13 juin 2024 | International, Aérospatial
Romania launches expansion of air base near Ukraine
The project to extend the military base, which has housed U.S. capabilities and forces since 1999, was approved prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion.
23 mai 2019 | International, Naval
Naval Group-led team gets €2 billion mine-hunter contract for Belgian, Dutch navies
COLOGNE, Germany – The Belgian defense ministry has awarded a consortium led by France's Naval Group a nearly €2 billion contract to deliver mine-hunting ships and drones to the navies of Belgium and the Netherlands, according to the shipbuilder.
The announcement on Wednesday came after the customary review period by the Belgian legislature had passed. The Brussels government announced in March that it planned to select Belgium Naval and Robotics, a joint venture of Naval Group and ECA Group, to produce 12 vessels equipped with around 100 drones for the two countries. Six vessels will go to Belgium, the other six to the Dutch.
Finding and disabling sea mines is a key mission for the two neighboring countries. Their navies are configured mainly to defend territorial waters and the nearby English Channel, which allows passage to the North Sea.
The offer by Naval Group and ECA Group leans heavily on undersea drones to deal with the treacherous weapons. The ships will be built to launch and recover the ECA Group's “Inspector 125” unmanned boats, which carry various autonomous underwater drones for finding mines and setting them off from a safe distance.
The contract is expected to last 10 years, according to a consortium statement. An initial three-year development phase is to be followed by a production stage, putting the first system in the water by 2024.
The two companies hope that the high-profile deal will generate additional sales elsewhere in the world. “The Belgian and Dutch navies being a reference in mine warfare within NATO, the choice of our consortium is a major asset for export,” a statement reads.
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31 décembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Budget Busters: What to Look For in 2019 and Beyond
By PAUL MCLEARY The release of the 2020 defense budget is still over a month away, and it's already been a wild ride. A look at what has happened, and what might happen next. WASHINGTON: If there's one complaint that has sounded a consistent across the Joint Chiefs and Pentagon leadership in recent years, it has been the lack of predictability in year-to-year funding. If there's one thing we have learned about President Trump, it's that nothing is certain until the very end. And even when there's a decision, it can be flipped, rehashed, tinkered with or forgotten about in the time it take to knock out a Tweet on phone. After two years of budget certainty in 2018-19, the 2020 submission was humming along at $733 billion — until it wasn't. In late October, the number plummeted (relatively speaking) to $700 billion, until the president was convinced by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — not yet on his way out at the time — to rocket it up to $750 billion. But even that number isn't certain. Most analysts see the 2020 submission settling around the $733 billion level. Visiting US troops at the Al Asad air base on Dec. 26, the president gave the latest vague update. “I mean, I want to see costs come down, too. But not when it comes to our military. You have to have the finest equipment anywhere in the world, and you have that — $716 billion. And this year, again, we're going to be — don't tell anybody because nobody else knows — even a little bit higher.” Whatever the number is, it appears likely that incoming acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan will be the one to deliver and defend it on Capitol Hill in February, as Mattis has been told to leave by Jan. 1. It's unclear what effect the firing of Mattis will have on the process, or if there will be any significant strategic shifts for the department given the change in leadership. As budget guru Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told me this week — specifically in reference to the Space Force, but it really applies across the entire budget — “the thing to keep in mind is that this is, so far, just the Pentagon's proposal to the White House. It's not clear if the White House is going to agree to this. The president has a way of sticking to his ideas even if his own administration recommends otherwise.” Here are a few of the stories we've done over the past months breaking down what is happening, and what might — might — happen next. Full article: https://breakingdefense.com/2018/12/budget-busters-what-to-look-for-in-2019-and-beyond
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7 juillet 2024 | International, Sécurité
OVHcloud Hit with Record 840 Million PPS DDoS Attack Using MikroTik Routers
OVHcloud mitigates record-breaking 840 Mpps DDoS attack, highlights surge in attack frequency and intensity, and warns of potential MikroTik router th