Armada International - February/March 2019

february/march 2019. Issue 01.

The Best For The Best

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ISO 9001:2015 Certified

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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 www.armadainternational.com

08 air force

Funny Business The use of business aircraft converted and equipped for intelligence gathering is growing.

Martin Streetly reports.

14 SEA POWER

CAPABILITY CROSSOVER: MULTI-PURPOSE CRUISE MISSILES Navies are turning to the need for ship launched missiles that can prosecute targets on land or sea.

Dr. Lee Willett explains.

28 SATCOMS

SATCOM GETS TACTICAL Dr. Thomas Withington describes the progress SATCOM developers have made in bringing satellite communications down to the tactical level.

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LAND WARFARE FIGHTING BLOODLESS BATTLES Stephen W Miller examines the development and increasingly widespread use of synthetic training.

LAND WARFARE MOVE FAST, HIT HARD Special operations vehicles have been a ‘must have’ for special forces ever since the days of the Long Range Desert Group in WWII. Andrew White reports.

36 COUNTRY ANALYSIS

42 ARMADA COMMENTARY

UAE military procurement The military forces of the United Arab Emirates have come a long way in a short time. Jon Lake finds out what is next.

GLOBAL DEFENCE NEEDS MAY HELP US ARMY MODERNISATION Andrew Hunter examines the influences on US Army modernisation.

armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

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INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

february/march 2019. Issue 01.

Armada Cover Feb-Mar 19.indd 1

AR MODULAR

ON THE COVER: An artist’s impression of Saab’s GlobalEye based on the Global 6000 jet aircraft from Bombardier. The GlobalEye can be used for air, maritime and ground surveillance. (Saab)

COVER 2

HARRIS 13

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IMDEX 37

BIDEC 29

ISDEF 25

CODAN 11

LAAD 39

COLLINS AEROSPACE

NEXTER 15

AAR CORP

2/4/19 11:18 AM

DATRON Volume 43, Issue No.1, FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 Published bi-monthly by Media Transasia Ltd. Copyright 2012 by Media Transasia Ltd. Publishing Office: Media Transasia Ltd., 1603, 16/F, Island PL Tower, 510 Kings Road, Hong Kong

7 COVER 3

PRINCE SALMAN LAW

19

DSA 33

SAUDI AIRSHOW

27

DSEI 35

TADTE 41

D&S THAILAND

* UKRSPECEXPORT SPECIAL (C1 to C4)

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FNSS 17 GENERAL ATOMICS

Editor-in-Chief: Andrew Drwiega General Manager: Jakhongir Djalmetov International Marketing Manager: Roman Durksen Digital Manager: David Siriphonphutakun Sales & Marketing Coordinator: Wajiraprakan Punyajai Graphic Designer: Khakanaa Suwannawong Circulation Officer: Yupadee Seabea

XPONENTIAL (AUVSI)

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COVER 4

THIS MONTH ON ARMADAINTERNATIONAL.COM

Chairman: J.S. Uberoi President: Egasith Chotpakditrakul Chief Financial Officer: Gaurav Kumar Advertising Sales Offices France/Spain Stephane de Remusat, REM International Tel: (33) 5 3427 0130 E-Mail: sremusat@rem-intl.com Germany Sam Baird, Whitehill Media Tel: (44-1883) 715 697 Mobile: (44-7770) 237 646 E-Mail: sam@whitehillmedia.com TURKEY/EASTERN EUROPE/UK Zena Coupé Tel: +44 1923 852537, zena@expomedia.biz

signs a contract to provide the German Navy’s new K130 Corvettes with its Rigel Electronic Defense Systems

Nordic Countries/Italy/Switzerland Emanuela Castagnetti-Gillberg Tel: (46) 31 799 9028 E-Mail: emanuela.armada@gmail.com Russia Alla Butova, NOVO-Media Ltd, Tel/Fax: (7 3832) 180 885 Mobile : (7 960) 783 6653 Email :alla@mediatransasia.com USA (East/South East)/Canada (East) Margie Brown, Blessall Media, LLC. Tel : (+1 540) 341 7581 Email: margiespub@rcn.com USA (West/South West)/Brazil/Canada (West) Diane Obright, Blackrock Media Inc Tel : (+1 858) 759 3557 Email: blackrockmediainc@icloud.com

■ Indra

■ Lithuanian

Indra will equip the second series of K130 corvette class ships of the German Navy with its latest generation Rigel electronic defense system, enhancing the capacity of these vessels even in the most complex environments.

Fleet of three AS365 N3+ has achieved 97% average availability over three years. The Lithuanian Air Force (LAF) has renewed its HCare Infinite material management contract for its fleet of three Dauphin AS365 N3+ search and rescue (SAR) helicopters following achievement of 97% average fleet availability over a three-year period.

Air Force renews Dauphin HCare Infinite contract

All Other Countries Jakhongir Djalmetov Media Transasia Limited Tel: +66 2204 2370, Mobile: +66 81 6455654 Email: joha@mediatransasia.com Roman Durksen Media Transasia Limited Tel: +66 2204 2370, Mobile +66 83 6037989 E-Mail: roman@mediatransasia.com

Controlled circulation: 25,667 (average per issue) certified by ABC Hong Kong, for the period 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2017.

Printed by Media Transasia Ltd., 75/8, 14th Floor, Ocean Tower II, Soi Sukhumvit 19, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 10110, Thailand.

Tel: 66 (0)-2204 2370, Fax: 66 (0)-2204 2390 -1 Annual subscription rates: Europe: CHF 222 (including postage) Rest of the World: USD 222 (including postage) Subscription Information: Readers should contact the following address: Subscription Department, Media Transasia Ltd., 75/8, 14th Floor, Ocean Tower II, Soi Sukhumvit 19, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 10110, Thailand.

Tel +66 2204 2370 Fax: +66 2204 2387 Email: accounts@mediatransasia.com

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■ Hungary

orders 16 H225M multi-role helicopters The Hungarian Ministry of Defence has ordered 16 H225M multi-purpose helicopters equipped with the HForce weapon management system. Together with the helicopters, Airbus will also provide an extensive training and support package to ensure the highest level of operational availability.

armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

■ Rheinmetall

to retrofit Germany’s fleet of Bergepanzer 3 armoured recovery vehicles with battlefield recovery equipment Rheinmetall is modernizing the Bundeswehr’s fleet of Bergepanzer 3 armoured recovery vehicles, the BPz3. The move is in response to altered operational requirements.

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Editorial Budget blues and missing manpower

W

hile questions abound regarding the relevance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, known as NATO, against a possible European Union military force independent from the United States, there are more fundamental problems still to be fixed. As the United Kingdom moves away from Europe through Brexit (in whatever form that will eventually take), will those in Europe who favour a European force, gain further traction towards their goal? The UK has always wavered between not wanting be left behind regarding technological compatibility with the United States, while trying to remain at least European in stance.

The answer can usually be found in a measure of the budget being given to the national department’s of defence to spend on replacing, renewing and maintaining their forces. A quick look across many of the forces in Europe reveals that they are a shadow of their former selves measured against their numbers at the end of the Cold War and after having taken a ‘peace dividend’ since the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in December 1991. Technologically, equipment is often modern and effective but the numbers are not there, compared to potential advisories including Russia.

The resurfacing of peer-to-peer conflict has revealed the main weakness of European independent force structure. Every nation wants to buy the ‘blue ribbon’ fighters and destroyers, but they can only deploy and be effective as far as their numbers will allow. As for any ground reaction force, they are dependent on cohesive mobilisation and transportation by land, air or sea. Transport in all of these sectors remains a problem (even the British government has been

6

trawling for more sea transportation to bring lorries into the UK should there be a ‘no deal’ Brexit).

The current whipping boy in Europe is the German Bundeswehr, starved of budget to even maintain its front line forces, as was revealed at the end of 2018. Even in terms of manning, The Times newspaper (30/1/19) stated the that Bundeswehr was short of 20,000 recruits, “the lowest level on record” and that “the military would not be properly equipped un til at least 2031” according to a national inspection report.

In terms of recruitment, British forces have had problems too. The National Audit Office (NAO) revealed in a December 2018 report that since the Government outsourced recruitment to Capita Business Services (Capita) in 2012, “Capita has missed the British Army’s (the Army’s) annual targets for recruiting new soldiers and officers every year since 2013. The total shortfall each year has ranged from 21 percent to 45 percent of the Army’s requirement. The size of the shortfall has increased over the last three years.”

As the NAO report points out, some of the problems facing not only the UK, but EU counties as well, include: “an improving UK economy (pre-Brixit) with historically low levels of unemployment; a shrinking recruitment target population that is less likely to commit to a long-term career in the Armed Forces; and a public perception that the Army is reducing in size and is non-operational, making it less attractive to join.”

Given the above, a European force without a significant rise in European defence spending and without the active participation of the UK and the USA would more of a notional political tool only capable of selective action for the for forseeable future.

. - / 2019

ANDREW DRWIEGA, Editor-in-Chief

ALPHA B R AV O COLLINS We are Collins Aerospace. With our customers we chart new journeys and reunite families.

We protect nations and save lives. We fuse intelligence and partnership to tackle the toughest challenges in our industry. And every day, we imagine ways to make the skies and spaces we touch smarter, safer and more amazing than ever.

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TOGETHER, WE ARE R E D E F I N I N G A E R O S PA C E

collinsaerospace.com Š 2018 Collins Aerospace, a United Technologies company. All rights reserved.

armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

7

air force

Funny Business

The shadowy world of airborne special mission operators is taking good advantage of improved business aircraft fitted out with compact computers and small but powerful sensors.

Martin Streetly

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armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

Gulfstream Aerospace

air FORCE

The USN’s next generation G550-based TRSA platform makes use of the aerodynamic configuration developed by Gulfstream for IAI’s Conformal AEW (CAEW) aircraft

W

hile there is nothing new in the use of business aircraft in ‘special mission’ applications, particularly in the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) role, a confluence of mission system developments, airframe capabilities, operational requirements and economics have come together to create a strong demand for such solutions.

In terms of mission systems, developments in computing and sensor technology are facilitating ever greater capabilities in ever smaller packages, while the lift and range capabilities of the latest generation of (particularly) business jets are such as to allow for the execution of an ever widening range of missions. Again, the operational environment is seeing an increasing blurring of divisions between military and paramilitary taskings (with business aircraftbased solutions being particularly attractive in the homeland security/border control role), while the economics of operating aircraft that have large production runs and are supported by global maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) networks have a major appeal to even the world’s most sophisticated military users. Equally, business jet-based solutions are increasingly being seen as an affordable way to replace legacy bespoke systems (such as the Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS) that are based on increasingly obsolete airframes that have become difficult and costly to keep flying.

