Integration of MQ-9 Into Philippine Airspace

08/16/2023

This video outlines the success of the Air National Guard’s citizen airmen in the first large-scale integration of the MQ-9 Platform into Philippine Airspace during Exercise Balikatan 2023.

The 163d Attack Wing in California, in conjunction with the 118th Wing in Tennessee, led the way as part of the first large-scale integration of an unmanned platform into Philippine Air Space.

They worked shoulder to shoulder with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to provide Intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, maritime domain awareness and simulated offensive air support for the exercise.

MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CA.

04.27.2023

Video by Staff Sgt. Joseph Pagan

163d Attack Wing

Red Flag Alaska 23-2

08/14/2023

After three weeks, RED FLAG-Alaska 23-2 has officially come to a close on Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Approximately 2,000 personnel from three countries and multiple branches of military service worked to train interoperability effectively as a larger tactical force.

RED FLAG-Alaska gives pilots the opportunity to utilize the Joint Pacific Alaskan Range Complex, comprised of rivers, mountains, and forests stretching 67,000 miles and stretches another 44,000 miles into the Gulf of Alaska.

IELSON AIR FORCE BASE

06.21.2023

Video by Airman 1st Class Lauren Clevenger

354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

Indonesia Adds to its Rafale Fleet: August 2023

08/11/2023

By Pierre Tran

Paris – Indonesia entered August 10 the second phase of buying the Rafale, with an 18-strong order entering into force, part of the total acquisition of 42 units, the aircraft builder, Dassault Aviation, said in a statement.

The order for 42 Rafale for the Indonesian air force is worth €8.1 billion, a French defense official said when the deal with Jakarta was announced in February last year.

“As part of the contract signed by Indonesia on February 2022 for the acquisition of 42 Rafale, the second tranche of 18 Rafale came into force today,” the company said August 10.

The first tranche came into effect September 2022, the company said, with Indonesia ordering a batch of six Rafale. The latest batch of 18 units brings Jakarta’s order to 24.

Indonesia’s order for the latest version of the French-built fighter is on a complete “turnkey” basis, the company said.

There appears to be a large industrial offset, with specialist training, tied to the deal with Jakarta. There will be “a substantial industrial return for the Indonesian aeronautical sector,” the company said, and “educational projects will also be launched as part of the technical training of aeronautical know-how.”

No further details were immediately available.

Indonesia’s order for 18 more Rafale came into effect with a down payment of some 16 percent of the deal, business website La Tribune reported. Jakarta had to juggle with claims from other arms programs for funds needed for the second Rafale tranche.

Indonesia raised $3.9 billion on foreign loans, allowing purchase of Mirage 2000-5 fighters and the second order for the Rafale, specialist publication Jane’s reported Nov. 15, 2022.

That loan was reported to allow Jakarta order 12 second hand Mirage 2000-5 fighters, formerly flown by Qatar, in a deal reported to be worth $734.5 million.

The Mirage served as a short-term gap filler, allowing Indonesian pilots to familiarize themselves with a French concept of operations until they receive the Rafale in January 2026, French media reports said.

The French fighters also allow the Indonesian air force to cut use of Russian-built Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 fighters, which form part of the fighter fleet, which includes the U.S.-built F-16, British Hawk, and South Korean KAI T-50.

Indonesia is also looking to buy some 30 Boeing F-15 fighters and related weapons, worth some $13.9 billion, in a deal reported to be approved by the U.S. State Department.

The western allies are putting pressure to cut international reliance on Russian weapons in response to the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That sale of Mirage 2000-5 to Indonesia is seen as boosting sales for Dassault, which will deliver service support, and help business ties in a nation seen as significant in the Indo-Pacific region, an area France seeks to boost its military and political presence.

A French military training company, Defense Conseil International, was reported to have helped the sale of the Mirage 2000-5 to Jakarta. The French state holds a majority stake in DCI, which supports sales of French arms abroad by providing training.

Qatar would have needed the French authorities to authorize the onward sale of the Mirage  to Indonesia.

Dassault welcomed the order for a fresh tranche of fighters for the Indonesian air force, which signalled an increase of business in the Southeast Asian nation.

“This new step consolidates the beginning of a long-term partnership with the Indonesian authorities, whom I would like to thank once again for their confidence,” Dassault executive chairman Eric Trappier said in the company statement.

“It testifies to the strategic link that unites Indonesia and France, and will be reflected in the growing presence of Dassault Aviation in the country,” he said.

