majalah militer

Warton, England – BAE Systems has been awarded two contracts worth £119 million by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to provide additional support to current in-service Tornado and Harrier aircraft under a strategy known as CAPS (Commodity Availability Procurement Strategy).

Under CAPS, the current Tornado aircraft availability contract (known as ATTAC) has been amended to include an availability service to support key primary warning and defensive protection equipment for both the Tornado GR4 and Harrier fleets. This first availability service contract, worth £103.5 million, will see BAE Systems assume responsibility for the provision of spares and repairs, and technical, software and test equipment support for a range of EW equipment.

A second contract, with a value of £15.5 million, is to provide wheel, tyre and brake service across the Nimrod MR2, Harrier, Hawk and VC10 fleets.

Steve Millward, Tornado & Harrier Managing Director for BAE Systems said: “Currently key commodity items such as the EW equipment and other multi-aircraft items such as wheels and brakes are managed by individual IPTs within the MOD. Under the CAPS strategy BAE Systems will take responsibility for improving the in-service availability of frontline aircraft to ensure they are available when and where they are needed

“The development of the CAPS strategy and subsequent award of this contract for Tornado and Harrier is proof that the continued partnership between BAE Systems and the MOD on current availability contracts is working well.”

Group Captain Chris Daykin, the MOD Director for the CAPS programme, said: “CAPS will optimise existing aircraft availability contracts by removing MOD dependencies, gaining better value for money and assuring operational outputs. This is the achievement of a major milestone, and the first contractual result for CAPS.”

BAE Systems and the MOD continue to further develop the strategy to cover other commodity items that will support in-service aircraft.(baesystems.com)

February 6, 2009, Omsk, Siberia -- Russia's Omsk engine design and production bureau has started large-scale production of engines for missiles deployed on the Iskander-M tactical missile systems, a senior company official said on Friday.

The Iskander-M system (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) is equipped with two solid-propellant single-stage 9M723K1 guided missiles with "quasi-ballistic" capability.

"The company has received a large defense ministry order to manufacture engines for Iskander-M systems. The first batch must be supplied by the end of February," said Valery Kovalchuk, the bureau's deputy general director.


Kovalchuk said that the company had all necessary design, testing and production assets to ensure full-cycle production of the engines, and the current order would keep the firm working at full capacity for the next five years.

The Iskander-M system has a range of 400 km (250 miles) and can reportedly carry conventional and nuclear warheads.

Russia is planning to equip at least five missile brigades with Iskander-M systems by 2016. So far, two missile battalions on combat duty in the North Caucasus military district have been fully equipped with Iskander-M, according to some military sources.

President Dmitry Medvedev threatened in November to retaliate over the U.S. missile shield plans in central Europe by deploying Iskander-M missiles in the country's westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania.

However, a high ranking Russian Defense Ministry source recently said that Russia had taken no practical measures to deploy the systems in Kaliningrad, and Russian officials have said they expect the new U.S. administration to change its stance on the deployment of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic. (RIA Novosti)

February 7, 2009, The Israel Air Force struck targets in southern Gaza on Friday a few hours after Palestinian militants fired two rockets from the coastal strip into Israel.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman confirmed the air strikes. The spokesman said the targets included four smuggling tunnels, as well as a weapons storage facility, which caused a series of secondary explosions to be heard in the area.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Palestinian witnesses said no one was wounded in the IAF strikes. The first of the rockets fired by Gaza militants Friday hit the Sha'ar Hanegev region, the IDF said. The attack caused no casualties or damage.

Three hours later, a rocket hit near the coastal city of Ashkelon. No casualties were reported in that attack either.

An IDF spokesman said the first rocket was fired from the northern Gazan town of Beit Lahiya.

On Thursday evening, IDF soldiers killed a Palestinian militant who approached the Gaza-Israel border and drew a grenade.

The grenade subsequently exploded as a result of the soldiers' gunfire, killing the militant. There were no casualties among the troops, who were from the Golani infantry brigade. The incident took place near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha.

The troops later searched the area from which the militant had come, Army Radio said, then returned to Israeli territory.


The incident came a few hours after senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad headed to Cairo to meet with Egyptian mediators over negotiations for a truce with Hamas in Gaza.

The cease-fire that ended Israel's 22-day offensive against Hamas in the coastal territory two weeks ago has been ruptured by intermittent fighting.

On Wednesday, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched a mortar shell at southern Israel, which exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council.

There were no casualties reported in the incident, which came a day after Gaza militants fired the first Grad rocket at Israel since the end of the IDF campaign in Gaza. (haaretz.com)

February 4, 2009, Orlando, Florida -- Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has received a $31.3 million contract modification to provide additional M299 Launchers and related equipment to the U.S. Army. The M299 is used aboard a variety of platforms to launch all variants of the HELLFIRE missile.

Under the modification to the $51.3 million Launcher Bridge 3 contract awarded in 2007, Lockheed Martin will supply an additional 298 M299 helicopter-mounted four-rail missile launchers, 134 launcher electronic assemblies (LEAs) and multiple spares. The original contract called for delivery of 430 launchers and 376 LEAs to U.S. and international forces, and it also included multiple spares, engineering services and depot support.

Deliveries under the original Bridge 3 contract are currently underway. Lockheed Martin is increasing the rate of production to accommodate the additional launchers, LEAs and spares. With the additional orders, deliveries are scheduled to be completed in 2011.

“The M299’s versatility supports multiple missions in a single sortie by any of several platforms,” said Ken Musculus, program director for Air-to-Ground Missile Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “Both the M299 and its modernized lightweight successor will accommodate the new JAGM [Joint Air-to-Ground Missile]. This will ensure seamless integration of JAGM into the tri-services arsenal.”

Lockheed Martin produces the electronics for the M299 launcher at its facility in Ocala, FL. Marvin Engineering in Inglewood, CA, performs final assembly and test. This contract update will extend M299 production activity in Ocala and Inglewood until 2011.

The all-digital M299 “smart” launcher supports HELLFIRE II or LONGBOW HELLFIRE missiles. Its ability to fire multiple missile variants in any sequence provides maximum operational flexibility on the battlefield. The M299 is integrated on the AH 64D Apache LONGBOW, AH-1Z Cobra, Eurocopter Tiger, SH-60-B Seahawk and UK AH MK1 Apache helicopters.

More than 2,000 M299 launchers have been produced for the U.S. Armed Forces as well as international forces equipped with HELLFIRE weapon systems.

Lockheed Martin was awarded a $30 million contract last year to lead the U.S. Army’s modernization of the M299 launcher family. Building on experience gained on producing and supporting the fielded and combat-proven M299, this next-generation lightweight launcher will carry HELLFIRE II and JAGM on attack and reconnaissance helicopters, with a growth path for the DAGR™ system and other manned and unmanned platforms. The modernized M299 launcher production is scheduled to begin in 2011. (lockheedmartin.com)