By way of illustration, Textron Aviation’s King Air 350 turboprop, Gulfstream Aerospace’s Gulfstream G550 and Bombardier’s Global 6000 have been chosen as exemplars of the latest generation of business aircraftbased ‘special mission’ platforms. In reverse order, Sweden’s Saab has utilised Bombardier’s Global 6000 long-range business jet as the basis of the multi-sensor GlobalEye ISR platform that it has sold to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while Turkish contractor Aselsan has issued publicity material that shows its HAVASOJ stand-off jamming capability being hosted aboard the same airframe. Here, Armada understands that Aselsan has been awarded a full-scale HAVASOJ development contract with the goal of supplying systems for use aboard four as yet unspecified Turkish Air Force aircraft. As such, HAVASOJ is designed to support strike packages and has been described as incorporating radar and

armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

9

Saab Defence and Space

air force

Saab’s second Global 6000-based GlobalEye multi-sensor surveillance aircraft made its maiden flight on 3 January 2019, with this view showing to advantage the type’s under nose EO turret housing, belly surveillance radar radome, dorsal Erieye radar ‘plank’ antenna and vertical stabilisers mounted above and below each of the aircraft’s horizontal stabilisers

communications band electronic support/ electronic attack sub-systems, a defensive aids suite, a communications package, and a mission management sub-system whose software (including ‘special algorithms’) is being created by Aselsan. Other system features include wide frequency coverage, a high output power, precision emitter direction-finding/geo-location and the use of active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology.

For its part, Saab’s Global 6000-based GlobalEye platform is the subject of a $1.27 billion deal with the UAE that was announced during November 2015. Known by the customer as the Swing Role Surveillance System (SRSS), the GlobalEye configuration being supplied is understood to be equipped with Saab’s S-band (2-4GHz) Erieye ER (Extended Range) AESA airborne early warning (AEW) radar (providing 150 degree coverage to port and starboard), FLIR Systems’ Star SAFIRE 380-HD electrooptical (EO) sensor (providing a ‘long-range optical/IR identification’ capability), Leonardo Electronic Systems’ X-band (8-12.5GHz) Seaspray 7500E AESA maritime surveillance radar and an electronic intelligence/surveillance capability built around Saab’s HES-21 architecture. Here, HES-21 is described as incorporating electronic support/ELINT/radar warning (0.7-18GHz baseline coverage), missile approach warning (the MAW-300 sensor), laser warning (the LWS-300 sensor), and countermeasures dispensing multiple BOP-L magazines.

Other system features include commandand-control provision (capable of accommodating a minimum of five workstations), a secondary surveillance radar/identification friend-or-foe (IFF - Modes 1, 2, 3/A, C, 4, 5 and national secure) fit; an Automatic Identification System (AIS) application; an Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast (ADS-B) capability and a

communications suite that includes tactical datalinks and satellite communications (SATCOM) provision. In terms of accommodation, the GlobalEye is equipped with a two place flight deck, a crew rest area, a mission crew work area (with the installed operator consoles facing to port) and a centre fuselage electronics bay.

The UAE’s November 2015 SRSS order covered two aircraft, with a third being understood to have been added in a separate deal that emerged during 2017. Saab rolled out the first of the three (bearing the Swedish civil aircraft registration SE-RMY) on 23 February 2018, an event that was followed by the GlobalEye’s first flight on the 14 March. Subsequently, 18 June 2018 saw the UAE award Saab a further $38 million (SEK345 million) contract with regard to the introduction of ‘additional functionality’ into the SRSS architecture. GlobalEye number two (Swedish civil registration SE-RMZ) made its maiden flight on 3 January 2019 and while GlobalEye appears to be a strong contender within its niche market, the future of Global 6000 based solutions may be clouded by uncertainties concerning the future of Bombardier’s aeronautical linesof-business.

While converting a Global 6000 aircraft into a GlobalEye platform involves an extensive series of physical modifications, the airframe of Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) G550-based Conformal AEW (CAEW) aircraft has been described by Gulfstream Aerospace as requiring amongst the “most extensive exterior modifications” it has ever undertaken on one of its designs. At the heart of the capability is IAI subsidiary Elta Systems’ ELW-2085 mission suite that includes a dual-band - L (1-2GHz) and S (2-4GHz) - AESA AEW radar (with an estimated detection range of more than 370km); an integrated, solid-state, phased array IFF sub-system; electronic and

10 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

communications intelligence (ELINT/ COMINT) capabilities; a communications suite which (in baseline form) incorporates Elta’s ELK-1891 SATCOM equipment and a common datalink (CDL), as well as a selfprotection capability that features multiple countermeasures dispensing magazines.

Elsewhere, the architecture includes multiple, multi-function operator workstations; a two place ‘glass’ flight deck; a Gulfstreamdeveloped, low-drag, liquid cooling system; two additional (when compared with the baseline G550) electrical power generators and an increase (again, when compared with the standard G550) in maximum zero fuel weight.

At the time of writing, Armada has identified G550 aircraft build numbers 5014, 5037, 5044, 5069, 5132, 5143, 5429 and 5454 as having been modified as CAEWs, with 5037 and 5069 having been procured by the Israeli Air Force (as aircraft 537 and 569 respectively); 5014, 5044, 5132 and 5143 by the Republic of Singapore Air Force (as aircraft 010, 016, 017 and 018 respectively); and 5429 and 5454 by the Aeronautica Militare Italiana (AMI (Italian Air Force) - as aircraft MM62293 and MM62303 respectively). In Israeli service, the CAEW is known as the Eitam (Fish Eagle), while those supplied to Italy and Singapore are known as E-550As and G550-AEWs respectively.

The G550 CAEW configuration also illustrates another aspect of the business aircraft ‘special mission’ market, namely once an acceptable and certifiable aerodynamic configuration has been arrived at, it can be reused in other applications. By way of example, Gulfstream’s G550 CAEW also forms the basis of the US Air Force’s (USAF) EC-37B ‘Compass Call’ stand-off jammer and the US Navy’s (USN) Telemetry Range Support Aircraft (TRSA). In order, the EC-37B recapitalises the USAF’s ‘Compass Call’ jamming capability and involves BAE Systems

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Customs and Border Protection

air force

The US Department of Homeland Defense’s Customs and Border Protection organisation hopes to acquire up to 17 examples of the SNC developed MEA aircraft shown here

in mission equipment ‘cross decking’/ development, L-3 in system integration and Gulfstream as airframe supplier. Estimated at reducing ‘Compass Call’ operating costs but up to 50 percent, production of the first EC-37B is understood to have been ‘underway’ since mid-2018.

For its part, the USN’s TSRA aircraft is a telemetry and range clearance/safety platform that replaces the legacy P-3A TSRA platform and which is specified as being equipped with a surface search radar (such as the AN/APS-143), SATCOM provision, six operator positions and a telemetry subsystem that operated in the 1.435-1.525GHz, 2.2-2.395GHz and 4.4-4.94GHz bands and which takes the form of a phased array, digitally steerable architecture with (possibly) a single face antenna array. As of January 2019 Gulfstream had delivered the CAEW-configured G550 build number 5544 into the programme and Raytheon subsidiary Ktech was under contract to develop/integrate what was being termed as the Commercial Aircraft Based Instrumentation Telemetry and the Airborne Command Transmitter systems (CABITS/ ACTS) aboard this G550 ‘AEW’ aircraft.

KING AIR 350 This article’s final genre example – the King Air 350 – is by far the most ubiquitous ‘special mission’ business aircraft of the moment, with at least 12 manufacturers either producing or having produced such platforms for 16 militaries and homeland security organisations around the world.

Indeed, the number of identified King Air ‘special mission’ applications grows to over 50 when series 200 and 300 aircraft are added to those based on the 350 model. With the passage of time, an almost universal

‘special mission’ King Air configuration has emerged which outfits the aircraft with a dorsal SATCOM antenna housing, fore and aft countermeasures warning sensors, a ventral equipment ‘canoe’ fairing (incorporating an EO turret lift) and (in some cases) an extended nose.

By way of a sampling of this complex nexus of activity (and within Europe), a consortium of France’s Thales and Sabena Technics concerns are producing a pair of ISR King Air (KA) 350 for the French intelligence services equipped for signals intelligence (SIGINT) and EO imagery collection, while German’s Aerodata has produced a maritime patrol KA 350 for the Argentinian Navy that features a Star SAFIRE III EO sensor, an RDR-1700B radar and the contractor’s AeroMISSION mission management system. For its part, Switzerland’s Corporate Aircraft has primed a surveillance KA 350 for (it is thought) Algeria which is equipped with Italian contractor Leonardo’s Airborne Tactical Observation and Surveillance System (ATOS) and Gabbiano T200 radar. Elsewhere, Sweden’s ST Airborne Systems (working with Bromma Air Maintenance) has delivered an ISR KA 350 to Estonia’s Police and Border Guard service that is fitted out with ST’s MSS 7000 mission suite (which includes radars, an EO imager and an ultra-violet scanner), while Leonardo has produced a pair of maritime patrol KA 350ERs for an “African customer” that are equipped with the contractor’s ATOS management system and Seaspray 7300E AESA radar, a Link 11 datalink and an IFF sub-system.

Outside Europe, Elta Systems’ ELI-3120 multi-sensor mission system is understood to have been fitted to at least three Colombian Air Force KA 350s, while in the

12 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

US, ‘special mission’ KA 350s have been developed by (amongst others) Textron Aviation, Boeing, L-3 ISR Systems, Raytheon and the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC). In order, Textron (and aside from providing base KA 350 airframes) promotes special mission configurations of the type for aerial survey, air ambulance, surveillance and flight inspection applications, while Boeing has provided the US Army with a quartet of MC-12S Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS) surveillance aircraft whose mission suite includes L-3 Wescam’s MX-15HDi EO imager, COMINT provision, up to three work stations and an Aerial Precision Guidance (APG) capability. For its part, L-3 is/has been heavily involved in the KA 350-based MC-12W/EMARSS-M programmes; has been named as a contractor for a potential sale of up to 10 KA 350ER-based ISR aircraft to Saudi Arabia (and has been awarded a support/training contract for two such Saudi platforms) as well as having developed a KA 350 surveillance configuration (the SPYDR) of its own. Here, SPYDR is designed to a carry a ‘mix and match’ mission suite (that can include SIGINT, EO imaging and radar sensors) and a single example is known to have been supplied to the Italian Air Force.

