June 21, 2019 | International, Land, Other Defence
By: Shawn Snow
The Corps is gearing up to field its new lightweight body armor plates, designed to be worn in the Corps' low intensity or counterinsurgency style conflicts.
On Friday the Defense Department announced the Navy awarded a nearly $216 million contract to Point Blank Enterprises for the purchase of up to 680,706 of the new lightweight plates.
Maj. Ken Kunze, a spokesman for Marine Corps Systems Command, told Marine Corps Times that the Corps expects to kick off fielding the new plates during the second quarter of fiscal year 2020 and complete by 2023.
The new body armor plates will protect “against the preponderance of likely threats while improving mobility” and will reduce the hard body armor weight burden on Marines by 38 percent, Kunze said.
The Corps has been in the hunt for lighter body armor as the force tries to reduce the weight burden and combat load carried by Marines and grunts, which a government watchdog report said can be as high as 117 pounds to 119 pounds.
One solution was to field a set a new set of armor plates that would provide commanders flexibility to match body armor with the threat in the region the Marines were operating in.
That means Marines don't always need to slap on the nearly 15 poundenhanced small arms protective, or ESAPI plates, while operating in low intensity conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan, where a lighter, more mobile armor plate would be sufficient.
The heavy ESAPI plates will still be important, especially as the Corps faces down near-peer rivals equipped with better and more capable weapon systems.
Nick Pierce, the armor team lead for infantry combat equipment at Marine Corps Systems Command, previously told Marine Corps Times that the Corps was seeking to shave the 15 pound ESAPI plate down to roughly 8.6 pounds for a medium-sized Marine.
Marines can shed a total of 8 pounds to 10 pounds from their combat load when the lightweight plate is used in conjunction with the Corps' new Plate Carrier Gen III system, Pierce explained.
The Corps is also looking at new polymer based ammunition and a lighter helmet for grunts to help shave the pounds carried by infantry Marines.
March 22, 2021 | International, Naval
The U.S. government has cleared the sale of five P-8A maritime patrol aircraft to Germany, but Berlin is nowhere near ready to make a decision on the $1.8 billion purchase.
March 21, 2023 | International, Naval
The Marines are taking their plea for more amphibious ships straight to Congress, asking to buy LPD-33 in the FY23 unfunded priorities list.
January 31, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — In a move outside of its normal budgeting cycle directly aimed at the question of burden-sharing with allies, Denmark has agreed to increase its long-term defense spending. A coalition of parties in the Danish parliament have agreed to tack on 1.5 billion kroner (U.S. $229.7 million) to the agreed-upon defense budget for 2023, which would put defense spending at 1.5 percent of gross domestic product for that year. “It is on a good and well thought through basis that the parties to the defense agreement have now decided to further strengthen Danish defense, so that we will spend 1.5% of GDP in 2023,” Danish Defence Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said in a statement. “Danish status and reputation in NATO is of common concern and I would like to thank all parties for shouldering the responsibility.” The amendment comes less than one year after a coalition of parties agreed to a five-year defense spending agreement that planned for a 20 percent growth in military spending, from $3.8 billion in 2018 to $4.6 billion in 2023. It also comes just months before elections are set for Denmark, essentially removing the question of increased defense spending from the campaign. Just where that money will go is undecided at the moment. Denmark was already focused on standing up a light infantry battalion for national and international use; increasing anti-aircraft capabilities; buying the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; and the creation of a special cyberwarfare unit. It is possible those capabilities could receive a funding boost. One thing is clear: The move is directly the result of a desire to support NATO amid calls from the Trump administration over fairer burden-sharing. In a statement, the political coalition notes “the Alliance has in the recent year taken important steps to further strengthen NATO's readiness and deterrence posture. The situation increases requirements to the Alliance and has reinforced the debate on fair burden sharing and Allies ability and will to defend themselves and each other. In light of this development Allies have taken new decisions to allocate additional resources to the armed forces towards 2024.” In addition to the spending increase, Denmark is changing how it reports its spending to NATO in order to “make sure the Danish defence efforts are duly reflected in the reporting to NATO.” Those changes will up Denmark's reported NATO support to 3 billion kroner annually from 2023 onward. Whether the increase will be enough to placate U.S. President Donald Trump remains to be seen. Trump has consistently called for European allies to spend more on defense, with a focus on hitting the target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, set at the 2014 Wales Summit. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/01/30/denmark-ups-defense-budget/