May 19, 2021 | International, Land
Army Tries Out Humvee-Mounted Howitzer
How do you safely fire a 105 mm cannon off the back of a Humvee? With a unique recoil-reduction system.
October 2, 2020 | International, Aerospace
US State Department cleared $83.5 billion in foreign military sales in FY20
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department cleared $83.5 billion in Foreign Military Sales cases in fiscal 2020, the highest annual total of FMS notifications since the start of the Trump administration.
The dollar total — spread over 68 FMS cases notified to Congress — represent an increase of roughly $15 billion over FY19 figures. However, that dollar figure comes with a number of caveats that will lower the overall dollar figure of actual sales when negotiations are complete.
FMS notification figures represent potential arms sales that the State Department internally cleared, then passed to Congress through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The notifications do not represent final sales; if Congress does not reject the potential sale, it then goes into negotiations, during which dollar figures and quantities of equipment can change.
Four key members of Congress, either individually or collectively, have quietly frozen all major U.S. arms sales to Turkey for nearly two years.
However, while not solid dollars, notifications are a notable way of tracking interest in American arms from foreign partners, and are seen as a leading indicator of final sales to come.
Geographically, the Pacific region led the way with 25 requests totaling $44.1 billion in potential sales. Following that was Europe with 20 requests totaling $21.1 billion; the Middle East with 14 cases totaling $11.5 billion; and Africa with five cases totaling $5.1 billion. Central and South America (three cases) and Canada (one case) each totaled less than $1 billion.
July was the busiest month, with 15 announcements worth $32.5 billion, followed by September with nine announcements worth $17.4 billion. Japan was the largest single customer, with five cases worth an estimated $27.9 billion. The second-highest dollar total for one nation was Switzerland — which leads to the biggest caveat from these numbers.
FMS deals sometimes never come to fruition, and that is particularly true with two cases included in the FY20 figures: Switzerland and the Philippines. In both cases, the State Department moved to preapprove those nations to buy high-end American technology, even though the governments had not selected the winner of their respective internal competitions.
That means that while the Philippines has not decided on its next military helicopter, the U.S. State Department in April announced it cleared potential sales for both AH-1Z helicopters at $450 million and AH-64E Apaches at $1.5 billion.
The case was even starker in Switzerland, where the country was cleared this week to purchase both the F/A-18 Super Hornet for $7.45 billion and the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter for $6.58 billion.
In both those situations, the country has yet to decide if it will purchase any American system, and will not be purchasing both; a decision to buy from elsewhere in both cases would drop the FMS total by almost $16 billion.
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March 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Production At Airbus, Dassault, Leonardo Hit Due To COVID-19 Pandemic
Production at facilities of Aviation and defence firms such as Airbus, Dassault Aviation, MBDA and Leonardo has been hit due to COVID-19 pandemic now sweeping across Europe. Dassault Aviations plants that manufacture the Rafale fighter jet and Falcon business aircraft have been working at below par since last week. The company's ability to deliver its Rafale jets to India, Qatar and Egypt is now in doubt and dependent upon how quickly the COVID-19 crisis is contained and employees are able to get back to work, local media reported. Europe's biggest Aerospace industry employer, Airbus which has some 46,000 workers in France, announced a gradual re-opening of its production in France and Spain after a weekend shutdown. However, a member of the Airbus' employees union was quoted as saying to French newspaper, LATribune, "It is a very partial recovery of 5 to 10% of employees, only with volunteers," adding, “we would have preferred total containment.” “By absolutely wanting to continue production activity, the Airbus management requires employees to go to the site and work in conditions which is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to guarantee that they eliminate any risk of contamination," the union member was quoted as saying. Missile Manufacturer MBDA has already announced the stoppage of operations in its France-based facilities to mitigate the Coronavirus crisis. Labor unions of engine manufacturer Safran have called for a complete halt to activities at all Safran sites worldwide. At Dassault Aviation, the measures announced by CEO Eric Trappier like the reorganization of work, the distribution of hydroalcoholic gels and masks, which could make it possible to resume "degraded activity in complete safety" for employees, are not yet in place, a member of its labour union, the CFDT told the French newspaper. Meanwhile, Airbus