Army Alaska Officially Re-Designated | Turkey Showcased Kargi Kamikaze Drone | French Barracuda SSN Commissioned

Americas

Raytheon won a $52 million delivery order for the improved Bradley acquisition system Commander’s Viewer Unit. The Bradley fighting vehicle system is manufactured by BAE Systems Land & Armaments (formerly United Defence) and includes the M2 infantry fighting vehicle and the M3 cavalry fighting vehicle. The new Improved Bradley Acquisition System (IBAS) Block 2 includes enhanced capabilities to improve operational efficiencies and lethality and provides life-cycle cost and reliability improvements. The most notable enhancement to IBAS is the high definition high resolution color imagery. The performance completion date is March 31, 2026. Using military service is Army.

Army soldiers in Alaska were issued new unit patches Monday as the service activated the long-dormant 11th Airborne Division, part of a sweeping reorganization aimed at prioritizing operations in the Arctic Region. The new division — led by the former Army Alaska commander Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler — will focus almost solely on Arctic and cold-weather combat operations amid the Pentagon’s renewed interest in challenging Russian and Chinese ambitions in the far North.

Middle East & Africa

Turkey showcased its Karg? kamikaze drone for the first time during exercise EFES-2022. The drone is a product made by Lentatek. Powered by a PG50 engine from TUSA? Engine Industries (TEI), it is expected to replace the IAI Harpy. The ground systems, navigation and automatic flight control system design and production were all developed domestically, as was the system’s software.

Israeli company Aeronautics Group introduced the Trojan, an Unmanned Hover Plane (UHP), which bridges the gap between the need to hover and the need to reach long ranges. According to Aeronautics, the system’s capabilities support challenging operational missions while simultaneously performing point-to-multipoint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), thereby creating a solution for versatile and dynamic environments, and achieving Wide-Area-Persistent-Surveillance (WAPS). The system’s multi-platform architecture utilizes multiple sensors, together with advanced analytics capabilities, to ensure accurate, reliable, real-time situational awareness.

Europe

The French Navy’s first Suffren Class (Barracuda) nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN), Suffren (S 635) , was commissioned into service during a ceremony held in Brest on June 3. This was disclosed by French Minister of Defense Sébastien Lecornu has announced on his official Twitter account.

Asia-Pacific

The government of India has approved the procurement of military equipment and state-of-the-art platforms worth $9.8 billion from local defense firms. The country’s top procurement body issued an acceptance of necessity (AoN) for the multibillion-dollar military equipment proposal. India’s procurement rules indicate that the AoN is the first step towards buying military hardware.

Today’s Video

WATCH: Barracuda ClassSubmarine vs Astute Class Submarine Comparison

The US Army’s Bradley Remanufacture Program

In the 1970s, middle eastern wars demonstrated that tanks without infantry screens were vulnerable to infantry with anti-tank missiles. Unfortunately, armored personnel carriers were easy prey for enemy tanks, and sometimes had trouble just keeping up with friendly tanks like America’s 60+ ton, 50+ mph M1 Abrams. In response, the Americans rethought the armored personnel carrier, taking a page from the Soviet book. They created a more heavily armored, faster “Infantry Fighting Vehicle” named after WW2 General Omar “the soldier’s general” Bradley, and gave it an offensive punch of its own. M2/M3 tracked, armored IFVs can carry infantry – but they also have 25mm Bushmaster cannons, networked targeting sensors, and even TOW anti-armor or Stinger anti-aircraft missiles at their disposal.

Even well-serviced vehicles must suffer the pangs of age and wear, however, and the pace of electronics breakthroughs is far faster than the Army’s vehicle replacement cycle. The US Army plans to keep its Bradley fleet for some time to come, and new technologies have made it wise to upgrade part of that fleet while renewing the vehicles. Hence the remanufacture program, which complements the restore-only RESET programs.

This free-to-view DII Spotlight article explains the differences between the Bradley variants involved, details the re-manufacture process, offers additional research sources, and covers associated contracts from FY 1999 to the present.