In this video produced by Lockheed Martin, the CH-53K is viewed at its first overseas appearance, namely at the Berlin Air Show.
For a CH-53K archive identifying and discussing the coming of this aircraft to the USMC, see the following:
https://defense.info/system-type/rotor-and-tiltrotor-systems/ch-53k/
The UK hosted a major European exercise on UK territory which tested ways to enhance collective defense.
According to a story in the Daily Mail published on May 3, 2018:
British troops have taken part in one of Europe’s largest military exercises with nearly 12,000 personnel from across 17 nations attending Salisbury Plain.
Exercise Joint Warrior sees forces from around the world gather together to share strategies and take part in different training scenarios.
As part of the programme, UK soldiers were involved in a live demonstration held at Salisbury Plain Training Area, in Wiltshire, today with the Joint Expeditionary Force.
UK They conducted urban combat operations with air support provided by Chinooks, Wildcat helicopters and Tornado jets.
Forces involved in the live demonstration, attended by the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, included troops from the UK Parachute Regiment, the Danish Jutland Dragoon Regiment, the Lithuanian ‘Iron Wolf’ Brigade and the Latvian Mechanised Infantry Brigade.
All three British armed forces were incorporated in the exercises and 16 other countries were involved including Norway, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, and the US.
The bi-annual exercise provides NATO allies and partner nations with the opportunity to train together across air, land, and sea.
Exercise Joint Warrior also hosted non-NATO partners such as Australia, Finland and Sweden and runs from April 21 to May 4.
According to a story published May 4, 2018 on the Ministry of Defence website, the exercise was highlighted:
Britain remains more committed than ever to our longstanding allies in the face of evolving and intensifying threats, including chemical and biological weapons, reaffirmed Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson today.
Speaking from the Joint Expeditionary Force’s (JEF) military exercise on Salisbury Plain, the Defence Secretary made clear the importance of the joint force in which the UK plays a leading role as the ‘framework nation’, working closely alongside Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Attending with Chiefs of Defence from all nine JEF member nations, Mr Williamson also commended the JEF’s ability to react to the full spectrum of operations, from humanitarian assistance and conventional deterrence, through to combat operations.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:
“Nations are judged by the friends they keep. The exercise today sends a clear message to our allies and adversaries alike – our nations have what it takes to keep our people safe and secure in an uncertain world.
“From counter-terrorism and anti-smuggling to information warfare, we are stronger by sharing expertise and developing joint tactics across air, land, sea and cyber.”
The live capability demonstration featured troops from the nine JEF nations, including troops from the UK Parachute Regiment, the Danish Jutland Dragoon Regiment, the Lithuanian “Iron Wolf” Brigade and the Latvian Mechanised Infantry Brigade, conducting urban combat operations with air support provided by Apaches, Chinooks, Wildcats and Tornados.
The exercise is the culmination of two weeks of intensive and specialised training across the country, ranging from amphibious and naval activity in Wales and Scotland to land based training in Wiltshire and air activity across the UK; all part of Exercise Joint Warrior.
Nearly 12,000 military personnel from 17 nations took part in the training scenarios involving multiple sovereign nations disputing resources and territories; counter-terrorism and anti-smuggling activity; information warfare; and evacuation operations.
The featured photo shows British troops posing for a photograph as they take part in a live demonstration held at Salisbury Plain Training Area, in Wiltshire, today. Credit: Getty Photos.
The Finnish Defence Forces are procuring four new Leopard 2L Armoured Vehicle-Launched Bridges to enhance the mobility of its ground defenses.
According to a Finnish Ministry of Defence story published recently:
The Finnish Defence Forces’ Logistics Command has received a mandate from Minister of Defence Jussi Niinistö to conclude a contract with Patria Land Systems Oy to procure Armoured Vehicle Launched Bridges (AVLB).
