South Korea to launch first domestically built spy satellite

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  16 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Japan highlights F-35 acquisition, military ops amid pandemic in new whitepaper

  By: Mike Yeo MELBOURNE, Australia — In its latest whitepaper, Japan has discussed its impending acquisition of F-35B fighter jets and highlighted efforts by regional militaries to expand their influence and activities despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The full document, released July 14 in Japanese, contains a section on the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant of the Lockheed Martin aircraft, noting that with regional countries making “remarkable progress” in air power modernization, the country needed to respond in kind.. The whitepaper highlighted the operational flexibility of the F-35B, noting the jet's ability to operate without the need for long runways, which would enable the Japan Air Self-Defense Force to significantly expand the number of locations from whence the service can conduct air superiority operations. The whitepaper noted there are currently 20 airports and air bases throughout Japan that have runways sufficiently long enough to support JASDF air superiority operations. Operating the F-35B would theoretically allow the JASDF to expand that number to 45, which would include some of the runways on Japan's far-flung southern islands. Japan has plans to eventually acquire 42 F-35Bs to operate alongside its planned fleet of 105 conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35As, making it the top customer of the F-35 outside the United States. The 42 F-35Bs include 18 to be contracted over the next five years, with Japan setting aside approximately $795 million in its current defense budget to acquire six. It is also converting the helicopter destroyer Izumo, which has a 245-meter flight deck and was originally designed to carry helicopters primarily for anti-submarine warfare, to operate the F-35B. The air defense challenge facing the JASDF was also highlighted in April this year, when the Ministry of Defense said the service scrambled its fighters a total of 947 times over the past year to intercept and monitor foreign military aircraft operating in the country's air defense identification zone. Chinese aircraft accounted for 675 intercepts, and Russian aircraft Russian made up 268. (The remaining four were not identified.) The whitepaper also noted a continuing pattern of operations conducted by military vessels and aircraft primarily from China and, to a lesser degree, Russia in the waters and airspace surrounding Japan. The government pledged to continue to closely monitor such activities. It also noted that such activities have continued despite the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that a prolonged global pandemic “may exert various impacts on countries' military capability.” The government added that another potential effect of the pandemic was the likelihood that it may “expose and intensify strategic competition among countries intending to create international and regional orders more preferable to themselves and to expand their influence.” The whitepaper also accused China of spreading disinformation “amid growing social uncertainties and confusion due to the spread of infection.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/07/15/japan-highlights-f-35-acquisition-military-ops-amid-pandemic-in-new-whitepaper/

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  17 décembre 2018 | International, Naval

  Australia, Naval Group conclude sub negotiations

  By: Nigel Pittaway MELBOURNE, Australia – Australian Defence Minister Christopher Pyne confirmed that the Australian government has finally concluded negotiations for the formal signing of a strategic partnering agreement for 12 large conventionally-powered attack submarines from Naval Group. Australia is acquiring the vessels under its $50 billion (U.S. $36.12 billion) Project Sea 1000 (Future Submarine) to replace its existing fleet of six Collins Submarines from the early 2030s. The subs will be the ‘Attack' class with the lead vessel named HMAS Attack. They will be fabricated in Australia to a design previously known as the Shortfin Barracuda 1A. Recent local media reports have suggested that negotiations between the parties had stalled, placing the government's timeline for the Collins replacement in jeopardy, but Pyne said on Thursday the program was still on track. “There's been a lot of ill-informed mythmaking around the negotiations but I'm very happy to say today the negotiations are complete,” Pyne said during sod-turning event at the site of the Future Submarine Construction Yard at Osborne in South Australia. “The strategic planning agreement will be signed in February next year and we can continue to get on with the submarine project, which has been under the design and mobilization contract for the last two years.” Declining to provide details of the intricacies of the agreement due to their commercial nature, Pyne said the negotiations were officially concluded at an Australian Government National Security Committee meeting in Melbourne on Dec. 10. “Suffice to say the Australian government's interests, the Australian taxpayer's interests, have been taken care of,” he said. “Naval Group Australia will deliver 12 regionally-superior submarines on time and on budget.” Australia's Chief of Navy, Vice Adm. Mark Noonan, also denied reports of an emerging capability gap between the retirement of the first Collins submarines and the Attack boats entering service, which some analysts have suggested might require a ‘Plan B' to be formulated. “I don't believe that's the case,” he told reporters. “We've got a very solid plan to ensure that there is no gap in our nation's submarine capability, and there is a very advanced plan that will see a number of our current Collins class submarines going through a life of type extension program, which will ensure that capability gap doesn't exist.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2018/12/14/australia-naval-group-conclude-sub-negotiations/

