December 26, 2024 | International, Land
BAE Systems secures $68m for additional CATVs
BAE Systems has secured contracts totalling $68m to produce 44 additional cold weather all-terrain vehicles (CATVs) for the US Army.
June 11, 2019 | International, Land, Security
Active protection systems demo hits dead end for Stryker, Army evaluating next steps
By: Jen Judson
WASHINGTON — After evaluating two active protection systems in a demonstration late last fall and determining neither were the right fit for the Stryker, the Army is now evaluating how to protect one of its critical combat vehicle.
“Unfortunately for Stryker, we have not found a system that is suitable for the platform,” Col. Glenn Dean, Stryker project manager told Defense News in a June 7 interview.
The Army has found interim APS for both its Abrams tank and Bradley infantry fighting vehicle but has struggled to find one for Stryker. The service has moved quickly to field combat vehicle protection against rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank guided missiles while it develops a future system.
The service originally considered Herndon,Virginia-based Artis Corporation's Iron Curtain APS for Stryker, but decided in August 2018not to move forward in fielding it to Stryker units.
In an effort to expand its search for an appropriate system, the Army then decided to host a demonstration in late fall last year of two additional systems: Rafael's Trophy VPS and Rheinmetall's Active Defense Systems.
Signs the demonstration wasn't proving fruitful cropped up in March, when the service said they'd need extra time — an entire year — to evaluate options for Stryker. Dean said the Army was hoping they'd see promise in one of the systems at the end of the demonstration and be able to carry it through more complex characterization for better evaluation in order to make a decision.
But as the demonstration wrapped up, the Army decided neither would work.
“Both Rheinmetall and the medium-weight Trophy, both have maturity challenges, but the bottom line is that they turned out to not be a suitable fit for Stryker,” Dean said.
“We did see some potential in systems,” Dean said, adding, “it is our desire to continue to evaluate them further so we can understand them at a greater level of detail.”
Neither system received the same level of testing as Rafael's Trophy on Abrams, IMI's Iron Fist on Bradley or Iron Curtain, Dean said, and the systems could end up being the right fit for some future effort to outfit other vehicles such as the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle program's Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, Mobile Protected Firepower and the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle, “none of which we have identified APS solutions for yet,” Dean said.
Through continued evaluation “maybe we will eventually learn something that brings us back to Stryker,” he added.
Unlike Bradley and Abrams, Stryker is a relatively light-weight platform, Dean said. “It has challenges in its space, weight and power integration. It has proven difficult for us to find a system that is entirely suitable for integration.”
And while no operational APS system evaluated so far seems to work for Stryker, the Army is still looking into ways to protect it as its value on the battlefield only increases with the addition of bigger guns and more expensive weapon systems.
Under the Vehicle Protection System (VPS) program office, the Army is working on reactive armor improvements focused on Bradley and AMPV, but that could be of particular value for Stryker, Dean said.
The Army's laser warning program that is tied to the Modular Active Protection System (MAPS) program could also contribute to Stryker protection.
MAPS is a system under development with the Army featuring a common controller into which hard-kill and soft-kill protection can be plugged.
And the Army will be conducting a demonstration with layered hard-kill and soft-kill protection capability later this year as part of culminating exercise for its MAPS program, according to Dean.
“The soft-kill may ultimately prove to be particularly well suited for Stryker,” Dean said.
Those soft-kill systems are jammers and smoke systems that help obscure and tend to take up relatively little space and are less expensive then hard-kill APS that require the reloading of countermeasures.
The service is also studying what it may need for a future APS and plans to initiate a program in the late part of the next fiscal year, which could also be an opportunity to develop something more suitable for Stryker, according to Dean.
While the Army does have plans to protect its combat vehicles from rockets and missiles, in a June 6 letter sent to Army Secretary Mark Esper, a group of 13 House lawmakers expressed concern the service isn't doing enough to outfit its current fleet with APS and asked the Army to explain why it hadn't requested any further funding for APS upgrades in the budget
According to Dean, for Abrams and Bradley, “we are resourced to meet the requirements that we have on an urgent basis to outfit a limited number of brigades. We are doing analysis right now to support development programs of record in active protection.”
