Marine Corps unveils information guidance as US rivals spew propaganda

On the same subject

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  July 16, 2018 | International, Naval

  Governments receive plans for industrial tie-up between Fincantieri, Naval Group

  By: Pierre Tran PARIS — France and Italy received in June plans for industrial cooperation from shipbuilders Fincantieri and Naval Group, the spokeswoman for the French Armed Forces Ministry said. “The governments concerned received the proposals from the companies and these proposals are being studied,” Valérie Lecasble said July 12, replying to a question from Defense News. That delivery last month met a timetable for the Italian and French shipbuilders to pitch their plans for an industrial alliance in building warships and cooperating in export sales. Submarines are excluded from that proposed cooperation. Naval Group is pursuing that link up with “great determination,” a company spokesman said. Meanwhile, a 36-page report from ADIT, a partially state-owned company working in economic intelligence, has painted a “highly negative” picture of the compliance and ethics of Fincantieri, business paper La Tribune reported July 12. That ADIT report is circulating in the French Economy and Finance Ministry and the offices of the Armed Forces Minister, the report said. There is also a report from the DGSE foreign intelligence service that cites “doubtful practices” Fincantieri's commercial matters. That DGSE report has been handed to the French prime minister's office, as well as the two French ministries. The business model for the proposed Franco-Italian deal is seen by Naval Group as similar to the partnership between French carmaker Renault and its Japanese ally Nissan, in which there is close cooperation but the two are separate companies. That proposed cross-border collaboration would seek synergies by pooling research, development and the procurement of equipment, and by cooperating on export offers in a bid to cut competition between the two companies.There would also be a cross shareholding of some 10 percent between the two companies. It remains to be seen how the two partners have brought into the plan the French and Italian systems companies Thales and Leonardo, respectively, which supply electronics for warships. Thales holds a 35 percent stake in Naval Group, with the majority of the remainder owned by the French state. https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/07/12/governments-receive-plans-for-industrial-tie-up-between-fincantieri-naval-group/

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  September 28, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Air Force awards laser-armed RADBO contract to Parsons

  Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force has awarded a nearly $40 million contract to Parsons to produce ground vehicles that can clear mines or unexploded ordnance from airfields — using a laser. The package covers the procurement of 13 Recovery of Airbase Denied by Ordnance (RADBO) vehicles, as well as three spares. The system is made up of a Cougar MRAP, Parsons' three-kilowatt ZEUS laser weapon, and an arm assembly that can move debris or other objects out of the way. The idea behind the RADBO is to allow airmen to clear threats from current or future airfields – hardly the laser warfare capability sought by Pentagon planners for decades, but still a potentially important step, as it represents the first DoD ground-based laser system to be ordered into full production. The service awarded Parsons the sole-source contract on Sept. 23. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Ala., with a completion date of Sept. 2023. According to a 2018 video from the Air Force's Installation and Mission Support Center, the majority of development work on the RADBO design was done at the Army's Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville. Parsons claims the ZEUS design can hit targets “more than 300 meters away from the vehicle and is powerful enough to detonate small submunitions from cluster bombs, land mines, general purposed bombs and thick-cased artillery rounds,” per a company announcement. “This is Parsons innovation: delivering a game changing warfighting product,” Hector Cuevas, Parsons executive vice president of missile defense and C5ISR, said in a statement. “We're proud to partner with the Air Force in deploying this critical force protection and mission enabling technology that will greatly increase safe and effective explosive ordnance disposal operations.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/industry/2020/09/25/air-force-awards-laser-armed-radbo-contract-to-parsons/

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  June 28, 2023 | International, Naval

  US Marine Corps begins developing smaller pre-positioning ship

  Marines want a smaller alternative to the Large, Medium-speed Roll-on/Roll-off ships of today to better sustain distributed operations in the 2030s.