Americas
Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s (NAWCAD) UX-24 Unmanned Test Squadron, teamed up with Military Sealift Command and the crew of MSC’s fleet replenishment oiler USNS Joshua Humphreys (T-AO 188) to test a new concept in material transportation, while the ship was underway in the Atlantic Ocean, July 15-16. The Blue Water logistics Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) carried out three test flights by transporting an internal cargo consisting of simulated repair parts.
AeroVironment, Inc. introduced standardized modular payload interface kits for RQ-20B Puma tactical unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) recently. The Modular Payload Standard was established by US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) in order to create a modular architectural standard for a wide variety of payloads on Groups 1 through 3 UAS. The kits enable third-party payload manufacturers, as well as United States Department of Defense and international partners, to quickly and easily develop and integrate payloads onto RQ-20B Puma.
Middle East & Africa
The Kuwaiti Army will start to receive the upgraded M1A2 Abrams main battle tank (MBT), known as M1A2K, almost two years behind the initial schedule. In its announcement of the news via social media in late July, the army claimed the M1A2K will enter operational service “soon” and boost the combat efficiency of the Kuwaiti land forces. Kuwait plans to upgrade all 218 of its Abrams MBTs to the M1A2K configuration, but the program’s timeframe seems to have been revised after it encountered delays for undisclosed reasons.
Europe
Belarus wants to buy the Russian S-400 air defense system (ADS) on liberal loan from Russia, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. According to Lukashenko, the funds of the Russian state loan, which was previously issued for the construction of the BelNPP, (nuclear power plant) can be used to purchase the S-400 air defense system and other modern weapons of the Russian Federation. “We saved a lot of money at the nuclear power plant.
Roscosmos space agency’s top boss has revealed that Russia’s Sarmat advanced silo-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) completed ground trials. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said last week that flight trials of Sarmat ICBM will start this year and finish in 2022.
Asia-Pacific
Japan’s Ministry of Defense revealed on August 7 that they are considering using unmanned aerial vehicles for early detection of hypersonic missiles flying at Mach 5 and faster. Japan intends to use an infra-red sensor to detect these weapons, such a sensor had been verified to be working back in 2019. Existing missile defense systems find it difficult to detect hypersonic missiles. Unmanned aerial vehicles may be able to overcome this challenge.
Today’s Video
Watch: Puma LE Unmanned Aircraft System
