Asian Military Review - July/August 2016

Volume 24/issue 5

july/august 2016 US$15

A s i a P a c i f i c ’ s L a r g e s t C i r c u la t e d D e f e n c e M a g a Z i n e

JAPAN’S ARMED FORCES UAV DIRECTORY COUNTER-IED

UTILITY HELICOPTERS NAVAL SIMULATION TACTICAL VEHICLES

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| Asian Military Review |

Contents

july/august 2016 VOLUME 24 / ISSUE 5

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Big in Japan

Front Cover Photo:

The Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is winning an increasing number of customers in the Asia-Pacific, as discussed in AMR’s UAV Directory in this issue.

Dr. Alix Valenti examines Japan’s strategic situation and its impact on the country’s ongoing military modernisation.

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Defeating the IED

Virtual Action Stations

Protection Racket

Four Wheeling

by Parachute

Claire Apthorp examines the synthetic naval training market in the Asia-Pacific, and the products hoping to satisfy demand.

Thomas Withington examines the threats faced by combat aircraft, and the part integrated self-protection systems can play in mitigating these.

Stephen W. Miller takes a detailed look at the US Army’s Ground Mobility Vehicle, and what it can offer to airborne operations.

Improvised Explosive Devices are the scourge of the modern battlefield. Peter Donaldson investigates the countermeasures being developed for vehicles to neutralise this menace.

16 30 Automatic for the People – UAV Directory 2016-2017 AMR’s ever-popular Unmanned Aerial Vehicles directory returns with Claire Apthorp at the helm, chronicling recent regional developments in this domain.

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Heliopolis Medium-lift utility helicopters remain in strong demand in the Asia-Pacific. Andrew Drwiega examines some options for actors in the region.

Catch up on all the latest defence radio frequency news and analysis in Thomas Withington’s regular Pulse column.

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Editorial Over to You, Mr. Duterte

R

odrigo Duterte was elected the new President of the Philippines on 27 May following the ballot held on 25 May. He has enjoyed a long political career, most notably as the mayor of Davao City, on Mindanao Island in the south of the archipelago.

During his tenure in the conurbation he was known for his uncompromising stance on law and order, earning him the nickname of ‘The Punisher’ after a fictional vigilante comic hero of the same name. The activities of vigilante death squads in the city, which have allegedly performed extra-judicial killings of suspected criminals, resulted in sustained criticism from human rights groups at home and abroad. Mr. Duterte has promised to bring a similarly uncompromising approach to law and order on a national scale. On 22 June he reaffirmed his plans to re-impose the death penalty in the country (which was suspended in 2006), telling the local press that the “death penalty to me is the retribution. It makes you pay for what you did.” Such tough talk may play out well to Mr. Duterte’s supporters but the country is likely to garner significant international opprobrium if and when it resumes lethally injecting convicted criminals.

Will similarly robust rhetoric be heard from Mr. Duterte in the foreign policy arena?

The new President’s inbox is undoubtedly full. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, the Netherlands, is expected to imminently issue a decision regarding a case brought by the Philippines under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) regarding the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) occupation of areas of the Spratly Islands archipelago in the South China Sea. The Spratly Islands are also subject to territorial and maritime claims by Brunei-Darussalam, the PRC, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. The Philippines claims that the so-called ‘Nine Dash Line’ which denotes the PRC’s maritime and territorial claims in the South China Sea violates the UNCLOS’ stipulations regarding Exclusive Economic Zones. The PRC meanwhile has refused participation in the arbitration process, claiming that Manila has ignored voluntary agreements promising to address issues regarding the South China Sea bilaterally.

Whatever the outcome of the PCA’s judgement, Mr. Duterte would be advised to tread carefully. The PRC is often prickly at overt criticism in the diplomatic arena, and the Philippines’ new President may be well advised to avoid a similar tenor of speech to that he has used regarding the domestic security situation, when discussing the regional security situation. The Philippines is increasing its defence spending, and modernising its military. This sends an important message to Beijing that it is serious about protecting itself. Nevertheless, moderate language may help it to avoid an escalation in tensions which neither nation wants.

Thomas Withington, Editor Editor: Thomas Withington Tel: (33) 562 271 697, E-mail: t_withington@hotmail.com Publishing Office: Chairman: J.S. Uberoi Media Transasia Limited,1603, 16/F, Island Place Tower, 510 King’s Road, Hong Kong Operations Office: President: Egasith Chotpakditrakul Chief Financial Officer: Sasakorn Dumavibhat General Manager International Marketing: Vishal Mehta Marketing Manager: Jakhongir Djalmetov Sales & Marketing Coordinator: Wajiraprakan Punyajai Graphic Designer: Khakanaa Suwannawong Production Manager: Kanda Thanakornwongskul Group Circulation Manager: Porames Chinwongs Media Transasia Ltd. 75/8, 14th Floor, Ocean Tower II, Soi Sukhumvit 19, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 10110, Thailand.

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by Thomas Withington

Kelvin Hughes

The Czech Republic further defines its ground-based air surveillance radar requirement, while new tactical radios are launched at the Eurosatory exhibition, and questions surround the performance of Russian airborne electronic warfare equipment.

Kelvin Hughes showcased the ground surveillance version of its SharpEye radar, the display for which is shown here, at the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris this June.

Radar

The Czech Republic Ministry of Defence (MoD) expects to receive bids to provide new three-dimensional Mobile Air Defence Radars (MADRs), of which it is expected to purchase eight, in a deal worth $149 million. The radars will furnish the Czech Army. According to an announcement on the Czech MoD’s website, the country will initially procure five of the new radars by 2017. Currently, the Czech Army is believed to operate ten Israel Aerospace Industries’ EL/M-2140 ground surveillance radars and two Leonardo/Selex RAT-31DL ground-based air surveillance radars. The X-band (8.5-10.68 gigahertz/GHz) EL/M-2140 provides low-level air target detection at a range of 13.4 nautical miles/nm (25 kilometres/km) for helicopters. With an instrumented range of 216nm (400km) and covering up to 20 degrees of elevation the L-band (1.215-1.4GHz) RAT-31DL/M is transportable using two trucks. The RAT-31DL/M family comprises the RAT-31DL Fixed Air Defence Radar (FADR) and the RAT31DL/M Deployable Air Defence Radar. Sales of RAT-31DL variants have been made to Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, Poland and Turkey. The Czech MoD has invited France, Israel, Sweden and

the United Kingdom to submit bids for the MADR requirement, although there is no word on which specific systems these respective countries have offered for the requirement.

British radar specialists Kelvin Hughes showcased its new ground surveillance radar at the Eurosatory defence exhibition held in Paris in mid-June. The company has established itself internationally as a major provider of naval radars for navigation, surveillance and helicopter control, and has utilised much of the technology developed for these radios into a system designed for the detection of pedestrians and vehicles. In particular, Kelvin Hughes has taken its X-band radar technology already used in its SharpEye naval radar products, and has leveraged this into a land-based version of the SharpEye which can be used in either a fixed or mobile capacity. The company told AMR that the vehicular version of this radar weighs a mere 20 kilograms (44 pounds) enabling it to be easily mounted on a civilian or military four-wheel drive vehicle. The company added that one of the benefits of employing an X-band radar is that it has comparatively good penetration of wet weather compared to other radar bands which can suffer from a phenomena known as ‘rain fade’ by which moisture in the atmosphere can cause the degradation

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Russian Ministry of Defence

of radar transmissions, impeding performance. In terms of detection ranges, this pulse-Doppler radar can detect a pedestrian at a range of three nautical miles/nm (five kilometres), and a vehicle at ranges of between 6.2nm (ten kilometres/km) to 9.3nm (15km). Moreover the addition of what the company calls an Intelligent Clutter Map, allows the radar to ‘learn’ where clutter is present in the radar picture it is generating and to filter this, so as to prevent a pedestrian or a vehicle from hiding within this clutter. Users of the radar include the Saudi Arabian Ministry of the Interior and the Kenyan Army, the latter of which uses the radar in a man-pack capacity.

Electronic Warfare

In late May, Russia’s KRET defence electronics manufacturer announced that it would begin supplying a new Defensive Aids subsystem (DASS) for the Mil Mi-28N Night Hunter attack helicopters of the Russian Air Force. The press release issued by KRET revealed that the DASS would contain laser detection equipment, an ultraviolet missile approach warning detector, a chaff and flare system, and a laser-based electronic protection system for use against infrared guided missiles. The press release did not reveal the name of the new system, how many would be supplied, and when deliveries and installation onboard the Mi-28N would commence and conclude. AMR did contact KRET regarding the news, but received no reply to our enquiries by the time the publication went to press.

The decision to equip the aircraft with a new DASS could be a reaction to the combat experience of the aircraft during Russia’s intervention in the Syrian civil war which commenced on 30 September 2015. On 12 April, a Mi-28N was reportedly felled by a Man-Portable Air Defence System (MANPADS) fired by rebels opposed to the regime of Syria’s President Bashir al-Assad outside the city of Homs, southern Syria, claiming the lives of both crewmembers. Cryptically, the President-S/L370-5 DASS equips the Mi-28N. According to open source reports, this DASS contains exactly the same equipment as the new DASS which KRET has announced it will install across the Mi-28N fleet. This has left

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Tactical Radio

Harris has showcased a new handheld radio at the Eurosatory exhibition. The company is aiming its RF-7850S at nations requiring a transceiver for use at the platoon level. The radio is also equipped with a new waveform.

As part of the firm’s RF-7850 family, the RF-7850S covers a frequency spread of 225 megahertz to 2.5 gigahertz. Alongside this new product, which the firm formally launched on 28 May, the transceiver includes a new waveform dubbed the STNW (Soldier Time-Division Multiple Access Networking Waveform) which can carry simultaneous voice, data and position reporting using the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation. The STNW is an “ad hoc, mesh waveform,” according to Timothy Soine, Harris’ product line manager for international soldier systems, which can hold six dedicated voice channels hosting a total of 48 users, ideally positioning the radio for platoon use. In terms of data, the radio can handle up to 1.4 megabits-per-second.

The fact that the radio is bereft of US National Security Agency Type1 standard encryption greatly eases the exportability of the system, although it is equipped with Harris’ proprietary Citadel-I/II and AES256 standard encryption. The STNW waveform will only furnish the RF7850S for now, although Mr. Soine adds that this could be integrated onto other members of the Harris RF7850 radio family (which includes airborne, man-pack and other handheld transceivers) in the future.

In addition to the S-TNW, the RF7850S can accommodate the TNW (Time-Division, Multiple-Access Networking Waveform) which has a range of up to 15km (9.3 miles) as opposed to the four kilometres (2.4 Harris’ RF-7850S was showcased at the June Eurosatory exhibition in Paris and marks the latest member of the company’s RF-7850 family. The radio is designed for use at the platoon level, and includes new waveforms.

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Harris

Mystery surrounds the self-protection system deployed onboard the Mil Mi-28N helicopter gunship, and its ability to protect the aircraft, amid reports that the Russian Air Force will soon receive new DASSs for this platform.

AMR wondering whether not all of the fleet was originally outfitted with the PresidentS/L370-5 DASS, with the aircraft shot down on 12 April being bereft of this equipment.

Is KRET’s announcement the result of a Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) requirement to now roll the President-S/L370-5 DASS across the entire Mi-28N fleet? To further complicate matters, some reports have stated that the aircraft was not shot down by a MANPADS, but the result of a technical malfunction, according to the Russian MoD. Ultimately, the loss of the Mi-28N and KRET’s announcement in late May seems to have raised more questions than they answer.

Thales Thales has spun out elements of the CONTACT tactical radio family that it is developing for the French Army, via the SYNAPS initiative. The handheld SYNAPS-H transceiver is shown here.

miles) of the S-TNW. The TNW waveform offers a data rate of 16 kilobits-per-second, but can host six talk groups with a total of 64 users on the network. This waveform can handle text messaging, voice and GPS reporting simultaneously. Thirdly, the RF-7850S includes the ULOS (Ultra High Frequency Line-of-Sight) waveform which has three kilohertz/KHz of bandwidth (as opposed to the 25KHz of the TNW) to handle simple voice communications and can be employed as a ‘last ditch’ narrowband waveform. In terms of customers, Mr. Soine added that the firm has already shipped and fielded 2090 transceivers to nine different customers in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.

Staying with Harris, the company announced in May that it was supplying $406 million worth of tactical radios to Morocco.

The company will supply Very High Frequency/Ultra High Frequency (VHF/UHF) AN/PRC-152A and AN/PRC-117G handheld and man-pack radios as per the contract. The delivery of these transceivers is expected to occur in 2016. The radios which Morocco is receiving will carry the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) waveform. The SINCGARS waveform provides combat net communications for infantry, armour and artillery formations. Handling voice and data communications, the waveform can operate across up to 2320 channels positioned between 30 and 88 megahertz. It is expected that the Moroccan radios will also carry the HAVEQUICK-I/II waveforms.

While SINCGARS operates across 30 to 88MHz, HAVEQUICK-I/ II works in the higher frequency band of 225-400MHz and is used for air-to-ground/ground-to-air, as well as air-to-air communication. Although operating on different frequencies, both SINCGARS and HAVEQUICK-I/II employ frequency hopping for communications security, although SINCGARS can be used in a fixed frequency mode. Moreover, HAVEQUICK-I/II can operate using Amplitude and Frequency Modulation (AM/FM), although FM is not recommended for use in wartime vis-à-vis HAVEQUICK-I/II, whereas SINCGARS operates in FM only.

Harris was not the only company launching new radios at the Eurosatory exhibition. Thales unveiled its new SYNAPS family of V/UHF radios which comprises handheld, vehicular and airborne transceivers. The SYNAPS initiative is a by-product of the CONTACT programme which is rolling new handheld, vehicular and airborne transceivers across the French armed forces to replace the existing PR4G tactical radios in use predominately with the French Army and also airborne radios from the

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same company in service across the French navy, army and air force. The transceivers comprising the SYNAPS family share the same hardware as those being procured for the CONTACT programme, with the exception that they are bereft of the national proprietary encryption and security features which will equip the radios being procured for the French armed forces via the CONTACT initiative. The radios have an optimum data rate of up to five megabits per second, and are intended to provide a battalion-wide network.

In terms of waveforms, the SYNAPS radios will be able to host the customers’ sovereign waveforms, along with standard waveforms such as HAVEQUICK-I/II which is a UHF frequency-hopping waveform used for air-to-air/ground-toair communications, SATURN (Second-Generation Anti-Jam Tactical UHF Radio for NATO) which can carry data links such as the Link-11 and Link-22 protocols. Other waveforms which the SYNAPS family can host include the legacy PR4G and FastNet waveforms already in use with these eponymous Thales radios. This will allow the SYNAPS family to be backwards compatible with legacy radios employing these waveforms. This is a particularly important consideration as there will be an overlapping transition within the French armed forces between the PR4G family and the new CONTACT radio. Other waveforms which can be hosted on the radio include the ESSOR (European Secure Software Defined Radio) waveform which is currently under development by a consortium of European countries including France. The intention of the ESSOR programme which is led by OCCAR (Organisation conjointe de coopérationenmatièred’armement/Joint Organisation for Cooperation in Armaments), the European Union organisation charged with managing joint European defence programmes, is to develop a high data rate waveform which can be used by several nations including the participating partners of Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden, plus third parties. In addition, the radio will host the COALWNW (Coalition Wideband Networking Waveform) which shares similar goals

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Thales

Alongside the SYNAPS-H handheld radio, Thales has developed the SYNAPS-V vehicular transceiver. Both radios will carry a suite of waveforms including the new ESSOR and COALWNW waveforms.

to ESSOR, but which includes Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Furthermore, Thales disclosed that the SYNAPS radio will include two new proprietary waveforms, namely the Manoeuvre waveform to be used for ground-to-ground voice and data communications, and the Airborne waveform for air-to-ground/ground-to-air voice and data communications. Thales told AMR that it expects to complete field trials of the SYNAPS-H (Handheld) and SYNAPS-V (Vehicular) transceivers by 2017, with production then commencing in 2018 which is analogous to the French CONTACT programme procurement timetable. The airborne radio should meanwhile complete testing in 2018, with the radio then ready for production in 2019. Thales is currently awaiting customers for the SYNAPS family.

SATCOM

Looking towards the SATCOM (Satellite Communications) domain, General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) announced on 25 May that it had completed the delivery of 30 AN/PRC-155 twochannel networking radios to the US Army for evaluation. These radios were delivered to the force as the result of a production contract awarded to GDMS by the US Army in March 2015. To date, the firm has delivered in excess of 2000 AN/PRC-155 radios to the US Army as part of a Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) order. Alongside their conventional capabilities, the AN/PRC-155 is able to use the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite constellation which is being implemented by the US Army for UHF SATCOM. The ability of the radio to perform such communications has been demonstrated during joint US Army and US Navy tests in November 2015, and more recently during US Army demonstrations held in Hawaii during February 2016.

During the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference held in Tampa, Florida in May, GDMS company representatives provided AMR with some updates regarding the overall development of the AN/PRC-155 radio. The radio itself runs the Soldier Radio Waveform, which is used for dismounted infantry, alongside SINCGARS (see above), and the MUOS waveform also mentioned above for UHF SATCOM. The initial qualification testing discussed in the above section, the company told AMR, is expected to be completed this November. The radio itself forms part of the US armed forces’ erstwhile Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) which is procuring new transceivers across the US Navy (including the US Marine Corps), US Army and US Air Force. Despite the LRIP contract which has seen the delivery of over 5000 AN/PRC-155 radios to the US Army, the force will now decide on which transceiver should be procured to fulfil the man-pack segment of the JTRS HMS (Handheld, Man-pack, Small Form Factor) requirement. This could potentially see the procurement of up to 60000 new transceivers by the US Army in the coming years. The down selection regarding the supplier of these new radios is expected to occur at some point in 2018. AMR

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Airbus

Based on SDR technology, the Airbus Multi-Role Jammer is in service with an undisclosed customer in its VPJ-R6 vehicle protection jammer form, and is set to grow in capability through the integration of new jamming waveforms in software form.

Defeating The IED Defeating Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) with active countermeasures involves two distinct approaches: attacking Radio Frequency (RF) detonation signals and mitigating the explosion with an energetic response. Both are very demanding technologies.

by Peter Donaldson 10

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isrupting the RF detonation signal without harming friendly and neutral communications presents a challenge. According to Thales, which offers a portfolio of CounterIED (CIED) technology for convoy projection and dismounted use, lessons learned from recent deployments, such as the US-led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, stress the need for equipment that can be upgraded easily to keep pace with continuously-evolving threats, that preserve friendly communications and that are smaller, lighter and more energy efficient than legacy systems to enable integration into all types of vehicles.

Many of the latest RF jammers now combine active and reactive modes to improve both power efficiency and operational security. As Elbit explains, active systems spread RF jamming energy across their coverage frequency band without regard to threat activity, making them less effective on any individual frequency and increasing the electromagnetic signature that might enable hostile forces to detect them more easily.

Purely reactive jammers, in contrast, only jam when they have detected a signal that they recognise as a threat, which requires an up-to-date threat database and very rapid reactions. The risk is that they may not react to a signal they do not recognise as a threat. Therefore, a carefully selected and configurable combination of active and reactive operation is increasingly seen as the way to go.

Eclipse Under the auspices of the French Direction Générale de l’Armement (General Armament Directorate) defence procurement and technology agency’s BARAGE C-IED programme, Thales’ new Eclipse jammer has successfully completed qualification testing, the company announced on 16 May. This qualification clears the way for entry into service with the French Armed Forces, with deliveries commencing and concluding this year.

Thales says that the Eclipse is a compact device designed to be integrated with light armoured vehicles of all kinds.

Designed to improve protection against Remote-Controlled (RC) IEDs, the Eclipse covers a wide range of frequencies used by potential RF detonator threats without interfering with friendly radio communications, specifically operating between 20 megahertz (MHz) and 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) as standard, with an

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The vehicle-mounted Eclipse jammer is being delivered to the French Army under the BARAGE Counter-IED programme. Designed for integration into armoured vehicles of all kinds, it provides active and reactive capabilities, and is compatible with friendly communications.

Thales

The

power and can operate for more than four hours continuously on a single battery charge. The Storm-H system provides wide continuous coverage of the Very High Frequency (30 to 300MHz) band, and the upper and lower GSM (Global System for Mobile) communications bands. GSM frequency bands, mandated by the International Telecommunications Union, the United Nations organisation which supervises the radio spectrum, typically cover an Ultra High Frequency range of 300MHz to three gigahertz.

