February 2020 Global Defence & Security Industry - Military News

 
 
 
 
 

Media reports say Russia has overtaken the United States in hypersonic weapons. American officials say the same. Does it mean the Americans admit the defeat in the hypersonic race? The Vzglyad business newspaper writes about the Russian breakthrough and efforts of the Pentagon in the sphere.

Ambassadors of all 29 NATO Allies met in the North Atlantic Council on Friday, February 28, 2020, following a request by Turkey to hold consultations under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty on the situation in Syria. Under article 4 of the Treaty, any Ally can request consultations whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.

According to the Chinese news website sina.com, after several attacks of Israel with air-to-ground missiles and some failed results with Russian S-300 and Pantsir-S1 against air threats, Syria could use Chinese-made FD-2000, an export version of the HQ-9 advanced long-range air defense missile weapon system.

Finnish Company Patria and SIA Unitruck of Latvia have established a jointly owned company in Latvia. The new company, SIA Defence Partnership Latvia, owned by Patria 70% and Unitruck 30%, will provide maintenance, repair, overhaul, system integration services and logistical operations to the Latvian National Armed Forces. The new company is located in Cesis. The parties acknowledge that SIA Defence Partnership Latvia could become part of the Latvian defence's mobilisation organisation and to support the ongoing planning and build-up of Latvia's comprehensive defence.

Rheinmetall is pleased to announce the launch of its first Australian research and technology program. Under the Autonomous Combat Warrior (ACW) program, Rheinmetall’s Australian, German and Canadian development teams will work alongside research teams from Defence Science and Technology (DST) group, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

In the frame of the contract recently awarded by the U.S. Marine Corps to the company, BAE Systems, along with teammate Iveco Defence Vehicles, will deliver an additional 26 Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV) under the Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) phase of the program. This award brings the total vehicle orders for the ACV to 116, and moves the program closer to full-rate production.

On January 25 2020, Army Recognition editorial team participated in Arquus press conference held in Paris. For this occasion, the armored vehicle manufacturer, Arquus (a subsidiary of Volvo Group) came back on its results for the year 2019 and presented the opportunities for the company's future.

Ukraine and Poland will collaborate to develop and manufacture in Poland the Ukrainian-made ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile) called Pirat. According to news released by a Ukrainian defense magazine, the Polish Company Mesko, a producer of ammunition, anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft missiles based in Poland.

The EU’s defence tools - Capability Development Plan (CDP), Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), European Defence Fund (EDF) - will only have the desired effect on enhancing the coherence of Europe’s defence landscape and boosting European defence cooperation if they are fully embedded and used by Member States in their national defence planning. This was the core message conveyed today in Brussels at a seminar co-organised by EDA and the Croatian EU Presidency..

Mack Defense has selected XMCO Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koniag Government Services (KGS), as the Integrated Product Support (IPS) partner for the U.S. Army M917A3 Heavy Dump Truck (HDT) contract. In this capacity, XMCO is responsible for the preparation of all IPS deliverables required to support testing and full materiel release of the system to the U.S. Army.

The Romanian Defense Staff will continue to speed up the process of strengthening the operational capacity of the army to ensure that missions are carried out in accordance with the country’s internal missions and its NATO partners, Chief of Defense Staff Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu said on Feb.19.

Songar, the first national armed drone system to be developed by ASİSGUARD, has been delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) after the successful completion of acceptance tests. Equipped with advanced features, Songar will undertake critical tasks in operations conducted by both TAF and the security forces.

Some U.S. forces stationed in Europe will head north March 2, 2020, to participate in Cold Response 2020, a biennial exercise hosted by Norway focusing mostly on operations at the tactical level in cold-weather environments. Norway is a leading nation in NATO when it comes to cold weather operations, and has extensive experience in this field. It is therefore natural that Norway is hosting winter exercises such as Cold Response.

FN America LLC, Columbia, South Carolina, was awarded a $119,216,309 firm-fixed-price contract for the M4/M4A1 carbines. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 30, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (W15QKN-20-D-0006).

In March 2019, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc., Christiana, Tennessee, was awarded an estimated $49,936,300, five-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for the purchase of advanced sniper rifles in support of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). It would replace existing SOCOM sniper rifles. The Advanced Sniper Rifle program asked industry to give the military a bolt-action sniper rifle that could be chambered in .338 Norma Magnum, .300 NM and 7.62mm NATO, with a platform for engagements beyond 1,500 meters. The rounds give shooters different mission options, from anti-materiel to anti-personnel.

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