• Uncrewed Vehicles

  AeroVironment steps up European unmanned chase

  4th November 2019

  Manufacturer AeroVironment is particularly optimistic about the prospects of future sales of its multipurpose and proven UAS platforms to European countries, including Ukraine – with …

• Defence Notes

  Podcast: Analysing People’s Liberation Army armaments, talking helicopters with Leonardo and assessing the Somali piracy threat

  11th October 2019

  Welcome to Episode 38 of The Weekly Defence Podcast. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and more. Sign up to an early email alert of future podcasts here.

• Naval Warfare

  USS John S McCain repairs complete

  29th October 2019

  US Navy Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS John S McCain has completed repairs and accelerated upgrades following a collision in August 2017. The vessel …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Schiebel to enhance Camcopter S-100

  28th October 2019

  Schiebel is to provide customers with an enhanced Camcopter S-100 developed under a forthcoming Capability Update Programme (CUP), the company announced on 28 October.The programme …

• Defence Notes

  $111 billion being spent globally on transport and tanker aircraft over next decade

  1st November 2019

  The global market for tactical airlift, strategic transports and tanker aircraft is expected to reach $111 billion over the next ten years, according to new …

• Defence Notes

  France's Macron says NATO experiencing 'brain death'

  7th November 2019

  French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed NATO was undergoing ‘brain death,’ lamenting a lack of coordination between Europe and the United States and unilateral …

• Military Logistics

  BMT to offer Caimen 90 landing craft to ADF

  14th October 2019

  BMT will offer the Caimen 90 Landing Craft for the Australian Army’s Land 8710 programme, the company announced on 10 October.  Land 8710 Phase One …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  UAVOS develops new VTOL UAS for LiDAR applications

  30th October 2019

  UAVOS has developed a new VTOL UAS, the UVH-25EL, designed for data capturing applications using Light Distance and Ranging (LiDAR). The fully automatic, compact and …

• Training

  MTS wins additional $15.8 million ATS III orders

  28th September 2019

  Georgia-based Meggitt Training Systems (MTS) has announced a number of additional orders that form part of the overall US Army live-fire range combat skills training …

• Digital Battlespace

  NGJ-MB in power generation flight test

  29th October 2019

  Raytheon has carried out the first power generation flight test of the Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band, the company announced on 28 October. Test data gathered …

• Naval Warfare

  USS Indianapolis commissioned

  28th October 2019

  The US Navy has commissioned its 17th Littoral Combat Ship, USS Indianapolis, into service in Burns Harbor, Indiana. USS Indianapolis is the navy’s ninth Freedom-variant …

• Training

  MetaVR VRSG on US Army cockpit trainer prototypes

  27th September 2019

  MetaVR announced on 25 September that its Virtual Reality Scene Generator (VRSG) is providing the image generation for the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) Reconfigurable Virtual …

• Digital Battlespace

  AOC 2019: USAF in a jam

  23rd October 2019

  It is 30 years since the US Air Force (USAF) retired its General Dynamics EF-111A Raven electronic warfare aircraft. Is it time that the air …

• Training

  Iraqi Army to get M1A1 training system

  26th September 2019

  Orlando-based Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems has been awarded a $9.7 million firm-fixed-price  FMS contract for an undisclosed number of M1A1 Abrams Situational Awareness …

• Digital Battlespace

  BAE Systems to develop new Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy

  29th October 2019

  BAE Systems will develop and demonstrate a next-generation, dual band Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD) for the US Navy under a $36.7 million contract announced on …

Programme Results - Defence Insight

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - MALE

  MQ-1 Gray Eagle [US Army]

  Background Required Quantity Although the US Army first envisioned a requirement for 132 MQ-1C Gray Eagles, the US Army's Army Acquisition Objective (AAO) was increased ...

• Main battle tanks

  NGCV: DLP

  Programme Background Requirement The DLP is one of five vehicle families being developed for the US Army's NGCV programme. Expanded to include five programmes in ...

• AGMV 1.1

  Programme Background The US Army has been seeking a lightweight, air-droppable, high mobility vehicle since as early as 2014, when it initiated its Ultra Light ...

• Military UAS - rotary-wing, Military UAS - tactical

  Heavy Lift VTOL (HVTOL) [US Army]

  Background USMC First, Army Second In September 2021, Kaman unveiled its Kargo UAV, specifically designed to meet the requirements of the Joint Tactical Autonomous Aerial Resupply ...

• APCs/IFVs - tracked

  AMPV [USA]

  Programme Background Platform Development The US Army initiated the AMPV programme to acquire a replacement for several variants of the M113 tracked APC, which has ...

• MPVs - 4x4

  JLTV Oshkosh Contract [US Army]

  Programme Background As of January 2021, the US DoD had signed 15 contracts with Oshkosh Defense covering the delivery of approximately 17,731 JLTVs to all ...

