Redundancies Tranche 2; F35 update

I'd dare saying that it is not at all as bad as it promised to be according to press reports. Still nasty, but it could have been worse by far.

The Army is looking to discharge up to 2900 men, of which 400 are to come from the Gurkha brigade. 8 Brigadier posts will disappear, along with up to 60 Lieutnant Colonels.

The RAF seeks up to 900 redundancies, including 15 Air Commodores and 30 Group Captains.

The RN seeks up to 300 redundancies, inclusive of 5 Commodores, 17 Captains and some 19 RM officers, with Royal Marines losses in other ranks.

RN and RAF are confident that they won't need a Tranche 3 of redundancies to meet their downsizing target, which will be reached slowing down recruitment. The Army, instead, has a lot more pain ahead of itself.
This second Tranche follows the first reduction, in September 2011, which saw 1020 RN posts disappear, along with 920 RAF and 920 Army. 62% of the personel who quit had applied for leaving. This time around the volunteers are expected to be much fewer, making it all more painful. 



The first two UK F35, of the B variant, will be delivered in May. Training of UK personnel for the F35 for the next years will happen at Englin Air Base (Florida) in the "F35 university" of the US forces. The UK F35s will fly their test and evaluation sorties from Edwards Air Base (California).

The first F35C for the UK is the CF-17, a USMC F35C which will be exchanged for the british BK-3 F35B.
The F35C assigned to the UK is expected to change name and become CK-1.

Shedding some light on the Wildcat Light Assault Helicopter

Not much light, sincerely, as we still do not know what the new variant will offer over the other two, but the Light Assault Helicopter, Wildcat, seems set to go to the Special Forces support role, according to Defense News.

When i first read of the LAH variant, my first guess was that it would be a weaponized variant of the Army Wildcat, to be issued to 847 NAS, as part of Commando Helicopter Force, to improve the squadron's capability to support Royal Marines operations.
But soon after, i realized that it was unlikely, and came up with a second hypothesis, that now seems to prove true: the helicopters will be assigned to Special Forces support role, which likely means that the funding for the 4 additional airframes (plus conversion of a further 4 from the 34 Army helos on order) will come from the 500 or so millions allocated to SF in the SDSR.
Interestingly, prior to the SDSR publication there had been suggestions of a possible order for 10 Special Forces helicopters, speculated, back then, to possibly be NH90 TTH modified. Of course, clarity was never really made on the subject, as always happens with SF-related information.



DefenseNews notes that the Wildcat LAH will replace the current Lynx AH7 in the SF role, but steps short of making a guess on which unit will use them.
I feel a bit more daring than them, and i'm willing to bet that, if this plan is true, it applies to 657 Squadron Army Air Corps.






657 Sqn is part of the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing, together with 7 Sqn RAF flying the Chinook. Lynx helicopters (reportedly armed with M134 miniguns) escorted Chinooks from 7 Sqn RAF in the famous operation Barras in Sierra Leone, for example. Both squadrons are based in RAF Odiham.
651 Sqn AAC flies the Islander fixed wing plane in support of Special Forces, and last but not least, the AAC also provides 8th Flight, the unit which was known to fly SAS teams in urban areas using civilian painted A109 helicopters that were captured from the Argies in the Falklands in 1982. The A109 has actually been replaced with civilian-colored Dauphin helicopters, but this is less known. 



Unless the squadron's colors are put into suspended animation to bring back to life another historic unit, and i deem it unlikely, 657 Sqn will practically certainly get the new SF Wildcats, and it will probably be the only squadron on the type with its own assigned, fixed fleet of airframes, since the 30 Army Wildcats are likely to be kept in a pool and assigned to the various squadrons (including 847 NAS) according to the needs of the moment, with airframes made available to each squadron to keep a mandated number of crews trained and current.



It is not yet clear if there will be a reduction in the number of squadrons, or in their strenght, or both. In theory, the Army Wildcat should go and equip:



1st Regiment AAC
652 AAC - according to some rumors, it will be the first unit to re-equip on the new helo
661 AAC



9th Regiment AAC
659 AAC
669 AAC
672 AAC



671 - Conversion to Role Training, part of 2nd (Training) Regiment AAC



847 Naval Air Squadron - assigned to 3rd Commando Brigade's Commando Helicopter Force (6 helos)






30 helicopters for all these squadrons are very few, considering also that the current mandated strenght for a Lynx squadron of the Army is 8 helicopters.
However, 5 frontline army squadrons would be needed to meet "the rule of the five", and if the helicopters are kept in a pool and assigned each time on a mission-shaped basis, there's no apparent reason why the number of Sqns should drop.



The 28 Navy Wildcats will go into 702 NAS (OCU squadron) and into 815 NAS, the largest helicopter squadron of the UK, in which each helicopter will go and form a Small Ship Flight, to be assigned for cruises to frigates and destroyers. As always happens with the Fleet Air Arm, a temporary squadron (700W for Wildcat) stands up to work the new type into service, as happened, last time, for the Merlin with 700M squadron. 



In the meanwhile, British Forces News reports that, after enjoying the first landings at sea on RFA Argus, the Wildcat has landed in Portsmouth, where it will prepare for the challenges of next month, when the new helicopter will embark on HMS Iron Duke and work with her out at sea to write the manual of ops for the Type 23 - Wildcat combination.



In Portsmouth, a a 31-strong test team needed to ensure Wildcat can land on a Type 23 and can be moved in and out of the hangar using the ship’s helicopter recovery system. On-board refuelling and ammunition checks were also carried out. In january, they will do it again, but out in open sea, during a 3 weeks test cruise.








As an interesting, but totally unrelated news, ex RFA Largs Bay has arrived in Australia under her new name, HMAS Choules, and new pennant, L100, sporting a very evident hangar module added on her deck.

The JSF training

Training for the Joint Strike Fighter

The F35, notoriously, is a single-seat only airplane type. There won’t be a twin-seat trainer variant, and the plan to make the F35 as affordable as possible is to reduce to the minimum possible levels the number of training flying hours to be flown by its crews. Not just that, either, because operational training is to be largely done with simulators, including even the complex art of air to air refueling. The F22, which is also a single-seat only type, does not have simulators powerful enough, at least at the moment, to train for this delicate kind of operation, and its pilots have to fly a bridge-course on F16s. With the F35, the simulator is proving so efficient, that the US armed forces expect to prepare pilots for AAR on simulator.

