The first operational NH90 helicopter from NH Industries, called Caiman by the French armed forces, entered operational service with the French navy on Dec. 8. The French army was due to receive its first Caiman, a tactical transport version, before the end of December. The helicopter's arrival in the navy was also the occasion to revive Flotille 33F, which had been “put to sleep” in 1999. Based at Lanveoc-Poulmic in Britanny, 33F will eventually have nine Caimans, while 31F fleet at Hyeres near the Mediterranean will have 12.
In November, a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put the Iranian nuclear issue at the top of his agenda. News reports began claiming that Israeli officials supported an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and reached fever pitch with publicity over the test launch of a long-range, apparently nuclear-capable, delivery vehicle from a secret base in central Israel.
There is no tougher radar target than a periscope—small, designed and treated to emit a low radar cross-section and surrounded by sea clutter. Even worse, its electro-optical and infrared sensors mean the scope just has to pop up, sweep the horizon and vanish while the crew studies the view at their leisure. In 2012, the U.S. Navy's long-sought answer to the modern scope undergoes operational evaluation as part of an upgrade to the Sikorsky MH-60R helicopter.
As part of its general rearmament effort, Russia continues to enhance nuclear deterrence. Significant attention is being paid to sea- and land-based components of the nuclear triad. The growing defense budget (see p. 43) is enabling industry to make substantial progress in developing and fine-tuning strategic weapons.
Evolution German giant Rheinmetall Defense is known for armored vehicles, guns and ammunition. Since the end of the Cold War, the company has been expanding activities not only by adapting traditional products for evolving battlefield needs, but developing full-capability packages, sometimes in partnership with contractors around the world.
The Indian defense budget for fiscal 2012 (April 2012-March 2013), adjusted for the 12.9% decline in the value of the rupee to the dollar last year, is less than 2011 in real terms. Plans are to allocate $36 billion, or 2.6% of GDP, to defense this year. In 2011, the budget was $35.2 billion, or 2.03% of GDP.
CTA International (CTAI), the joint company set up by BAE Systems and Nexter, expects to qualify its CT (case telescoped) gun with the U.K. by May 2013. The Case Telescoped Cannon and Ammunition (CTCA) is an innovative system that fires a 40 X 255-mm cylindrical round contained in a telescoped case. The design reduces the volumetric size of the round 30% from conventional 40-mm ammunition, making it easier to handle and increasing the number of rounds that can be loaded in a vehicle. CTAI is delivering 16 qualification guns and 54 spare barrels for qualification trials.
Russia continues to increase its defense expenditures to modernize military capabilities. Money in the growing budget is being spent to reshape the national military, which is being transformed into a smaller but more effective and better-equipped force. The federal budget for 2012 and 2013-14, approved by the Duma in November, calls for further growth of defense expenditures despite a budget deficit. Expenditures could be up 20.9% to 1.85 trillion rubles ($59.8 billion) from 2011, and account for 14.6% of the budget versus 13.9% last year.
Much was made of the Bush administration's characterization of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as part of a larger Global War on Terror, Long War, or Era of Persistent Conflict—or as the lawyerly Obama administration prefers, Overseas Contingency Operations. It is a war that knows no real front lines or national boundaries, while lacking any strategic endgame, other than killing as many terrorists as possible.
The U.S. Navy plans to start production of the first of 12 SSBN(X) ballistic missile submarines in 2019 to replace the 14 Ohio-class boats. Construction, at the rate of one per year, is projected to continue to 2033, and the submarines could serve until the 2080s. Before the keel for the first boat is laid, however, much will be done in such areas as design, systems engineering and finalization of per-boat and life-cycle costs. The Milestone A program has received authorization for technology development, which will take place in Milestone B.
Charging Ahead SpringActive, a small company in Tempe, Ariz., may have an answer to a nagging problem: how to reduce the battery load that dismounted soldiers carry to power electronic devices. The company's solution—developed with input from an engineering professor at West Point—calls for a biomechanical energy harvester that attaches to one or both boots and generates electricity as a soldier walks—6-9 watts at 3 mph, which the company says is enough to recharge two AA batteries in 85 min.
3DX-RAY of Loughborough, England, has signed a £1.46 million ($2.27 million) contract to supply four of its SVXi small-vehicle X-ray inspection systems to an undisclosed customer in the Middle East. The mobile systems will secure entrances to a city that has been under threat from terrorism. Each will be deployed at key entry points on a random basis. The SVXi system has two important features, says executive representative Vincent Deery: mobility and high resolution.
Cyberspooks In February 2011, hacking collective Anonymous broke into the servers of security company HBGary Federal and published more than 70,000 emails. Among them: confidential correspondence about and by an Atlanta cybersecurity firm called Endgame Systems. Founded in 2008 by former staffers at IBM's X-Force Internet Security Systems division, Endgame set up a subsidiary, ipTrust, in 2010, to analyze computer networks and rank IP addresses by their level of freedom from malware. The activities of the parent follow a similar vein.
The expanding role of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and the electronics revolution have been kind to Flir Systems. Its signature product, the “ball” or sensor turret, is ubiquitous on air, sea and land platforms, and each year the company finds ways to pack more capability, such as high-definition video and laser designators, into smaller and cheaper units. Flir's Government Systems unit is expanding into full security systems and services (DTI June 2011, p. 51).
Navies continue to engage in counter-piracy operations, but there is no easy remedy for the problem. The reason for this is that Somalia, from which the pirates launch attacks, is a failed state lacking the means to deal with the situation.
Andrew Krepinevich, Jr., is president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, one of Washington's most influential think tanks. He joined CSBA after 21 years in the U.S. Army, from which he retired as a colonel. In the Army, Krepinevich served in the Defense Department's Office of Net Assessment and on the personal staff of three defense secretaries. He was a member of the National Defense Panel and the Defense Science Board Task Force on Joint Experimentation, and serves on the Defense Policy Board. Krepinevich discussed the changes and challenges of U.S.
Train Like You Fight Spun off from a movie studio in 2002, Strategic Operations (Stops) provides “hyper-realistic” (its trademarked phrase) training. The San Diego firm has built training facilities modeled along Afghan/Iraqi lines for clients including the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and National Guard. Hollywood-style pyrotechnics ensure that urban combat scenarios do not lack realism, while actors play civilians and insurgents for troops to engage.
Saudi Arabia is to receive 84 new Boeing F-15 fighters with advanced radar equipment and digital electronic warfare systems plus upgrades of 70 older F-15s as well as munitions, spare parts, training, maintenance and logistics in an $29.4 billion deal agreed with the US Administration yesterday.
A Saudi Hawk jet aircraft of the Royal Saudi Air Force crashed during a training mission in the north-western region (Tabuk) yesterday morning, the Saudi Telegraph has reported.
The US Department of Defense has announced that Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $600 million fixed-price foreign military sales contract for the supply of 12 additional Block 50 F-16 C/D fighters (eight single-seat F-16Cs and four two-seat F-16Ds) to the Royal Air Force of Oman.
General Electric Co and Rolls Royce have ended their project to build an alternate engine for Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 joint strike fighter, reports Reuters.
UAE air crash investigators are working with the military and Italian government officials following the crash of an Alenia Aeromachhi 346 trainer on its way back to Italy after the Dubai Airshow