For its part, Raytheon has supplied the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) with five KA 350-based Shadow R Mk1 ISR aircraft and as of January 2019, was preparing a further three such aircraft for the service and was in receipt of an 11 year duration support contract that included upgrading of the RAF’s existing fleet to Shadow R Mk2 standard. While not confirmed, Armada believes that the Shadow configuration informed the design of two KA 350 ISR aircraft that Raytheon supplied to Saudi Arabia during 2011. Last but not least, the SNC has developed a long-nosed KA 350 ISR platform that has formed the basis for up to 17 Multi-role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA) for the US Department of Homeland Security, a single maritime patrol aircraft for Jamaica Defence Force and up to four potential platforms for Kuwait. Of these, the MEA and Jamaican aircraft are fitted with the Seapspray 7500E radar and EO imagers.

While in no way all encompassing (particular with regard to the King Air family), it is hoped that the foregoing will give readers an insight into the proliferation and potential of special mission business aircraft.

|

US Navy

sea power

A Tomahawk sealaunched cruise missile is launched from the US Navy’s (USN’s) Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Dewey, in the Western Pacific in August 2018.

CAPABILITY CROSSOVER: MULTI-PURPOSE CRUISE MISSILES As Western navies seek to counterbalance increasing competition at sea while retaining the ability to convey influence ashore, naval cruise missiles are being developed to deliver both land-attack and anti-ship capability Dr Lee Willett

T

he return of state-based military competition at sea has seen anti-ship missiles return to the fore in strategic, operational, and technology terms.

Regional and global naval powers alike are developing new task groups, designed to provide a collection of capabilities to secure interests and influence at sea and to project the same ashore. Such task groups present a strategic and operational challenge for

potential adversaries.

Moreover, the interests at sea that such task groups are intended to secure include sea lines of communication (SLOCs), choke points, and waters in or adjacent to strategic spheres of interest. In this context, surface warships from different naval powers are increasingly present in certain seas and oceans that are current areas of tension in the international security balance. For example, the eastern Mediterranean Sea is

14 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

an area of significant naval focus, with western navies, NATO task groups, and Russian sian ships operating there on a daily basis.

Platforms from China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) are also increasingly present in the Mediterranean region, as they transit the Suez Canal to exercise with Russian forces or to head to northern waters to project interest there.

Russian ships and submarines operating in the eastern Mediterranean have also fired cruise missiles ashore against targets in Syria. Indeed, Russia’s wider naval presence in the region arguably is part of a plan to establish an anti-access/area denial (A2/ AD) capability to deter NATO naval access into the Black Sea region in particular.

Given the example of these strategic circumstances, the ability to target ships at sea – either from shore or from other ships – has become once again central to navies’ operational and strategic plans, as well as to the capability requirements that underpin such plans. Anti-ship missiles (ASMs) play a central role in prosecuting ship targets at sea and exists in two forms: ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

‘Carrier killers’ and Kalibrs The ASM challenge for western navies is presented by Chinese ballistic missile and Russian cruise missile capabilities.

Much has been made in recent years of the perceived vulnerability of US Navy (USN) aircraft carriers and their battlegroups to Chinese ‘carrier killer’ ballistic missiles such as the DF-21D and DF-26.

According to a report in China’s Global Times newspaper, DF-26 missiles were deployed to northwest China in early January 2019 following the sailing of the USN’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell in waters off the Xisha/ Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. As regards Russian cruise missiles, the Novator Kalibr 3M-14 sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM) is the major recent development. As well as reportedly being capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads, Kalibr brings both land-attack and anti-ship capability. The land-attack capability has been demonstrated in firings against targets ashore in Syria by both surface ships and submarines, and from both the Mediterranean and Caspian seas. In ASM capability terms, the potential anti-ship risk posed by Kalibr to NATO navies is significant and sits at the centre of the 360-degree threat the alliance must address today.

sea power

Sailings such as those performed by the USS McCampbell – freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) – are fundamental to western navies’ abilities to lance the A2/AD ‘bubbles’ that are being established in key strategic regions such as the South China Sea and the eastern Mediterranean.

Conversely, the West’s focus on FONOPS-style deployments will only underline to potential adversaries the requirement to invest in anti-ship capabilities to secure such A2/AD ‘bubbles’.

Western development The development of the ASM risk has seen western navies review their capability to target potential adversaries’ surface forces, something they had not needed to consider doing for some time. In the wake of the Cold War, of course, the absence of a peer competitor at sea had enabled western navies to concentrate on boosting their ability to project power ashore.

This post-Cold War trend of land-attack focus is now merging with the returning requirement for anti-ship capability. As

regards the role of cruise missiles in tackling targets at sea or ashore, an interesting capability ‘crossover’ has been developing, as demonstrated by two missile systems.

The focus on anti-ship capability is seeing the USN’s long-established Tomahawk land-attack missile (TLAM) being developed for a new anti-ship role. Other emerging anti-ship technologies – notably the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) – have been developed also to provide land-attack capability. In other words, perhaps reflecting the capabilities of Kalibr, western cruise missiles are increasingly being required to meet targeting requirements both ashore and at sea.

US defence technology company Raytheon produces Tomahawk for the USN (with the missile also operated by the UK Royal Navy). In addition, the Tucson, Arizona-based company is partnered with Kongsberg in developing the Norwegianbased international technology group’s NSM system as a mid-range, over-the-horizon (OTH), anti-surface warfare (ASuW) and land-attack capability for the USN and the wider international market.

MST Tomahawk has an extensive history as an effective land-attack system since the introduction of its conventional variant to operations in the 1991 Gulf War (the first version, the Block I nuclear-capable system, achieved initial operational capability [IOC] in 1984). Tomahawk has evolved from the Block II conventional system used in ‘Desert Storm’ through the GPS-based Block III that entered service in 1993, to the arrival in 2004 of the Block IV TLAM-E Tactical Tomahawk (TacTom). In the most recent combat firing in April 2018, 66 TLAMs were fired from USN surface ships and submarines against chemical weapons facilities in Syria.

What stood out for Tomahawk when it first appeared was its ability to navigate along particular routes and strike specific targets with precise accuracy. The addition of GPS with Block III provided the ability to approach targets from a 360-degree axis, rather than follow particular routes. While the arrival of other weapons has offered other choices in terms of punch and precision, what still stands out for Tomahawk is its

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Kongsberg

sea power

Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile (NSM) provides both antiship and land-attack capability. It is in service in the Royal Norwegian Navy.

range. Raytheon puts this at 1,600km (1,000 miles), although some suggest a straightline, tanks-dry reach of over 2,400km (1,500 miles).

Adding to Tomahawk’s 1,600km (1,000 mile) range and 1,000lb (454kg) blast/fragmentation unitary warhead, the Block IV brings anti-jam capability and a two-way satellite communications data link. According to Raytheon, the data link means that “Any node on the network with appropriate authority can monitor and send updated target information or assign a completely new mission while [the missile is] en route.”

According to the USN, the data link allows the missile to be re-programmed in-flight to either strike any of 15 pre-programmed alternate targets or be re-directed to any GPS target co-ordinates.

Block IV is today being used as the baseline for the development of what is called Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST), bringing an anti-ship capability.

Of course, MST is not the first Tomahawk anti-ship variant. Previously, the USN deployed TASM (Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile). TASM delivered a 1,000lb (454kg) payload, via terminal homing provided by passive-/active-based inertial guidance, over a range of up to 250 nautili miles including against OTH targets. TASM was withdrawn in the 1990s.

The return of state-based naval competition has clearly precipitated the return of an ASM requirement for the USN. In a statement to Armada, a Raytheon spokesperson said MST “will address capability gaps identified in Fleet Urgent Operational Need Statements (UONS) by delivering an enduring capability to the USN through

cruiser (CG), destroyer (DDG), and (nuclearpowered) fast-attack submarine (SSN) platforms which will be able to prosecute moving maritime targets”. According to Raytheon, MST has been developed with “an advanced, state-of-the-art, multimode seeker to engage maritime threats at considerable range”. The new seeker also brings improved processing capability.

Captain Mark Johnson, the USN’s Tomahawk programme manager, told Armada that MST capability deployment is comprised of two phases. Phase one improvements include enhanced targeting via in-flight target updates (IFTUs). Phase two will see integration of the seeker, bringing the capability to strike moving targets.

Back in 2015, MST conducted its first successful test against a moving target at sea. In August 2017, the USN awarded Raytheon a contract, worth $119 million, to develop and build MST variants. According to the US Department of Defense (DoD) contract statement, Raytheon would develop the “Tactical Tomahawk Block IV all-up-round missile system in support of the Maritime Strike Tomahawk programme”.

Capt Johnson added that early operational capability for phase one is anticipated to be in 2019, and for phase two in late 2021.

Tomahawk missiles are returned to Raytheon for re-certification at the 15-year mid-point in their service lives. “Recertification and modernisation of all Tomahawk Block IV missiles will occur when they reach their 15-year mid-life [point],” the Raytheon spokesperson said. With Block IV missiles scheduled to begin returning for recertification in 2019, this presents an opportunity to insert technology upgrades

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including those offered in the MST concept.

“Recertification and modernisation will occur at the same time,” the spokesperson continued. “All missiles will receive navigation and communications upgrades.

Additionally, some missiles will be converted to the MST configuration, while others will receive the new Joint Multiple Effects Warhead (JMEWS).”

Under the fiscal year (FY) 2019 budget, 272 Tomahawks are currently planned for conversion to MST capability by FY 2022, said Capt Johnson.

NSM While Tomahawk meets the USN’s longrange strike requirement, both ashore and (prospectively, now) at sea, NSM offers a capability to strike sea and shore targets at shorter range. Designed particularly to tackle high-value, heavily defended ships at sea, NSM offers also the benefit of a landattack capability.

The USN has been seeking a new, midrange, OTH ASuW strike capability for its surface ships against both maritime and land targets. NSM has already been selected as the OTH weapon system solution for the USN’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), and has been designated for integration on the USN’s FFG(X) future frigate.

