USN Received First CMV-22B Fleet | Sweden Completed RBS 98 Test-Firing Trials | UK May Not Upgrade F-35Bs

Americas

System Dynamics International won a $28.7 million contract for MQ-9 unmanned aerial system aircrew and support services. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and five offers were received. The MQ-9 Reaper is an armed, multi-mission, medium-altitude, long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft that is employed primarily against dynamic execution targets and secondarily as an intelligence collection asset. Work will take place in California and Arizona. Estimated completion date is June 30, 2025.

The US Navy received its first fleet CMV-22B Osprey, a tilt-wing helicopter redesigned for use on aircraft carriers. Designed and built by Bell Textron Inc. and Boeing Co., it was delivered at Naval Air Station North Island, California, on Monday. Two prior CMV-22Bs were delivered to the Navy, in February and in May, for developmental testing. The variant of the Navy’s V-22 aircraft will take over the Carrier Onboard Delivery Mission, replacing the C-2A Greyhound, in use since 1964. It is a tiltrotor V/STOL aircraft that can take off and land as a helicopter, as well as transit as a turboprop aircraft.

Middle East & Africa

Burkina Faso’s security forces said that they had destroyed two jihadist bases in the north and east of the country and arrested two suspects near the border with the Ivory Coast. According to media reports, a gendarmerie unit on Saturday “dismantled a terrorist base” near the eastern town of Tanwalbougou. In a separate operation in the north of the country, Burkinabe troops in the five-nation G5 Sabel Force, supported by a company of soldiers from Niger, destroyed a terrorist base on Saturday in a drilling zone 40 kilometers from Oursi, it said. Eight motorbikes, phones, and other equipment were seized.

Europe

Sweden has completed the test-firing trials of the RBS 98 air defense missile system and only a minor software modification is required before it enters service. Using the Bv 410 as the platform, the system employs the IRIS-T heat-seeking missile. The first firing test was carried out at Vidsel on November 5, 2019. The RBS98 Robotsystem 98 is designed to protect soldiers and infrastructure against aerial threats as missile, aircraft and helicopters. Sweden is the first country to benefit from the open system design of the newly developed GBAD family IRIS-T SLM/SLS, combining and integrating system elements (sensors/radars, command and control systems, communications systems) from various manufacturers into a single powerful weapon system.

The United Kingdom may not upgrade all of its early model Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning combat aircraft to the latest Block 4 standard later this decade, declaring it will decide numbers based on ‘military capability requirements’. Answering a question in the House of Commons Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Jeremy Quin, said that, while the international Block 4 (full combat) upgrade has been costed into the UK’s procurement programme, the precise numbers of already-delivered jets to go through the retrofit process have not yet been decided.

Asia-Pacific

The USS Gabrielle Giffords joined two ships of the Japan Self-Defense Force for bilateral exercises in the South China Sea. The Kashima class training vessel JS Kashima and the Shimayuki Class training vessel JS Shimayuki of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force joined the US Navy’s Independence Class littoral combat ship on Tuesday. The purpose of the exercise, the Navy said, was to “practice and enhance bilateral interoperability between the two navies and to emphasize the importance of communications and coordination.”

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MQ-9 Reaper: Unfettered for Export

The MQ-9 Reaper UAV, once called “Predator B,” is somewhat similar to the famous Predator. Until you look at the tail. Or its size. Or its weapons. It’s called “Reaper” for a reason: while it packs the same surveillance gear, it’s much more of a hunter-killer design. Some have called it the first fielded Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV).

The Reaper UCAV will play a significant role in the future USAF, even though its capability set makes the MQ-9 considerably more expensive than MQ-1 Predators. Given these high-end capabilities and expenses, one may not have expected the MQ-9 to enjoy better export success than its famous cousin. Nevertheless, that’s what appears to be happening. MQ-9 operators currently include the USA and Britain, who use it in hunter-killer mode, and Italy. Several other countries are expressing interest, and the steady addition of new payloads are expanding the Reaper’s advantage over competitors…

LCS: The USA’s Littoral Combat Ships

Exploit simplicity, numbers, the pace of technology development in electronics and robotics, and fast reconfiguration. That was the US Navy’s idea for the low-end backbone of its future surface combatant fleet. Inspired by successful experiments like Denmark’s Standard Flex ships, the US Navy’s $35+ billion “Littoral Combat Ship” program was intended to create a new generation of affordable surface combatants that could operate in dangerous shallow and near-shore environments, while remaining affordable and capable throughout their lifetimes.

It hasn’t worked that way. In practice, the Navy hasn’t been able to reconcile what they wanted with the capabilities needed to perform primary naval missions, or with what could be delivered for the sums available. The LCS program has changed its fundamental acquisition plan 4 times since 2005, and canceled contracts with both competing teams during this period, without escaping any of its fundamental issues. Now, the program looks set to end early. This public-access FOCUS article offer a wealth of research material, alongside looks at the LCS program’s designs, industry teams procurement plans, military controversies, budgets and contracts.