Handheld radios prior to a TSM waveform exercise in February 2020. (US Army)  The US Department of Defense (DoD) is launching a new development initiative geared towards improving waveform resiliency for its growing arsenal of software-defined radios (SDRs), according to a recent departmental solicitation to industry.  Led by the DoD's Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC) and managed by the US Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR), details of the waveform resiliency programme have largely been kept under wraps. However, detail...

The Microwave Imaging Curtain to detect concealed firearms using microwave technology was one of the Detection of Explosives and Firearms to Counter Terrorism (DEXTER) technologies demonstrated in the Rome Metro on 24 May under NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme. (Brooks Tigner)  One of NATO's flagship counter-terrorism research consortia has moved a step closer to market with a live demonstration of its capabilities. Once commercialised, the project's real-time threat detection systems could fan out to civil critical infrastructur...

Russia began a new offensive in southern Donbas on 19 May. (Janes)  Russia has begun a new offensive likely aimed at closing an encirclement around the city of Severodonetsk in western Luhansk. The city is currently Ukraine's most easterly position in the Donbas and is effectively surrounded on three sides by Russian forces. Its only supply lines to the rest of Ukraine are two roads: the T1302 in the south and the T0513 in the north. The unfolding Russian offensive is likely aimed at securing these roads – Russian forces captured a portion of...

PGZ has been awarded a contract by an unnamed East African country for Grot rifles chambered in 7.62×39 mm. (Jakub Link-Lenczowski)  Polish Armaments Group (Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa: PGZ) announced in a press release on 19 May that it had been awarded a contract by an East African country for Grot rifles chambered in 7.62×39 mm. The company would not disclose the customer‘s name and the contract value.    The firearms, manufactured by PGZ subsidiary Fabryka Broni (FB) 'Łucznik' Radom, will be delivered with under-barrel grenade launchers...

A DARPA schematic on how the MINC programme would improve on combat data management systems (DARPA)  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has begun prototype development of a new system to automate data flow and dissemination of combat information across myriad service-centric networks, regardless of domain.  The goal of the Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) programme is to move US armed forces away from static or manually controlled battlefield data networks into ones that are managed according to the needs of a giv...

BAE Robotic Technology Demonstrator at EDGE22. (BAE Systems)  BAE Systems has exhibited a Robotic Technology Demonstrator (RTD) built on the lower hull of the M113 armoured fighting vehicle as part of its bid to develop a vehicle that meets US Army requirements for the Robotic Combat Vehicle-Medium (RCV-M).  The vehicle was demonstrated on 19 May at the Experimental Demonstration Gateway Exercise 2022 (EDGE22), an exercise held in preparation for Project Convergence 2022, the US Army's yearly warfighting and integration experiment.    BA...

Germany will supply Leopard 2A4 tanks to the Czech Republic. (Bundeswehr/Detmar Modes)  Germany will supply Leopard 2A4 tanks to the Czech Republic, the two countries' ministries of defence (MoDs) announced on 18 May. The German MoD, in a press release, described the donation as backfill in support of the Czech Republic supplying heavy equipment to Ukraine.  However, the Czech MoD told Janes on 23 May, “The German decision to provide 15 tanks is a sign of appreciation to all the efforts of the Czech Republic to provide as much military equipm...

Mock-ups of the AT4CS AST (top), AT4CS HE (middle), and AT4CS ER (bottom). (Amael Kotlarski)  A representative of Saab Dynamics briefed Janes on its upcoming developments for its shoulder-launched recoilless weapons, revealing details of the HE 448 round that is specifically designed to work in conjunction with the Carl Gustaf M4.  The projectile's warhead consists of a high-explosive (HE) fill and a liner containing 4,000 tungsten balls, each 2 mm in diameter, to defeat body armour. It has a modular fuze capable of both impact and airburst d...

A US Air Force Special Operations Weather Technician sends intelligence to the Reconnaissance Operations Center during the Marine's Reconnaissance Team Leader Course's final exercise on 31 October 2017. SOCOM is soliciting industry proposals to improve its Global Analytics Platform to process, exploit, and disseminate battlefield intelligence. (US Department of Defense )  US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is exploring a new edge networking concept, focused on operationalising chat and data-sharing environments patterned closely after c...

The Combat Net Radio is expected to replace the L3Harris-built RT 1523 SINCGARS VHF radio. (ITT Corporation)  Thales USA has secured a multibillion-dollar procurement deal to provide advanced tactical radios, under the US Army's Combat Net Radio (CNR) programme and is developing a manpackable communication solution to meet mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) requirements for US Special Operations Command (SOCOM).  Thales was awarded one of the two USD6 billion indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contracts to produce communication pl...

