23 juin 2020 | International, Naval

A naval arms race is gaining speed in the Mediterranean Sea

ROME — In mid-May, Libyans standing on a beach in the west of the country reportedly watched a Turkish frigate off the coast fire a missile, which downed a drone operated by the United Arab Emirates.

The incident has not been confirmed but is consistent with Turkey's bold use of naval power in recent weeks as it takes a central role in a proxy war in Libya that has sucked in regional players from Russia and Egypt to Qatar and France.

So far, Turkey's foes in Libya appear to be impressed by its show of strength.

“In recent days there have been no reports of UAE drone flights against Turkish backed targets,” said Jalel Harchaoui, an analyst at the Clingendael Institute in the Netherlands.

Turkey's stance in Libya shows how the Mediterranean has turned in a few years from a backwater on the fringes of Middle East turmoil to a major flash point. As Libya burns, tensions are also rising over new gas fields in the Mediterranean and Russia is re-entering the fray.

The result is a new round of naval rearmament.

“Tension is escalating and I see procurement following suit,” said Sidharth Kaushal, a sea power research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Turkish navy ships have been a constant presence off the Libyan coast since Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan sided with the U.N.-recognized Libyan government in Tripoli in its defense of the capital against an attack by Libyan strongman Gen. Khalifar Haftar.

This spring, Tripoli forces backed by Syrian fighters sent in by Turkey rebuffed Haftar, despite the general receiving backing from Russian mercenaries, the UAE, Egypt and France.

To help ensure the victory, Turkish vessels are thought to have given sensor support to Turkish drones as they attacked Haftar and destroyed Russian Pantsir air defense systems backing him.

Turkey sails ex-Oliver Hazard Perry-class vessels it acquired second-hand from the U.S. Navy which fire surface to air missiles, and is also eyeing new frigates, said Kaushal. “They might build their own hull but would shop abroad for electronics and sensors, rather like China did in the early 2000′s,” he said.

Vessels that Turkey has already deployed in the Mediterranean have been also been busy escorting cargo ships to Libya allegedly loaded with arms and supplies for fighters in Tripoli.

One such cargo ship was reportedly confronted on June 10 by a European Union task force set up to stop violations of an international arms embargo on Libya, only for the Turkish frigates escorting the vessel to turn back the EU force.

What makes the new tension in the Mediterranean so confusing is how old rules and alliances have been blurred. Turkey's alleged violation of the arms embargo came weeks after its vessels had joined partner navies for a NATO exercise off the Algerian coast.

Turkey has meanwhile been accused of threatening Cyprus' rights to undersea gas deposits with its own plans to drill in the Mediterranean, sparking a show-of-force naval exercise by Turkey's NATO allies France and Italy to tamp down Turkey's aggression.

Turkey's behavior has also rattled Egypt, said analyst Harchaoui, despite Cairo's own recent spending spree on naval assets from France, including two Mistral amphibious vessels purchased after Paris opted not to sell them to Russia, four Gowind corvettes and a FREMM frigate.

Italy, which has also built FREMMs in a joint program with France, is now in talks to sell two of the vessels to Egypt. The ships are ready, since they were originally built for the Italian navy, which will now have to wait for the construction of two more ships by Italy's Fincantieri to fill its own quota.

At the eastern end of the Mediterranean, Russia is meanwhile renewing its Black Sea fleet and looking to leverage its access to Syria's Tartus port to increase its naval clout in the Mediterranean as it seeks to become a player in the region, said Kaushal.

“Russia wants to be able to arm all its vessels with its Kalibr cruise missile, which has previously fired 2,000 kilometers from the Caspian into Syria,” he said. “It is a very cheap way to build up power projection. Putting this type of missile on low-cost vessels is the future, Russia is setting the trend by making minimal resources go a long way, and France and Italy, as well as Greece and Turkey may follow suit,” he said.

“Russia also has the P-800 Oniks supersonic anti-ship missile, which reaches 400 kilometers to 600 kilometers — and there is no Western equivalent,” he added.

The build up of lethal naval hardware in the Mediterranean is also going on under the sea, with submarines returning to the area in numbers.

“It is not impossible that Turkey would send submarines to Libya,” said Harchaoui.

Last year Algeria test fired a Kalibr missile from one of its Kilo-class Russian submarines, while in April, Egypt took delivery of the third of four German HDW Class 209 subs it has ordered. Germany has also supplied Turkey and Greece, which operate 12 and 11 subs respectively.

“There are 20-30 submarines deployable in the Mediterranean now, a higher number than 10 years ago,” said Paolo Crippa, a defense analyst at the Cesi think tank in Rome.

The total number of subs operated by countries giving on to the Mediterranean is currently 63, he said.

It is therefore hardly surprising the Italian Navy is increasing its focus on anti-submarine capabilities. If it does hand over two of its FREMM vessels for the Egypt deal, it will likely order the two replacements with added anti-submarine capabilities.

Italy is meanwhile due to receive a new LHD vessel, the Trieste, which will host the navy's F-35Bs, while local yard Fincantieri is also building new PPA vessels for the navy.

In a defense white paper drawn up in 2015, Italy said it aspired to be the top naval power in the Mediterranean. Five years on, in a much changed world, that ambition is increasingly under threat.

