A trial to standardise the assessment of C-UAS technologies was held in Belgium in October 2023. Pictured here are OpenWorks Vision Flex optical detection capability and the Iris system from Robin Radar. (Belgian Ministry of Defence/Gert-Jan D'Haene)  A trial to standardise the assessment of counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UASs) was held from 2 to 5 October at Lombardsijde barracks, Belgium.  Organised by the Belgium Royal Military Academy (KMS) and announced by the Belgian Ministry of Defence on 12 October, project Courageous aims to de...

The UK is providing Ukraine with the Terrahawk Paladin VSHORAD system to counter UASs. (MSI-DS/RMMV)    Air-defence equipment was among the kit Western countries pledged to supply Kyiv in the lead-up to and during the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting    held at NATO headquarters in Brussels on 11 October. It was the first UDCG meeting attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who spoke of his country's need for additional ground-based air-defence capabilities, as well as artillery platforms and munitions,...

Space is set to benefit in France's 2024 defence budget, with programmes such as Syracuse IV (pictured) and Syracuse V receiving funding. (Thales Alenia Space)  France has allocated over a billion euros towards the space, cyber, and robotics domain in 2024, according to the 2024 Projet de loi de finances (PLF) defence budget.  Published on 11 October, the PLF has earmarked EUR47.5 billion (USD50.2 billion) for defence spending in 2024, EUR3.3 billion more than the previous year. Investment will be channelled towards continuing to modernise th...

The UK is deploying a naval task group comprising RFA   Lyme Bay   (pictured), RFA   Argus  , three Merlin HC Mk4 helicopters, and a company of Royal Marines as well as surveillance aircraft to the Eastern Mediterranean in the coming days to support Israel, reinforce regional stability, and prevent escalation.  (Michael Nitz/Naval Press Service)  The UK government has announced plans to deploy a Royal Navy (RN) task force and surveillance aircraft to the Eastern Mediterranean as part of efforts to st...

Aluminium printed by the US Marine Depot Maintenance Command's Production Plant in Barstow, California. (US Marine Corps)  The war in Ukraine is reshaping how the US Army is looking at logistics and readiness as the service examines more opportunities to boost those operations through advanced manufacturing technologies and other innovations, according to Army Chief of Staff General Randy George.  The service established a Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team (CLCFT) earlier in 2023, Gen George noted on 10 October during the Association...

Moldova has acquired a GM 200 radar from Thales. The system operates in the 2–4 GHz frequency range and can detect threats up to 24,384 m (80,000 ft) in altitude. (Thales)  Moldova has acquired a new tactical air-defence radar from Thales following a meeting between the French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu and Moldovan Minister of Defense Anatolie Nosatîi.  The agreement is for a Ground Master (GM) 200 medium-range radar, the French Ministry of Armed Forces announced on 6 October. While at the event, Lecornu said he wanted t...

The US Army MSV(L) prototype was delivered in October 2022. (US Army)  As the US Army and US Marine Corps (USMC) plan for force distribution in more contested areas, they are examining more options for logistics, resupply, and troop movements – including new medium-sized manned craft as well as unmanned surface vehicles (USVs)  In addition to the army and USMC seeking more ways to move people and materiel from ship to shore, shipbuilders are working to develop designs for new platforms to make those transits.  Army planners with the service's...

The future of US homeland defence likely includes a need to protect the army's ability to deploy from domestic bases. (376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs/Staff Sgt Stacy Jonsgaard)  US Army North is examining the impact of emerging technologies on homeland defence through to 2040, with implications for how the ground service would project power in the event of a conflict with near-peer competitors such as Russia or China.  The Future of Homeland Defense project grew out of several years of work that informally began during the US gov...

Finnish Navy's mine-countermeasures vessel   Purunpää  is pictured near the location of the damaged Balticconnector gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland.  (Finnish Defence Forces)  Finland's Central Criminal Police (CKP) has launched a preliminary investigation into “possible intentional damage” to the Balticconnector undersea gas pipeline and telecommunications cable that connects Finland and Estonia.  Finnish authorities confirmed on 10 October that a sudden drop in pressure in the pipeline that occurred during...

The torpedo launching system on BRP   Antonio Luna  . The ship deployed a torpedo as part of Exercise ‘Sama Sama' 2023 with the US Navy on 10 October.  (Janes/Vinod Kumar CV)  The Philippine and US navies have increased the complexity of an annual bilateral exercise by including an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) serial in the drills.  The shore phase of the drills, known as Exercise ‘Sama Sama' 2023, is being conducted off the coast of Manila from 8 to 13 October.  As part of the ASW serial on 10 October, the US Nav...

