The interior of the IBCS Interactive Collaborative Environment. (Northrop Grumman)  The US Department of Defense (DOD) has officially given the US Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) the green light to enter into full-rate production, allowing army personnel to begin planning for eventual deployments of the advanced command-and-control (C2) capability.  The full-rate production approval decision comes months after the system cleared the Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) milestone in late 2022,...

A Multi-INT Special Mission aircraft, based on the Bombardier Global 6500 business jet, developed for South Korea by Raytheon. A similar variant could be used as part of the HADES prototype being sought by the US Army. (Raytheon)  The US Army's aviation directorate is soliciting industry input for prototype development of a new airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) system to support long-range precision fires operations and close “deep-sensing gaps” in the army's ISR portfolio, according to a recent service announcemen...

Air Force Research Laboratory's AgilePod mounted on the wing on the Scorpion Light Attack/ISR jet. The USAF is looking to develop smaller, lower-SWaP sensors like AgilePod to augment the service's sensing grid concept. (Air Force Research Laboratory)  The US Air Force (USAF) is shifting focus from developing expensive, highly tailored intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, (ISR) sensor systems to ones that are comparatively lower cost with significant reductions in size, weight, and power (SWaP) and increased interoperability with ot...

An EA-18G Growler from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23, located at NAS Patuxent River, conducts a flight test over southern Maryland. (US Navy)  The US Navy (USN) is moving ahead with the development of a new electronic attack (EA) capability to address shortfalls in fleet-wide requirements for airborne signal jamming operations across specific radio frequency (RF) bands.  Navy officials have selected CAES, a Northern Virginia-based company specialising in advanced RF technologies, to carry out the development work for the initial, pre-p...

Japan's new OSA scheme will provide funding for allied countries to procure defence equipment such as radars, transport aircraft, and surveillance ships. Pictured above is Japan's third Hibiki-class ocean surveillance ship on its commissioning in March 2021. (Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force)  Japan has said it will launch a new credit facility to support defence exports. The Official Security Assistance (OSA) scheme – the first of its kind in Japan – will be aligned with the country's national security interests, the Ministry of Foreign...

Four F-35Cs (F-35C / F-35) performed a flyby as they arrived at NAS Lemoore marking their historic arrival to join VFA-125 at the US Navy base. (Lockheed Martin)  BAE Systems has been awarded a USD491 million production deal to build the newest electronic warfare (EW) system variant for the F-35 Lighting II fighter, according to a company statement.  The Block 4 variant of the AN/ASQ-239 EW system for the F-35 “will include significantly upgraded hardware and software that improve sensing and signal-processing capabilities”, company officials...

The Orbiter 2 mini UAS in operation with the FDF will receive a mid-life upgrade, bolstering its performance. (Janes/Patrick Allen)  The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) Orbiter 2 mini unmanned aircraft system (UAS) will receive a mid-life upgrade following a contract signed between the authority and manufacturer Aeronautics.  According to an Aeronautics announcement on 3 April, the company will provide the FDF Orbiter 2 UAS with a comprehensive mid-life upgrade package that includes a full suite of sensors, avionics, and data-processing systems...

An assessment of Chinese air activity in Taiwan's ADIZ between 1 March 2022 and 27 March 2023 shows that the PLA began a sustained campaign of median line incursions from August. The data show that Chinese military aircraft are also involved in novel incursions into the ADIZ. (Taiwan MND/Japan MoD/Janes )  Flights by Chinese military aircraft into Taiwan's air-defence identification zone (ADIZ) are becoming increasingly complex and are showing a more diverse range of operations.  For years, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force (PL...

Actronika haptic feedback suit. (Janes/Amael Kotlarski)  French company Actronika unveiled a virtual tactical training system centred around a haptic feedback suit at the SOFINS 2023 defence exhibition held near Bordeaux, France.  Adapted from Skinetic, the company's flagship product designed primarily to support virtual reality (VR) gaming, the new prototype suit was reworked to fit underneath a plate carrier. This is to enable users to train with a real-world equipment loadout. The outer shell of the suit is lined with haptic actuators, ena...

Raytheon is set to conduct more testing on its SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) installed on the guided missile destroyer   Jack Lucas  .  (HII)    Raytheon is set to conduct more testing on its SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) installed on the guided-missile destroyer    USS   Jack Lucas  (DDG 125), according to Mike Mills, Raytheon senior director of naval radars.     “We've successfully completed two underways on   Jack Lucas  ,” Mills not...

