Defence`s Feeds

The Polish Ministry of Defence is seeking to modernise its fleet of Leopard 2A4 tanks with a contract likely to be signed in late 2015, according to

From east to west coasts, the African continent has continued to see active conflicts and escalating threats from insurgencies and militants over the past year. While there are various regional bodies actively addressing conflict situations – for example, the African Union, ECOWA

The

The Polish Ministry of Defence is seeking to modernise its fleet of Leopard 2A4 tanks with a contract likely to be signed in late 2015, according to

Ahead of the Naval Combat Systems conference (28-29 July 2015, London, UK), which will  explore the value and advantages o

Italy primed for first international F-35 flight Italy will conduct the first F-35 flight outside the US in October, according to Lockheed Martin. The first test flight will be followed by a transatlantic crossing in early 2016 to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona wher

Americas

• A US Senate committee approved a bill funding dozens of new aircraft, including Super Hornets, Growlers, F-35s and Reaper UAVs, passing an appropriations spending bill last week. The Navy listed Super Hornets, Growler EW aircraft and F-35s in a list of unfunded priorities sent to Congress back in March, with the Senate’s bill echoing a similar House bill earlier last week. The bill will now move to the full Senate, with this an attempt to sidestep sequestration funding caps.

• Northrop Grumman has partnered with General Dynamics, Gulfstream and L-3 to compete for work on the Air Force’s Joint STARS (JSTARS) recap program. In March the Air Force opened up the competition to European firms, with other US competitors including a Raytheon/Lockheed Martin team, with the JSTARS replacement program pushed back in February to a revised deadline of 2023. The newly-announced team will most likely base their replacement platform on the Gulfstream G550 business jet.

• The Navy awarded a $737 million contract on Friday for one Advanced Arresting Gear and Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System shipset in support of CVN-79 (the future USS John F. Kennedy). Testing of the EMALS system aboard CVN-78 (Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford) has been underway for several weeks, with dead-load testing taking place last week. Manufacturer Huntington Ingalls was awarded a $3.35 billion fixed-price contract earlier in June for the construction of CVN-79. The Ford-class of carriers has recently been criticized for being overly expensive, with a Congressional cost-cap of $11.5 billion.

• The Navy also christened its tenth Littoral Combat Ship on Saturday at the Austal USA shipyard in Alabama. The USS Gabrielle Giffords is scheduled for delivery in 2017, flanked on either side by the Lockheed Martin-manufactured Little Rock (LCS-9) and Sioux City (LCS-11). The keel of LCS-12 was also recently laid by Austal, the sixth Independence-class vessel.

• Raytheon was awarded its first production order for the Small Diameter Bomb II, with a $30.9 million Air Force contract announced on Friday. The contract covers low rate initial production of 144 bombs, as well as auxiliary equipment. This is the first of three LRIP contracts to be awarded before the SDB II moves into full rate production, with the weapon passing Milestone C last month. The total US procurement buy is expected to be at least 17,000 units.

• The Air Force is intending to soon release a $7.5 million demonstration program for low-cost high-speed unmanned aerial vehicles, intended to operate in areas with little or no forward operating footprint.

Europe

• On Friday, France successfully test-fired [French] an ASMP-A nuclear-capable cruise missile, launching the supersonic ramjet-powered missile from a Rafale fighter. The new missile is an upgrade to the ASMP (Air-Sol Moyenne Portee – medium range air to surface) missile, with the new model boasting a longer range. All Rafales in the F3 configuration are capable of carrying the missile, with this representing all jets delivered from 2008.

• Spain’s defense ministry has authorized Airbus to restart flight tests of its previously grounded A400M fleet, following a crash in early May. International operators of the transport aircraft have retained their grounding orders, with the company’s Seville facility recently becoming clogged with the grounded aircraft.