A 90th Guards Tank Division BMPT providing fire support to T-72 tanks during a March 2021 exercise in Russia's Central Military District. (Russian MoD)  Russia's RIA Novosti news agency on 18 May confirmed the deployment of the Boevaya Mashina Podderzhki Tankov (Tank Support Fighting Vehicle, BMPT) Terminator, three days after footage showing four of the vehicles accompanied by a couple of T-72 family main battle tanks (MBTs) purportedly taken in the Luhansk oblast in eastern Ukraine began circulating on Russian social media.  The BMPT is a h...

Slovenian Boxers will be based on the Lithuanian version (pictured), which is equipped with a Rafael Samson Mk II RWS. (Lithuanian MoD)  Slovenia, represented by the Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation (OCCAR), signed a contract with Rheinmetall-Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) consortium Artec to purchase 45 Boxer armoured vehicles in four variants worth a total of EUR281.5 million (USD296.3 million), the consortium and its two constituent companies announced in a joint press release on 17 May.  The Slovenian Ministry of Defence (MoD) or...

Artist's impression of the Rosomak 8×8 armoured vehicle fitted with a retractable Brimstone launcher presented by MBDA at MSPO 2020. (MBDA)  Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) and MBDA UK announced in a press release on 16 May that they had signed an agreement to co-operate on the design and production of tank destroyers armed with Brimstone anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs).  Under the agreement, which follows on from one signed in 2019 on co-operation between the two companies, PGZ and MBDA will integrate Brimstone into a Polish tank destroyer...

The US Navy expects to reach initial operational capability in 2022 with the Littoral Combat Ship countermine mission module, which will employ unmanned surface vessels like this prototype developed by Textron. (US Navy)  Despite the officially required US Navy (USN) notification on 13 May of significant cost growth for Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) Mission Module (MM) packages, programme officials say the work for remaining MMs is moving ahead as anticipated.  Navy spokesperson Captain Clayton Doss confirmed to Janes on 16 May that the USN no...

The Collins Aerospace NavHub-100 (part of its MAPS Gen II solution) installed in a vehicle. (Collins Aerospace)  The benefits of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are ubiquitous. They provide the positional information for navigation syste...

Radar operators have relocated to a specialised hub – TATCC, which will help to monitor critical data. (MoD Crown Copyright 2022)  As part of Project Marshall, radar operators at Royal Air Force (RAF) Waddington have relocated to a new specialist hub at RAF Coningsby, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 12 May.  This is the first of a series of transitions that will involve approach control room radar operatives, from multiple units, moving to a centralised Terminal Air Traffic Control Centre (TATCC), the announcement said....

Belgium is to acquire nine CAESAR NG SPHs under the expansion of the Capacité Motorisée (CaMo) programme with France. (DGMR)  Belgium is to acquire nine CAESAR NG (new generation) self-propelled howitzers (SPHs) under the expansion of the Capacité Motorisée (Motorised Capability, CaMo) programme with France, the ministries of defence (MoDs) of the two countries announced on 13 May. Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder and her French counterpart, Florence Parly, signed the CaMo 2 intergovernmental agreement on the EUR62 million (USD65 mi...

Silent Sentinel is to equip the British Army's Mission Master UGVs (pictured), as part of Spiral 3 of the RPV programme. (Rheinmetall)  Silent Sentinel has won a contract to supply its electro-optical systems for the British Army's Rheinmetall Canada Mission Master SP unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), the company announced on 16 May.  The contract is part of the British Army's Robotic Platoon Vehicle (RPV) programme, which seeks to determine the use cases and capability of unmanned vehicles in boosting the combat effectiveness and capabilities...

France's DGA ordered the last tranche of 9,600 Glock 17 Gen 5 FR semi-automatic pistols on 26 April. (DGA)  The Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA), the French defence procurement agency, has ordered 9,600 more Glock 17 pistols, French Ministry of Armed Forces spokesperson Hervé Grandjean told a press conference on 12 May. The order was placed on 26 April and is the last tranche of Glock 17 Gen 5 FR 9 mm semi-automatic pistols foreseen by France's Loi de Programmation Militaire 2019–25 military funding programme as part of efforts to moder...

Slovakia has held trials of the three contenders to replace its BMP IFVs: the Rheinmetall Landsysteme Lynx KF41F (left), the General Dynamics European Land Systems-Santa Bárbara Sistemas ASCOD (centre), and the BAE Systems Hägglunds CV90 (right). (Slovak MoD)  Slovakia has held trials of three contenders to replace its BMP infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on its website on 11 May. Competing at the Military Technical and Testing Institute (VTSÚ) in Záhorie were the Rheinmetall Landsysteme Lynx KF41F, t...