Civilian cellphones use GSM bands, and such devices have been used as RF detonators for IEDs. The frequency coverage provided by the Storm-H also includes those used by Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) systems, in laymen’s terms, civilian cordless telephones, wi-fi networks typically using frequencies of 2.4GHz to five gigahertz, and the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands. ISM bands are used for nontelecommunications applications such

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as medical diathermy machines. The wideband Storm-H covers the 20MHz to 470MHz band; meanwhile the Storm-H (2G/DECT) inhibits second generation mobile and cordless phones being used as RF detonators, while Storm-3G covers third-generation mobile phones. There is no specific mention made by Thales of the capacity to jam fourth-generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellphone standards, but these are not technologically distinct from 3G as they use the same GSM frequency spread; they just define improvements to its data rates. In terms of frequency bands, the Storm-H version covers short-range, low-power RF devices operating in 200-470MHz, the Storm-H 2G/DETC covering DETC and secondgeneration cellphones with the Storm-3G covering third-generation cellphones.

All Storm-H family members can be handheld or worn. The company added that it sees “counter RCIED electronic protection vehicle-mounted solutions evolving to cope with a wider range of threats such as direct fire weapons or miniUAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles through the integration of new technologies for) gunshot detection, spectrum sensing or directed energy weapons, to ultimately become a land platform self-protection suite with enhanced electronic protection and attack.”

Airbus MRJ With its ‘smart’ Multi-Role Jammer (MRJ), Airbus is developing a system that can take on the RCIED threat in addition to more general tactical communications jamming roles and even counter-UAV missions, potentially replacing several separate pieces of equipment. Revealed

Hand-held and wearable, the Storm-H covers VHF wavelengths and the upper and lower GSM bands to protect dismounted soldiers from RCIEDs and is part of a family of lightweight devices that also cover a wide range of communications wavebands.

Thales

US Navy

optional extension up to six gigahertz.

Thales specialists told AMR that Eclipse is the smallest smart, vehicle-mounted solution available offering full band coverage and high power while preserving the vehicle’s radio communications. With four independent channels it produces 50 Watts of jamming power per channel and makes use of active, reactive and hybrid countermeasures techniques, says the company, needing just two antennae where comparable systems might use four, with this reduced number of antennae easing integration onto a wide range of vehicles. “The hardware and software architecture of Eclipse is scalable and modular allowing easy upgrade with new inhibition capabilities or technology insertion,” the company told AMR. “The Personal Computer-based mission preparation unit is simple to use in order to allow it to be easily configured for its mission.”

The Eclipse uses Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology and a modular open architecture, this enables it to accept new jamming waveforms to extend its functionality and to provide protection from new threats as they emerge. An embedded integrity check function gives operators information on the system’s health and operational readiness. Thales points out that Eclipse jammers are currently in service with the armed forces of several other undisclosed nations, including NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) members and other allies, and are set to equip a number of vehicle types to be used by the French Army including the force’s forthcoming Renault/Nexter/Thales Griffon and Jaguar armoured vehicles expected to enter service towards the end of this decade.

Eclipse’s handheld and wearable counterpart is the Storm-H which can generate more than one watt of jamming

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Harris

capabilities inherent in their one year ago, the system is radio while still using their under contract with an unnamed jammer. The IPROTXS approach customer and is being integrated “works between the radio and the to this end in its VPJ-R6 vehicle jammer to allow communications protection jammer variant, in to go out in very small bits and a package compact enough pieces that are undetectable and for installation on a civilian do not impact the jammer.” four-wheel drive. In this form, With an IPROTXS module the MRJ was at Technology connected to the jammer Readiness Level (TRL) Eight in and a smaller IPROTXS Lite late 2015 according to Airbus module connected to each radio specialists who responded to comprising the friendly radio the author’s questions. TRL network, the system enables the levels are used by the United jammer and the radios to talk States Department of Defence to to each other to negotiate slots measure technological maturity. in which the radios can operate TRL-8 means that the system’s freely through the jamming. development is complete and Dismounted soldiers, for example, it has been qualified. Largewould have IPROTXS Lite scale shelter-based and compact modiles, which are about the size airborne variants are also in of a cigarette packet, connected to the pipeline. At heart, the their radios. A vehicle IPROTXS MRJ is an SDR. This means Harris’ IPROTXS represents a closely coordinated approach to installation is about the same the system is able to grow in making RCIED jammers compatible with friendly radios and consists size as the vehicle’s radio and capability as new jamming of modules that attach to both the jammer and cooperating radios would typically fit above it waveforms are developed as to enable the radios to essentially operate normally throughout the jamming. in the radio rack. With four software applications.

For different settings it allows the example, the ability for MRJs to detect, analyse and counter in real operator to run multiple radios including to communicate between themselves to time threats that it had not encountered VHF, UHF and both civilian and military coordinate their responses to threats is before. “Such a system is currently under TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) already in preparation, Airbus specialists development as an extension to our communications. “You can set (IPROTXS) told AMR, with the next step being multirole jammers.” Asked when a truly up to run across all four of those setting, communication between the jammers cognitive system might be ready, the so you would switch between them and and other sophisticated SDRs. This may company said that it envisages such a allow your radios to operate in those enable the jammers to communicate capability in five to eight years. environments (where jamming is being between themselves and with SDRs to performed).” The jamming systems show threat information on a vehicle IRPOTXS would work with include Exelis’ battle management system. According to Protecting Comms own EGON active/reactive CIED jammer sources at Airbus, this capability is likely Preventing jammers from interfering that draws on the firm’s proven MMBJ-2.1 to be available in perhaps three to five with friendly radio communications is years. “However, the dynamics of threat an important task. At one end of the scale, CIED system. It is unknown if this latter system is in service. and countermeasure are particularly simple fixed-frequency filters applied speedy in this area, so armed forces and to broadband jammers leave a selected industry need to be particularly agile,” narrow frequency range unjammed. Planned arbitration the sources said.

“The problem with those is that they are L-3 TRL Technology’s director of business The MRJ is considered a smart very bulky and they also only work on a development and strategy Mark Minall reactive jammer, with reaction times to fixed frequency band,” said Chris Reith, argues that it is not always possible to threat signals of significantly less than managing director of the Harris facility provide direct links between jammers and a millisecond and the ability to focus its in Basingstoke, England in a recent radios. He told the author that operators jamming energy on the specific threat interview. “So you are limiting your need to understand the frequencies frequency rather than spreading it over radio’s capabilities by only operating on they need to communicate on and those a broader frequency range. A key enabler a very narrow band. Also it opens the used by adversaries that are targets for here is its spectrum sensing, where the communications up to certain techniques electronic attack or defensive jamming equipment can listen for threats and also that could be used to jam it, intercept it for force protection. This requires prefor friendly users of the spectrum, which or geolocate it (as the radio’s frequency- planned communications arbitration. puts it on the road that leads towards the hopping capabilities by nature cannot “When you look at your battle plan for artificially intelligent realm of cognitive continue).” Harris has developed an communications … ECM (Electronic radio. “A full-blown cognitive jammer alternative approach embodied in its Counter Measures) and electronic warfare would be able to autonomously adapt to Integrated Protection and Transmission … have to be a consideration right at any threat environment,” the company System (IPROTXS) which, said Mr. Reith, the beginning of the communications told AMR. A cognitive jammer would allows the operator to use all the ECCM planning,” he said. “If you don’t get that apply artificial intelligence techniques (Electronic Counter-Counter Measures) right you are in trouble.”

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Making Your Routes IED-Safe

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additional ten watts of active capability. Each module can be re-roled for dismounted use, adding flexibility to the overall solution. All the Broadshield family use common laptopbased programming. “(The company) has recognised that its force protection expertise and its electronic attack expertise hitherto have been on separate Broadshield ranges,” said Mark Minall: “We have now brought both of those together into one platform with a firmware change.”

Israeli Options

Elbit

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Looking towards Israel, Elbit is well known for its Electronic Jammers Against Bombs (EJAB) family, which is available in Designed to deal with buried and otherwise concealed IEDs and mines, the CIMS combines surface scanning and vehicle-mounted, portable and ground penetrating radars with infrared cameras, a large- man-pack forms. Elbit launched format optical sensor and a command and control suite the new Miniature Reactive for both manned and unmanned ground vehicles.

Jammer (MRJ) family in 2013 and this June announced its intention to highlight the man-pack variant at the The company’s family of Broadshield Eurosatory Exhibition in Paris the same jammers can take on both the CIED and month. This active/reactive system has electronic attack role, the latter being been developed for the kinds of missions directed against tactical radios, and usually given to special forces or other are designed with communications types of penetration forces, says the arbitration in mind. They are also company, and features a set frequency designed to pack in more capability while range that covers low-band, cellular and minimising their size, weight and power high-band threats and enables multiple consumption in both vehicle-mounted and man-pack variants. The Broadshield Modular Countermeasures Suite (MCS) man-pack, for example, can operate in either active or reactive modes in both low band 20-520MHz and high band (420MHz to six gigahertz) ranges and can be quickly reprogrammed in the field to optimise its jamming capability, target frequencies and operating parameters, says the company.

The Broadshield Lightweight Countermeasures Suite (LCS) provides a subset of the Broadshield MCS capabilities over the same frequency ranges in the form of a more compact active jammer weighing less than two kilograms (4.4 pounds), excluding the battery and antennae. For vehicles that need a lot of RF jamming power but with limited space, the company offers the Broadshield High-power Compact System (HCS), another active/reactive jammer that In service with the Israel Defence Force and can be configured into a stack of up to NATO, the EJAB Manpack is a multi-band jammer built into a backpack. The system can three interoperable units, according to jam most radio and cellular bands, two at the the company, each providing 50 Watts same time through a single antenna. of reactive or active jamming and an

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| Asian Military Review |

jammers to operate simultaneously without mutual interference. In service with Israeli forces, the MRJ man-pack will operate for 3.5 hours on a single battery charge, the company states.

Recognising that no single sensor or countermeasure can defeat all types of IED and mine threat, IAI Elta offers the ELI-3375 Counter-IED and Counter Mine Suite (CIMS), whose mission management system integrates multiple sensors grouped into above-surface and below-ground subsystems to detect surface and underground IEDs. The Above-Surface Detection System (ADS) includes the Surface IED Detection Radar (SIDER), the GigaPix Optical Detection System (GPODS) and the infrared IED investigator with overlapping coverage to detect threats in front or to the sides of the vehicle. Underground threats are addressed by the Mine and IED Detection System (MIDS), which combines a metal detector and a Ground Penetrating Radar.

The company shows the ADS mounted on the roof of a four-wheel drive vehicle, with the MIDS carried low to the ground on a frame in front of it, although the company emphasises that it can also be deployed on unmanned ground vehicles.

The CIMS is being marketed to the Indian armed forces and is to be evaluated by the US Army, the service’s Contracting Command announced on 13 April.

Once detected, IEDs can be neutralised remotely with weapons such as Rafael’s Thor, which adds a two kilowatt laser to a Mini-Samson Remote Control Weapon System (RCWS) already armed with a heavy machine gun. Using optics to acquire or re-acquire the suspected IED, the laser can then burn off camouflage material to confirm operator’s suspicions and then destroy the explosive charge through deflagration (rapid, non-explosive burning) or low-order detonation.

Alternatively, Thor can neutralise the device by cutting the command wire or detonating cord. Needing no downtime for cooling or recharging, the water-cooled laser can be fired continuously, says the company. The gun can also be used as a disruptor as well as to defend the vehicle carrying the Thor.

Together, using smart and, in the future cognitive, jammers and kinetic sensor-controlled weapons to neutralise IEDs, such capabilities promise to provide greater survivability for vehicles than ever before. IED attack is unlikely to disappear from the battlefield, but protective technologies are here to stay. AMR

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Automatic for the People UAV Directory 2016-2017 A Research and Markets report published in February 2016 estimates that the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) market volume will reach 4.7 million units worldwide by the end of 2020. By 2025, the Teal Group, a US-based consultancy, estimates that the global market will be worth $14 billion annually.

by Claire Apthorp

M

ilitary research and development is expected to generate much of the activity in the international UAV market, with increasing territorial disputes and political tensions across the globe fuelling research and development into the technology that will take unmanned systems to the next generation. Armed forces worldwide are channelling investment into the development and acquisition of UAVs as they look to enhance their capabilities across land and maritime domains, with homeland security, border patrol, illegal immigration, disaster management and search and rescue all emerging as cross-over defence applications for UAVs outside the traditional navy, land or air force scope of operations.

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region continue to show both an appetite for sophisticated systems and an increasing capacity for development and manufacturing in the UAV sector. A

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number of big ticket acquisition projects have firmed up over the last twelve months. The Australian government confirmed in its 2016 Defence White Paper, which outlines government defence spending priorities, that it would purchase seven Lockheed Martin MQ-4C Triton UAVs from the US government, the Indian government approved the purchase of ten Israel Aerospace Industries’ Heron-TPs, and Pakistan has purchased an undisclosed number of Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle UAVs from the US. Japan is also moving closer to the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk UAV, with the Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD) formally requesting three aircraft from the US government under the foreign military sales route in 2015.

Other programmes still in their early stages will be worth keeping an eye on over the coming year. The Royal Australian Navy’s search for a vertical take-off and landing Maritime Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System is gathering pace with a request

| Asian Military Review |

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for tender already closed, while rumbles from the Indian armed forces suggest that a new programme could be rolled out in the coming months to rationalise and refine its UAV requirements in the face of the failed, and now abandoned, Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Nishant programme.

Defence exhibitions over the past twelve months have provided glimpses of real progress in indigenous platform developments across the region. Technology transfers from the big players in the North American, European and Israeli markets remain important to actors in the Asia-Pacific but local companies are showing increasing ingenuity and willingness to address market requirements outside defence as well.

AMR’s UAV Directory has been researched using a range of resources, notably AMR correspondents, industry experts and serving military personnel throughout the region as well as open sources.

AUSTRALIA ■ Fielded Heron I, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI): Three Heron-I UAVs were based at Kandahar airfield as part of Operation SLIPPER. Operation SLIPPER was Australia’s contribution to the US-led Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) combating Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents in Afghanistan. These UAVs completed operations in November 2014 with more than 27000 mission hours flown providing reconnaissance to Australian and coalition forces supporting OEF. Two Heron-1s are currently operated from the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) Woomera airbase

in South Australia where they are playing a central role in developing the parameters for the eventual operation of UAVs in unsegregated Australian airspace, and helping to ensure that RAAF personnel retain and maintain skills required to operate UAVs until the entry into service of the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton next decade (see below).

ScanEagle, Insitu/Boeing: These aircraft were deployed for five years to support Operation SLIPPER (see above). During the deployment, they amassed 32000 flying hours across 6200 sorties.

The ScanEagle fleet provided constant reconnaissance support to ground elements in Afghanistan from 2007 until the 2012.

The system remains in testing with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) which is seeking a reconnaissance capability to support naval vessels from 2022. In November 2015 the navy trialled the ScanEagle Block-D with Sentient Kestrel Maritime Visual Detection and Ranging wide area maritime detection software to enhance surveillance capabilities. The sensor scans the ocean surface autonomously, detecting, tracking and photographing contacts and transmitting the image in real time to the operator. The system provided vastly increased surface coverage compared to existing optronics. The payload can be incorporated in to the ScanEagle as two fuselage slices, ahead of and behind the wing.

RQ-7B Shadow-200, Textron: Acquired by the Australian government in July 2010, the deployment of the RQ-7B to Afghanistan commenced in May 2012 providing reconnaissance with the aircraft returned to Australia in November 2013. The Australian Army currently uses the RQ-7B mainly for training purposes, and is deployed to support international exercises involving the force.

Skylark-I, Elbit Systems: Following an initial order in 2005, the Australian Army has ordered more Skylark-I UAVs from Elbit Systems in 2008. The multi-million dollar deal was the third from the Australian Department of Defence for the hand-launched UAV. Aerosonde-III, Textron: The Aerosonde-III was originally developed by Insitu and produced by the Australian-based Aerosonde, which was acquired by Textron in 2006. Four units were sent to the Solomon Islands to support Operation ANODE, Australia’s peacekeeping deployment to help quell unrest in the archipelago during 2003.

Boeing

Australian DoD

The Royal Australian Air Force is operating two Heron I UAVs from Woomera airbase as part of its work to keep pilots skilled in operations until the next generation of UAVs enter service.

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The ScanEagle is launched autonomously from a catapult launcher and flies pre-programmed and operator-initiated missions. The system is retrieved by the SkyHook recovery system which catches the aircraft’s wingtip with a rope that hangs from a boom

| july/august 2016 |

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■ Trials and development MQ-4C Triton, Northrop Grumman: Australia is to acquire maritime surveillance MQ-4C UAVs as part of its efforts to replace the RAAF’s Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA). The maritime surveillance capabilities of the MQ4C will complement those of the Boeing P-8A Poseidon MPA of which the RAAF has eight on order. The Australian government confirmed in its 2016 Defence White Paper that seven MQ-4C aircraft will be acquired from the early 2020s. The UAVs will operate in Australia’s maritime environment, providing a persistent maritime patrol capability and undertaking other reconnaissance tasks. The RAAF’s MQ-4Cs will be located at Edinburgh airbase in South Australia. The Australian government is currently considering a cooperative development programme with the US Navy to influence the future evolution of the platform to suit its own requirements.

S-100 Camcopter, Schiebel: The Royal Australian Navy performed test flights in June 2015 using an S-100 Camcopter rotary UAV in a range of littoral and open ocean scenarios.

RQ-12 Wasp, AeroVironment: The Australian Department of Defence placed a $7.7 million order with AeroVironment for the RQ-12 Wasp-AE small UAV in December 2014 as part of an Army Solider Modernisation Trial procurement. In July 2015 the Australian Army commenced training exercises with this aircraft.

Navy ISR requirement: In the Australian government’s 2016 Defence White Paper plans were announced for a ‘short range maritime tactical unmanned aircraft (that) will be acquired to improve the situational awareness of our ships in operations’.

In February 2016 a Request for Tender was issued by the Department of Defence seeking to procure a vertical take-off and landing Maritime Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System: Interim Capability (MTUAS-IC) for the RAN as part of work to develop experience in the use of UAVs from ashore and from ships to further develop RAN UAV operations at sea. The primary role of the MTUAS will be to extend and enhance the reconnaissance capabilities of the parent ship or unit and to increase situational awareness using a variety of sensors. The tender closed on 11 April 2016. Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C Fire Scout and UMS Skeldar’s (previously Saab’s) Skeldar V-200 are understood to be in the running for the competition.

Northrop Grumman

DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA (DPRK) ■ Fielded Pchela, Yakovlev OKB: According to unconfirmed reports, the DPRK acquired the Russian UAV in 1995.

DR-3/M-141, Tupolev: The DRPK maybe in possession of this tactical UAV.

The Japanese government is understood to have shown interest in the MQ-8C Fire Scout UAV. The system provides users with robust reconnaissance capabilities to aid target-acquisition and battle management.

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■ NOTES: In April 2014, three UAVs crashed in the Republic of Korea (RoK). The flight paths of the UAVs, later identified to be Chinese Taiyuan Navigation Technologies SKY-09 aircraft, indicated that they commenced their flight from the DPRK. Equipped with civilian digital cameras, the UAVs captured images of significant military installations and the RoK’s presidential office in Seoul. The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the RoK/ DPRK border is subjected to frequent incursions by unmanned aircraft; in August 2015 a UAS identified locally as a variant of the Chinese-made Xian Aisheng Technology Group was detected in the DMZ by RoK military forces. Chinese technology is likely to have formed the basis of the country’s domestic UAV development in the 1990s; it is unknown how sophisticated the technology has grown since then.

INDIA ■ Fielded Heron-I/II, IAI: In December 2013 the Indian government approved $300 million budget to buy another 15 Heron-I/II UAVs and associated equipment from IAI, and to upgrade the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) and Indian Navy’s existing fleet with improved communications. The move will bring the total fleet of Heron-I/ II UAVs operated by the Indian armed forces to over 40 units.

The new MALE UAVs could be deployed along India’s borders with the People’s Republic of China and Pakistan.

