December 2020 News Global Defence & Security Industry - Military

 
 
 
 
4/4 Weekly December 2020 Defense se...
4/4 Weekly December 2020 Defense security news Web TV navy army air forces industry military
 

GM Defense LLC, a subsidiary of General Motors, today announced that it has started renovations of an existing GM building to support the production of the Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), a light and agile all-terrain troop carrier intended to transport a nine-Soldier infantry squad. The facility, located in Concord, North Carolina, will produce ISVs for the U.S. Army as part of a $214.3 million contract awarded to GM Defense in June 2020. GM Defense celebrated the delivery of its first ISVs to the U.S. Army in October of the same year, just 120 days from contract award.

From December 14 to 18, 2020, an instructor from the French Army Center for Initiation and Training of Drone Crews (CIFED, Centre d’initiation et de formation des équipages drones) trained four commandos of the Air Parachute Commando No. 10 (CPA 10) to master the nanodrone Black Hornet 3 (BH3) Personal Reconnaissance System (PRS), at Orléans 123 air base. A true deported eye weighing only 33 grams, this nanodrone is only used within the Air and Space Army by special forces.

The Danish Ministry of Defense awarded a CHF 46 million contract to General Dynamics European Land Systems-Mowag (GDELS-Mowag) to deliver 56 Patrol vehicles and a first prototype of the reconnaissance Open variant. This second order is part of the Armored Patrol Vehicle (APV) framework agreement, which GDELS-Mowag and DALO signed in June 2017, after the Eagle 4x4 was selected winner of the APV tender. Deliveries of the 57 vehicles will begin by the End of 2021 and will be completed in 2022.

Russia’s Strategic Missile Force (SMF) is planning to activate the newest Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in 2022, the commander of the military service Colonel General Sergei Karakayev said in an interview with the Red Star newspaper : “The Uzhursk Missile Formation has already launched preparations for the rearmament of the leading missile regiment. [The Sarmat] is planned to be activated in 2022,” said Karakayev.

As announced on December 14 by Thales on its website, Thales and the Australian Army Headquarters have started jointly researching, developing and designing options for the next generation Close Combat Family of Weapons. To support the Army’s emerging requirements, this will include the next-generation close combatant assault rifle, light machine gun and associated ammunition.

Two Patria AMVXP 8x8 modular armored vehicles have now been sent from Finland to Japan for test purposes. These vehicles are part of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's project called the Next Wheeled Armored Vehicle operating under the Japanese Ministry of Defense.

On December 12, the Hungarian Today website reported that the Hungarian Armed Forces are buying radars "based on Israeli ELM-2084 technology", Oleg Granovsky reports on BMPD/Live Journal. Moreover, further they are called simply ELM-2084.

According to a press release issued on December 16, Estonia and Milrem Robotics, as the leaders of a consortium composed of several major European defence, communication and cybersecurity companies and high technology SMEs and the European Commission signed the grant agreement for iMUGS, a project aimed at developing the European standard unmanned ground system (UGS).

According to a press release published on December 15, 2020, the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO), of the Directorate for Defense R&D in the Ministry of Defense, together with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), have successfully completed a series of live-fire intercept tests with David's Sling air defense missile weapon system, against threat-representative cruise and ballistic missiles.

According to a post on Facebook dated December 11, the Ukranian company Praktika prematurely completed the implementation of the Ukrainian ministry of Defense’s order and handed over more than 40 armored vehicles Kozak-2 to the army. The Kozak-2 is made of components supplied by a dozen Ukrainian companies.

To replace its ageing Leonidas IFVs, Greece was proposed to buy refurbished M2A2 Bradleys but even this « amicable » proposal appears very expensive. The Hellenic Armyalso abandoned plans to acquire up to 415 furbished and possibly upgraded ex-German army Marder 1A3 IFVs.

Five years after the merger of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (Munich, Germany) and Nexter Systems (Versailles, France) under the joint holding KNDS, the Group’s governance is being restructured. With this new structure, the owners of the Franco-German manufacturer of military land systems – the French state holding company GIAT Industries and the German family-owned company Wegmann & Co GmbH – are continuing on the path they forged in 2015: advancing in defined milestones towards the creation of a leader in its field.

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