“The addition of NSM to the USN inventory is about providing warfighters (with) a range of options,” the Raytheon spokesperson told Armada. “When pairing weapons to targets, it may not be appropriate to select a 1,000 mile missile to destroy a target in the littorals. The availability of NSM allows commanders to preserve their Tomahawk missiles for longer-range missions.”

Reflecting the potential utility of NSM in offsetting A2/AD threats, the spokesperson said the system can “provide mobile, expeditionary sea control/sea denial”.

“Raytheon and Kongsberg partnered to bring NSM’s advanced capabilities to the USN and coalition partners seeking the ability to deter and defeat advanced threats,” the spokesperson continued.

According to the two companies, NSM has: a range greater that 100nm; a 500-lb warhead with a multi-function fuse; a stealthy design; a passive infrared and imaging sensor; improved penetration, autonomous target recognition, and OTH capability, especially in a cluttered environment; and precise time of arrival. Overall, they argue, it provides a “modern strike capability … designed to defeat threats, conditions, and defensive

US Navy

SEA POWER

A synthetically guided Tomahawk strikes a moving target during a 2015 test firing off California.

The Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST) brings a multimode seeker to engage maritime targets at distance.

systems anticipated through 2040”.

Raytheon argued that “NSM is the latest generation anti-ship cruise missile.”

As well as tackling targets at sea (both in coastal areas and further out), NSM can be used against targets ashore. It also can be used as a coastal defence system to attack targets offshore. In this latter context, at the USN-led ‘RIMPAC’ (‘Rim of the Pacific’)

exercise off Hawaii in July 2018, the US Army fired an NSM from a launcher mounted on a palletised load system (PLS) truck, with the missile striking a target at sea – the ex-USS Racine, a decommissioned USN Newport-class landing ship tank (LST) amphibious vehicle. According to the Raytheon spokesperson, this provided “a demonstration of NSM’s suitability for

integration into land-based formations”.

“NSM was designed to evade detection, defeat close-in enemy defences, and destroy heavily defended maritime and land targets,” the spokesperson said. “NSM was designed with both anti-ship and land-attack capabilities in mind. Land-attack capability is an important part of increasing the offensive lethality.” “There are no technology upgrades required to realise the NSM’s land-attack capabilities,” the spokesperson confirmed.

Like Tomahawk, NSM is already in service. Currently, it is operational onboard the Royal Norwegian Navy’s (RNoN’s) Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates and Skjoldclass corvettes. Following first successful test-firings in both anti-ship and landattack modes in 2011, the RNoN declared IOC in 2012. Tests in 2014 saw firings from an RNoN frigate during ‘RIMPAC’, and from the USN’s Independence-class LCS USS Coronado. In 2018, Germany (as part of a partnership with Norway) awarded Kongsberg a contract to deliver NSM to the German Navy.

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The Convoy Combat Tactical Trainer allows for the vehicle crew to experience and react to a range of virtual combat situations represented around them.

FIGHTING BLOODLESS BATTLES The challenge of finding the right way to adapt synthetic training to achieve the right results in real life is one that the US Army has grasped.

Stephen W. Miller

H

istory has shown that more advanced technology, weapons and equipment by themselves are not a guarantee of success of the battlefield. Equally critical is the combatant who must be prepared for combat long before reaching the battlefield. The saying “sweating today will save blood tomorrow” should be the mantra of every military leader.

Training includes learning individual skills, developing teamwork, and practicing of tactics. One of the greatest challenges faced in training is in effectively reflecting the tasks to be learned and replicating the environment and conditions in which these must be conducted. ‘Drill’ has been employed from the dawn by the best armies fighting to form cohesive units. The intent was to establish in each soldier the ability to instinctively execute the tasks necessary to perform in combat. Each soldier’s required movements and actions needed to be engrained as to make them impervious to

the chaos and carnage that would surround them. The efficiency with which this was instilled in the soldiers was what differentiates the regular units from militia. Equally important is that it instilled confidence that each soldier standing beside him could be relied upon to perform as well.

This basic premise continues today, though complicated by the industrialisation and the vastly expanded scope of the battlefield itself. This new environment also entails the need to allow for decentralised decision making and action. Thus, soldiers at lower unit levels must be prepared to take actions that align with and contribute to the broader mission. Training must also provide him and his unit with the knowledge and practiced skills and techniques to effectively operate and survive. Using various devices from wooden swords to replica entire weapons system to aid in training has been part of this.

SYNTHETIC TRAINING The challenge in training has always been in

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making it relevant to the reality of the battlefield. The more that the training experience can replicate the actual experience the more likely the warfighter will be able to effectively perform. This tenet is true for individuals, crews, and teams at every level from the lowest to the highest command and staff. Militaries today see advances in electronics, computer processing, graphics, and networking as offering not just improved techniques in current training approaches but actually creating an artificial training environment. US Army Major General Maria Gervais, Deputy Commanding General at the Combined Arms Centre (CAC)–Training recently stated: “From wherever they maybe located, home station, armouries, institutions, or deployed locations we want our soldiers to enter into a Synthetic Training Environment (STE) that immerses them in complex operational environments that replicate where they will fight; with who they will fight with; on the terrain they will fight on.”

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The stated objective of this STE and other similar programmes is to provide tools that allow learning of skills at increasing levels of proficiency utilising training representations. A CAC representative pointed out that this effort seeks to “utilise existing and emerging technologies and mediums to deliver training through simulation and virtual programmes.” Further it seeks to apply these to in individual to crew and small unit up to battalion level for all Army components and to do so within an accessible global context of any potential environment. This training is viewed as a precursor to live training and complement to it.

A principle difference between this synthetic approach and previous training endeavours according to a CAC White Paper is that “previously training consists of single system oriented solutions” that were difficult to integrate. STE envisions a common concept that “will combine virtual, constructive, gaming and live environments”. In addition, STE needs to be an open architecture that can be adapted to accommodate future force structure, weapons system, evolving threats, various terrains, and warfighting functions.

CONCEPT DRIVERS Today’s militaries see increasingly complex and rapidly evolving battlefields. In addition, they may be called upon to operate in a range of geographic environments performing various missions against different threats. The challenge is in accommodating these diverse factors.

Live field training is essential but is time intensive, costly, and limited by available space and the local environment. Still the pivotal value of a highly proficient individual and unit is once again being recognised and emphasised. In the United States the Defense Secretary and former US Marine General James Mattis has advocated adapting the successful training simulation capabilities proven with pilots and air crews and applying it to the infantryman and others. His object is for each warfighter to “fight 25 bloodless battles” before ever reaching combat. The US Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley mirrors this stating: “We must improve human performance and decision-making by increasing training and assessment, starting at the soldier level.”

In late 2016 to mid-2017 an Army Capabilities Board (ACB) examining its existing synthetic training concluded that the Army had ‘fallen behind’ in its skills and the STE initiative was launched.

Lieutenant Colonel Damon ‘DJ’ Durall of the US Army Futures Command Synthetic Training Environment Cross-Functional Team explained that “STE is comprised of a common One World Terrain (OWT); Training Simulation Software (TSS); Training

Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D provides a high fidelity virtual world that can be utilised to prepare unique scenarios representing various platforms and events. A commercially available licensed product it can be utilised for aviation, ground or maritime simulations.

Management Tools, (TMT); plus common user interfaces.” The concept is to lever the advances in digitalisation, networking, memory and processing to both provide a more realistic experience and a holistic one in which potentially multiple participants can interact.

“The OWT takes digital terrain data from multiple pre-existing sources, rectifying and correlating, and then storing it in a centrally accessible location for common use across 3D simulation systems.” It is to eliminate the need to develop such data bases for each application, to provide a common representation that works across platforms, and one that can be continuously updated and expanded.

TSS, he further suggests, is STE's ‘game engine’ providing a single training environment using open architecture and common application programming interfaces (API) to deliver a centralised capability for representing and adjudicating all simulation entities

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(i.e. players and the units they control) and user inputs. Finally, TMT is to provide “an intuitive easy to use application that’s accessible anywhere and anytime to create training scenarios.” TMT will be able to retrieve and transforms data so as to, automate the generation and population of simulation databases. The objective of STE is to being to introduce the capabilities by 2020 building off existing technologies and products.

EXPANDING SIMULATION Realistic simulation has already been developed that replicates not only combat scenarios but a support, maintenance and logistics tasks. An example is the Combat Convoy Tactical Trainer (CCTT) providing training for tactical truck crews to respond to situations without actually leaving the motor pool. The concept originated to teach crews to react to attacks experienced in Iraq.

Lockheed Martin’s Simulation, Training and Support division responded with a computer-based system Virtual Combat Convoy Trainer using no artificial devices.

A company spokesperson shared that VCCT “uses screens surrounding the trainees onto which are projected various scenes of land and cityscapes including sound. It includes Small Arms training allowing the crew to respond with typical weapons. The system

USMC

Virtual training allows operators to practice without actually utilising the hardware as this US Air Force pilot.

Marines train with the Future Immersive Training Environment Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration virtual reality prototype system.

permits soldiers to practice teamwork and appropriate immediate action.” The concept was later expanded to other training tasks and platforms including ones with enhanced fidelity and that could be deployed.

Regarding the situational data base, Lockheed Martin’s latest Prepar3D software offers an indication of what may be possible.

A company release states that “It allows visual simulation scenarios to be created in aviation, maritime and ground domains… used to quickly create learning scenarios anywhere in the virtual world”. It is an evolving commercial-of-the-shelf product that is offered under license and has been

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continuous improved. First deputed in 2010 Prepar3D is now in its v4.4 version. The products are translatable to air, ground and naval scenarios.

Kongsberg’s BaSE (Battlespace Synthetic Environment is another virtual training tool. It allows building training that can utilise high performance COTS PC work-stations or laptops. The company describes the system as “allowing trainees to experience realistic scenarios with unique follow-up and evaluation by instructors in a non-field situation. Use of OpenGL industry standards provide for interoperability and adaptability and compatibility

KMW

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Krauss Maffei Wegmann brings simulated training to the maintainer using a head mounted viewer that guides him through a virtual repair process. It can be utilised as a stand-alone training tool or with the actual equipment itself.

with future technological advancements in image generators.”

Large Scale Integrated Training A key benefit of virtual training is its ability to allow multiple repetitions of an event with minimal effort. This allows the trainee to be critiqued and then to rerun the event and to even vary the scenario. This is the essence of military ‘drill’ as practiced by soldiers for centuries. Accomplishing this type training on a large scale that involves multiple players interacting as necessary to achieve a common purpose, such as is required for a naval vessel or ground combat team, is a complex exercise.