The Defence Forces will purchase four new Leopard 2L AVLBs which can operate Leguan bridges of varying length. The ALVBs will be based on the hull of the previously procured Leopard 2A4 tanks. Operating capacity for bridges of varying length will be also acquired for the six Leopard 2L AVLBs and nine SISU E15TP-L bridging vehicles, procured in 2004-2008.
The overall value of the procurement without value added tax is about EUR 28.6 million. It is part of the programme to develop the territorial defence combat system and especially the mobility of troops.
The deliveries of the new AVLBs as well as the upgrades of the previously procured AVLB and the SISU E15TP-L bridging vehicles are scheduled to take place in 2019-2021.
The Royal Netherlands Navy joint support ship HNLMS Karel Doorman is a very versatile ship.
In the featured video (in Dutch) a boarding role for the ship is highlighted in providing for security at sea.
In 2015, we discussed the ship and its role in an interview with the ship’s captain.
In a phone interview prior to the event with the Captain of the HNLS Karl Doorman, Peter Van Den Berg, the interoperability exercise and its origins was discussed.
Where is your ship now?
Van Den Berg: We are in Norfolk undergoing demagnetization. We will perform an interoperability test later in the week with regard to landing an Osprey onboard our ship.
http://cryptome.org/eyeball/lambert-deperm/lambert-deperm.htm
Your ship is a new logistical support ship.
What are its primary missions?
Van Den Berg: it’s designed as a logistical support ship, with its primary tasking is refueling at sea.
And having that capability and also this space, we also have a secondary tasking, which is strategic transport for heavy equipment.
And there’s a third task for providing the logistics from the sea base.
We can do that with the use of small landing craft or by using our very long, and large helicopter deck.
How did the test come about?
Van Den Berg: We were undergoing sea trials when we were tasked last year to support the Ebola emergency relief effort.
We had only four sea weeks on the clock when we were tasked to go to West Africa.
And while on station we witnessed the performance of the Osprey and decided that we would like to work on working with the Osprey onboard.
We requested such a test, and combined that with our visit to Norfolk for our demagnetization requirement.
Dutch naval engineers determined that we could support the weight of the Osprey and any heat generated by the engines, so we worked with the USMC to set up this test.
I should note that we only requested this test, six or seven weeks ago, and it was pushed forward by our commander general in the Netherlands with the leadership of the USMC.
You are a supply ship with some clear capabilities to operate more traditional rotorcraft, but how do you see the potential role of the Osprey for your ship as part of a coalition seabase?
Van Den Berg: I think the Osprey in amphibious warfare is a real game changer.
The Osprey will allow us the ability to sustain our support missions because of its ability to link us for a distance and with real speed.
There is a shortage of decks; we need a connector like the Osprey able to link up those ships into an operational seabase for a coalition effort.
And from an amphibious point of view, you can operate an Osprey deep and with speed inland.
It changes the nature of the meaning of amphibious operations.
It not only expands the operational reach, but can allow ships to be further from shore and be more secure.
Addendum June 16, 2015:
I heard this morning (June 16, 2015) from Captain van den Berg who notes:
This was a first timer for the RNLNavy to have an Osprey on the deck.
The operation went very smoothly.
In all aspects and opens up the possibility to have sustainable ops on board Karel Doorman.
This is a great step forward in the already existing cooperation and strong bonds between the Marine Corpses and Navies of both countries.
And the captain provided some additional shots of the Osprey onboard his ship which are seen in the slideshow earlier in the article.
Editor’s Note: Frankly, it is hard to understand why the US Navy would buy any warship which can not land an Osprey at this point in history.
And if a more direct point needs to be made: why buy an LCS, which can only operate helicopters or an unmanned asset like Fire Scout?
And one might note that the price point of the Dutch ship is of the same magnitude as the LCS.
The price of the Dutch ship is around 400 million Euros.
Story published in late 2014:
A Dutch naval vessel on its way to aid in the fight against Ebola has taken on supplies here in Gibraltar.
The Karel Doorman is part of an international effort jointly organised by the United Nations and the European Union.
