Indonesia ordered first batch of FNSS Kaplan Medium Tanks

via Army Recognition.

On April 12, 2019, Indonesian Defense Minister Ramisard Ryakuda signed a large package of contracts with enterprises of the Indonesian defense industry in Bandung, the most significant of which was the order for the Indonesian shipbuilding association PT PAL to build three more diesel-electric submarines in cooperation with South Korean corporation Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME). Another significant contract was the order for the Indonesian state defense industry association PT Pindad to build the first batch of the Harimau ("Tiger") serial Turkish-Indonesian production for the Indonesian army.

The cost of the contract for the Harimau tanks was $ 135 million. The number of vehicles ordered was not officially disclosed, but, according to the head of the defense division PT Pindad Vijayanto, is 18-20 tanks (the final number must also be determined depending on the cost of equipment). PT Pindad of the Indonesian Army should be supplied within three years.

Story here. 

I'm very interested in both the vehicle and the price point.  Additionally I look forward to watching how Indonesia decides to employ it.

This definitely bears watching.

I wonder though.  At what price will it come in at?  Will it truly be more economical than a full on MBT?  If they don't crush it on price then it would seem (from my chair) that a refurbished Leopard, Abrams or LeClerc, not to mention the various Russian or Chinese options might be more attractive.

Of course that assumes that this isn't a "jobs" and "technology" ploy by PT Pindad to gain from the transfer of knowledge and the govt seeking to employ its own citizens in building its home defense industry.

Defense procurement is a tough line to walk!

 

Open Comment Post. 15 April 2019

Balikatan 2019: U.S. and Philippine Marines conduct amphibious landing exercise.....pics by Lance Cpl. Isaiah Campbell

Germany sees 8.86 billion euro cost to operate Tornado jets to 2030

via Reuters.

The German Defence Ministry estimates it will cost nearly 9 billion euros to keep its aging fleet of 93 Tornado fighter jets flying until 2030, according to a classified document provided to German lawmakers this week.


The steep cost forecast includes 5.64 billion euros to maintain the warplanes, which first entered service in 1983, 1.62 billion euros to design replacements for obsolete parts, and 1.58 billion euros to procure them, according to the document, which was viewed by Reuters.

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Parliamentary sources said the estimate was even higher than expected at around 100 million euros per plane, and it would be cheaper to purchase new aircraft.


However Germany's sluggish defense procurement process, and the complicated process of certifying new aircraft to carry nuclear weapons, meant any new warplanes were unlikely to enter service until 2025 or even later.


Of Germany's 93 Tornado jets, 85 are operated by the Luftwaffe, or air force, but not all are equipped to carry nuclear weapons. The remaining planes are used for training. 

Story here. 

Just wow.  Just plain wow.

German procurement makes everyone in NATO smile.  They're more jacked up than anyone else and whenever someone is feeling down they can always point to the Germans and say but "at least we're not that bad!"

Seriously though.

The Typhoon isn't certified for nukes?  If not why not?  This seems like a relatively simple problem to solve.  Certify the Typhoon and buy more.  Bite the bullet and buy French or German...OR accelerate development of the next gen plane.

I'm betting that's what they're thinking......accelerate the next gen plane and milk these birds till they're just gristle...

Bushmaster 50mm Cannon going on the US Army's Next Generation Combat Vehicle...

Thanks to PitchBlackUniverse for the pic!

The poster says it has three times the range and eight times the lethality of the 25mm on the Bradley IFV.

It goes on to say that it shoots 200 shots per minute.

The Army is stepping up its armor game in a big way.

They will at least match threat weapons for the foreseeable future if this goes into production.

China will copy it...that's the reality.  Whether through theft, buying it from a traitor in our midst or a traitor from one of our allies they'll get the plans.  But they'll be playing catch up.

That's fine by me.  That's where they should be...struggling to keep pace.

F-35 News. CSBA recommends more B-21s, cuts to F-35 to prepare for the fight against China!

via National Interest.

The report recommends the Air Force double down on stealthy, long-range aircraft and cut back on non-stealthy, short-range planes, while also growing the drone fleet at the expense of big, old, manned surveillance planes.

The CSBA report overlaps with the Air Force's own 2018 proposal to grow the force from 312 to 386 operational squadrons in order to meet "the reemergence of long-term, strategic competition with China and Russia."

"The Air Force’s imperative is to compete, deter and win this competition by fielding a force that is lethal, resilient, rapidly adapting and integrates seamlessly with the joint force, allies and partners," the flying branch stated.

But while the Air Force proposal and the CSBA report champion the same stealthy and long-range systems, the think tank recommends a much bigger overall fleet.

Where the Air Force wants to grow from nine bomber squadrons in 2019 to 14 by 2025, CSBA advised the flying branch to stand up an additional 10 bomber units for a total of 24.


