SINGAPORE: Airbus Helicopters targets Asian sales expansion

22 February, 2016 BY: Dominic Perry Singapore

Airbus Helicopters is eyeing military and parapublic sales opportunities across Asia which could lead to it greatly expanding its industrial presence in the region.

India and Indonesia could both take a bigger role in the manufacturer’s global supply chain or, in the case of the former, a significant amount of final assembly work for domestic and export markets.

“There are quite a number of opportunities going on in the region – almost all countries will renew and expand their fleets,” Philippe Monteux, head of the airframer’s Southeast Asia business, told Flightglobal during the Singapore air show.

By far the most lucrative prospect is India, which is seeking huge numbers of military helicopters across multiple weight classes and applications. The furthest advanced is for New Delhi’s coastguard, which has provisionally selected the H225M Caracal for its 14-aircraft requirement. Assuming the contract is finalised, deliveries would begin around 2018, says Monteux.

Although negotiations are “progressing”, they are “going at the speed of India”, he says, referring to the country’s frequently tortuous acquisition process.

More recently this has been complicated by the launch of the nation's "Make in India" initiative, which seeks considerable technology transfer and local content as an offset in all contracts.

Airbus Helicopters in July announced it would partner with Mahindra Defence “to develop the concept and create a joint venture in India capable of producing helicopters”, says Monteux.

Three different types are in the frame for separate requirements, he says, and all could be assembled locally if selected.

But in one case, Airbus Helicopters is promising significantly more: if successful in its bid for the navy’s proposed acquisition of utility helicopters, the airframer is promising to transfer all production of its candidate AS565 to India.

“If we are the winning party it will be our worldwide production [site] for the Panther – not only for India but for all countries,” says Monteux.

Other opportunities include light scout and naval multirole helicopters, for which the company is respectively bidding its H125M Fennec and the H225M.

Although the Kamov Ka-226T has already been selected for a 196-unit deal as part of the light scout requirement for the air force and army, Monteux believes India could still consider the Fennec, not least because India may need as many as 800 helicopters for the role.

The Caracal, meanwhile, is vying for the multirole tender for up to 125 aircraft. If it is selected and final assembly localised, this would be the third production line globally – after Brazil and France – for the 11t-class rotorcraft.

Elsewhere in the region, Indonesia operates a fleet of six H225Ms for combat search and rescue (CSAR) missions and could seek further examples for similar transport/CSAR operations, says Ludovic Boistot, president director of Airbus Helicopters Indonesia.

However, it will face competition from the AgustaWestland AW101 in any contest, with Daniele Romiti, head of Finmeccanica Helicopters, stating at the show Jakarta had expressed interest in the platform.

Airbus Helicopters has a strong industrial presence in Indonesia, through its long-standing relationship with national aerospace champion PTDI. This produces fuselages and tail booms for all variants of the H225 globally, and performs installation and integration of mission equipment for the nation’s armed forces.

“That’s why we really believe in this strategy,” says Boistot. "We are transferring both knowledge and content to Indonesia.”

This could play into its hands if Indonesia decides to procure presidential transport helicopters. Last year its air force indicated a plan to buy three AW101s for the role, but president Joko Widodo reportedly axed the purchase on cost grounds and a lack of local content.

“We hope that national industry will be preferred choice for the president,” says Boistot.

Other opportunities in the country come in the parapublic sector with the national police having begun, with an order for a pair of Bell Helicopter 429s, the process of replacing an elderly rotary-wing fleet, primarily composed of licence-built Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105s. In addition, existing customer Basarnas – Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency – could require “one to two helicopters per year”, he says.

Airbus Helicopters also hopes its customer in Malaysia will return with new orders. Kuala Lumpur operates 12 H225Ms, and Monteux believes it could take an additional 15, although with its economy driven by oil, he cautions budgets are in flux.

The airframer is continuing to deliver and usher into service helicopters for Thailand. So far the Royal Thai Air Force has received four of an eventual six H225Ms; the Royal Thai Army 11 Fennecs and six UH-72A Lakotas acquired from the US government, while deliveries of six Airbus Helicopters H145s are due to begin shortly. And next year the Royal Thai Navy will receive its first H145M. Initially destined for search and rescue operations, Monteux says in the long-term the customer is looking at “what kind of configuration they want”, in order to broaden the type’s versatility.