Pilots are not the only ones who benefit from simulators, either, since there will be a sophisticate Maintenance simulator as well, an Ejection System Maintenance Simulator, and a weapons loading trainer, which will allow ground crew to practice the installation of weaponry onto the plane’s internal bays.

The full cadre of simulators that will allow personnel to prepare for the F35 is to include:

-          Full Mission Simulator

-          Mission Rehearsal Trainer

-          Deployable Mission Rehearsal Trainer

The above are all aimed to prepare and keep current the pilots. In addition, ground crew will be prepared thanks to:

-          Aircraft Systems Maintenance Trainer

-          Ejection System Maintenance Trainer

-          Weapons Loading Trainer

  

The Full Mission Simulator is an incredibly high-fidelity simulator capable to prepare pilots for flying complex operational scenarios. A complete FMS costs 20 million dollars, according to 2012 US DoD budget figures: the US armed forces have so far ordered a total of 10 FMSs.

The FMS is destined to be used with two distinct rooms, one for Briefing and one for Debriefing, and the system can run in Training mode, from the Briefing room to the actual simulator, while also supporting debriefing for the precedent training sortie.

Key feature of the FMS is the simulator dome, which pushes technology to the current limit, with visual display contractor Rockwell Collins having succeeded in developing and building a totally smooth dome giving 360° degrees all around visibility and simulation of the complete environment around the plane. The FMS has a 2m (6.5ft)-diameter dome surrounded by a frame mounting the 25 liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCoS) projectors.

The FMS delivers the visual quality needed to undertake the simulation of aerial refueling and emergency procedures, particularly enabling the pilot to realistically react to an engine flameout, where one needs as much visibility as possible.

The FMS display will be further enhanced when simulated infrared imagery from the F-35's Distributed Aperture System will be fed into the pilot's helmet. This feature is currently not yet ready, but this is understandable, especially considering that, unfortunately, the Helmet Mounted Display with integrated infrared imagery capability is a source of issues still, with the original contractor having proven unable to meet the requirements, and BAE recently selected to develop an alternative, based on the Striker HMD used on the Typhoon.

The simulation is highly realistic because the F-35 FMS use the real aircraft's Operational Flight Program (OFP), but more than that, it employs all the actual computer models from the aircraft's sensor manufacturers and integrates that data, which means that the pilot flies the simulator just as he’d fly the actual plane, including the “behavior” of the engine, which runs on the very same software present on the F35.

The training simulation is controlled from the Instructor Operating Station, and the simulator can replicate the tactical environment that a pilot and his wingmen would face in combat. The FMSs can be networked to allow pilots to experience flying in a multiship environment against a vast array of air and surface threats. Eventually, FMSs dispensed on bases across the US will be linked, to allow large-scale simulations that will be almost as effective as flying air wars such the huge Red Flag exercises. It might be possible to network the simulators on a multinational basis, as well: UK pilots might train in a simulator based in the UK, flying alongside other F35s, simulated from bases in the US and flown by American personnel.

The Mission Rehearsal Trainer (MRT), is a smaller-scale variant of the FMSs, low cost and simplified. It has not the full-360° dome display, replaced by a narrow vision one. The software, however, is exactly the same.

The Deployable Mission Rehearsal Trainer puts the whole MRT package into a single shipping container ISO which can be deployed on a forward operating base or embarked on an aircraft carrier. It is expected that one will go on the Strike Carrier, in fact. The container includes two cockpits simulators and an Instructor Operating Station controlling the system.

The ASMT will allow maintenance engineers to practice fault-location procedures, replacement of line-items and parts of the plane and other maintenance operations. The ESMT will include a mock-up of the front of the F35, and will allow technicians to train in the removal of the cockpit’s canopy and complete installation/removal procedures of the ejector seat and all related systems.

Finally, the Weapons Loading Trainer will provide ground crews with a functional mock up of the plane, designed to allow them to practice the procedures for loading and unloading weaponry, on both the internal and external hard points.   

UK company EDM is heavily involved in the simulators, being under contract to build and provide the ejection-seats and weapons-loading hardware trainers.

Actual flying training will of course remain necessary, but the number of flying hours needed to prepare crews for F35 operations will be slashed and brought down to much smaller levels. The current target is to achieve a 50/50 balance between simulator and flying exercises. Simulator “events”, at least at the beginning, will take more hours than exercise done actually flying the machine, so that effectively the pilots will have more simulator hours than flown hours, training-wise. There will also be an embedded simulation capability in the aircraft itself, and the F-35 is to be compatible with the P5 rangeless air-to-air and air-to-ground combat training system, enabling complex mission simulation when in flight, much as with the latest model of Hawk trainer of the RAF. The full extent of capabilities in this sense is being developed.   

The US have been in these years building an integrated training centre (ITC) at Eglin AFB, in Florida, fitting it with 10 full-mission simulators plus six maintenance training devices, classrooms and the training system support centre.

The centre will train pilots for all three variants for US and international customers, including, at least for the first few years, UK pilots. The original plan would have seen the UK pilots go through much of the STOVL training alongside US Marines pilots, with only a country-specific additional course being added in the end of the preparation. It is to be expected that now the main partner will be the US Navy, even though the US Marines are standing up 5 squadrons of F35Cs as well as a larger fleet of Bs. As of October 2011, the USMC actually expects that its squadrons of F35C will start operating, from US Navy carriers, before the F35C squadrons are ready to fly from the amphibious ships, despite the F35B having already had its first period of trials at sea on USS Wasp, while the F35C has yet to see the sea, even if it already completed many launches with C13 steam catapults on land, and recently was launched for the first time by a land-based EMALS catapult.

The UK always planned to eventually stand up a national Integrated Training Centre, and negotiations have been ongoing at least since 2007. It was expected that, by 2014, UK pilots would train for the F35 in the UK, but much has changed in the meanwhile, and the 2014 date is now gone.

A decision on a UK-based ITC will depend on the long-term arrangement chosen for training of the JCA pilots: several nations have already been investigating the sole implementation, on their territory, of a Maintenance Training solution, with the pilots to be instead sent to the US ITC for their course. This solution is seen as considerably cheaper, and the UK might still decide that it represents an advantageous course of action. The US Navy and USMC resources could be exploited, and lighten the financial burden of JCA.