The latest fighter sale follows a buoyant year of French foreign arms sales in 2022, a report from the armed forces ministry to parliament shows.

French arms exports last year were worth €27 billion, up from €11.7 billion in the previous year, news agency Agence France-Presse reported. Sales of the Rafale accounted for much of that rise in foreign deals.

“French armaments are not just appreciated through the Rafale, which with its weapons, contributes very significantly to this figure,” armed forces minister Sébastien Lecornu said in the report. “It presents itself as a worldwide reference across a broad spectrum of capabilities: missiles, frigates, submarines, artillery, helicopters, radars, observation satellites.”

The United Arab Emirates placed an order in December 2021 for 80 Rafale, worth €14 billion, and related weapons worth a further €2 billion, and that deal went into effect in 2022 when down payments were made.

Meanwhile, a reluctant administration approved in June the launch of a standing parliamentary committee of three senators and three members of parliament to report on government policy on arms exports and sales of equipment for dual military and civilian use.

Adoption of the parliamentary amendment was the price grudgingly paid by an administration which sought approval for the 2024-2030 military budget law with a seven-year budget of €413 billion, up 40 percent from the previous budget.

The government publishes an annual report on arms exports of the previous year to parliament, but does not inform parliamentarians of the foreign deals as they unfold.

There are two government bodies critical to selling French weapons abroad, and for which meetings and deliberations are held behind strictly closed doors, namely the interministerial committee for review of export of military matériel, and the ministerial committee for review of arms exports after authorization has been granted.

The new parliamentary committee will be able to hold hearings and request information, following the amendment tabled by the senate upper house.

Military spending around the world climbed last year, marking a high since the end of the cold war, with 2022 total expenditure hitting $2,240 billion, a 3.7 percent rise over the previous year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said April 24. The war in Ukraine and tension in East Asia fuelled that spending, the report said, with the sharpest rise in Europe, up 13 percent, spurred on by expenditure in Russia and Ukraine.

Featured Photo:  The French Rafale photo is credited to Dassaut.

USMC Tail-to-Tail Transfer of Supplies

U.S. Marines with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron (VMGR) 252 transfer supplies from a KC-130J Hercules into a CH-53K King Stallion assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 461 at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, June 7, 2023.

The tail-to-tail transfer of supplies allowed distribution of sustainment in the minimum time period of vulnerability by reducing break-bulk requirements. U.S. Marines with 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) experimented with dynamic, assault-support capabilities in a distributed-aviation environment.

VMGR-252 and HMH-461 are subordinate units of 2nd MAW, the aviation combat element of II Marine Expeditionary Force.

(U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Christopher Hernandez)

German Military Helicopters Train in Italy

08/09/2023

German Tiger and NH90 helicopters conduct flight operations at Capo Teulada in Sardinia, Italy during NATO’s exercise Noble Jump 23.

The unit are part of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force. Exercise Noble Jump 23 will see the Very High Readiness Task Force of the NATO Response Force (NRF) on the training ranges of its host nation in increase interoperability between its seven contributing nations Soldiers.

The NRF is a technologically advanced, multinational force made up of land, air, maritime and Special Operations Forces components that are rapidly deployable.

CAPO TEULADA, ITALY

05.10.2023

Allied Joint Force Command Naples

Preparation for Talisman Sabre 2023

08/07/2023

oldiers from the Australian Army’s 3rd Battalion and 2nd Cavalry Regiment deployed to the Townsville Field Training Area for Exercise Capital OTP.

The activity involved mechanised infantry and M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks fighting together to defeat a simulated enemy force. Exercise Capital OTP was one of the final combined arms training activities for Townsville-based soldiers as the 3rd Brigade prepared for Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 with the US military and other partner forces later in the year.

June 25, 2023

European Defence Armaments Cooperation: An August 2023 Update

08/06/2023

By Pierre Tran

Paris – There is a view that politics is really about personalities.

That notion comes to mind after Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury pointed up the frustration of Europe failing to cooperate on arms programs in the light of war in Ukraine – apart from the future combat air system (FCAS).

The Airbus top executive told July 26 CNBC that Europe was not “showing unity in addressing the new threats and solutions.”

“That’s very challenging, and it’s quite frustrating to see that the responses that have been provided so far are mostly of a national nature and not much of a European nature,” he said.

That national drive can be seen as a damper on building a strong European industry – including Airbus – to design and manufacture advanced weapons, and from which to place a steady flow of high-margin orders.

