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Harfang UAV, DGA
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Sagem UAV gets French civil contract. (Aug 16/10)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have become a must-have item for modern armies, and the pressures of modern campaigns are forcing rapid buys, from mini-UAVs, to leased options like ScanEagles, Aerostars, and even high-end MALE Heron UAVs, to outright buys. “France’s Harfang/ SIDM IUAV Program” covered a French program to field an IAI Heron derivative, which has hit some snags but is now serving in Afghanistan. The existing fleet isn’t keeping up with France’s growing land and naval needs, however, which leads to the question: what’s next?

The answer is about 60-75 medium UAVs, type unspecified, under a program labeled “DTIA”, with selection expected in 2011 and deliveries in 2013-2015. Options for France are reportedly rather broad – and their choice may influence UAV decisions in other countries, as well…

• France Next MALE UAV: Contenders
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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RN CVF Concept
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Last shipyard begins construction; Sale rumors resurface; Switch to Super Hornets?; EMALS-type catapult research. (Aug 8/10)

In 1998, Britain’s Strategic Defence review (SDR) announced plans to replace the current set of 3 Invincible Class 22,000t escort carriers with 2 larger, more capable Future Aircraft Carrier (CVF) ships that could operate a more powerful force. These new carriers would be joint-service platforms, operating F-35B aircraft, plus helicopters and UAVs from all 3 services in roles that could include ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance), force projection and logistics support, close air support, anti-submarine/ anti-surface naval warfare, and land attack.

The scale of the CVF effort relative to Britain’s past experiences means that the program structure is rather complex. It has passed through several stages already, and is being run and conducted within an industrial alliance framework. There is also a parallel international framework, involving cooperation with France on its PA2 carrier as a larger derivative of the CVF design. This DID FOCUS article covers that structure and framework, ongoing developments, and the ships themselves as they round toward final design, construction, and fielding…

• The CVF Queen Elizabeth Class
• Program Team: The Aircraft Carrier Alliance
• CVF Program Management
• The CVF Program: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• CVF-Related Contracts and Events
• Additional Readings & Sources: The Program
• Additional Readings & Sources: The Ships
  
  Continue Reading… »

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HMCS Montreal & sub:
HMCS Windsor
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Radar contract; ITAR avoidance; Successful CDR. (Ag 11/10)

Launched between 1988-1995, and commissioned between 1992-1996, Canada’s 12 City Class (now Halifax Class) frigates currently form the high end of its naval capabilities. The Canadian Navy has declined drastically from its post-WWII status as the world’s 4th largest navy, and the Halifax Class itself is finding that its open-ocean design is not suited to cope with modern littoral threats and improving anti-ship missiles. Replacement vessels are still many years away, which means that the 4,750t frigates will need to be modernized within the limits of their design if they are to remain effective.

Canada’s government has decided to fund that modernization, much as Australia and New Zealand are modernizing the Halifax Class’ ANZAC Frigate contemporaries. Refits are scheduled to begin with HMCS Halifax in 2010, and that ship is scheduled to re-enter service about 18 months later in 2012. By 2017, all 12 frigates are scheduled to be upgraded as part of a C$ 3.1 billion (about $2.9 billion) program. This DII Spotlight article explains the scope of the upgrades, notes the current systems, and covers the contracts and developments involved…

• Upgrading The Halifax Class
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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Ultra APV demonstrator
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New Army plan bad news for JLTV? Aug 17/10)

In an age of non-linear warfare, where front lines are nebulous at best and non-existent at worst, one of the biggest casualties is… the concept of unprotected rear echelon vehicles, designed with the idea that they’d never see serious combat. That imperative is being driven home on 2 fronts. One front is operational. The other front is buying trends.

These trends, and their design imperatives, found their way into the USA’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program, which aims to replace many of the US military’s 120,000 or so Humvees. The US military’s goal is a 7-10 ton vehicle that’s lighter than its MRAPs and easier to transport aboard ship, while offering substantially better protection ad durability than existing up-armored Humvees. They’d also like a vehicle that can address front-line issues like power generation, in order to recharge all of the batteries troops require for electronic gadgets like night sights, GPS devices, etc. The end of October 2008 saw 3 contract awards out of 7 qualifying submissions, which are being developed into rival designs for the JLTV’s systems design and development phase.

DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. JLTV certainly qualifies, though its future remains cloudy due to expected spending cutbacks and the possible presence of “good enough” substitutes…

• JLTV: Program & Risks
• JLTV: Goals and Constraints
• JLTV: Participants and Platforms
• JLTV: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

• Alternate QDR: “We cannot reverse the decline of shipbuilding, buy enough naval aircraft, recapitalize Army equipment, buy the F-35 requirement, purchase a new aerial tanker, increase deep strike capability, and recapitalize the bomber fleet just by saving $10-15 billion dollars that the Department of Defense hopes to save through acquisition reform.”

• Oh My Gosh: Oshkosh’s defense segment sales nearly triple to $1.7 billion in the firm’s fiscal year 2010 third quarter fueled by M-ATV sales. Oshkosh release

• Meanwhile, Voice of America says that troops love them, but there’s at least one M-ATV design issue Oshkosh might want to look at.

• With a Little Help: ITT snags two US Army Corps of Engineers contracts worth up to $800 million to help the Afghan Army and other sections of the Afghanistan National Security Forces operate and maintain facilities and train personnel.

• The US/UK’s AFRICAP program will provide Thales tactical radios for the Congo’s armed forces.

• Hurry Up: The British government tells ITT to speed up its delivery of 11,000 third-generation helmet-mounted night vision goggles to early next year, BBC reports.

• That So Modular: BAE Systems gets a $9.6 million order for US Army modular quick-release backpacks, known as Modular Lightweight Load Carrying Equipment (MOLLE).

• WGS-3 high-bandwidth, secure communications satellite formally enters service with USAF.

• Boeing delivers its 100th CH-47F heavy-lift helicopter.

• Raytheon delivers its 200th APG-79 AESA radar to Boeing, for use of Super Hornet family fighters.

• The US supply chain, which is heavily IT-dependent, is vulnerable to disruption from cyber attack, warns a new report [pdf] from the US Naval Institute and CACI.

• Incredible Shrinking Budgets: Facing tightening defense budgets at home, European defense firms are looking to expand into service and support work and overseas markets.

• Profits Take Off: Britain’s BAE Systems and France’s Thales both posted substantial profit increases in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.

• But Not for Everyone: Raytheon reported a steep 57% decline in second-quarter profit to $208 million from $489 million in last year’s second quarter, due mainly to the cancellation of a GBP750 million contract with the UK Border Agency. Raytheon release.

• No We Didn’t: Rosoboronexport, the Russian state arms export agency, denies a report by the Russian business daily Vedomosti that it agreed to sell 2 S-300 PMU2 Favorit air defense battalions to Azerbaijan.

• Train Wreck: An independent panel [PDF] warns that a US national security “train wreck in coming” because of aging equipment, inadequate training of US military personnel, and a declining US naval fleet. It’s headed by former Clinton Defense Secretary Perry and former Bush National Security Advisor Hadley, and was set up to review the Quadrennial Defense Review process.

• C-17 wreck. Crash at Elmendorf in Alaska kills 4.

• US Army replacing good old TNT with BAE’s MX-101 formulation in artillery.

• Northrop Grumman lifts a pair of 195,000 pound diesel backup generators into the future USS Gerald R. Ford supercarrier, which is now 11% complete.

• Common Ground?: Center-left Progressive Policy Institute analyst Arkedis finds common ground with Republicans on the need to reform the US defense budget process.

FS Mistral
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French President confirms deal. (July 23/10)

In August 2009, Russian media reported that their country was planning to take a radical step, and buy a French Mistral class amphibious assault ship (LHD) by the end of 2009. The outlet quoted the Chief of the Russian General Staff, Gen. Nikolai Makarov, who said that: “We are negotiating the purchase of one ship at present, and later planning to acquire 3-4 ships [of the same class] to be jointly built in Russia.” A Russian order would represent a sea change on several fronts – and also the extension of some trends.