Kongsberg’s INTERACT tackles this challenge. The company describes it as “providing a solution to whole crew training “allowing practice of entire combatant ship operations in various scenarios. The objective is to combine the learned individual and separate ship functions to be practiced in an integrated manner as would be essential at sea. Independent training systems are linked including the CIC (Combat Information Centre), weapons, sensors, intelligence, bridge, supporting aviation, and even other vessels for a holistic interaction. Each element of the crew and their contribution play their part in the training scenarios so as to develop and refine the coordination of actions to response to various threats and situations. INTERACT is scalable from

whole crew of a single ship up to multi-ship task forces. It further provides for mission and immediate action rehearsal, after action review, and testing and validation of new concepts of operations (CONOPS).

EMBEDDED TRAINING Much virtual training uses workstations or constructed replications of equipment.

They are located in fixed facilities. The later are intended to closely mimic the actual functions to be taken and can, thus, be costly and so available in small numbers.

Still they are “artificial” as they are not that soldier or crew’s assigned weapon or piece of equipment. Perhaps their greatest drawback is that they are a home station asset that does not go to war with the unit.

Embedded training takes advantage of data processing, memory, displays and computing power in everything from weapon sights to artillery fire controls, fighting vehicles, aircraft, and even maintenance systems. .” It allows soldiers to employ the equipment that they will fight with and use to develop their proficiency.

Gregory Sikkens a senior product manager at Curtiss-Wright, a developer and provider of graphics processors for military, wrote that “integrating training capabilities directly into deployed systems allows soldiers to use downtime to run training scenarios. Increasingly evident in combat platforms it is also being intro-duced in small arms fire control sights and other electronics.

The expansion of integrated networking opens the possibility of cooperative virtual training by a number of vehicle crews and even the dismounted infantry squad.

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) has brought a similar virtual technology to the military maintainer. Dr. Joachim Schauss, sales manager for training and simulation described the system as “a virtual reality vision where the trainee wears a visor that shows a 3D representation of the vehicle or system on which a maintenance function is to be conducted. He is then taken through a repair process step-by-step.” The approach will even project on to the actual hardware allowing the trainee to actually perform the repair action.

THE FUTURE The combining of elements of the physical world with those of the digital world are the next step. An early example is the US Marines infantry immersion trainers that mix live and virtual medium as well as pyrotechnics, sounds and smells. Its objective is to inoculate Marines in the rifle squad to the battlefield environment and to learn to make decisions and act appropriately even under high stress.

Ultimately synthetic training could provide a sufficiently capable simulation that its application could extend beyond training but also to how warfighters and even supporting entities will rehearse and execute future missions.

armadainternational.com - february/march 2019 21

Land WARFARE

MOVE FAST, M HIT HARD

As special forces remain focused on clandestine and discreet operations at extended ranges, these remote deployments continue to mould requirements for special operations vehicles (SOVs).

Andrew White 22 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

arket trends continue to be shaped by some of the most mature as well as some of the newest, emerging special operations units globally, as commanders seek the best means of securing and maintaining tactical overmatch over increasingly capable adversaries.

As defence sources associated with the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) suggested to Armada International, major trends include an increasing appetite for SOVs capable of blending in with civilian populations in operational environments;

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The US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) will explore ‘Follow-On LTATV’ SOV technology to support fly and drive operations from V-22 Ospreys as well as supporting multi-mission capabilities including electronic warfare and air defence.

as well as Internally Transportable Vehicles (ITVs) capable of being carried in the cargo holds of tactical fixed and rotary wing air frames to support ‘fly and drive’ missions.

One of the most recent examples of such trends include the evaluation of ITV technology by Ukraine’s Special Operations Command, one of the newest special operations components which stood-up in 2015 to support antiterrorism operations at home.

On 8 December 2018, Ukrainian special forces evaluated a 4x4 prototype ITV, understood to be designed by Azov Engineering Group to offer special operations

units improved mobility, lethality, and rapid reaction capabilities.

The evaluation programme, which was conducted at a training area near Stare, Ukraine, saw a prototype vehicle participating in mobility tests while carrying a crew of five operators and fitted with armaments including a .50-cal DShk-M heavy machine gun. According to defence sources familiar with the evaluation, the vehicle can also be fitted with an automatic grenade launcher; 120mm mortar system; or anti-tank guided munitions, dependent upon customer preference and mission parameters.

Defence sources described to Armada how the as yet unnamed prototype SOV boasts a gross vehicle weight of 1,600kg with capacity to carry an additional payload of 1,000kg. The SOV also comprises a maximum speed of 145 kilometres per hour (km/h) and maximum operating range of 500km. The employment of such an ITV

by Ukrainian special forces represents a significant capability advance for the command which continues to develop in line with ongoing counter-insurgency missions at home.

Also continuing its exploration into ITV technology is the USSOCOM, whose SOV selections continue to have global ramifications across the wider, international special operations community.

Speaking to Armada, service officials within USSOCOM’s Program Executive Office (PEO) SOF Warrior described how the organisation continues to enhance its existing fleet of ITV SOVs which includes Polaris Government and Defense’s MRZR family of vehicles; as well as General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems’ (GDOTS’) GMV 1.1. The 4x4 GMV1.1 programme is due to enter full rate production in March 2019, according to a GDOTS spokesperson.

According to programme manager for USSOCOM’s Family of SOVs at PEO SOF Warrior, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Atkinson, key areas of interest currently being explored by USSOCOM and industry partners include developments in lighter weight armour; enhanced payload capacity; as well as reductions in gross vehicle weights of SOVs. PEO SOF Warrior is also considering hybrid power solutions for GMV 1.1 and MRZR platforms.

With these specific operational requirements in mind, PEO SOF Warrior is pursuing its ‘Follow On’ Light Tactical All Terrain Vehicle (LTATV) concept which has been designed to provide force components

with an ITV falling somewhere between the capabilities of MRZR and the GMV 1.1 platforms.

According to Atkinson, USSOCOM is seeking a “more robust” ITV which could be “purpose built” to support operational requirements arising out of the various USSOCOM theatre component commands.

PEO SOF Warrior published a request for information on 8 August demanding “market research and acquisition strategy” to support the design and development of an ITV capable of being carried in the cargo hold of the Boeing V-22 tiltrotor Osprey aircraft.

“There is not a lot of money for these development efforts but our users are also very interested in that capability. We want something beefier than MRZR with more performance and additional life,” Atkinson urged.

Two- and four-seat configurations are desired as well as options for diesel and hybrid electric vehicle drives, he added.

Additional specifications for the FollowOn LTATV include a top speed of 96km/h (60mph); collapsible roll over protection system allowing for carriage inside the V-22; gross vehicle weight of 1,360kg for a four-seat configuration (1,133kg for two-seat); and maximum operating range of 320km (nearly 200 miles).

Finally, any selected vehicle must be certified for low velocity and joint precision air drop systems as well as drive-by-wire capabilities for autonomous operation, USSOCOM’s RFI described.

Industry participants expected to collaborate in the USSOCOM programme include GDOTS and Polaris Government and Defense. Indeed, Polaris vice president Jed Leonard, confirmed the company is “monitoring and remains actively engaged in ongoing efforts surrounding USSOCOM and the USMC’s ultralight vehicle requirements, including ITV (also known as the Follow-On LTATV programme)”.

According to comments made at an LTATV Industry Day, held at USSOCOM’s headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida on 14 November, the FollowOn LTATV programme provide small unit teams with “tactical movement, reduced signature and cross-country speed and mobility over rough terrain”.

Service officials suggested a total of 814 LTATVs could be procured over a five year period, with a total contract award worth anywhere between $4.2 million and $7.62m

armadainternational.com - february/march 2019 23

GDOTS

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GDOTS’ GMV1.1 will enter Full Rate Production to support the US Special Operations Command in March 2019.

a year. A request for proposals is due to be published in March 2019, Atkinson suggested, with testing conducted before the end of the year ahead of a potential contract award in December 2019.

Feeding off lessons learned by USSOCOM, international special operations partners continue to benefit from legacy LTATV technology currently employed by US Army Operational Detachment Alpha teams as well as US Navy SEAL Teams.

In Portugal, SOF personnel from the country’s Special Operations Troops Centre (CTOE) are set to receive additional SOVs from Polaris Government and Defense. The news follows an initial contract with the US-based company which centred around the delivery of nine MV850 quad bikes and pair of MRZR-2 LTATVs, confirmed in February 2017. SOVs were delivered to the CTOE by the end of September 2017, with platforms currently operational with Portuguese SOF in support of the full spectrum of special operations.

The latest delivery of SOVs from Polaris to the CTOE, announced on 12 December 2018, will see the additional delivery of six diesel MRZR D4 and MRZR D2 LTATVs as well as another MV850 platform. Defence sources associated with the CTOE, explained to Armada how Portuguese SOF are also employing SOVs as forward-

deployed C4ISTAR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) nodes.

Upgraded SOVs continue to be equipped with special mission suites including dismounted C2 and battle management systems; BGAN satellite antennas; software defined radios; end user devices; and mastmounted electro-optical cameras, industry sources informed Armada.

Elsewhere, Latvia’s Special Operations Unit has received its first tranche of MRZR-2 SOVs from Polaris following a contract award agreed in January 2018.

Announced on 19 October by the Latvian National Armed Forces, a initial tranche of 18 SOVs was delivered with an additional 26 understood to have been received by the armed forces by the end of 2018.

The agreement comprises a wider requirement by the Latvian armed forces to buy 130 SOVs from Polaris, including additional models such as the MRZR-4 and MV850, as part of a $7.8 million (€6.8m) contract.

Commercial Vehicles Elsewhere, the international SOF market continues to witness operational demand for SOV technology capable of better blending into urban and suburban environments, to

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support discreet and clandestine operations.

Examples include USSOCOM’s Non Standard Commercial Vehicle (NSCV) programme which is being supported by Battelle Military following a 2017 contract award. A five year award, worth up to a total of USD170m, could see force components supplied with nearly 600 NSCVs based on the Toyota Land Cruiser Model 76 and 79 chassis models.

As defence sources explained to Armada, NSCVs are routinely utilised throughout the Middle East, North Africa and South Central Asia by small unit teams reliant upon them to support special reconnaissance, direct action and military assistance operations.

According to Atkinson, the NSVC comprises a commercial vehicle which has been designed from the ground up in a ‘military fashion’, allowing USSOCOM to reset every five years and extend the lifecycle of the platform in a longer term when compared to other SOV types.