Singapore Airshow 2016: ST Kinetics unveils finalised Bronco New Generation tracked carrier design

Kelvin Wong, Singapore - IHS Jane's International Defence Review
21 February 2016


The prototype vehicle at a ST Kinetics facility, clearly showing the single-door crew entry/egress and modular rear track unit, which the company says enables its mission package loadout to be exchanged within 30 minutes. Source: ST Kinetics

Key Points

* Singapore's ST Kinetics has unveiled a nearly production ready prototype of its Bronco New Generation All-Terrain Tracked Carrier
* The new vehicle features a higher level of protection and modularity than the current Bronco platform

Singapore Technologies (ST) Kinetics, the land systems division of defence prime ST Engineering, has shown a production-ready example of its amphibious Bronco New-Generation (New-Gen) All-Terrain Tracked Carrier (ATTC) for the first time in public at the Singapore Airshow 2016.

Yeo Wee Siang, chief engineer of the Bronco ATTC programme, told IHS Jane's that the refined Bronco New-Gen was rolled out in March 2015 and has already accumulated in excess of 5,000 km in local field trials. Combined with the test mileage clocked up by the earlier prototype, the Bronco New-Gen development effort has amassed over 7,000 km in local and overseas testing.

Unlike the prototype which made its public debut in the 2012 airshow and subsequent publicity materials, the Bronco New-Gen vehicle on display has been outfitted with a complete suite of mission equipment and weapons; with the most prominent being the company's 120 mm Super Rapid Advanced Mortar System (SRAMS) weapon carried in its rear track unit. Other features include a roof-mounted Adder Light remote weapon station (RWS) armed with a 12.7-mm heavy machine gun (MG), a pair of 3-tube smoke grenade dischargers, and a satellite communications (SATCOM) receiver unit. The RWS can also be armed with a 7.62-mm general-purpose MG or 40 mm automatic grenade launcher with co-axial 7.62-mm MG.

Another distinction between the prototype and production models is the refined front unit that houses the four-personnel crew cabin and powerpack. The prototype vehicle is fitted with only one door on either side of the hull, but has now reverted to the traditional two-door design of the first-generation Bronco and UK-specific Warthog platforms that the new vehicle is based on.

Russia has just deployed its most advanced spyplane to Syria

The Tu-214R is a Russian ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) aircraft. In other words, a quite advanced spyplane. As we have already explained here in the past, it is a special mission aircraft equipped with all-weather radar systems and electro optical sensors that produce photo-like imagery of a large parts of the ground: these images are then used to identify and map the position of the enemy forces, even if these are camouflaged or hidden. The aircraft is known to carry sensor packages to perform ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) and SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) missions: the antennae of the Tu-214R can intercept the signals emitted by the enemy systems (radars,aircraft, radios, combat vehicles, mobile phones etc) so as it can build the EOB (Electronic Order of Battle) of the enemy forces: where the enemy forces are operating, what kind of equipment they are using and, by eavesdropping into their radio/phone communications, what they are doing and whatwill be their next move.The aircraft is built by KAPO (Kazan Aircraft Production Association) and flown from the company’s airfield in Kazan.On Feb. 15, the Tu-214R registered RA-64514, serial number 42305014, the second of the two examples of this kind of aircraft built under contract with Russia’s Ministry of Defense,flew fromKazan to Latakia airbase, Syria.

With its ADS-B transponder signals broadcast in the clear and detected by Flightradar24 collecting stations, the aircraft could be tracked as it followed the eastern corridor from Russia, to the Caspian Sea and then to Syria via the Iranian and Iraqi airspaces. It’s not clear whether the aircrafthas already been delivered to the Russian Air Force, even though it is quite weird that a developmental aircraft is deployed abroad (unless the reason is testing it at war in a real scenario…).While it was still under development, the same Tu-214R aircraft flew what appeared to be an operative mission on Jun. 18, 2015, when it flew from Kazan to Crimea and back, closely following the border between Russia and Ukraine, most probably testing some of its sensors against real targets. Previously, the aircraft was spotted flying near Crimea.