Heron-TP, IAI: The Indian government approved the purchase of ten Heron-TPs in September 2015. The Heron-TP has an extended performance envelope over the Heron-I/II (see above), with maximum take-off weight 11660 pounds/lbs (5300 kgs/ kilograms), and an endurance of up to 36 hours. The Heron-TP is expected to be armed, although the weapons to this effect have yet to be announced, and will be operated by the IAF. Searcher-I/II, IAI: The Indian Army and navy are understood to have acquired 18 and possibly as many as 70 of these UAVs. Lakshya, Defence Research and Development Organisation/ Aeronautical Development Establishment (DRDO/ADE) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL): These UAVs were received by the Indian Air Force from 1999 and 100 Lakshya UAVs are now in service. An advanced high speed version called Lakshya-II is also in development for the air force.

Harop, IAI: This Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) was unveiled for the first time in 2009, with ten of the aircraft ordered by the IAF in 2009 and deliveries starting in 2011 as the result of a deal worth $100 million.

Nishant, DRDO/ADE: Development of this UAV began in 1990, completing test flights with the Indian Army in 2011 with the first four UAVs received by the force that same year. A new version known as the Panchi underwent taxi trials in late 2014, and is equipped with a wheeled undercarriage to allow operations from semi-prepared runways. The programme was cancelled in late 2015 with three of the four units provided to the army crashing between 2011 and 2015.

■ Trials and development Rustom-1, DRDO/ADE: This UAV has twelve hours of endurance and took its first successful flight in October 2010. Further development of the Rustom-1 may have been suspended in favour of advancing the development of the Rustom-2 (see below).

Rustom 2, DRDO/ADE: This UAV is in development for the Indian Navy, Indian Army and the IAF. Two prototypes have been developed thus far, one of which was displayed in its final configuration at the Defence Exposition (DefExpo) held in southern

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An MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle makes its approach for landing in Palmdale, California, marking the conclusion of initial flight testing.

India in 2014. A letter of interest for 76 systems has been issued by the Indian Army, which calls for the system to have an allweather capability, and an endurance of up to 48 hours. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed during the 2015 Aero India exhibition held in Bangalore between DRDO, HAL and Bharat Electronics Limited to produce the system. The system was expected to begin flight testing in December 2015 but plans at government level in 2016 could see the number of systems to be acquired scaled back to as few as ten units for the Indian Army with development set to complete in 2017. The Rustom UCAV is a weaponised version of the UAV set for use by the Indian Air Force, navy and army. Around ten of these systems are to enter service in the next decade.

Netra SUAV, DRDO and IdeaForge: This rotary UAV has an endurance of 30 minutes, a range of 1.3 nautical miles/nm (2.5 kilometres/km) and is expected to equip navy and paramilitary forces.

Kapothaka, DRDO/ADE: This mini-UAV has been designed to test reconnaissance, and launch and recovery concepts.

Pawan, DRDO/ADE: The Pawan has been developed as a miniUAV comparable in size and capabilities to the Elbit Hermes-180 UAV. Four prototypes are planned under the development programme with the engine expected to be purchased outside India.

The aircraft is expected to be ordered to equip the navy.

Gagan, DRDO/ADE: This tactical UAV is currently under development and is expected to have a 134.9nm (250km) range. It is expected to equip the Indian Navy.

MQ-4C Triton, Northrop Grumman: The Indian Navy expressed interest in acquiring six to eight MQ-4C UAVs in 2011. Local media reported that a deal between the Indian and US governments was in negotiation as late as December 2014 but nothing has materialised as yet.

TERP-2, MKU: This hand-launched mini-UAV has a 90-minute endurance and a range of 5.3nm (ten kilometres).

Chetak-based UAV, IAI/HAL: As of 2010, this programme which aims to develop a UAV version of the HAL Light Utility Helicopter, under development for the Indian Army and IAF, had experienced significant delays regarding the successful development of a take-off and landing system to allow the UAV to operate from warship helicopter decks.

Golden Hawk, ADE/National Aerospace Laboratories: Micro fixed-wing UAV with 30-minute endurance and operational range of one nautical mile (two kilometres).

Imperial Eagle, DRDO: A flight-tested, hand-launched, miniUAV. Its current status is unknown.

■ NOTES: In 2015 India topped the list of the world’s UAV importing nations having accounted for 22.5 percent of the world’s

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UAV imports between 1985 and 2014, according to media reports. The Indian armed forces have a significant requirement for UAVs, and in 2016 outlined plans to acquire more than 5000 HALE (High Altitude, Long Endurance), MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) tactical UAVs across its army, navy and air force over the coming decade at a cost of $3 billion. The Indian Navy is expected to release a request for a shipborne UAV before the end of 2016. With the Nishant programme ending in 2015 the military is now looking to overhaul its fleet with a focus on new models from private industry rather than relying on state-owned organisations; the majority of acquisition programmes will be aimed at Indian companies that can work with international partners to bring in expertise still lacking in the indigenous market.

INDONESIA ■ Fielded Searcher- II, IAI: Although ordered in 2006, it was not until 2012 that this UAV was eventually fielded.

SS-5, PT Wesco Aerospace: One or more systems reported to be deployed to Aceh in 2005 to assist disaster recovery efforts in the province following the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

Aerosonde, Textron: This mini-UAV is deployed with paramilitary and police forces.

Rajawali-330, PT Bhinneka Dwi Persada: A localised version of the Skeldar UAV co-developed under licence with UMS Skeldar.

Three F-330 units were purchased for the Indonesian Army in December 2015. The UAV will be deployed for border security, border patrol, and coastline and territorial waters patrol. In April 2016 UMS Skeldar announced that a six-week training package had begun for the army.

UMS Skeldar

Northrop Grumman

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The Skeldar is a rotary UAV designed for a wide range of applications such as reconnaissance, identification, target acquisition and electronic warfare. A number of commercial off-the-shelf optronics and electronic intelligence sensors are available for integration on the aircraft.

■ Trials and development ALAP, Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT): This mini-UAV is currently under development and is expected to be manufactured by PT Dirgantara Indonesia for the army, navy and homeland security forces.

Wulung, BPPT: This UAV has an endurance of four hours and a 37.7 nautical mile/nm (70 kilometre/km) range. The Wulung is made from composite materials and uses a two-stroke petrol engine. A cooperative development agreement for the aircraft was signed in April 2013 by BPPT (which developed the aircraft), PT Dirgantara Indonesia (which will manufacture it) and PT LEN Industries (which will develop the aircraft’s control systems).

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■ NOTES: Clashes with the People’s Republic of China over the sovereignty of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea is driving Japan’s demand for increased surveillance capabilities; a capability gap that can increasingly be filled by unmanned technologies. The US Air Force deployed two RQ-4B UAVs from Japan in 2014 to bolster maritime security in the region. The two aircraft were stationed at Misawa airbase from May to October, along with about 40 personnel, where they showed their environmental suitability for operating in the Pacific, and their maritime patrol capabilities. The RQ-4B also contributed to disaster recovery efforts in the wake of the 2011 tsunami.

■ NOTES: In 2013, Gusti Muhammad Hatta, the then Indonesian research and technology minister, confirmed the intention of the government to build a UAV squadron for reconnaissance missions. The project, funded by the country’s defence ministry, which has seen the direct involvement of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN) and BPPT, seems to yield results with local reports stating that the improved Wulung (see above) has been ordered for the Indonesian Air Force, although this remains to be formally confirmed. The development of national defence technologies will also contribute to Indonesia’s ultimate effort to reduce the country’s dependency on imported military materiel. For this purpose, the Indonesian Army and LAPAN have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in January 2014 to develop UAVs to improve reconnaissance and to monitor regional security.

MALAYSIA ■ Fielded Aludra Mk.1, Composites Technology Research Malaysia (CTRM): This aircraft is operated on a lease contract with the Tentera Udara DiRaja Malaysia (Royal Malaysian Air Force/ RMAF) to perform surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

The aircraft has a three-hour endurance.

Aludra Mk2, CTRM: The Aludra Mk.2 UAV has been leased by the RMAF since 2008.

Cyber Eye, Sapura: This UAV can accommodate a 33 pound (15 kilogram) payload. It is suitable for military application as well as agricultural uses. Sales of the aircraft have followed to Thailand for military customers (see below) and Australia for civilian use.

Yabhon Aludra, CTRM/ADCOM: This aircraft is the result of a co-development with ADCOM of the United Arab Emirates.

This UAV has a 30-hour endurance and two aircraft have been leased by the RMAF to assist counter-insurgency efforts.

ScanEagle, Insitu/Boeing: This UAV was leased and used by the Malaysian Army to support counter-insurgency operations against Royal Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo insurgent organisation in February/March 2013 in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah.

Fulmar, Thales: A fixed-wing UAV with eight hours of endurance and a 431 nautical mile (800 kilometre) range. Malaysia’s coast guard agency, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, purchased six units in March 2016 to equip its new coastal patrol vessels. They will be supplied with catapult launch and shipborne maritime recovery systems.

JAPAN ■ Fielded Forward Flying Observation System (FFOS), Fuji Heavy Industries: Three of these rotary UAVs have been equipping the Japanese Ground Self Defence Force (JGSDF) since 2004. The civil version of the design, the PRH-2, carries a chemical pesticide tank and spray boom for agricultural use.

RMAX, Yamaha Motor Company: This rotary UAV was originally developed for agricultural support roles. It was deployed to Iraq in 2005 during the JGSDF peacekeeping operation in that country.

ScanEagle, Boeing/Insitu: The ScanEagle UAV was purchased in 2012 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on behalf of the JGSDF. It was delivered in May 2013 to support disaster relief operations.

B-Type Machine-II, Fuji Imvac: In April 2011, this UAV was deployed to assist disaster recovery efforts following the significant damage caused to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station after a tsunami which hit the northeast coast of Japan’s Honshu Island on 11 March 2011.

■ Fielded Trials and development MQ-8B Fire Scout, Northrop Grumman: Northrop Grumman reports that the Japanese military has shown interest in the procurement of this aircraft, although no MQ-9B aircraft have yet been procured to this end.

RQ-16B T-Hawk, Honeywell: Four T-Hawk micro UAVs were deployed to assist disaster recovery efforts at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in April 2011.

RQ-4B Global Hawk, Northrop Grumman: The Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced in January 2015 that it had selected the RQ-4B for its reconnaissance capabilities. A Foreign Military Sale request for three aircraft was placed with the US government in November 2015.

Thales

The UAV will be used to support the military and law enforcement organisations, and will be deployed in the border regions of Indonesia and Papua, Timor Leste and Malaysia. Testing began in early 2014 using three prototypes with an enhanced range in excess of 80.9nm (150km). A number of units have been ordered by the Indonesian armed forces. The UAV achieved military type certification in May 2016.

Sriti, BPPT: This mini-UAV is designed to be launched from land or ship. With a one-hour endurance it is currently under development.

Pelatuk/Gagak, BPPT: This UAV is currently thought to only exist in prototype form.

The Fulmar is classified as a mini UAV. This aircraft has garnered significant interest in Malaysia, and has entered service supporting that country’s Maritime Enforcement Agency, which purchased six units in March 2016.

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■ Trials and development Cyber Shark, Sapura: This UAV has been demonstrated to the Malaysian military, although its current development status remains unknown.

Cyber Quad, Sapura: This micro UAV could form part of the Malaysian Army’s Soldier Advanced Kombat (sic) Technology Integrated infantry soldier programme.

Aludra Mk.5, CTRM: This fixed-wing UAV has a six hour endurance. It is understood to be used by a government agency in an unspecified role. Its development is ongoing.

Aludra SR-08, CTRM: Man-portable (backpack) UAV with autonomous and semi-autonomous functionality. Can be set up and launched in circa five minutes for tactical reconnaissance missions.

Aludra SR-10, CTRM: This hand-launched UAV has a one-hour endurance and is currently performing flight testing. CTRM has said that it is keen to demonstrate to the Malaysian Army as of early 2016.

Intisar-100, CTRM: This vertical take-off and landing UAV has been designed for military and commercial applications and is available for acquisition.

Intisar-300, CTRM: This rotary UAV has completed flight tests and the aircraft can be equipped with interchangeable payloads such as conventional or infrared optronics mounted on a gyrostabilised gimbal.

NEW ZEALAND ■ Fielded Kahu, SKYCAM UAV NZ: This mini UAV has a two-hour endurance and a 13.4 nautical mile (24.8 kilometre) range. It supported New Zealand’s deployment to assist US-led combat operations in Afghanistan. To date, two have been acquired.

■ Trials and development SwampFox, SKYCAM UAV NZ: With a 50 minute endurance, this UAV is designed to support aerial cartography.

PAKISTAN ■ Fielded Uqab-II, Global Industrial and Defence Solutions (GIDS): This tactical UAV commenced deployment with the Pakistan Navy in July to support maritime interdiction operations in coastal areas.

Uqab, GIDS: This UAV has been operational since 2008 with the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy. Offering six hours’ endurance, 30 are now in service with the Pakistan Army, with one squadron of aircraft in service with the navy.

Burraq, National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM): Development of this strategic UAV commenced in 2009 with its introduction into the army and the air force occurring in November 2013, with eventual army plans to procure 24 UAVs. In March 2015 the Pakistan Army announced the successful firing of a NESCOM Barq air-to-surface missile from the UAV against static and moving targets. The armed UAV has been used during counter-insurgency missions in the Tirah Valley and Shawal Valley in 2015.

Shahpar, GIDS: This tactical UAV was revealed to the public in November 2012, and it entered service with the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and army in November 2013.

Falco, Leonardo/Finmeccanica: The Falco UAV entered service with the PAF in 2007 with the aircraft also being produced under licence by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex from 2009. Pakistan was the first export customer for the UAV.

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Leonardo

d i r e c t o r y

The Falco is compatible with a wide suite of payloads, making it particularly suitable for missions of persistent surveillance, target detection, localisation, identification and designation, up to dangerous, dull and dirty missions.

Bravo+/Jasos-II, AWC: This UAV has been operational with the PAF since 2004, in support of operational deployments and training programmes.

CH-3, CASC: 20 of these UAVs were reportedly acquired from the PRC (People’s Republic of China) by the Pakistani Army in 2006, with the Pakistan Navy signing an acquisition contract in June 2012 to buy the UAV for shore surveillance.

ScanEagle, Insitu/Boeing: Pakistan purchased an undisclosed number of ScanEagles from the US under a foreign military sale in September 2015. They are due for delivery by August 2016.

■ Trials and development S-100 Camcopter, Scheibel: This VTOL UAV was tested onboard a Pakistan Navy ‘Amazon’ class frigate in March 2008. As of mid-2015, there have been no further developments regarding the acquisition of this aircraft by Pakistan.

RQ-7 Shadow-200, Textron: In 2010, the PAF ordered twelve of these UAVs from the United States for an estimated $150 million.

Textron

U A V

Proven with nearly one million flight hours, the Shadow UAV carries a range of payloads for single-sorties or multi-mission operations including optronics, communications relay and optional laser designation.

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ■ Fielded BZK-005, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics: This UAV is believed to have been used by the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) since 2009. In June 2015 local media reports stated that at least three of the UAVs are operating in the East China Sea from Daishan Island in Hangzhou Bay.

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WJ-1, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC): Formally known as the Pterodactyl-I, this UAV has been developed in a number of versions for use as a reconnaissance platform and is capable of being equipped with ordnance such as China North Industries Group Corporation Electro-Optical Science and Technology BA-7 and HJ-10 Air-to-Ground Missiles (AGMs). Closely resembling the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator UAV it can fly for in excess of 20 hours, has been approved for export by the Chinese authorities and is understood to have been sold to an undisclosed Middle East nation. Along with the land attack version (GJ-1) the WJ-1 was publicly unveiled at the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2014. The GJ-1 builds on the capabilities of the WJ-1 with the addition of a reconnaissance/targeting pod under the chin of the fuselage and hardpoints to carry weapons.

In service with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Wing Loong II, AVIC: This second generation version of the WJ-1 was revealed at the Beijing Air Show in September 2015.

The aircraft can carry air-to-surface missiles on wing hardpoints and is similar in appearance to the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper UAV. ASN-205, Xian ASN Technology: This UAV first appeared in 2009 and was intended as the successor of the ASN-104/5 UAV series: the first indigenously-designed piston-engine UAV for People’s Liberation Army (PLA) service.

ASN-206, Xian ASN Technology: This fixed-wing twin-boom with high wing UAV is employed by the PLA for tactical reconnaissance and communications relay.

d i r e c t o r y

ASN-207, Xian ASN Technology: This UAV is a development of the ASN-206 (see above) with increased endurance (eight to 16 hours), range (323 nautical miles/600 kilometres) and payload (220 pounds/100 kilograms). It made its first public appearance in 2002.

ASN-209/Silver Eagle, Xian ASN Technology: The ASN-209 was developed in 2009. The Chinese military variant, Silver Eagle, has additional antennae and is in service with the PLAN as a shorebased asset for communications relay, electronic intelligence gathering and electronic warfare.

WZ-6, Xian ASN Technology: A development of the ASN-207 (see above) with a distinctive mushroom-shaped radome above the fuselage housing the communications antenna.

JWP02, Xian ASN Technology: This twin-boom UAV is a specialist variant of the ASN-206 with an optronics sensor payload below the fuselage. The aircraft is in service with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force to perform reconnaissance missions.

BZK-005 Harbin/Sea Eagle, AVIC: A UAV designed with a low radar cross section and an optronics payload. In service with the PLAN at least three aircraft operate from Daishan Island in the East China Sea. BZK-006, Xian ASN Technology: This enlarged development of the WZ-6 (see above) has under-wing hard points to accommodate up to four AGMs. The aircraft may also have the capability to deploy air-to-air missiles.

DCK-006, Xian ASN Technology: First publicly displayed in 2009, this unarmed reconnaissance version of the BZK-006 (see above) is believed to have a twelve-hour endurance.

DOMINATOR

Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAS

AEROSTAR

ORBITER 3

Tactical UAS

Small Tactical UAS

Ahead of Time

ORBITER 2 Mini UAS

A head o f Ti me

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Schiebel

U A V

The Vertical Take Off and Landing Camcopter UAV needs no prepared area or supporting launch or recovery equipment. It operates day and night, under adverse weather conditions, and can be used to support both land and naval applications.

CH-4, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC): Follow on development from the unarmed CH-1 and CH-2 reconnaissance UAV, and the smaller CH-3, this UAV has been developed in two versions, namely the CH-4A to perform reconnaissance and the CH-4B UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) variant equipped with four hard points capable of carrying air-to-surface laser-guided missiles and precision guided bombs. The aircraft is known to have been in service with the PLAAF (People's Liberation Army Air Force) since 2014, and in late October 2015 it was confirmed that the UAV is in service with the aviation branch of the Iraq Army. It is also thought to have been sold to Saudi Arabia. Various other models in the family exist including a tube-launched attack version known as CH-901.

X200, Yotaisc Science and Technology Development: This rotary UAV was first unveiled during the 2012 Singapore Air Show. Its derivative, the X200S (shipborne), is designed for naval operations and is currently under development. â– Trials and development Harrier-III, Guizhou Aircraft Industry Corporation: This UCAV strongly resembles the Northrop Grumman X-47B UCAV which is under development for the US Navy. The Harrier-III has a heavy payload of 1540 pounds/lbs (700 kilograms/kgs) and 24-hour endurance. The aircraft is thought to be designed for reconnaissance and ground attack. The Harrier-III was unveiled in 2012.

Sharp Eye-III, China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO): This small Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) UAV is intended for use at the brigade/regiment level. Although designed for reconnaissance the UAV may have the capacity to be armed with light weapons.

Blue Fox, AVIC: Externally resembling a scaled-down Hongdu L-15 Falcon lead-in jet trainer, it is powered by two turbojet engines. Offering an endurance in excess of 40 minutes, the Blue Fox is thought to have a maximum speed of 404.9 knots (750 kilometres-per-hour).

VD-200, Chengdu Aircraft Research and Design Institute (CARDI): This VTOL flying-wing UAV was first displayed in 2013. It has a payload of 44lbs (20kgs), an endurance up to three hours and a range of 80.9 nautical miles (150 kilometres). A naval variant is also believed to have been developed for operation from naval or coast guard offshore patrol vessels.

WJ-600 A/D, CASC: This UAV is currently under development for the PLA. First unveiled in 2010, it is capable of conducting ground attack missions and can be armed with missiles. The de-

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sign features a number of elements to reduce its Radar Cross Section (RCS) such as a recessed turbofan engine.

CH-3, CASC: According to the manufacturer, this UAV is capable of reconnaissance, ground attack and electronic intelligence gathering missions. Reportedly in service with Nigeria (a CH-3 crashed in the country in January 2015) and Pakistan (as the Burraq UCAV). The CH-3A development has an increased 396lb (180kg) payload and a satellite data link and is understood to be in service in Burma.

CH-5, CASC: This new UAV has an endurance in excess of 30 hours and completed its maiden flight in August 2015.

SH-1, CASC: This short-range UAV has a six-hour endurance, and can carry a 66lb (30kg) payload. The UAV was unveiled in 2008 with two variants, the slightly larger SH-3 and SH-3A, which are also being developed.

Soar Dragon, Xianglong: This high-altitude long-endurance UAV has been designed for reconnaissance and possibly also for anti-shipping missions, and was first displayed in model form in 2006. It is similar in appearance to the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk UAV. ASN-213, Xian ASN Technology: This micro UAV has an in-flight morphing design to change its shape. It weighs eleven pounds (five kilograms) and can reach a speed up to 97 knots (180km/h).

ASN-229, Xian ASN Technology: This UAV has a 20-hour endurance. The weaponised ASN-229A variant can be equipped with two air-to-ground missiles.

Whirlwind Scout, AVIC: This compact VTOL UAV has a ducted fan design.

U8E, AVIC: Designed as a lightweight VTOL UAV, the U8E was first shown at the 2010 Singapore Air Show.

SL-200, CASC: Developed as a propeller-driven UAV, the SL-200 was originally designed for agricultural use, and was unveiled to the public in 2010.

CH-802, CASC: This hand-launched micro UAV is similar in appearance to the AeroVironment FQM-151 Pointer UAV. It can carry a two pound (one kilogram) payload and has a 2.5 hour endurance.

V750, Qingdao Haili Helicopter Manufacturing Co: The V750 is designed as a rotary UAV and derived from a manned aircraft.

With a range of 269.9nm (500km) and an endurance of four hours, the aircraft has been designed for maritime reconnaissance and civilian applications.

SVU-200, Sunward Tech Star-Lite: This aircraft was unveiled in 2012. It has an endurance of 2.6 hours and a range of 248.3nm (460km).

HW-300 Blade, CASC: This twin-boom UAV was unveiled in 2009. The SF-460 Blade derivative was unveiled in 2012 with winglets, an increased size and larger engines.

Blue Eagle 200W, Keyuan: With up to twelve hours’ endurance, this UAV can deploy air-to-ground missiles on up to six hardpoints.

T-100, Hubei Taihang Xinghe Aircraft Manufacturing: The T-100 has been designed as an electrically-powered mini UAV. T-120, Hubei Taihang Xinghe Aircraft Manufacturing: The T-120 is a reconnaissance UAV with a maximum speed of Mach 1.5.

TF-1C, Shenyang Aerospace: The TF-1C has an endurance up to twelve hours and a range of 647.9nm (1200km).

TF-5, Shenyang Aerospace: This high wing UAV weighs 28.6lbs (13kgs) and is equipped with a single camera.

TF-8, Shenyang Aerospace: This hand-launched Mini-UAV is designed to support reconnaissance operations at platoon level.

Z-8, PLA Research Institute: First shown in 2001, the Z-8 has a rotary design.

| Asian Military Review |

regional U A V

PHILIPPINES ■ Fielded MQ-5 Hunter, Northrop Grumman: These aircraft were reportedly acquired from the US Army and are operated by the Hukbóng Himpapawid ng Pilipinas (Philippines Air Force).

Raptor, PA-RDC: This micro UAV is understood to have entered service with the Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas (Philippines Army) in December 2013.

Knight Falcon, PA-RDC: This aircraft is a slightly larger version of the Raptor (see above) with a three-hour endurance.

Northrop Grumman

The MQ-5 UAV’s multi-payload capability provides enhanced situational awareness and the ability to proactively plan and execute combat operations. The UAV is in service with the Philippines Air Force.

■ Trials and development Blue Horizon, UVision: One Blue Horizon UAV was obtained for trials and operational testing by the Philippines armed forces in 2001, and there has been no further news regarding the testing of the aircraft to this end.

The Japanese government has requested the RQ-4B Global Hawk in a foreign military sale with the US government. It will soon join other users in the Asia-Pacific interested in the aircraft such as the Republic of Korea.

Northrop Grumman

■ NOTES: As with all its military equipment the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is notoriously secretive about its domestic developments, which limits the amount it is possible to know about specific platforms and their capabilities. However, the PLA seems increasingly relaxed about showing off its equipment at defence exhibitions and at military ceremonies, providing a closer look at recent developments that show a significant level of sophistication, and often a strong resemblance to Western designs.

What is known is that the PLA has developed one of the largest and most organisationally-complex UAV programmes and one of the busiest indigenous UAV industries in the world. The development of advanced unmanned systems, including UAVs, for strategic reconnaissance and precision-strike missions, and a number of increasingly sophisticated low-RCS designs, could position the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) as a leader in the high-end UAV market in the long term and a real hub of industry outside the traditional European, North American and Israeli manufacturing centres. Considering the few export restrictions Chinese defence firms face as compared to top UAV-exporting players such as the United States and Israel, the country could become a key UAV proliferator, especially to developing countries interested in the comparatively affordable options that the PRC will have available.

d i r e c t o r y

REPUBLIC OF KOREA ■ Fielded Skylark-II, Elbit Systems: This mini UAV was ordered in December 2007, with deliveries following in 2008. The aircraft is equipped with Elbit’s Micro-CoMPASS optronics payload and Spectralink digital communication system.

RQ-101 Night Intruder 300, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI): This UAV has been acquired by the Republic of Korea Army and navy. It was entirely developed by KAI in 1990 and entered service in 2001. The UAV has a six hour endurance and maximum payload of 99 pounds/lbs (45 kilograms/kgs).

RQ-7 Shadow-400, Textron Systems: One system in service with the Republic of Korea Navy for evaluation since 2006. The UAV has a 74.8 pounds/lbs (34 kilograms/kgs) payload and a fivehour endurance.

RemoEye-006, Ucon Systems: Following delivery in 2009, this mini UAV is currently in service with the Republic of Korea Marine Corps.

KUS-FT, KAI: Revealed as being in-service with the RoK Army and Marine services at the ADEX defence exhibition in October 2015. Used for reconnaissance and target acquisition, the UAV has a maximum take-off weight of 330lbs (150kgs).

Remoeye-002B, Ucon Systems: This mini UAV has a range of 5.3 nautical miles (ten kilometres). The first batch of aircraft was delivered in September 2015 to the RoK Army and Marine Corps, with deliveries ongoing until 2017.

RQ-4B Block-40 Global Hawk, Northrop Grumman: The US government approved the sale of four RQ-4B Block-40 Global Hawk aircraft to the RoK in December 2014. The first will be delivered between 2017 and 2019. Two ground stations and supporting equipment will also be supplied under the contract. Production commenced in February 2015.

■ Trials and development KUS-11 TUAV, KAI: This UAV is designed to equip divisionlevel army formations. A development contract was awarded by the RoK Ministry of Defence in September 2010. As of mid-2015, AMR has received no further information regarding the development status of this aircraft.

Night Intruder NI-11N, KAI: Development of this mini UAV commenced in 2006, with the aircraft designed to enhance maritime surveillance. As of mid-2015, AMR has received no further

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information regarding the development status of this aircraft.

KUS-7, KAI: This is a tactical UAV with a 26.8 nautical mile/nm (50 kilometre/km) range.

KUS-9, Korean Air, KAI: Performing its first flight in 2009, this UAV is designed for operations in mountainous terrain and has a blended wing design.

KUS-15, Korean Air: This UAV is designed to provide the RoK Army with corps level reconnaissance.

Devil Killer, KAI: This mini UAV has an eight-hour endurance and is capable of carrying small air-to-ground ordnance.

KUS-X, Korean Air: Developed by the country’s national carrier, Korean Air, work on this turbojet, delta-winged aircraft commence in 2009. However, the manufacturer and the government’s Agency for Defence Development, which is also involved in the programme, has remained taciturn regarding its current development status as of mid-2015.

Urban Star, Kyung An Cable Company: This VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) UAV is currently under development.

RemoEye-002A, Ucon Systems: The current development status of this UAV which has a 5.3nm (ten kilometre) range and onehour endurance, remains unknown.

RemoEye-015, Ucon Systems: Development of this tactical UAV was completed in June 2005. It has an endurance of four hours and a 21.5nm (40km) range.

Remo H-120, Ucon Systems: This UAV is currently under development. It has an endurance of two hours and a 26.9nm (50km) range.

TR-60UAV, KARI: The TR-60 tilt-rotor UAV was unveiled in December 2011. Local media reports in April 2015 noted that the system had set a new record in flight testing, reaching speeds of 269.9 knots (500 kilometres-per-hour). Development of the system is expected to be complete by 2023 with production to begin the following year.

KUS-VH, Korean Air Indigenous variant of the Boeing MD-500 reconnaissance helicopter. Displayed in Seoul in October 2015, prototypes are under development. The project is being supported by Boeing as part of an offset obligation for military helicopter purchase in 2013.

■ NOTES: The RoK has big plans for its domestic UAV market, with the country hoping to be in the top five UAV producers in the world by 2023, by which point the market is expected to be worth somewhere in the region of $12 billion according to an analysis performed by the Teal Group consultancy in 2013. A lot of work is being done to expand local UAV research, development and production capabilities, but high profile purchases such as the RQ-4B show that an appetite for imported technology remains. A huge driver in this regard is the RoK’s tense border with the DPRK (see above), where incursions by UAVs believed to be flown by the DPRK (see above) into RoK airspace are also driving developments in anti-UAV technologies such as groundbased air surveillance radar to detect such incursions.

SINGAPORE ■ Fielded Blue Horizon, Singapore Technologies (ST) Dynamics: This UAV was acquired in 1999 and remains in service with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF).

Searcher-I/II, IAI: The RSAF operates ten aircraft with its 119 and 128 Squadrons.

Hermes-450, Elbit Systems: This UAV is deployed with the RSAF’s 116 Squadron possessing twelve aircraft since 2007, de-

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HES Energy Systems

U A V

ST Aerospace’ Skyblade 360 UAV on display at the Singapore Air Show.

The Skyblade family has been developed in a number of variants, which are in service with the Singaporean armed forces.

claring the full operational capability for these aircraft this March.

Heron-I, IAI: This UAV was delivered in 2012 and five systems are operated by the RSAF’s 119 and 128 Squadrons. The system is expected to achieve full operational capability by the end of 2016.

Skyblade-II, ST Aerospace: This mini UAV was delivered to the RSAF from mid-2005.

Skyblade-III, ST Aerospace: Fielded with the Singapore Army in 2011 this UAV equips units at the battalion and brigade levels.

Skylark, Elbit Systems: This Mini-UAV was designed to support tactical and counter-insurgency operations and was fielded by the RSAF from 2006.

ScanEagle, Boeing/Insitu: The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) successfully trialled the ScanEagle in March 2009, and then fielded it in 2012 aboard the RSN’s ‘Victory’ class corvettes.

The UAV was deployed from these ships during exercises with the US Navy in the Asia-Pacific this year.

■ Trials and development Skyblade IV, ST Aerospace: This UAV was unveiled in 2006, although its current development status remains unknown.

FanTail 5000, ST Aerospace: This VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) UAV has a 30-minute endurance and an 4.3 nautical mile (eight kilometre) range. Its current development status remains unknown.

MAV-1, ST Aerospace: This low-observable developmental UAV performed its maiden flight in 2005, although AMR has received no update since 2014 regarding its current status.

Skyblade 360, ST Aerospace: The Skyblade 360 mini UAV was unveiled in 2012. At the 2016 Singapore Air Show the company announced that the UAV has achieved a 161.9 nautical miles (300 kilometre) range flight using hydrogen-on-demand enabled fuel cells.

Unmanned Hybrid Vehicle, ST Aerospace: A proof of concept vehicle displayed for the first time at the 2016 Singapore Air Show. It is being designed as a hybrid system that can fly and swim for deployment from ship or land. Its primary role is mine detection.

■ NOTES: The Singapore Ministry of Defence’s strategic roadmap for unmanned systems includes plans for swarms of gyrocopter micro UAVs to furnish individual solders by 2030, according to a speech made by Dr. Ng Eng Hen, Singapore’s defence minister in March 2014.

| Asian Military Review |

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regional d i r e c t o r y

UAVER

U A V

The Besra is designed to meet a range of mission requirements, and can fly for more than 40 minutes and is equipped with professional flight control system that can work with multiple payloads as options.

SRI LANKA ■ Fielded Searcher-I/II, IAI: These aircraft are operated by the Sri Lankan Air Force’s (SLAF) 111 Air Surveillance Squadron. During the Sri Lankan Civil War, which occurred between 1983 and 2009, the SLAF performed 265 sorties with these UAVs during combat operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam insurgent organisation fighting for the establishment of a separate Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

TAIWAN ■ Fielded Chung Shyang-II, Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST): Development of the Chung Shyang-II UAV commenced in 2002, and the aircraft was publicly displayed in 2007.

The aircraft has since entered service with 601st and 602nd Airborne Brigades of the Republic of China Army (RoCA) 2011, with 32 platforms being ordered.

Albatross, CSIST: This UAV is understood to be in service with the RoCA's airborne special forces.

Cardinal-II, CSIST: This hand-launched mini-UAV has an endurance in excess of one hour. Thirty units have been supplied to the RoC Marine Corps.

■ Trials and development Long March, CSIST: A prototype of this UAV was displayed during the Taipei Aerospace and Defence Technology Exhibition in August 2015. It strongly resembles the General Atomics’ MQ-1/9 Predator/ Reaper UAV. Flight testing is understood to be underway.

Magic Eye, CSIST: This is Taiwan’s first VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) UAV which was unveiled at the 2013 Taipei Aerospace and Defence Technology Exhibition, although its current development status is unknown.

AI Rider, Gang Yu Corp: This micro UAV is used by the Taiwanese armed forces and academia for cartographic work.

Cardinal, CSIST: This mini UAV is under evaluation by the Taiwanese military with local media reports stating in December 2014 that the system would be adopted by the RoC Marine Corps for surveillance.

Platalea, AmJet: This UAV offers 30 minutes’ endurance. Its current development status remains unknown.

Grey-faced Buzzard, National Cheng Kung University: Development of this mini UAV lasted three years before its maiden

28

flight in 2010, although AMR has received no update since then regarding its development.

AL-4, Aeroland UAV Inc: This UAV has been ordered by an undisclosed civilian customer in Taiwan.

Spoonbill, National Cheng Kung University: This UAV completed its maiden flight in 2010, although AMR has received no update since then regarding its development.

Besra, Uaver: This UAV weighs 4.4 pounds (two kilograms) and offers 40 minutes of flying time. It uses hand thrown launch with stall landing. The aircraft is being marketed into the aerial video and mapping industry as well as for real-time surveillance.

■ NOTES: The Taipei Aerospace and Defence Technology Exhibition 2016 showed a lot of promise in the Taiwan UAV market with a number of companies showing early designs and prototypes from fixed-wing to rotary designs. Much of the market is targeting business overseas.

THAILAND ■ Fielded CyberEye, Sapura: This UAV is deployed with the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) which acquired three systems in early 2010 as part of the military’s effort to kick start an indigenous UAV programme.

Aerostar, Aeronautics Defence Systems: 22 of these tactical UAVs are operated by the RTAF. RQ-11 Raven, AeroVironment: The Thai Army acquired twelve of these UAVs from 2010.

■ Trials and development G-STAR, Innocon/G-Force Composites: As of 2015, this UAV has completed qualification tests. The RTAF has since purchased one system to evaluate as a potential tactical UAV. Black Kite, Avia Satcom: Development of this UAV commenced in 2013. The aircraft offers an endurance of six hours and is now ready for acquisition.

■ NOTES: The RTAF is leading a UAV development programme aimed at improving its border and territorial surveillance. Dubbed Project Tiger Shark it commenced in 2010 and has already seen the development of several undisclosed UAV prototypes, although AMR has received no update regarding the UAV’s current status.

VIETNAM ■ Fielded VT-Patrol, Viettel Corporation: This UAV has a 27 nautical mile (50 kilometre) range. Deliveries of this aircraft to the Vietnamese military commenced in December 2013.

■ Trials and development Irkut-200, Irkut: In June 2012, a $10 million deal was signed between the Vietnam Aerospace Association and Irkut, regarding the supply of UAV technologies to Vietnam. AMR has received no recent information regarding the current status of this aircraft.

HS-6L, Ministry of Public Security/Ministry of Science and Technology: In December 2015 news emerged of an indigenouslydeveloped UAV with a range of 2159.8 nautical miles (4000 kilometres) and an endurance of 35 hours. The aircraft is understood to have been developed with the assistance of Belarus.

Grif-K, 558 Aircraft Repair Plant (Belarus): Vietnam was reported in 2014 to be purchasing an unspecified number of Grik-K UAVs. AMR

| Asian Military Review |

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The NH-90 family is available as both a naval support helicopter and a medium-lift utility helicopter. Actors in the Asia-Pacific that have acquired these machines include New Zealand.

Heliopolis delivering troops to the top of a building, or carrying an underslung howitzer without a helicopter. Little wonder that medium-lift rotorcraft remain in strong demand in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.

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Try landing vertically, rescuing a downed pilot from the ocean,

by Andrew Drwiega

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n 8 April, the Singaporean Ministry of Defence released a speech by the minister for defence Dr. Ng Eng Hen which he made during the Committee of Supply debate in the Singaporean parliament.

The Committee of Supply supervises personnel levels in the country's workforce. During the speech, Dr. Ng highlighted the two types of helicopter that the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is looking to replace. “For the RSAF, our Super Pumas and some of our older Chinooks are ageing and will need to be replaced. We are finalising our evaluations and expect the new RSAF helicopters soon. We will announce it when we finish the evaluations.”

Dr. Ng, who controls an annual defence budget that in 2015 amounted to $9.4 billion, which is around 3.2 percent of

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Singapore’s gross domestic product, noted increasing defence budgets throughout the Asia-Pacific region. “Many Asian countries spend larger and larger sums to modernise their militaries … So as you look around at our security challenges, this troubled peace around us reaffirms our policy on steady and prudent defence spending.” Upward defence spending trends have been observed in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) which is rapidly expanding its military facilities on disputed islands in the South and East China Seas. For example, in April 2015, it was reported that the PRC had commenced construction of its first runway in the Spratly Islands archipelago in the South China Sea. The sovereignty of the Spratly Islands is disputed by Brunei-Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Such strategic challenges are being met by the Singaporean government via

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new defence procurement and upgrade programmes. In late 2015, the Singaporean government announced a $900 million upgrade to its General Dynamics/ Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighters. It is also set to receive new conventional hunter-killer submarines from German manufacturer ThyssenKrupp, expected to be delivered from 2020, and Airbus A330-300 tankers, the latter of which were purchased in May 2014. Elsewhere in the naval domain, on 26 May RSN (Republic of Singapore Navy) took delivery of ST Marine’s RSS Independence, the first of eight eponymous class littoral mission vessels that will be capable of helicopter operations.

While the replacement for the RSAF’s Boeing CH-47SD heavy-lift helicopters is more than likely to be the new CH-47F version, the RSAF has now narrowed its options to two contenders in the competition to replace its ageing fleet of Airbus

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The H-225M is one of several helicopters which are in the running for the replacement of the AS-332M helicopters operated by the Republic of Singapore Air Force.

by CHC Helicopter, a civilian helicopter airline, near Bergan in Norway on Friday 29 April. In total 13 passengers and crew were killed when it appeared that the aircraft’s main rotor had become detached, a fact witnessed by video taken at the time.

On 2 June, in consultation with the Accident Investigation Board Norway (AIBN), the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a prohibition of “all flights

by Airbus Helicopters H-225LP and AS332L2 helicopters as a precautionary measure and until further information is available.”

The civil safety record for offshore AS-332s supporting the oil and gas in-

Kongsberg

Helicopters/Eurocopter AS-332M Super Puma utility helicopters. The companies that remain in the fight are Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo/AgustaWestland according to a 3 May report from the Reuters news agency.

The RSAF’s AS-332M Super Puma is a medium weight helicopter (8.6 tons) and their aircraft date back to the late 1980s when 34 were acquired. The final aircraft was delivered in 1991 and a subsequent upgrade to the aircraft’s avionics was carried out in the late 2000s. The RSAF’s 125 Squadron currently operates around 22 of the aircraft in a military utility role supporting the army and as a search and rescue aircraft. The AS-332Ms usually operated with a crew of three and can take up to 24 personnel.

Although no public declarations have been made Airbus Helicopter would likely offer the nine ton H-215M or eleven ton H-225M Super Puma/Cougar/Caracal medium-lift utility helicopters, the latter being the latest version of the RSAF’s AS-332M, or potentially the NH-90 as the new helicopters will also be required to operate from warships. The NH-90 can be acquired in either the Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) version for land forces or in the form of the NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH) version. The order to replace the AS-332Ms is reportedly worth around $1 billion.

The Singaporean authorities are likely to be closely watching the outcome of the ongoing investigation into the fatal crash of an Airbus Helicopters H-225 operated

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The AS-332M has been in service in Singapore for a number of years now, and is in need of replacement. Several rotorcraft manufacturers are expected to offer products to meet this requirement.

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dustry has suffered in recent years from a number of fatal and non-fatal crashes and ditchings. In April 2009, the rotor blades also separated from a Bond Offshore Helicopters AS-332L2 and 16 passengers and crew died after the aircraft crashed in the North Sea. However, military units such the French Army’s Escadron d’Hélicoptères 1/67 Pyrénées (1/67 Pyrenees Helicopter Squadron) have operated their H-225M Caracals in extreme conditions in both Afghanistan and northern Africa without incident.

Airbus Helicopters released a statement on 3 May stating, “At this stage and based on the latest information (regarding the accident in Bergen), preliminary inspection of the main gearbox vertical shaft shows no link with the 2012 ditching events.” The 2012 events were eventually linked to the vertical bevel gear shaft and a redesign by the company was accepted by EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency), which supervises aviation safety throughout the European Union, in April 2014.

Leonardo’s most suitable helicopter would likely be the AW-149M, a new eight-ton twin-engine helicopter which is billed by the company as suitable for military land, maritime and search and rescue roles. It would be unlikely that the RSAF would consider the company’s bigger AW-101 as the CH-47SDs serve larger lifting requirements and the AW101 would probably be too large for the RSN naval requirement. The company’s AW-159 Wildcat would be more suitable as a naval platform but cannot lift large numbers of troops.

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Leonardo could offer its AW149M design for the existent RSAF requirement. This is a new aircraft which the company has developed for a number of applications including search and rescue, and to support land forces.

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would commit the Polish MoD to financially maintain three small and separate types of helicopter, the very action that most modern militaries have been trying to reverse. Poland’s defence budget is in the region of $9 billion annually.

Lockheed Martin has also hinted that it will table a new bid that would include weapons, training and a new pricing structure for the helicopters it would supply. According to Steve O’Bryan, head of business development for Lockheed Martin’s mission systems and training business, the fact that Sikorsky is now a Lockheed Martin business has meant that the bid to the Polish government has fundamentally changed. According to Mr. O’Bryan, this means that, as a single bid-

South America Earlier this year, the Chilean government announced at the country’s International Air and Space Fair (FIDAE) that it needed a new helicopter predominantly for military utility and disaster relief operations.

Speaking at FIDAE, Chilean Air Force (Fuerza Aérea de Chile/FACH) General Alvaro Aguirre Warden stated that he expected a contract to be awarded during the coming year, although price was an important issue in ongoing discussions with helicopter manufacturers. During the event, FACH air operations manager, Lieutenant Colonel Guillermo Pinoaid said that Sikorsky’s UH-60 Black Hawk family of medium-lift utility helicopters was an excellent aircraft and that whatever choice was made, the winner would have to be capable of multi-role operations serving both military tasks and civilian disaster relief operations where loads would have to be taken to remote locations. The government has a reported $180 million to spend on between six and eight mediumlift utility helicopters. Beyond the UH-60, the list of possible options includes Airbus Helicopters’ H-215M, Rosvertol’s Mil Mi17, the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KUH-1 Surion and the Leonardo AW-139 (see above). The FACH mainly operates older fleets of Bell 412EP and UH-1H light utility helicopters, and one S-70A that was bought in the late 1990s.

Whichever aircraft is chosen will need impressive hot and high performance as it is likely to be operated in the Chilean Andes by the military. In order to fulfil an expected Combat Search and Rescue Role (CSAR), the eventually winner will have

Airbus Helicopters

Poland Thinks Again An opportunity for Leonardo to sell its AW-149s has also opened up in Poland.

The announcement by Poland’s Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz, a member of Poland’s new government, overturned a decision made in April 2015 by the previous government to buy 50 H-225M Caracals for its multi-purpose medium-lift helicopter requirement. This decision has not only left the door open for Leonardo, but also for Sikorsky to supply its Polishbuilt S-70I Black Hawk medium-lift utility helicopters. As with so many former Warsaw Pact nations in Eastern Europe, there is an eagerness to replace old Sovietera Mil Mi-8, Mi-14 and Mi-17 mediumlift helicopters with more modern aircraft equipped with digital avionics.

In fact Mr. Macierewicz hinted that the government could buy three different types of helicopter stating that the order should provide work for Leonardo’s Polish subsidiary PZL-Swidnik SA as well as PZL-Mielec Sp, owned by Lockheed Martin (which is also the parent of Sikorsky). The inference was that while a certain number of H-225M Caracals may remain on order, the AW-149 and Sikorsky S-70i or S-70B would also be purchased.

The move appears to be a compromise to encourage the three competitors to continue or increase investment in their respective industrial bases within Poland.

The government’s focus is on retaining engineering skills and production within the country, although the long-term cost

der, the firm could incorporate the platform and mission systems into one offer.

Airbus Helicopters also produces militarised versions of its H-145 family in the form of the H-145M. This aircraft can be outfitted with protection and armament, allowing it to fulfil the reconnaissance helicopter role.

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Despite the overall design being over 40 years old, the UH-60 family of medium-lift utility helicopter continues to win customers around the world. The aircraft is also in the running for a number of procurement competitions.

to come with specialist equipment for low level navigation, day/night operations and probably also a probe for air-to-air refuelling. While the Sikorsky MH-60M flown by the US Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment would fit this requirement, it would be likely to come at a high price. An alternative may be a version of Sikorsky’s UH-60L which it is supplying to the US Army as a costeffective platform to quickly increase the numbers of medium-lift utility helicopters in the army’s fleet equipped with digital avionics. As previously stated, the French Air Force and army have already gained extensive experience of flying the H-225M Caracal in such conditions in Afghanistan. In terms of fleet commonality, Airbus already has two military customers in Chile. The Chilean Army operates the AS-532AL Cougar while the Navy uses the AS-332F1/L1 Super Puma. This would leave Leonardo trying to persuade the FACH that its popular AW-139 was the most modern, even though its heavy duty operational experience may be more limited in the military context, as regards the aircraft’s experience operating in socalled ‘hot and high’ environments.

Surion KAI has finished the development of the KUH-1 Surion utility helicopter for the Republic of Korea’s Korean Marine Corps, a project it began in July 2013. It is one of several versions planned for KAI’s Surion that will serve the country in both military and civilian roles. This Surion amphibious variant has been designed for the transportation of troops and equipment although it is not a specialist naval support helicopter. An anti-submarine/ anti-surface warfare version was being considered although in January 2013 the Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN) ordered eight Leonardo AW-159 Wildcat helicopters for its ASW requirement. The first four have been delivered with the remaining four helicopters due for delivery by the end of the year.

To give the aircraft a littoral performance capability it features extra enlarged fuel tanks bringing the total on the helicopter to six. The amphibious warfare KUH-1 features blade folding for ship storage and emergency buoyancy floats for emergencies at sea. KAI has been determined to sell its home-grown helicopter in the international market-

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place since the helicopter’s conception and has openly talked of international sales of 600 on top of the national requirement for 400 Surions. Airbus Helicopters has been an industrial partner in the design since its the start and the Surion betrays this; the infrared suppressor exhausts of the KUH-1 are adapted from those of the H-225M. In early January a medical evacuation version of the KUH-1 took its maiden flight. There is also a police version available known as the KUH-1P. Finally, evidence that the cost of new aircraft can be prohibitive for some nations has surfaced with a story circulating among Thailand’s national newspapers that the country’s army intends to buy Mi-17V5 helicopters. It has been reported that the cost to replace its four CH-47A Chinooks would be prohibitive and that up to twelve of the Russian Mi-17V5s could be acquired. Despite the pressing need for new utility helicopters in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, alongside capability, performance, and industrial cooperation issues, it is clear that cost remains a serious consideration in national procurement processes. AMR

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Integrated coastal zone surveillance

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ach coastal state faces the task of providing reliable maritime situational awareness in its coastal zone. This includes maritime border surveillance, combating illegal production of biological resources in the exclusive economic zone, fighting against smuggling, drug trafficking, and piracy.

One of the most cost-effective ways to get situational awareness is to establish automated coastal zone sur-

veillance systems that integrate surveillance, communications, and data processing and transmission facilities for several government agencies concerned at once. It is precisely such systems that are being marketed worldwide by Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport.

Surface situational awareness facilities To get a complete picture of the maritime situation within the zone

of responsibility in any weather, day or night, surveillance facilities of the coastal radar posts, deployed on the coast and integrated into a single network, are employed.

The posts can be equipped with dedicated or multipurpose coastal radars depending on the tasks assigned.

Military radars capable of operating in a difficult ECM environment include the upgraded MR-10M1E radar and its mobile version, the Mys-M1E, as well

motion parameters. A water area of over 25,000 square miles is scanned in each observation cycle.

Underwater target detection If underwater threats are present, the system can be added with submarine detection facilities, including the MGK-608E fixed sonar systems, Amga-E buoy-based ASW detection system and Komor electromagnetic stations. Their combined use enables reliable detection of the most low-noise submarines on the distant approaches to naval bases.

To ensure the security of port facilities and oil-and-gas production facilities (platforms, terminals, pipelines, etc), anti-saboteur underwater surveillance means can be used. These include the MG-607PD-E system, Anapa-ME sonars, and Komor-1magneto-acoustic systems designed to detect underwater saboteurs. Protected facilities can also be fitted with all-weather millimeterwave radars and Sfera-02 EO day/night surveillance systems.

Data processing Information from all the surveillance means arrives at the 83t170-E, 83t611E shore-based modular operations centers. Such C2 centers run the Ontomap

as the Pozitiv-ME1, Fregat-M2E and Podberezovik-ET1 3D radars. With their high detection capability, they can detect enemy ships at up to 90 km and enemy planes and helicopters at 300 to 400 km from the coast.

If necessary, the system’s aircraft and ship detection capability can be significantly enhanced through the use of the Podsolnukh-E OTH surfacewave radar. The latter has a unique capability of detecting objects on or above the sea surface at more than 400 km and determining their position and

AMR Marketing Promotion

GIS software package which provides data processing and analysis, simulates probable changes in the situation and predicts threats.

The end users of the information may include the Navy and any agencies concerned, each of which will get the necessary amount of data without having to establish its own surveillance systems, which gives significant savings.

In respect of a military threat, the information gathered by the surveillance system on enemy can be used, for example, to provide targeting data for the Bal-E, Bastion coastal missile systems or other fire weapons.

Attracting national companies Rosoboronexport is ready to attract local manufacturers to works on the integrated coastal zone surveillance systems. Non-Russian-made hardware components can be integrated into the system owing to its open software/ hardware architecture. This is in full compliance with partners’ policy aimed at the development of their own defense-industrial complex. Moreover, the system’s capabilities can be extended step by step by expanding the range of purchased assets as well as by upgrading the existing ones.

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Big In Japan

US Navy

Japan-US military relations continue to remain important to both countries. This picture illustrates the depth of this bilateral cooperation with JGSDF soldiers onboard a US Navy warship preparing for an exercise.

Rising concerns over the strategic assertiveness of the People’s Republic of China in the East and South China Seas, as well as regarding the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK’s) missile and nuclear threat, have brought renewed strength to US-Japan relations.

by Dr. Alix Valenti

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or the past fifty years, Japan has been a peaceful nation, focused primarily on selfdefence of its own territory.

This posture is embedded in Article Nine of its constitution which stipulates that the people of Japan “forever renounce war as a sovereign right”. Today, as the PRC continues the modernisation of its military, the country’s defence budget is expected to rise to around $150 billion this year,

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according to media reports in March, and as concerns about the DPRK’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programme escalate, Article Nine is at the forefront of the national debate over Japan’s defence policy. Cognisant that the constitutional restraints imposed on its armed forces would be insufficient to deter aggression from either the PRC or DPRK, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been lobbying Japan’s parliament over the past five years to

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modify the country’s constitutional renouncement of war. In what is perhaps the loosest interpretation of Article Nine since 1947, Mr. Abe has lifted Japan’s arms export restrictions and expanded the role of its armed forces, under much criticism from his own government yet much praise from his international allies, notably the administration of President Barack Obama, which is keen for Japan to play a fuller role in ensuring peace and security in the Asia-Pacific.

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Sino-Japanese relations have remained tense since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in September 1931 which saw the deaths of thousands of Chinese citizens, and the subsequent Rape of Nanking between December 1937 and January 1938 in which over 300,000 Chinese citizens lost their lives. Beijing has frequently argued that Japan has shown insufficient remorse for its actions. These tensions are amplified by the competing claims of both nations towards the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. Although under US control following the San Francisco peace treaty between the US and Japan, the islands were handed to the Japanese in 1971. Tensions simmered quietly for nearly three decades, but the purchase of three of the islands in April 2012 by the Japanese government from their Japanese private owner, sparked a wave of diplomatic protests from the PRC that have been ongoing ever since. As a result, the past four years have seen number of diplomatic incidents between China and Japan relating to regular sightings of Chinese ships in what Japan claims are

its territorial waters. Beijing’s implementation of an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ), requiring all civilian and military aircraft to identify themselves when flying within a defined zone that extended beyond China’s maritime territory, encompassing the disputed islands, has done little to soothe Japan’s concerns.

The strengthening of the relationship between the US and Japan, which regained significant momentum with Mr. Abe’s arrival as Prime Minister in 2012, has also been a source of apprehension for the PRC government which looks at the US strategic ‘pivot’ towards the AsiaPacific announced by Mr. Obama’s administration in 2011 with discomfort. For the Chinese government the revision of the Mutual Defence Guidelines between the US and Japan last year, which provide a framework for bilateral defence cooperation, combined with Mr. Abe’s recent push for more strategically assertive Japanese armed forces, are all signs that the US is seeking to exert more power in the Asia Pacific. Finally, Japan’s implementation in March of a radar station on Yonaguni island in the East China Sea close to the Sen-

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kaku/Diaoyu islands has raised concerns in Beijing that Japan is evolving a more outward-looking military posture.

DPRK On 6 January, the DPRK made headlines for conducting its fourth nuclear bomb test, followed by a long-range rocket launch on 7 February. Both events raised serious concerns within the international community despite the DPRK’s government arguing that the rocket was for civilian purposes, namely launching an earth observation satellite. The US government has responded to the actions of their counterparts in the DPRK by establishing an emergency ‘hotline’ communication system between the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea to facilitate speedy information sharing with regard to future, similar actions by the DPRK, and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Japan and the US to waive restrictions on Japanese components used in American military equipment.

Changes in the geopolitical landscape of the Asia Pacific and the evolution of the US-Japan alliance described above

The JMSDF remains one of the most advanced navies in the Asia-Pacific region. Like its other armed forces, Japan’s navy maintains close links with the US Navy, with this photograph showing ships from both forces.

US Navy

Mounting Tensions

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One of the JMSDF’s SH-60J maritime support helicopters. Like other platforms in the JMSDF, the force will soon need to contemplate the replacement of these aircraft.

tribute to the active promotion of peace and to Japan’s security. To facilitate this task, in October 2015 Japan’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA) was established. The country’s largest procurement agency, ATLA has been tasked to handle approximately 40 percent of the annual defence budget, by overseeing procurement from both international and national suppliers.

US DoD

Major procurements

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Much less debated, yet perhaps far more significant for Japan’s involvement in the defence and security world, has been Mr. Abe’s move to lift restrictions on arms exports in April 2014. He replaced the “Three principles on arms exports and their related policy guidelines”, which effectively banned arms exports, with the “Three principles of defence equipment and technology”. The latter continue to ban exports to countries subject to United Nations arms embargoes, but opened the Japanese defence market to exports where they can con-

The F-2A fighter operated by the JASDF will eventually need to be replaced. The force is already procuring the F-35A, although it could procure the domestic F-3 as a replacement for this aircraft in the future.

USAF

have led Mr. Abe to embark on the very difficult, and controversial, task of reinterpreting Article Nine of the country’s constitution.

According to a report published by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington DC based think tank, in January 2016 entitled Japanese Defence Reform Supports Allied Security Objectives, reinterpreting Article Nine could include allowing the Japanese armed forces to perform out-of-area operations, authorise their armed support of other allies, expand the range of logistical support Japan can provide to allied forces, interact with allies in scenarios where military action is required to secure Japan’s peace even if an attack was not directed at the country, lessen restrictive rules of engagement for the military to use force, and all the Japanese armed forces to protect allies.

The new laws will also facilitate military involvement in international peacekeeping operations by lifting the requirement that the Diet enact a temporary law for every dispatch. Despite much controversy within some elements of Japanese society, and within her Asia-Pacific neighbours mindful of Japan’s activities during the Second World War, the rules for the deployment of lethal force by Japan’s military in future operations remains limited by three conditions: whether Japan’s survival is at stake, whether all other non-military options have been exhausted to resolve a crisis, and that the use of force is limited to the minimum necessary to deter aggression.

Over the next five years, Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Forces (JGSDF) are planning to reduce their main battle tank fleet, from 740 to 300 vehicles, and replace them with up to 300 lighter Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Manoeuvre Combat Vehicles (MCVs). The JGSDF will also look to acquire 52 BAE Systems’ AAV-7A1 amphibious landing vehicles, seven Bell-Boeing CV/MV-22A Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and Boeing CH-47F heavy-lift helicopters.

As a first step in fulfilling these needs, in April the Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD) awarded BAE Systems a contract to provide 30 new AAV-7A1 Reliability, Availability and Maintainability/Rebuild to Standard (RAM/RS) vehicles. These vehicles will be armed with a General Dynamics/US Ordnance M2HB 12.7mm heavy machine gun, and a General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Mk.19 40mm automatic grenade launcher.

According to BAE Systems’ press release, “the AAV-7A1 RAM/RS variant provides a more powerful engine and drive train, as well as an upgraded suspension system, allowing the new vehicles to meet or exceed original AAV-7A1 performance”.

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FOR SPECIAL OPS. A SPECIAL EDGE. COMBAT · HUM A NITA RIA N · LOGISTICS · RE SCUE · SPECIA L OP S · REFUELING Around the globe, V-22 Ospreys are making a critical difference for Special Operations Forces—executing long-range infiltration, exfiltration and resupply missions unachievable with conventional rotorcraft. The tiltrotor’s unique blend of high speed, long range, survivability and helicopter flexibility has made it the platform of choice, providing a special edge for SOF operators.

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US DoD

US Marines and their Japanese counterparts perform joint exercises. Japan’s military may have an increasingly outward looking strategic posture in the future, as a response to increasing regional threats.

Sea Away from the JGSDF, the government will be looking to continue improving Japan Maritime Self-Defence Forces’ (JMSDF) capabilities. To this end, in March 2016 the JMSDF commissioned its new ‘Soryu’class conventional hunterkiller submarine, the JS Jinryu, delivered

by MHI. The ‘Soryu’class is powered by two Kawasaki 12V 25/25 SB-type diesel engines and four Kawasaki-Kockums V4-275R Stirling engines which provide it with a range of 6100 nautical miles/nm (11297 kilometres/km). The class is fitted with six 533mm torpedo tubes that can accommodate MHI Type-89 homing torpedoes and Boeing UGM-84 Harpoon antiship missiles, the latter having a range of over 66.9nm(124km). The JS Jinryu is the seventh 'Soryu' class submarine received by the JMSDF, out of a total of eleven such submarines to be delivered by 2020.

Moreover, in 2014 the Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD) decided to begin the replacement of its ageing helicopter fleet, which currently comprises 46 Sikorsky SH-60J and 39 SH-60K Seahawk maritime support helicopters. To this end, Leonardo (formerly AgustaWestland) announced at the 2016 Singapore Air Show that it intended to offer Japan an improved version of its MCH-101 Helicopter, of which eight have already been delivered. Similarly, in March 2016

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Airbus Helicopters announced that it had been awarded a contract for the purchase of an additional H-225 medium-lift utility helicopters by the Japan Coast Guard (JCG), of which it already owns five. The H-225 is an eleven-ton twin-engine rotorcraft, which can accommodate up to 19 passengers, with delivery of the H-225 is scheduled for the end of 2018.

The Medium Term Defence Programme, published by the MoD outlining defence procurement priorities for the years 2014 to 2018, also mentions plans for the procurement of nine ship-based mediumlift utility helicopters to perform diverse tasks including at-sea replenishment and casualty evacuations. However, to date there have been no further indications as to the preferred options regarding the rotorcraft to be procured, how many aircraft will be purchased, or when the procurement will take place.

Aviation The Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) has been replacing its ageing fleet for the past few years. Key to this significant upgrade is the selection of Lockheed Martin, in 2011, for the procurement of 45 F-35A Lightning-II fighters. Four aircraft are already being assembled at Lockheed Martin’s production line in Fort Worth, Texas, while the rest will be assembled locally by MHI. MHI began local assembly

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of the first F-35A in December 2015. The F-35 will replace the McDonnell Douglas/ Boeing EF/RF-4EJ Phantom fighter currently in service, and the total of the contract has been estimated at approximately $8 billion.

The ageing MHI F-2A and McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15J fighter fleets are also in need of replacement, although uncertainties remain as to when this will occur and with what aircraft. In January 2015, MHI presented its X-2 Shinshin fifth generation fighter demonstrator, which was developed at a cost of approximately $335 million, thus indicating that there will be some level of local competition in the procurement process for the replacement of these aircraft. More information regarding this aircraft can be found in this issue’s Asia-Pacific Procurement Update article. Finally, in October 2015 the MoD selected the Boeing’s KC-46A to supplement the JASDF’s KC-767 tanker fleet.

The intention is to procure three tankers, to be delivered by 2020, for a cost of approximately $173 million per tanker.

Conclusion Although increasing tensions in the AsiaPacific region have triggered significant changes to Japan’s defence stance in the international arena, the road to the country’s successful entry in the defence market, however, remains paved with pitfalls. Firstly, only one percent of Japan’s industrial output is military-related, and Mr. Abe will have to work to overcome national industries’ reluctance in producing arms, as MHI and Kawasaki refuse to be labelled as ‘merchants of death’. Enduser monitoring is also likely to be an initial obstacle. Lacking previous experience in the complex arms trade market, Japan will have to be particularly careful in ensuring that its newly exported weapons will not fall into the hands of state or nonstate actors acting against one of Japan’s three principles.

Despite these concerns, the lift on arms exports and the extended Japanese military mandate have already brought a number of defence cooperation deals to the table. With a view to expanding into the development of major weapon systems and whole platforms, Japan has started working on the development of partnerships with countries such as France for unmanned underwater vehicles, and the UK for the development of a new air-to-air missile, an initiative which involves the pan-European missile concern MBDA. AMR

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Sailors and civilian personnel discuss operations in the Task Force 70 Tactical Flag Command Centre during the FST-J 16-72 Exercise held in April

VIRTUAL ACTION STATIONS Navies are increasingly turning to synthetic training technologies to prepare their personnel for the realities of combat. In addition to offering a less expensive alternative to live training, synthetic training equipment allows crew to get a feel for the full spectrum of scenarios that they will face.

by Claire Apthorp

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he value that can be extracted from international training exercises via synthetic means has recently been demonstrated as part of the Fleet Synthetic Training Joint (FST-J) exercise 16-72.

This annual exercise is designed to test the capabilities of US Navy forwarddeployed forces in the Asia-Pacific region and improve interoperability between US and local forces in order to maintain readiness, and to support security and stability in the region. In April the US Navy performed the exercise with units from the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Australian Army Air Corps at Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan. Fleet Activities Yokosuka is a US Navy shore base located on the eastern coast of Honshu Island. The computer-based synthetic training element of the FST-J

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16-72 exercise allowed geographicallyseparated participating units in Japan, Australia and the US to be integrated into a tactically demanding joint virtual environment designed to mimic operations in a ‘peer threat’(a naval force of similar capability) maritime environment.

This computer-based synthetic training event gives the participating forces the ability to test tactics, techniques and procedures alongside other allied naval commands, effectively running a ‘dress rehearsal’ in preparation for deployment. Typical threats can be simulated along with the platforms and weapons used by the participating navies to train for operations and to ensure that all partners can work together. This can be done without the expense and logistical demands of the live training environment.

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All Level Training The Australian military is leading the way in synthetic training for navies in the Asia-Pacific region. The force’s capacity to participate in international synthetic training exercises such as FST-J 16-72 is managed from HMAS Watson’s Maritime Warfare Training Centre (MWTC) located at Sydney Harbour, New South Wales.

Here, command team trainers support all major RAN fleet units. This is done by the MWTC through the provision of Fleet Synthetic Training and Command Task Group Team Training (CTGTT) which is provided by the centre at a national and coalition level, the latter of which can be performed with foreign navies through networking.

In addition to the platform-based simulators located at the MWTC, the same unit possesses bridge simulators at the Bridge Training Faculty to provide realistic train-

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HMAS Canberra personnel demonstrate the use of the interactive simulator inside the Navy Training Systems Centre during its official opening.

operators and maintainers of the RAN’s new HMAS Adelaide and HMAS Canberra ships, and future in-service training for HMAS Hobart, HMAS Brisbane and HMAS Sydney ‘Hobart’ class destroyers.

In March 2016 Kongsberg’s maritime division was contracted by the Australian government to develop and deliver a new K-Sim Engine simulator model to the Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Cerberus training facility located near Melbourne, in South Australia. The new K-Sim model will run on the existing K-Sim Engine desktop simulator delivered to HMAS

Kongsberg

ing to allow junior officers to become capable of carrying out officer-of-the-watch duties on all classes of RAN ships. The Australian military has been working to ramp up its synthetic training capabilities for around a decade as a number of major new vessel programmes transform the RAN’s fleet, such as the introduction of the ‘Hobart’ class destroyers and the ‘Canberra’ class amphibious support ships.

A big part of this ramp-up has been the RAN’s move to expand the use of simulation technology beyond traditional platform simulators into support areas such as engineering and maintenance. As identified in the Australian government’s Defence Simulation Strategy and Roadmap published in 2011, “new naval capabilities will demand more integrated simulation: future ship training systems will include simulations for marine technicians and others’ in addition to the training undertaken by principal warfare officers in virtual environments.” In other words this means more synthetic training at every level of the force.

In April 2016 the RAN opened its new Navy Training Systems Centre at Randwick Barracks, outside Sydney, which it says will ‘revolutionise’ how the navy prepares marine and electronic technicians for their roles in the fleet. When fully operational in the coming years this facility will train up to 300 students at a time using a combination of simulation and task-specific training systems. Training will include in-service instruction for

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Kongsberg's K-Sim engine simulator supports basic and advanced operational training, covering everything from getting underway to teaching how to deal with abnormal situations and serious problems.

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Cerberus in 2013, which the company is under contract to maintain. The customised simulator model is a high-fidelity representation of the engine room configuration in HMAS Choules, which provides a three-dimensional visual representation of the ships’ engine room systems and its engine control switchboard.

New Requirements The introduction of the new RAN vessels discussed above is providing the navy with the opportunity to take full advantages of the benefits to be gained by using synthetic capabilities across the spectrum of training requirements. The AWD Alliance which is the prime contractor for the design and construction of the RAN’s new ‘Hobart’ class destroyers announced in May that it had successfully completed the final training readiness review for the programme. Between AWD and the government, $100 million has been invested in facilities and equipment (for hands-on training), synthetic training and a course design package that will support the 66 courses that will train RAN crew on the ‘Hobart’ class. The full range of products in place includes fully-equipped classrooms with installed training equipment, and computer-aided training packages that will be used by instructors for each course.

Kongsberg has been significantly involved in providing training capabilities for the RAN’s ‘Hobart’ and ‘Canberra’ classes. In 2011 the company was awarded a contract by Raytheon’s Australia subsidiary to deliver the Command Team Trainer Simulation Infrastructure as a cen-

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Kongsberg supplied the Royal Australian Navy with ship bridge simulation systems to update capabilities at the navy’s training centre at HMAS Watson.

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tions, including Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), air defence, anti-surface warfare (ASuW), electronic warfare and mine countermeasures. A company spokesperson told AMR that integration is currently being finalised for the CTT Proteus-based infrastructure, although the firm provided no further details regarding timelines for completion.

On The Bridge Kongsberg has delivered other equipment to the RAN’s training centre at HMAS Watson, including ship bridge simula-

CAE

tral component of the ‘Hobart’ class Command Team Trainer (CTT). The simulator infrastructure is based on Kongsberg’s Proteus naval training system which is designed to assist the training of a ship’s crew in tactical decision-making. In the context of the CTT, the Proteus naval training system will facilitate the instruction of the crew vis-à-vis the Lockheed Martin Aegis combat management system which is to equip the ‘Hobart’ class ships, the ship’s accompanying sensors and weapons including her Lockheed Martin AN/SPY-1D(V) naval surveillance radar, Northrop Grumman AN/SPQ-9B horizon search radar and Raytheon RIM66 Standard Missile-2 family and RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missiles, plus her Link-11 and Link-22 tactical data links. The CTT is also outfitted with a Distributed Interactive Simulation standard interface which allows collaborative training with other externally-located synthetic training systems. In its standard configuration, the Proteus naval training system contains instructor stations as well as training cubicles. The Personal Computer-based workstation cubicles can be configured as necessary to meet the customer's training requirements and to achieve the desired training throughput.

The system is also scalable to operate as and when required and can be used on a stand-alone laptop or in networked fashion with training computers networked together. The RAN will be able to undertake multi-level training with the system, from basic operational skills up to combat information centre team coordination and communications for naval warfare opera-

tion systems comprising two full mission simulators, four part-task simulators, ten desktop systems, instructor and debrief stations and extensive visual systems.

This bridge simulator system provides the RAN with high fidelity visual effects of ships, ship behaviour and the maritime environment to accurately replicate the full range of operations likely to be experienced while on the bridge of a warship. As an integrated system, the simulators are designed to train cadets to pilot the next generation of warships.

Scenarios range from simple tasks, such as passage planning, ocean passage and coastal navigation, to more complex tasks such as pilotage, berthing and un-berthing, precise navigation and close quarter manoeuvring when conducting warfaretype exercises.

Elsewhere, Kongbserg is set to deliver its K-Sim Engine Room Simulator to the National Defence University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur under a contract announced in May, although it is unknown when deliveries will occur. The simulator will be integrated with the company’s KSim Polaris bridge simulator (delivered under a previously-signed contract) to support engineer-specific and Crew Resource Management (CRM) training. As part of its May contract to deliver the K-Sim Engine Room Simulator, the company will deliver 20 K-Sim Engine desktop simulators connected to an interactive BigView system. Kongsberg has devel-

CAE has delivered its Naval TMT to Sweden and is now looking to expand its customer base around the world, including with customers in the Asia-Pacific.

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New high-technology vessel programmes are offering naval forces the opportunity to take advantage of the synthetic training options currently available in the market.

oped BigView which is software designed to visually replicate a ship’s engine room in a three-dimensional fashion on an interactive touch screen. The K-Sim Polaris simulator will be connected to the K-Sim Engine Room simulator allowing actions on the bridge simulator to affect the engine room simulator and vice versa as in real-life, giving crews a much stronger understanding of vessel operations and operational communication. Kongsberg has also delivered its naval simulation solutions to the Republic of Singapore Navy.

Market Options While the uptake of synthetic training options for navies has been limited to a handful of countries in the Asia-Pacific so far, many companies are targeting this region with new technologies that have the potential to revolutionise the way navies train their maritime personnel. For example, CAE is looking to build on recent successes delivering its Naval Tactical Mission Trainer (TMT) to the Marinen (Royal Swedish Navy) with active marketing of the system into the Asia-Pacific region.

The Naval TMT creates a realistic synthetic mission environment that simulates all aspects of a warship or maritime patrol aircraft to build mission readiness across a crew or maritime force. The system uses commercial off-the-shelf software including CAE’s STRIVE synthetic environmental software tool to train personnel for basic crew training, advanced crew conversion/continuation training, and part-task training for mission subsystems such as electronic warfare, radar,

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optronics, communications and acoustics.

As demonstrated by the Swedish delivery, which included 52 student stations along with 13 instructor stations, the system is reconfigurable and scalable to allow multiple users to operate together in a common scenario at any location. The system can be configured as a classroom with instructor and student workstations, or can be spread across multiple sites and networked for distributed training. The instructor can control multiple student stations simultaneously, providing each student a set scenario to run in isolation, or multiple platforms can be rendered to allow for multi-ship or task group operations. Mark Richardson, training systems engineering lead at CAE, told AMR that the Naval TMT is set to enter service with the Swedish Navy this summer. “Sweden is our first customer for the Naval TMT but we are also working with potential customers in Europe and the Middle East region,” he said. “The Asia-Pacific region is a key region for CAE, and we see increasing demand for all types of simulators from this region.”

Other companies seeing success with Asia-Pacific nations in the naval simulator market include the ECA Group. The company announced in March that it had secured new contracts with unnamed customers in the region for three of its simulation systems, including an upgrade for its Surface Ship Simulator to an existing customer. This upgrade will allow multiple simulators configured to represent various warships to be integrated for single and multi-domain complex warfare scenarios,

| Asian Military Review |

force protection and heli-deck operations.

UK company SEA is also targeting the heli-deck operations market in the Asia-Pacific with its Decksim Aviation Command Team Trainer. The company is providing this deck operation simulation solution to the Royal Navy for its HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier. The Decksim Aviation Command Team trainer allows flight deck officers and aircraft handlers to realistically train for operations on the flight decks of vessels that carry fixedor rotary-wing aircraft. The system uses the company’s SEAvis software toolset to generate high fidelity visualisations of the vessel and the surrounding airspace. The trainer replicates the air traffic control radar display, has an interactive deck plan, reproduces the marine environment and has three-dimensional computer models of aircraft. Moreover, by using the software different desired flight deck, aircraft, aircraft circuit waypoints and emergency procedures can be configured. The simulations can be used for mission rehearsal, to develop procedural and cognitive skills and to simulate concurrent operations by multiple airframes and types in real time.

DeckSim allows students to train various scenarios including aircraft start-up and shut-down, approach, landing and takeoff, tie downs, refuelling and passenger transfers. Emergency scenarios can also be rehearsed such as a crash on the flight deck, a fuel spill, oil leak, engine fire or electrical failure along with an emergency landing or engine fire.

A company spokesperson said that the region is an area that SEA sees demand from, and the firm has expanded its footprint into the Asia-Pacific to better target customer requirements. A regional office has opened in Malaysia as the company looks to build on its current work there, chiefly delivering torpedo launch systems to the Royal Malaysian Navy for deployment on its fleet of offshore patrol vessels and is marketing its DeckSim product into the region.

The move toward synthetic training by navies has been slower than that witnessed in air and ground forces, but it is beginning to gain traction worldwide. In the Asia-Pacific this is being motivated by a general desire to train military personnel more efficiently and cost-effectively. At the same time large naval programmes are offering navies the chance to throw off their conservative mantels and embrace new synthetic training technologies, giving their personnel the opportunity to train better and smarter than ever before. AMR

navdexuae.ae

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Strategic Partner

Principal Partner

Organised by

Host Venue

In association with

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Leonardo’s Praetorian ISPS forms part of the Eurofighter Typhoon’s defensive aids subsystem. The company has significant experience in the ISPS domain, providing products for fixed and rotarywing aircraft.

Protection Racket Fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft face a plethora of Surface-to-Air and Air-to-Air Missile (SAM/AAM) threats employing radar, infrared and laser guidance. Integrated Self-Protection Systems (ISPS) provide a means of addressing these threats via pods, which can be mounted on aircraft and internal systems.

Leonardo

by Thomas Withington

The AgustaWestland/Leonardo AW-159 Lynx Wildcat naval support helicopters of the Republic of Korea Navy are outfitted with Leonardo’s HIDAS helicopter integrated defensive aids subsystem.

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| Asian Military Review |

T

he dominant threat faced by aircraft assisting Operation INHERENT RESOLVE, the USled air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) insurgent group operating in these two countries is the danger of attack from Man-Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS). Several attacks have been witnessed by MANPADS. For example, on 5 April a Syrian Air Force (SAF) Sukhoi Su-22 fighter was reportedly lost to a MANPADS of an unknown type fired by Al-Qaeda insurgents near Aleppo, northern Syria. At the other end of the spectrum, Active- and SemiActive Radar Homing (ARL/SARL) SAMs continue to pose a threat. This was brought sharply into focus in late November 2015 with the deployment of an Almaz-Antey S-400 Triumpf SAM

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battery by the Russian Air Force (RuAF) into Syria, following the downing of a RuAF Sukhoi Su-24 ground attack aircraft on 24 November by Türk Hava Kuvvetleri (Turkish Air Force) General Dynamics/ Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighters using Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder AAMs. While MANPADS are generally employed for Short Range Air Defence, with larger strategic systems such as the S-400 providing theatre air defence thanks to the 215.9 nautical mile/nm (400 kilometre) range of its 40N6 missiles, military aircraft also face threats from systems such as the Almaz-Antey 9K37 Buk missile system capable of engaging targets at ranges of up to 13nm (25km) using its 9M317ME SAMs. Although a Russian 9K37 Buk battery shot down a civilian Boeing 777-200ER airliner belonging to Malaysian Airlines on 17 July 2014 over eastern Ukraine, an aircraft not carrying any form of self-protection systems, such weapons have claimed military aircraft in recent years. For example, during the 2008 South Ossetia conflict, Georgian 9K37 Buk-1M batteries were believed to have shot down a Tupolev Tu-22M strategic bomber, and three Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft belonging to the RuAF. Nevertheless, it is not only SAM systems which pose a clear and present threat to military aircraft, AAMs constitute a similar danger. Air-to-air kills are less frequent in the contemporary operating environment with the notable exception of the SAF and RuAF losses discussed above. However, the continued threat posed by advanced AAMs such as the Russian Vympel R-77 ARH cannot be discounted, and hence ISPSs have to be configured to protect aircraft to this end.

Broadly speaking ISPS are available either installed at the factory level on new build, or upgraded military aircraft, or are available in a podded configuration which can be mounted to an aircraft’s hardpoints to provide self-protection.

These systems can contain Radar Warning Receivers (RWRs) to alert the crew as to the presence of incoming ARH/SARH weapons, a Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) which can detect the infrared (IR) heat signature of an incoming missile, regardless of its guidance system, by detecting the missile’s hot exhaust. A Laser Warning System can also be included to alert the crew that their aircraft has been illuminated by a laser threat such as a beam-riding missile. Meanwhile, an ISPS may also include chaff and flares which can be dispersed to present a more attractive target for an IR or ARH/SARH

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The design for Elbit’s All-in-Small ISPS has placed a premium on reducing the size, weight and power consumption of ISPS, enabling increasingly space-constrained military aircraft to be able to accommodate robust protection.

SAM/AAM, or a directional IR countermeasure to perform a similar function by blinding an IR-guided missile.

In addition, the ISPS will include the accompanying computer hardware and software to detect incoming threats, to trigger countermeasures, and also to connect the ISPS to the aircraft’s avionics, allowing its control by the crew.

Design Considerations During a presentation by RUAG at this year’s Electronic Warfare (EW) Europe conference held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, between 10 and 11 May, representatives from the company outlined the fundamental design requirements for ISPSs. The company noted that these comprise sensors to see the threat, and countermeasures to neutralise it.

The firm added that podded ISPSs have several attractions for military fleets: Firstly, pods can be swapped between aircraft which have been configured for them. As an air force, army or navy may not always be flying all of their aircraft in harm’s way all of the time, it is possible to purchase a number of ISPSs and

| july/august 2016 |

to swap them across a fleet as and when they are required. “One advantage of the pod is that you don’t need one pod per aircraft, just enough pods to equip aircraft performing missions,” the company representative noted during their presentation. Secondly, it may be less expensive for operators to employ a podded solution on a hardpoint rather than taking an aircraft out of service and paying for the time and effort of performing a full ISPS installation. The RUAG presentation argued that the installation of an ISPS within a combat aircraft could cost up to $2 million whereas a podded ISPS could cost circa $1.5 million, with the installation of the necessary wiring to accommodate the pod and changes to the aircraft avionics costing circa $100,000. Thirdly, local civil aviation requirements may prevent military aircraft from landing at certain airports if they are carrying pyrotechnics such as IR flares. A podded configuration means that the ISPS can be removed from the aircraft allowing it to fly into airports which otherwise may be denied. Ultimately, podded ISPSs “are a potential solution in the face of reducing defence budgets,” the compa-

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Alongside the EL/L-8212 ISPS, IAI also produce the larger EL/L-8222 product which is intended to equip comparatively larger combat aircraft such as the F-15 family. Although not confirmed by the company, both the EL/L-8212 and EL/L-8222 are believed to be in service with the Israeli Air Force.

ny representative noted. RUAG’s podded ISPSs include its ISSYS offering which has been developed in co-operation with Saab (see below).

Like RUAG, companies involved in the provision of aircraft self-protection systems are detecting a trend towards the increased adoption of comprehensive ISPS suites for combat aircraft. Mike Doyle, capability manager for defensive aids subsystems at Leonardo’s (formerly Finmeccanica) airborne space and systems division noted, “The outdated view that adequate platform protection can be provided by fitting individual means of countering individual threats (such as an RWR linked to a chaff dispenser or a MAWS linked to a flare dispenser for IR threats) is gradually being replaced by a recognition around the world of the necessity of fielding properly integrated self-protection system.” Leonardo is heavily involved in ISPS provision with its flagship products, including the Praetorian Defensive Aids Subsystem which is used onboard the Eurofighter Typhoon family of fighters produced by the EuroDASS consortium, of which the company is a member alongside Airbus, BAE Systems, Elettronica and Indra. Mr. Doyle continues that Leonardo places a premium on ‘future proofing’ their ISPS products. He stressed that the products are “scalable and flexible” and that this approach “not only allows the solution to be readily tailored to the platform operational requirements but also to be upgraded in the future.”

Size Matters As well as scalability being an increasingly important issue in ISPS design, size and weight is an important consideration.

Available real estate is limited on any military aircraft and therefore ensuring that an ISPS is as physically non-intrusive as possible without suffering degradation

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up the radar spectrum, the RWR’s frequency range allows the detection of Ku-band (13.4-14/15.7-17.7GHz) radars that can be used for target tracking to support SAM batteries. Mr. Navon also states that the firm’s RWRs can be extended in frequency coverage downwards to 0.5GHz, allowing them to detect emissions from high-band Ultra High Frequency (890-942 megahertz/MHz) and L-band (1.215-1.4GHz) radars which are increasingly used for air surveillance given their ability to detect targets with a low Radar Cross Section (RCS). It should be noted that while such radars do not yet have the ability to provide a target position of an accuracy which can be used for guiding a SAM, they can denote an area of sky where a low RCS target maybe located.

Regarding podded systems IAI provides the EL/L-8212 and EL/L-8222 products. The principal difference between these includes their physical size, with the EL/L-8212 being designed for relatively small fighter aircraft such as the F-16 family, and the EL/L-8222 optimised for larger platforms such as the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15 Eagle fighter family. Like other ISPSs discussed in this article, the EL/L-8212 and EL/L-8222 can be accommodated on weapons stations capable of carrying AIM-9 and AIM-120 family weapons, alongside Raytheon’s AIM-7M Sparrow AAM. US suppliers of ISPS include Harris which, following the award of a contract by the US Navy on 21 March worth $88.3 million, is equipping that service with 48 AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 radio frequency jamming systems. This latest order follows an earlier July 2015 award for 46 ex-

in performance remains important. Elbit Systems’s All-in-Small ISPS has taken this approach, offering a self-protection system contained in a single line replacement unit which consists of a digital RWR, IR-based MAWS, advanced laser warning system and an integrated chaff and flare launcher, the company told AMR via a written statement.

Elbit Systems is joined by Israel Aerospace Industries’ ELTA systems division.

Ravi Navon, the company’s EW systems marketing and projects manager states that the firm provides a number of ISPS. These include the EL/L-8206 which has a modular design letting the customer determine the subsystems they wish to use in their ISPS. Mr. Navon states that a RWR and radar geolocation device, alongside an EW controller, equips the EL/L-8206 as standard. These sensors can be combined with a MAWS and a thirdparty laser warning system, plus chaff and flare dispensers, a towed RF (Radio Frequency) decoy for countering ARH/ SARH SAMs/AAMs and the firms’ own Directional IR Countermeasure. IAI’s EL/L-8264 prodIAI’s EL/L-8212 podded ISPS is optimised for uct meanwhile comprises relatively small combat aircraft such as the F-16 an RWR and provides radar family. It can be mounted on aircraft weapons geolocation. stations with can carry AIM-9 and AIM-120 AAMs. Like the majority of RWRs equipping contemporary ISPSs, IAI’s RWR technology covers the two to 18 gigahertz (GHz) frequency bands. This allows it to detect a wide range of threats including ground-based air surveillance radars operating in S-band (2.3-2.5/2.7-3.7 gigahertz/GHz) and C-band (5.25-5.925GHz) plus the Xband (8.5-10.68GHz) radars which are typically used by SAM fire control radars and fighter aircraft radars. Further

| Asian Military Review |

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TECHNICAL SUPPORT MACHINE MTP-72 PURPOSE Technical Support Machine MTP-72 is designed for the most labor intensive maintenance and current repairs of tank T-72 in the field.

The structure of the machine includes a trailer with equipment and racks with niches and special boxes for transport and storage of spare parts and consumables for the repair of the tank.

SPECIfICATIONS Chassis Trailer type Body type Crew

KrAZ-632207 Full metal, welded 3 (driver - crane operator, locksmith - mechanic, electrician - welder)

Workshop overall dimensions, mm: Length Width Height Total weight of a workshop, kg Maximum speed, km/h Fuel consumption, l/100 km Maximum grade ascending ability, angle degree Fordable depth, m Zar-system voltage, V

14720 2760 3640 22750 80 48 25 1,2 24, 220, 380

STATIONARY CHARGING STATION SZS-U PURPOSE Stationary charging station SZS-U is intended for a charge of acid accumulator batteries, and also alkaline batteries with the rated voltage of 12 and 24 V, with the capacity from 7 to 200 A·h, what is applied in automobile and armored vehicles (personal armored vehicles or tanks) The station represents the stationary boxing of frame type, it is divided into two compartments.

There is the chargers block in the front compartment, it’s consisting of twelve independent charging modules.

There are niches for laying of 12 charging cables sets and 1 powering cables set (220 V and 380 V) in the rear compartment.

Charging modules provide a high long-term charging rate with low fluctuations at the exit, they are interfering to premature wear of accumulator battery’s plates, and also are capable to determine the rated voltage of the charged battery automatically.

SPECIfICATIONS Type Output voltage, V Station voltage, V Number of at the same time charged accumula- tor batteries Time necessary for station expansion, no more, min.

Outline dimensions, mm length width height Weight, kg:

Stationary, power supply from external network 12, 24 220, 380 12 5

36, Dehtiarivska St., Kyiv, 04119, Ukraine Phone: +380 (44) 461-94-27 Fax: +380(44) 461-97-59; 489-07-58 E-mail: aira@ukrspecexport.com

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Harris’ AN/ALQ-214 ISPS has been developed in two distinct versions which differ according to the aircraft that they equip.

Both versions are in widespread use with the US Navy.

amples. The March contract is expected to be completed in December 2017. These 48 new systems will be used to protect existing McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F/A18C/D/E/F Hornet and Super Hornet fighters. The AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 forms part of the company’s AN/ALQ-214 Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) family. Regarding these two variants, the AN/ALQ-214(V)4 outfits the F/A-18E/F while the AN/ALQ214(V)5 equips the legacy F/A-18C/D, the principal differences between the two systems focusing on the mounting equipment used to install the self-defence system inside the respective aircraft. The architecture of the AN/ALQ-214 combines an RF generator, onboard RF transmitters and a towed decoy. The generator produces an RF signal designed to spoof or disrupt potentially hostile radar and radar-guided SAMs and AAMs. It also has a modular and programmable design to counter emerging RF threats. Compared to earlier versions of the AN/ALQ-214 which commenced delivery in 1997, the AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 has a weight saving of 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and has important updates to its hardware and software architecture allowing the AN/ALQ214(V)4/5 to take emerging radar threats into account as and when they appear.

Architecture Beyond the considerations of size, weight and power consumption, and the need to employ scalability and flexibility in ISPS design, the architecture of an ISPS has to be carefully considered. This is particularly pertinent regarding the systems equipping fighters, a written statement from Saab to AMR noted. “The environment on a fighter regarding vibration and temperature (for example) is very challenging when it comes to (electronic war-

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fare) equipment.” These challenges are increasingly being met, the company notes, via the use of digital receiver and exciter technology, which enjoy a higher performance and are easier to upgrade than their analogue counterparts. Regarding the transmitters which may be employed in ISPSs to broadcast jamming signals, travelling wave tubes which are used to amplify RF signals are progressively being replaced by solid state transmitters employing Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology. GaN, meanwhile, is increasingly used in the manufacture of semiconductors as it can tolerate high operating temperatures and hence high power levels, thus enabling Radio Frequency (RF) jamming transmitters to perform high powered jamming against RF threats.

Allied to this is the incorporation of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology in RF jamming. The military radar domain has embraced AESA technology due to its ability to employ multitudes of Transmit/Receive (T/R) modules on a single antenna. Each T/R module effectively acts as its own miniature radar, generating an RF pulse, transmitting it, and processing the pulse’s echo. This enables the radar to rapidly change between modes such as air-to-air or air-to-ground tracking, to electronically steer their beams using the process of constructive interference (in a similar fashion to how two magnets with the same polarity repel each other) thus reducing the number of moving parts which a radar requires. AESA technology has similar potential benefits for aircraft self protection in that it allows several RF threats to be engaged at once, and for threats to be jammed without necessarily needing to physically steer the antenna.

Saab is employing this technology in the evolution of the self-protection system

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which it employs in its JAS-39C/D Gripen fighter, and which will adorn its future JAS-39E Gripen variant, unveiled in May. Supplementing the JAS-39C/D/E ISPS is the firm’s ESTL (Enhanced Survivability Technology) podded ISPS. The ESTL can outfit any Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder family or AIM-120 (Advanced Medium Range AAM) weapons station, with the ensemble incorporating a MAWS, the firm’s BOP pyrotechnics dispenser an EW controller and a BOL chaff and flare dispenser. Flight testing of the ESTL has been performed using the JAS-39C/D and the ESTL is available in two versions: the ESTL-300 and ESTL-400.

The discriminating factor between these two versions is the provision of an additional MAWS on the rear of the ESTL-400, and the replacement of the BOL subsystem on the aft of the ESTL-300 with an additional BOP subsystem on the ESTL400. The company’s written statement adds that two ESTL-300s will provide full lower hemispherical coverage for an aircraft, which can also be provided with a single ESTL-400. Full hemispherical coverage can be provided by two ESTL-400s.

Saab’s BOZ-EC ISPS has been designed with fighters in mind and equips the Aeronautica Militaire’s (Italian Air Force) Panavia Tornado IDS ground-attack fighters and Tornado-ECR suppression of enemy air defence aircraft.

Future Shock One of the vexing aspects of ISPS design is that systems have to be developed with both contemporary and future threats in mind. Mr. Doyle states that future requirements for ISPS could include hostile fire indicators. The experience of the US-led coalition during the recent interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan have underscored the danger that conventional small arms fire can pose to military aircraft, particularly ‘low and slow’ platforms such as helicopters. To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling who observed in his 1886 poem Arithmetic on the Frontier that a low-cost Jezail muzzle-loading weapon much used by contemporary Afghan warriors was sufficient to kill an expensively trained British soldier, a well-placed rifle shot can bring down a helicopter. Therefore, the means of acoustically detecting small arms fire, or using optronics sensors to detect muzzle flash, could provide a means of determining the origin of a shot, allowing the pilot to perform evasive action to avoid the shot and also to determine its point of origin to give retaliatory fire. AMR

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Four Wheeling by Parachute

Stephen W. Miller

The Flyer 72 developed by General Dynamics draws directly from the vehicle that has already been fielded by the USSOCOM. The fielded Flyer 60 (shown) shares components which would reduce GMV fielding time and costs, as well as offering logistics savings.

The operational advantage of airborne forces is their ability to be loaded into fixed-wing freighters, be moved across significant distances and then be dropped by parachute or air-landed at a friendly airfield.

They are often viewed as the most readily-available option to respond to a distant situation requiring troops on the ground.

by Stephen W. Miller

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eing traditionally primarily light infantry, large numbers of airborne soldiers can be inserted relatively rapidly with few aircraft. However, once landed they are, for the most part, limited to moving by foot. This can put them at a significant disadvantage particularly when faced by the increasing tempo of ground combat operations and the widespread use of light commercial vehicles (the ‘technical’) by insurgent and irregular opponents, which has

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become as ubiquitous to such forces as the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle.

There is also the possibility that Drop Zones (DZs) suitable for large-scale parachute assaults may well be some distance from objectives thus entailing a considerable and arduous movement.

Some militaries have and are seeking to draw on advances in light vehicle design and materials to address this challenge.

The concept is to provide the airborne and light infantry with vehicles that can be carried by freighters and delivered with

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the assault. These vehicles might be parachute delivered or air-landed using LowAltitude Parachute-Extraction Systems (LAPES), which literally pull a palletized load from a freighter using parachute retardation, or even landed on rough airstrips.

Once on the ground airborne units would use these vehicles to enhance their tactical manoeuvre and speed. Though these types of vehicles have previously been adopted by special forces for many years, current initiatives are underway to introduce similar mobility to airborne forces.

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Details of the tactical concepts for the employment of the GMV are likely still being worked out as is common with any new system. However, the possibility of increasing the firepower of the light infantry squad using additional vehicle-mounted automatic weapons as shown on this Flyer could be of interest.

the two are being combined into the GMV. The GMV requirement, presented in the March 2016 Request for Information issued by the US Department of Defence, seeks a vehicle with a curb weight of 2227 kilograms/kgs (4900 pounds/lbs) capable of carrying nine soldiers and equipment equating to 1455kgs (3200lbs). Its mission profile is to “operate 70 percent off road, accelerate to 48 kilometres-perhour (30 miles-per-hour) in six to eight seconds, and be both carried in and LAPES dropped from a Lockheed Martin C-130J turboprop freighter, fitted inside the Boeing CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift

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helicopter and to be externally lifted by the Sikorsky UH-60L Blackhawk medium-lift utility helicopter.” The key differences between the earlier requirements and even other currently-fielded similar light vehicles, many of which are being used by the USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command) and other armies, is the nine soldiers the vehicle can carry. This is the equivalent of the current US Army light infantry rifle squad plus their equipment. This clearly reflects the driving rationale for transporting the basic tactical infantry element.

The ULCV and Light Reconnaissance Vehicle (LRV) requirements laid out at the GMCOE Warfighter’s Conference held in August 2014 showed remarkable similarities to the resulting GMV specification discussed above, the principal differences being the number of soldiers carried (nine for the ULCV and six for the LRV), protection (against small arms for the LRV but none for the ULCV), and mounted weapons (medium calibre on the LRV but only organic (the squad’s light machineguns) for the ULCV. Organisationally the ULCV would not be part of the infantry unit but rather provided as needed. This would keep the infantry unit table of organisation and equipment ‘light’ but does present questions regarding assuring the level of training for those that may be assigned to employ them for a mission, and how these vehicles will be maintained to assure their readiness. It has been widely recognised by maintenance officers that

Kongsberg

Light vehicles have been used with airborne units in the past but have been generally limited to reconnaissance and carrying direct support weapons like anti-tank guided missiles. During the Second World War one of the main rationales for the use of the glider was that it allowed delivery of jeeps and light guns to airborne forces. Indeed the use of jeeps, dune-buggy like light strike vehicles and even recreational ATVs (All-Terrain Vehicles) have been employed by airborne units for reconnaissance, raids and to seize key objectives in advance of the main ground combat element. In many ways these vehicles and their employment mirrored the use of these vehicles by special forces. The German and Russian airborne forces have even fielded tracked armoured vehicles specifically designed for airborne forces with both the Volgograd Tractor Plant BMD tracked vehicle family and the Rheinmetall Weasel 1 AWC (Armoured Weapons Carrier) being used by such Russian and German units.

The US Army, in particular, has highlighted as a priority its Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV). The GMV’s primary purpose is providing mobility to the army’s light infantry rifle squad. As promoted by the army's Ground Manoeuvre Centre of Excellence (GMCOE) at Fort Benning, it envisions “providing the ground combat element movement and manoeuvre capabilities for scouts and infantry squads that can be inserted by parachute and helicopter,” the GMCOE has stated. Originally envisioned as two separate vehicles, the Ultra Light Combat Vehicle (ULCV) and the Light Reconnaissance Vehicle, it appears

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The Weasel developed by Rheinmetall was specifically designed for use by airborne forces. It was first fielded by the German army in 1985 where it was used for reconnaissance and as a weapons carrier. Shown is the new longer Weasel-2 that can carry four soldiers plus a driver.

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for the Flyer that provides 7.62mm ball ballistic protection without compromising airlift or performance.

Phantom Badger

Polaris’s experience in designing vehicles for all-terrains is evident in its DAGOR. It claims to exceed the off-road performance required for the GMV initiative and Polaris has even shown a version with ballistic protection in a kit developed by O’Gara known for its armoured sedans.

equipment in ‘pools’ that do not have an ‘owner’ are too often not given the preventive maintenance attention needed to ensure that they are in top condition when called upon.

Five available Commercial-Off-TheShelf (COTS) candidates have been offered to meet the GMV’s requirements including carrying the full squad. Industry was invited several times since 2014 by the army to demonstrate suitable vehicles.

Companies that responded included General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GDOTS) with variants of its Flyer 72 that has already been fielded by the USSOCOM, and Boeing, working with the racing car innovator MSI, with its Phantom Badger originally also designed to be transported in the Bell-Boeing CV/ MV-22A Osprey tilt-rotor. The Polaris DAGOR (Deployable Advanced Ground Off-Road) also draws from a USSOCOM requirement as well as operational experience by the 10th Mountain and 82nd Airborne divisions’ trials of its ATV line.

Hendricks Dynamics is offering the Commando, a much improved and somewhat militarized version of the Jeep Wrangler civilian four-wheel drive ATV. Plus, the small company Vyper Adamas is proposing its Vyper V4 which it states as a new design built around a state-of-the art offroad vehicle using COTS components. In addition, Lockheed Martin working with Jackal had initially shown interest offering the HMT-400 High Versatility Tactical Vehicle, a design drawing from the latter firm’s Supracat, but reports are that it appears to have decided not to continue.

FLYER General Dynamics is emphasising both the proven field track record of its Flyer and the army’s potential to accelerate the

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GMV fielding and save money by leveraging testing already completed and the logistics in place following the fielding of this vehicle with USSOCOM. Mike Iaccobucci, business development director for lightweight tactical vehicles at the company told AMR that for the USSOCOM GMV1.1 requirement, “the Flyer already has three, five and seven person configurations that we’re providing to (USSOCOM).

The Flyer-72 based design doesn’t have to be redesigned or re-developed; you simply add or subtract kit requirements like the nine-person seating.” He continued, “we already have a vehicle with a government/ military validated 95 percent reliability rating that meets or exceeds all performance parameters. This includes mobility, lethality, range, speed, acceleration … in over 38616km (24000 miles) of testing.”

The Flyer-72, the basis for the GDOTS GMV offering, is essentially the same system being used by USSOCOM and has a substantial 2500kg (5512lb) payload. This capability easily allows the Flyer-72 to accommodate the nine battle-ready solders while still leaving another 1062kgs (2336lbs) for additional supplies. The GDOTS Team’s previous military user exposure is evident in the design. For example, rather than providing a chassis seat for the ‘ninth’ occupant, they are positioned in a secured gunner’s seat to operate whichever machinegun is inevitably selected for the GMV. The vehicle is also available in a narrower 1500mm version known as the Flyer 60, which fits inside the CV/MV-22A and can also be externally lifted by the UH-60L. Both the Flyer-72 and the Flyer-60 share components with the AM General HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle).

GDOTS, working with Tencate, has also already demonstrated an armouring kit

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Boeing’s GMV candidate successfully addressed the challenges of loading into the tight quarters of the CV/MV-22A as a primary design consideration. This has resulted in a highly compact and lightweight vehicle. The Phantom Badger has participated in several US Army demonstrations held since 2014, but Deborah Van Nierop, the Boeing Phantom Works spokesperson, told AMR that “no decisions have been made by Boeing in regard to the US Army GMV competition”. The vehicle features a customisable rear section that can support a wide range of missions. It uses a proprietary suspension to assure ride comfort and stability. With a current curb weight of 2045kg (4500lbs) and 1587kgs (3350lbs) payload the Phantom Badger offers room for some modifications to meet the current GMV requirements. Its use of four-wheel drive steering gives a tight 7.47 metre (25 feet) turning cycle that is well suited to traversing urban environments, forests, and rough, rocky terrain.

Boeing has developed additional variants of the Phantom Badger beyond the infantry carrier. These include an indirect fire support model that carries and can quickly deploy a 120mm heavy mortar. Coupled with a specially designed off-road ammunition trailer the system offers responsive fire support that can accompany airborne forces. In addition, they have prepared and demonstrated medical evacuation and logistics versions of the vehicle. The Phantom Badger is already fielded by the US Marines and Air Force Special Operations segment of USSOCOM, both avid CV/MV-22A users.

DAGOR The DAGOR is a new development by Polaris Defence. According to Jed Leonard, the firm’s senior manager, “the design went from concept to testing hardware in only nine months … Much of the design is influenced by input from the special forces community and the company’s experience with more than 20 countries that have our ultra-light military vehicles.” The DAGOR is already in service with the USSOCOM and also meets the Army GMV requirements for air and helicopter lift. The DAGOR takes advantage of the rear open bed, used in the SOCOM vehicles to carry additional supplies for extended operations, to accommodate

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the additional soldiers enquired in the GMV squad carrier. Polaris also offers a smaller MRZ4 which can carry four (or six with optional rear-facing seats) and has a collapsible roll-cage making it CV/ MV-22A internally transportable. This 867kg (1912lb) curb weight vehicle can carry up to 680kgs (1500lbs) of payload.

The US Special Operations Command announced in March that it is making a solesource purchase of 2000 vehicles from Polaris. The contract, to be awarded in June, includes 1750 of the MRZR-4 and 300 of its smaller MRZR-2 vehicles.

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COMMANDO The Jeep Wrangler is looked upon by many as the civil version of the JEEP workhorse of the Second World War. Hendricks Dynamics has taken this proven core and applied technology to offer what it sees as a worthy successor suited for today’s military challenges.

The Commando model being offered for the GMV requirement takes advantage of the commercial Wrangler Unlimited model production and support service, as well as applying this model’s proven performance and safety features. One of these is the Jeep’s electronic stability control system. To further address military conditions significant reinforcement of the body has been done including directly connecting the bed to the frame that permits a 1500kgs (3300lbs) payload.

Drawing as it does from the commercial production line, the Commando has not only COTS components but permits use of an extensive in-place service network.

VYPER Finally, the Vyper V4 is being customconfigured for the GMV requirement by drawing on the earlier V3 Python Fast Attack Vehicles and other Tactical Ultra Light Vehicles designed by the company. Vyper Adamas’ chief executive officer Nicholas Chapman told AMR that “Vyper will utilise the most advanced technologies available in its GMV candidate to achieve the best weight, ride and operational performance possible.” He added, “we have the unique attributes of a small company to offer a vehicle that does more for less.”

The company particularly emphasises its use of mission-patented “Modular Pod”.

These can be installed on any base chassis to convert the vehicle to different applications. Mr. Chapman described to AMR an operational concept that would permit various “pods” to be positioned at a forward operating base from which a com-

Vyper intends to offer its Pods concept. This allows for modules to be quickly fitted to a base vehicle for various tasks. For example, three person Pods can be installed into its mid section and rear to carry eight soldiers.

mander could “choose pods for a specific mission”. Versions of the pods developed by the company include logistics/cargo, weapons, tactical operations centre and medical. Pods can be switched out without the need for material handling systems.

Vyper Adamas’ recent teaming with Spartan Chassis goes a long way in addressing concerns over the candidate vehicle meeting the aggressive production schedules demanded by the army.

Considerations The US Army is reportedly reviewing some of their key GMV requirements. Two aspects in particular being considered are the need to carry the entire nine soldier squad on a single vehicle, the need for, at least, the option to be able to fit some ballistic protection. Both are linked to the tactical employment concept for the GMV mounted infantry units and directly influence the configuration of the vehicles that can, and will, be offered by industry. It remains unclear how this review will turn out and what if any changes may result in the requirements that industry needs to meet. In fact, several of the companies which AMR spoke to indicated that their proposed vehicles were already capable of being reconfigured for other passenger sizes and to provide protection. Both the General Dynamics Flyer and Polaris DAGOR have advertised that they have the ‘extra’ payload and flexibility to pro-

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vide these capabilities without compromising air transportability.

Programme Status The US Army has included a request for funding in its 2017 budget with the objective of releasing a Request for Proposals the end of 2016 for an open competition that would include the evaluation and test of candidate vehicles. However, as yet the Required Operational Capability statement, normally the first step in the acquisition process, has not been formally approved. Still the stated intent is to select a vehicle and award a single fixed price contract that would provide initial low rate production as early as late 2017, and full production later in 2019. The final numbers of vehicles is not yet set, but somewhere around 300 has been mentioned. It has also been suggested that there should be sufficient vehicles to support three airborne battalions. Thus far the only mission version mentioned has been the infantry carrier sans the reconnaissance version. In addition, though offered by several of the GMV competitors, there has been to date no indication of army intentions to acquire and field any of these versions.

The army’s primary objective seems to be to get the GMV fielded quickly. If they achieve the stated 2019 initial operational capability goal they will have certainly have achieved that. AMR

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Asia-Pacific Procurement Update

by Pierre Delrieu India to begin production of Ka-226T in 2017 Russia’s state-owned Rostec technology company and Russian Helicopters are looking to start the production of the Kamov Ka-226T light utility helicopter in India in 2017. Rostec’s director for international cooperation and regional policy, Viktor Kladov, made the announcement to this effect on 20 April during the Defense Services Asia exhibition held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The joint production agreement was signed in December 2015 between Russia and India under the latter government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, which promotes the domestic manufacturing of defence materiel, during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow. The

initial deal, estimated to cost over $1 billion, was for the manufacture of 200 Ka-226T helicopters in India and, in February 2016 Igor Chechikov, deputy director general of Rostec’s subsidiary Russian Helicopters specified that 60 units would be supplied already assembled to India, while another 140 aircraft would be assembled at Indian production facilities.

India’s state-owned company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was presented as the main partner for the initiative but Mr. Kladov also noted that his company “will pick a number of other Indian companies for participation in the project.”

The Ka-226T has been designed for military and civilian missions. Produced by the Kumertau Aviation Production Enterprise,

a division of Russian Helicopters, the Ka-226T is in service with the Russian Air Force, performing Reconnaissance; search and rescue; as well as troop and cargo transportation.

The Indian Army is seeking to replace its ageing rotorcraft fleet including the HAL Chetak, the Indian version of the Aérospatiale/ Airbus Helicopters SA-316

Alouette-III built under licence by HAL since the late 1980s. Certified to work in both cold and hot temperatures and capable of carrying up to 3086 pounds (1400 kilograms) of cargo, the army uses the SA-316 to carry supplies to its forward operating bases in high altitude areas such as the Siachen Glacier area of the disputed region of Kashmir.

Pakistan to receive nine AH-1Z attack helicopters Bell Helicopter is currently on contract to deliver three AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters to the US Navy (USN) by 2017. In addition, the company has been contracted by the USN to manufacture an additional nine AH-1Zs, destined for Pakistan under a foreign military sales initiative. The US Department of Defence (DoD) announced

the order in a statement published on 4 April. Pakistan had requested 15 AH-1Zs back in 2015, although no official statement from either side specifies when, or if, the remaining six helicopters will be delivered.

The contract “for the manufacture and delivery of nine AH-1Z aircraft and nine auxiliary fuel kits for the government of Pakistan” is “expected to be completed in September 2018,” explained the DoD statement, with final delivery slated for August 2018. The statement also explained that the AH-1Zs are part of a larger $952 million foreign military deal with Pakistan that was approved in April 2015 and included up to 15 AH-1Z helicopters (see above), 32 General Electric T-700-GE-

401C turboshafts and 1000 Lockheed Martin AGM-114R Hellfire-II semi-active laser homing/millimetre wave radar-guided air-to-surface missiles.

When announcing the deal in April 2015, the Defence Security Cooperation Agency, the DoD organization which oversees foreign military cooperation had said that the “proposed sale of helicopters and weapon systems will provide Pakistan with military capabilities in support of its … counter-insurgency operations in South Asia,” explaining that the deal will help to consolidate Pakistan’s counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations, providing a precision-strike, enhanced-survivability aircraft that can operate at high-altitudes.

The announcement for the additional aircraft comes weeks after the administration of President Barack Obama announced it had approved a $700 million deal to provide the former with eight F-16C/D fighters, despite strong opposition and objections from several members of the US Congress and from India, Pakistan’s regional rival.

With this deal, Pakistan becomes the first international customer for Bell’s AH-1Z helicopter marking an important step for the country’s replacement of its Marine Corps’ (PM) ageing fleet of AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters by 2020. The PM’s new aircraft will be delivered from Bell’s final assembly and checkout facility in Amarillo, Texas.

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Regional News and

Developments

southeast asia Thales to help modernise RTN Thales announced through a press release published on 29 April that it at been awarded the role of prime contractor for two modernisation contracts awarded by the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) to upgrade the RTN’s Mine Countermeasures (MCM) vessels, and to provide an integrated combat suite for its Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) and a “full spectrum of above-water and underwater solutions.”

The company will deliver upgrades for the HTMS Bang Rachan and HTMS Nong Sarai, the RTN’s two ‘Bang Rachan’ class MCM vessels and supply the combat, navigation and communication suite for the HTMS Krabi ‘River’ class OPV. Although unable to disclose financial details, including the value of the deal with the RTN, “due to contractual agreements,” Thales told AMR that the ‘Bang Rachan’ ships will be equipped with “new solutions, including a machinery control system, navigation systems, upgraded communications, the company’s TSM-2022 Mk.III sonar and M-CUBE MCM

command and control system.”

With the RTN’s yet-tobe-named second ‘Krabi’ class OPV, to be built by Bangkok Dock and expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2018, Thales will supply its TACTICOS combat management system, STIR 1.2 Mk.2 radar and optronic fire control system, VIGILE Electronic Support Measures and the company’s proprietary Link-Y tactical

data link, plus all of the vessels’ internal and external communications. The RTN’s first ‘Krabi’ class OPV was commissioned in 2013, built

by Mahidol Naval Dockyard, with design and technology transfer support from BAE Systems and with Thales as the prime contractor for the ship’s systems integration.

Commenting on the deal, the company’s spokesperson told AMR that it was a

Philippines receives first of two surplus C-130s The United States announced on 8 April it had delivered the first of two surplus Lockheed Martin C-130T Hercules turboprop freighters to the Hukbong Himpapawidng Pilipinas (Philippines Air Force/PAF) under the Excess Defence Articles (EDA) programme; a $55 million deal, of which the US government provided $35 million in financing and the PAF financed the remaining $20 million. The second aircraft is expected to arrive by October 2016.

This delivery brings to

four the number of C-130B/H transport aircraft in the PAF’s inventory and considerably boosts the PAF’s airlift capability. The two C-130T aircraft were introduced into the US Navy’s Reserve Fleet Logistics Support Squadrons in 1991 but are no longer operated by the US. They join the PAF’s two existing C-130B and one C-130H aircraft and it is expected that the PAF will acquire further surplus aircraft over the coming years.

The C-130Ts acquired by the PAF were originally configured as tankers, but converted for transport missions before being acquired

by the Philippines. Speaking at the handover ceremony held on 12 April to mark the arrival of the aircraft at Villamor airbase in Manila, the PAF’s spokesperson Colonel Araus Robert Musico announced that the C-130Ts will be used mainly for logistics support, but will retain their ability to conduct aerial refuelling. The ceremony saw the US ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg handing the aircraft’s maintenance, operational records and manuals to the Philippines’ defence secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

The PAF currently operates various fixed-wing

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“significant accomplishment for Thales in Thailand, as it’s a testament of the confidence the Royal Thai Navy has in Thales’s systems and solutions”, adding that the company was “proud to be officially (Thailand’s) main supplier of underwater and above-water systems, and to be able to integrate the expertise of (Thales’) various businesses to support the navy’s needs.”

airlift platforms, including two Fokker F-27-200/500F Friendship turboprop freighters and one F-28 Fellowship turbofan transport plus three Airbus C-295 and four GAF Nomad turboprop freighters. The PAF’s recent acquisition comes as the country struggles to develop its freighter fleet, which has degraded since the 1980s due to a lack of maintenance and investment. Now faced with the People’s Republic of China’s increasingly assertive regional posture in the East and South China Seas the country is seeking to rebuild its once strong freighter fleet.

Regional News and

Developments

e a s t China’s CASIC displays new AShM During the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2016 exhibition, held in Kuala Lumpur from 18 to 21 April, the People’s Republic of China’s Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) revealed its CM-708UNB, submarinelaunched Anti-Ship Missile (AShM). The company also provided further details regarding an older Utility Landing Craft (LCU) that is now being promoted for export.

The turbojet-powered CM708UNB has a 156 nautical miles/nm (290 kilometre/ km) range and complements the 69nm (128 km) range CM-708UNA revealed by CASIC in 2014. According to

Japan’s new fighter takes maiden flight Japan’s new fifth-generation fighter manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) made its maiden flight on 22 April, and Japan’s Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA) now plans for the experimental fifthgeneration fighter technology demonstrator, known as

Rick Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Centre, based in Alexandria, Virginia and an expert on Chinese military modernisation and AsiaPacific strategic trends, this missile could “compete with Russia’s Novator Design Bureau’s 3M-54 Klub family of AShMs” and would represent, if the numbers given by CASIC are correct, “the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) longest range indigenous torpedo-tube launched cruise missile.”

Speaking to AMR, Mr. Fisher added, “the CM-708UNB gives China’s nuclear and conventional submarines the ability to pose a greater threat.” The modernisation of

the X-2 Shinshin (formerly the ATD-X) to go through a one-year test campaign. Commenting on the flight, defence minister Gen Nakatani told reporters “the first flight has a very significant meaning (as it) can secure technologies needed for future fighter development,” adding that Japan would also “expect (that these technologies) can

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China’s submarine launched AShMs is not unexpected, as the country is looking for a successor to its ageing sub-launched version of the rocket-powered subsonic AShM, the YJ-82 developed in the 1980s by the China Sea Eagle Electromechanical Technology Academy (CHEMTA) and from which the CM-708UNB is thought to be derived. “China’s marketoriented defence sector is producing so many new weapons that seeking foreign sales has become a very high priority,” explains Mr. Fisher, with the country looking to promote foreign sales of this new AShM. Also during the DSA exhibition held in Kuala

Lumpur CASIC provided details for the LC63, the export designation for the ‘Type 074A Yubei’ class amphibious catamaran. According to Mr. Fisher, “The … LCU was first seen early in the last decade, though some Chinese sources say if first appeared in the mid 1990s. However, it apparently has not been acquired in large numbers by the PLAN.” Capable of carrying up to three main battle tanks or 250 troops, the LC63 could attract foreign customers “interested in a light but modern amphibious transport,” added Mr. Fisher as, “for many countries this would constitute a large force for domestic or border defence contingencies.”

be applied to other fields and technological innovation in the entire aviation industry.”

The aircraft will now enter a one-year test campaign, which will consist about 50 test flights.

With this new aircraft, Japan becomes one of the few nations to test-fly an indigenously-developed aircraft with low observable

characteristics. MHI is the prime contractor for the aircraft but over 200 Japanese companies contributed to the design and development of the technology demonstrator.

Japan has spent around $332 million on the development of its Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning-II fighter as a partner in this US-led initiative, but developing the X-2 will also benefit the country’s defence industry. Japan decided to purchase 42 F-35As in 2011, the first of which are destined to be inducted into the Japan Air-Self Defence Force by the end of 2016. Japan will decide in the next two years whether to develop the X-2 as a production aircraft which will henceforth be known as F-3. More details regarding Japanese defence procurement can be found in Dr. Alix Valenti’s ‘Big in Japan’ article in this issue.

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US approves sale of 3000 GBU-39Bs to Australia The sale to Australia of up to 2950 live and 50 inert test and training Boeing GBU-39B Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) was approved by the US State Department, the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which supervises foreign military cooperation,

announced on 6 April. The total contract is valued at $386 million, $172 million of which will cover the cost of the GBU-39/B units.

Australia’s purchase of 3000 GBU-39Bs comes as part of the country’s wider ongoing procurement of Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning-II fighters. The Royal Australian Air Force

(RAAF) is currently awaiting delivery of some 72 F-35As, acquired at a cost of about $70 million per aircraft. The production of the first two Australian F-35As began in 2011 with these aircraft currently undergoing testing in Arizona, with a delivery to Australia expected in 2018 and a full operational capability within the RAAF by 2023.

Australia’s F-35As will be able to carry up to eight GBU39s. The bomb is equipped with a multipurpose penetrating and blast-and-fragmentation warhead, coupled with a cockpit-selectable electronic fuse. With a range of about 60 nautical miles (110 kilometres), the GBU-39B is not designed to attack moving targets but is intended for close-air support missions.

As stated by the DSCA’s news release published to announce the deal, “the sale of the GBU-39B supports and complements the on-

Rheinmetall delivers first batch of TWELVE tactical trucks to ADF During a ceremony held at Gallipoli Barracks, near Brisbane, Queensland on 7 April, Rheinmetall-MAN Military Vehicles Australia (RMMVA) delivered twelve HX high-mobility tactical trucks to the Australian Defence Force; the first batch of more than 2500 medium, heavy protected and unprotected trucks to be delivered to Australia under Phase 3B of the country’s long-running Land 121 programme which plans to replace the country’s Mercedes-Benz Unimog and Mack RM-6866RS trucks with the delivery of some 2700 trucks, 3800 modules and 1700 trailers.

Australia’s assistant minister for defence Michael McCormack, who received delivery of the first twelve

vehicles for the army, stated that “the $3.4 billion project will deliver a range of modern medium and heavy trucks, modules and trailers which will revolutionise the ADF’s tactical logistics capability now and well into the future.”

He added that “some trucks will also have an innovative integrated load-handling system which will enable the operator to remain protected inside the cabin while loading and unloading cargo” and specified that “as part of the army’s digitisation programme, all of the trucks will be fitted to accommodate the Australian Army’s new Battle Management System as well as a suite of military radios.”

With this acquisition Australia becomes the first Rheinmetall customer to receive the company’s latest HX2 model, the configurations of the trucks to be delivered to the ADF

include cargo; cargo with crane; tipper, medium recovery, Intelligent LoadHandling System (ILHS) Demountable Rack Offload and Pickup System (DROPS) and Palletised Load System (PLS) along with fuel/water, heavy equipment transport, bridging, and heavy recovery variants. These variants are all standard unarmoured vehicles, but designed with fixings for the company’s Modular Armour Cabin (MAC). The order also plans for some 1100 protected trucks, fitted with RMMVA’s Integrated Armour Cabin (IAC) and 3000 modules.

Under a separate award, the cargo trailer manufacturer Haulmark will produce and deliver 1700 trailers of various types to the ADF, the first 70 of which were accepted alongside the new trucks discussed above on 7 April. Australia’s HX range

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going sale of the F-35A to the RAAF. This capability will strengthen combined operations and increase interoperability between the US Air Force and the RAAF. Australia will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.” Commenting on the geopolitical importance of the sale to Australia, the DSCA’s statement also noted that “Australia is one of (the US’) most important allies in the Western Pacific. The strategic location of this political and economic power contributes significantly to ensuring peace and economic stability in the region. This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a major contributor to political stability, security, and economic development in the Pacific region and globally.”

of tactical trucks is currently in service with or has been ordered by several armed forces worldwide, including those of Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The manufacture of the modules to equip the trucks will see the participation of Australian partners, such as Sea Box Australia, which will deliver flat racks for the ILHS. Holmwood Highgate, which specialises in the manufacture of Bulk Liquid Transport Equipment, will supply tankers, water and fuel modules. GH Varley from Newcastle and RPC Technologies, based in Sydney will also participate in the project as subcontractors to Rheinmetall for Australia’s soon-to-bedelivered General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) Ribbon Bridge and support boats.

A WORLD OF MARITIME SECURITY.

The P-8 is the world’s most capable maritime patrol aircraft. It brings together a networked state-of-the-art mission system with next-generation sensors and a reliable airframe with high-efďŹ ciency turbofan engines.

The result is an affordable multi-mission aircraft with superior speed and unmatched capability. The P-8 is now ready to secure sea and shore around the globe.