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

  Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) (Increment 2) [US Army]

  Programme Background Programme Objective The Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) was to provide a tactical ISTAR capability for US Army Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). It was intended to ...

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

  Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) (Increment 1) [USA]

  Programme Background Programme Objective The Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) was to provide a tactical ISTAR capability for US Army Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). It was ...

• APCs/IFVs - 8x8

  Stryker (Sergeant Stout) [USA]

  Programme Background As part of the Army Transformation Initiative the US DoD is fundamentally reorganising the structure of the US Army. As part of this all Infantry ...

• Military helicopters - multirole

  UH-72 Follow On

  Programme Background In March 2019, Airbus stated that it expected orders from the US Army for between 12 and 15 UH-72A helicopters. In March 2020, ...

• Loitering munitions

  Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System (LMAMS) [US Army]

  Background First Contract In June 2011, the US awarded AeroVironment a $4.9 million series-production contract for the loitering munition, satisfying the US Army's Lethal Miniature ...

• Military UAS - micro, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) [Tranche 1] / Rucksack Portable UAS (RPUAS) (USA)

  Programme Background The Rucksack Portable UAS (RPUAS) Programme The RPUAS programme will provide the Battalion and below-ground manoeuvre elements within the US Army with an ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing

  Switchblade 300 (USA)

  Programme Background AeroVironment has been providing the Switchblade 300 loitering munition to the US Army under the long-standing Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile Systems (LMAMS) programme ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - MALE

  Group 4/5 UAV [US Army]

  Background Request for Information (RFI) On 5 June 2024, the American DoD published an RfI with an original response date of 19 July 2024. The ...

• Landing craft and hovercraft

  US Army Maneuver Support Vessel Light (MSVL)

  Programme BackgroundThe Maneuver Support Vessel (Light) or MSV(L) contract was awarded by the US Army to Vigor in 2017 and are being built to replace ...

Equipment Results - Defence Insight

• Air: helicopter flight simulators

  US Army AVCATT PDSS

  L3Harris Technologies is the prime contractor for the US Army’s Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AVCATT) Post Deployment Software Support (PDSS) programme. L3Harris Technologies is ...

• Air: helicopter flight simulators

  US Army Flight School XXI OFT/RCTD

  L3Harris Technologies is a major subcontractor to CSC on the US Army’s Flight School XXI (FSXXI) programme. L3Harris Technologies has built or is under contract ...

• Maritime patrol

  US-2

  The ShinMaywa US-2 is an amphibious short take-off and landing aircraft used primarily by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) for SAR. 

• Military helicopters - scout/light attack

  OH-58 Kiowa

  The single-engine OH-58 Kiowa, derived from the Bell 206, entered US Army service in 1969 as a light observation helicopter. More than 2,200 were built for ...

• Towed guns

  M198

  The US Army developed the M198 155mm towed howitzer from 1969 to replace the M114 155mm howitzer. From 1978, 1,600 weapons were built by Rock ...

• Towed mortars

  M120/M120A1

  The M120/M120A1 120 mm Towed Mortar System is a US-built version of the Soltam K6 mortar that was accepted into US Army service in 1990.

• Light tanks

  M10 Booker

  The US Army awarded General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) a contract worth US$1.14 billion to supply 96 light tanks under the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) ...

• JPT

  Designed for military applications, the Joint Platform Tablet (JPT) features a rugged design, including a military-grade aluminium case, dual-core processor, 128GB removable hard drive and ...

• Military helicopters - multirole

  UH-72A/B Lakota

  In 2006, the US Army selected a version of the medium-sized, twin-engine H145, designated the UH-72A Lakota,  to meet its requirement for a new Light ...

• Armoured engineer vehicles

  M1150 ABV

  The M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) project, launched by the USMC in 2002, is a joint programme to meet the requirements of both the US ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - tactical

  RQ-7 Shadow 200

  The Shadow 200, designated RQ-7B by the US Army, is flown by the army brigade combat teams and combat aviation brigades along with the UAV ...

• REBS

  The Rapidly Emplaced Bridge System (REBS) is a 13m dry-gap bridge. It was designed by GDELS to meet a US Army requirement to provide a ...

• Land: Electronic Attack - Jamming

  AN/PLQ-9 Thor-III

  Sierra Nevada’s AN/PLQ-9 Thor-III is the standard Counter Improvised Explosive Device (CIED) manpack system in service with the US Army and US Marine Corps (USMC). ...

• DSB

  WFEL was selected in 1996 to develop the M18 Dry Support Bridge (DSB) for the US Army. The company designed, manufactured and integrated the DSB ...

• Individual grenade launchers

  M320 GLM

  The M320 Grenade Launcher Module (GLM) is a further development of the HK AG36 (see separate entry) to meet a US Army requirement. The M320 ...