ACV is an eight-wheeled armoured personnel carrier designed to fully replace the USMC's ageing fleet of Amphibious Assault Vehicles. The USMC budget request includes a boost for ACV procurement in FY 2024. (USMC)

The US Marine Corps (USMC) is asking for USD705 million more in discretionary spending for its Force Design 2030 priorities in fiscal year (FY) 2024 than enacted in FY 2023, according to budget documents.

The USMC topline request for the modernisation experimentation campaign, which calls for a more agile force, was USD17.1 billion in FY 2023 and could be bumped up to USD17.8 billion for FY 2024, according to documents released on 13 March. The additional funding would go toward programmes the service has already invested in, USMC Commandant General David Berger said on 16 March.

While Force Design is a campaign of modernisation and experimentation, the plan also laid out guidelines for divesting from less mobile, expeditionary capabilities, such as main battle tanks (MBTs). Gen Berger said the time for divesting is over.

Industrial arrangements and funding agreements on the Global Combat Aircraft Programme are expected to be finalised before the start of full development in 2025. (Janes/Jon Grevatt)

Industrial partners on the Global Combat Aircraft Programme (GCAP) are ramping up co-operation on the project to support the start of full development from 2025.

The schedule coincides with a new financing model planned for the programme, under which partner governments will agree to share funding responsibilities.

Companies from the three GCAP partner countries – Japan, the UK, and Italy – highlighted their collaborative intentions at the DSEI Japan 2023 exhibition in Chiba. The event is the first at which the companies have been able to show a joint GCAP presence.

GCAP was announced in December 2022, merging the UK-Italy Tempest programme – the core of the UK's Future Combat Air System (FCAS) technology initiative – and Japan's F-X fighter programme. GCAP aims to deliver to the partner countries a sixth-generation combat aviation capability by 2035.

John Stocker, the BAE Systems business development director for FCAS, told Janes at DSEI Japan 2023 that the event represents a marker for the companies involved in the programme.

KHI displayed its new high-energy laser C-UAS, mounted on a Mule Pro-FX ground vehicle, at the DSEI Japan 2023 show. (Janes/Oishee Majumdar)

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) displayed a prototype of a high-energy laser system it has developed to counter hostile unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at the DSEI Japan 2023 show being held in Chiba from 15 to 17 March.

Speaking to Janes at the show, company officials said that KHI has delivered one prototype of this laser energy-based counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) to the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) in February.

“The prototype delivered to the MoD has a 100 kW laser power,” the officials added.

The prototype displayed by KHI at the DSEI Japan 2023 show has a 2 kW laser power. The officials said that the laser in this prototype can eliminate UAV targets up to a range of 100 m.

The C-UAS system also includes a laser rangefinder and an infrared (IR) thermal imaging camera that can track UAVs up to a range of 300 m, the officials added.

The prototype delivered to the MoD has longer ranges than the one displayed at the show, the officials said.