It is carrying 62 cars and 40 containers full of supplies – as well as 1,500 metric tonnes of food.
The Karel Doorman is on its way to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
It will be spending Christmas out there, along with the Royal Navy’s RFA Argus – with one of its tasks, to bring the British crew their Christmas dinner.
About the HNLS Karel Doorman:
The Joint Logistic Support Ship (JSS) Karel Doorman is being built to ensure that the Netherlands armed forces will remain able to conduct operations outside the national boundaries in the future.
In this context, the ship is being built for 3 main tasks:
- Resupply at sea to support maritime units.
- Strategic sea transport, including debarkation and embarkation of staff and materiel if there are limited or no port facilities available
- Logistic support at sea (seabasing), in which the ship serves as the base at sea from which land operations are conducted and supported.
It is important that these tasks can be carried out in all parts of the spectrum of force, for instance during armed conflicts, warfare and civil support operations.
Specifications
Length: 204.7 meters
Beam: 30.40 meters
Height: 53 meters (including mast)
Weight of empty ship: 17,200 tonnes
Weight of load: max 10,600 tonnes
Draught: 7.6 meters
Displacement: maximum 27,800 tonnes
Propulsion: diesel-electric
Manoeuvring: 2 propellers and rudders, 2 bow propellers, 1 stern thruster
Power: 26 megawatt
Armament: Close-in weapon system (Goalkeeper) AT/FP automatic gun system 30mm, automatic .50 machine gun system, machine gun positions 7.62mm
Accommodation: 300 (crew and temporary crew)
Special features: The JSS will be equipped with a crane and lift to hoist heavy materiel.
The ship can transport about 5,000 tonnes of heavy rolling (armoured) materiel. The ship will have a hospital with 2 operating theatres. The JSS will also have landing pads for helicopters, such as Chinooks, Cougars and the NH90.
Platform
Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS) is the main supplier for the JSS platform. The hull construction work and a large part of the ship’s completion will take place at Damen Shipyard Galati in Romania. The commissioning and outfitting will take place at DSNS’s facilities in Vlissingen.
Mast with integrated sensor and communication suite
Thales Nederland is the supplier of the sensor and communication mast, the so-called Integrated Sensor and Communication Suite (GSCS).
This mast is virtually identical to the ones of the navy’s patrol vessels.
The Defence Naval Sustainment and Maintenance Organisation, in cooperation with Thales, is building the integrated mast.
The HNLS Karel Doorman shares combat systems with other Dutch ships, notably the I-Mast, an innovative Thales solution for provided an integrated combat solution set.
And according to Captain Van Den Berg, because of the height of his ship the I-Mast is placed higher than on other Dutch combat ships and provides even greater area coverage than on those other ships.
https://www.thalesgroup.com/sites/default/files/asset/document/Datasheet%20IM400_DS163_10_12_HR.pdf
And who was Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman?
Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman was put in command of Allied craft on hand and headed from the East Java port of Surabaya to confront the invaders.
His fleet comprised five cruisers and ten destroyers, of mixed Dutch, British, American and Australian flags.
Light cruiser HMAS Perth had already served with distinction in several theatres of war before arriving in the East Indies, while heavy cruiser USS Houston had seen action in the region for some weeks previously, becoming nicknamed ‘the Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast’ because the Nips had reported her sunk so often.
What would be called the Battle of Java Sea began mid-afternoon on 27 February and consisted of intermittent engagements in which Allied vessels were repeatedly repulsed by Japanese naval forces, with heavy losses to the Allies.
One by one, Allied craft came to grief or had to retreat.
Admiral Doorman was a casualty, going down with his ship.
Obeying orders, Perth and Houston fled westward to Batavia (Jakarta), the capital of the Dutch East Indies.
Next morning, the Japanese dispatched the remainder of the Allied fleet, except for four American destroyers that escaped south to Australia.
This battle was the largest surface engagement since World War One.