A screengrab of a video posted in October by the Special Operations Forces (SOF) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shows the destroyed Russian R-330ZH Zhitel Automated Jamming Station. (Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine)  A Russian R-330ZH Zhitel Automated Jamming Station has been destroyed in the Zaporizhzhia region in Ukraine.  According to an announcement on 9 October by the Special Operations Forces (SOF) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the attack was “completed by artillerymen” and supported by its SOF units.  R-330Z...

RFA   Proteus  , the UK's first ship dedicated to underwater surveillance, entered service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary on 10 October.  (UK MoD/Crown Copyright)    The UK's first underwater surveillance ship, RFA  Proteus  , entered service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) during a ceremony held on the Thames in London on 10 October.   Proteus  (ex-MV   Topaz Tangaroa  ) is the first of two planned Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance (MROS) ships being acquired by the UK for und...

Eiva's containerised ROTV solution. (Eiva)  Danish offshore engineering and survey company Eiva has been contracted to supply a containerised Remotely Operated Towed Vehicle (ROTV) system for operation from the UK's new Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance (MROS) Seabed Warfare platform.  A contract between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) – through Navy Command Commercial – and Eiva worth GBP3.2 million (USD3.94 million) became effective on 24 August. The company will provide a ScanFish L ROTV solution, displaying data in NaviSuite software, for integ...

The MRSAM system (pictured above) can intercept multiple targets at ranges up to 70 km. (Israel Aerospace Industries)    The Indian Air Force (IAF) has deployed an air-defence system known as the medium-range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM) near India's northwestern borders with Pakistan, an IAF source told   Janes  on 9 October  .  The MRSAM – which is the domestic variant of the Israeli-developed Barak-8 SAM system – is deployed at Air Force Station (AFS) Adampur in Jalandhar district, Punjab, the source added.  AFS Adam...

The US Army Frank S Besson (LSV 1)-class logistics support vessel   Lt Gen William B Bunker  (LSV-4) approaches a slip at Waipio Point, Hawaii, on 3 June 2017.   (US DoD)  US Army planners with the service's newest cross-functional teams are considering the development of a new class of small, unmanned surface vessels (USVs) to handle resupply and logistics for US armed forces in the Indo-Pacific region.  US Army Colonel Shane Upton, director of the Contested Logistics Cross Functional Team (CLCFT) said service l...

BrahMos ER is an improved variant of baseline BrahMos (pictured above) taking part in India's Republic Day parade. The estimated range of the extended variant is 72% (between 450 and 500 km) more than the baseline version range of 290 km. (Indian Ministry of Defence)  The BrahMos Missile Regiment of the Indian Army has test-fired a land-attack version of extended range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile (BrahMos ER) from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on 10 October, an Indian Army official told Janes.  The official said the test was part of t...

The US 5th Fleet is continuing to integrate unmanned platforms in its naval operations. (US Naval Forces Central Command)  Naval forces in the Middle East region successfully further integrated unmanned platforms with traditionally crewed ships and aircraft in September to conduct enhanced maritime security operations in the waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula, the US 5th Fleet confirmed on 6 October.  The US 5th Fleet integrated seven task forces and 12 different unmanned platforms with manned ships for “manned-unmanned teaming” operati...

The MM40 Block 3c Exocet operational evaluation firing was performed from the frigate   Alsace  on 20 September.  (Marine Nationale)  The French Navy has completed an operational evaluation firing of the new Block 3c iteration of MBDA's MM40 Exocet surface-to-surface guided missile.  Undertaken from the Aquitaine-class multimission frigate Alsace in the Mediterranean in late September, the test was designed to prove the performance of the anti-ship missile, most notably the upgraded J-band active radar seeker int...

A quadcopter co-ordinating autonomously alongside a UGV in a de-mining exercise in Belgium in September 2023, supported by the European Defence Agency. (European Defence Agency)  A de-mining exercise involving an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and two unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) was held in Belgium in September to assess the application of artificial intelligence (AI) for improvised explosive device (IED) detection.  The exercise, supported by the European Defence Agency (EDA) and announced on 2 October, involved a quadcopter and two UGVs...

The Spanish Army operates Patriot air-defence systems acquired secondhand from Germany. (Spanish Army)  The US State Department notified Congress on 4 October of a possible US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Spain of Patriot Configuration-3+ modernised fire units for an estimated cost of USD2.8 billion, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced in a press release later the same day.  The agency said that the Spanish government had requested four Patriot Configuration-3+ modernised fire units consisting of 51 Patriot Advanced...