Another issue to be solved before an ITC decision is taken, is that there is not yet a decision on which RAF base is to be the main operating base for JCA. For years, the preferred site was RAF Lossiemouth, which would have been, funnily enough, a return to the past, since Lossie used to be a Fleet Air Arm base, on which the Bucceneers for HMS Ark Royal IV were based. Lossiemouth was considered attractive also because it is close to Rosyth, where the carrier will dock for maintenance. Again, Lossiemouth is “close” to Norway, another F35 customer, with which the UK would like to collaborate.

The basing decisions that have followed the SDSR, with Lossiemouth becoming a Typhoon base, for three squadrons and QRA North service, have however kind of ruled the base out for JCA use. Marham, which is the home of the Tornado and risks being closed when the Tornado GR4 bows out, is becoming the new front-runner for selection as JCA base, with a lobbying initiative, “Make it Marham MK2” already underway. (The first “Make it Marham” was of course about ensuring that, between Marham and Lossiemouth, the second was the loser. The victim, as we know, in the end was actually Leuchars)

A decision on the Main Operating Base (almost certain to also be the only base for the type), should come relatively soon, possibly in the new year, along with some more details on the updated planning assumptions for JCA, about numbers, squadrons to be re-equipped, and dates.   

News: satellites, finally?

A step towards filling a strategic capability gap?

"This exciting project will provide the UK with a world-leading constellation of its own and is a clear signal of the government’s continued commitment to the UK space industry" science minister David Willetts enthusiastically announcement in a recent statement at the end of November.

The project he refers to, is new UK-designed and UK-built satellite technology, named NovaSar-S, a space-based Synthetic Aperture Radar unit that can operate day and night and survey the earth's surface through any weather condition.

It is hoped that a constellations of satellites of this type could eventually be financed and launched, enabling any place on Earth to be imaged inside 24 hours, providing the UK with a nationally-controlled and developed capability in this vital sector, which has immense relevance for both civilian and military applications.

The NovaSar-S satellite programme will receive £21m from the UK government as part of a £200m boost for science announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his Autumn Statement.

UK.gov is going to pony up £21m to start the development and launch of the satellites, which is unfortunately only enough to buy less than half of a single satellite, as building, launching and putting to work a NovaSar satellite for a customer costs 45 million, according to Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), which have developed the system.

The cost is very low for a satellite of this kind, and this is the whole point of the exercise: the 3m-by-1m spacecraft with its S-band radar, weighing just shy of 400kg, is considerably smaller than most competitors in operation today, and comes with a price tag that is also a fraction of that charged for bigger radar satellites.

The government money, complemented by SSTL and Astrium's (the runners of Skynet 4 and 5) own funding, will put the first NovaSar satellite into orbit in 2 or three years time. It will be a pathfinder, to prove the concept and demonstrate the system, which is expected to provide medium-resolution images, meaning details on the ground larger than 6m across would be discernable.

SSTL hopes to find interest and funding to make the NovaSar into a constellation. For the UK, it could be the first concrete step towards the development of a national Earth Observation capability in space, which was highlighted as a very desirable target when, last year, the UK Space Agency was founded.


HMS Ocean on the way home 

It had to be a seven weeks exercise, it turned out to be a war part of a 7 and a half months deployment away from the UK. But now the Mighty O is home-bound, and the crew is very happy to have a chance to be home for Christmas.

They have realized an hilarious video for the occasion, which is already becoming a case on Youtube.



Effects of a 225 days deployment, 176 of which spent in open sea, i guess.


HMS Astute reports from the US; Afghan logistics and withdrawal plan report  

DefenseNews has an interesting report about HMS Astute, which is in the US for a series of demanding trials, which are the last big tests before it entries into service, following return from the US in the first quarter of next year and the period of mainteinance that will follow the travel.

The success of the Tomahawk Block IV firing trials was widely reported by the press, and this new story tells us some more about the efforts of the crew to ensure that HMS Astute shakes off the sad nickname "jinxed" submarine that the grounding in Scotland and deadly shooting on-board gained her.

They also offer a very interesting interview with Commodore Clive Walker, UK commander of Joint Force Support, Afghanistan. The Commodore sheds some light over recent press reports that suggested that the Afghan drawdown would be totally or almost totally done via railway, through Russia.
The plan exists, but it is only a part of the withdrawal operation, quite less extensive in scope than suggested by newspapers.
There will be work for C17s, chartered AN124s and Point RoRo ships, you can be sure.

Piracy, Terrorism, Somalia, Drones and Marines

Towards a fighting resolution of the Somalia problem?

Piracy: more and more of a problem

The IMB's Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur published figures for the first quarter of 2011 regarding pirate attacks off Somalia: 97 attacks have been counted, an increase of 32 on the same period last year, and 18 vessels were hijack with another 90 either fired upon or boarded. These have resulted in the murders of seven crew members, 34 injuries and the capture of 344 people who are now being held hostage, bringing the total number of those being held by Somali pirates by the end of March 2011 to 596.

The data about kidnapping, injures and murders is particularly worrisome, as It reveals a disturbing, growing trend in the use of violence in these assaults, which initially wasn’t present: only two injuries were reported in 2006.

It is estimated that, every year, some 23,000 ships come down the Suez Canal and Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden, and about 40,000 transit the Straits of Hormuz. With the movements of thousands of dhows, ocean-going fishing vessels and other smaller craft, it means that piracy affects only about 0.1% of vessels transiting in the area. But this detail is deceitful.

Geographically, piracy is localized in what is simply the most strategically relevant corner of Earth, crossed by good part of the most important commercial sealanes. In particular, every year 40% of the world's energy resources go through the Straits of Hormuz, and 11% through the Suez Canal. The area at risk spans about 2.2 million square miles of ocean, encompassing the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, most of the Indian Ocean, the North Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Gulf, while in the Indian Ocean alone, the borders of the “danger area” extend all the way south to the border between Tanzania and Mozambique, eastwards past the Seychelles towards the Maldives and north to the coasts of India, Pakistan and Oman.

To cover this immense area (twice as big as the whole Europe, Uk included), 25 nations have teamed up to create the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), headquartered with the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. CMF is composed by three Combined Task Forces:

CTF-150, with Maritime security and Counter Terrorism role

CTF-151, with Counter Piracy role

CTF-152, Arabian Gulf Security and Cooperation. CTF 152 is generally commanded by one of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, on 6 month rotation. The GCC comprises Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman.    