The Allied forces had been wiped out as a naval threat to the Japanese, whose invasion of Java was delayed by a merely a day, at cost of over 2,000 Allied lives but without the loss of a single Japanese ship.
On April 25, 2018, six aircraft from the 11th Fighter Wing arrive from Moron Air Base at Lithuania to participate in the Baltic Air Policing effort of NATO.
An A400M from the base provided the support equipment for the Fighter Wing Eurofighters.
This is the second time the 11th Wing has participated in this mission, the last being in 2014.
They will be there from May through August.
For the fourth time the Portuguese Air Force assumed lead of the Baltic Air Policing mission. During the traditional ceremony at Šiauliai Airbase on May 2 a detachment of the Portuguese Air Force was handed over the symbolic key to the Baltic Airspace from the outgoing detachment of the Royal Danish Air Force.
An additional detachment of the Spanish Air Force, also based at Šiauliai, will augment the Portuguese airmen during their rotation, next to a French detachment operating out of Ämari, Estonia as of May 3.
“As the Portuguese F-16 detachment commander, I’m proud of being part of this united effort, aware of the great responsibility and 100% committed to this mission” Lieutenant-Colonel Afonso Gaiolas, Commander of the leading Portuguese detachment stated in his speech during the ceremony. His detachment consists of four F-16 fighter jets and a total of 84 personnel.
The commander of the outgoing Danish detachment, Lieutenant-Colonel John Kristensen, took the opportunity to thank his Lithuanian hosts for their support.
“The Lithuanian Air Force and all the personnel on the Airbase provided outstanding support to us” he said.
Addressing his Airmen he added: “We have solved the mission with jets ready 100% of the time with only 54 people. That can only be done with dedicated and well trained personnel”. The Danish rotation was marked by their contribution to the 100th anniversary of Lithuanian independence for which Danish pilots conducted a flyby during a parade at Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.
Among the guests of the Handover/Takeover ceremony was General Tod Wolters, Commander Allied Air Command.
Addressing all three detachments he said “I’d like to express my personal and professional appreciation to you, the pilots, maintainers, mission supporters and operators for what you have done and will continue to do to secure the skies of NATO”. Allied Air Command, headquartered at Ramstein, Germany is NATO’s single command for all Alliance air matters and oversees all Air Policing in European NATO airspace.
Both Air Forces from Portugal and Spain are not new to the mission. During the fourteen-year history of Baltic Air Policing, the Portuguese Air Force deployed to Lithuania three times already in 2007, 2014 and 2016.
The Spanish Air Force is contributing to the mission for the fifth time after two deployments to Šiauliai in 2006 and 2016 and after augmenting the mission twice out of Ämari, Estonia in 2015 and 2017.
Four Spanish Eurofighter Typhoon jets will augment the Portuguese F-16s during the current rotation.
A third detachment from the French Air Force is going to take over an additional augmenting role from the Italian Air Force on May 3 in Ämari, Estonia.
Story by Allied Air Command Public Affairs Office.
The first quarter of this year, with the Danish Air Force in the lead, the Italian Air Force contributed its Eurofighters to the QRA mission in the Baltics.
As David Cenciotti noted in a March 14, 2018 piece on the mission:
As part of the Task Force Air (TFA) 36° Stormo (Wing), four Italian Air Force Typhoons are currently deployed to Ämari Air Base, Estonia, to augment NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission.
Together with the Royal Danish Air Force lead detachment at Siaullai, Lithuania, the task of the Italian Operation “Baltic Eagle” is to provide 24/7 fighter capabilities that can be launched by the CAOC at Uedem, Germany, in response to unidentified air tracks in the Baltic Region…..
This is the second time the ItAF deploy to the Baltic region to support NATO BAP mission. From Jan. 1 to Aug. 27, 2015, as part of the TFA (Task Force Air) based at Šiauliai, Lithuania, four Typhoons of the 4°, 36° and 37° Stormo (the three Wings that fly the Euro-canard) logged about 900 flying hours, launching for 40 A-Scrambles (Alert Scrambles) and more than 160 T-Scrambles (Training Scrambles).
