Estonia eyes mid-range air defense systems to rectify NATO ‘oversight’

On the same subject

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  August 9, 2023 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  Pentagon’s counter-drone office to demo swarm destruction in 2024

  The Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office will tackle drone swarms in its next quest to find a capability to counter the rising threat.

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  July 16, 2019 | International, Land

  Soldiers Will Control Robotic Combat Vehicles in Upcoming Test

  By Matthew Cox Next year, the Army plans to have soldiers fire at targets using remote-controlled robotic vehicles as part of a three-phase effort to learn how autonomous combat vehicles can make small units more effective on the battlefield. During the operational test scheduled for next March at Fort Carson, Colorado, soldiers will operate from specially modified Bradley fighting vehicles known as Mission Enabler Technologies-Demonstrators, or MET-Ds, according to a recent Army news release.The tricked-out vehicles feature remote turrets for the 25mm main gun, 360-degree situational awareness cameras and enhanced crew stations with touch screens. The first phase of testing will include two MET-Ds and four robotic combat vehicles on M113 armored personnel carrier surrogate platforms. Each MET-D will have a driver and gunner, as well as four soldiers in its rear, who will conduct platoon-level maneuvers with two surrogate vehicles that fire 7.62mm machine guns, according to the release. "We've never had soldiers operate MET-Ds before," said David Centeno Jr., chief of the Emerging Capabilities Office at the Combat Capabilities Development Command's Ground Vehicle Systems Center. "We're asking them to utilize the vehicles in a way that's never been done before." One goal for the autonomous vehicles is to learn how to penetrate an adversary's anti-access/aerial denial capabilities without putting soldiers in danger. "You're exposing forces to enemy fire, whether that be artillery, direct fire," Centeno said. "So, we have to find ways to penetrate that bubble, attrit their systems and allow for freedom of air and ground maneuver. These platforms buy us some of that, by giving us standoff." In late fiscal 2021, phase two of the effort will have soldiers conduct experiments at the company level with six MET-Ds and the same M113 surrogates, as well as four light and four medium surrogate robotic combat vehicles (RCVs) provided by industry, the release states. "The intent of this is to see how an RCV light integrates into a light infantry formation and performs reconnaissance and security tasks, as well as supports dismounted infantry operations," Maj. Cory Wallace, robotic combat vehicle-lead for the Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross Functional Team, said in the release. Phase three is scheduled for fiscal 2023 and will add four medium and four heavy purpose-built RCVs to the mix, the release states. "This is not how we're used to fighting," Centeno said. "We're asking a lot. We're putting a lot of sensors, putting a lot of data in the hands of soldiers. We want to see how that impacts them. We want to see how it degrades or increases their performance." The family of RCVs includes three variants. Army officials envision the light version to be transportable by rotary wing. The medium variant would be able to fit onto a C-130 Hercules aircraft, and the heavy variant would fit onto a C-17 Globemaster aircraft, according to the release. Critics of the effort say it sounds very similar to the Army's failed Future Combat Systems (FCS), an ambitious effort to design a new fleet of lightweight manned and unmanned combat vehicles and other platforms designed to dominate future battlefields. Army officials have argued that the technology FCS depended on did not exist. The service spent billions on FCS, only to see it fail when then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates killed the 27-ton Manned Ground Vehicles portion of FCS in the 2010 budget while criticizing the advanced design as ill-suited to survive current battlefield threats. Army officials believe that the service's new Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) vehicle could influence the development of the heavy RCV, the release states. In December, the Army awarded MPF contracts to two firms to build 12 prototypes each and begin delivering them to the service in early 2020. The goal is to down-select to a winner by fiscal 2022 and begin fielding the first of 504 of these lightweight tanks sometime in fiscal 2025, officials say. The heavy RCV is being designed to provide the enemy-armor killing power of an MPF with even less armor since it doesn't have to protect soldiers, the release states "An RCV reduces risk," Wallace said. "It does so by expanding the geometry of the battlefield so that, before the threat makes contact with the first human element, it has to make contact with the robots. That, in turn, gives commanders additional space and time to make decisions." https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/07/15/soldiers-will-control-robotic-combat-vehicles-upcoming-test.html