Interestingly, while over the Caspian Sea, approaching the Iranian airspace, the Tu-214R performed a couple of 360° turns at 33.000 feet (weird, while enroute): maybe it was working on the diplomatic clearence to enter Iran?

The Chinese Hunting Eagle military Gyrocopter from the Defence Company Shaanxi Baoji Special Vehicles.

A gyrocopter is a type of rotorcraft which uses an unpowered rotor in autorotation to develop lift, and an engine-powered propeller, similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft, to provide thrust.

The Hunting Eagle is also used by Government agencies in the world for traffic observation duties, search and rescue coordination.

The gyrocopter Hunting Eagle can also to be used for military and security application as border control, anti-riot, aerial reconnaissance missions and Special Forces Operations for deploying soldiers behind enemy line.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that Turkey will not allow the loss of the city of Azaz in northern Syria, near the Turkish border, indicating that the Syrian crisis is geting more complicated

Turkey made plans along with the Gulf countries, even before “the Libyan campaign,” and overthrow of Gaddafi, about new energy routes and selling exclusively “Sunni oil and gas” to western countries and China

Care about the “moderate rebels” was just a cover for Turkey to in fact, using the alleged fight against the Islamic State, provide a route for the corridor that would go from Qatar and Saudi Arabia through Syria, leading to Turkey and further to the EU

Turkey made it clear to EU, that if it is forced to open border for migrants, about a million of them could be on way to Greece or Bulgaria. Answer from Brussels quickly arrived, as the announcements that in the Air Force Base in Incirlik would be created a new military coalition, in order to establish a “buffer zone” and the no-fly zone

In order to implement the Turkish “buffer zone”, with maximum use of the media and the instrumentalization of the leaders of the UN, began to rain down accusations against Russia and its military presence in Syria. The script is written on the basis of the matrix from the Balkan and Iraq-Libyan campaign, even US slightly reprimanded Turkey for artillery attacks on the Kurds, while the EU’s voice was even quieter

Turkey does not lose hope of creating a “buffer zone”, and therefore gives help to Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, by strengthening them with groups from Asia, primarily China’s Uighurs, newly arrived Chechens, and Turkmens which are send in Syria by the Turkmen Islamic party

since 2014 the Uighurs gather together under the supervision of the police, and stay in government buildings in the Turkish city of Kayseri

Turkey has numerous Uighurs community because they are coming for decades from China to Turkey, and it is estimated that Turkey currently has around 300 000 Uighurs

We should not forget that the Aleppo is specified as the capital of the projected 82. Turkish province, which indicates Turkey’s intention to annex that part of Syria

What would Erdogan, among other things, promise to the Americans in exchange for assistance in the reconstruction of the Ottoman Empire? Activation of the Uighurs in China, after which would began demonization of China, as Russia is currently being demonized, in order to achieve, at least partially, the “great chessboard”

More than 105,000 US and South Korean troops are to take part in a joint military exercise next month following nuclear and missile tests by the North.

The US are sending four times as many troops as originally planned for the parallel Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises set to start in two weeks time,

The US and ally South Korea regularly stage joint military exercises, but this is the first time it will stage a 'pre-emptive strike' on North Korea.

In a press release, the PLA Air Force said the unit would focus on “small, slow-moving drones flying at an altitude of less than 1,000 meters,”

However, the specific focus on low-altitude, low-speed drones makes it more likely that the PLAAF unit will spend most of its time engaging with drones being operated by China’s own citizens

PLAAF helicopter forced the drone to land and police confiscated it. In another incident, an unauthorized UAV flying near an airport in Zhejiang Province forced the airport to close for nearly an hour. China Military Online, without going into detail, also claimed that other unauthorized drone flights “have disturbed military flight training.” All of the drones involved in those cases were civilian: the UAVs in question “were owned by private companies, aviation enthusiasts as well as a few airlines,”

There are an estimated 100,000 privately-owned drones in China right now

When fired, the path of a .50 caliber bullet is the shortest and deadliest line between two points. For the soldier firing the weapon on the battlefield, this is generally good news. Yet as battles move into cities, bullets that go farther than necessary can injure and kill innocent bystanders just as easily as foes. Perhaps that's why researchers have just patented a bullet with a limited range.

