Defence`s Feeds

Saab has received a new order to provide maintenance and logistic support services for the Polish Navy's RBS15 Mk3 surface-to-surface missile system.

The Italian Navy has taken delivery of its sixth frégate européenne multi-mission (FREMM) frigate ITS Luigi Rizzo at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Muggiano, La Spezia, Italy.

The 10th edition of the Joint Personnel Recovery staff Course (JPRSC), a project initiated and supported by the European Defence Agency (EDA), was organised and hosted by the Swedish Armed Forces SERE School, a close partner of the Agency.

The JPRSC, which is part of the EDA’s Personnel Recovery Controller and Planner Course (PRCPC) Cat B project, was successfully conducted from 27 Marsh to 7 April 17 in Karlsborg, Sweden. It was organised by the Swedish Armed Forces SERE School with the support of the seven Member States contributing to the project. 

All in all, 23 students from  Sweden, Germany, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland benefitted from the knowledge and experience of a cadre of instructors from Sweden, Germany, Hungary and the European Personnel Recovery Centre (EPRC).

The main focus of the course was to train staff officers in supporting their commanders in Personnel Recovery related issues. The course is designed for personnel who man personnel recovery positions in tactical operation centres (TOCs), personnel recovery coordination cells (PRCCs) or joint personnel recovery cells (JPRCs). Most of all, the course ensures that trained personnel is available to support any future Personnel Recovery activities.

Personnel Recovery (PR) is an essential element of modern operational planning as it provides a security net for deployed personnel. Most importantly, it boosts morale of service women and men on mission and acknowledges national as well as European Union responsibilities to affect the recovery and reintegration of isolated personnel deployed in the context of Crisis Management Operations under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). 

The next EU Joint Personnel Recovery staff Course (JPRSC) will take place in Veszprem, Hungary from 22 May to 2 June and will be organised by the Hungarian Armed Forces. 

 

Background

The EDA PRCPC project was established on 30 May 2013 as an EDA Category B project under the lead of Sweden. As of today, it includes seven contributing EU Member States (cMS): Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden. The Course was extended three times and will be finalised on 30 May 2019. 

 

More Information:

• EDA Project Team Personnel Recovery (PT PR)
• EDA factsheet on SERE: e-learning tool for Personnel Recovery (PR)

 

 

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The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has negotiated a £1.4bn contract for the delivery of the Royal Navy's new Agamemnon Astute-class submarine, which will be deployed to protect the country's new aircraft carriers and nuclear deterrent.

Technical service provider VSE has been awarded several delivery orders during the first quarter of this year, totalling an estimated $91.1m.

The Australian Defence Industry has signed a contract with Cirrus Real Time Processing Systems for the design and delivery of new and advanced maritime training systems.

Hagenuk Marinekommunikation (HMK), a subsidiary of Atlas Elektronik GmbH (Germany), is a well-known supplier of internal and external communication systems for naval and ground-to-air applications, with radios operating in the frequency range of very…

On 11 April, the European Commission adopted the ‘Decision on the financing of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) and the use of unit costs for the year 2017’.

In its annexes, the Financing Decision also includes detailed descriptions of three topics/actions for which calls for proposals will be launched in late May 2017, namely:

• A technological demonstrator for enhanced situational awareness in a naval environment. The project aims to show the added value of unmanned systems in enhancing situational awareness while operating alongside and communicating with other manned and unmanned systems;
• Research in technology and products in the context of Force Protection and Soldier Systems. This topic focuses on aspects such as future generic open soldier system reference architecture; technology advancements in tailor-made blast, ballistic and Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) protection of military personnel; as well as novel developments in active and passive military camouflage methods;
• Strategic technology foresight. Proposals will need to develop and validate a methodology and/or process to gather data. These foresight activities will be carried out on a recurring basis.  They will be used to develop realistic scenarios of potential future conflicts which will help scoping EU-funded defence research.

 

Background 

The Preparatory Action on Defence Research, which will be run by the European Defence Agency (EDA) through a Delegation Agreement expected to be signed with the European Commission in the coming weeks, is the first step towards a future European defence research programme (EDRP) as part of the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027).
The budget for the PADR related actions in 2017 is €25 million. Its main implementation will be through grants. The call for proposals and the participation modalities will be published in late May.

 

More information: 

• ‘Decision on the financing of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) and the use of unit costs for the year 2017’ (full text)
• Preparatory Action for defence research (EDA project page)
• EDA Factsheet: Preparatory Action (PA) on CSDP-related research

 

Around 40 government representatives as well as military, industrial and research experts met end of March in Vienna for the kick-off meeting for three new projects which will be run by the European Defence Agency within the EDA IED Detection (IEDDET) programme.

The IEDDET programme aims to develop and demonstrate multisensor detection systems for countering Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) in order to support the development of improved Route Clearance Capabilities for the contributing nations (Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway and Poland). Each of three projects addresses different phases of route clearance operations: early warning, stand-off detection and confirmation & identification. A key goal is to improve overall performance of route clearance operations by exchanging information between the three phases.  

