04 Mei 2019
The Dassault FALCON 7X will shortly join the RAAF’s SPA/VIP fleet (photo: RAAF)
CANBERRA, Australia – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been selected by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) to continue providing through-life support to the Commonwealth’s special purpose aircraft (SPA) VIP fleet operated by No. 34 Squadron in Canberra. This sole source, 18-year rolling wave contract has an initial period of six years for sustainment and maintenance valued at $84 million (AUD).
Northrop Grumman will service the SPA fleet by providing logistics, maintenance, engineering and training. The work will be supported by a dedicated program management office in Melbourne.
The SPA fleet comprises two Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) aircraft and three Challenger CL604 jets that are being replaced by three Falcon 7X business jets. The RAAF’s SPA capabilities are set to ramp up mid-year with the delivery of a KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transport modified to support long-range government VIP transport needs.
“This award is a reflection of our team’s support to the RAAF and the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, especially through our work on the SPA, KC-30A and C-27J programs,” said Chris Deeble, chief executive, Northrop Grumman Australia. “As a leader in platform stewardship and global fleet management, we look forward to maintaining our 100 percent mission capable rate.”
(Northrop Grumman)
04 April 2019
D-Eyes Mk I mini UAV (all photos : DTI)
Ministry of Defense of Thailand Committee inspect for system testing of Defense Technology Institute (DTI) D-Eyes Mark I Mini UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), 5 April 2019.
Gen. Preecha Prademmuk, Director of the Faculty of Science assigned Gen. Surasak Meemani, Advisor to the Ministry of Education visited to inspect and test the standard of small unmanned aircraft systems of the Mini-UAV D-Eyes MK1 at Photharam Airport, Ratchaburi Province on 5 Apr 2019. By examination results and the standard test is satisfied.
UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) another project that has been continuously developed for by Defense Technology Institute for The Royal Thai Air Force is a small unmanned aircraft system, Mini UAV, D-Eyes Mk1.
Which the committee sets the standard of equipment, The Ministry of Defense has inspected and tested the standards that in Photharam Airport, Ratchaburi, on April 5, 2019, is one step that is likely to lead to active duty in each units of the Thai Army.
In the year 2018 DTI was awarded the D-Eyes Mark I Mini UAV prototype for the Marine Corps Command Unit. The Royal Thai Navy has tried to use it. It is a progress in self-reliance in the Thai security industry.
03 Mei 2019
ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle (photo : FNSS)
IDEF’19 will witness the unveiling of the MAV Marine Assault Vehicle, which has been greatly anticipated by the sector due to limited number of comparable vehicles in the same class, principally because of the challenging requirements and highly specialised mission definition associated with these vehicles.
ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle (photo : ptisidiastima)
Visitors to the FNSS stand will have opportunity to see the first prototype MAV, whose main role is to support the combat capabilities of marine forces in line with the requirements of the 21st century combat environments.
ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle (photo : Anadolu)
MAV is being developed as part of the Armoured Amphibious Assault Vehicles (Zırhlı Amfibi Hücum Araçları, ZAHA) Project being conducted by the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) to meet a need of Turkish Naval Forces Command. Within the project, FNSS will deliver a total of 27 vehicles, including 23 personnel carriers, two command and control vehicles and two recovery vehicles.
ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle (photo : Star)
In addition to enabling the safe landing of units during amphibious operations, the armoured amphibious assault vehicles also serve as armoured personnel carriers after reaching the shore. During the amphibious assault phase of an operation, these vehicles are launched from Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) and rapidly cover the distance between the vessel and shore, allowing forces to land under protection and with minimum delay. Once on land, these vehicles can continue taking part in operations side-by-side with other armoured vehicles. As vehicles with a dual role due to their mission requirements, armoured amphibious assault vehicles need to exhibit superior performance both at sea and on land, and only a few countries around the world have such vehicles in their inventories. Among the NATO countries and allies, there is only one company other than FNSS producing vehicles of this class.
ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle (photo : hurriyet)
Compared to similar examples, MAV is expected to be superior in the following aspects:
-Number of personnel transported by the vehicle,
-Level of ballistic and mine protection, and Performance criteria on land and in water,
-With ZAHA, FNSS takes armoured amphibious assault vehicles into the 21st century, and the project has now reached the Critical Design Review phase. Venturing outside classical approaches within the defence projects, FNSS has completed its evaluation of the vehicle’s design not only on paper, but also on the prototype, for this review. The review will be on executed on the prototype vehicle in the integration hall.
ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle cannon (photo : EDR)
-K. Nail Kurt, General Manager and CEO of FNSS, emphasises that MAV is a very special vehicle: “MAV has to make sure that marines reach the shore in the shortest time possible, both to ensure rapid movement and to minimize their exposure to threats while at sea. Once ashore, it should be able to operate effectively as an armoured combat vehicle, while also safeguarding the troops inside with superior ballistic and mine protection. To put it briefly, until the MAV made its appearance, there was no such vehicle on the market. We are developing MAV in response to the requirements of the Turkish Naval Forces, which carried out one of the most important amphibious operations in the last 50 years with great success. We are confident that friendly and allied nations with high amphibious operational requirements, particularly island countries like Indonesia, will also look to take advantage of MAV’s superior characteristics; and we look forward to working with them in the future.”
(FNSS)
03 Mei 2019
An artist’s rendering of the USCG Polar Security Cutter. (Image : ST Engineering)
Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering), announced on 24 April that its shipbuilding business in Pascagoula, MS, VT Halter Marine, has been awarded the Polar Security Cutter (PSC – formerly known as the Heavy Polar Ice Breaker) contract by the US Department of the Navy for the US Coast Guard (USCG).
VT Halter Marine has been designated prime contractor for the detail design and construction of the USCG PSC under a $746 million (€665 million) fixed-price incentive-firm contract. The multi-year programme seeks to acquire up to three multi-mission PSC to recapitalise the USCG fleet of heavy icebreakers. If all options are exercised, the value of the contract could rise to $1.94 billion (€1.73 billion). Delivery of the first 460ft, 33,000t vessel is anticipated for 2024: if the options are exercised, hulls two and three are expected to be delivered in 2025 and 2027 respectively.
VT Halter Marine has been involved in the design analysis study for the PSC since February 2017 and is currently in the production engineering studies support work, which it began in February.
(Monch)
03 Mei 2019
Munisi buatan Pindad (photo : Pindad)
TEMPO.CO, Bandung - Direktur Utama PT Pindad, Abraham Mose mengatakan, Pindad sudah mendapat lampu hijau membangun pabrik di luar negeri. Meski demikian, Pindad masih melakukan kajian terkait izin. "Kami sudah mendapat lampu hijau, namun sebagai industri pertahanan apakah bisa atau tidak (membangun pabrik di luar negeri), itu masih dikaji," ujarnya dalam wawancara khusus dengan Tempo di kompleks PT Pindad, Bandung, Jumat, 26 April 2019.
Abraham membenarkan sedang dipertimbangkan untuk pabrik baru Pindad adalah salah satu negara di Asia Selatan. “Itu memang program kami di tahun 2019,” kata dia.
Ekspansi ke luar negeri dilakukan guna memperbesar pasar ekspor. “Rasanya sudah waktunya membesarkan kapasitas Pindad untuk merambah ke pasar ekspor. Sehingga ada beberapa tawaran kerja sama, apakah itu nanti membangun di Indonesia atau tidak tertutup kemungkinan kami membangun di luar. Ini semua dalam kajian,” ujarnya.
Kajian yang dilakukan termasuk melakukan survei pembangunan pabrik di sejumlah negara Asia. Soal lini bisnis yang digarap adalah seputar produk senjata dan amunisi.
