Sweden vows to push defense collaboration, cyber defense at EU helm

Sur le même sujet

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  30 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  South Korea to spend $2 billion on aircraft buy

  By: Mike Yeo MELBOURNE, Australia – South Korea is set to acquire more airborne surveillance and intelligence gathering aircraft, as the U.S. ally seeks to bolster its capabilities in both areas. The country's Defense Project Promotion Committee approved last Friday plans to acquire an undisclosed number of airborne early warning and control, or AEW&C aircraft, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration or DAPA. The committee also approved plans to acquire more signals intelligence or SIGINT gathering aircraft. Approximately $1.3 billion has been earmarked for the acquisition of the AEW&C aircraft for entry into service by 2027 while a further $725 million has been set aside for the SIGINT platforms, which are expected to enter service in 2026. The announcement did not disclose the platforms being pursued for either program, but South Korea is almost certain to go with additional Boeing 737 AEW&C aircraft. The Republic of Korea Air Force or ROKAF is already operating four such aircraft, acquired from the United States under the Peace Eye program, since 2012. The Peace Eye 737s are derivatives of Boeing's 737 Next Generation airliners fitted with a distinctive dorsal radar housing containing a Northrop Grumman Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array or MESA radar. The L-band radar is reportedly capable of simultaneous air and sea search, fighter control and area search, simultaneously tracking 180 targets and conducting 24 intercepts. The DAPA announcement said the acquisition of additional AEW&C aircraft will be to further minimize gaps in South Korea's air defence coverage. South Korea has in recent months publicised the intercept of Chinese and Russian military aircraft entering the Korean Air Defense Identification Zone or KADIZ. The new SIGINT aircraft will be used to replace four older platforms based on the Hawker 800 business jets. DAPA says the new aircraft will be equipped with indigenous systems and will serve alongside two Dassault Falcon 2000 SIGINT aircraft delivered to the ROKAF in 2017. The older Hawker 800 platforms were acquired in 1996 under the Paekdu project and were modified by E-Systems Incorporated for its SIGINT role. The aircraft were delivered in the early 2000s along with four other Hawker 800XPs modified for imagery reconnaissance with synthetic aperture radars and moving target indicators. https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/06/29/south-korea-to-spend-2-billion-on-aircraft-buy/

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  9 septembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  GOP’s ‘targeted’ stimulus doesn’t include defense dollars

  By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday introduced and set up a floor vote for a leaner Republican coronavirus relief bill, but it does not contain the billions of dollars the defense industry has sought to diffuse the economic impact of the pandemic. The bill, which includes some of the elements of the $1 trillion package the GOP proposed in July, is intended to break a weekslong partisan stalemate. However, it has a slim chance of passage in the face of Democrats' insistence for more sweeping aid. “The Senate Republican majority is introducing a new targeted proposal, focused on some of the very most urgent health-care, education and economic issues. It does not contain every idea our party likes,” McConnell said in a statement. “I will be moving immediately today to set up a floor vote as soon as this week.” It wasn't immediately clear what the differences, if any, were to an earlier version that Senate Republicans floated last month. Both draft bills excluded the $29 billion for defense that the GOP included in its previous $1 trillion package. The $1 trillion proposal from July contained $11 billion to reimburse defense contractors for coronavirus-related expenses, as authorized by Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. which expires Sept. 30. Defense firms and trade associations have lobbied for an extension of Section 3610 as well as the funding, fearing the Pentagon would otherwise have to tap modernization and readiness accounts. The move comes as lawmakers straggle back to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, as hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else. Passage of an extension for Section 3610 and any funding may have a better chance if lawmakers can attach it to and pass a stopgap continuing resolution before Sept. 30, when the fiscal year ends and 2020 appropriations run out. However, defense industry observers were pessimistic on Tuesday. “I don't see any of the COVID package procurement money making it into the CR, and the CR is a high hurdle in any event,” a defense industry source told Defense News. “This Senate bill is a ‘press release' bill and not a piece of legislation that has a chance of passing into law.” Several Republican senators in tough reelection bids are eager to show constituents they are working to ease the pandemic's strain on jobs, businesses and health care. But many Senate Republicans are resisting more spending. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters Tuesday that the GOP conference would discuss the legislation during a meeting on Wednesday. McConnell's move Tuesday would clear the way for a Thursday test vote in which the $500 billion, scaled-back bill — roughly half the size of a measure McConnell unveiled earlier this summer — is sure to be blocked by Democrats. McConnell's bill would provide more than $100 billion to help schools reopen, enact a shield against lawsuits for businesses and others that are powering ahead to reopen, create a scaled-back supplemental jobless benefit of $300-per-week, and write off $10 billion in earlier post office debt. (The National Defense Industrial Association is among groups that have called for a liability shield.) But the bill won't contain another round of $1,200 direct payments going out under President Donald Trump's name. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., continues to demand $2.2 trillion, and while Trump's negotiators have signaled a willingness to inch further in her direction, a significant gap remains. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., rapped McConnell in a statement Tuesday for resisting earlier calls to work on an economic stimulus bill. They called the most recent bill “political” and a nonstarter with Democrats. “As they scramble to make up for this historic mistake, Senate Republicans appear dead-set on another bill which doesn't come close to addressing the problems and is headed nowhere,” Pelosi and Schumer said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/09/08/will-gops-targeted-stimulus-include-defense-dollars/

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  30 mars 2023 | International, Autre défense

  Turkey's parliament ratifies Finland's NATO application | CBC News

  Finland is set to join NATO following ratification of its membership by the Turkish government ? the last holdout among the 30 nations in?the military alliance.