• Digital Battlespace

  D&S 2019: Thales supports Thai armoured vehicle digitisation

  20th November 2019

  Thales is helping the Thai military to digitise military vehicles, with one fruit of that effort on display at Defense & Security 2019 in Bangkok. …

• Naval Warfare

  Egypt's burgeoning submarine fleet draws attention

  11th November 2019

  Israel is likely monitoring Egypt’s growing subsurface capabilities as the latter country seeks to expand its submarine fleet, potentially through the procurement of Chinese-made boats, …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Leonardo invests in Skydweller Aero

  12th November 2019

  Leonardo has announced its investment in Skydweller Aero, a US/Spanish company specialising in large-scale solar-powered UAS. The initiative will result in the development and deployment …

• Land Warfare

  D&S 2019: Asia’s spending on tanks and IFVs grows to $55 billion

  20th November 2019

  Countries in the Asia-Pacific region will spend over $55 billion to procure new heavily armoured main battle tanks and IFVs by the end of the …

• Digital Battlespace

  AOC 2019: Industry positions for future NGJ programme

  4th November 2019

  As the US Navy continues to develop its Next Generation Jammer- Mid Band (NGJ-MB) requirement with Raytheon, industry players within the Electronic Warfare (EW) sector …

• Digital Battlespace

  Rice University signs agreement with US Army

  5th November 2019

  Rice University is to carry out research to enable advanced materials and next-generation military communications networks under a five-year, $30 million cooperative agreement with the …

• Naval Warfare

  HMAS Brisbane completes combat system testing

  31st October 2019

  The Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Brisbane has completed a live missile engagement in the US with the US Navy’s USS Stockdale.Brisbane’s combat system was tested …

• Defence Notes

  USAF orders SDB rounds for USSOCOM

  8th November 2019

  Boeing has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to provide several hundred Laser Small Diameter Bombs, as well as associated warhead shipping containers, to be used …

• Defence Helicopter

  Bell-Boeing receives MV-22 upgrade work

  5th November 2019

  Bell-Boeing has received a $146 million contract modification to upgrade nine MV-22 aircraft from the Block B to the Block C configuration for US Naval …

• Defence Notes

  P&W awarded $2.2 billion for F-35 engines

  2nd October 2019

  Pratt & Whitney has been awarded a $2.2 billion contract modification for the production and delivery of engines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. This …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  AOC 2019: Ascent integrates new system onto X-MADIS

  6th November 2019

  Unmanned technology and engineering company Ascent Vision Technologies (AVT) has announced that it has integrated the CM262 optic system into its X-MADIS (eXpeditionary Mobile Air …

• Defence Notes

  D&S 2019: Thai defence industry receives shot in the arm

  13th November 2019

  The Thai armed forces are emphasising greater coordination with government agencies and commercial enterprises to support R&D; for equipment that can be produced domestically and …

• Digital Battlespace

  AOC 2019: Backpack EW systems on show

  30th October 2019

  With distributed capabilities a watch-word among the US military in recent months, a number of companies are looking at ways to miniaturise COMINT and SIGINT …

• Land Warfare

  USMC continues AMV LRIP awards

  6th November 2019

  Iveco announced on 4 November that within the framework of the recently awarded US Marine Corps contract to BAE Systems the two companies will deliver …

• Defence Helicopter

  D&S 2019: No resolution in sight for Malaysian MD 530G saga

  15th November 2019

  Malaysia’s MoD issued a press statement on 1 November stating that delivery of six MD 530G helicopters had been delayed as a result of various …

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 ...

• 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 ...

• APCs/IFVs - 8x8

  ACV-30 PRTV [USA]

  Background The Armoured Combat Vehicle (ACV) programme is intended to provide a replacement for the USMC's fleet of Amphibious Assault Vehicle 7 (AAV7) tracked vehicles. ...

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 ...