19 décembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
By: Andrew Chuter
LONDON — Britain is to rebuild weapon stockpiles, strengthen Joint Forces Command and earmark cash to rapidly innovate as part of a long-awaited defense modernization review revealed Tuesday by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
The defense secretary told Parliament on Dec. 18 that the review, known as the Modernising Defence Programme, would improve the lethality, reach and mass of the armed forces. However, he stopped short on detailing where the cash would coming from and who the long-term winners and losers might be in regard to capabilities and programs as priorities change.
Although Williamson told lawmakers he would do “everything within my power to make sure that the U.K. remains a tier-one military power,” his statement disappointed some in the defense sector for its blandness.
Labour, the main opposition party in Britian, called the statement “waffle” and said Williamson had done nothing to address a funding shortfall of between £7 billion and £15 billion (U.S. $8.8 billion and $18.9 billion) in equipment budgets over the next 10 years.
Some analysts also felt the yearlong review had failed to deliver.
“It's an announcement about future announcements, it's the [Ministry of Defence] keeping lots of option open, “ said Jon Louth, the director of defense, industries and society at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London. “It's all about seeing what can be achieved in next year's governmentwide departmental spending review."
Howard Wheeldon, a British-based defense commentator, said the review had “hardly a specific detail of anything that really matters other than some minimal strategic intentions to be found amongst the prose. Perhaps the best that can be said is that while it contains many strategic positives, loads of ambition and intent, at the very least it doesn't contain any new specifics in relation to planned cuts.”
Alex Ashbourne-Walmsley of Ashbourne Strategic Consulting said the review was an “anti-climax.”
“We have waited all year for this, and what we have is a very thin document. It's hard to fault the aspiration, but making it a reality is a different matter. Where's the money coming from?” she said.
Ashbourne-Walmsley and Louth agreed the MoD's success, or otherwise, in securing additional funds when the government's departmental medium-term spending plans are agreed sometime next year is the key.
“For the MoD, it's all about next year's departmental spending review. It's unfortunate that the moment the review came on the horizon, that invalidated most of the things that the modernizing defense review could have hoped to achieve,” Ashbourne-Walmsley said.
“A lot of these plans are hostage to fortune in terms of the spending review [known as the comprehensive spending review], economic damage from Brexit and even a change of government,” she added.
The MoD has secured an additional £1.8 billion in funding this year from the Treasury for spending on items like the nuclear deterrent, anti-submarine warfare and cipher capabilities, but the department still has considerable work to do to balance the books on a total budget slated to top £39 billion next year.
The National Audit Office, the government's financial watchdog, reckons the MoD is at least £7 billion overcommitted on its 10-year, £186 billion equipment plan. But, the office admits, it could be a lot more.
Williamson acknowledged the MoD had to create “financial headroom for modernization,” but told Parliament this could be achieved through efficiencies. “Based on our work to date, we expect to achieve over the next decade the very demanding efficiency targets we were set in 2015, including through investment in a program of digital transformation,” he said.
Analysts here reckon that's an optimistic target without capability cuts; although there was no mention of any reductions in the statement.
“We all know that you cannot [achieve efficiency targets] without taking the knife to something. So what we may be able to deduce or fear is that hidden out there somewhere is a chapter of probable announcements of what might yet be to come,” Wheeldon said.
One thing appears: Spending priorities are set to change as the MoD reacts to the growing threat from potential adversaries. That includes rebuilding depleted weapons stockpiles.
“To improve the combat effectiveness of our forces, we will re-prioritize the current defense program to increase weapon stockpiles. And we are accelerating work to assure the resilience of our defense systems and capabilities,“ Williamson said.
“We will improve the readiness and availability of a range of key defense platforms: major warships, attack submarines, helicopters and a range of ISTAR platforms,” he added, without concrete details.
Williamson also said Joint Forces Command capabilities are set to be upgraded. “A major new step will involve an improved Joint Forces Command that will be in a better position so that defense can play a major role in preventing conflict in the future and improve our cyber operations and capabilities across the armed forces, but also across government as well,” he said.
“Our adversaries and competitors are accelerating the development of new capabilities and strategies. We must keep pace and conceive of our joint force as consisting of five domains — air, land, sea, cyber and space — rather than the traditional three,” he told lawmakers.
The review might have been short on details, but the MoD is pledging to drive the military modernization effort with funding, albeit a small amount, for innovation.
Britain already has a small defense innovation fund, which this year has £20 million to put toward projects in areas including unmanned air systems, virtual reality training and enhanced digital communications. The fund will grow to £50 million in the next financial year.
New “Spearhead” innovation programs will apply cutting-edge technologies to areas including subsurface threats to submarines; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities; and command and control in the land environment.
For now, the MoD is investing £160 million to create a transformation fund, but additional money may be available in the upcoming comprehensive spending review if Williamson can make the case for it.
“I will ring-fence £160 million of MoD's budget to create this [transformation] fund available for innovative new military capabilities. I will look to make a further £340 million available as part of the spending review. This fund will be available for new innovative military capabilities, which allows us to stay one step ahead of our adversaries," Williamson argued.
7 avril 2023 | International, C4ISR
Leonardo and Siemens on Thursday said they signed a memorandum of understanding to offer cybersecurity solutions for infrastructure in the energy, oil and gas and industrial sectors.
