UK Defence & Aerospace Industry - General News & Discussion

[GibMariner]

Singapore Navy littoral mission vessels to be equipped with SharpeEye radars

Republic of Singapore Navy’s Littoral Mission Vessel (LMV) program is to be equipped with SharpeEye navigation radars, Kelvin Hughes, a British manufacturer of navigation systems, announced August 8.

The lead ship of the fleet, Independence, was delivered in May of this year equipped with two I-Band (X-band) SharpEye systems. A further seven vessels will be similarly equipped with the same systems.

http://navaltoday.com/2016/08/08/singap ... ye-radars/

[GibMariner]

British company lands $30M contract for next-gen US Navy submarine

The U.S. Navy has awarded Sheffield Forgemasters, a British heavy engineering firm, a contract worth over 30 million USD for the production of submarine components.

The engineering specialist has confirmed orders for a sequence of castings for the US Ohio submarine replacement program.

http://navaltoday.com/2016/08/09/britis ... submarine/

From The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... deal-to-s/

[GibMariner]

Thales to Take Key Role in 'Exercise Unmanned Warrior'

Thales is set to play a key role in a major U.K. Royal Navy exercise later this year to understand how unmanned systems might add real innovative operational capability in a military maritime environment.


Exercise Unmanned Warrior will bring together the Royal Navy and 40 organizations from defense, industry and academia in October, representing the largest exercise of its kind.

More than 50 vehicles, sensors and systems from across defense and industry will be deployed the Ministry of Defense exercise centered around the U.K. coast of Scotland and West Wales.

As an industry leader in autonomous and unmanned systems, Thales will showcase its capability through the Watchkeeper Unmanned Aircraft System, Halcyon Unmanned Surface Vehicle and its collaborative work in the field of unmanned command and control research.

For the first time, Watchkeeper, currently in service with the British Army, will fly in a littoral naval environment operating alongside a Type 23 warship and a merchant vessel.

Watchkeeper will be integrated into a series of exercises varying from persistent wide area surveillance support up to 150 kilometers offshore, to landing forces and naval gunfire support.

Data collected by Watchkeeper will be streamed down remotely to the vessels and analyzed by trained operators to make better informed command decisions in support of the trials exercises.

More here: http://www.marinetechnologynews.com/new ... ior-536758

[GibMariner]

British Military Launches Tech-Innovation Initiative

LONDON — Britain is launching an innovation initiative aimed at fast-tracking futuristic defense technology to the front line, the Ministry of Defence will announce Aug 12.

Individuals and companies will be invited to pitch possible future technology solutions to an investment panel in a bid to secure cash from a £800 million ($1.04 billion) innovation fund available over the next 10 years, said the MoD in a statement.

Sensors that can survey underground tunnels in minutes, developed by Birmingham University, and Animal Dynamics' work on tiny drones inspired by dragonflies are among the projects that could benefit from the new innovation initiative, said the MoD.

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /88580234/

[GibMariner]

[ArmChairCivvy]

Looks like the one Mr. Bond was driving around on the Thames

[GibMariner]

Laser weapon prototype part of new Defence innovation initiative

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has today announced that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is finalising a £30 million deal for a new laser demonstrator which could transform weapons technology of the future and the development of the UK’s first laser weapon.

It is just one of the examples of ground-breaking technology that the MOD will support with its new £800 million Innovation Fund.

Life-saving vital signs monitors, cutting edge anti-missile systems, tiny insect-inspired surveillance drones, quantum gravitational detectors, advanced protective materials, and airborne threat-targeting laser weapons. These are some of the other kinds of ground-breaking technology which the government’s drive for innovation will support from pitch to procurement.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said:

The UK has long enjoyed a reputation as a world leader in innovation. Our new Innovation Initiative will transform Defence culture to ensure that we stay ahead of the curve.

With a rising Defence budget, and a £178 billion equipment plan, our commitment to collaboration will deliver a safer and more prosperous Britain

The Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) Capability Demonstrator set to be built by MBDA UK Ltd will lead to a one-off prototype, delivered by 2019, that shows how this technology can be exploited in the future. MBDA UK Ltd will assess how the system can acquire and track targets at range and in varying weather conditions over land and water, with sufficient precision to enable safe and effective engagement.

A novel laser weapon could complement or replace existing weapons systems with the potential for significant benefits. It could be employed to protect our maritime and land forces; for example, ships from threat missiles or soldiers from enemy mortars.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lase ... initiative

[GibMariner]

ASV Global gets MOD licence for MAST USV software use

The U.K. Ministry of Defence has given ASV Global a licence to use of its Advanced Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) Capability technology.

The contract has been signed through Ploughshare Innovations, the technology transfer arm of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).

The licence is centred on Dstl’s Advanced USV Capability Project, due for completion in late 2017, which has developed an autonomous navigation system that enables USVs to operate safely at both high and low speeds.

With funding from Dstl, ASV Global has developed advanced marine autonomy software, recently showcased on the Tidal Thames with the Royal Navy.

This agreement allows ASV Global to expand the use of the software, the intellectual property of which lies with Dstl.

http://navaltoday.com/2016/09/29/asv-gl ... tware-use/

[Little J]

Just been watching this video about the Supacat LRV600 and it left me wondering what are they going to do now that JLR are replacing the Discovery 4? Do they have the option to buy the assembly machinery from JLR or just use old chassis' till they run out? Either way, looks like a good bit of kit, hope they sell well.

