19 August 2021
by Ashley Roque
The US Marine Corps (USMC) is inching closer to fielding a mobile, anti-ship weapon system ideal for the Indo-Pacific region and recently test-fired two missiles that hit a sea-based target, the service announced on 17 August.
As part of the Large-Scale Exercise 21 scenario, the service used its new Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) on 15 August to validate some of its operating concepts including deploying it from a C-130 Hercules and a Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC).
“During the exercise, forward-deployed forces on expeditionary advanced bases detected and, after joint command-and-control collaboration with other US forces, responded to a ship-based adversary,” the USMC wrote. “Simultaneous impacts from multiple, dispersed weapons systems and platforms across different US services, including NMESIS, engaged the threat.”
Since NMESIS is still under development, the service said that engineers managed the weapon's fire-control system during the event but noted that marines were able to practice manoeuvring the system.
26 April 2024
by Olivia Savage
UK company Spaceflux has been contracted to develop and operate a ground-based SDA sensor as part of Project Nyx Alpha to monitor objects in GEO for UK Space Command. (Spaceflux)
The UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is conducting three technology demonstrator programmes to explore the utility of novel space domain awareness (SDA) technologies.
The first programme is exploring the development of a Deep Space Radar (DSR) designed to monitor and protect geostationary orbit (GEO) assets such as the Skynet satellite communications system, William Feline, senior principal advisor for SDA at the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), said at the Military Space Situational Awareness Conference 2024, held in London from 22 to 24 April.
The purpose of the programme is also to assess whether the UK needs its own DSR capability or whether it can rely on or complement the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) currently being developed alongside Australia and the US, Emma Kerr, senior principal engineer for SDA at Dstl told Janes .
A monostatic or biostatic system is being considered as well as whether a new or existing system is required, Feline said.
26 April 2024
by Carlo Munoz
An artist's concept of how Lockheed Martin's LRDR would detect ballistic missile launches from Asia. The radar completed preliminary design review in March and will go through critical design review in September 2027. (Lockheed Martin)
The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and its industry counterparts at Lockheed Martin are preparing for the ‘final transition' of the long-awaited Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) to the US armed forces in the Indo-Pacific region.
LRDR programme officials officially transitioned control of the S-band missile defence radar to the MDA on 23 April, according to a company statement. The handover of the system, currently stationed at Clear Space Force Station in Alaska, will allow agency officials to finalise the Operational Capability Baseline (OCB) milestone, which is the final stage before the LRDR is handed over to US Space Force (USSF) units. “Prior to this transition, the system has started space domain awareness data collects” for USSF units, the 23 April statement said.
26 April 2024
by Zach Rosenberg
A Kodiak-based MH-65 trains aboard the USCGC Healy in 2022. (Janes/Michael Fabey)
The last US Coast Guard (USCG) Airbus MH-65 Dolphin in Alaska retired from Air Station Kodiak on 23 April, ending the type's 36-year employment in the service's Alaska Patrol (ALPAT) role.
“For decades, the cutter and helicopter team were the core of the ALPAT mission,” said Commander James Kenshalo, a USCG MH-65 Dolphin pilot. “Together they projected force and protection to the most extreme remote regions of our nation's territories, operating beyond where help could reach.”
Air Station Kodiak operates six Sikorsky MH-60Ts and is scheduled to receive three more in 2025. The service intends to standardise its full rescue helicopter fleet on the MH-60T, which has a longer range, greater payload capacity, and commonality with other armed service fleets. Alaska is among the first regions to complete the transition because of the long ranges required to perform rescue and security missions in the region.
The US Marine Corps (USMC) is inching closer to fielding a mobile, anti-ship weapon system ideal for...
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