Defence`s Feeds

Nato has launched the anti-submarine warfare exercise (ASW), Dynamic Mongoose 2016, in Norway, with the support of allied nations.

The US Marine Corps' (USMC) AV-8B Harriers from the Wasp-class amphibious ship USS Boxer (LHD-4) in the Arabian Gulf have joined the fight against terrorist group, ISIS.

Austal has received contract modifications from the US Department of Defence (DoD) to a previously existing contract for littoral combat ships (LCS) for the US Navy.

The European Defence Agency (EDA) has just published the national defence data of the 27 EDA Member States for the years 2014-2015 (est.) - for the total defence expenditure and derived indicators, and for the years 2013-2014 – for all other indicators.

All data are provided by the Ministries of Defence of the EDA Member States, based on the list of indicators approved by the Agency’s Ministerial Steering Board in 2007. All financial indicators refer to actual expenditure, except 2015 total defence expenditure which is provisional:

• Total Defence Expenditure: illustrates how defence budgets relate to GDP, overall government spending, and population.
• Defence Personnel: shows the ratio between military and civilian personnel, as well as the difference between defence expenditure and investment per military.
• Defence Expenditure Breakdown: provides data on the major defence expenditure categories - personnel; investment, including research and development (R&D)/ research and technology (R&T); operation and maintenance (O&M) and others – to show what defence budgets are spent on.
• Collaborative Expenditure: for defence equipment procurement and R&T, demonstrates to what extent the EDA Member States are investing together.
• Deployability: shows the ratio between the military deployed in crisis management operations and the remaining military personnel, and provides data on sustainable and deployable (land) forces, as well as on the costs of deployed operations.

 

More information:

• Download the data here: EDA National Defence Data 2013-2014 (2015 est)
• Defence data 2014 booklet
• Defence data portal

Five additional MD 530F Cayuse Warrior light attack helicopters arrived in Kabul on 17 June to boost the Afghan Air Force's (AAF's) capability to support Afghan National Army ground operations. The latest delivery raises the number of such airframes provided by the United States to the AAF from 13

The British Army is to transfer day-to-day command of the UK's Thales WK450 Watchkeeper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) in a bid to smooth its entry into front-line service. Army sources told IHS Jane's that the switch would take place at the end of August with

The European Defence Agency (EDA) is developing its cooperation with CSDP civilian Missions in the field of Satellite Communications (Satcom). 

Since early June, the civilian Mission EUCAP SAHEL Mali in Bamako which aims at supporting the internal security forces in the country, is taking advantage of a Framework Contract established between Airbus Defence and Space and the EDA to cover its requirement for SatCom services.

In concrete terms, this allows the Mission to benefit from a strategic satellite link between Mali and Europe. The services provided by Airbus Defence and Space include the rental, shipping, and installation of a C-band remote satellite communications terminal in Bamako, high data rate satellite bandwidth and anchoring in Europe. The services also include training of Mission personnel, 24/7 technical support and on site-intervention if required. In addition, the Mission is also provided with mobile satellite services to include e.g. a number of satellite phone subscriptions to cover the communication needs for Mission personnel moving around in the country.

EDA’s Chief Executive, Jorge Domecq, welcomed this first use of EDA EU SatCom Market contract by a civilian CSDP Mission as “a concrete example of how the European Defence Agency and CSDP civilian missions can develop cooperation to make best use of resources”. Mr Domecq also said he was confident that other EU entities will make use of the extensive support the Agency can provide in this domain, thus further increasing the pooling effect and reducing costs for the benefit of all EU SatCom Market members.

CSDP civilian Missions EUCAP SAHEL Niger and EUAM Ukraine have also ordered similar services to be provided in their theatres of operation.

Fruitful cooperation

The establishment of this satellite link is the result of extensive discussions to develop cooperation between the Agency and the relevant services in the European External Action Service (EEAS), especially the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC) directorate and the Service for Foreign Policy Instrument (FPI).

The EEAS Civilian Operations Commander, Kenneth Deane, stated: “I very much welcome the possibility offered to civilian CSDP Missions to make use of the services provided through the EU SatCom Market Project. I am confident this will ensure best value for money and effectively help deployment and development of the CSDP civilian Missions in line with the relevant conclusions of the European Council.”

The head of the EUCAP SAHEL Mali mission, Albrecht Conze (Germany), said he was “very happy about the fact that, thanks to the hard and dedicated work done by Mission CIS experts, the EDA and the contractor Airbus Defence & Space, the Mission now has a stable strategic SatCom link to Europe as well as all the other satellite communication services the mission needs.”