[arfah]

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[arfah]

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[marktigger]

LordJim excellent quote on the Challenger thread

"Most of the media know or care little for defence or the defence industry and know even less. To them defence is a means to dig up dirt on the Government or simply blame them for the wrong reasons. They seem to think we still have a large defence industry outside of BAE, hence the cries of why can't we build things here. Well blame the last six Governments who didn't invest/spend on defence, but kept putting important decisions off time and time again. Then blame the MoD for never knowing actually what it wants and its total inability to run long term programmes. Now they are panicking, seeing that they only have supposed increases in the budget for another three years and even then BREXIT still may throw a spanner in the works. Plus nothing except initial Ajax orders is actually funded yet!"

Agree about the last 6 governments not ordering except panic buys and UOR's. There has been a distinct lack of long term procurement planning and Govt plans IE SDSR's not be resourced to provide the necessary changes. Been all the way back to Portillo as defence secretary and "Options for Change". The defence budget has been seen as a place that "peace dividends" have been obtained from and there has been no coherent planning or stratagey to carry out the ambitions of the various defence reviews.
At the same time a paralell policy especially under Nu Labour of detering defence exports and encouraging companies to merge or diversify out of defence business has lead us to the position were companies were encouraged to mearge with BaE and it in effect has reduced the competition and inovation needed for UK companies to lead the way.
Then add in the govenrment planning being reduced to what can be delivered in an election cycle so nothing beyond 5 years is contemplated. Plus in service factionalism and fashions leading to indecision and yes you get a mess.

[marktigger]

http://forces.tv/52748876

It comes on the same day the Defence Secretary confirmed that the Red Arrows aerobatic team will get new planes.

Sir Michael said it was too early to say which aircraft would replace the Hawk jets the team currently flies, but added that they need to be replaced and a decision will be made over the next couple of years. He's quoted as saying by the BBC:
"The Red Arrows are going to be here to stay for a while yet. They are a key part of our defence engagement, as we call it, around the rest of the world, and I don't think the public would let us lose the Red Arrows."


Hmmmm so 10 more hawk T2 or something less expensive?

[bobp]

10 more hawk T2 or something less expensive

Historically the Red Arrows have used in service types, showcasing them around the world. So you may be right though I would prefer to see more bought.

[marktigger]

so could also be the Grob or the T6 then?

[bobp]

Top of my list would be the Hawk T2, British built and operated. Possibly also the Scorpion if we buy any for the Navy.

[dmereifield]

Top of my list would be the Hawk T2, British built and operated. Possibly also the Scorpion if we buy any for the Navy.

Is there a production line for the Hawk T2 or 120 in the UK? If not, would there be sufficient airframes required for training and the red arrows to justify starting one?

[bobp]

I believe that BAE still has a production line, mainly for overseas orders in the Gulf. India also assembles/produces parts for the Hawk as well for their own air force.

[dmereifield]

I believe that BAE still has a production line, mainly for overseas orders in the Gulf. India also assembles/produces parts for the Hawk as well for their own air force.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that they had restarted the production line - seems quite an effort for just the 30ish aircraft ordered by Saudi Arabia and Oman.

http://m.aviationweek.com/awin-only/bae ... saudi-hawk

Does anyone know how long the production line can be sustained on the current orders. According to the above link "Fourteen of the 22 aircraft will be delivered to Saudi Arabia by December 2016." which suggests the production line can't be sustained much longer, if the delivery rate was as predicted by that old article, unless further orders are forthcoming in the next year or two.

The article did mention hopes of a further order from Qatar - does anyone know if that materialised? Or any other orders?

If anyone has any info please share

Thanks

[bobp]

I understand that the RSAF (Saudi Air Force) ordered another batch of 30 jets to follow on from the current order.

[dmereifield]

I understand that the RSAF (Saudi Air Force) ordered another batch of 30 jets to follow on from the current order.

Thanks. Janes confirms a second order, doubling the number of airframes for the Saudis to 44. Presumably this and the Omani order should keep the production line going until around 2020 which would be the timeframe for replacing our T1s....

http://www.janes.com/article/58143/saud ... r-aircraft

Janes also believe that the red arrows are most likely going to be getting T2s from the RAFs current T2 fleet to replace their T1s

http://www.janes.com/article/65092/uk-g ... splay-team

So, an order for more T2s to replace the aging T1s in the advanced trainer role would seem logical(?)

[bobp]

So, an order for more T2s to replace the aging T1s

Probably just enough to do the job.

[dmereifield]

So, an order for more T2s to replace the aging T1s

Probably just enough to do the job.

Do you mean that we have enough T2s to equip the red arrows and provide the advanced jet training post 2020? How many do we have? I cant find anything reliable, other than wiki which indicates that we have 28 T2s in the RAF inventory

[bobp]

Do you mean that we have enough T2s to equip the red arrows and provide the advanced jet training post 2020? How many do we have? I cant find anything reliable, other than wiki which indicates that we have 28 T2s in the RAF inventory

I think the question that needs to be asked is how many T2 do we need for training bearing in mind the current size of the RAF. At the moment the number is 28. An order for 12 more T2 would cover the Red Arrows. There is talk of a purchase of Scorpions to replace the Naval T1's. Most of the original T1 fleet I believe are no longer in use being kept for parts to keep the others flying.

[dmereifield]

Thanks for the info. What would be the benefit of going with Scorpion over the T2 for replacing the naval T1s? Would such benefits outweigh the costs of introducing a new fleet of aircraft, with all of the associated costs that entails?