“In terms of number of vessels, Italy's aim might be reasonable, but the political will to use a navy will always be key,” Kaushal said.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/06/22/a-naval-arms-race-is-gaining-speed-in-the-mediterranean-sea/

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30 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial

RAF Retiring Reaper In 2024, Paving Way For Protector
By Tony Osborne LONDON—Britain is planning to retire its General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft systems in 2024 as the Royal Air Force transitions to its new Protector platform. Although Royal Air Force (RAF) officers have not detailed when the first of the new Protector aircraft will arrive, there will be a transition as crews retrain from Reaper onto Protector, with the Reaper complementing the Protector on operations, Wing Commander Judith Graham, the RAF's Protector Program Manager, told Aerospace DAILY at the Royal International Air Tattoo earlier this month. “Reaper is an extraordinarily valuable capability for the UK government, so we don't want there to be a capability gap,” Graham said. The plan for avoiding a capability gap between Reaper and Protector suggests that a significant number of Protectors will have entered service by the time the Reaper is retired. The UK currently has 10 MQ-9 Reapers that it purchased as an urgent operational requirement for operations in Afghanistan. Today, they operate over Iraq and Syria, but none are destined for use in UK airspace. Work also is underway to select the site for a new facility at RAF Waddington, UK, from which the Protector fleet and the UK's new E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft will be operated. Graham said the facility needs “to be ready for Protector by the end of 2021,” suggesting that first Protector deliveries could take place in 2022. Britain plans to centralize its Protector operations from Waddington, resulting in the UK presence at Creech AFB, Nevada being scaled down. Because of the Protector's ability to self-deploy and perform autonomous landing and take-off, there also is a significantly reduced need for forward-based personnel to land the aircraft at forward-operating locations, further reducing the personnel burden. The UK currently is planning to buy 16 Protectors, a derivative of General Atomics' self-developed, certifiable SkyGuardian platform, which has been redesigned to pave the way for it to meet military airworthiness requirements. As a result, the aircraft now features an all-weather capability with an electro-expulsive de-icing system that blows the ice off the leading edges of the wings and Y-stabilizers. General Atomics also has increased the fatigue life and damage tolerance of the aircraft and produced flight-critical software certifiable to the DO-178 standard. British Protectors will be armed with the Raytheon Paveway IV laser-guided-bomb and MBDA Brimstone air-to-ground missile. There also are plans to fit it with Leonardo's Sage Electronic Support Measures system. The aircraft will also be equipped with General Atomics' Lynx synthetic aperture radar, but there are studies to look at installing a larger radar, such as Leonardo's Seaspray surface-search radar. Work on the integration of such a radar, which could allow the Protector to support the UK's new P-8 Poseidon in the maritime patrol role, is being scoped but is not yet funded. RAF officers are working alongside General Atomics at its San Diego, California, facility as part of a combined test team to pave the way for the platform's certification by the UK Military Aviation Authority, which the RAF hopes will allow the aircraft to fly in non-segregated airspace for training and support to national authorities. They are hoping to do this even without the immediate installation of General Atomics internally developed sense-and-avoid radar. The RAF's Protectors will be compatible, but not immediately equipped, with the active electronically scanned array radar, but Graham said work was underway with the UK's newly renamed Strategic Command (formerly Joint Forces Command) to understand the requirement for the radar, and test and evaluation work was underway. Officials state that the radar likely will be introduced as part of the full operational capability for the platform. The UK also will use the General Atomics Advanced Cockpit ground control station, which uses a similar flight management system to the Beechcraft King Air 350. Under current plans, the British Protectors will be flown by a crew of three—a pilot, a sensor operator and a mission intelligence coordinator. Rather than flying the aircraft from inside transportable containers, the seven ground control stations will occupy a permanent building with room for expansion. There also will be scope to add an additional mission specialist, should a particular mission require it, officials say. https://aviationweek.com/defense/raf-retiring-reaper-2024-paving-way-protector
3 octobre 2022 | International, Aérospatial

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15 juin 2018 | International, Aérospatial

Harris wins $400 million contract modification for electronic warfare system
By: Maddy Longwell Harris Corp., a Florida-based defense contractor, has been awarded a fixed-price-incentive-firm contract modification worth as much as $400 million from the Air Force for the production of a electronic warfare system to sell overseas. The modification means the total cost of the contract will increase from $91 million to about $491 million. Harris produces Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite (AIDEWS). AIDEWS is an electronic warfare system that provides tools such as radar warning and radio frequency countermeasures capability, either internally or through an externally attached pod, to jets. The contact provides for the production of the AN/ALQ-211 (V) 4/8/9 AIDEWS systems, software, and support equipment. The contract also provides for the countermeasures dispensing systems AN/ALE-47 and ALE-47 threat adaptive countermeasure dispensing systems, which protect from air-to-air and surface-to-air heat-seeking missiles. The work will take place in New Jersey. Harris' 2016 contract was to supply AIDEWS systems and support equipment to the Royal Moroccan Air Force. https://www.c4isrnet.com/electronic-warfare/2018/06/14/harris-wins-400-million-contract-modification-for-electronic-warfare-system/

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A naval arms race is gaining speed in the Mediterranean Sea

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