The 24 bomber squadrons should operate 20 B-2 stealth bombers, 75 upgraded B-52s and a whopping 288 of the new B-21 stealth bomber. The Air Force currently plans to buy at least 100 B-21s.

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The Air Force proposed to grow from 55 fighter squadrons to 62 by 2025. CSBA also wants the flying branch to shoot for 62 fighter units, together operating 159 F-15Es, 572 F-16s, 186 F-22s, 908 F-35s and 282 copies of a new "Penetrating Counter-Air" fighter.


The Air Force began studying the PCA plane in 2017 and has yet to formally define the type or put serious money into its development. The CSBA report urges the service to hurry up with the PCA at the expense of the current F-35, which is stealthy but lacks range.


The Air Force wants more than 1,700 F-35s, but CSBA appears to be happy with just over half that number.

Story here. 

This is interesting.

The cold reality?

The USAF is not equipped to fight a war in the Pacific.  For a European campaign or wars in the desert?  They're fine.

But they need a totally different mix of aircraft to fight over the vast distances of the Pacific region.

The good news?

You build a fleet that can fight there, then that same fleet can fight anywhere.

The bad news?

It don't work the other way around.

More bad news for F-35 fanboys?

Even the think tank crowd is crystalizing around the fact that there will NOT be a full buy of F-35As.

Whether its F-15EXs or a future advanced fighter, the situation remains the same.

Someone, somewhere has crunched the numbers and the USAF won't be buying all 1763 programmed airplanes.....

Armor Porn. US Army Gunnery Training...

Open Comment Post. 14 April 2019

Germany to upgrade 100 Leopard 2A6 to A7 standard by 2026...

via Shepard Media.

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) has received a contract to modernise 101 German Leopard 2 A6 main battle tanks, the company announced on 5 April.

The contract, awarded by the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, is worth more than €300 million.

Under the contract, KMW will upgrade the vehicle’s operating concept, targeting system and fire control computer as well as the chassis to the Leopard 2 A7V configuration.

All vehicles will be re-delivered by 2026.

That's an awful long time to deliver a relatively small number of vehicles...

Aviation Porn. Rafale Marine Flotilla 11F above the coast of Brittany.... © Jonathan Bellenand / Navy / Defense

F-35 News....F-16's getting F-35 sensors and other updates to keep it in service till 2040!

Note.  This is more stunning than the F-15EX purchase we heard about recently.  The idea that the USAF is diverting funds not only toward new purchase F-15s but also doing this major upgrade to F-16s makes you wonder what's really going on with the F-35!  More clarity on the issue soon I hope.

via Warrior Maven.

The Air Force is giving its 1970s-era F-16 fighter F-35 technology as part of a massive fleet-wide overhaul intended to improve targeting, attack precision and computer systems -- to extend the fighter’s combat life all the way into the 2040s.

A fleet of F-16s are now getting new F-35 Active Electronically Scanned radar, and other upgrades including upper wing skin and fittings, upper and lower bulkhead, and canopy sill longeron. The effort, called a Service Life Extension Program, is already underway; Low Rate Initial Production started last year, according to Capt. Hope Cronin, Air Force spokeswoman.

Current Air Force F-16s have flown roughly 6-to-7 thousand flight hours, en route to the original plan to fly the planes out to 8,000 hours. Now, however, the Air Force plan is to fly the jets all the way out to 12,000 hours, given the extent of the combat upgrades.

The SLEP program consists of 12 structural modifications and an existing Time Compliance Technical Order. The Air Force is upgrading 372 F-16 aircraft from the existing mechanically scanned radar (APG-68) to an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) (APG-83), Cronin explained.

“This upgrade provides greater bandwidth, speed, & agility enabling F-16s to detect, track, & identify a greater number of targets, faster and at longer ranges,” she told Warrior Maven.

The new AESA radar can track up to 20-targets at one time, Randy Howard, Lockheed Martin F-16 Director of Strategy and Business Development, told Warrior Maven.

“The F-16 is a much more capable weapon due to the AESA radar. We are taking lessons learned from the F-35 and rolling them back into the F-16. The ASEA is able to see a wide area laterally, horizontally, diagonally and vertically,” he told Warrior Maven

Howard added that the upgraded F-16s are getting a modern, state of the art targeting system and sniper system along with clear graphics and video into the cockpit. “Pilots can see targets farther,” Howard said.

Alongside the Air Force SLEP, Lockheed Martin has also been building a new F-16v variant, which continues to inspire allied interest around the globe. The F-16v also uses new computers and software as well as a high-definition cockpit display. The “v” model also adds a new data bus, electronic warfare suite, missile warning sensor and helmet mounted cueing system.

