A UAV contract is up for bids in the UK. UAVs are unmanned aerial vehicles, pilotless planes to us. Contractors are scrambling to get their bids in. Egypt's Fast Missile Craft program might be in trouble. The US is changing the terms of its Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to Egypt. The vehicles were being purchased from the US through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency's (DSCA) Foreign Sales Program (FMS).

The F-35C JSF has passed its tests. JSC stands for Joint Strike Fighter. All subsystems have passed and the Lockheed Martin Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter now has the green light. The US Navy will soon have a conventional landing and takeoff version for their carriers. These planes are getting really expensive. The US Air Force was trying to keep the price at 28 million per plane. There are many different versions of the aircraft. The plane was supposed to be a low cost replacement for the Air Force F-16. Different versions were to be developed for the Navy, Marines and British military. The cost in 2005 was estimated at 244.8 Billion Dollars for 2,400 planes. The cost of development just kept going up and the contractor states it was because the plane got too heavy. Development costs were up to almost 24.5 Billion dollars in 2005 and are predicted to hit 40 Billion dollars. Has this contractor found the golden goose, I just can't help but feel that this is true on almost every contract we award lately. My math may be off, but it looks to me that we are actually paying over One Hundred Million for a plane that was initially pegged at Twenty Eight Million.

The Royal Navy is conducting tests using an Integrated Electric Propulsion system (IEP) to power its Daring Class Destroyers. These are electrical 20MW Converted Advanced Induction Motors. They are also looking at a more advanced electrical propulsion system called Integrated Full Electric Propulsion or (IFEP). Will we have electric cars and electric ships some day, maybe? Just in, the ship has completed its sea trials and the British Ministry of Defence has stated that the ship has exceeded expectations.

Northrop Grumman has been awarded 21.5 million dollars to continue its work toward developing a future submarine. The submarine is to be smaller than current subs. They also received 16.5 million dollars to develop an external torpedo launcher for submarines.

Have you seen that robot that is called the mule? It was designed to carry objects on the battlefield. It looks like a small six wheeled platform, anyway it has passed all the obstacle trials. The mule is known as a UGV which is an Unmanned Ground Vehicle. The US and British military have been working hard to get their radio communication in sync. They want to be able to communicate with each other and have succeeded on a low level. A message was passed from a US Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) to a British Army Bowman tactical radio.

The US has decided that it needs vehicles that are resistant to shaped charges. They want to start ordering a fleet of vehicles that are resistant to this type of explosive. The vehicle they are looking at is the Bull armored vehicle. This is a EFP resistant vehicle that was developed by the DOD working with Oshkosh Truck Corporation and Ideal Innovations. The Boeing X-48B has completed its first flight on July 20, 2007. The vehicle is a Blended Wing Body aircraft and the engineers at Boeing are very pleased with the results. One said, the half-hour flight, during which the remotely controlled X-48B flew to an altitude of 7,500 ft, was an important milestone in the project's mission to explore the structural, aerodynamic and operational efficiencies of the BWB concept. In that vein, the US Navy has picked the Northrop Grumman X-47B over Boeings X-45 to be used to develop the first carrier launched unmanned aircraft system.

A good point was brought up. Ten years ago, many of today's military threats were not envisioned, yet we are planning vehicles and weapons for far into the future. Will there be different threats then, that are not being thought about now? A defense conference was conducted in London on September 10, 2007 on such a question.

A little known fact printed in Janes Naval Forces Briefs dated 10 August 2007, states that after the seizure of British sailors by the Iranians, the British dissuaded US Naval plans from low flying operations over the Northern Arabian Gulf. They stated that this "would not be helpful", in gaining the release of their 15 sailors.

Croatia has decided to order 84 Patria Armored Modular Vehicles (AMVs). Contract negations are ready to begin and the vehicles are expected by 2010.

Those mine and shaped charge resistant vehicles the the US is ordering are going to cost far more that just their expected construction price, because the US is also ordering communications equipment, weapons stations and extra armor for each one. Hey if this stuff will save lives, why not, but if it is just being ordered to fill the pockets of some greedy contractor with maybe a kickback to some legislator ,then it is time that this nonsense stopped.

The US Army has an updated M777 Lightweight howitzer. It is a 155mm gun that can fire the Raytheon M982 Excalibur GPS/INS guided projectile. This increases the range of the gun significantly, not to mention the accuracy.

I am beginning to think that it is only a matter of time before all fighter and bomber aircraft will be unmanned. When we look at what is being developed all over the world, we can see that this is the way technology is heading. France has agreed to a deal to sell anti tank guided missiles and Tetra communications equipment to Libya. It is said that Muammar Gadhafi stated that this was part of an agreement that was linked to the release of Bulgarian nurses that were facing a death sentence in July 2007. Libya is also moving to upgrade its jet trainer aircraft.

