US OKs potential sale of air-to-air missiles to Singapore, Pentagon says

On the same subject

• 

  January 30, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Leonardo buys Swiss helicopter firm

  By: Tom Kington ROME – Italy's Leonardo has dropped plans to develop a new, single-engine helicopter and opted instead to buy a small Swiss firm that has already built one. The Italian defense giant announced on Tuesday it was purchasing Kopter Group AG, which has developed the SH09, a five- to eight-seater helicopter built with carbon composite materials which first flew in 2014. A clean-sheet design developed by a small group of engineers, the SH09 maximizes pilot view as well as interior space with a maximum takeoff weight of 2,850 kg, while its Honeywell HTS 900 engine provides an 800km range and 140 knots top speed. With the purchase, which is worth $185 million plus future pay-outs linked to the success of the program, Leonardo said it was saving itself the resources it had planned to use designing its own new helicopter in the category. “This acquisition will replace the planned investment aimed at the development of a new single engine helicopter,” the firm said. “Kopter's SH09, a new single engine helicopter, is a perfect fit for Leonardo's state of the art product range offering opportunities for future technological developments,” it added. The Swiss company's skills would also be used to develop new technologies like hybrid and electrical propulsion, Leonardo said. A company spokesman said the SH09 was viewed as a civil program in the short term. "The priority is the civil market but in the future, we will see – a military application is not excluded. However for now our AW119 is our military product in the light, three-ton, single-engine class," he said. The purchase is an unusual step for the Italian firm, which has hitherto designed its own helicopters such as the AW139 and AW101, formerly under the AgustaWestland brand, which was retired before the company changed its name from Finmeccanica to Leonardo in 2016. “Within the Helicopter Division of Leonardo, Kopter will act as an autonomous legal entity and competence centre working in coordination with us,” Leonardo said. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/01/29/leonardo-buys-swiss-helicopter-firm/

• 

  June 8, 2020 | International, Land

  China could lose 95% of ballistic, cruise missiles under strategic arms control pact, says new analysis

  By: Mike Yeo MELBOURNE, Australia — China could stand to lose almost all of its ballistic and cruise missiles if it were to sign a new strategic arms control treaty, according to a new regional security assessment. The analysis, titled “The End of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty: Implications for Asia,” is one of the chapters of the annual Asia-Pacific regional security assessment published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank. IISS' report was released June 5 and covered regional security topics such as Sino-U.S. relations, North Korea and Japanese policy. China could lose 95 percent of its ballistic and cruise missile stockpile if it signs a treaty similar to the 1980s Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, according to the chapter's co-authors Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow focused on military air power; Michael Elleman, the director of the Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Program; and Meia Nouwens, a research fellow focused on Chinese defense policy and military modernization. The treaty, signed between by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987, banned all ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles systems with ranges between 310 and 3,420 miles (500-5,500 kilometres). The U.S. withdrew from the INF Treaty in August 2019, citing Russian violations of the agreement with its development and fielding of the 9M279 missile, although Russia denies that the missile violated range restrictions. However, the IISS report suggested the U.S. withdrawal was done with an eye toward China's missile arsenal, which has grown to what is believed to be the world's largest inventory of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. IISS' own figures estimate China possesses more than 2,200 missiles that fall under the INF Treaty's restrictions. These short- and medium-range missiles are important assets in exerting pressure on Taiwan, which China sees as a rogue province and has vowed to reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary, although it continues to describe its fielding of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles as solely for defensive purposes. Given these missiles provide China with what Barrie described as a “comparative advantage” in the region, it's unlikely the country would willingly sign a potential arms control treaty like the INF Treaty. The U.S, for its part, has already started testing missiles previously prohibited by the treaty, and there have been suggestions that the country might deploy such missiles to the Asia-Pacific region to address an imbalance in such weapons between itself and its rivals without solely relying on air- and sea-launched cruise missiles. (Those cruise missiles existed under the INF Treaty, as they did not violate the pact.) The report cautioned there is a two-fold risk in deploying such weapons to the Asia-Pacific. Chief among those: exacerbating Chinese concerns that the missiles will be positioned for use against it, increasing the potential for a response from China that could lead to an “action-reaction cycle of weapons development and deployment” and continued regional instability. The U.S. is also faced with the quandary of basing any potential INF-busting systems, with regional allies and partners unlikely to accede to locating such missiles on their territory, partly because of the diplomatic and economic reprisals Beijing could inflict on them. And there's precedent here: China targeted South Korea's economy in response to and expressed its distaste at the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system on South Korean soil in 2017. As for the U.S. territory of Guam, basing missiles there would limit their utility due to the distances involved. The IISS report also raised questions about whether U.S. moves to develop and deploy weapons previously prohibited by the INF Treaty will bring China to the arms control negotiating table. However, the think tank conceded that not deploying such weapons is also unlikely to persuade China, noting that that Beijing has shown little appetite for participating in any form of strategic and regional arms control. https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/06/05/china-could-lose-95-of-ballistic-cruise-missiles-under-strategic-arms-control-pact-says-new-analysis/

• 

  October 27, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR

  AUSA: Highlights from the US Army’s annual conference

  WASHINGTON ― Even an ongoing pandemic can't stop the U.S. Army's largest conference. The Association of the United States Army held its annual summit virtually this year from Oct. 13-16. Pentagon officials, service leaders and defense industry representatives gathered online to discuss the state of the Army. This included updates for industry, changes for personnel, ideas for future warfare and plans for tech acquisition. As the service ― really, the military as a whole ― pivots from its counterterror mission to great power competition against advanced adversaries, it's seeking to take a technological leap that will prepare war fighters for the future battlefield. Defense News, Army Times and C4ISRNET attended the webinars. Catch up on some of our best stories from this year's AUSA conference and can find more at defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa and c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/ausa.