Americas
The US Navy announced that the next two Virginia Class submarines, which are also the first two of Block V of the class will be named for the sailors who during the Pearl Harbor attack. The USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma, currently referred to as SSN-802 and SSN-803, will be named for the USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma that were sunk in the December 7, 1941, attack and the roughly 1,600 sailors who died on them, the Navy said on Tuesday. The decision brings the names back into active-duty service more than 75 years after the two vessels were in use. The new Arizona and Oklahoma will be the first two in Block V of the Virginia-class submarine program, which have been named about a month after the Navy awarded a $22.2 billion contract to General Dynamics Electric Boat for first nine vessels of the block.
The DoD plans to cut the construction of more than 40 percent of its planned Flight III Arleigh Burke Destroyers in fiscal years 2021 through 2025, DefenseNews reports. According to a Memo from the White House Office of Management. The proposal would cut five of the 12 DDGs planned through the future years defense program. This would reportedly cut $9.4 billion of the total shipbuilding budget. The memo also outlined plans to accelerate the decommissioning cruisers, cutting the total number of Ticonderoga Class cruisers in the fleet down to nine by 2025, from a planned 13 in last year’s budget. The Pentagon’s plan would actually shrink the size of the fleet from today’s fleet of 293 ships to 287 ships.
Middle East & Africa
The Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta inaugurated a new base in Garissa County in the northeast of the country, Jane’s reports. The ceremony was held on December 13. Modika Barracks will be the headquarters of the 6 Infantry Brigade and home to the 17 Kenya Rifles Battalion. The 6 Brigade was established as a fully-fledged formation in 2012. The Ministry of Defense announced back in February that 17 Kenya Rifles had already moved into Modika Barracks.
Europe
The Armenian military has received a batch of Russian-made Tor-M2KM wheeled short-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, the country’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on December 21. “The Armenian armed forces have been reinforced by modern Russian-made Tor-M2KM air and missile defense systems. These weapons were produced in 2019 and stand among our pivotal defense procurements this year,” said Pashinyan. The Ministry of Defense declined to detail the number of the SAM systems procured, although a photograph released by the Armenian government’s press office depicted at least two Tor-M2KM combat vehicles. Armenia has received a new variant of the Tor-M2KM mounted on the KAMAZ-63501 8×8 all-terrain truck.
The electrooptical sensors for the Forpost-R unmanned aerial vehicle will be supplied by Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant and NPP Aviation and Marine Electronics. Both will replace the MOSP300 made by IAI’s TAMAM division. Back in August its was reported that Russia’s locally-upgraded Forpost-R UAV had made its maiden flight.The Forpost drone is a licensed replica of the Israeli Searcher MkII, assembled at the Urals Civil Aviation Plant since 2010. By 2018 the Russian army had about 30 Forpost systems assembled from imported parts. The first fully Russian-made Forpost-M, upgraded based on the experience of military action in Syria, were to be delivered for the Russian Defense Ministry in 2019.
Asia-Pacific
The first RQ-4B ordered by South Korea has been delivered to Sacheon airbase on December 23. The RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) arrived at an Air Force base in Sacheon on the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula earlier in the day. It is the first of a total of four units that South Korea is purchasing from the United States under a 2011 deal. The three others will arrive around the first half of next year, though the schedule is subject to change. The exact timing of their official deployment for operations is not decided, and will not be officially disclosed to the public, an Air Force officer said. As one of the most advanced intelligence-gathering platforms in the world, the long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, manufactured by US defense company Northrop Grumman, is capable of performing reconnaissance missions for around 40 hours at a time at an altitude of roughly 20 kilometers.
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