The Luftwaffe intends to equip all its Eurofighter combat aircraft with the ECRS Mk 1 E-Scan radar. (Luftwaffe)

The German Luftwaffe will equip its entire fleet of Eurofighter combat aircraft with electronically scanned (E-Scan) radar sets, the government disclosed on 21 September.

Included in the Bundestag's Budget Committee approval list was the commitment to receive all newbuild Eurofighters with the European Common Radar System Mark 1 (ECRS Mk 1) E-Scan radar, and to retrofit the Luftwaffe's existing fleet of aircraft with Captor-M mechanically scanned (M-Scan) radars.

“All [Luftwaffe] Eurofighters will be equipped with a modern E-Scan radar,” the Bundeswehr said. “Newly ordered fighter jets will be delivered directly with the E-Scan radar, as 38 Eurofighters will arrive in the force from 2025. The remaining machines will have their radars retrofitted in the following years.”

Under the terms of the committee's approval, EUR197.7 million (USD210.4 million) has been earmarked for the development, procurement, and retrofitting of the ECRS Mk 1 over the term of the upcoming budget cycle. More funding will need to be made available for its completion.

A Republic of Singapore Air Force Heron 1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), seen here at Paya Lebar Air Base in September 2023. The Singapore Armed Forces' upgraded command and control information system is able to automatically detect and classify objects of interest in real-time video feeds provided by the UAV. (Janes/Ridzwan Rahmat)

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is validating an upgraded command and control information system (CCIS) that seeks to improve the efficiency of its strike missions.

This new capability is being proven at Exercise ‘Forging Sabre' 2023, which is taking place from 11 to 30 September at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, US.

The CCIS is an indigenous system developed by the SAF in collaboration with the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA). It was first deployed in the command post at the 2021 iteration of Exercise ‘Forging Sabre' and incorporates features such as weapon-to-target matching algorithms.

The Skywiper EDM4S C-UAS handheld jammer, displayed at DSEI 2023 in London, is widely used by the Ukrainian army. Its dimensions are 1,045 (L) × 350 (H) × 250 (W) mm. (Janes/Olivia Savage)

“Thousands” of Lithuanian counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UASs) are operational with the Ukrainian army, Ivan Sybyriakov, manager of the unmanned systems centre at Ukrainian state-owned SpetsTechnoExport (STE), told Janes .

The C-UAS solutions in question are the Skywiper Electronic Drone Mitigation 4 - System (EDM4S) and the Skywiper Omni, developed by Lithuanian company NT Service.

The Skywiper EDM4S solution, which disrupts the UAS's control, video, and global navigation satellite services (GNSS) signals, is considered by the user to be the “best option for the regular soldier” because of its long-range (3–5 km line-of-sight) and relatively light weight (6.5 kg), he said.

He added that price was also an important consideration.

The system can operate for up to 1 hour and disrupts UASs operating on 900 MHz, 2.4 and 5.8 GHz, as well as GNSS L1 1.5 GHz frequency bands. Other custom frequencies can be added depending on the customer and local regulation rules, Sybyriakov said.