30 janvier 2019 | International, Naval, Terrestre
By: Todd South
The Marine Corps is looking to plus up the firepower aboard its new amphibious combat vehicle with a 30mm cannon.
Officials with Marine Corps Systems Command posted a request for information on the government website FedBizOpps on Monday. The ACV will replace the aging assault amphibious vehicle, which entered service in the early 1970s.
The Marines want three variants of the ACV ― a command and control configuration, a recovery and maintenance setup and ACVs with 30mm medium-caliber cannons.
The older AAV had space for a 40mm grenade launcher, but in direct vehicle-on-vehicle fighting the 30mm cannon offers fast, high-volume direct fire.
BAE Systems was selected in 2018 to produce the ACV, which is expected to reach initial operational capability by fiscal year 2020. The company has built amphib vehicles for the military since 1941.
The ACV is a chief “connector” from ship to shore for Marine amphibious operations. it will include mine resistant ambush protected-level armor, and able to “negotiate two-foot significant wave height and four-foot plunging surf,” according to Program Executive Office-Land Systems.
The 30mm-cannon arming follows suit with making existing and future ground combat vehicles more lethal. The Army began upgunning its Stryker vehicles with a 30mm cannon, replacing its twin .50-caliber machine guns.
In 2018, the Army also put in place the common remotely operated weapon station for the Javelin missile on the Stryker, keeping soldiers inside the vehicle when firing the missile.
Those upgrades began first in Germany as a counter to increased capabilities in the Russian ground formations.
The Marines have also started upgrading their light armored vehicle, also a decades-old platform, to include a better powerpack, drive train and digitized instrument panels.
Late last year the Corps was still only looking at two ACV variants, according to official postings: the turreted assault vehicle and the command and control version.
At the annual Modern Day Marine Military Expo at Quantico, Virginia, John Swift, program director for BAE's amphibious vehicles, told Marine Corps Times that they expect to have 30 vehicles built by the end of summer 2019 to go through testing and modifications as the Corps decides the composition of the ACV fleet. Those will be basic testing platforms.
This most recent posting gives some indications of what the Corps needs.
Most recently the Corps was asking for 704 ACVs when full production begins in 2022. Those are expected to be done within six years.
And a previously ongoing contract with another company to perform survivability upgrades on an estimated 392 AAVs was cancelled last year in a move of funding from that program to more rapid modernization priorities.
The legacy AAV is a tracked vehicle, while its replacement will be an eight-wheel vehicle.
24 mars 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
The UK military is aligning its focus to platforms that will serve it well in the Pacific, and this is a quick look at how the nation’s plans for aerospace programs are changing.
14 septembre 2020 | International, Terrestre
By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Rheinmetall announced it has found the first-ever taker for its new Lynx infantry fighting vehicle, with Hungary buying 218 copies for more than $2 billion. Company executives celebrated the order as a key deal for the company, following an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Army's Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle replacement program last year. “The Lynx's market breakthrough is a major success for us,” Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said in a statement. “And the fact that we were able to convince Hungary — an important EU and NATO partner — to choose this innovative vehicle makes this success all the greater.” Hungary has been on a military shopping spree recently, with billions of dollars spent on American missile-defense weaponry and German Leopard 2 tanks in the most modern configuration. At the same time, the government of Prime Minister Victor Orban is at odds with much of the European Union over its curbing of press freedoms and sidelining parliamentary oversight under the pretext of a state of emergency in response to the spread of COVID-19. Rheinmetall's €2 billion (U.S. $2.4 billion) contract with the Hungarian government, signed in Budapest, is for 218 Lynx KF41 vehicles, nine Buffalo armored recovery vehicles, as well as spares and simulators, the company wrote in a statement. The Lynx vehicles will be equipped with Rheinmetall's manned Lance 30mm turret. Production is slated for two phases, with the first 46 Lynx copies and the nine Buffalos to be built in Germany and delivered by early 2023. A second batch of 172 Lynx vehicles will then roll off a future production line in Hungary, for which the company established a joint venture with the Hungarian government last month. Rheinmetall's newest vehicle is also in the running in the Czech Republic as well as Australia, where the company has something of a lock on much of the land modernization program. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/09/11/hungary-is-rheinmetalls-launch-customer-for-the-lynx-fighting-vehicle