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  June 29, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Turkey’s ‘chronic engine problem’ is harming defense projects, warn officials

  By: Burak Ege Bekdil ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's inability to produce a fully indigenous engine is harming some of the country's otherwise successful domestic defense programs, according to industry and government officials. “We had it 15 years ago, we had it 10 years ago and we are still having it,” said a former defense industry chief. “It's our chronic engine problem.” A government procurement official agreed, telling Defense News that “at best the problem causes major delays, and at worst it can be an existential threat [to programs].” The Altay, a multibillion-dollar program for the production of Turkey's first indigenous tank, has long been delayed due to difficulties surrounding the engine and transmission used to power the new-generation tank. BMC, a Turkish-Qatari joint venture that in 2018 won the serial production contract for the Altay, said in October 2020 that the tank would be fielded within 24 months. The original target was to have the Altay in the field this year 2020. Today, procurement officials and industry sources say even 2022 is an optimistic deadline. Western countries with power pack technology, particularly Germany, have been reluctant to share technology or sell to Turkey for political reasons. “Lack of a feasible power pack [engine and transmission] is depriving the program of any sensible progress,” noted an industry source. Turkey also needs an engine for the new-generation TF-X fighter jet as well as indigenous helicopter models in the making. At the center of these engine efforts is Tusas Engine Industries, a state-controlled engine maker. TEI announced June 19 that it successfully tested its locally made TJ300 miniature turbojet engine, which the company produced for medium-range anti-ship missiles. The engine features a thrust rating of 1.3 kilonewtons. Company officials say the TJ300 engine's more advanced, future versions could power larger anti-ship cruise missiles and land-attack cruise missiles. Turkey hopes to power its anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles with locally developed engines. “The effort is about ending dependency on imported designs,” a TEI official said. Turkey currently imports miniature air-breathing engines from Microturbo — a unit of French company Safran — to power its domestically developed cruise missiles. Separately, Turkey's Kale Group is developing a larger, albeit miniature turbojet engine called the KTJ-3200. It has a 3.2-kilonewton thrust rating, and will power the Atmaca and SOM missile systems. On a much bigger scale, Kale Group has ambitions to develop an engine to power the TF-X. In 2017, Kale Group and British company Rolls-Royce launched a joint venture to develop aircraft engines for Turkey, initially targeting the TF-X. But the £100 million (U.S. $124 million) deal was effectively put on hold due to uncertainties over technology transfer. In December, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoğlu said the government is keen to revive talks with Rolls-Royce. When asked for an update on negotiations, a Rolls-Royce spokesperson told Defense News: “We submitted an engine co-development proposal to Turkey, but the customer has not elected to pursue this to date.” A year before the Kale Group-Rolls-Royce partnership, Turkish Aerospace Industries — a sister company of TEI — signed a $125 million heads of agreement with U.K.-based firm BAE Systems to collaborate on the first development phase of the TF-X. Turkey originally planned to fly the TF-X in 2023, but aerospace officials are now eyeing 2025 at the earliest. TEI is also developing the TS1400, a turboshaft engine it intends to power the T625 Gökbey, a utility and transport helicopter developed and built by TAI. The Gökbey currently flies with the CTS-800A turboshaft engine supplied by Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company, a joint venture between American firm Honeywell and Rolls-Royce. The Gökbey made its maiden flight in September. TEI says it successfully tested the “core” of its TS1400 turboshaft engine and plans to deliver the prototype to TAI in late 2020. But analysts remain cautious. “These efforts may eventually fail to materialize without meaningful foreign know-how,” said a London-based Turkey specialist. “Or they may come at costs not viable for mass production.” Andrew Chuter in London contributed to this report. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2020/06/26/turkeys-chronic-engine-problem-is-harming-defense-projects-warn-officials/