Abraham mengatakan, kerja sama strategis yang akan dilakukan dalam waktu dekat adalah menambah kapasitas produksi amunisi. “Dalam waktu dekat kami akan menjalin kerja sama dengan perusahaan dari luar untuk membangun pabrik amunisi di Turen, Malang. Selanjutnya kami akan membangun pabrik untuk amunisi berkaliber besar," ujarnya.
Pembangunan pabrik amunisi ini ditargetkan bisa mendongkrak pendapatan. Hampir 80 persen dari pendapatan Pindad disumbang dari pasar dalam negeri dan sisanya ekspor. "Bisa dikatakan 80 persen untuk kebutuhan dalam negeri, 20 persen untuk ekspor yang bisa dikatakan cukup jumlahnya belum cukup besar dan terdistribusi di beberapa negara Asia Tenggara,” kata dia.
(Tempo)
03 Mei 2019
A single Piaggio P.180 Avanti EVO is in servce with 402 Squadron (photo : Thai Ranger)
Patrol aircraft Piaggio P.180 Avanti II EVO stationed at 402 Squadron, at Takhli airbase, which is an aerial reconnaissance aircraft that replaces the flight surveillance aircraft Learjet 35A that has been decomissioned.
There is information that the P.180 transport aircraft that are supplied from Italy will be changed to a new machine and transferred to another unit. By removing the patrol device, taking pictures from the air from the hole that penetrated the side of the secret body, which will be clear in the new mission and the aircraft to replace the original mission in the future.
It is understood that this case was due to the Italian company Piaggio Aerospace, who was manufacturing the machine, was in trouble near bankruptcy. After the United Arab Emirates canceled the provision of a P.1HH unmanned aircraft HammerHead and the Italian Ministry of Defense had no plans to recruit in the Italian army itself.
402 Squadron currently operates two type aircraft, another type is Diamond DA42M MPP (photo : Mark Rourke)
This story reminds us of the case of transportsAlenia G.222, the 6 machines that the Thai Air Force used to have in the past, which the Italian manufacturer Aeritalia (Alenia) went bankrupt, causing a shortage of spare parts for maintenance G222 until the Air Force had to decomissioned faster than it should be.
(AAG)
02 Mei 2019
The RAAF received 12 Growler aircraft, but lost one after a catastrophic engine failure during exercises in the US in January 2018 (photo : CAN)
Initial operating capability (IOC) has been achieved by the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF's) 11-strong fleet of Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack (EA) aircraft, the Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Leo Davies, announced on 30 April.
Attaining IOC confirms the RAAF 6 Squadron's ability to conduct limited force-level airborne electronic warfare (EW) for peacetime national tasking or limited low-level conflicts in the region. In this context, force-level EW involves moving well beyond simple self-protection of the host platform to the attack or defence of major assets or formations.
An interim benchmark scheduled for mid-2021 envisages the EA-18G's capability developed so it can be taken into more contested conflicts and conduct operations at higher sortie rates in a single location, Group Captain Tim Churchill, Director of the Growler Transition Office, told Jane's . Final Operational Capability (FOC), anticipated in mid-2022, will confirm the ability to undertake the same high operational tempo simultaneously in two locations.
The first two of 12 EA-18Gs landed at RAAF Amberley in Queensland in February 2017 and the final two arrived five months later. However, one aircraft was destroyed after a catastrophic engine failure while on exercises in the US in January 2018.
Australia is the only country outside the US to operate the Growler. Along with the US Navy (USN) Growler force, the RAAF's EA-18Gs utilises the AN/ALQ-99 tactical jamming system. Uniquely, Australian EA-18Gs also deploy the ASQ-228 ATFLIR electro-optical targeting pod, a requirement understood to have emerged from USN experience with Growler operations over Libya in 2011.
The initial test firings by an RAAF Growler of an AGM-88B High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) and its successor, the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM), took place in the US in mid-2017.
(Jane's)