Instead, there is a view there are lucrative orders for U.S. systems, such as the iconic F-35 fighter jet, or deals sealed with dynamic allied nations such as Israel, South Korea, and Turkey as well as domestic manufacturers, which employ vote wielding workers whose wages boost the local economy.

There has been some cooperation, notably in the naval sector, and on a bilateral basis.
There was a July 28 contract for upgrade of the Aster 30 new technology (NT) missile for the four Horizon air defense frigates of the French and Italian navies – two for each of the allied services. That anti-missile weapon arms British, French, and Italian navies, the French armed forces said in a statement, pointing up the cooperative aspect of the Aster program.

In another cooperative naval deal, the Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office took delivery July 18 at Toulon base the Jacques Chevalier, the first of four fleet auxiliary ships, based on the Italian Vulcano logistic support ship. The DGA will hand over the supply vessel to the French navy.

The Jacques Chevalier represented “a strategic European industrial partnership,” French shipbuilders Naval Group and Chantiers de l’Atlantique said in a July 19 joint statement.

On the wider European front, a study led by Italy for a European Patrol Corvette is among studies funded by the European Union permanent structured cooperation. There are 25 EU states backing PESCO, Brussel’s expansion into support for the arms industry in the EU.

Another cooperative PESCO study, led by France, considers an airlifter, dubbed Future Mid-Size Tactical Cargo, which would fly alongside the A400M and replace the lighter Lockheed Martin C-130, Airbus C-295, and Leonardo C-27J.

Airbus is leading that industrial study for a future cargo aircraft, backed by €30 million from the European Defense Fund, which supports research and technology studies.

The EU has scrambled to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the quaintly named European Peace Fund acting as financial conduit for €1 billion of EU funds to reimburse in part member states which have sent ammunition and missiles to Kyiv, and a further €1 billion for EU states jointly to buy ammunition to refresh depleted national stocks.

The third part of the EU-backed program is Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP), with €500 million to help companies in the European Union boost production of ammunition and missiles.

Show Me The Program

While there are EU funds for R&T weapons studies, and to pay for shipment of munitions and missiles to war torn Kyiv, Faury’s point remains – where are the new programs?

There may be renewed interest in a Franco-German project for a new heavy tank and un-crewed vehicles in the main ground combat system (MGCS), but apart from that there appears little else on the horizon.

Just now, it looks like something of a personal and political dispute over what constitutes European, with French president Emmanuel Macron at loggerheads with German chancellor Olaf Scholz, who leads a plan to build a missile defense system against Moscow.

That Berlin-led project, dubbed European Sky Shield Initiative, draws on German, Israeli, and U.S. missiles to hit any incoming Russian weapons.

But the absence of Franco-Italian SAMP/T Mamba missiles in that planned system has sparked Macron’s ire, as he sees the German approach as undermining European strategic autonomy, a concept the French commander in chief has promoted as an alternative to European dependence on Washington and the Beltway.

Now Berlin has unrolled the red carpet for Israel, with its Israel Aerospace Industries Arrow-3 missile, in a deal reported to be worth almost €4 billion.

The French pursuit of autonomy is underpinned at a strategic level by an independent French airborne and seaborne nuclear weapon.

Jupiter is the code name for the duty officer carrying a black briefcase with nuclear launch codes for the French president, as noted in a book, The President and The Bomb (Odile Jacob), by authors Jean Guisnel and Bruno Tertrais.

Jupiter leads the Greek gods from Mount Olympus, keeps a watchful eye over mortals down below, and wields deadly lightning.

Limits Of Autonomy

The Russian invasion of Ukraine points up the limits of European pursuit of autonomy, with Finland and Sweden applying for membership of NATO, a military alliance led by the U.S.
Some in France see that transatlantic partnership as favoring orders for U.S. over European equipment, perhaps the price to pay for the American protective umbrella.

Finland has joined the alliance, and Sweden awaits formal approval from Hungary and Turkey, both expected soon.

The U.S. has reportedly given approval for Finland’s order for the Israeli David’s Sling missile, a procurement approved by the Finnish government in April, just after it joined Nato.

Underlying the pursuit of European missile defense against Moscow might be the question, who leads Europe – Macron or Scholz?

Underpinning that is – where are the orders for European kit?

The German chancellor invoked a Zeitenwende, a turning point in history, after Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the bloody incursion into Ukraine. In response, Scholz pledged an extraordinary €100 billion military budget for Germany and to hit the two percent target of gross domestic product, as requested by Nato.