EUCAP SAHEL Mali

The EUCAP SAHEL Mali civilian Mission, launched on 15 January 2015 at the invitation of the Malian government, is an important element of the regional approach taken in the European Union strategy for security and development in the Sahel.

In addition to the action already taken in Mali by the EUTM Mission providing support to the Malian armed forces and by the European Union Delegation, and in connection with EUCAP SAHEL Niger, the EUCAP SAHEL Mali Mission is helping the Malian government with the reform of its internal security forces (ISF) to enable them to provide more security and justice for Malians.

EUCAP Sahel Mali is dedicated to supporting the Malian authorities' commitment to restructuring their defence and security forces.

EU SatCom Market

Within the EU SatCom Market project, the EDA acts as the central purchasing body on behalf of the contributing members. It purchases the services from a commercial provider. The project uses a ‘pay-per-use’ model, so members do not have to contribute with regular fees; instead they only pay for what they order. Since May 2013, 38 orders have been passed for a total value of over €6.2 million with more orders planned. Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, Portugal, Romania, the United Kingdom, Serbia, the Athena Mechanism, EUCAP SAHEL Niger, EUCAP SAHEL Mali, EUAM Ukraine, EUCAP NESTOR in Somalia and EUMM Georgia are the 18 members of the project.

More information:

• News “EDA provides satellite communications services for EUTM Somalia” (13 October, 2015)
• EU SatCom Market project page

Airbus Defence and Space (DS) is currently working with the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) to identify future threats and capability needs to inform its work on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a senior company official told reporters on 20 June. Speaking at the company's Ottobrun facility

Airbus Defence and Space (DS) is to focus its future growth efforts around the innovation of new technologies that are chiefly geared at its four core platforms, but will also include its wider portfolio. Speaking at the company's Ottobrun facility near Munich, officials outlined a series of

AT LEAST nine people - including three soldiers and six former militants - were killed in fighting that began when soldiers prevented former Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) and Mai-Mai militants from leaving a camp for demobilised militants in an unspecified location in the east of the Democratic

Astillero Rio Santiago (ARS), a shipyard owned by Argentina's Province of Buenos Aires, signed an agreement on 16 June with South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for ARS to locally build a Makassar landing platform dock vessel. This is a preliminary agreement and neither the

Bertin has launched the FusionSight night-vision device (NVD) that combines two sensors, a thermal imager, and daylight colour-imaging sensor that it has developed in partnership with Photonis. Unveiled at Eurosatory 2016 in Paris, FusionSight has three viewing modes, colour low light, thermal

India's Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Boeing started the construction of a new aerospace production facility in Hyderabad on 18 June that will be the base for a new joint venture (JV) between the two companies. In a statement the companies said the production plant, which is expected to

US secretary of defence Ashton Carter confirmed that new pre-positioned battalions on NATO's 'eastern flank' will be deployed in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, with likely contributions from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. NATO-member defence ministers on 14 June

US secretary of defence Ashton Carter expressed support for measures, now being considered by Congress, to give the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff a bigger role in co-ordinating operations and planning. Carter and lawmakers have said such changes are necessary to address contemporary

China has banned the export of 40 items to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that could be used to develop nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction. The list of banned products and materials, which adds to a much longer Chinese list of prohibited goods released in 2013,

Chinese defence minister Chang Wanquan said it will be a "long and arduous task" to bring Sino-Japanese ties back on track. Speaking to Yoshifumi Hibako, former chief of staff of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Chang said on 17 June bilateral relations are "complicated and

EVENT Mexican authorities seized 600 kilos of cocaine at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City from a commercial flight from Aeroméxico airlines which had departed from Venezuela's Simón Bolívar International Airport (also known as Maiquetia), which services Caracas,

CONTROP Precision Technologies Ltd from Hod Hasharon, Israel, demonstrated the SPEED-ER Ultra Long Range Observation system at Eurosatory 2016 in Paris. SPEED-ER is a multisensor observation system developed for surveillance and force protection applications. Johnny Carni, CONTROP's

Israel's General Robotics unveiled its Dogo unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) at Eurosatory 2016 in Paris. Speaking to IHS Jane's , Shahar Gal, General Robotics' vice president of business development and co-founder, said that Dogo is a mission-specific platform designed to engage individuals, rather