The key is pyrotechnics. Here’s how the patent authors describe it:

A limited range projectile includes pyrotechnic material and reactive material. The pyrotechnic material is ignited at projectile launch. The pyrotechnic material ignites the reactive material. If the projectile reaches a maximum desired range prior to impact with a target, the ignited reactive material transforms the projectile into an aerodynamically unstable object.

Should bullets like this ever be made, it’ll be great news for soldiers and police. It’ll be even better news for everyone else around them

A recently published video purports to show a tank crew using the massive turret to capture footage and selfies. While the video could not be independently identified, it shows creative use of a tank cannon

Indonesia seeks to raise defense budget

Xinhua, February 23, 2016

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Tuesday said that he sought to increase the country's defense budget in an effort to support facilities at the country's military.

Joko said that Indonesian government would raise the allocation for defense and security to at least 250 trillion rupiah (about 18.717 billion U.S. dollars), or 1.5 percent of the country's GDP, in three years.

The president added that the hike could be achieved if the country's economy, which is the largest in Southeast Asia, increased 6 percent.

"Going forward, professionalized armed forces must be boosted by the development of weaponry," Joko said at the State Palace.

Indonesia's economy picked up to 5.04 percent at the final quarter of last year from 4.79 percent at the previous three months ended September amid the country's massive efforts to boost investment climate.

Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono previously said that Indonesia planned to step up its weaponry at the level which he called "the essential level," as the country had been long not to modernize weaponry.

However, President Jokowi insisted to use more domestically manufactured weaponry in part to boost the competitiveness of the country's weaponry industry.

Terrorism, transnational crime and insurgency are among the main challenges being faced by the Indonesian military.

Robert Bunker, a counterterrorism expert at TRENDS Research & Advisory, warns that the latest ISIS tactic is to field car bombs fitted with Mad Max-style improvised armor to carry out suicide attacks on protected targets, and that such tactics might spread to the U.S. and Europe

Notorious "Type 1" attacks also include the World Trade Towers bombing in 1993 and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. I was in London during the Staples Corner bombing carried out by the IRA, and like thousands of people I had my commute disrupted by a white van left on the road by an overpass. Several hours later the van exploded

"Type 2" attack was employed against the American embassy in Beirut in April 1983, killing 63 people, and also six months later in the attack on a Marine barracks, which killed more than 200 U.S. servicemen. Type 2 tactics have grown more sophisticated, too, with the use of multiple vehicles, sometimes one to break through perimeter defenses and another to attack the installation behind, or with several vehicles attacking at the same time supported by gunman

"Type 3" vehicle bombs that are protected by armor. The vehicles involved in previous attacks have been, for the most part, civilian cars and trucks that are vulnerable even to small-caliber fire. Not so for armored cars

The AVBIEDs come with different levels of protection depending on the environment and the need to operate covertly. Bunker says the heaviest versions are those that have been seen in Syria and Iraq. "These are full-out armored vehicles like armored bulldozers with explosives on them," he says. "Mad Max vehicles with heavy armor plate"

Still, there is a counter to every weapon, and it is entirely possible that incoming armored, driverless truck bombs will be identified and taken out at a safe distance by defensive bazooka drones

Satellite imagery of Cuarteron reef in the Spratlys released by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) showed what appeared to be a high-frequency radar installation, as well as a lighthouse, underground bunker, helipad and other communications equipment

"Placement of a high frequency radar on Cuarteron Reef would significantly bolster China’s ability to monitor surface and air traffic coming north from the Malacca Straits and other strategically important channels," said CSIS's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

Today is Defenders of the Fatherland Day in Russia, a public holiday and a celebration of all things military: triumphalism about the latest weapons, about operations in Syria, about the seizure of Crimea