CMF is commanded by a U.S. Navy Vice Admiral, who also serves as Commander US Navy Central Command and US Navy Fifth Fleet. All three commands are co-located at US Naval Support Activity Bahrain. Deputy commander is a UK Royal Navy Commodore, with other senior staff roles at CMF headquarters filled by personnel from member nations, including Australia, France, Italy and Denmark. Participation is purely voluntary and the contribution from each country varies depending on its ability to contribute assets and the availability of those assets at any given time.

Command of the three task forces is taken over, for 6 months at a time, by one of the contributing nations. CTF-151 is currently under Italian command, with the destroyer Andrea Doria deployed in the area.

The flexibility of CMF is, however, an issue: the organization works without an overarching political or military mandate, unlike NATO and EUNAVFOR, so that no member of CMF will ever be asked to do anything that is outside its national mandate. The legal implications of this, mean that any suspected pirates have to be dealt with by the jurisdiction of the country whose navy catches them, making each case unique. The recent case of the raid of british Marines from RFA Fort Victoria, which freed the hijacked Italian ship ‘Montecristo’ and lead to the capture of 11 pirates, for example, saw the arrested men being handed over by the UK to Italy for prosecution under Italian law. This method has had some success, but there have been consistent calls for adopting an international rule: Jack Lang, UN's Special Advisor on piracy, argued for the establishment of an international legal process, aiming for an international court providing appropriate legal instruments to deal with suspected pirates in a consistent and clear way.  

The area and challenges are both vast, and even 25 nations working together are not managing to put enough warships in the area. In 2008, CMF, NATO and EUNAVFOR agreed to establish the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor with the agreement of the merchant community, and to patrol it with a concentration of warships. This initiative, was initially very successful, resembling the concept of convoys in the two world war, when the issue was that of submarines. Ships are directed in mass into a safe “corridor” which the warships of the various navies are better able to constantly guard and protect.

However, the pirates refused to stop and moved their activities further out into the Indian Ocean, using the infamous 'motherships', larger merchant ships and previously pirated dhows or ocean-going vessels used as bases for launching assaults out at sea. This change in tactic expanded the pirates' areas of operation massively, pushing their range of action up to 1,000 miles away from the Somali coast.

The escalation

Piracy is often played down, but it is a very real concern. With the number of attacks raising constantly, and with their cost to the shipping and insurance companies growing more and more, there’s been an escalation in the gravity of the situation.

London’s Lloyd’s all but raised the project for financing a private fleet of escorts and security vessels for protecting shipping in the area.  

Dutch-Norwegian listed ocean transport company Dockwise, world leader in the market of super-heavy sea transports and known for its fleet (the largest in the world) of Float-On, Float-Off vessels often used to carry whole oil rigs and other massive and incredibly expensive payloads, warned the Netherlands’ government that it would sail its vessels under a different flag unless the country changed its laws to allow private guards to stay on ships in order to fend off pirate attacks.

The impact of Dockwise’s warning was pretty serious. The government, well aware of how much money comes from the fleet being flagged in the country, so much so that the Dutch soon after announced that they would allow their warships to strike pirates even ashore. An official Danish government anti-piracy strategy, published in June, suggested tougher measures, including the use of special forces and even bombing of pirate bases, with raids ashore to be made without warning the Somali “government” at all.

Even so, they are still hesitating on allowing armed guards aboard vessels, but the pressure is increasing, and they will probably decide in this sense sometime soon.

After the Montecristo crisis, Italy announced that the Marina Militare (the Italian Navy) would make available for hire a first group of ten 6-men teams of Marines from the “San Marco” Regiment. These government-trained guards can now be hired by Italian shipping companies to provide security to their vessels.

The UK itself in 2010 expanded the Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines, raising P Squadron, to provide embarked teams for RFA ships and government-chartered vessels transiting in dangerous areas. One day, a further expansion might allow the creation of teams on the Italian model, which british shipping companies could hire and put aboard their own vessels.

Hired guards aboard british-flagged merchant vessels are to be legalized, and companies of sea guards on hire are already working hard – and well paid -, often giving work to ex-Marines or men from the armed forces.  

Jihad, terrorism, pirates, a failed state and Kenya

But that is not as bad as it gets, because it gets worse. According to the US, Somali pirates are in league with the terror group al-Shabaab, which has spoken of a "sea jihad" and has opened a marine office to co-ordinate with pirates. The Kenyan government estimates 30 per cent of the ransoms are channelled to al-Shabaab.

And in these days, Kenya started military operations against Al-Shabaab, sending its troops into Somalia to clean up the border area. Kenyan land forces are operating in southern Somalia, in an effort to route Al-Shabaab militants bases in townships near the Somali South-East border with Kenya. Like the Libyan rebels in the recent campaign, the kenyan forces are assisted by foreign air and naval support: in particular, US drones flying out of Ethyopia and the gun of a French warship. Air attacks by fast jets have been signaled over the al-Shabaab forces, and it has been speculated that they might have been American planes, but the US denied the assumption.

Kenya started the operation as a retaliation for a series of raids by Somali gunmen who have attacked and abducted foreigners from Kenyan territory. Kenya is concerned about the prospect of al-Shabab attacking Nairobi, and westerners which are fundamental to its economy. Recently, al-Shabab threatened to bring the ”flames of war” to Kenya.

Near the border, in Kenya’s own territory, the Kenyan security forces are launching a crackdown on Kenyan residents suspected to be helping al Shabab. Inside Somalia, Kenyan forces captured six towns in six days, including the pirates’ havens of Ras Kamboni, Dhobley, Tabda, Beles Qooqani, Oddo and Kolbio.

The main objective of the current campaign is the town of Kismayu, and nearby ports of Marka and Baraawe, providing the main source of revenue for al Shabaab, from port fees, business taxes and smuggling. Kenya has refused to put any timelines to its mission, announcing that it will withdraw only when it feels that Al-Shabaab is no longer a threat. Negotiation with the terrorist group is currently ruled out, and it is expected that the African union will be reinforcing the currently heavily-understrenght military presence in Mogadishu. Authorized by the UN in 2007 and set at 12.000 men, the force present at the moment counts only around 9000, from Burundi and Uganda. On November 15, the Intergovernmental Development Authority, that groups together Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan and Somalia will organize a conference, and it is expected that Uganda and Burundi will then confirm their willingness to provide a further 4,000 men, with Djibouti deploying 1,000 more. This force, known as AMISOM, is currently holding its positions in Mogadishu, with the spokesman Paddy Akunda saying there are currently no plans to provide support for Kenya's mission, although, asked if AMISOM had any plans to join the Kenyan operation at a later point, Akunda said they would "cross that bridge when we get there."

