DARPA’s SideArm Flexes its Muscle in Demo | Turkey’s Roketsan Kicks off G2G Missile Development | Taiwan Moving Ahead with $2.19B Adv Jet Trainer Plan

Americas

• Plans to purchase three batteries of the KBP Pantsir-S1 self-propelled air defence system from Russia have been abandoned by Brazil. While no official explanation for the ditching has been given by the government, it has been reported that technical issues, pricing, and the current leadership change in Brazil have all been factors. It was initially expected that each Brazilian military service was to receive one battery.

• The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced the recent demonstration of the SideArm device as part of the Tern program. Conducted by Aurora Flight Sciences last December, the SideArm was used to catch a Lockheed Martin Fury unmanned aircraft system weighing 400 pounds. While DARPA aimed to create a device capable of catching 900-pound craft, the system was able to recover 1,100-pound targets.

Middle East & North Africa

• Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) has announced that the state-controlled missile-maker Roketsan is developing a long-range ground-to-ground missile and weapons system. Dubbed Project Bora, the agency said the end goal of the program is to earn capabilities to design, perform qualification and progress into serial production of the Bora system. Analysts believe that Ankara eventually aims to produce ground-to-ground missiles capable of striking targets at up to 1,000 kilometres.

Europe

• A judicial review of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia began yesterday as evidence suggests that the weapons could be used to illegally kill civilians in Yemen. The action, brought by the UK-based group Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), will claim that the indiscriminate nature of the airstrikes by Saudi Arabia in Yemen means there is a significant risk that British arms are being used in strikes that break international humanitarian law. Since the beginning of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen in March 2015, UK government ministers have granted export lisences for more than $4.08 billion of aircraft, munitions and other equipment to the kingdom.

• The German government is reportedly in talks with several countries on a plan to jointly operate a large number of the 13 Airbus A400M military transport planes it had planned to sell. Berlin had initially planned to buy 60 of the aircraft, but later lowered the number to 53. In 2011, the German parliament then approved a plan under which 13 of those aircraft would be sold to other countries to save money. Countries believed to be part of the aircraft pooling include Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

Asia Pacific

• Taiwan is moving ahead with a $2.19 billion plan to develop 66 advanced jet trainers with an aim to have them delivered by 2026. The move is the most significant jet development program for the island since the Indigenous Defence Fighter (IDFs) developed in the 1990s. Furthermore, Taipei is planning upgrades to their indigenous anti-ship and air-to-air missile arsenal, with a focus on increasing their range and payloads.

• Australia has ordered a number of the S-100 unmanned air system from manufacturer Schiebel Group. The contract will see the company provide three years of logistics support for Australia’s navy. Designed for both civilian and military purposes, the military version is used for maritime surveillance and is the only UAV in its class that is capable of carrying multiple sensors simultaneously.

• BAE Systems Australia and Sea Box International have been contracted by the Australian defense ministry to competitively develop prototype ammunition load carriers. The award will mandate each company to design and engineer prototype Unit Load Carriers as part of a project aimed at improving operational use and handling of 155mm artillery ammunition used by ground troops. The combined valued of both contracts amounts to $2.87 million.

Today’s Video

• The Tactically Enhanced Reconnaissance Node (Tern) SideArm UAV launch and recovery system:

Taiwan Has Big Plans for Advanced Jet Trainers & Upgrades to Anti-ship & Air-to-air Missiles

F-CK-1D Hsiung Ying

In 2006, the Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC), based in Taichung, celebrated the upgrade of 2 of the ROCAF’s 130 F-CK-1A/B Ching-Kuo Indigenous Defense Fighters, “to improve their combat-capabilities against China.” Details that have emerged since show a set of F-CK-1C/D upgrades that turns the aircraft into fully multi-role fighters, moving them beyond their current limitations as air superiority aircraft and de facto lead-in fighter trainers for the ROCAF’s F-16s and Mirage 2000s.

Upgrades of the ROCAF’s other 128 aircraft were set to follow, even as China continues to deploy advanced SU-30 family and J-10 4+ generation fighters on their side of the Taiwan Straits. The new “F-CK-1C/D Hsiung Ying” (Brave Hawk) would still be a generation behind China’s most advanced machines, and budgets had to be approved to accomplish even that much. That approval was stalled for years, but the upgrade project has finally finished Phase 1 – even as Taiwan’s request to buy 66 F-16C/D fighters remains stalled in Washington…

Rio 2016: Brazil Looks to Russia for Air Defense Systems

Pantsir-S1

Brazil needs to upgrade its ground-based air defenses, and has chosen Russian equipment to do so. Protecting the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro is very much on Brazil’s mind, and so is improving anti-aircraft defenses beyond the current stock of SA-18 Igla shoulder-fired missiles and Gepard mobile anti-aircraft guns. What they’re buying won’t give them anything close to a comprehensive IADS system, but it will upgrade their mobile and short-range options.