Elbit America to provide modernized Heap-Up Display replacement for F-16 community

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  August 14, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Hungary plunks down $1 billion for new air defenses

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany – The Hungarian and U.S. governments have announced a $1 billion deal to equip the European country with new air-defense weaponry. The sale includes the Raytheon-made Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile-Extended Range missile, of which Hungary requested some 60 copies in May through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, that portion of the deal is worth $230 million. Another transaction type, called a Direct Commercial Sale, accounts for the rest of the money, according to a statement posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Budapest. Such sales are negotiated privately between customer countries and American defense contractors, meaning the U.S. government has little involvement besides approving an export license. Exactly what the DCS portion of the deal entails is unclear, though the embassy statement and Hungarian media note that all the equipment would go toward replacing the country's Soviet-era gear with the NASAMS short- and medium-range air-defense system made by Norway's Kongsberg. Raytheon's AMRAAM-ER missiles are the interceptors in that configuration. U.S. Ambassador David Cornstein, a New York businessman and admirer of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban's policies, and Hungarian Defense Minister Tibor Benkő lauded the weapons deal Wednesday. “We commend the Hungarian government's strong commitment to continue modernizing Hungary's military through the acquisition of the world's most advanced mid-range air defense system, which will enhance Hungary's ability to provide collective and self-defense,” the statement reads. EU member Hungary, with its far-right government, is under pressure from other members of the bloc for what they say is a steady slide toward anti-democratic rule. The country has been on a military spending spree lately, with Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann in line to supply dozens of Leopard-2 tanks. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/08/13/hungary-plunks-down-1-billion-for-new-air-defenses

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  September 6, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  What’s standing in the way of multidomain operations?

  By: Daniel Cebul WASHINGTON — Mutlidomain operations are set to become standard for the U.S. armed services in the coming years, but technical, doctrinal and organizational hurdles remain. One impediment to multidomain operations involves issues in linking the service's disparate communication and information networks to share targeting data and communications. Rebecca Grant, a national security analyst with IRIS Independent Research, identified her “No. 1 problem" as “the communications architecture.” This stuff is not there yet," she said Wednesday at the Defense News Conference. "I'm less worried about the platforms, we've got some magnificent platforms. We've got to have that communication architecture. All the ability to do that is there, whether that's secure waveforms or the [radio frequency] links, but we have to take the plunge now, immediately, to go out and experiment with this next year.” The need for an integrated communications network was echoed by L3 Technologies' vice president of communications technology. “You need a network that can take all the networks we have right now, a systems-of-systems-level approach, that can tie these disparate networks together because you don't want to get rid of that install base because its too expensive to replace,” Keith Gentile said. Another challenge involves changing the services' doctrinal approaches to operations, especially as each branch becomes more dependent on one another. Gentile said that if the U.S. plans to quickly respond to enemy developments, doctrine surrounding operations in the domains must change. “There's a role mission and function issue that needs to be addressed when you talk about cross-domain or multidomain capabilities because each of the services operates in different domains," he said. "You got to go ahead and get away from the parochial pieces of service stovepipes, mission roles and functions — and realize you are talking about cross-domain capabilities.” Jaret Riddick, the director of the Vehicle Technology Directorate at the Army Research Laboratory, cited the service's recently stood-up Futures Command as one example of change within the services. “I would not downplay the steps the Army is making in standing up Futures Command. To take a four-star command and make the type of reorganization that has not happened since the early 1970s — I would not call that incremental,” he said. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/05/whats-standing-in-the-way-of-multidomain-operations

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  September 12, 2024 | International, Land

  US imposes sanctions on Chinese suppliers to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program