August 9, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Italy Air Force hauls an F-35 contingent to Japan for first-ever drill
The training visit comes as the two countries look to develop a sixth-generation warplane, dubbed GCAP, along with Britain.
September 20, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Land
The Corps just slapped a counter-drone system on an MRZR all-terrain vehicle
By: Shawn Snow
In yet another sign the Corps is becoming increasingly concerned about air defense, the Corps decided to slap a counter-drone system on a Polaris MRZR all-terrain vehicle.
It's called the Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or LMADIS, and it's comprised of two MRZR vehicles, a command node and a sensor vehicle.
The system is a “maneuverable ground-based sensor, electronic attack, C2 [ command and control] system," 1st Lt. Ariel Cecil, the commander of the Low Altitude Air Defense detachment for Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 166, said in a video posted by the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
The LMADIS can detect, track, identify and take down drones with electronic attack, according to Cecil.
The MRZR counter drone system is currently deployed with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit where it recently participated in the Theater Amphibious Combat Rehearsal exercise in Djibouti.
The Corps has been investing heavily in counter air and drone threats. It's an issue the Marines really haven't had to focus on for some time now.
But as the Corps begins to face down more sophisticated hostile actors there's no guarantee Marines will always operate on a battlefield where they own the airspace.
That means enemy air or drone attacks are now a reality the Corps must plan for.
And increasingly, drone technology has found its way into the hands of terrorist groups and ragtag militias.
ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria have been known to weaponize small commercial quadcopter drones, dropping small munitions and hand grenades on Iraqi and partner nation forces. Even the Taliban in Afghanistan have gotten in the game, using small drones to film attacks on remote Afghan army outposts.
But the big threat, according to the Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller, is that adversaries will eventually learn how to control these small attack drones in massive swarms.
“When you think about enemy air attacks, you think about jets and bombers and stuff,” Neller said at the Atlantic Council in April. “I think the real future in enemy air attack is going to be swarming drones.”
So, the Corps has embarked on an ambitious plan to field a new suite of tech to bolster the Corps' air defense and counter drone capabilities.
Two such systems are the Ground Based Air Defense-Transformation, or GBAD, and the Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR.
The GBAD systems is basically a detection system with laser weapon that can track and destroy drones, and it's mountable on the Corps' new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle or Humvee. That program is still undergoing testing and evaluation.
The G/ATOR system has been in the Corps' arsenal since 2013 and it can detect rockets, mortars, artillery cruise missiles, and drones. The system is highly mobile making it integral to the Corps' distributed operations plan in the Pacific should a conflict come between the U.S. and China.
And the Corps is also dishing out money to modify Stinger missiles as part of Service Life Extension Program.
On the same subject
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May 12, 2024 | International, Land
Italy mulls delivery of another SAMP/T system to Ukraine, says source
The battery Italy would send is based in Kuwait and is one of five now operated by Italy, after one was sent to Ukraine last year.
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December 8, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
China second to US in global arms market with three firms in top 10 manufacturers
United States still the leading country in arms spending and sales, followed by China, driven partly by its military modernisation Six American and three Chinese companies dominate the top 10 makers in Swedish think tank's annual ranking Kristin Huang Three Chinese arms companies have been ranked among the world's top 10 for weapons sales in 2019 in a Stockholm security think tank's annual list of the largest arms manufacturers. The United States was the leading nation in terms of both arms spending and sales of weapons, with China in second place in both respects. In the ranking by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), six US companies and three Chinese firms made up the top 10 along with one from Britain. Aviation Industry Corporation of China, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation and China North Industries Group Corporation were ranked sixth, eighth and ninth respectively in the list of companies. A fourth Chinese arms firm, China South Industries Group Corporation, was ranked 24th among the 25 companies examined in SIPRI's report, released on Monday. Data from SIPRI's arms transfer database showed that aircraft, ships, missiles, armoured vehicles and air defence systems were the four Chinese firms' top revenue generators in 2018 and 2019, totalling nearly US$2.5 billion, with the top three buyers of Chinese weapons being Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand. The combined revenue of the four Chinese companies grew by 4.8 per cent overall between 2018 and 2019, to US$56.7 billion. This was the first time SIPRI had included Chinese companies in its annual ranking, having previously cited a lack of reliable data. The report said overall arms sales by the top 25 companies rose by 8.5 per cent in 2019 to US$361 billion, with the leading five all coming from the United States: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics, with combined arms sales of US$166 billion. Another American firm, L3Harris Technologies, was in 10th place, while Britain's BAE Systems was seventh. The US arms industry accounted for 61 per cent of sales by the world's top 25 manufacturers last year, followed by China in second place with 16 per cent, according to the report. Six western European companies collectively accounted for 18 per cent, while the two Russian companies in the list made up 4 per cent. Zhou Chenming, a military expert in Beijing, said relatively cheap prices and good quality made Chinese weapons competitive in the global arms market. “China has invested huge money in developing cutting-edge weapons for years, and now Chinese weapons have improved their performance and are at reasonable prices which can be accepted by many developing countries,” Zhou said. But Zhou did not expect the growth for Chinese companies to continue at the same rate, partly because of international polarisation driven by China's rivalry with the US. “I think most US allies will continue buying arms from the US, and Russia will keep its own market share, and it will be quite difficult for China to increase its arms export revenue,” he said. Nan Tian, a senior researcher from SIPRI, said Chinese arms companies had benefited from the drive to modernise the country's People's Liberation Army since 2015. China was already viewed by the United States as its strongest competitor in cutting-edge military technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, according to a US Congressional Research Service report released in August. “China and the United States are the two biggest states in terms of global arms spending, with companies cut to size,” Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director of SIPRI's arms and military expenditure programme, was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. The US has dominated the market for decades, but China's growth “corresponds to the implementation of reforms to modernise the People's Liberation Army”, she said. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3112823/pla-reforms-drive-china-second-place-after-us-global-arms