May 7, 2019 | International, Land
By: Burak Ege Bekdil
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish armored-vehicles manufacturer FNSS and its Indonesian partner PT Pindad have signed a contract to co-produce scores of medium-weight, new-generation battle tanks for the Indonesian army. The deal was signed during this year's IDEF defense and aerospace show in Istanbul Apr. 30-May 3.
The companies will initially produce a batch of 18 Kaplan MT tanks within two years. The second stage of the contract involves mass production of the Kaplan MT.
FNSS and PT Pindad have designed, developed and built two prototypes of the Kaplan MT under a 2015 deal. The prototypes have passed field tests in Turkey and Indonesia and were certified by the Indonesian military. The deal is part of a defense industry cooperation agreement between Turkey and Indonesia.
The first prototype of the Kaplan MT tank was exhibited during IDEF'17. The tank was showcased in Indonesia during a military parade on National Armed Forces Day in October.
The Kaplan MT is equipped with a battlefield management system, a wireless crew intercom system, a navigation system and an automatic fire extinguishing system.
The tank is fitted with a CMI Cockerill 3105 turret mounting a Cockerill 105 mm high-pressure gun. The lightweight gun features an advanced autoloader to deliver rapid fire.
The 105 mm gun can fire NATO-standard ammunition and can engage targets at a maximum distance of 10 km. The secondary weapon system includes a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun mounted to the left side of the main gun.
The Kaplan MT is powered by a new-generation diesel engine coupled to a fully automatic electronic-controlled transmission. The fuel is supplied from two separate fuel tanks.
The tank has a maximum road speed of 70 km/h and a minimum operating range of 450 km. It can negotiate a gradient and side slopes of 60 percent and 30 percent, respectively. It can climb a vertical obstacle of 90 cm and can cross a trench of two meters.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/2019/05/06/turkish-indonesian-firms-team-up-on-medium-weight-tank
December 3, 2021 | International, Aerospace
C'est décidé, Boeing ne fournira pas le Canada en avion de combat. Lockheed Martin et Saab, eux, sont encore en lice. La décision devrait tomber en 2022., Mauvaise nouvelle pour Boeing. Le Canada a annoncé
April 25, 2019 | International, Aerospace
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN Top defence officials from the U.S. and Japan say they are confident they'll reach the wreckage of a F-35 stealth fighter jet before China does, even though there are no indications that country is actively searching for the downed plane. There has been speculation from various media outlets that either Russia or China would seek to recover the parts of the F-35 to better understand its stealth and other technology. At an April 19 joint news conference the U.S. Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan and Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya addressed such concerns but dismissed any worries the aircraft would be recovered by any nation other than the U.S. or Japan. “The Japanese have the lead there, and we're working very collaboratively with them,” Shanahan explained. “And we've got a capability if what they have doesn't prove to be sufficient.” Shanahan was asked whether he was concerned China could get to the wreckage first. “No, I'm not,” he responded. Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya also expressed confidence. “We don't have such possibility, absolutely no,” he said. “We are conducting surveillance and warning activities so we can identify and find the missing aircraft.” He was speaking through a translator. The F-35 crashed in an area in the Pacific Ocean which is estimated to be around 5,000 feet deep. Japan is using a submarine and other vessels to search for the wreckage. The aircraft went missing on April 9 about 30 minutes after taking off from Misawa air base in northern Japan. The aircraft was flying with three other F-35As in a night training mission. The next day the Japanese military confirmed that the aircraft had crashed and some debris had been recovered. “This is a very important aircraft, so we would like to locate the aircraft as soon as we can and salvage it,” Iwaya added during the joint news conference. “Japan will lead the investigation, but we're hoping and also it is indispensable to have the support of the U.S. So while we do that, we would like to find the root cause of the accident.” Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers Jr. told the Air Force Times last week that the crash had not shaken the American and Japanese militaries' faith in the F-35 program. “The U.S., and all F-35 partners, remain fully committed to protecting all F-35 capabilities and technology,” he added. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/us-japan-say-theyll-get-to-f-35-wreckage-first-concerns-china-will-reach-crash-site-dismissed
July 8, 2020 | International, Naval
by Gerrard Cowan L3Harris has set its sights on the intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance (ISR) market for unmanned maritime systems, identifying opportunities to combine the legacy unmanned surface vehicle (USV) technologies of ASV Global with the communications and sensor specialisms of the wider company since the latter was acquired in September 2018. These changes have brought a range of technological opportunities for the former ASV Global business, including the platforms it had originally developed before the acquisition, said James Cowles, business development manager at L3Harris. Cowles told Janes that L3Harris' ASV technology is suited to three major applications: mine countermeasures (MCM), where it has for example worked on the Anglo-French Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) programme with Thales; anti-submarine warfare (ASW), through such vehicles as its C-Worker USV; and ISR. He added that the integration of L3Harris and ASV's technologies is still at an early stage, although this effort is expected have a significant effect on its systems, particularly in ISR. L3Harris has several communication arms focused on high-bandwidth line-of-sight communications and satellite communications (satcom), he noted. “While we did have some excellent radios in the past, I think that some of the radios that we can now access for our military customers will really enhance our capability to move data in a safe and efficient way,” he said. Additionally, he said L3Harris is exploring internal collaboration, utilising the technologies of L3Harris Wescam in terms of integrating electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) sensors into the ASV platforms. Beyond this, the company is potentially looking to work with TRL – an L3Harris-owned cyber security and electronic warfare specialist – on areas like cryptography. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/l3harris-pushes-advanced-autonomy-for-unmanned-maritime-vehicles