The US recently confirmed that they are flying drones from Ethiopia all the way over Somalia. It is also well known that US Special Forces have made raids into Somalia in several occasions to fight terrorist groups linked to Al-Qaeda. At the moment, any link to the Kenyan operations is denied, but it is hard to believe it, and in any case no one, in Europe or in the US, can possibly oppose the current stance of Nairobi. They are doing the dirty job for us.

Commandos raid

And in the list of “events” relating to Somalia, it has today been confirmed that the Royal Marines made, last July, an amphibious raid into Somalia. Viking armoured vehicles were involved, inserted with landing crafts by 539 Assault Squadron. The vehicles then pushed “well inland” in the lawless Somalia to seize an influential local clan chief, which was taken back to the amphibious ship. 

Viking vehicles of 539 Assault Squadron during exercises in Cyprus as part of Cougar 11 deployment. Between Libya war and raids in Somalia, the amphibious ready group has had an eventful deployment!

The clan chieft was then questioned by MI6 and Foreign Offfice officials, centering on issues such as terrror training camps and the seizing of hostages. A very “Commando-style” operation, one which was not done in quite some time. Details are still minimal, and it is unlikely that much more will be told.

More worrisome than piracy, is the fact that UK and US-born terrorists are believed to be increasingly travelling to Somalia for training rather than Pakistan and Afghanistan, making of the lawless country the “new” (not really) hot spot.

Very little is known about the raid. Not even the name of the ship involved, or which Commando unit. However, it is quite easy to restrict the options: it was probably HMS Albion since she headed ‘East of Suez’ in June, after exercises in the Mediterranean sea. The Marines were from 40 Commando, embarked on board.

The ship had been part of the maxi-deployment “Cougar 2011”, first deployment of the Response Force Task Group (RFTG) - the UK's maritime quick reaction force, centered for the occasion on 40 Commando. The deployment saw HMS Albion, HMS Ocean, HMS Sutherland, RFA Cardigan Bay, RFA Mounts Bay, RFA Wave Knight and RFA Fort Rosalie involved, leaving the UK in early April in two main groups. Trafalgar-class submarine HMS Triumph and Type 42 destroyer HMS Liverpool were also to be part of Cougar, but they almost immediately were diverted to Libya, where they took part in the war.

The exercise set sail two weeks earlier than planned due to the war in Libya, and a significant number of vessels from the Task Group (mainly HMS Ocean and Fort Rosalie) were then assigned to operation Unified Protector. HMS Albion moved on with the exercise, and passed Suez, so she is almost certainly the source of the Somalia raid.   

For sure, even with incomplete information, summing it all together, we have the picture of quite a dangerous situation developing in Somalia, with some potential for further developments.

Towards tomorrow's minesweeping ops

Minesweeping today

The drones

SeaFox: In 2006, the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) announced that it had placed an order worth around £35m for 16 ship sets and a war-stock of expendable mine destructor vehicles of the Seafox One-Shot Mine-Disposal System (OSMDS). Prime contractor Ultra, developer and design authority Atlas Elektronik and logistic support house Babcock was to supply the systems to the RN over a period of three years, starting in 2007.
The contract award followed the successful deployment of the system back in March 2003 during 'Op Telic' when Atlas Elektronik provided the RN with a number of Seafox rounds for operational use in theatre.

An MOD report – entitled 'Operations in Iraq: Lessons for the future' – stated that the one-shot system was 'vital to clearing the waterway leading to the port of Umm Qasr', and that 'it is estimated that the OSMDS reduced the time to neutralise a mine by a factor of four'. The Seafox system offered UK forces a simplified and quicker system, which required fewer operators.

Subsequent evaluation tests since then, both in a tank and at sea, and a live trial of the explosives against sea mines, convinced the MOD of the value of such a system, until the decision was taken, and the OSMDS replaced the PAP Mk 3 and Mk 5 remote controlled mine disposal system vehicles previously used by the Rn’s fleet of MCMVs.

The current SeaFox is actually a family of drones, with two different machines working in cooperation: the re-usable SeaFox I is the “recce” element, used to locate the mine on the seabed, while the SeaFox C is a suicide, one-shot disposal drone which is destroyed together with the mine to neutralize. The SeaFox I, remarkably, can be readied for a new mission in just 15 minutes after being recovered at the end of the previous sortie, while the shaped charge warhead used by SeaFox C is insensitive and allows for safe transport. SeaFox is operational in Sea State 5, and has a range of some 1000 meters.  

SeaFox and a mine on the seabed. Found ya!

Currently, minesweepers deploy SeaFox by a modified crane dropping the drone into the water from the side of the ship. Recovery is done by using a portable command console that a man from the deck of the ship uses to visually drive the drone onto a “fishing net” which is then lifted back up on the ship. ULTRA has a good video showing all the operations, you can see it here.

SeaFox is, currently, the main weapon of the Hunt and Sandown class minesweepers, and the system has been again used, wholly successfully, in the recent Libya operations, when HMS Bangor disposed of a 2500 pounds mine and a torpedo which had been obstructing entrance to the port of Tobruk.

REMUS 100: Again, operations in Iraq in 2003 inspired the evolution of core-role equipment for the RN’s MCM operations. The UK MCM capability deployed during 'Op Telic' was enhanced with the Australian-developed Shallow Water Influence Minesweeping System (SWIMS). SWIMS was developed specifically for this operation and was the coalition's remote-controlled minesweeping equipment designed to operate in the small rivers and waterways in the south of Iraq. SWIMS uses Mini Magnetic Dyads which are towed behind Combat Support Boats to blow up magnetic mines. A mini-dyad is a floating tube, which contains high-powered strontium ferrite magnets. When strung together with a noise maker, a number of mini-dyads are able to fool the mine into thinking that a ship is passing by, causing detonation

The Dyads were acquired from Australian Defence Industries (ADI) as they were the only known influence minesweeping system self-powered and able to operate in a shallow water environment. The mini-dyads were acquired by the Royal Navy to undergo a 12 month testing period, but were rushed into service to deal with the sophisticated Manta mines laid by the Iraqi forces in the Khawr Abd Allah waterway during operation Telic.

