• Air Warfare

  India launches homegrown fifth-generation fighter programme despite ongoing advanced fighter engine gap

  12th March 2024

  New Delhi’s plans for the debut of its first AMCA fighter prototype within four and a half years have been marred by the nation’s ongoing struggle to bridge the technological gap in developing advanced fighter jet engines.

• Air Warfare

  Netherlands receives AH-64E Version 6 Apache attack helicopters

  16th January 2024

  The Royal Netherlands Air Force has received two advanced AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters remanufactured from the service’s AH-64D fleet.

• Air Warfare

  Saab signs US$190 million GlobalEye contract with UAE

  22nd January 2024

  The UAE has signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Saab to ensure its GlobalEye solution remains mission-ready.

• Land Warfare

  Preparations underway for Saudi–US Red Sands exercise

  10th January 2024

  Last year’s Rad Sands Live Fire (RSLF) included a demonstration of C-UAS capability and the second of this year’s events in October/November will be expected to include similar activity and companies from earlier events such as MARSS.

• Naval Warfare

  UK government defends nuclear submarine fleet after missile misfire

  21st February 2024

  The UK Royal Navy’s Vanguard-class of ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) provide the UK with its continuous-at-sea deterrent (CASD) coverage and have done so since 1994. The Vanguards will themselves be replaced by the new Dreadnought-class SSBNs from the 2030s.

• Air Warfare

  KAI develops MUM-T alongside fighter program

  28th February 2024

  KAI has been developing manned-unmanned teaming and air-launched effects technologies to be operated alongside its domestically developed KF-21 Boramae fighter.

• Air Warfare

  Thailand decommissions Pilatus PC-9 training aircraft

  6th February 2024

  All 22 Thai Pilatus PC-9 training aircraft have been retired with the T-6C Texan II fulfilling all training roles for the country’s air force.

• Air Warfare

  Brazil looks for attack helicopter two years after fleet retirement

  1st March 2024

  The Brazilian Armed Forces has faced challenges in terms of it size and geography and has long had an emphasis on better serving Amazonia. Plans for a new battalion are set to become a reality and improvement of rotary capability is underway.

• Land Warfare

  Rheinmetall and UK provide more support for Ukraine as Russia gains ground

  19th February 2024

  As the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine edges closer, the resolve of Western countries has been tested in the face of entrenched positions, rising costs, political divisions and the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.

• Air Warfare

  Israel prepares F-35s for potential mission in Iran

  21st February 2024

  The threat of Iranian nuclear weapons has led Israel to make changes to its F-35s while Russian actions in Syria have acted as a catalyst for action in developing anti-jamming systems.

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Israel’s SpearUAV positions Viper loitering munitions for tactical and strategic functions

  27th February 2024

  SpearUAV’s Viper family of loitering munitions has been developed to provide effects across multiple domains.

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  UK unveils $5.7 billion uncrewed systems plan with an eye on Ukraine

  23rd February 2024

  The UK has outlined a strategy on how it will spend billions of dollars on uncrewed systems over the next decade as it transitions to a more mixed force of crewed and uncrewed platforms.

• Air Warfare

  Azerbaijan completes Turkish Akinci drone procurement

  16th February 2024

  The exact number of Akinci drones acquired by Azerbaijan has remained undisclosed, but estimates suggested the purchase of two or three HALE units.

• Digital Battlespace

  US Space Defence Agency awards $2.5 billion for missile defence satellites

  17th January 2024

  The Tracking Layer (TL) will deliver a global constellation of infrared missile warning and missile tracking satellites. The constellation will consist of approximately 270 operational Transport and Tracking Layer satellites.

• Training

  NATO to conduct largest exercise since end of Cold War

  23rd January 2024

  NATO has announced the launch of its largest exercise in decades in a move that Russia has viewed as an “irrevocable return” of Cold War era positions.

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

  According to the US FY2021 budget document, Turkey's removal from the JSF program and transition to the alternate supply chain sources may challenge to achieve ...

• 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 ...