The new F-16 also uses a high degree of increased on-board automation to free up pilot focus and workload. By automatically performing a range of important procedural functions independently, a pilot is then freed up to focus more intently on other mission critical tasks.

“Instead of being a display manager, the pilot is a tactician...his systems are making self-protection decisions for him faster, at the speed of a computer,” Howard said.

Part of the F-16 automation includes the use of a computerized Ground Collision Avoidance System, a technology which uses computer algorithms to autonomously re-route the plane in the event that a pilot is incapacitated. The computer system can, for instance, take over flight of the plane to avoid a collision with the ground, building or other structure. So far, Air Force and Lockheed officials report that the program has already saved seven lives and billions in aircraft costs.

Story here.

This is STUNNING NEWS!

Don't get me wrong, this is good news.  I've been calling for this very thing (others did before me....ELP, Peter, and others I can't remember) but to see actually being done is surprising...and thrilling.

What does this say about the F-35 program?

What aren't we being told?

I can't wait to find out!

First flight of the world's largest airplane....

WOW. First flight of the worlds largest airplane. History is made. @Stratolaunch @NASASpaceflight #stratolaunch pic.twitter.com/e7x0omxvVc

— Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer) April 13, 2019

Combat Assault Company conduct a long-range swim of approximately ten miles ... Video by Lance Cpl. Jacob Wilson

Aviation Porn. FC-1 prototype with two CM-400AKG standoff supersonic AShMs

Forget the platform and focus in on the payload!  This airplane is carrying two CM-400AKG standoff supersonic anti-ship missiles.  It's the export version of the Chinese YJ-12.  Check out the Wikipedia entry on it....

The CM-400AKG is an air-launched supersonic surface attack cruise missile, believed to be the export version of the YJ-12.[19] The 910 kg (2,000 lb) missile is 0.4 m (1.3 ft) in diameter and has a range of between 54–130 nmi (62–150 mi; 100–241 km) while carrying either a 150 kg (330 lb) blast or 200 kg (440 lb) penetration warhead. It has three guidance options, including inertial navigation system (INS) coupled with satellite positioning to get within 50 m, an onboard IR/TV seeker for terminal guidance and 5 m accuracy, and passive radar to supplement the seeker, which delivers (strangely worse) 5–10 m accuracy. One unusual characteristic is that it does not fly at low altitude to avoid detection, but rather uses “high altitude launching” to achieve “higher aircraft survivability.”[20] It may have a top speed of Mach 5.[21]

In the modern age the old adage of "killing the archer before he can launch his arrow" is definitely back in vogue.

Why we aren't embarking on a crack program to develop long range anti-air missiles is beyond me but even the best in class (in the West), the Meteor, isn't sufficient.

200 miles range should be threshold and 300 miles objective.  We need longer range missiles NOW!

Open Comment Post. 13 April 2019

EOS Defense Systems R400S Mk2 D HD XM914 firing on PME EMAV.

Be honest.  You were focused on the unmanned vehicle weren't you?  That my friend was a mistake.  That fully stabilized weapon system that has consistently been nailing targets out to 3000m should be getting your attention instead!

They've been achieving that on a vehicle as small as a Polaris DAGOR so we're seeing small vehicles become HIGHLY lethal.

I'll leave the caliber debate for another time but the future is bright with regard to the mechanization revolution going on now (we have to add that to the idea that we're seeing strides being made with AFVs).

With systems of this type we're seeing the potential for UTVs and up have the same firepower once reserved for Infantry Fighting Vehicles.  That's a stunning proposition.

You probably have till around Nov - Early Dec to get your guns/gear before prices go crazy!

Was doing my usual Sat morning scroll thru news items when I ran across an Ammo Land article talking about some new offerings from Ruger.

It was the usual thing from gun guys.  Either slamming or praising Ruger.  For some it's the best thing since sliced bread, for others they suck and still others tried to walk the line by stating some of their products are top notch and others pure garbage.

Kinda entertaining if you like to sit back and watch typical internet conversations.

What intrigued me was the demand for certain calibers that aren't even popular that many are clamoring for.  10mm and 45 seemed to top the list.

Personally I don't care.  I'm a 9mm guy and if I need bigger then it's time to grab a rifle, not a carbine.

But thinking about things a bit I realized something else.

Prices aren't low but they're decent.  They'll probably stay that way till Nov - Early Dec.  Then it's all about the Presidential Election and we'll hit another wave of people panicking about gun grabs.

Now is the time.

If you haven't purchased all the mags, ammo or weapons you and yours will need then you're doing yourself a disservice by waiting.

I guess what I'm saying is that you kinda have to time the market even with gun/gear.  Now is the time to buy before prices spike!

Balikatan 2019: USS Wasp Operations .... pics by Petty Officer 3rd Class Benjamin Davella