The radar modular assembly structure is the building block for SPY-6 radar scalability. (Raytheon)  Raytheon is working under a US Navy task order to analyse whether the service's future proposed guided-missile destroyer (DDG(X)) fleet should be outfitted with a radar that has 37 radar modular assemblies (RMAs) or 57 RMAs, said Mike Mills, Raytheon's senior director of naval radars.  Each RMA is a self-contained radar antenna in a 2×2×2 inch (5×5×5 cm) box, according to Raytheon. The RMAs stack together – are scaled – to fit the mission requi...

The recent navy contract provides for the first SPY-6(V)4 versions to be backfit on DDG 51 Flight IIA destroyers. (Raytheon)  The USD619 million contract awarded to Raytheon on 29 March to buy SPY-6 radar sets for the US Navy (USN) also provides for the first SPY-6(V)4 versions to be backfit on DDG 51 Flight IIAs, according to Mike Mills, senior director of naval radars, Raytheon.    “This starts getting your 24 RMA [radar modular assembly] configuration for BMD [ballistic missile defence] AMDR [air- and missile-defence radar],” Mills to...

With the new radar suite equipment installed on carrier   John F Kennedy  , Raytheon plans to bring the radar online later in 2023.  (Michael Fabey)  With all the hardware installed on aircraft carrier John F Kennedy  (CVN 79) for its SPY-6(V)3 radar suite in 2022, Raytheon is preparing to start bringing the radar online in the fourth quarter of 2023, Mike Mills, Raytheon senior director of naval radars, told   Janes  .   “We'll move into where we hand that system over to the testing team [and] they'll start testi...

The Satellite Control Network's largest remote tracking station, operated by the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, at New Boston Space Force Station, New Hampshire. DARPA's Overwatch programme will allow for active tracking of 1,000 targets from space. (US Space Force)  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a new satellite-based targeting software, capable of tracking upwards of 1,000 individual terrestrial targets simultaneously from space, once it is mature.  DARPA's Oversight project, as designed, “seeks softwar...

The new radar suite was installed on Richard M McCool Jr  in January 2023.  (US Navy)  The US Navy (USN) awarded a contract for the next landing platform dock (LPD) amphibious ships while onboard testing on the enhanced radar suite is scheduled for the second quarter of 2023.  The USN awarded HII's Ingalls Shipbuilding division a USD1.3 billion modification on 31 March to an earlier awarded contract for the procurement of the detail design and construction of amphibious transport dock LPD 32, the third Flight II LPD. The resulting fixed...

BEL said it will deliver 12 units of the Swathi weapon locating radar (pictured) to the Indian Army by 2025, under a INR9.91 billion contract. (BEL)  Indian public sector undertaking (PSU) Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has secured multiple contracts from the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) to supply systems related to communication, air defence, electronic warfare (EW), electronic support measures (ESM), and radars to all the three services of the armed forces.  BEL will supply three systems to the Indian Army, namely the Swathi weapon lo...

Bystra, fitted on an AMZ Kutno Żubr-P armoured vehicle, is a redeployable radar developed by PIT-RADWAR that is capable of detecting aerial threats, such as helicopters, missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles for V/SHORAD systems. (PIT-RADWAR)  The Polish Armament Agency has signed a PLN1.1 billion (USD255.4 million) agreement with the PGZ-Pilica+ consortium for the Bystra radar, the authority announced on 29 March.  In total, 22 Bystra radars, developed by PIT-RADWAR under the PGZ-Pilica+ consortium, will be delivered between 2026 and 2028,...

The first NATO DIANA regional headquarters was opened by NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană (left) and UK Minister for Defence Procurement Alex Chalk (right). The centre will bring together academia, industry, and government in a shared space along with the UK's Defence and Security Accelerator, defence contractors, and the US Department of Defense's Tri-Service Office. (Crown Copyright)  The first NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) office was formally opened in London on 30 March, the authority announ...

Thales XTRAIM weapon sight mounted on a Sig Sauer MCX Virtus .300 BLK rifle. (Janes/Amael Kotlarski)  Thales demonstrated a combination of its XTRAIM thermal weapon sight and Nellie night-vision goggles (NVGs) at the SOFINS 2023 defence exhibition, near Bordeaux, France.  The two systems were tested on a course replicating night type four and five environments, and the XTRAIM's fused mode was used to detect thermally active targets that would have been almost impossible to detect using an image intensified device alone.  Unveiled in 2021, t...

An artist's rendition of the Flight III DDG 51 shows the new AN/SPY-6(V) radar antenna array. (Huntington Ingalls Industries)  The US Navy (USN) awarded Raytheon Technologies a USD619 million contract to continue producing AN/SPY-6(V) radars, the company confirmed on 29 March, exercising the second option from the March 2022 hardware, production, and sustainment contract that is valued up to USD3 billion over five years.  The work is expected to be completed by September 2026, the Department of Defense (DoD) said. About USD470.6 million in fi...