rakkasan, are the first non-Americans ever included on the memorial wall.
Under the Base Realignment And Closure (BRAC) process, the Secretary of Defense makes recommendations to a commission, nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate. The commission, after being confirmed by the Senate, reviews these recommendations and makes their own recommendations to the President. The President then reviews the recommendation, either sends those back to the commission for additional work or forwards them, without changes, to the Congress, and then the recommendations of the commission go into effect unless disapproved by a joint resolution of the Congress.
Singapore has dropped the Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet from a $1 billion-plus warplane order, narrowing the race to replace its locally-upgraded but aging fleet of A-4SU Super Skyhawk light attack aircraft (U.S. Sen. John McCain was flying an earlier variant of the A-4 Skyhawk when he was shot down over Vietnam). “The committed schedule for the delivery of the Typhoon and its systems did not meet the requirements of the Singapore Air Force,” said Singapore’s Ministry of Defence in a statement. This decision narrows the race for the pivotal Singapore contract to the French Dassault’s Rafale jet and Boeing Co.’s F-15.
Singapore is known globally as a sophisticated arms buyer, and its choice for its 20-plane order could influence other countries considering new fighters. The Singapore order is also pivotal because Boeing needs orders for the F-15 to ensure continued production, while Dassault and Eurofighter are hunting for their first export orders from beyond Europe. The Rafale has yet to win its first export order after Dassault lost out on orders from Norway (F-35 or Eurofighter), the Netherlands (F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) and South Korea (F-15K).
Lockheed Martin is delivering two significant upgrades of the military’s premier joint air battle management system to the U.S. Air Force. First deployed in October of 2000, Theater Battle Management Core Systems (TBMCS) is the primary system for planning and executing the joint air campaign, coordinating and directing flying operations from units as diverse as F-16 fighters, refueling tankers, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and even cruise missiles.
The newest spirals of the TBMCS are focused on the Unit Level component, which is used at airbases and on aircraft carriers to coordinate tactical mission planning, command and control, maintenance and repair operations, and takeoff and landing schedules.
In a move that both validates the technology underlying Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and promises to help advance it, especially in terms of security, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has taken a step toward developing its own, privately managed VoIP system. Nortel Networks recently received a contract worth up to US$20 million to migrate the department’s network to one that, through installation of new software and other upgrades, will be able to support VoIP.
A key consideration was doing away with private control of the phone networks that the DoD relies upon, though the system was also designed to avoid completely scrapping existing phone and data networks. Testing has been completed and that the rollout is expected to give DoD more flexibility, better control of its own communications needs and provide long-term cost benefits. Previously, the ability of the current DSN system to respond to any given crisis could be restricted because it is managed by telecom companies, and not under direct governmental control. The project will result in a new, multifunction switching capability fully contained with the agency that will enable it to prioritize traffic based on urgency, and eventually enable it to consolidate voice, data and video conferencing.