• Poland’s defense ministry has reportedly begun the process of arranging upgrades for the country’s fleet of Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks, with a contract expected within months. Two Polish firms have been invited to tender for the program, which was originally planned for 2013. In that year Poland ordered 105 2A5-model Leopards, without investing in bringing their existing 2A4 model tanks up to spec. As such, the Poles are now playing catch-up to equalize their fleet’s capabilities.

• The Saab/Diehl RBS15 Mk3 anti-ship missile has been successfully launched from a German corvette, completing an operational test in order to secure qualification. The missile is sub-sonic, with customers including Poland, France, Sweden and Finland.

Asia

• China’s Ministry of National Defense has reportedly confirmed that the country carried out a test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, the WU-14. The Mach-10 delivery system was successfully tested for a third time in December last year, following earlier tests in August and January.

Today’s Video

• Friday’s launch of an ASMP-A from a French Air Force Rafale…

North Korea has reportedly test-fired three short-range, anti-ship missiles into the sea from a site near the eastern city of Wonsan, the latest development after the underwater test of a ballistic missile in May.

Emirates classification society Tasneef has signed an agreement with Lockheed Martin to issue classification certificates and carry out inspections for its new military naval vessel.

SeeByte, the global leader in creating smart software for unmanned maritime systems, is pleased to announce that it has received an order from the United Kingdom's (UK) Ministry Of Defence (MOD) Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) to deliver a marit…

Kormoran II is a modern mine countermeasure vessel being developed as part of the Polish naval modernisation programme, with the aim of improving maritime safety and security in Polish waters.

India and Australia are reportedly set to conduct their first joint naval exercise later this year as part of efforts to strengthen the military relationship between the countries.

French shipyard group DCNS has delivered the French Frégate européenne multi-mission (FREMM) frigate Provence to the French Navy.

The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in May 2016 will be the culmination of a global consultation process. The three-year initiative responds to the need to adapt the humanitarian system in order to make humanitarian action more efficient and effective in keeping pace with the rapidly changing context of emergencies. Consultations leading up to the Summit have provided the opportunity to gain perspectives from different regions of the world. As a result, three main priorities have been highlighted: the need for humanitarians to protect and preserve the dignity of people affected by conflict and disaster; a call to find innovative and sustainable ways of meeting people's needs; and a demand from the global South to 'localise' humanitarian response by strengthening local, national and regional capacities to prevent, manage and respond to crisis. There is potential for the European Union (EU) to take a leadership role in the process and influence the WHS outcome. ECHO´s new need assessment tools and the Linking Relief Rehabilitation and Development (LRRD) as well as Resilience approaches offer a framework for responding to the challenges posed by protracted crises. This study recommends that the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid should be applied as a model for a 'Global Consensus on Humanitarian Action' or a 'Global Compact' recognising the diversity of today's humanitarian response system while taking advantage of all actors' complementary role. Furthermore, the EU and member states must commit to placing protection at the centre of humanitarian action and ensure that the EU´s humanitarian aid is not regarded as a crisis management tool, and allowed to become an instrument of its foreign policy.
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The latest issue of European Defence Matters, the official magazine of the European Defence Agency, is now available. Timed to coincide with the opening of the 51st edition of the International Paris Air Show, it focuses on European military aerospace issues.

This eighth issue of European Defence Matters will cover a wide variety of aerospace-related topics ranging from air-to-air refuelling, satellite communications, implementation of the Single European Sky or remotely piloted aircraft systems. It includes interviews with EDA experts and key players in the area such as Général Denis Mercier, French air force Chief of Staff, or Fernando Alonso, Head of military aircraft with Airbus Defence & Space.

In addition to our European aerospace feature story, this issue also includes an exclusive opinion piece from High Representative and Head of the Agency Federica Mogherini, who shares her thoughts on the future of European defence. 

More information

• The latest issue of European Defence Matters is available at this link 

 

The German-Swedish anti-ship missile RBS15 Mk3 has successfully completed its operational test abroad the German Navy's K130 Braunschweig-class corvette, Magdeburg (F 261), at a test site in Swedish territorial waters.