Brexit is a process which have a major impact on the UK and Europe for sure.
And no matter what the Brexit negotiated outcome that will be sorted out between the EU and the UK, both continental Europe and the UK will have to find a way to work together going forward.
The UK has a long history of dealing with continental Europe as does continental Europe with the United Kingdom, and certainly not all peaceful.
Brexit is an episode of history which will be ingested as the UK and Europe go forward in the next phase of their interactions.
Clearly, the UK and as well as major continental powers will sort out a way ahead, but as they do so several trajectories of developments will be set in motion.
We are focused on defense, so for us, Brexit has a number of key impacts on the future of European defense and certainly NATO as well.
First, the UK is a major defense power within Europe.
What is its relationship to the continent after Brexit?
What does a post-Brexit defense policy look like for Britain?
Second, what impact will Brexit have on the internal cohesion of UK defense policy?
What role for Scotland and England?
And how will the Irish question intrude into the defense equation?
Third, will continental Europe meet the demands of enhanced defense responsibility for its own defense?
How will France and Britain work together?
Where will German defense policy focus its attention and its resources?
What impact will the UK have within European defense organizations or not?
Fourth, what impact will Brexit have upon the relationships between UK and continental defense and aerospace companies?
Airbus, Thales, MBDA, and Leonardo all have major working relationships and facilities in the UK.
What is their fate and how will these relationships work in practical terms as movement of personnel, taxes and import and export issues get sorted?
Will joint investments continue between Britain and the continent within these companies?
What is the future of Eurofiighter if the UK and continental European relationship is disrupted?
Will France and UK co-investments in missiles via MBDA continue uninterrupted?
There are a number of key questions to consider determining the fate of European and UK defense in dealing with the looming Brexit impacts.
A recent article in The Times highlighted one of those issues recently and constitutes our first Brexit note on defense.
In a piece published on May 4, 2018, Francis Elliot, the political editor of The Times, focused on the challenge of working the new European satellite system, Galileo, post-Brexit.
Galileo is a satellite-based navigation system created by the EU which aims to free European nations from having to rely on Russian, Chinese or US GPS systems. It is intended to be accurate within a metre and is considered crucial to UK military and intelligence needs.
The European Commission insists that the UK must be blocked from Galileo’s back-up system, needed by the military, as only EU members can have access to sensitive encrypted signal. That has infuriated Mrs May and senior ministers, even those such as Philip Hammond who support keeping the UK closely aligned with the EU. A Downing Street source said the so-called “war cabinet” was united in its determination to force Brussels to back down.
Britain has contributed about 12 per cent of the cost of Galileo, with overseas territories such as the Falklands providing some of the ground stations.
The chancellor has now authorised the effective sabotage of Galileo’s development by seeking to disrupt the transfer of encryption technology from a firm in the UK to France…..
The author then quoted Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI-6 and Professor Gwythian Prins, a former adviser to the chief of the defence staff, to the effect that the UK is not going to be able to work within the Galileo system given the way the EU works.
The EU was not ‘playing hardball’ on Galileo . . . It is merely operating within the strictures of its own vast and inflexible acquis of directives and treaties, just as it will do on all aspects of our ‘negotiations….”.
“They will have grasped that the UK’s departure means that a considerable chunk of finance, most of the expertise and several ground stations will be lost from the project . . .
So they need to trap the UK fly in a spider’s web so that after Brexit we are powerless, but still contributing money and the essential skills the EU needs.
Since so much of Galileo is British, the UK might do as the prime minister is reported to be considering seriously, namely develop its own global navigation network.
We strongly encourage her to take this prudent step in the interests of our national security.”
In the interview below broadcast last December, the former head of MI-6 focused on Brexit among other issues in explaining how he sees the way ahead.
The featured photo shows French and British soldiers working together during a recent military exercise © AFP