SWIMS successfully filled a gap in the RN's shallow water capability, and after being procured against a tight timescale and delivered through the Urgent Operational Requirement process, offered very good reliability in theatre.

Interestingly, the US used the AN/ALQ-219 SWIMS system, towed by helicopters such as CH53 and MH60, a work for which Japan uses the AW101 Merlin. The Royal Navy does not have a great fondness for this kind of methods, also due to its cost, but an Aerial drone is planned as part of the future, stand-off MCM capability. It will be interesting to see what role such drone receives as part of the overall solution.

Building on the success of SWIMS in Iraq, the RN subsequently introduced a very shallow water UUV (from 30m to the surf zone) capability. The experience of operations in Iraq in 2003 is behind the decision to acquire 10 REMUS 100 vehicles. The UUVs were acquired in March 2005 from Hydroid under a £2.7m contract awarded by the UK Defence Procurement Agency. Two further systems, which have been trialed by QinetiQ, have subsequently been upgraded to the same standard as the new vehicles, giving a total inventory of 12 vehicles. QinetiQ and Babcock provide training and logistic supports for the UUVs. The REMUS 100 only weights 37 kg and is designed for operation in coastal environments up to 100 meters in depth.

REMUS 600: The MOD then procured two large UUVs to undertake MCM reconnaissance, hydrographic surveys and environmental monitoring, but they will also be capable of providing more general support to both military and civilian search and salvage operations. The contract was signed in 2007, and saw the acquisition of the US manufacturer Hydroid's REMUS 600 drone, for some 5.5 million pounds. The REMUS 600 vehicles provides a detailed maritime survey and mine detection and classification capability, and was procured for MCM reconnaissance in the 30m to 200m depth range, although the vehicle can operate down to 600m. It is fitted with a range of sensors and runs on re-chargeable batteries giving it an endurance of over 70 hours. The Remus 600 can be deployed from any vessel equipped with a one tonne crane or davit, so it is a quite easily deployable system, although they will almost certainly be mainly operated from the RN's Hunt class minesweepers. The Remus 600 weights 240 kg, and is remarkably similar to a lightweight torpedo such as Stingray, sharing even the 324 mm diameter of it.

The manned part of the deal: The other key tenant of the navy's MCM capability is of course undertaken by the UK Royal Navy's Fleet Diving Squadron (FDS). Limited in terms of numbers, the role of the FDS is increasingly expanding into new areas, and new technology is required in order to accomplish additional roles.

The FDS has a wide remit, including dealing with unexploded Second World War mines, conducting underwater surveys of ports and jetties for deployed RN ships, and clearing waterways and beaches of mines ahead of the arrival of amphibious assault forces or humanitarian aid.

The majority of the RN's operational clearance diving has been to a maximum depth of around 50m. Some aspects of MCM require a deep dive capability, such as mine investigation and exploitation, particularly in the early stages of a campaign when it is important for the MCM Vessels to know what they are up against. They can then alter their tactics accordingly.

Each RN MCMV currently has a diving team on board to undertake mine-clearance operations. As a result of this requirement, an RN diver can expect to spend roughly one-third of their career as a minehunter in the MCMV fleet.

Each MCMV team has three AB divers, one leading hand and one petty officer diver, as well as two specialist mine clearance divers. The divers are there as part of the weapon system of the ship along with the remote controlled mine disposal system vehicles. They are there to identify contacts detected by the ship's sonar. Once a contact has been identified, the diver can lay explosives to destroy the mine.

Towards MHPC and tomorrow’s stand-off minesweeping

The MCM, Hydrographic, Patrol Capability, or MHPC for short, previously known as “C3”, is the multirole mothership and the associated family of unmanned drones and systems that the Navy plan to use to replace its current fleet of minesweepers and the two Echo class survey ships from around 2018. The programme, with a budget currently indicated in some 1.4 billion pounds, aims for some 8 ships, which as the name suggest will combine several roles in one only hull.

They will be rather large ships (2000 to 3000 tons), with steel hulls and thus with nothing to share with current, expensive, plastic-hulled minesweepers. The Hunt class minesweepers have the (questionable) glory of being the most expensive ship per ton built for the RN. They have superb capacity of holding a steady position even in rough waters, and their Glass-Reinforced Plastic hulls allow them to slip even into minefields. However, GRP is of course not as good as steel for seafaring and for resistance, and the Hunts and Sandowns aren’t the best of ships to sail in rough seas. They are also slow and relatively short legged, which makes their deployment to the Gulf more difficult. The US Navy has been using Float On – Float Off (FLO-FLO) vessels for long range transfers of minesweepers, but this of course is not financially viable for the UK.

The MHPC will be larger, built out of steel, and with a greater range and endurance, suitable for Ocean Patrol and Maritime Security taskings, as implied by the “Patrol” part of their name. They will be ships more capable across the range of roles, and far more deployable. But they won’t have the Hunt’s capability of going into minefields.

Nor does the RN want ships to go into minefields anymore. Ever since 2005, MCM ops are increasingly of a stand-off nature, and the Combined Sweep kit used by Hunt minesweepers has been retired.   

The MHPC will have to do its MCM work from a safe, stand-off position, which might be miles away from the minefield to remove. To do this, and to cover all other missions it is asked to take over, it will have to be able to carry and operate suites of modular, remotely-controlled or autonomous kit.  

ATLAS Elektronik is the MOD’s selected main partner for working towards such an unmanned MCM “systems of systems”. If the plan is not changed, before this month is over, ATLAS Elektronik and the MOD / Royal Navy will stage a week long test and demonstration campaign, to validate the latest solutions and continue to refine the concept.

Such week of activies would build on the success of another demonstration, which ATLAS staged last July, when the company showcased its C-IMCMS system and concept at its test site at Bincleaves, Weymouth on south coast of England. Representatives from Germany, Great Britain, Canada, the USA, Belgium, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Thailand took part. During this demonstration, there was no mothership, but a containerized command centre deployed ashore, and a variety of drones deployed again from ashore. The new demonstration of this month, if confirmed, should be staged from a ship, probably a RN Hunt minesweeper.