He added, “What we are buying is not the end of APS activity, but it is the urgent requirements we have been given.”
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October 1, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR, Security
https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2020/09/30/en-lituanie-macron-fustige-la-dependance-europeenne-aux-equipements-militaires-americains_6054245_3210.html
Piotr Smolar Lors de sa visite à Vilnius, le président français a appelé de ses vœux la montée en puissance de capacités européennes autonomes de production de matériels de défense, dans un pays dont la sécurité est d'abord garantie par les Etats-Unis. La séquence se voulait télégénique. Elle devait aussi illustrer, de façon pratique, la solidarité promue par Emmanuel Macron avec les pays baltes, la prise en compte de leurs préoccupations sécuritaires. Tel était le but recherché par le président français en se rendant, mardi 29 septembre, sur la base militaire de Rukla, en Lituanie. Depuis juillet, 300 militaires français y servent dans un bataillon de l'OTAN sous commandement allemand, dans le cadre de la « présence avancée renforcée » (eFP) de l'Alliance dans les pays baltes et en Pologne. « C'est aussi notre sécurité qui se joue dans ces confins de l'Europe », a noté M. Macron. Huit pays participent à ce bataillon de 1 200 soldats. La France est la seule à faire des rotations de ses effectifs chaque année entre les pays baltes, depuis 2017. Cette position particulière s'explique notamment par les engagements militaires multiples de la France, qui sollicitent beaucoup ses effectifs, à commencer par le Sahel. Pour Emmanuel Macron, cette visite était tout de même la démonstration de l'engagement inconditionnel de la France aux côtés des Baltes, à la fois Etats-membres et alliés au sein de l'OTAN. Le nom de la menace n'était prononcé par aucun responsable militaire, mais cette opération de l'Alliance, de nature défensive, est clairement organisée pour contrer la Russie. Contrairement aux attentes, cette visite n'a pas été le principal événement d'actualité militaire, dans le programme chargé du président français. Celui-ci a en effet consacré plusieurs minutes très instructives à la question de la défense européenne, au cours de ses échanges avec des étudiants de l'université de Vilnius. M. Macron a placé son intervention à l'aune de la souveraineté européenne, sa préoccupation centrale dans tous les dossiers-clés. « Nous ne pouvons pas accepter de vivre dans un monde qui serait structuré par un duopole, Chine-Etats-Unis, a-t-il dit. Le risque c'est ça, si nous sommes divisés. Si nous sommes divisés, nous aurons le choix entre la technologie chinoise ou américaine, de choisir l'investissement qui apparaît le plus attractif au moment où on le choisit. Nous serons les vassaux ou de l'un ou de l'autre, avec des incohérences (...) L'Europe ces dernières années a construit un chemin qui n'est pas praticable. » Le président a appelé à une mise en commun des capacités, des financements et de l'intelligence Emmanuel Macron a désigné le cyber et le secteur spatial comme deux secteurs essentiels dans lesquels les Européens doivent investir massivement, alors que les acteurs y deviennent « de plus en plus agressifs ». Il a aussi appelé à une mise en commun des capacités, des financements et de l'intelligence, en ne se contentant pas des coopérations, de plus en plus pertinentes, sur un plan opérationnel. Il vous reste 53.79% de cet article à lire. La suite est réservée aux abonnés. https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2020/09/30/en-lituanie-macron-fustige-la-dependance-europeenne-aux-equipements-militaires-americains_6054245_3210.html
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June 25, 2024 | International, Security
4 FIN9-linked Vietnamese Hackers Indicted in $71M U.S. Cybercrime Spree
Four Vietnamese hackers indicted for $71M cybercrime spree. Phishing, supply chain attacks, and data theft targeted US companies over three years.