So long as the West believes Russia could surge into Ukraine, escalate in Syria, or even roll into the Baltic states, it inevitably feels a greater pressure to make concessions and invite Vladimir Putin to the table

Ever since he first strode into the Kremlin, at the end of 1999, Vladimir Putin has been pouring money into his military

It had performed abysmally in the first Chechen War

order to send naval squadrons flying the flag across the globe, Moscow has to accompany them with tugs for when they break down

Russian special forces seized Crimea in February 2014 with respectable precision and discipline, and looked the part of cutting-edge soldiers. But they were among the very best Moscow can muster, and faced no opposition

Russia has been able to turn the tide in Syria — and the politics of that war — with its bombers. But in order to keep up the tempo of operations in Syria, Moscow has had to send its best pilots, and even buy old Turkish ships to supply them. Besides, bombing a disorganized rebel force with no meaningful air defense is hardly much of a test of the new Russian air force

2014, Moscow has had to send improvised "battalion tactical groups" patched together from the best companies of soldiers across the country. After all, almost half of Russia’s soldiers are conscripts serving just a single year

while Russia had great plans for new warships, the gas turbines most would have used came from Ukraine, and so it’s back to the drawing board

As a result, we mistake Russia’s still large but overstretched and only partly reformed armed forces for a terrifying threat to the West and to the global order as we know it

Continued rearmament depends on money, and Russia’s economy is dependent on oil that is now selling for bargain-basement prices. Russia’s economy is the 13th largest in the world, just between Australia and Spain, about half the size of France’s, about a fourteenth of the USA’s. Even before the value of the ruble collapsed, Russian military spending was around one-seventh of America’s

The Russian defense budget as it stands is unsustainable. Already this year it has been cut by 5 percent

Saudi Arabia has granted five billion dollar military assistance to Sudan initially dedicated to the Lebanese army

The diversion of military aid to Sudan comes as the Saudi Press Agency announced on Friday 19 February the cancellation of a $3 billion aid package for the Lebanese army and the remainder of $1 billion in aid it had earmarked for Lebanon’s security service.

"The Kingdom will give Sudan military assistance amounting to $ 5 billion for its army and other regular forces rather than Lebanon because they didn’t condemn the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran,"

It is not clear if Sudan will get the French weapons initially designed for the Lebanese army or will buy weapons from China and Russia, Sudan traditional weapon providers

The mood in Jordan is driven by the fear that Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the kingdom, is pressuring Amman to supply troops or open its borders for a land incursion into southern Syria or both

“You are either with us or against us.” Abu Rumman believes that Khashoggi's message was directed at Amman, and that such criticism of Jordan, which relies heavily on Saudi financial assistance

Jordan's King Abdullah II has tried to keep his options open. Although he criticized Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and called on him to step down, he did not sever diplomatic relations with Damascus and has insisted on a political solution to the crisis

Abdullah did, however, take a hard line against the growing threat of IS, whose members he described as outlaws, at a time when Saudi Arabia was focusing its military efforts on Yemen

Abdullah referred to the offensive as “our war,” meaning Arabs and Muslims, but at no point has Jordan contemplated sending ground troops into Syria, even after IS captured and gruesomely killed a Jordanian pilot

Jordanian forces are participating in multinational war games in Saudi Arabia this month and is a member of a 34-country Islamic military alliance that Riyadh formed in December

Jordan had warned against the threat of IS from the start and is conducting its own strategy to combat it. “These countries want their own war for their own reasons, and we have our own war against terrorism, and the two should not be mixed,”

Jordanian soldiers might end up fighting the Syrian army or engaging in confrontations against Hezbollah or Iranian militias. He said that Saudi Arabia’s proposal seeks to restore the military balance between the regime and the rebels, not to fight IS, emphasizing, “This is precisely why this is not our war.”

“For Jordan, the situation in southern Syria is a priority, and dealing with the changing military reality there is what we should be worrying about.”

Jordan is overwhelmingly against any involvement in what many view as “not our war.”

Sudan’s government has expressed its openness to join the Saudi-led military coalition to fight in Syria

Sudan is part of the 34-nation Muslim coalition to fight Daesh