Rafael's Trophy Light active protection system (APS) made its debut at Eurosatory in Paris last month, demonstrated on a Rheinmetall Gavial light armored vehicle. The vehicle also carries a Samson Junior weapon station adapted for the 14.5-mm KVPT machine gun. Trophy Light was developed to protect light armored vehicles. As with other Trophy family systems, Trophy Light uses two sensors operating in unison—a network of four sensors covering 360 deg. and distributed electro-optical sensors that trigger the relevant countermeasure unit at close range.
Rafael, Israel's leading missile development center, has quietly been working on an air-to-air derivative of the Stunner interceptor, to be designated Python 6 or the Future Advanced Air-to-Air Missile (FAAM). The Stunner is a surface-to-air missile already being developed in partnership with Raytheon for Israel's David's Sling air and missile-defense system.
QATAR’S CHOICE: Qatar is looking at modernizing its helicopter force and is examining a range of options for naval rotorcraft. Options include the NH Industries NFH90, which has suffered from a dearth of new orders of late, with the U.S. offering a combination of 10 MH-60Rs and 12 MH-60S helicopters; six more MH-60S with the armed helicopter modification kit are offered as an option. The Pentagon, in notifying Congress about the potential deal, puts the price at an estimated $2.5 billion.
Turboshafts seem to last for generations, as many engine mechanics who have tended to just a handful of major types throughout their entire career can attest. Small wonder then that opportunities for new engine launches come along once in a blue Moon, particularly in the rarified world of heavy-lift helicopters.
The successful intercept of a cruise missile target on April 26 by a Lockheed Martin PAC-3 missile at the Utah Test and Training Range adds momentum to the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (Jlens) integrated missile-defense program. Jlens, from Raytheon, deploys two aerostats, one with surveillance radar and the other with a fire-control radar, to detect and track multiple cruise missiles, as well as low-flying aircraft, ground vehicles and ballistic missiles.
OSPREY PAUSE: The Pentagon is moving forward with the delivery of the MV-22 Osprey aircraft to III Marine Expeditionary Force in Japan, but the Bell-Boeing tiltrotor will not fly there until the Japanese government receives the full results of investigations into recent V-22 mishaps in Morocco and Florida. Those findings are expected to be delivered in August.
There is a perfect fiscal storm brewing which some have been slow to recognize and has already reached our shores. The most significant element is the Category 5 hurricane known as “sequestration.” Mandated by the Budget Control Act passed last year days before the U.S. credit-rating downgrade, sequestration mandates significant cuts to both defense and discretionary domestic federal spending. It happens on Jan. 2, is automatic and can only be altered by a change in the law.
With a new president in power, Yemen is once again receiving military assistance from the Pentagon, including training and equipment. “We are gradually resuming our suspended military assistance on a case-by-case basis to assist components of the Yemeni military that are actively engaged in the fight against Al Qaeda,” says USAF Lt. Col. Wesley P. Miller, 4th. While the U.S. military has provided training and equipment for several years, security assistance was suspended last year amid political turmoil that led to the departure of the previous president.
Exactly how Congress will navigate the fiscal minefield it laid for itself between now and the end of the year is a mystery even to lawmakers. But that does not stop anyone in Washington from trying to influence the process or play it for political advantage. Last August, lawmakers passed the Budget Control Act, which required the government to reduce the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion over a decade. Without a new congressional agreement, the government will face an across-the-board budget cut of about $1 trillion on Jan. 2, 2013.
There's nothing novel about European firms chasing export deals to offset shrinking domestic defense budgets, but MBDA wants to go a step further by making weapon-design decisions to help enhance its new products for customers beyond the home market. Historically, MBDA—the joint venture comprising BAE Systems, Finmeccanica and EADS—has generated roughly 30% of turnover from exports. But Paul Stanley, market development director, notes that “to sustain the business we will be looking much more to 50%” of exports.
AZERIS DENIED: The U.S. State Department will not approve the sale of military equipment to Azerbaijan, according to a key U.S. lawmaker who opposed helping the central Asian nation. State had proposed adding Azerbaijan to the authorized sales territory for military equipment that would be used in helicopter-borne border surveillance and “police-type” activities. Rep.
Walter J. Zable, the aerospace industry's oldest and longest-serving CEO and a pioneer in the field of global positioning, died June 23 of natural causes at a San Diego-area hospital. He was 97. Zable founded Cubic Corp. in 1951 in a San Diego storefront. Long before GPS was invented, the company developed a satellite-based technology that identified the location of land masses and enabled the U.S. military to pinpoint targets to improve the accuracy of ballistic missiles. Later, Cubic fielded the world's first instrumented air combat training system.
Battlefield medicine often leads to major medical breakthroughs and the war in Afghanistan is no exception. The Mobile Oxygen Ventilation and External Suction system, or Moves, was developed and designed by Canada's Thornhill Research for $7 million for the U.S. Marine Corps. The life-support system comprises a ventilator, oxygen concentrator, suction system, patient monitoring, and display module and mounts for up to three infusion pumps or a defibrillator, and is contained in a box that weighs just 24 kg (53 lb.).
Russia has claimed the successful test of a prototype of new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The new missile was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk spaceport in May and its warhead reached a designated area in the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The military also said the missile will have improved capabilities to overcome anti-ballistic missile defenses being deployed by the U.S.—an important new priority for Moscow after years of trying to forestall U.S. missile-defense developments.
FORT WORTH APPROVES: Lockheed Martin’s union workers in Fort Worth and elsewhere who build the F-35 and F-16 voted June 28 by an 80% margin to accept a new four-year labor contract that will provide yearly pay increases of 2.5-3% and bonuses.
Boot-centric warfare (BCW) is a resilient idea. It holds that the war is not truly engaged in, let alone won, until a rifleman's boots are on the ground. But BCW doctrine does not withstand historical analysis. While believers remind you that World War II was not won from the air, they forget how close it came to being lost in the North Atlantic. And the Cold War was decided without a single steel-capped toe crossing the East-West divide in anger.
General Dynamics (GD) recently reached an agreement to buy the ship repair and coatings division of Virginia-based Earl Industries, in a move that extends GD’s reach into the burgeoning naval ship-repair business, especially in the hotly contested mid-Atlantic region.
Fleet size matters, but so does capability when it comes to deciding the right ship mix for the Pacific-pivot focus of the U.S. Navy in the coming years, the chief of naval operations (CNO) says. While the Navy will be looking to put more ships in the Pacific, the service also will be focused on plugging in the right kind of ships, according to CNO Adm. Jonathan Greenert.