2 mai 2023 | International, Naval
The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of a naval strike missile coastal defense system and related equipment to Latvia for an estimated $110 million, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
9 novembre 2020 | International, Naval
By: Tom Kington The Italian Navy is laying the groundwork for a new DDX-type destroyer program, adding naval firepower for the country amid an increasingly volatile Mediterranean region. (Italian Navy) ROME — Fresh from a burst of shipbuilding spurred by the retirement of old vessels, the Italian Navy is now back at the drawing board to design what it considers the cornerstone of its fleet — new destroyers. After building 10 FREMM-class frigates — the same type acquired by the United States — as well as designing new 4,500-ton multimission ships, a 33,000-ton landing helicopter dock and new logistics vessels, a risk-reduction study is due to start on two 10,000-ton destroyers dubbed DDX. “Destroyers are fundamental for a blue water fleet like Italy's, which must be capable of projecting capability at sea and from the sea while operating across the whole spectrum of maritime and joint operations,” Vice Adm. Aurelio De Carolis, deputy chief of staff of the Italian Navy, told Defense News. “Apart from carriers, amphibious vessels and submarines, you need destroyers with land strike and task group-protection capabilities,” he added. The Navy wants the 175-meter-long vessels to replace two aging destroyers, the ITS Durand de la Penne and ITS Mimbelli. Those two vessels entered service in the early 1990s and were joined in service by Italy's two more recent Horizon-class ships, which the Navy classifies as destroyers. “We have always had two pairs of destroyers in service, dating back to the 1960s,” De Carolis said. With €4.5 million (U.S. $5.3 million) budgeted so far for two-year feasibility and risk-reduction studies starting early next year, the Navy aims to have a final operational requirement by 2022, sign a construction contract in 2023 — funding permitting — complete the design in 2025, and receive the first ship by 2028. Current plans envisage vessels that are 24 meters wide with a 9-meter draft and more than 300 crew, while offering a top speed of over 30 knots using the CODOGAL (COmbined Diesel Or Gas And eLectric) propulsion system, De Carolis said. The system allows the use of either gas or diesel turbines, plus electric propulsion for lower speeds. Italy is renewing its Navy amid the Mediterranean Sea's shift from a backwater to a tinderbox as Turkey throws its weight around, Libya remains tense after years of conflict and Russia tries to increase its regional influence. When fully budgeted, the ships likely will be built by Italian state firm Fincantieri, keeping the yard busy after a run of recent naval construction thanks to Italy's $6.3 billion so-called Naval Law in 2014 that led to the landing helicopter dock (LHD), multimission vessels (PPA) and logistic ship programs. Equipping the warship Long-range firepower for the destroyers will be guaranteed by six eight-cell missile launchers for a total of 48 cells, with two launchers toward the bow (ahead of the bridge) and the remainder amidships. Aster anti-air missiles, already in use on other Italian vessels, will be adopted, as well as a land-strike missile. “The Navy needs a credible land-strike capability and we are considering options now,” De Carolis said. That could lead the Navy to consider MBDA's naval variant of the Scalp missile. What is confirmed is the acquisition of the European consortium's Teseo Mk2 Evolved anti-ship missile, which the admiral said offers “land-strike capability in the littoral.” The weapon will be fired from launchers located immediately behind the bridge, he confirmed. A rear helicopter deck and hangar will be able to host two Navy EH101 or two SH90 helicopters. The ship's cannons will be the same Italian-built types that have become standard issue for Italy's naval vessels in recent years. A Leonardo 127mm gun at the front of the vessel will fire the firm's Vulcano guided munitions, while two Leonardo 76mm guns at the center of the vessel will fire the guided Dart munition, again developed by the Italian firm. A third 76mm gun sits astride the helicopter hangar at the rear of the ship. Dubbed “Sovraponte” and built to be positioned on top of ship structures, the cannon was first developed for the PPA vessels. “We are satisfied with Sovraponte,” the admiral said. The cannon is one example of how the destroyer will leverage new technologies funded by the Naval Law, with radar another example. The destroyers will mount Leonardo's Kronos, an active electronically scanned array radar with a fixed face as well as C- and X-band antennas, which are mounted behind panels above the bridge. This technology was used in the two “Full” versions of the seven PPA vessels. Leonardo will also supply the same rotating L-band long-range radar, to be positioned at the rear of the vessel, which has also been adopted for the LHD Trieste. The combat management system as well as the communications and electronic warfare suites will be derived from those developed for the newest ships of the fleet, while anti-submarine capabilities will include sonars (both hull-mounted and towed array), torpedo launchers, and decoys. What's next? The Trieste is set to join Italy's three San Giorgio-class amphibious assault ships to provide a four-strong amphibious fleet, which will require protection, De Caroils said. “We will need at least two destroyers ready at all times, which means four destroyers in total,” he explained. “The procurement is also part of our commitment to NATO since we are part of a project to stand up new amphibious task forces, each containing three battalion-level landing elements with related combat and combat-service support, which means four amphibious ships and destroyers for protection. “These destroyers will defend — together with [anti-submarine warfare] frigates, submarines and embarked naval aviation — amphibious naval task groups during their movement towards assault areas, and then provide effective naval fire support for the sustainment of projection and ashore operations carried out by elements of the landing force. All this is required, including the capability to play the crucial role of coordination and control of the airspace over the amphibious objective area. “The U.S. and Russia still operate cruisers, but most other navies today rely on destroyers for fighting power. They must cover anti-air, anti-ship and anti-submarine operations with a focus on integrated air and missile defense, including ballistic missile defense.” The most “critical task” for destroyers, he added, is protecting carrier battle groups and playing the typical “shotgun role” for carriers. Examples he gave included the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War when the Italian vessel ITS Audace was part of the escort to the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, and during Operation Enduring Freedom in 2002, when the ITS Durand de la Penne escorted the U.S. Navy carriers John C. Stennis and John F. Kennedy. “Italy cannot do without a balanced Navy covering all operations from blue to green to brown waters and well into the littorals, from minesweeping to submarines and fixed-wing carriers, with overall air protection provided by destroyers and anti-submarine warfare mostly played by frigates,” he added. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/11/09/italy-plans-new-destroyers-for-2028-delivery