The July demonstration, anyway, was already of capital importance, as it proved the immediate feasibility of a number of concepts indispensable for the successful prosecution of the MHPC vision. The C-IMCMS (Containerised Integrated Mine Countermeasures System) consists of several systems:

-          a portable combat management system as well as the analysis software CLASSIPHI for post mission analysis of side-scan sonar data, which, installed in a TEU container, would be easily transferable to any vessel with sufficient space provision and adequate power interface

-         the unmanned surface vessel (USV) FAST, developed by ATLAS under a 2007 contract awarded by the UK MOD

-         the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) SeaOtter Mk II;

-          the mine disposal system (ROV) SeaFox

FAST (Flexible Agile Sweeping Technology): this USV was developed by ATLAS ELEK-TRONIK UK to carry out acoustic and magnetic influence sweeping, in which a towed body is used to emulate the corresponding signatures of a ship and thus cause the mines to detonate. The FAST was funded by the MOD with the aim of developing a replacement for the Combined Influence Sweep (CIS) capability which was dismissed from the Hunt class minesweepers in 2005. It has yet to enter service, but was trialed successfully in several occasions since 2009, and it is being used actively to shape the future requirements and systems.

According to a Sunday Mirror article, the FAST drone will be ready for adoption in service within the next two years. But the article is wrong on the 600-jobs loss and on the Hunt retirement rumor. This is a conclusion too bold: the FAST is actually intended, ever since it was ordered, to EQUIP the Hunt class minesweepers to replace them in the dangerous Combined Sweep work, not to REPLACE the vessels and their crews whole. In this sense, Babcock did already prepare plans for the modifications to the rear working area of the Hunt class, which will enable each Minesweeper to carry and deploy a couple of FAST drones.  So, while some jobs will be perhaps lost, the scenario is very different from that painted by the short article. Far more jobs are effectively at risk come 2018, when the 8 MHPC eventually replace 14 Hunt and Sandown vessels, but this is another story, and one too far away in time for advancing hypothesis about. 

Babcock has already made proposals for modifications of the rear area of Hunt minesweepers, to allow the carriage and deployment of two FAST drones

Since contract award, the role of FAST has expanded. From a more sophisticate, non-UOR SWIMS, it became an unmanned workhorse acting as a mothership itself to a range of other drones. During the July demonstration, in fact, FAST was used to remotely deploy SeaFox. SeaFox can work some 1000 meters away from the deploying platform, so it is essential to have a “taxi” platform capable to deploy it at distance and fitted with radio for relaying data to and from the SeaFox drone over the miles separating it from the mothership. And this was demonstrated in July, proving that one of the most challenging aspects of the whole concept is perfectly feasible, and indeed already working. SeaFox was for the first time remote-controlled from the container based ashore through a combination of a radio link to the FAST USV and a fibre-optic cable from FAST USV to Seafox. Both sonar and video data captured by SeaFox were transmitted in real-time via radio link.

The FAST (Flexible Agile Sweeping Technology) system is being developed by an industry team led by Atlas Elektronik UK, and has completed an Interim Design Review for a mine countermeasures (MCM) Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) demonstrator system under development for the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD). The Atlas-QED industry team also includes EDO Corporation and QinetiQ. The consortium won a GBP4.3 million (USD8.6 million) contract from the UK's Research Acquisition Organisation in May 2007 for the two-year Technology Readiness Demonstrator (TRD) programme, known as Flexible Agile Sweeping Technology (FAST), which culminated in trials aboard HMS Ledbury in mid 2009.

The FAST platform is a modified Logistic Support Boat (LSB-R), sharing the hull of the proven, in-service Combat Support Boat.  The CSB is a powerful, versatile craft whose major role is to support both bridging and amphibious operations.  The FAST platform builds on the success of the CSB while incorporating significant performance improvements to meet the demanding requirements of this programme. 

A graphic of FAST, shown in its main roles: as "taxi" for SeaFox, and as Combined Influence Swep drone

 

The FAST system’s main features are:

• Flexible
• Configurable 2/3-Electrode magnetic sweep and Integrated Coil
• Cable design includes replaceable electrodes
• Easily configurable for alternative noise source(s)
• Design accommodates multiple towing configurations
• LSB-R - New Engines/Jets, Hamilton blue ARROW Control
• Clip-on sweep system
• Integrated Sweep Payload control

• Agile
• Remote/Autonomous Control
• Combined Planing/Displacement hull
• Revolutionary Waterjet/Control system

• Sweeping
• Enhanced ITT Power Generation Unit
• Waveform Generation
• New Sweep Cable design

• Technology
• Fly-by-wire
• Open Standards
• Common Interfaces
• Collision Avoidance

Evolving the SeaFox: this year, SeaFox has evolved. Presented also at the DSEI show, the new concept was introduced by Atlas Elektronik, teamed with ECS Special Projects Ltd. The new idea was to install a stand-off EOD killer effector on the re-usable SeaFox I. The COBRA (Clip-On BX-90 Re-loadable Assembly) can be fitted to the re-usable SeaFox vehicle offering Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) capability from surface to 300m depth, removing the need for the SeaFox C, and providing a reusable disposal system  offering multiple target prosecution / multiple target initiation by remote means. In addition, SeaFox has now been evolved to be deployable even from a RHIB, allowing stand-off, automated operations away from the mothership.

These two new capabilities will be priceless, and in addition to FAST, will provide the Royal Navy with an effective, wholly remotely-operated mine disposal capability. An unmanned FAST, properly kitted, could deploy from the mothership, to which it’ll be connected by radio link, enter the minefield, and deploy (and then recover) the SeaFox I drone fitted with COBRA for the disposal of the threat. The advantage of COBRA is also in the inferior time that will now be required for disposal, as the RECCE element will be now capable to dispose of the mine by itself, without need for a second vehicle to be launched and vectored to the target. SeaFox is now an “hunter-killer” asset, evolving in the same way the Predator UAV has, by changing from an unarmed scout to a long-endurance killer.

Cobra is a “mask” worn on the front end of the SeaFox vehicle. For mine disposal, Cobra attaches itself to the mine while the SeaFox vehicle manoeuvres away. Attachment can happen in three ways: nail attachment units, harpoon for soft-skinned targets, and magnetic grabs. In this way, only the COBRA is disposed of, while the SeaFox I returns to the ship for recovery, providing a considerably cheaper and easier solution for disposal of mines.