France currently operates 2 Mistral class LHDs, and recently ordered a 3rd using economic stimulus funds. Unlike some other LHD designs, the Mistral class cannot operate fixed wing aircraft. Even so, it’s an important tool of power projection. Mistral class ships can carry and deploy up to 16 helicopters, including attack helicopters like France’s Tiger or Russia’s Ka-50/52. Its main punch revolves around its 4 landing barges or 2 medium hovercraft, however, which deliver armored vehicles, tanks, and soldiers to shore. The vessel is equipped with a 69-bed hospital, and could be used as an amphibious command ship…

• Mistral’s Meaning: A Method to their Madness?
• The Mistral Class BPC/LHDs
• Updates and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

SU-35 flight test, 2009
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Platform updates; Libya deal still expected. (July 23/10)

As one of our readers noted, DID’s articles from 2005-2007 seem to describe 2 different SU-35s. One was a mid-life modernized SU-27 Flanker, but there’s also a much more re-engineered “SU-35” variant with canards, thrust vectoring, etc. which has been confused with (and possibly redesignated between) the SU-37. So… what do we mean by “SU-35”?

Revelations after 2007 began to provide answers. This article explains the sources of the widespread confusion regarding the SU-35’s layout and key characteristics, reviews what is now known about the platform, and tracks its development. Those developments are likely to have broad consequences. The aircraft has a home customer in the Russian Air Force, and the SU-35 is being positioned to succeed most SU-30MK variants as Russia’s fighter export of choice within the coming decade…

• Which Sukhoi? The SU-35 Platform [updated]
• SU-35: Export Prospects
• SU-35: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »

French Mirage F1s
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1st T-6C rolled out; Morocco buys F-16 engines; F-16 delivery schedule; Hey, can we insure that F-16? (July 19/10)

Morocco’s combat air force currently flies 2 squadrons of old F-5s, and 2 squadrons of only slightly newer Mirage F1s; T-37 light jets serve as key transitional trainers. Their neighbor and rival Algeria flies MiG-23s of similar vintage, but the Force Aérienne Algérienne also flies SU-24 Fencer and SU-25 Frogfoot strike aircraft, even more modern and capable MiG-29s, and is receiving multi-role SU-30MKs as part of a multi-billion dollar weapons deal with Russia.

Morocco can’t beat that array. Instead, they’re looking for replacement aircraft and upgrades that will prevent complete overmatch, and provide a measure of security. Initially, they looked to France, but key reversals have handed most of this modernization work to the United States…

• Slips & Shifts
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Why The F-16? DID Analysis – Dec. 2007
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

• Work without Pay?: The US DoD is warning that it might run out of money to pay US troops if Congress fails to pass a $33 billion supplemental defense spending bill before its August recess.

• India’s “Project 75I” looks to add 6 submarines, reach out to the private sector, as its fleet ages and its “Project 75” Scorpene submarines remain years behind.

• Bargain Basement Prices? A Citigroup analyst says that stock prices of major US defense firms, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Gumman, and Raytheon, are undervalued given the expected growth in the global defense market. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion; not everybody agrees.

• Heart of Darkness: France’s Thales to provide the Democratic Republic of Congo with PRC-6809 multiband inter/intra team radios and TRC 3700 HF tactical radios under a US-funded program.

• RIA Novosti provides an update re: Russia’s plans for its 5th generation PAK-FA fighter.

• Boeing to assemble Antonov’s AN-124 super-heavy transports? We tend to doubt it.

• The UK government names General David Richards as the next Chief of Defense Staff, taking over from Air Chief Marshall Jock Stirrup, effective October 2010.

• Beyond the Roomba: iRobot, a Bedford, MA-based company that makes the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, looks to clean up in the market for military robots. Check out DID’s coverage of the company.

• Shipshape Midshipmen: The US Naval Academy awards contract to Vend Natural to provide vending machines with healthy snacks at the school. Obesity costs the US military $1 billion annually in medical costs. Hear that, Private Pyle?