said in a statement, “We have withdrawn our 2020 guidance due to the volatility of the situation,” quoting Airbus Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury. Airbus' management has received approval from the Board of Directors to suspend the voluntary top up in pension funding. “By maintaining production, managing its resilient backlog, supporting its customers and securing financial flexibility for its operations, Airbus intends to secure business continuity for itself even in a protracted crisis,” the statement said. Leonardo's marine systems division Fincantieri has suspended operations for two weeks at its Italian facilities. Its helicopter facility and an F-35 assembly line have come back on track after a weekend shutdown, the company said. BAE Systems in Barrow which builds submarines was shut after two cases of coronavirus last and has since re-opened after deep clean."We recognize this is a difficult time for our employees and members of the public and we are taking all necessary steps to protect the health and safety of our workforce," a company spokesperson said to local media. https://www.defenseworld.net/news/26569/Production_at_Airbus__Dassault__Leonardo_Hit_due_to_COVID_19_Pandemic#.XnokiohKiUk
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April 23, 2020 | International, C4ISR
Air Force works to ‘mitigate’ Ligado deal’s impact on GPS
Aaron Mehta and Valerie Insinna The U.S. Air Force is in the early stages of developing strategies to “mitigate” the damage expected to occur to Global Positioning System capabilities following the Federal Communication Commission's approval of a spectrum request by Ligado Networks, according to the service's top uniformed officer. On Wednesday, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said he was “very concerned about the Ligado decision,” adding those concerns are shared with Gen. Jay Raymond, the first head of the U.S. Space Force. “We as a nation, and I would offer as a [world], rely on GPS to do so much that affects far more than military operations,” Goldfein said. “This is our quality of life. This is how we run businesses. This is how we fly airplanes. This is the ATM that requires that timing signal to get money. This is the blue dot on your phone that allows you to get from point A to point B, so we have come to just rely completely on GPS.” On Monday, the FCC voted 5-0 in favor of Ligado's plan, which would allow the company to use L-band — a range of frequencies between 1 to 2 GHz, on which GPS relies in order to penetrate weather and dense vegetation. The company wants to use L-band as part of its plan to expand America's 5G capabilities, or next-generation connectivity. The Defense Department and other government agencies have opposed the proposal for almost a decade over concerns it would impact GPS. C4ISRNET first broke the news April 10 that the FCC would move forward with Ligado's request. “The best way I've heard it described — I'm a philosophy major and this works for me — if you're trying to have a quiet conversation and in the next room is a 500-watt speaker blaring music at you: That's a visual of what potentially could be the interference with this GPS signal that absolutely has got to be pristine, and the world relies on," Goldfein said. "So I am very concerned about it, and [Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force Gen. John “Jay”] Raymond and I are looking at different mitigation steps.” Goldfein didn't go into details about what those steps might entail. Later in the day, Mark Lewis, the Defense Department's director of research and engineering for modernization, said he hadn't talked with Goldfein yet on next steps, but expressed similar sentiments about the Ligado plan. “It's obviously a concern. Our ability to operate not only in space but in spectrum is critical. So I guess what I would tell you is right now we're considering what the implications will be and considering what the impacts will be,” Lewis said at an event hosted by the Mitchell Institute. It's something “we're working pretty actively,” Lewis added. Outside of the technical mitigation efforts, there may be policy efforts underway to try and block L-band use by Ligado. In an exclusive op-ed for C4ISRNET, leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees warned that Ligado's plan could ultimately “cost taxpayers and consumers billions of dollars and require the replacement of current GPS equipment just as we are trying to get our economy back on its feet quickly.” “We encourage the FCC to withdraw its approval of Ligado's application and take this opportunity to work with the NTIA [National Telecommunications and Information Administration] and other federal agencies, including the departments of Defense and Transportation, to find a solution that will both support commercial broadband expansion and protect national security assets. Moreover, we expect the FCC to resolve Department of Defense concerns before moving forward, as required by law,” the lawmakers wrote. “If they do not, and unless President [Donald] Trump intervenes to stop this from moving forward, it will be up to Congress to clean up this mess.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2020/04/22/air-force-works-to-mitigate-ligado-deals-impact-on-gps/