An unmanned, Stand Off MCM solution taking shape: So. REMUS 100, 600, SeaFox, perhaps “tomorrow” used with COBRA, and FAST seem to be an excellent “terminal” section of the Minesweeping operation. They also are a mature and proven solution, which can provide a very solid base for development of a containerized, ship-agnostic MCM capability for the future navy. Arguably, these systems are modern enough that at least some of them are very likely to migrate from the current Hunt ships to the MHPC, assuming that the MHPC is not delayed by decades as sadly happened with recent ship programmes.

But, of course, before employing these systems, we have to discover where the minefield is, something that, currently, is done largely by the sonar of the minesweeper. If we have to remove the minesweeper from the equation, we have to offload the sonar payload to a remotely-operated, unmanned platform as well. MHPC or Type 26 will of course have sonar themselves, but we still are not going to want them scouting in a possibly mined area, for obvious reasons. The excellent, Thales 2193 sonar, adopted in 2004 for the Hunt fleet, has the capability to detect and classify an object the size of a football at a range up to 1,000m, but this distance is far shorter than the desirable one for the future.

ATLAS Elektronik, has demonstrated to the MOD their own solution, which is based on their Sea Otter MK2 autonomous underwater drone. This 1-ton drone can be equipped with a high-resolution side-scan sonar. In addition, it can be fitted with other mission payloads, including a powerful MCM synthetic aperture sonar, as it has a 160 kg useful payload. It has a search endurance of 24 hours at a 4 knots speed. It can dive to 600 meters, and is some 3,45 meters long. Once a drone was selected and kitted, it would need a containerized launch and recovery solution, to make it easily deployable on the Mothership, and this should not be an issue. In this sense, Think Defence’s own article about Minesweeping can provide more info. 

The Sea Otter MKII is a solution for the problem of finding the mines with sonar searches.

Other possible platforms for the role could emerge. One alternative could be BAE System’s Talisman. But a larger Unmanned Surface Vehicle, launched from the mothership, could also be the way to go to provide a platform to send in harm’s way, carrying the sophisticate sonars, such as the Thales 2093 variable depth sonar used on current minesweepers. Indeed, France looks set to follow this very path, even if FAST, due to its smaller sizes, has the advantage of being more readily carried by pretty much any kind of vessel, including the Type 26 frigate in the Mission Bay aft. The French unmanned boat is much larger, and could pretty much only be carried by the 2-3000 tons motherships they envision to replace their own minesweeper fleet.

French connection

MCM systems are an area of possible collaboration highlighted following the Lancaster treaty between UK and France, and in the sea environment, there is a surprisingly similar timeframe and requirement which could make such collaboration possible on a very large scale.

France is in fact planning to start replacing its current MCM fleet in 2018, with a fleet of multimission motherships of as many as 3000 tons, employing a standoff suite of MCM drones and systems. Roughly, the same target that the Royal navy is pursuing. The French effort comes under the name Système de Lutte Anti Mines – Futur (SLAM – F) and aims to a “system of systems” capable to operate in a minefield 10/14 miles away from the mothership, even in Sea State 5.

Following studies started in 2009, France is currently considering a mothership of around 3000 tons, which will deploy a large multifunctional Unmanned Surface Vehicle “taxi” that will deliver the Mine Countermeasure assets from the mothership to the danger zone. 

The target is to build some 5 Motherships, each capable of deploying two or three “Taxi” vehicles. They are considering a catamaran vessel for the mothership role, offering higher speed than current Eridan minesweepers and larger deck and working areas. 

And this might be an issue: even if the MHPC design of the Royal Navy is far from taking on a concrete shape, a catamaran solution might cause some eyebrows to rise in a traditional organization where monohulls are preferred.

Another possible issue on the way of collaboration is represented by the philosophy and sizes of their Unmanned Surface Vessel, as it is a stealthy catamaran displacing some 24.5 tons, 17 meters long and 7.5 meters wide, presenting some challenges regarding launch and recovery, particularly in rough weather, and anyway making the USV hard to deploy with anything other than its intended motherships, differently from the much smaller FAST. France, in studies dating back to 2009, assumed that the final USV design would be made compatible with the Mistral LHDs as well, but carrying USVs would still almost certainly require the sacrifice of some of the landing crafts, making it a far less than optimal solution.

Of such USV, they have built a prototype, already being tested at sea, the Sterenn Du. The unit was launched in 2010, and this year it should move into more advanced testing, with a towed array sonar planned for it, plus a number of submarine drones to be used for validating launch and recovery systems and procedures.  

There is obvious difference between the Sterenn Du and FAST

FAST and Sterenn Du are very different, but share the same notional mission (even if, at the moment, it does not appear that the Sterenn Du would run Combined Influence Sweeps, differently from FAST) as remotely operated “taxi” for underwater drones. They both are set to be the vital link between the mothership and the deployed underwater drones, with which the mothership very hardly could communicate without such a relay node in the middle. SeaFox, after all, works only up to a kilometer away from the launching ship, and the standoff operations envisaged for the future require the mothership to stay well further away than that. They have both advantages and faults: FAST is small, and this allows it to be employed also from the future Type 26 and possibly by other vessels of the Navy. But its small sizes are also a limit to what can be installed on it.

However, there is certainly scope for collaboration. France is trying to fuse its SLAM-F with the European Defence Agency’s project of studies into future MCM means, which involves some 13 nations, reportedly awakening some real interest, which is only going to get greater when the Sterenn Du eventually begins to successfully prove the concept and to do its job.

Ideally, collaboration could be expanded to the Mothership, with each other’s design being informed by the work of the ally. And possibly, in time, UK and France could end up deciding to pursue a single, high-commonality design for the vessel, in order to pursue savings and financial efficiencies in the building phase that both countries direly need. Which does not necessarily mean aiming for a “no differences” common solution. To be not just safe from problems stemming from national requirements incompatibilities, but also exportable, the new system should be as modular as possible, allowing each nation to, for example, select its own fit of radars, weapons and even engines for the Mothership, and of course drones for the proper MCM suite.

This year, anyway, and very possibly this very month, should provide us further news about the new MCM concepts, and about SLAM-F. It will be interesting to read into the results of the ATLAS demonstration to the MOD, when news come out.

I’ll ready to post all significant updates when time comes!