According to PEO SOF Warrior sources, USSOCOM’s NSCV programme is aimed at identifying “cost effective solutions for reduced logistics or to allow vehicles that are commercial in appearance to be reset at the end of the lifecycle instead of disposed of and reprocured”.

“Vehicles are anticipated to be designed to mimic late model vehicles typically found

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in central Asia, (including) Toyota Hilux, Toyota Land Cruiser 200 and Toyota Surf (chassis designs),” sources continued to add before referencing requirement for armour to protect against ballistic threats; 4 wheel drive capability with heavy duty brakes and suspension to accommodate gross vehicle weight; full skid plates and running boards; diesel engines; and left hand drive.

Additionally, PEO SOF Warrior is interested in developments in electric or hybrid drive trains to upgrade existing NSCV platforms; as well as extensions in the availability of tyre and wheel types to reduce logistic footprints across more expeditionary and remote operating environments.

Discussing how USSOCOM had successfully completed its initial operational test and evaluation of Batelle’s NSCV earlier in 2018, Atkinson confirmed how initial deliveries to US SOF components had begun in the third and fourth quarters of 2018 in response to ‘high demand’ from operational theatres.

However, Atkinson warned: “When we armoured the (NSCV) up, it basically put the vehicle at its maximum gross weight. So anything(industry) can do to help us lighten that and give some payload back would be very, very helpful”.

According to Battelle’s Chief Scientist, Mike Kuhlman, the company is also in the process of future-proofing the NSCV concept with research and development resources directed towards the integration of specialist C4ISTAR, Electronic Warfare and Cyber Warfare technology on board the platform.

Speaking to Armada, Kuhlman described Battelle’s ‘R&D Challenge’ to “…work with the operator; provide updates; and make necessary adjustments as technology matures into a useful solution”.

“We want to hear directly from operators in the field on very specific problems they are facing and apply our expertise in ways we can solve it, whether it’s communications, electronics, cyber or tactical gear,” he concluded.

Similar non-standard SOV solutions were also presented to the market by Navistar at the Association of the US Army (AUSA) exhibition in Washington, DC on 8 October 2018.

According to a company spokesperson, the ‘latest generation platform’ of the Special Operations Tactical Vehicle has been designed to mimic other Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) sports utility vehicles employed by civilians, indigenous security forces and international special forces

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Special operations forces around the World are increasingly demanding non-standard SOV technology capable of better blending into civilian environments as well as providing more easily accessible supply chains for resupply.

across many of the aforementioned operational environments.

However, company sources explained to Armada how this third-generation and purpose-built, armoured SOV has been designed to optimise five-year interval resets allowing the vehicle to maintain currency across the evolving COE while also providing operators with a 15 year lifecycle.

The latest variant, a company spokesperson confirmed, comprises a gross vehicle weight of 5,670kg, making it suitable to carry a series of armaments, C4ISTAR mission suites and other specialist equipment.

CONCLUSION As the COE continues to demand growing requirements of special operations forces , SOV technology will remain at the forefront of capabilities allowing small unit teams to maintain tactical overmatch over enemy forces in terms of mobility, lethality, survivability and connectivity.

However, as defence sources highlighted to Armada, any capability injections must be carefully supported by up-to-date concepts of operation, tactics, techniques and procedures.

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INMARSAT

satcoms

INMARSAT has teamed with Spectra Group to realise the L-TAC Slingshot ensemble, allowing users to plug this appliqué into a conventional V/UHF tactical radio and access INMARSAT’s L-band SATCOM services.

SATCOM GOES TACTICAL

Satellite Communications, or ‘SATCOM’, is moving forward; not only technologically, but tactically, affording benefits in terms of band-width and availability.

Dr. Thomas Withington

T

he past two decades has seen satellite communications (SATCOM) moving pro-gressively closer to the Forward Edge of the Battle Area (FEBA) and placed into the hands of troops in contact. Two factors are driving this trend in the technological and tactical domains: technologically, as with other facets of life involving electronics, things are getting smaller. The oft-quoted dictum of Moore’s Law, named after the computer scientist and co-founder of the Intel corporation, is that the number of tran-sistors which can outfit an integrated circuit doubles every two years. This has led to an overall reduction in the physical size of electronic systems; just think of the size of a pocket

calculator, which could perform one function, compared to a smartphone today, which can perform multitudes. The tactical trend regarding SATCOM at the FEBA is driven by two sub-factors. The first is the proliferation of sensors which sol-diers will use during their mission which can be used to gather intelligence, surveil-lance and reconnaissance (ISR) data. Nick Shave, INMARSAT’s strategic pro-grammes director says that “force mobility and global reach are key: Digitisation of the battlespace is driving communications requirements, and bandwidth and inter-connectivity requirements are going up.”

This demand for data means that traffic often needs to be sent across communications to other deployed forces or echelons

28 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

of command. Troops can be deployed across theatres which are several thousand square miles in size: Operation Barkhane, the French-led deployment to the Sahel region of north Africa, to battle Islam ist elements there is occurring across a theatre three million square kilometres (1.1 million square miles) in size. The challenge here is that conventional Very/Ultra High Frequency (V/UHF) tactical radios retain line-of-sight ranges. Although propagation range is dependent on transmission power and antenna elevation, at sea level, V/UHF tactical radios may only be capable of achieving ranges of under 10km (6.2 miles), and this can diminish if the user is in an urban area with building obstructions, or in elevated terrain which can obscure the radio’s

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line-of-sight. For the soldier at the FEBA, SATCOM offers ‘up and over’ benefits as transmissions can be beamed spacewards, bounce of a satellite and reach their intended recipients. Importantly, this must be achievable using a SATCOM capability which is physically small enough to be carried and which can work with their existing conventional V/UHF tac-tical radios.

Darren Ware, manager of land and special projects for the UK division of Airbus’ defence and space subsidiary states that as a basic rule of thumb, strategic SATCOM will typically support division-level deployments of around 500 personnel and above to provide over-the-horizon deployments perhaps from a theatre back to a national command authority. Tactical SATCOM, on the other hand, will enable groups of be-tween two to four soldiers perform intra-theatre communications.” Mobility is another key factor: “In the land domain, one of the big drivers is SATCOM on-the-move.

Ve-hicles and deployed troops need to be connected, and we are seeing significant in-creases in these requirements,” Shave remarks, adding that bandwidth demands at the FEBA are increasing: “There are expectations for broadband speeds in the megabits-per-second (mbps), and these are reaching demands of 10mbps and above.”

Frequencies Satellite communications inhabit the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

This stretches from three kilohertz up to 300 gigahertz/GHz. SATCOM uses several frequency bands within this. These include UHF typically in 240MHz to 270MHz wavebands alongside L-band (1.520GHz to 1.580GHz), S-band (2.2GHz to 2.4GHz), Cband (3.7GHz to 5.925GHz), X-band (7.25GHz to 8.4GHz) Ku-band (10.9GHz to 14GHz) and Ka-band (18GHz to 40GHz). Readers are may wonder why so many bandwidths are available for SATCOM? The reason is similar to why a suit must be tailored: no one size fits all. Each of these bandwidths has advantages and disad-vantages. This has implications for the systems soldiers will use at the FEBA. For example, L-band communications can use a relatively small antenna, which is good from the perspective of being easy to carry and use, and does not suffer excessively from ‘rain fade’. Rain fade is the phenomena where moisture in the atmosphere ab-sorbs a proportion of an RF transmission, meaning that levels of amplification must be used which take

Lockheed Martin

satcoms

The WGS initiative is intended to provide SATCOM links between deployed forces and national command authorities in the continental United States.

account of the signal loss caused by this attenuation. As a sim-ple rule-of-thumb, the higher up the radio spectrum transmissions are performed, the more rain fade can occur. However, L-band has disadvantages in that spectrum can be sparse, potentially making it expensive to use. Like L-band, S-band also has good resistance to rain fade, but requires a larger-sized antenna and also has limited spectrum availability potentially resulting in narrower bandwidth availability. C-band also suffers from restricted bandwidth and antenna size issues, although has good rain fade resistance, and a good level of global coverage. X-band is reserved by the International Telecommunications Union, the United Nations organisation tasked with regulating the international use of the radio spectrum, for military use. X-band SATCOM uses relatively small antennae although it can suffer rain fade. Moreover, given its use by the military, X-band SATCOM is increasingly congested. This has tended to force a migration

30 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

to higher wavebands. These include Ku-band which can use small-sized antennae, and has a better throughput rate compared to lower bandwidths, but with rain fade susceptibility. Ka-band, meanwhile, provides high bandwidth communications and high transmission power using small-sized equip-ment although also suffers rain fade.

Unsurprisingly, for forward-deployed troops, SATCOM terminals must have a low SWAP (Size, Weight and Power) consumption, explained Ware. They must also be electromagnetically discreet to avoid transmissions being detected or jammed. This is helped by using high SATCOM frequencies which typically have very narrow transmission beams to help frustrate detection: “The tactical requirement is generally a 650mm (25.2 inch) parabolic dish that is able to operate on multiple military and commercial bands, offering the deployed element diversity and resilience,” Ware remarked. Nonetheless, a range of tactical terminals are provided by the firm in di-ameters of 500mm (19.7in),

USAF

satcoms

The last 20 years has seen an increasing migration of SATCOM to the FEBA. This has been driven by the need to ensure connectively at the tactical edge, and by the miniaturisation of electronic components which have helped to make SATCOM systems highly portable.

600mm (23.6in), 650mm (25.6in), 900mm (35.4in) and one metre (3.3 feet): “The smaller terminals are restrained through physical size and will offer the deployed user a limited bandwidth, whilst the larger terminals will pro-vide communications to a company strength of 100 personnel.”

Similarly, private sector suppliers of SATCOM services to the military offer an array of frequency op-tions: “(INMARSAT) provides global L-band SATCOM services using our own satel-lites. This has real benefit regarding availability, very small antennae and good bandwidth. For example, we can offer up to 10mbps in L-band,” said Ware. The firm also provides global X-band and Ka-band coverage, although across third party satellites.

US Investment Arguably the most energetic investment into SATCOM is being witnessed in the US. A quiet revolution is ongoing within the US and allied armed forces. A host of new constellations are providing a range of SATCOM services to the deployed force.