Skepticism has crept in since Scholz grabbed headlines with his drive for martial modernization, as Berlin bureaucracy slowed the arms procurement process.

Across the Rhine, Macron’s invoking a “war economy” in response to Putin’s belligerence, has left some in the French arms industry disappointed as expectations of bumper orders were largely left unmet. Here, an exception might be missile maker MBDA, which has received hefty orders from Macron’s administration.

A 2024-2030 military budget law was published Aug. 2 in the Journal Officiel statute book, with a 40-percent increase in spending to €413 billion from the previous multi-year program.

For some analysts, much of that went to a scheduled modernization of nuclear weapons, and inflation is expected to wipe out €30 billion or maybe more.

Cool Relations

On the political front, France and Germany last month marked the 60th anniversary of the Elysée treaty, a bilateral agreement signed by the then president Charles de Gaulle and then chancellor Konrad Adenauer, marking a determination to forge close cooperation to rebuild Europe after the second world war.

But on the personal front, there appears to be little warmth between Macron and Scholz, making it harder to advance cooperation between the two nations, seen as key partners in forging European defense – and launching those programs.

Despite that coolness between the two political leaders, Germany has seen the need to pursue European cooperation to hedge the transatlantic bets, after Berlin saw how Trump won the 2016 election and forged an America First policy, with consequences for foreign allies. Even with the latest set of indictments, Trump is ahead in the polls for leading the Republican party in the forthcoming election.

A reflection of the importance of close personal ties can be seen with the then chancellor Angela Merkel and Macron agreeing at the 2017 bilateral summit, held here, the FCAS project, seen as a signature project for European autonomy.

Berlin’s backing for that key project has not prevented an order for the F-35, to extend the German air force’s capability to carry Nato B61 nuclear bomb after the fleet of Tornado fighters is retired.

On the industrial front, it can be argued that for Dassault Aviation, European cooperation on a fighter project is fine as long as it is led by the French family-controlled company.

That privileged approach can be seen in Dassault’s insistence on being the sole prime contractor on the new generation fighter in FCAS, despite Airbus Defence and Space seeking a joint prime contractor status.

France backed Dassault’s position, so in that respect, there was a national approach on a project held as key for European cooperation. Such is the perceived importance, Belgium has joined as observer on FCAS, joining the partner nations France, Germany and Spain.

Less Tension With The U.K.

On broad cooperation, Macron has long sought to keep the U.K. in the European defense fold in response to the Brexit departure from the European Union.

Britain and France are the two leading military powers in Europe, both equipped with nuclear weapons and holding a sought after permanent seat in the U.N. security council.

Rishi Sunak as prime minister is seen on the French side as welcome change from the previous tenant of Downing Street, Boris Johnson, seen as happily exploiting difficulties with France as welcome distraction from unsettling events at home.

Putin’s drive into Ukraine brought the cross-Channel allies together, but the question remains – where are the arms programs?

Britain and France are signatories of the 2010 Lancaster House treaty for bilateral defense cooperation, but there has been a lack of newly launched programs.

Italy has applied to join the Anglo-French future cruise/anti-ship weapon program, which will extend European cooperation in missiles, a key area of the Lancaster House pact.
On the A400M, Britain and France share spare parts for the airlifter, underlining cooperation.

Meanwhile France and Germany each went its own way for service support, with the former signing with Air France Industries, and the latter with Lufthansa Technik.

The U.K. has attended both meetings of the European Political Community, a broad group of nations promoted by Macron and part of his attempt to keep Britain close to Europe after leaving the E.U.

The most recent EPC meeting, attended by 48 European leaders, was held June 1 in Bulboaca, Moldova, just a short distance from the border with Ukraine, signaling support for Kyiv. Security and defense were high on the agenda, with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, attending the high-level meeting.

Political conferences are undoubtedly crucial policy tools, but for contractors it is a government order and down payment that count.

Maybe nationalism as a political movement sweeping across western Europe hampers a government’s willingness to sign up for a large, ambitious, cross-border arms programs. Far-right parties have gained populist ground in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, The Netherlands, and Sweden, making it harder to forge common projects with partners abroad.

It seems patience is indeed a virtue.

Featured Graphic: Dreamstime

Exercise Global Thunder 23

08/04/2023

U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, lands during exercise Global Thunder 23 at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, April 12, 2023.

Exercises like Global Thunder involve extensive planning and coordination to provide unique training opportunities for assigned units and forces.

04.16.2023

Video by Airman 1st Class Stassney Davis

92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs