European Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Scratch

Captain
Italy is about to recieve it's first G550 based AEW jet, of the two ordered. This brings a great and important new capability. I guess we could use more of them in Europe.
Maybe ground and maritime ISR / ELINT versions can come from this as well.

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The Italian air force’s first of two Gulfstream G550 business jets to undergo modification to an airborne early warning and control system configuration, appears set for delivery to the service.

Pictured during a stop at Shannon airport in Ireland on 30 September, the aircraft – which carries a temporary US registration – had been flown from Gulfstream’s Savannah facility in Georgia, and later departed for Tel Aviv. Israel Aerospace Industries’ Elta Systems business unit is responsible for the integration of its AEW radars and other mission equipment.

The Italian air force – which ordered its new surveillance aircraft in July 2012 – is to follow Israel and Singapore in operating the AEW-adapted G550. Flightglobal’s Fleets Analyzer database records its lead example as being scheduled for delivery on 15 October.

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FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
A nice acquisition for Lithuania in more have on order 125 Boxer. 2nd deal after Croatia, German Army have 90 in service in 5 mixed Battalion each have 16 PzH 2000 in 2 bty and 8 MLRS in one bty, powerful Battalions !

Lithuania orders German PzH 2000s

Lithuania signed a EUR58.3 million (USD65.4 million) contract with Germany on 29 September for 21 Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000) 155 mm self-propelled artillery (SPA) systems.
The SPAs, which are of ex-German Army service, will be operated by the Lithuanian Army's General Romualdas Giedraitis Artillery Battalion. In total the battalion will operate 16 PzH 2000s, with the remaining five SPAs being used for spare parts (three), gunnery training (one) and driver training (one).
In addition to the howitzers, Lithuania is also buying 32 support vehicles from Germany as part of the sale. These comprise 26 M577A2 tracked command post vehicles (a variant of the M113 family), and six Bergepanzer 2 (BPZ-2) recovery vehicles, based on the Leopard 1 tank chassis.
The first PzH 2000 is scheduled for delivery in 2016, with all equipment delivered by 2019, according to the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence (MoD).
Of the EUR58.3 million being spent on the programme, EUR16.2 million is being paid to the German Federal Ministry of Defence for the equipment itself. The remaining EUR42.1 million will be spent on modernising the mothballed equipment and on infrastructure/training for the new systems. The modernisation work is stated to include a battlefield management system and communications equipment.
The German Army will support the programme with technical assistance and by training Lithuanian personnel in Lithuania and at the German School of Artillery in Idar-Oberstein.
The General Romualdas Giedraitis Artillery Battalion currently relies on 105 mm M101 towed howitzers for fire support, purchased originally from Denmark - one of several Lithuanian-Danish defence deals done in the early 2000s. The Lithuanian MoD noted that the PzH 2000's 40 km range is a major improvement over the 11 km range of the M101.

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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Heckler and Koch vindicated in G36 accuracy row, but lobbying concerns linger
  • 14 October 20:29
  • 39


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Even the good days for Heckler & Koch turn out bad. On the same day that the German gunmaker's G36 assault rifle, the standard weapon of the German military, received a glowing report from one government commission, another slammed the "intolerable" close relations between the manufacturer and the army's equipment authority, and hinted at (but did not prove) improper lobbying.

The German Defense Ministry commissioned three separate reports into the G36, following revelations that the gun lost accuracy when heated up - either in hot weather or through sustained use - and that the company may have influenced the government to ensure that the rifle would still be used by the army.

One of these commissions released its results on Wednesday, and while it vindicated the company, the details of another internal Defense Ministry report were considerably less enthusiastic.

Good news

For Heckler & Koch, the report on the rifle's battle efficacy could not have been better. Led by Green party politician Winfried Nachtwei, the commission questioned 200 soldiers to find out whether they had ever been put in danger, or indeed directly harmed, by the gun's supposed lack of accuracy.

"The mission-experienced soldiers refuted the classification of the G36 as a glitch-rifle," the commission said in Berlin on Wednesday. The report had already been leaked to Wednesday's edition of the "Sächsische Zeitung," in which one platoon commander who served in Afghanistan in 2009 offered nothing but glowing words about the gun's accuracy. "We always felt in a superior position with the G36, particularly because we could have an impact on the target with relatively little ammunition," he told the Nachtwei commission.

The commission was careful, however, not to question the scientific tests that had been conducted on the G36, confining itself only to the observation that they had tested "extreme cases" that were unlikely to occur on the battlefield. Christine Buchholz, defense policy spokeswoman for the socialist Left party, was also cautious about the findings. "Of course there are still a few questions," she told DW. "It might be right that no German soldier was hurt in battle, but they didn't ask whether all the targets were hit."

Nonetheless, the commission's appraisal will have lifted the hearts of H&K executives, who have spent months defending their prestige weapon - which has been licensed around the world and is used by several other European armies - from derisory press and politicians. As the results of new accuracy tests came through earlier this year, and the damning media reports piled up, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen declared in April that the gun had "no future" in the Bundeswehr, and she would begin replacing the over 160,000 G36s it currently uses, a process likely to take until 2019.

On Wednesday, von der Leyen refused to be drawn into a knee-jerk response to the report: "We will analyze it now, review it calmly, and then respond accordingly," she said in a statement.

Bad news

But even as the champagne corks popped at H&K headquarters in Oberndorf, southwestern Germany, state TV network ARD released details of an internal Defense Ministry report that found "intolerable management behavior" between H&K and the Federal Bureau of Bundeswehr Equipment.

That government office has for several years kept a test center at the H&K factory in Oberndorf, ostensibly to avoid the safety headache of transporting weapons across the country. ("That's a scandal in itself," said Buchholz.) Now, without naming its sources, or quoting them directly, ARD learned "from government circles" that an internal ministry commission complained of a "lack of professional distance" between the equipment bureau and H&K.

"It doesn't surprise me," said Christina Deckwirth of the Berlin-based watchdog LobbyControl. "Heckler & Koch has caught our attention often. There are various relationships between Heckler & Koch and the government that are just far too close."

Buchholz also had a number of questions: "They haven't yet explicitly addressed the issue that there are clearly structures, or individuals, or networks in the defense ministry that hold a protective hand over Heckler & Koch," she said. "The whole swamp needs to be drained. The Heckler & Koch clique needs to be exposed; only then, can such problems be avoided in the future."

The 'protective hand'

The fact that this clique exists was made clear in late September, when another ARD investigation found that defense ministry officials helped H&K get around the government export controls in what turned out to be the illegal sale of thousands of G36s to the Mexican government. H&K's headquarters were raided by Stuttgart prosecutors in 2011 over that deal.

In an apparently unrelated development, it emerged in 2011 that Volker Kauder, head of the Christian Democratic Union's parliamentary group, whose constituency of Rottweil is the home of H&K, accepted several party donations from the gun maker - all of them below 10,000 euros ($11,300) and therefore below the limit at which they have to be made public.

"It reminds one of the current VW scandal," Deckwirth told DW. "It seems the government keeps this protective hand over companies - there is close cooperation. It's obvious that the government protects more than it checks. It's particularly dicey with weapons companies because they're dependent on these contracts."

Though there was no direct evidence of corruption in the G36 accuracy affair, one incident is said to have caused particular concern: in May 2015, it was discovered that H&K workers had the keys to the federal equipment bureau's test center in the factory, and therefore had access to confidential government documents. In response, the ministry is considering whether to move the test center away from the factory.

Heckler & Koch did not respond to a request for comment.
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HK G36 controversy Averted?
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Here's some nice pics of the BMD launch by the USS Ross. First live fire Ballistic Missile shoot down (and it was successful) by one of the BMD AEGIS Burke in Europe:

1. Preparing to launch.
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2.Initiaiting launch:
USS-Ross-BMD-03.jpg
3. Missile away!USS-Ross-BMD-04.jpg

4. After launch:
USS-Ross-BMD-05.jpg

5. Missile in the air on the way to intercept.
USS-Ross-BMD-01.jpg
 
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