For example, the US Department of Defence (DOD) Lockheed Martin/Boeing Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) and US Air Force

Lockheed Martin Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) constellations provide links between commanders in the continental US and forces deployed in theatre. The WGS uses Ka-band communica-tions, providing up to 4.875GHz of instantaneous, switchable bandwidth.

The WGS is intended for use by deployed battalions and platoons, not only for the US, but also Australia and Canada whom are both involved in the initiative. Similar international participation is visible in the AEHF constellation which will use 44GHz uplink and a 20GHz downlink wavebands and will be made available to the armed forces of Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The AEHF will carry both narrowband communications in the order of 0.07kbps, 2.4kbps and 4.8kbps, with higher rates of 1.5 mbps and 8.1mbps also attainable.

Future SATCOM Ware expects aircraft to play an increasingly important part in the carriage of SAT-COM particularly as a relay tool. To this end, the firm is leading the Network for the Sky (NFTS) initiative. According to the firm’s official literature, the NFTS endeavour is

32 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

intended to ensure that aircraft are connected with one another using SATCOM and via satellites with troops on the ground. While this is already possible using con-ventional V/UHF airborne and tactical radios, adding SATCOM to the mix will provide an additional means by which voice, data and imagery traffic can be carried.

The company has federated several of its products to provide this network including its Proteus family of SATCOM modems, its AirPatrol X-band and Ka-band and Janus Ku-band and Ka-band antennae which offer data throughputs of 10mbps, its secure management mode which acts as a central point for the management of conventional radio traffic and SATCOM, plus military and commercial V/UHF SATCOM, and L-band, X-band, Ka-band and Ku-band SATCOM bandwidth using the firm’s Skynet-5 satellite constellation. Ware explained that in 2019, the firm will demonstrate broad-band air-to-ground/ ground-to-air SATCOM as part of the NFTS initiative: “The sce-nario will simulate exchanges of real time video between a special forces operative equipped with a standard (tactical radio) and a command centre to provide enhanced situation

Russian MoD

satcoms

awareness and receive actionable information and instructions from the command centre in return.” During the experiment, these communications will be relayed using an Airbus A330-200 tanker equipped with the firm’s Janus antenna with the communications traffic being routed across a satellite via Airbus’ ground station located near Washington DC. Innovation is driving the quest to reduce the SWAP burden for soldier-deployed SATCOM systems at the FEBA. Vendors like Airbus are examining ways that satellite communications can be provided to the soldier, but without overburdening them with more equipment to lug around. “For direct SATCOM links from the ground,” Mr. Ware observes, “antennae will also continue to improve to the point that a soldier’s helmet could become the antenna. (For an) individual, this will provide a limited up-link and downlink to the satellite, but when combined with many soldiers, it will offer the deployed formation a MANET (Mobile Ad Hoc Network) type SATCOM solution.” For the uninitiated, a MANET is a communications network in which each radio acts as both a receiver and transmitter or ‘node’. This means that traffic can skip from one node to another, much as a frog can use lily pads to cross from one side of a pond to another, to reach its destination. This has the asset of ensuring that there is no single point of failure so that the loss of one node will not mean the loss of the network.

Airbus expects the market for tactical SATCOM to be driven by three key requirements in the immediate future: the need

Russia’s R-330ZH jamming system is a serious concern for US and allied nations. The system may have the ability to jam L-band SATCOM networks which could be a major concern for a number of private sector providers.

for SATCOM on-the-move, the desire for ‘bearer agnostic’ systems, and the continued need to ensure communications resilience.

By definition, deployed troops need to be able to use SATCOM when mobile and at the halt. In particular, Wade underlined that this will be mirrored by an increasing desire for wide bandwidth communications on the move so as “to receive mission changes and up-to-date intelligence feeds, minimising risk to life.” Shave shared this opinion, arguing that “the bandwidth demand is going to increase.” Secondly, SATCOM will need to participate in emerging bearer agnostic networks where communications from one part of the battlefield to another, for example, is performed seamlessly using the most efficient and resilient route regardless of the traffic being carried. To an extent, the development of bearer agnostic tactical communications is linked to the evolution of cognitive radio. The latter is viewed within the tactical com-munications domain as the next important advance in Software Defined Radio (SDR). It is a process by which a tactical communications network can automatically adjust its propagation characteristics based upon the prevailing electromagnetic environment.

For example, if there is heavy intentional and unintentional electromagnetic interference on a battlefield due to both hostile jamming and civilian RF (Radio Frequency) usage such as local cellphone networks,

34 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

television and radio transmissions, a tactical radio network may autonomously choose to reduce the available transmission bandwidth so as to provide more resilience to transmissions. This is achieved by the individual radio ‘learning’ about the local electromagnetic environment as a result of previous environments it has experienced and adapting its performance accordingly.

Bearer agnostic networks will effectively fuse conventional SDR MANET networks with SATCOM networks, and even secure smartphone networks; autonomously deciding the best means of getting traffic from the sender to the recipient.

Furthermore, the ‘Internet of Things’, by which devices are linked to one another electronically will also impinge on SATCOM, Shave believes. Unattended sensors, plus conventional platforms and subsystems will be increasingly networked, with ramifications for tactical communications: “This is an area where we are seeing growth, particularly in the government sector.

When you have remote deployments, you’ll see a lot more IOT connectivity of devices, particularly using SATCOM.” Finally, communications resilience is a major consideration. Russia has poured investment into SATCOM jamming technology. Protek’s R-330ZH electronic warfare system is believed to be in service with the Russian Army’s 18th Guards Motorised Rifle Brigade; a battalion of which was deployed to support Russia’s intervention in Ukraine’s civil war and annexation of Crimea from March 2014, during which it was believed to have deployed the R-330ZH. Open sources state that this equipment can jam SATCOM transmissions across wavebands of 1227.6MHz, 1575.42MHZ and 1500MHz to 1900MHz. This would make the system a notable threat to L-band SATCOM traffic, and would be a particular concern to armies which are reliant on secure SATCOM provided by third-party commercial suppliers. The R-330ZH is re-portedly capable of performing such jamming at ranges of up to 30km (16.2 miles).

Tactical SATCOM is fast becoming as essential to the deployed soldier as their rifle, tactical radio and night vision systems.

Fortunately, innovation is helping in its provision of such communications at the FEBA. Technological developments such as the provision of SATCOM using comparatively high wavebands is helping this trend alongside the drive to ensure resilience and availability both at the halt and on-the-move.

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Nimr

Country special report Analysis

Local UAE company Nimr is supplying 1,500 Jais 4x4 vehicles to the UAE Armed Forces.

UAE military procurement For the first two decades of their existence, the UAE’s armed forces were configured almost entirely for defence, whose offensive capabilities were limited to those that might be required to fight off any attacker, and to deter aggression. They had no expeditionary or out-of-area capabilities, and conducted little training with allied forces, with the exception of the US armed forces and those of its five GCC allies (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia).

Jon Lake

B

ut all of that has changed in the last 17 years, with the UAE participating in every major US-led coalition operation since the 1991 Gulf War — with the notable exception of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

During the 1991 Gulf War, several hundred UAE troops participated as part of the GCC Peninsula Shield force that advanced into the city of Kuwait, while UAE Air Force aircraft undertook strikes against Iraqi forces. The UAE also provided basing for United States aircraft and ships.

Since then, UAE forces have participated in peace-keeping and reconstruction in Somalia (deploying an infantry battalion to the United Nations UNOSOM II force in 1993) and Kosovo (sending a Mechanised

Infantry Battalion). The UAE also undertook full-scale war-fighting in Libya in 2011.

The UAE Air Force and Air Defence committed six F-16E/Fs and six Mirage 2000s to help enforce the no-fly zone established over Libya, operating from the Italian Decimomannu air base on the island of Sardinia.

The UAE has also participated in operations in Afghanistan, sending special forces units to support the NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan in 2003 — becoming the first Arab nation to participate in the operation. They remained engaged until 2014. The 11-year deployment involved more than 1,200 Emirati soldiers, and allowed the UAE’s Secial Forces to forge close ties with US and other allied Special Operations forces.

From 2012 until 2014, the UAE also

36 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

maintained a rotational deployment of six F-16E/F fighter-bombers to Kandahar, just as some European nations were reducing their commitments in Afghanistan.

UAE pilots were allowed to fly the most difficult close air-support missions to protect coalition ground forces, winning a formidable reputation for their professionalism.

General James Mattis, the commander of US Central Command from 2010-2013, referred to the UAE as ‘Little Sparta’ in tribute to the Emirati’s martial spirit.

The UAE AF&AD participated in the initial attacks against Daesh (so-called Islamic State) forces in Syria on the first night of the US-led bombing offensive. The UAE reportedly chafed at restrictive rules of

Country Analysis special report

Air Force The UAE AF&AD has also undertaken operations in support of Egyptian missions against militias allied with the pan-Arab Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and has provided significant forces to support the Saudi-led campaign against Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels. Emirati forces have actually had a bigger footprint on the ground in Yemen than have the Saudis, and these UAE force elements have been responsible for most of the operations against Sunni AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) militants in Yemen.

To support its more muscular and interventionist foreign policy, the UAE has increasingly procured equipment optimized for, or to support, expeditionary warfare and out-of-area operations, and to transform its forces into full-spectrum warfighting arms, capable of operating autonomously without relying on allied support.

This has been most obvious in the case of the UAE Air Force & Air Defence, which has tried to diversify the sources of its equipment where possible, to reduce the risks posed by possible embargos from any one supplier or support provider. Thus the Block 60 Lockheed Martin F-16E/F Desert Falcons delivered from 2005 augmented the existing Mirage 2000 fleet, rather than replacing the French-supplied fighters.

Similarly, helicopters and rotorcraft have been sourced from the USA, but also from France, the UK and Italy.

The air force has made major efforts to become self-sufficient in training its own pilots, and has increased its participation in training exercises with allies, including the well-regarded US ‘Red Flag’ series of exercises. The UAE Air Warfare Centre (UAEAWC) hosts its own annual Advanced Training and Leadership Course (ATLC) at Al Dhafra Airbase, and this has attracted a broad range of international participants.

Saab

engagement set by the White House, which prevented its aircraft from attacking some Islamic State targets.

Not content with merely providing assets to US- or NATO-led coalitions, the UAE has increasingly undertaken a more active and autonomous role in the wider MENA region, supplying equipment and using a variety of special forces and aircraft assets to assist Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army in its campaign against Islamist militias and Tripoli Government forces in Libya.

