Huntington Contracted For CVN-78 | Iran Unveiled Sayyad 4B | South Korea To Upgrade Its K-9

Americas

BAE Systems Land & Armaments won a $32 million contract modification, for M2A4 and M7A4 Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Work will be performed in York, Pennsylvania, with an estimated completion date of August 23, 2023. M2A4 is designed to provide protected transport of soldiers and direct fires to support dismounted infantry, disrupt or destroy enemy military forces, and control land areas. The Bradley Engineering Change Proposal (ECP), termed M2/M7A4, includes changes intended to restore ground clearance, suspension reliability, and lost mobility, and to improve situational awareness. The M2/M7A4 maintains the survivability enhancement features found on legacy vehicles, to include the Bradley Urban Survivability Kits, Bradley Reactive Armor Tiles, and Add-on Armor Kit that the Army developed and fielded based on lessons learned during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Huntington Ingalls Industries won a $36 million modification for work previously authorized and completed, related to the various warfare system installations and testing necessary to support the completed construction for USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is the lead ship of her class of. The Gerald R. Ford class is a class of nuclear powered aircraft carriers. Work is already completed and took place in Virginia.

Middle East & Africa

Spain has once again extended the deployment period of a Patriot air defense missile unit in Turkey. This time, the soldiers and their equipment will remain till June 2023. Deployed in Adana, the Spanish Patriot unit has been stationed there since 2015. Taking over from the Netherlands, which arrived in January 2013 to protect Turkey from possible attacks by Syria.

Iran unveiled the longer-range Sayyad 4B surface-to-air missile for its Bavar-373 air defense system earlier this month. The latest in the Sayyad series of solid-fuel missiles struck a target at 300 kilometers (186.41 miles) in an October test, an increase of 100 kilometers (62 miles) over earlier versions, state-backed Tasnim News reported.

Europe

Germany and Spain are planning to train thousands of Ukrainian troops under an EU program to help bolster Kyiv’s fightback against Russia, officials said Tuesday. Their assistance adds to announcements already given by other EU countries that they will train Ukrainian soldiers on their territories.

Asia-Pacific

South Korea has embarked on a new $38-million project to upgrade its K-9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers. The country’s Agency for Defense Development will reportedly invest in a super long-range cannon to double the shooting range of the weapon system. The upgrade comes amid rising demand for increased shooting range due to increased artillery threat from North Korea and the rising capabilities of rival products.

Today’s Video

WATCH: Iran’s New Air Defense Missile – Sayyad 4B

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.