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  9 novembre 2020 | International, Terrestre

  Estonian robotics company makes inroads with European armies

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Italy has become the latest country to show interest in Estonian robotics firm Milrem's THeMIS ground vehicle, as nations across Europe continue to actively pursue the unmanned systems. A photo distributed by Milrem shows the vehicle at an Italian Army base near Rome last month with its cargo hold folded wide open and the contents — a small surveillance drone made by Estonia's Threod Systems — hovering above. The THeMIS vehicle, which is short for Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System, is configurable for logistics, combat, reconnaissance or explosive ordnance disposal. In its basic version, it looks something like a cabriolet tank, roughly waist-high and piano-wide. The various combat setups include weaponry such as guns, anti-tank missiles or launchers for suicide drones mounted on top, according to Milrem's website. The company doesn't make its own arms, a spokesman told Defense News, but rather integrates weapons from other manufacturers. “Pulling the trigger is always done by the human,” the spokesman said when asked about the vehicle's level of autonomy, adding that all weapon add-ons by third-party vendors are expected to abide by that rule. The demonstration in Italy follows a string of recent announcements by armed forces in Europe and elsewhere using the THeMIS platform for testing or operations. This spring, the Estonian Defence Forces, or EDF, completed a yearlong deployment with the vehicle during the French-led Barkhane counterterrorism mission in Mali. The vehicle accompanied soldiers on patrol and ferried supplies around the base. “We collected a lot of valuable data and feedback during the deployment and although EDF's experience with the THeMIS was positive, there is always room for improvement,” Kuldar Vaarsi, CEO of Milrem, was quoted as saying in a statement. “However, after this experience in Mali, we are confident that the THeMIS is more than capable of supporting operations in extremely hot climates." The company previously said it was preparing to support another deployment with the country's forces at the end of 2020. In September, the Netherlands signed a joined procurement agreement with the Estonian government to buy seven THeMIS vehicles from Milrem — four for the Royal Netherlands Army and three for Estonian forces. For the Dutch, the purchase brings its inventory of the ground robots to six, with the two bought in 2019. “So far, the THeMIS has successfully been used for research and experiments by operational units of the 13 Light Brigade in Scotland, Germany, The Netherlands and during a live fire exercise in Austria,” Lt. Col. Martijn Hadicke of the Royal Netherlands Army was quoted as saying in a company statement. “The addition of four extra THeMIS vehicles with a Remote Controlled Weapon System that is operated by a soldier provides us the opportunity to continue to develop concepts to enhance the combat power and decrease the risk for our soldiers.” Along with the most recent outreach to Italian forces, Milrem rolled out what it dubs the Intelligent Systems Implementation Analysis and Assessment program, a three-step process designed to offer governments new capability ideas for their military robotic needs. The program “provides armed forces support from initial planning to full implementation and post implementation analyses of intelligent and robotic systems with (NATO standard) concept development and experimentation methodologies,” according to Juri Pajuste, a retired Estonian military officer who now leads Milrem's defense research and development efforts. The company is already sitting pretty when it comes to charting a course for robotic ground vehicles under the auspices of the European Union. Milrem has positioned its THeMIS vehicle as the reference platform in a multinational program aimed at developing a common design architecture underpinning future developments in the growth market. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/11/06/estonian-robotics-company-makes-inroads-with-european-armies