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...

Thales Australia employees conduct the final visual inspection of .50 calibre ball linked ammunition on the production line at Benalla. (Thales Australia)  The Australian government will invest AUD220 million (USD139.9 million) in state-owned munitions production factories in Mulwala in New South Wales and Benalla in Victoria, the Australian Department of Defence (DoD) said in a press release on 6 October.  According to the DoD, the investment will improve industrial capacity through infrastructure redevelopments at each site to meet future d...

Based at HMNB Clyde at Faslane, Scotland, the SMERAS trainer enables students to practice abandoning a submarine in a realistic training environment that simulates the expected conditions onboard a submarine in distress. (Royal Navy/Crown Copyright)  Capita-led consortium Team Fisher has taken over responsibility for the UK Royal Navy's (RN's) Submarine Escape, Rescue, Abandonment, and Survival (SMERAS) facility as part of a 12-year training contract it is delivering under Project Selborne.  Based at HMNB Clyde at Faslane, Scotland, the SMERA...

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS   Barry   is seen here launching a Tomahawk cruise missile. Japan is seeking to accelerate its acquisition of this capability.   (US Navy)  Japan is accelerating efforts to procure selected stand-off weapons, including the US-supplied Tomahawk cruise missile, amid deteriorating security conditions in the region.  The matter was announced by the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) on 5 October.  “The Ministry of Defense and the [Japan] Self-Defense Forces will str...

A computer-generated image of the final configuration of the Polish Navy's first Miecznik frigate. (Babcock)  Thales UK has sealed a contract with Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) to supply and integrate the core combat suite for Poland's Miecznik (Swordfish) frigate programme.  Signed on 4 October, the EUR400 million (USD419 million)-plus contract – being primed through the company's Above Water Systems business line – covers the supply of the TACTICOS combat management system (CMS) above-water sensors and fire control, and an anti-submarine s...

SurveilSPIRE provides perimeter surveillance for military installations, reconnaissance operations, and/or for high-value target search. (DefSecIntel)  Ukraine will receive an additional batch of automated reconnaissance systems from Rheinmetall, funded by the German government.  Deliveries are under way for the trailer-based reconnaissance system, SurveilSPIRE, as part of a double-digit million-euro contract, Rheinmetall announced on 5 October.  Developed by Estonia-based DefSecIntel, SurveilSPIRE comprises mobile surveillance towers, equipp...

Kimon  , the first FDI frigate for the Hellenic Navy, was officially launched at Naval Group's Lorient shipyard on 4 October.   (Naval Group)  French shipbuilder Naval Group has officially launched the first Frégate de Défense et d'Intervention (FDI) multimission frigate on order for the Hellenic Navy (HN).  A formal launch ceremony for the future HS Kimon (F 601) was held at Naval Group's shipyard in Lorient, France, on 4 October following the ship's technical launch the previous week. Kimon was laid down in October 2022 and f...

Jacques Chevallier   has an overall length of 194 m, a full load displacement of 31,000 tonnes, and can carry up to 10,800 tonnes of fuel for ships and aircraft and 1,500 tonnes of solid cargo.  (Guy Toremans)  Following the completion of a three-week operational sea training period, the first of the French Navy's four new fleet replenishment ships (Batiment Ravitailleur de Forces: BRF), Jacques Chevallier, departed Toulon naval base on 27 September to begin its four-month maiden operational deployment.  A French Navy spokesperso...