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The Conservative government is proposing more than $100 billion in defence spending on a series of projects that would see the Department of National Defence get new fighter jets, rescue planes, helicopters, drones, ships, satellites, uniforms and even rifles. The Defence Acquisition Guide is a list of more than 200 separate procurement projects the military hopes to undertake in the next 20 years. The guide is not a rock-solid program, but a road map of sorts for the Canadian defence industrial sector. The generic nature of the information in the guide has already cause some consternation. Only a few minutes...

South Korea will donate a corvette warship to the poorly-equipped Philippine navy amid growing tensions -- particularly with China -- over maritime territorial disputes in the region, the government said Thursday. The "Pohang-class corvette" will be decommissioned by the end of the year and donated to the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said in a statement issued this week. It was unclear if the donation would include the ship's weapons systems. South Korean Defence Minister Kim Kwang-jin informed his Filipino counterpart Voltaire Gazmin of the donation during his visit to Seoul on May 30, the statement added....

For two decades, the U.S. military has been unable to submit to an audit, flouting federal law and concealing waste and fraud totaling billions of dollarsLinda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S. Department of Defense’s accounts. Every month until she retired in 2011, she says, the day came when the Navy would start dumping numbers on the Cleveland, Ohio, office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Pentagon’s main accounting agency. Using the data they received, Woodford and her fellow DFAS accountants there set about preparing monthly reports to square...

Canada has selected the Type 702 off-the-shelf design from Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) for its Joint Support Ship (JSS) project. The Canadian DND announced the decision in early June and new design images for the JSS were released by TKMS on 10 June. The company said that it would ‘prepare the design package which Canada will provide to Vancouver Shipyards to review in preparation for actual production’. Vancouver Shipyards was chosen by the DND in 2010 to build the two JSS as part of its National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy that will ensure Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) ships are built in...

Brazil will buy 34 1A2 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks from Germany to provide security at World Youth Day and major sporting events, officials said Thursday. The tanks are likely to be used when Brazil hosts the World Cup next year and the 2016 Olympic Games. A Defense Ministry statement said the contract would be signed in the coming days with the total value still under negotiation. The used, 47.5-tonne tanks, which were upgraded in 2010 and fitted with new radar systems, will be able to operate until 2030, the G1 news website quoted anti-aircraft artillery brigade chief General Marcio Roland Heise...

The PWR reactor design for the Brazilian Navy’s future nuclear-powered submarine (SN-Br) has been completed. A model of the design, known as the 2131-R, and an actual-size combustion element were on display at the navy’s stand at the LAAD exhibition in Rio de Janeiro. A spokesperson from the Brazilian Navy told Shephard that the reactor design had been completed with assistance from France but that the reactor itself would be built in Brazil at a later date. The navy had two separate designs of the SN-Br on display at the stand. A model from the navy’s technology centre in Sao...

The Pentagon's decision to reduce the performance specifications for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will have a significant operational impact, a number of highly experienced fighter pilots consulted by Flightglobal concur. But the careful development of tactics and disciplined employment of the jet may be able to mitigate some of those shortcomings. The US Department of Defense's decision to relax the sustained turn performance of all three variants of the F-35 was revealed earlier this month in the Pentagon's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation 2012 report. Turn performance for the US Air Force's F-35A was reduced from...

Her Majesty’s Canadian Submarine (HMCS) Windsor returned to sea yesterday at Halifax, N.S., officially marking the completion of a deep maintenance cycle known as an Extended Docking Work Period. “HMCS Windsor’s return to sea is a key milestone and her crew now embarks on another challenging journey as they focus on operations at sea,” said The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence. “I commend the outstanding efforts of Windsor’s crew, our Fleet Maintenance Facilities and of industry that have brought us to this point.” “Over the next few months, Windsor will conduct additional crew training and trials on her...

The F-35 jet fighter purchase, the most persistent thorn in the Harper government’s side and the subject of a devastating auditor-general’s report last spring, is dead. Faced with the imminent release of an audit by accountants KPMG that will push the total projected life-cycle costs of the aircraft above $30-billion, the operations committee of cabinet decided Tuesday evening to scrap the controversial sole-source program and go back to the drawing board, a source familiar with the decision said. This occurred after Chief of the Defence Staff Thomas Lawson, while en route overseas, was called back urgently to appear before the...

