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For the first time ever, two People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN or Chinese Navy) aircraft carriers got underway and were at sea, at the same time. This took place on February 27, 2019.

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ORIGINAL: xavierv

Finally, two Chinese Aircraft Carriers at sea…

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The Submarine Design Contract is the first contract workscope to be fully executed under the Strategic Partnering Agreement.
The scope for this phase of work includes the ongoing maturation of the Attack Class design as it progresses into the next design phase known as the Definition phase. This will include the source selection of over 100 critical and main equipment that will contribute to the submarine design solution. This will mark significant opportunity for Australian industry, which together with ongoing Australian workforce skills development, will play an important part in the growth of the sovereign submarine capability in Australia.

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In a story published on March 2, the Swedish defense company confirmed that the future Expeditionary Submarine production process will see sections made in Karlskrona in Sweden and then assembled in Vlissingen in the Netherlands by Damen. This means joining of pressure hull sections and building of complex platforms and their insertion onto the body of the submarine. Validation and certification phases will also be carried out in Vlissingen. Full life cycle support will be executed in Den Helder, in the North of the Netherlands.

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India is set to conclude an agreement with Russia for the lease of a second nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN). The amount of the transaction will be around 3 billion US dollars.

According to Indian daily newspaper ‘The Economic Times‘, an intergovernmental agreement on the lease of an Akula-class submarine (Project 971) is likely to be signed on March 7, 2019. As part of the deal called “Chakra III”, the submarine will be transferred to India by 2025 after an extensive modernization program by a yet to be named Russian shipyard.

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The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) recently handed over the first SubROV Submarine Remotely Operated Vehicle to the Swedish Navy (Svenska marinen). SubROV is a tool that provides new capabilities to submarine crews, allowing them to carry out various tasks outside the submarine. The first users of the new system are the crews of the Gotland and Södermanland submarines.

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The littoral combat ship USS Charleston (LCS 18) was commissioned into the U.S. Navy during a ceremony in Charleston, South Carolina, March 2. USS Charleston is the 16th littoral combat ship to enter the U.S. Navy fleet and the 9th of the Austal-built Independence-class.

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This is Charles de Gaulle’s first deployment following its 18 month-long mid-life refit. As part of NATO Task Force 473 the CSG will operate in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. The task force should reach Singapore in late May.

French, European and international assests (from Australia, Denmark, United States, Portugal and the United Kingdom) will form the escort around the French aircraft carrier. Its airwing consists in 20x Rafale M, 2x E-2C Hawkeye, 2x Dauphin and 1x NH90 NFH helicopters.

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PEO CLB will provide oversight of the construction of 12 Columbia-class submarines (SSBN) that will help the US Navy maintain a credible, survivable and modern sea-based strategic deterrent into the 2080s. The Columbia Class will replace the existing Ohio Class nuclear ballistic submarine force, which entered service in the 1980s. The future submarines will be 170 m long and 13 in diameter, and should have 16 missile launch tubes instead of 24 missile launch tubes on Ohio-class submarines.

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In a document titled “Building the Next Generation Singapore Armed Forces”, Singapore’s Ministry of Defense outlines the future of the nation state’s forces in 2030 and beyond, as well as some of its procurement plans.

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The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (MoD) issued a prior information notice (PIN) for a Next Generation Surface Ship Guided Weapon (SSGW) contract for the Royal Navy.

The UK MoD Weapons, Torpedoes, Tomahawk and Harpoon (TTH) Project Team issued the PIN March 8, 2019. Note that a PIN isn’t a tender but is a notice used to set out a contracting authority’s purchasing intentions. A PIN is mostly used by contracting authorities to provide suppliers with information that they are planning a procurement process and provides suppliers with as much information as possible at an early stage.

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Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS (KONGSBERG) has entered into contract with Japan to supply the initial deliveries of JSM (Joint Strike Missile) for their fleet of F-35 fighter aircrafts.

KONGSBERG and the Government of Japan are not disclosing the value or volume of the contract. The JSM development started in 2008 and was completed in mid-2018 after a series of successful validation test firings.

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MBDA's Simbad-RC Very Short Range Air Defense (VSHORAD) System has been selected by the Philippine Navy for its future José Rizal-class frigates, currently being constructed by the South Korean shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in Ulsan.

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At the SNA 2019 symposium held in mid-January, Lockheed Martin unveiled a scale model dubbed "LCS with Lethality and Survivability Upgrades"

This scale model featured a number systems never seen before on a Freedom type Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), including four Nulka decoy launchers, eight NSM anti-ship missile launchers, two SEWIP Block 3 jamming modules and eight Mk41 vertical launching systems (VLS). Note that according to Lockheed Martin, these are the larger variant of the Mk41 (also known as “strike length”) meaning that, theoretically, an LCS in this configuration could deploy Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles (more realistically, the VLS would be used for quad-packed ESSM surface to air missiles, meaning a total of sixteen missiles).

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USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723) conducted a mobile logistics demonstration with the Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Cesar Chavez (T-AKE 14), March 11, in the first of many evolutions designed to evaluate supply ships’ ability to sustain submarine operations in an expeditionary setting.

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The latest image (March 2019) indicated that JF-17 (Block II?) has been carrying the new PL-15 long range AAM for testing.

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ORIGINAL: Hongjian

There are some indications that the Pakistani Airforce is integrating PL-15 long range BVRAAMs for the JF-17.

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The French consortium Belgium Naval & Robotics (formed by Naval Group & ECA Group) won the Belgian-Dutch MCM Program, the Kern (Belgian Council of Ministers) confirmed today, beating the two other competitors, Damen and Sea Naval Solutions.
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According to Belgian daily newspaper L’Echo, Naval Group and ECA Group underbid its competitors: The procurement of 12 vessels and associated equipment would ultimately amount to 1.756 billion euros, at the rate of 887 million for Belgium and 966 million for the Netherlands.

Under this 2Bn€ program, the Belgian Naval & Robotics consortium will design and produce 12 new generation Mine countermeasures (MCM) vessels and 10 tool boxes. The Belgian Navy (Marinecomponent / Composante marine) and the Royal Netherlands Navy (Koninklijke Marine) will each get 6 so called mine warfare “motherships”. Belgium was the lead nation for this procurement process.

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ORIGINAL: kevinkins

More on that darn RAND study ...

https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/03/article/did-rand-get-it-right-in-its-war-game-exercise/

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ORIGINAL: Filitch

US rocket engineers are world speediest. New missile is constructed in a week after withdraw from INF Treaty.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-military/u-s-looks-to-test-ground-launched-cruise-missile-in-august-idUSKCN1QU2WT

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ORIGINAL: kevinkins

Petty big news:

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/trump-administration-approves-sale-of-f-16s-to-taiwan/

"The Trump administration has approved the sale of dozens of new F-16 jet fighters to Taiwan, the first major warplane sale to the island state in nearly 30 years. The interagency decision, to be announced in the near future, authorized the sale of up to 66 F-16V jet fighters at an estimated cost of $13 billion, according to administration officials familiar with internal discussions."