Defence`s Feeds

The electoral victory of Donald Trump as US president-elect will mean new and uncomfortable pressure on the European allies to step up to the plate on defence spending, according to European Union (EU) and NATO diplomats. It could also spur support in Europe for more strategic autonomy from the

What was expected to be a modest transition of defence policy following a projected Hillary Clinton election victory was rocked in the early hours of 9 November when Donald Trump was declared the winner and defence companies and experts scrambled to guess what will happen next. After-hours trading

A Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II combat aircraft with a US Marine Corps (USMC) training squadron experienced a fire in its weapons bay during a training mission on 27 October, the service acknowledged in a 9 November statement. The aircraft from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFAT)

The Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) Majestic-class light aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne has successfully launched an Evolved Sea Sparrow missile (ESSM) during a test off the east coast of Australia.

The Royal Canadian Navy's (RCN) Halifax-class frigate HMCS Montréal has begun its first deployment under RCN's experimental ship, or X-Ship, programme.

The UK Royal Navy’s first nuclear deterrent submarine is to be named Dreadnought, DARPA tested ACTUV vessel with TALONS prototype payload and UK and France launch next phase of £117m MMCM programme. Naval-technology.com wraps up key headlines from Oc…

Key Points Southeast Asia has mixed reactions to Trump's US election victory US rebalance and defence trade guidelines could be impacted Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election has been met with mixed reactions from within Southeast Asia, conscious that a shift in US policy could

Iran is building a "much larger" version of the unusual catamaran it unveiled in September, the Tasnim News Agency cited Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy (IRGCN) commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi as saying on 8 November. The catamaran was unveiled in the Gulf port of Bushehr on 13

Polish defence industry conglomerate PGZ announced on 8 November that it had created a "centre of competence" for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at Military Aviation Works No. 2 (WZL 2), located in the northwestern town of Bydgoszcz. According to a statement released by PGZ, the new

The Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN) has received its sixth Incheon-class Future Frigate Experimental (FFX) guided-missile frigate, Yonhap news agency reported on 9 November citing the country's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA). The 114 m platform, which has been named Gwangju with

Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering) posted double-digit declines in earnings and profits during the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, the group announced on 10 November. The company said that quarterly revenues climbed year-on-year by 8% to SGD1.61 billion (USD1.1 billion). Despite

The head of Turkey's Undersecretary of Defence Industry (Savunma Sanayii Müstesar: SSM) Ismail Demir told journalists on 8 November that the country was looking to re-open procurement of its air defence systems to foreign bidders. "We have already made clear that we will be in

Key Points President-elect Donald Trump's victory represents a win for a populist movement that converged around economic disaffection, trade protectionism, and immigration reform. At home, Trump will look to undo a number of major policies of incumbent Barack Obama's presidency including

Americas Brazil - 8 November 2016: Outside Vitoria airport, taxi drivers held a protest against what they described as unfair competition from Uber. Colombia - 9 November 2016: In Neiva, locals held a demonstration against environmental damage caused by the El Quimbo hydropower dam. Mexico - 8

British L22A2 Compact Assault Rifle

Russian AK-15 Assault Rifle

Czech CZ 806 BREN 2 Assault Rifle

22 satellite imagery analysts and experts from seven EDA Member States (Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland) plus Denmark, as well as six analysts from the European Union Satellite Centre (EU SATCEN) and one from the European Border and Coast Agency (FRONTEX) met from 19-21 October at the SATCEN headquarter in Torrejón de Ardoz/Madrid for a REACT study implementation meeting.

The REACT (Radar imagEry Applications supporting ACTionable intelligence) study, initiated and managed by the European Defence Agency (EDA) in cooperation with EU SATCEN and participating Member States, aims at giving more value to imagery data, identifying areas where military imagery analysts can be assisted by tools/workflows to produce valuable and possibly actionable intelligence, according to users’ information requests. The study is focused on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery processes and in the combined use of SAR and electro-optical images. The study has been awarded to an international consortium composed by: e-GEOS, Telespazio Ibérica and INTA. The contract was signed in January 2016.

The aim of the REACT implementation session was to test, in a pseudo-operational environment, the workflows for the exploitation of satellite radar imagery defined during the previous phases of the study. Several workflows were tested: Monitoring, Damage Assessment, Search/Targeting. New algorithms, still in a research and development phase, were also presented. For each of programme topics, the operational experts received a “Request for Information” task.

The operators were tasked to perform imagery processing and imagery analysis in accordance with the workflows previously defined during the REACT study. Satellite radar imagery was provided by the EU SATCEN and by the industrial consortium.

The session proved to be extremely useful for the participating experts in many respects, especially because it helped them to face the intrinsic complexity of working with radar imagery and provided practical information in each step of the defined workflow. The expertise acquired during the session will also help the imagery analysts to establish effective working procedures for radar imagery exploitation, understand the pros and cons of using the several software suites available and evaluate the state of the art of new tools and algorithms for radar imagery exploitation (e.g Automatic Target Detection & Recognition).

An additional similar session will be organized in Rome in December for two scenarios typically encountered during FRONTEX activities: pre-frontier and coastal monitoring.

The results of the REACT activities will feed into the work of the forthcoming EDA Project Team Space Based Earth Observation. In addition to that, the lessons learned during the meeting on the new tools and algorithms may also be discussed in the relevant EDA CapTechs.

More information:

• EDA and EU Satellite Centre (SATCEN) formalize cooperation with exchange of letters (webnews July 2016)

EVENT Five suspected Islamists were yesterday (8 November) detained in co-ordinated counter-terrorism raids targeting several flats and a mosque in Germany's federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. The detainees are accused of recruiting individuals and providing financial and

The election of Republican candidate Donald Trump as US president is likely to increase uncertainty among key US allies in the Asia-Pacific region about Washington's future level of commitment to security alliances, according to South Korean and Japanese media. The concerns are linked to statements