 

Here are more details on the projects’ objectives and the consortia in charge of them:

• Vehicle Mounted Early Warning of Indirect Indicators of IEDs (VMEWI3). The objective of this project is to detect indirect indicators of IED’s by using forward looking camera systems. The project will develop, test and demonstrate unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) based early warning and forward looking multisensor optical systems for the detection of IED indicators. The project is led by Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in cooperation with industry, SME, academia and research institutions: Armament and Defence Technology Agency (ARWT) from Austria, Royal Military Academy (RMA) from Belgium, Nederlandse Instrumenten Compagnie (Nedinsco), ViNotion B.V., Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), Quest Photonic Devices BV (Quest) from the Netherlands  and  PCO S.A. and Military University of Technology (WAT) from Poland. 

• UGV stand-off multi-sensor platform for IED component detection (MUSICODE). This project will develop new unmanned ground vehicle stand-off capabilities for detection of IED components by using remotely operated multisensory platforms. The project develop, test and demonstrate a UGV based multisensor detection system for IED components. The system will employ a combination of downward looking and forward looking sensors, and exploit information from the early warning system to further improve efficiency. The project is  coordinated by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) in cooperation with ARWT from Austria, RMA from Belgium, TNO from the Netherlands, Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements (PIAP), Military Institute for Engineering Technology (WITI), Consortia Electronica (Cons-el), Advanced Protection Systems (APS) and WAT from Poland and Augmenti AS from Norway.

• Confirmation, Identification and Airborne Early Warning of IEDs (CONFIDENT). The objectives of this project are two-fold: (i) to focus on the confirmation and the identification of relevant components of IEDs including electronic parts, explosives and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) payloads prior to the release of the agents and (ii) to provide complementary early warning capabilities. The demonstrators will be based on remotely operated platforms (robot and CAMCOPTER® S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS)). The UAS will be used for airborne early warning. The project will deal with the integration of various sensors or tools on either UGV or UAS platforms. The project is led by ARWT in cooperation with CBRN Defence Command/CBRN Defence School (ABCAbwS), Logistic School (HLogS) and Schiebel Aircraft GmbH from Austria, RMA from Belgium, WAT from Poland and FFI  from Norway. 

A subsequent joint test and evaluation phase will be conducted in selected areas in Austria to ensure identical testing conditions for all three project. The final joint demonstration of the programme is scheduled to take place in second half of 2019.

 

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In May, Stäubli is to present its extensive range of connection solutions for alternative fuels at ACT EXPO in Long Beach, California, US.

The US Navy has successfully conducted the first in a series of ballistic missile defence flight tests for the AN / SPY-6(V) air and missile defence radar (AMDR).

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has been contracted to deliver its Lithium-ion Fault Tolerant (LiFT) battery system for the semi-autonomous hydrographic reconnaissance vehicle (SAHRV).

The US Navy's first Ford-class aircraft carrier, the future USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), has returned to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, after successfully completing builder's sea trials.

As part of its Joint Deployable Exploitation and Analysis Laboratory (JDEAL) project, which has been launched in 2013 to support the fight against Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), the European Defence Agency (EDA) has launched today (18 April) a technical course which will last until 28 April and which is specifically designed to train military staff on the setting up and technical management of a new joint deployable capability (JDC) which will be delivered to the permanent technical exploitation training facility based in Soesterberg (The Netherlands) by the end of May.  

This new JDC is already the second deployable capability developed and delivered within EDA’s JDEAL project. The course is being hosted by the Spanish company Indra Sistemas at its facilities in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid). Trainees from the 13 EDA Member States participating in JDEAL will be instructed to handle the specific electronics items and tools, and to acquire the required skills to manage and operate the complex deployable laboratory. A visitor’s day for participating Member States will take place on 27 April.

This scalable and rapidly deployable capability will enable the participating Member States to deploy exactly the equipment that is required in a given situation, from a full laboratory deployment with all essential equipment to limited interventions with specific material only.  

Once the course is finished, the laboratory will be packed up and moved to Soesterberg where the delivery is expected by the end of May. After a final review and acceptance process in Soesterberg, this second deployable capability will be considered to have reached Full Operational Capability (FOC). 

 

More information:

• EDA programme launched to improve IED Detection (News January 2017)
• “C-IED proficiency needs to be improved and shared”, says Jorge Domecq (News October 2016)
• Joint Deployable Exploitation and Analysis Laboratory (JDEAL) (EDA project page)

 

 

Israeli MAPATS Anti-Tank Guided Missile

The US Navy has laid the keel for its future littoral combat ship (LCS 20) USS Cincinnati at Austal USA's shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, marking the beginning of vessel's construction.

The US Navy has received its USS Providence (SSN 719) Los Angeles-class submarine from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, following the completion of a major maintenance availability programme.

The Royal Australian Navy's S-70B-2 (Skeletor) anti-submarine Seahawk helicopter has been retired, after completing more than 28 years of service and logging 6,200 airframe hours.