11 janvier 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By PAUL MCLEARY WASHINGTON: The UK is ready to start deploying the first batch of its new F-35 fighter overseas the country's top defense official said Thursday, while introducing a slew of new cruise and attack missiles for its Typhoon jets. The announcement of Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for nine F-35Bs comes weeks after the Royal Navy performed its first F-35 landings aboard the new Queen Elizabeth-class of aircraft carrier, built specifically to accommodate the F-35B. The head of Lockheed Martin UK, Peter Ruddock, noted that the IOC pertains to “land-based aircraft.” That seems sensible given that Joint Strike Fighter operations from the carrier just began. But questions surround the overall health of the UK's military, as it embarks on an expansive modernization program that is facing brisk headwinds in the form of an uncertain withdrawal from the European Union and looming budget shortfalls in the coming years. On Thursday however, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson stood in front of a hangar full of F-35s and Typhoons at the RAF Marham air base, which has just undergone a major facelift to accommodate the F-35 — including new runways and a training center — to declare a new era in UK power projection. “The incredible F-35 jets are ready for operations, a transformed Typhoon has the power to dominate the skies into the 2040s and we continue to look even further into an ambitious future,” he said. “The RAF has long shown Britain at its great and global best, and today it lifts our nation to even greater heights.” Alongside the F-35 were Typhoon jets, soon to be equipped with a slew of new capabilities developed under the three-year, $540 million Project Centurion. Chief among them is the Storm Shadow air-to-ground cruise missile which boasts a range of 350 miles, the precision guided air-to-air Meteor missile with a 62-mile range, and the air-to-ground Brimstone precision attack missile. All of the missiles are made by Paris-based defense firm MBDA, a joint venture between European defense leaders Airbus, BAE Systems, and Leonardo. Air Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier, chief of the Air Staff, added: “The successful integration of Storm Shadow, Brimstone and Meteor on Typhoon completes and enhances the transition of world-class capabilities” from the retiring Tornado jets, which will “offer a step-change in our ability to employ air power around the world.” After the HMS Queen Elizabeth makes its first deployment in 2021, it will be followed two years later by the HMS Prince of Wales, bringing to a close a gap in carrier capability that Britain has experienced since retirement of the Invincible and Ark Royal. Royal Navy officials have said they're eager to get back into carrier operations, which will allow the UK to project power with fifth generation aircraft across the Middle East, Pacific, and in the Arctic, which is emerging as a major flash point as Russia and China rush to push assets north. The deployments will come as a welcome relief for the US Navy, which is struggling with maintenance on its own 11-carrier fleet. The American ships have been strained over the past 17 years of war in the Middle East and growing tensions with China in the Pacific. But the uncertainties over Brexit hangs over all of these plans. “Our nation is moving into a new era outside the EU, and our huge achievements in air capability make our commitment to a role on the world stage clear to both our allies and our enemies,” Williamson said. The UK's Director for Strategic Planning Will Jessett told reporters in Washington earlier this week that the MoD's ability to pump money into new defense programs will be affected by any deal reached between Britain and the rest of Europe, since their defense industries are intertwined. “Amongst the reasons we started to face this affordability delta in 2017 were because exchange rates did fall, relative to where they were in 2015,” he said. If we get a [Brexit] deal that's OK, I can imagine, personally, exchange rates not just stabilizing but somewhat improving. If not, it is by definition going to add further pressure into this.” He hastened to add, however, “that's not what we're planning for at the moment.” In November, the UK's National Audit Office estimated that the Ministry of Defense's defense plans will exceed allocated budgets by an average of 3.7 percent over the coming decade, which would lead to shortfalls of between $8 billion and $18 billion over that timeframe. https://breakingdefense.com/2019/01/uk-f-35s-clear-ioc-for-land-based-ops-uk-spending-big-on-defense