Turkey is buying a new torpedo defence system for its navy. It will be interesting to see if anything can protect a ship from a new rocket powered torpedo traveling hundreds of miles per hour.

Israel is thinking about upgrading its missile defense system known as Arrow. It was originally thought that they would purchase the THAAD system from the US for a third tier defense, but they have informed the US that they think that there may be a potential problem with trying to integrate it into their system. They may try and upgrade the Arrow system to Arrow 3 themselves.

Canada is pushing to get its ISR UAV program on track. This is the intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle program. It is hoped that the system will be operational by 2009. The Canadians have stated that they need these aircraft in such places as Afghanistan where they have 2,500 troops stationed. A problem with UAVs is that they consume a massive amount of bandwidth. That is the available signal. An example would be a server that has X amount of bandwidth available and when it is used up, no one can get onto a site until someone gets off. Manufacturers of these vehicles are being urged by the US government to reduce the bandwidth requirements for UAVs.

Singapore has announced that it will stand up a third new Air Force command. It had announced a major restructuring in January 2007 and states that this is "The most significant [update] since the [service] was first established". Britain has given the go ahead for the construction of two new 65,000 ton aircraft carriers at the expected cost of 8 billion dollars US. This is without taking into consideration cost overruns. Sweden has taken possession of the last of three military hovercraft.

The US Navy is being forced to consider replacing its Ticonderoga class cruisers with a 25,000 ton nuclear powered ship by Congress. The admirals are not happy, because they know that the cost of these ships will prohibit the navy from reaching its goal of 313 ships.

Lack of qualified personnel has forced the Royal Netherlands Navy to halt operations of one of its four Walrus class diesel electric attack submarines.

The US has launched a program to improve satellite and ground communications. It is not just a question of more, it is also a question of faster and better communications.

Iran has managed to have three Grumman F-14A aircraft returned to service in the last four months. The older American planes are being re serviced by Iranian companies. The Iranian government has invested 1 Billion dollars US in the program. India has created a document that shows that it intends to extend the reach of its air force to the Straits of Malacca. This will make India a world air power.

Colt's M4 carbine is undergoing tests, along with several other assault rifles. It has been placed in an extremely dusty environments to see how its capability to not jam holds up.

Russia has a new improved unguided rocket, it is the G-2000 and has almost double the range of the old M-21 unguided rocket and far more accuracy. Serbia has announced that it has a new tactical surface to surface guided missile. They combined a laser guided bomb with a rocket motor.

The US has a UGS system in Iraq. That is an armed unmanned ground system, better know as a robot, the US Army has named it SWORDS. Yes we have finally come to that day when robots are used in warfare as weapons. It is remotely operated and can be fitted with a 5.56 mm M249 automatic weapon, a 7.62 M240 machine gun or an M109 Barrett 50 caliber sniper rifle. Can you imagine that pesky sniper that is picking off all you men turns out to be a robot? The Army has also ordered standoff chemical detectors, 12.6 million dollars worth. The US Air Force is about to upgrade the A10C Thunderbolt II again. The upgrades are scheduled to be completed for all 356 planes by 2011 and again Lockheed Martin has gotten a juicy contract. Look for new, more powerful engines in the upgraded plane.

India has ordered the Israeli Harop (Harpy-2) anti radar attack unmanned aerial vehicle. They will buy between 8 and 10.

Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin have submitted bids for the USAF GPS Block III, which is a satellite system. Phase one calls for the production of 8 GPS IIIA satellites. Lets see if Boeing can have a chance against Lockheed and their apparently big connections. The US Army has contacted BAE systems for an upgrade to their Enhanced Night Vision Goggle (ENVG). They want to be able to transmit the images that are seen. The US military is testing the Australian Metal Storm weapons system. It is a rapid fire inductive ignition weapons system. Put simply, bullets and shells can be set off at the same time using an electrical current. This enables the one firing the weapon to launch as many projectiles at one time that the weapon can handle or launch waves of projectiles in rapid succession. While the weapon is extremely deadly, it also may be suited to defense against missiles, torpedoes, shells and such.

Russia has entered into full production of the submarine launched SS-NX-30 missile. There were some problems during testing, but the Russians have said that they will be addressed as it is produced. The US is entering into full production of the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) in 2009.

Pakistan has successfully tested the Hatf 8, an air launched cruise missile (ALCM). Iran has started production of the GBU-78/A smart bomb. The US has awarded a lucrative contract to a Turkish company for the upgrade of M113 armored personnel carriers (APCs). There are about 300 of these vehicles being upgraded.