The Australian government has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to add a fourth MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial system to the Royal Australian Air Force’s UAS fleet. The company said production of the three aircraft that were ordered initially is progressing as scheduled. According to Christine Zeitz, CEO and general manager of Northrop’s Australia and New...
Category: General News
Australia’s F-35A Jet Fighters Debut at Joint Air Combat Exercise Series With Indonesia
The Royal Australian Air Force’s F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters participated in the Australia-Indonesia air combat Exercise Elang AUSINDO 23 for the first time from Sept. 18 to 23. According to the Australian Ministry of Defence, six F-35A fighters were assigned to the exercise based in Manado, North Sulawesi. The training joins 150 RAAF...
New Zealand Breaks Ground on Major Repair Facility for Military Equipment
Wellington has begun construction of a new maintenance support facility at Burnham Military Camp in New Zealand‘s South Island. The military facility is one of nine major logistics projects under the nation’s $133.3 million Defence Estate Regeneration Program. New Zealand Defense Minister Andrew Little was present at the site on Wednesday for a groundbreaking ceremony to...
NATO Conducts Twin Exercises on Use of Maritime Unmanned Systems in Military Operations
NATO is conducting two exercises in Portugal’s Troia Peninsula to train participants on integrating new maritime technologies into joint military operations and operating autonomous underwater vehicles. The Dynamic Messenger 23 drills commenced training activities on Monday under the joint leadership of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation in the United States and Allied Maritime Command in the...
Thales Shifts Expansion to Overdrive as It Seeks More Acquisitions After Three Buyouts
Thales remains open to pour capital on additional mergers and acquisitions after three new acquisitions worth about $4.3 billion, the French defense electronics group’s Chairman and CEO Patrice Caine told the Financial Times. The recent buyouts include the purchase of U.S. cybersecurity group Imperva for $ 3.6 billion in July, the largest since the 2017...
US-Funded Cyber Defense Center Opens in Bulgaria
Bulgaria has established a Cyber Defense Center with funding from the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Military Financing program. The new facility, inaugurated on Thursday, is the latest contribution of the United States to the Balkan nation. In the last five years, Washington has provided more than $238 million in security assistance to help the...
European Defense Agency Begins Next Phase of Hybrid Drive Train Program
The European Defense Agency has commenced the second phase of its Hybrid Drive Train Demonstrator program. The organization held a kickoff meeting with representatives from participating nations such as Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Poland. The HybriDT program aims to design wheeled and tracked demonstrators with hybrid drive trains to improve defense mobility. Phase 2...
Switzerland Hosts Industrial Security Working Group Conference in Zurich
Switzerland hosted the 2023 plenary meeting of the Multinational Industrial Security Working Group as chair of the collaborative body. The event in Zurich from Sept. 11 to 15 saw more than a hundred participants from over 30 countries. The United States attended the plenary through representatives from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency’s Industrial Security Directorate, including...
Keysight Secures UK Grants to Develop Open RAN Intelligent Controller
Keysight Technologies has secured two Open Networks Ecosystem competition grants from the U.K. Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to develop an open radio access network intelligent controller. According to Mosaab Abughalib, senior director and general manager for Keysight’s Network Emulation Group, the project will use artificial intelligence and network security algorithms to design new...
EU’s Airborne Electronic Warfare Capability Buildup Enters Second Phase
The European Union’s Responsive Electronic Attack for Cooperative Tasks program will enter its second phase in the next few months, Indra Sistemas, the Spanish defense contractor heading the consortium working on the project, told Defense News. The project aims to provide a design for airborne electronic attack capabilities as well as a system to protect...