• Defence Helicopter

  SAS14: Navy readies for APKWS

  10th April 2014

  The US Navy is furthering development of its new LAU-61G/A Digital Rocket Launcher (DRL), paving the way for full Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) …

• Defence Notes

  Defence Services Asia: Export decision allows Japan to target SE Asian market

  10th April 2014

  Japan’s removal of its arms export ban could offer up opportunities for defence sales to Southeast Asian countries, government officials have divulged. The news follows …

• Military Logistics

  Rolls-Royce to continue US Navy T-45 engine support

  10th April 2014

  Rolls-Royce will continue to support the F405 Adour engines that power the US Navy's T-45 training aircraft under a follow-on contract announced on 9 April. …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  SAS14: RAF pax to be trained on Triton

  9th April 2014

  Four Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel are to conduct training on the US Navy’s MQ-4C Triton UAS as part of the UK’s Seedcorn programme which …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  SAS14: USN reveals extended test plans for UCAS-D

  9th April 2014

  The US Navy PM for the UCAS-D programme has outlined a series of objectives for X-47B following the award of additional funding to continue testing …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  SAS14: UCLASS draft RfP expected within weeks

  9th April 2014

  The highly anticipated draft RfP for the air vehicle segment of the US Navy’s future Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) programme is …

• Land Warfare

  Alion signs US DoD C-IED development contract

  9th April 2014

  Alion Science and Technology will work with the US Department of Defence (DoD) in an engineering and science and technology expertise capacity to develop next-generation …

• Defence Helicopter

  Phantom Badger certified for V-22

  9th April 2014

  The US Navy has certified the Phantom Badger combat support vehicle for transport within the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. A series of successful tests were …

• Land Warfare

  GD assesses AMPV options

  8th April 2014

  General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) has announced an internal review following the US Army Materiel Command’s (AMC) decision to deny the company’s protest regarding the …

• Naval Warfare

  US Coast Guard HC-144A deliveries remain on-track

  8th April 2014

  A new HC-144A Ocean Sentry maritime patrol aircraft has been delivered by Airbus Defense and Space (D&S) to the US Coast Guard, bringing the fleet …

• Defence Helicopter

  SAS14: AACUS completes first phase test

  8th April 2014

  The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has completed the first flight test programme of its five year Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (AACUS) effort, it has …

• Defence Helicopter

  SAS14: V-22 office readies for navy order

  8th April 2014

  The V-22 Joint Program Office is preparing itself for the potential order of 48 of the tiltrotors for the US Navy, which it is hoping …

• Naval Warfare

  AdvanFort accuses SAMI of inaction

  8th April 2014

  Private maritime security company (PMSC) AdvanFort has announced that it will withdraw from the Security Association for the Maritime Industries (SAMI) with intentions to establish …

• Naval Warfare

  SAS14: USN chief encourages payload utility extensions

  7th April 2014

  The US Navy’s (USN) chief of naval operations has stressed that the payload capacity of the service’s vessels needs to be utilised further in order …

• Naval Warfare

  SAS14: USCG boss calls for more vessels

  7th April 2014

  In spite of DoD budget cuts, the Commandant of the USCG has called for more ships to be brought into the force’s fleet as vessels …

Programme Results - Defence Insight

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  Puma 3 AE (Ukraine Aid) [US]

  Programme Background Military Aid - $300 Million On 1 April 2022, the US DoD announced a $300 million military aid package for Ukraine to "bolster Urkaine's capacity ...

• MPVs - 4x4

  M1165 Special Ops HMMWV [USA]

  Background The HHMWV, or Humvee, has been in US service since 1983. The M1165A1B3 is a special operations variant of the platform.  In 2015, the US ...

• Loitering munitions

  Switchblade 300 (Ukraine Aid) [US]

  Programme Background Presidential Drawdown (16 March 2022 & 13 April 2022) On 16 March 2022, President Biden announced $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine through ...

• Fighter - multirole

  F-35A Joint Strike Fighter - USAF

  Background The programme’s early competitive phase included three different airframe designs. Boeing submitted one design, Lockheed Martin submitted another, and McDonnell Douglas submitted a third ...

• Loitering munitions

  Point Blank [US]

  Programme Background As IAI stated in a 19 January 2023 press release, it had been awarded a multi-million-dollar contract by the Irregular Warfare Technical Support ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing

  BQM-177A [US Navy]

  Background Previous Purchases The BQM-177A was designed for the USN and has been in service with the USN for many years. Indeed, in August 2022, Shephard reported ...

• Loitering munitions

  Switchblade 600 (Ukraine Aid) [US]

  Programme Background $300 Million USAI (1 April 2022) On 1 April 2022, the US DoD announced a $300 million military aid package for Ukraine following ...