The US Navy is set to christen its tenth littoral combat ship (LCS), future USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10), on 13 June at Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Alabama.

BMT Design & Technology (BMT) has received a research grant to develop a risk analysis and evaluation of emerging technologies, challenges and design solutions to support Australia's SEA1000 future submarine programme.

Dredging International (DI) is a global leader in dredging and land reclamation.

The 2017 referendum concerning the UK’s membership of the EU will turn on many factors, even if most sage observers think that the vote to remain will be won. Those factors splay across nationality and identity politics, the Scottish question, the cohesion of the Conservative and Labour parties, contested economic analyses and the various mystery x-factors such as the far more likely ‘Grexit’.

So, despite the received wisdom being that the vote to remain will be won (and Open Europe declared on the 5th June – with its methodological workings – that the chance of Brexit sits currently at 19% and the chance of the vote being lost as 28%) the City of London has begun to speak with a louder voice about why it sees its core interests being best served with a UK that sits in the EU. That the City feels moved to speak is both interesting and important: it is interesting because it implies that they feel that there is a chance of Brexit beyond that which they can reasonably sit back and ignore. It is important because 1) there are political and economic impacts to be endured by The City (and thus the wider economy) in a time of political uncertainty prior to December 2017, and thus potentially after that date too and 2) because there are other important sub-questions around Brexit too that deal with the type of economy the UK will continue to enjoy, and to whose benefit these sorts of political issues are settled.

The economic impacts to be endured are most likely to be felt as investment decisions. Uncertainty is the enemy of investment: the UK will already be being priced with a risk premium, and this will only get worse as we get nearer to 2017. As the pre-eminent financial centre in the EU (for mostly historical reasons initially, but now in terms of sheer weight of activity), the City carries great sway over the conduct of financial services in the Union. The proposed banking union (which the City and the UK government opposes) might be developed as a rival bloc to the City which would impact upon the UK’s global competitiveness, whilst the move to encourage EU level business activity away from bank-led finance to alternative forms of financial instrument would likely be led by the UK – who is the largest player in this field currently and who has the best developed understanding of the regulatory frameworks required for it in the post-2008 climate. Simple politics would dictate that European rivals will be quick to question why the UK should have an influential say over this area if it looks to be disengaging from the European project altogether.

The City and financial services amount to 9% of the UK’s GDP. Damage to this area of activity (particularly to a host of investment decisions) has a whole-economy impact. My question – as a security studies academic – is does the potential impact, and thus the roll out across the entire economy, amount to a security impact? Strapping on various different lenses – that of economic performance and the money to invest in key attributes to maintaining fighting fitness (and not necessarily military fitness) is one holistic way to assess an economic impact. Such an analysis fits closely to the far reaches of ‘hybrid warfare’, and looks at the maintenance of education and health as elements of holistic effect. The other is to look at the maintenance of the integrity of social fabric. We can draw simplistic correlations around a time of economic contraction and the emergence of complex threats generated by the disaffected.

In terms of ‘the business dimension’ to Brexit. The City wants to remain in. Small businesses, who are doing less and less trade with continental Europe, might reasonably want to leave. Large manufacturing concerns have welcomed the prospect of having more flexible regulatory conditions outside of the EU – and so divide reasonably equally. Looking at the question from a UK Plc perspective, where is our influence best felt? Where do we exercise most ‘power’? In an era that has seen and will continue to see us effectively winding down our military power (SDSR 2015 will need to do something radical to stop this rot), activities that we do that our globally important should be retained. Even in the context of the disaster of 2008, the City remains a vastly overpaid wealth generator for the nation, and a lever of power on the international stage. Looking from the outside the UK, if one was to do an assessment of what to try and undermine in the UK as part of a hybrid war, the City would be a large target. Where are the successor sources of wealth generation outside of The City?

The fate of the City in the question around Brexit is fundamental to whether the UK remains a mid-range power, or a small power with an expansive history. More particularly, it is a security question.