What may weigh more than an M1 Abrams tank and carry 12 soldiers? The Army's Ground Combat Vehicle. New weight estimates for GCV, released this week by the Congressional Budget Office, will likely go over like a lead ballon with the program's critics in Congress and in the Army itself. Depending on the model and add-on armor package, an M1 weighs 60 to 75.5 tons. According to the CBO report, the General Dynamics design for the GCV weighs 64 to 70 tons. BAE s proposal is still heavier, at 70 to 84. Two years ago, when the Army withdrew its...

The manufacturer of the eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles that make up the backbone of the Army’s fleet at Joint Base Lewis-McChord is unveiling new models of at a conference this week, including ones that would have run counter to their initial purpose as a rapidly deployable medium weight infantry carrier. General Dynamics is pitching the new models as a path for the Army to improve its vehicle fleet without spending billions of dollars designing new options. One of the new models is a tracked Stryker that weighs some 42 tons – 22 tons more than an off-the-floor, basic Stryker infantry carrier.*...

India's air force has agreed to purchase 22 Apache AH-64D multirole combat helicopters from Boeing in a deal worth an estimated $1.4 billion. "The financial bid for attack helos was opened some time last week, and since Russia had withdrawn its Mi-28N Night Hunter, Boeing emerged as the sole bidder," a senior defense ministry official says. The Apache deal includes both direct commercial sale (DCS) and foreign military sales (FMS) components. The agreement also includes offset elements and firm, fixed-cost pricing. The FMS contract includes munitions, training, aircraft certification and components including engines, electro-optical sensors and the fire control radar,...

Australian Navy Collins-class submarine HMAS FarncombAustralian Minister for Defence Stephen Smith announced today that the Government is committed to acquiring 12 new submarines to be assembled in South Australia. He added that this commitment will be reinforced as part of the 2013 Defence White Paper. Smith said the Future Submarine project will be the largest and most complex Defence project ever undertaken by Australia. The project will involve hundreds of companies and thousands of workers, as well as Federal and State Governments, Defence, Industry and Universities. Four options are being considered for the Future Submarine fleet, Smith said, these options...

The U.S. Army and Marine Corps awarded Oshkosh, AM General and Lockheed Martin 27-month contracts to compete in the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle competition — the last round before a winner is selected to build the Humvee replacement fleet. Service officials surprised many by choosing AM General and Oshkosh over BAE Systems’ and General Dynamics’ bids considering BAE Systems and General Dynamics had taken part in the technology development phase of the program. AM General announced it’s independent bid from General Dynamics just days before bids were due to compete for the EMD...

The Polish Army plans to acquire up to 1,000 new tanks in different variants, reported local daily Rzeczpospolita. It is expected that Poland’s Ministry of Defense will sign a deal to launch production of the Anders, the tank prototype developed by Bumar Group’s OBRUM Gliwice research unit, according to the Polish newspaper. “The order will be placed with the Polish defense industry, but to boost the design and production phase, it will be vital to cooperate with top foreign defense manufacturers,” said retired . Gen. Waldemar Skrzypczak, Poland’s deputy defense minister responsible for the armed forces’ modernization. The Polish tank...

When the littoral combat ship Freedom needs scheduled maintenance overseas, the workers who step onboard had better be Americans. U.S. law bars foreign shipyard workers from doing such tasks as preventive and corrective maintenance, deep cleaning and corrosion control — crucial work for a ship manned by only 50 or so Sailors, meaning it will rely more on shore-based support than other U.S. Navy ships. And as more LCS hulls come into service, that foreign-based support will become ever more important. The U.S. plans to base four ships in Singapore — Freedom will sail there next year — and another...

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Minister for Defence Stephen Smith and Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare today announced the launch of the second Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) at the Navantia shipyard in Spain. The launch represented a major milestone in the shipbuilding process and was attended by the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs. Australia is acquiring two amphibious ships for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The LHDs are the largest ships ever built for the Royal Australian Navy and will provide the ADF with one of the most capable and sophisticated amphibious deployment systems in the world. The Canberra Class LHDs are...

The Army is changing clothes. Over the next year, America’s largest fighting force is swapping its camouflage pattern. The move is a quiet admission that the last uniform — a pixelated design that debuted in 2004 at a cost of $5 billion — was a colossal mistake. Soldiers have roundly criticized the gray-green uniform for standing out almost everywhere it’s been worn. Industry insiders have called the financial mess surrounding the pattern a “fiasco.” As Army researchers work furiously on a newer, better camouflage, it’s natural to ask what went wrong and how they’ll avoid the same missteps this time...