• Loitering munitions

  Phoenix Ghost (Ukraine Aid) [US]

  Background Presidential Drawdown (21 April 2022) Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, on 21 April 2022, President Biden announced an $800 million ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - mini

  Puma LE [Kosovo]

  Background Contract Award On 21 January 2022, the US Department of Defence (DoD) announced that AeroVironment had been awarded an $11.01 million firm-fixed contract for Puma ...

• Loitering munitions

  ALTIUS-600M (Ukraine Aid) [US]

  Programme Background On 24 February 2023, the US DoD announced that the Biden Administration had released an additional aid package under the Ukraine Security Assistance ...

• MPVs - 4x4

  M1152A1B2/M1165A1B3 HMMWV [USA]

  Background The HMMWV has been in US service since the 1980s. Despite the introduction of newer platforms, the US DoD continues to utilise the platform ...

• Military helicopters - maritime

  MH-60R Seahawk (India)

  Programme Background On 25 February 2020, a letter of acceptance for 24 MH-60Rs, worth approximately $2.12 billion, was signed by India and the US in Delhi. ...

• Loitering munitions

  Lethal Unmanned Systems (LUS): Switchblade [US]

  Background DoD Contract On 27 August 2024, the US DoD announced that AeroVironment had been awarded a ceiling $990 million hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price) contract to provide “an ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  Puma 2 AE [Estonia]

  Programme Background The US DoD announced that it had awarded AeroVironment an $8.868 million firm-fixed-price contract to supply an undisclosed number of RQ-20B Puma AE ...

• Transport/tanker aircraft

  KC-46A (3-6) [Japan]

  On 30 October 2020, the US DoD announced that it awarded a $342 million contract to Boeing for two Japanese KC-46A tanker aircraft. Work will be performed ...

Equipment Results - Defence Insight

• Pistols

  M9

  M9 is the US DoD designation for the military-specification 9mm Beretta 92FS, selected in 1985 to replace the 45cal M1911A1 in US service. Sales to ...

• Man-portable missile systems

  Igla/SA-18

  The 9K38 Igla (US DoD designation SA-18, NATO reporting name Grouse ) IR-homing MANPADS was developed by KBM and entered service in 1983 to meet the requirements ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  ScanEagle 3

  Insitu unveiled the ScanEagle 3 at the Xponential exhibition in Denver in May 2018. The platform has twice the payload capacity of its ScanEagle predecessor ...

• Loitering munitions

  Point Blank

  Point Blank Weapon System is a hand-launched electro-optical VTOL-capable loitering munition developed by Isreal Aerospace Industries (IAI). IAI has been awarded a contract by the US ...

• Land: Radio and SATCOM

  BAT-850

  Pathfinder's BAT-850 VSAT is a carbon fibre, tri-band terminal with auto-acquisition capability. Suitable for flyaway (case-based) and vehicle-mounted applications, it is in service with the ...

• Land: Radio and SATCOM

  URC-300

  The URC-300 is a software-defined radio designed for line-of-sight, ground-to-air communications in particular. Introduced in 2020, it adheres to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards as well ...

• Air: aerial targets, Military UAS - fixed-wing

  BQM-177A/i

  The BQM-177A subsonic aerial target (SSAT) was designed for the USN, and the BQM-177i is the export variant. The BQM-177 provides realistic threat emulation for ...

• Land: Radio and SATCOM

  Banshee Tactical Radio

  Developed by Fenix Group, the Banshee Tactical Radio (BTR) is a communications system that uses 4G/LTE connectivity to provide secure mesh networking capability on the ...

• Crew-served grenade launchers

  Striker 40/MK47

  General Dynamics is systems integrator for the Striker 40 (MK47 AGL in US service). The complete system comprises the weapon, AN/PWG-1 Lightweight Video Sight and ...

• Air: Radio and SATCOM

  AN/ARC-231 Skyfire

  The AN/ARC-231 Skyfire is an airborne VHF/UHF/LOS and DAMA SATCOM system. This system supports US DoD requirements for airborne, multi-band, multi-mission, secure anti-jam voice, data ...

• Air-to-air missiles

  9M39 Igla-V

  The 9M39 Igla-V (‘needle’) is a Russian IR homing SAM adapted for helicopter use. It is an air-launched version of the Igla MANPADS, which the ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - HALE

  Global Observer

  The AeroVironment Global Observer HALE UAV was a developmental HALE UAV designed for various civil, commercial and government applications.  Development of the platform began in 2007 ...

• Counter-UAS systems

  CLWS

  Developed by Boeing, Compact Laser Weapon System (CLWS or CLaWS) is a medium-range, low-power laser C-UAS system. According to the reports, the CLWS prototype has ...

• Weapon sights for day use

  CompM4/M4s

  The US DoD has bought over one million Aimpoint sights since 1997. The US Army is now fielding the CompM4s as the latest version of ...

• Heavy machine guns

  M2HB

  US Ordnance is one of two US M2HB heavy machine gun manufacturers which has received multi-year contracts to supply weapons to the US DoD. The ...