Saab is supplying three GlobalEye airborne early warning aircraft to the UAE Air Force. The first flight of the GlobalEye too place on 3 January from Saab's airfield in Linköping, Sweden.

The UAE AF&AD acquired GEC-Marconi Al Hakim PGM-500 and PGM-2000 rocketboosted glide bombs to give its Mirage 2000s and F-16s an initial precision attack capability, later augmented by US and indigenously developed guided weapons. The air force also procured Black Shaheen cruise missiles (an export derivative of the Storm Shadow/ SCALP) to provide a long range stand-off precision strike capability beyond that available from the AGM-84 SLAM-ER weapons provided by the USA. The air force has also gained Airbus A330 MRTT air-to-air refueling tankers, Boeing C-17 Globemaster strategic transport aircraft and Lockheed C-130J Hercules to give greater ‘reach’. The air force is also acquiring three Saab Globaleye airborne early warning and control aircraft, and two SIGINT aircraft based on the same Global 6000 platform and modified for the role by Marshall Aerospace in the UK under Project Dolphin.

A number of UAE AF&AD requirements remain unfulfilled including one for an advanced jet trainer to replace the Hawk.

The Leonardo M-346 was selected in 2009, but contract negotiations were abandoned in 2011. Much the same happened with a fighter requirement, with the Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon both apparently gaining favour before being dropped. It is believed that the UAE is hoping to acquire the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and is now waiting to see how many it might procure before deciding on the long term composition of its fast jet fleet.

A long-standing requirement for a maritime patrol aircraft also remains largely unfulfilled. Two Bombardier DHC-8 Q300s were modified for maritime patrol duties for the UAE by PAL Aerospace, but

38 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

a requirement for further MPAs remains unsatisfied. Four CN-235MPAs were ordered and then cancelled, and some believe that the UAE represents a possible market for Saab’s Global 6000-based Swordfish, or perhaps for Boeing’s P-8A Poseidon.

The use of locally produced equipment by the air force has been limited. The locally assembled Tawazun Al Tariq precisionguided munition is in widespread use, but this modular IN/GPS-guided glide bomb is a derivative of Denel’s Umbani precisionguided bomb kit and is jointly produced

by Abu Dhabi-based Tawazun Holdings and South Africa’s Denel Dynamics. Local UAV manufacturer Adcom appears to have fallen by the wayside, and the UAE armed forces currently rely on the Swiss-designed Schiebel Camcopter and Chinese Wing Loong II armed UAVs. Army Like the air force, the UAE Army has been progressively realigned for expeditionary, out-of-area and special operations, and has similarly sought to become more self sufficient and to diversify its weapons purchases, buying from the United States, the UK, France, Italy and Germany, but also from Brazil, Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine.

In the early 1990s, the Army acquired 436 Leclerc Tanks from France and 415 BMP-3 AFVs from Russia.

The Army has been assiduous in adopting locally made weapons and equipment, including small arms, ammunition, and military vehicles. The Caracal pistol was introduced at IDEX in 2007, the first small arm produced in the UAE, and became the official sidearm of the UAE’s armed forces and security forces. Local company Nimr

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Country Analysis special report

An Alenia Marconi Systems (now marketed

by MBDA) Al Hakim PGM 500 guded bomb.

automotive has supplied a range of vehicles to the UAE armed forces, while local industry has also upgraded and modernised other in-service vehicles.

Other weapons systems may not be fully indigenous but may still have high local content. The Jobaria Defense Systems Multiple Cradle Launcher, for example, is an Emirati made multiple rocket launcher system, but is the product of a joint venture between Al Jaber Land System and Turkey’s Roketsan.

Presidential Guard Operating in parallel to the Army is the Presidential Guard, established in 20102011, as a result of the merger of several UAE Armed Forces units, including Special Operations Command and virtually all Emirati military helicopter units. The unit reports directly to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and operates on land, sea and air. The Presidential Guard has been strongly influenced by the US Marine Corps, which has helped with training the new unit, and in imbuing it with a warrior ethos.

Arguably the Presidential Guard’s most significant procurement has been of expertise and experience. The unit is led by former Australian General Mike Hindmarsh, and its aviation element, the Joint Aviation Command is commanded by former US Army lieutenant colonel Stephen A.Toumajan, now a Major General Staff Pilot.

It is not known whether the Presidential

Guard includes the 800-man battalion of foreign troops based at Zayed Military City recruited by US company Reflex Responses, overseen by former Blackwater founder Erik Prince. Largely comprised of Colombian troops, augmented by a platoon of South African soldiers, including some veterans of Executive Outcomes, this unit has been trained

by American, British, German and French Foreign Legion special operations soldiers.

Navy The UAE Navy has made a similar transition to the other Emirati armed forces, moving from being a relatively limited coastal defence force to a force with a blue water capability, able to operate throughout the Gulf region, the Arabian Ocean, and into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

The threat posed by Iran (and by the Iranian Navy and by the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC-N) is the UAE Navy’s primary concern, with the protection of the UAE’s trade routes through the vulnerable Straits of Hormuz accorded a high priority. The UAE has a longstanding dispute with Iran over the sovereignty of the three islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb, which were seized by Iran and then militarily occupied in 1992. Teheran claims that the islands are an “inseparable part of Iran”, while the UAE maintains a competing claim. The islands may be the reason that the UAE maintains a small battalion-sized commando and amphbious force – the United Arab Emirates Marines, equipped

40 armadainternational.com - february/march 2019

with BMP-3 APCs. The Navy has also supported Emirati operations in Yemen, maintaining a blockade of the Houthi north, providing logistics support for Emirati forces in country, and sometimes providing fire support. The Al-Qasnah, one of the UAE's two Frankenthal-class landing ships was attacked in Al-Mukha harbour in July 2017, probably using a remotely controlled boat bomb, leaving it partially submerged. Another Emirati vessel was reportedly sunk by a Houthi missile in June 2018.

The UAE Navy has also deployed ships off the coast of Somalia in an effort to counter piracy, as part of international anti-piracy operations. Its most high profile procurements, including the Fincantieri Abu Dhabi-class corvette, six Baynunahclass corvettes (five of which were constructed locally) and the two DCNS Gowind corvettes ordered in November 2017, reflect a continuing focus on conventional rather than asymmetric naval threats, however.

The United Arab Emirates Coast Guard is now an independent military service and is primarily responsible for the protection of the UAE's coastline and for protecting Emirati territorial waters and offshore economic interests, including border control and anti-smuggling operations.

Supporting allies The UAE has frequently cascaded surplus military equipment to other nations – particularly those in the frontline of the war against Daesh and other Islamist groups.

Thus the UAE transferred Eurocopter Fennecs to Kenya to help in the fight against Al Shabaab, and passed on early Thrushbased Iomax BPAs to Jordan and Egypt.

But the UAE has also purchased equipment with the specific intention of transferring it to allies. The UAE re-exported Swiss–supplied hand grenades to Jordan in 2003 and 2004, and Bulgarian Arsenal selfloading assault rifles to Libyan, Yemeni and Sudanese forces.

The UN reported that the United Arabs Emirates had purchased 800,000 rounds of ammunition from Albania in September 2011, but that it shipped these directly to Libya. More recently, the UAE acquired four Mil Mi-24P helicopter gunships from Belarus and had immediately transferred these to the Libyan National Army in April 2015, in another violation of the UN arms embargo that was imposed under UNSC resolution 1973.

ARMADA COMMENTARY

GLOBAL DEFENCE NEEDS MAY HELP US ARMY MODERNISATION Andrew Hunter

T

he US Army is preparing to undertake a substantial reordering of its modernisation programmes so that it can catch up with a changing global security environment. Interesting on its own merits, this shift also has the fascinating potential to reshape the global defence market. While the rhetoric of change has been prevalent in the Army for several years, there was room to wonder just how real this talk was because its spending continued to flow to the same programmes.

In its 2020 budget request however, the Army is reshaping its plans by cancelling 88 modernisation programmes and delaying or deferring over 100 others. Army leadership is marshalling the resources saved through these changes to make a sizeable push for its six major modernisation priorities: long-range precision fires; a next generation combat vehicle; future vertical lift; a mobile, expeditionary network; air and missile defence; and soldier lethality. The Army developed these priorities after taking a hard look at the advances in military equipment being made by peer competitors such as Russia and China and after acknowledging that its current vision didn’t put the Army on an effective path to compete. The start of the process was marked by a dramatic reorganisation of its modernisation efforts through the creation of Army Futures Command. Its next step is to use the new structure to execute a major shift in its programmes.

It is far from the first time the Army has undertaken a substantial reordering of its acquisition programmes. The last two times this occurred was in the initial stand-up and eventual collapse of the Future Combat System (FCS). When FCS was initiated, then too the Army cancelled or rolled up a long list of programmes into its overarching vision for the transformation of future combat. Some of these efforts were salvaged in the aftermath of FCS, carrying on as early-stage research, or finding a home in the rapid fielding done to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the failed legacy of FCS has haunted the Army ever since and will be very much on the mind of those

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reviewing the Army’s plans for 2020. Two considerations will be paramount. The first is how quickly the Army will deliver real capability to the field that can counter the missile, indirect fires, and electronic warfare threats potential adversaries are fielding today. The second is how committed the Army is to continuing pursuit of its modernisation priorities over time as budget growth slows and competition between modernisation, force structure, and readiness intensifies.

The potential key to answering both questions may be the extent to which the Army leverages the global defence market to accelerate and reinforce its modernisation. The legacy of the FCS collapse is that the Army has a paucity of advanced combat system designs that are ready to field. However, modernisation took a slower but steadier path in other countries, including most of the United States’ major partners and allies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. They have advanced designs of both combat systems and subsystems that can be rapidly adapted to meet US needs. From indirect fires, to combat vehicles, to active protection and missile defence, much of the technology the Army needs is available in the global market. In turn, if the Army commits to buying or licensing these designs, while producing them in the United States, it will reshape large parts of the global market.

A buyer as big at the US Army will provide a substantial boost to the systems it decides to procure. And as multiple partners in Europe and Asia also increase their defence budgets, the US Army stands to benefit from buying systems in active development and production for multiple partner nations.

Ultimately, an ability to leverage the global market may present the Army’s best bet for sustaining its current modernisation priorities when future budgets begin to tighten. Even in areas where the US is likely to continue to lead into the next generation, like future vertical lift, international sales will be critical to achieving affordability. The next step to watch for then is whether Army leadership, particularly at the new Futures Command, embraces this global vision.

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