Austal Awarded Contract for Two Additional US Navy Ships

In another win for Australian defence industry, Austal will build two more warships for the United States Navy.

Minister for Defence, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, and Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Steven Ciobo MP, today congratulated Austal after being awarded a contract to build two additional Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships.

The vessels, which were designed at Austal’s Centre for Excellence in Maritime Design in Henderson, Western Australia, will be the 16th and 17th ships in the Class.

Austal has already delivered eight ships to the US Navy.

“This is an outstanding success and comes after Austal won the contract to build 21 Guardian Class Pacific Patrol Boats in WA,” said Minister Pyne.

“The patrol boats will be delivered to Pacific nations as part of our Pacific Maritime Security Program.”

Acknowledging Austal’s success, Minister Ciobo said he hoped to see even more Australian companies achieving export success.

“Through the Defence Export Strategy we want to become a top 10 defence exporter and I encourage other Australian companies to get in touch with the Defence Export Office to find out what support is available to them,” said Minister Ciobo.

The contract award follows an announcement by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in July 2018 that it would purchase two Austal Cape Class Patrol Boats.

Austal has also delivered Cape Class Patrol Boats to the Australian Border Force and Royal Australian Navy.

All defence exports continue to be subjected to Australia’s rigorous export control regulations.

PAF Reportedly Checking on Russian Attack, Gunship Helicopters

A group of Philippine Air Force (PAF) officials are reportedly currently in Russia to check on Russian military helicopters.

MaxDefense Philippines said it “received information that some officers from the Philippine Air Force are currently in Russia to check on the Russian Helicopters Mil Mi-28N Havoc Night Attack helicopter and the Mil Mi-24/35 Hind heavy gunship, as instructed before by [President Rodrigo Duterte] through the [Department of National Defense].”

MaxDefense said mentioned Russian helicopters are being considered for the PAF’s Attack Helicopter acquisition project under the Horizon 2 phase of the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) modernization program.

“Previously the PAF already checked on the TAI T-129 ATAK from Turkey. This further strengthen the possibility that the PAF is now leaning more into acquiring purpose built attack helicopters rather than armed light helicopters as originally planned for this project,” it noted.

RTAF orders four H225M

The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) has placed an order with Airbus Helicopters for four more H225Ms.

Mayor of Japan’s Abu town opposes Aegis Ashore

The mayor of Abu town in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan has announced his opposition towards the potential deployment of a Aegis Ashore site in Yamaguchi.

U.S. sanctions PLA

The U.S. State Department has imposed sanctions on the Equipment Development Department (EDD) of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for buying Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 missile systems from Russia.

Pakistan develops optical Stealth technology for its Al Khalid tanks & armored vehicles

Pakistan develops optical Stealth technology for its Al Khalid tanks & armored vehicles. It helps reduce the thermal signature of a combat vehicle to reduce detection by thermal homing weapons like Hellfire, Javelin or LAHAT ATGMs. AK also has Infrared, Radio frequency Jammers.

These images of Al-Khalid-1 prototype wearing Optical Stealth coating were taken by a thermal targeting sight, which was almost identical to the sights used by Indian T-90S Bhishma main battle tanks. The Al-Khalid-1 is very hard to spot even at 900 meters range.

These images of Al-Khalid-1 prototype wearing Optical Stealth coating were taken by a thermal targeting sight, which was almost identical to the sights used by Indian T-90S Bhishma main battle tanks. The Al-Khalid-1 is very hard to spot even at 900 meters range. pic.twitter.com/j42C46XCNO

— Pakistan Defence (@defencedotpk) September 20, 2018

The leaders of the two Koreas are standing together on the mythical home of the Korean people

Mt. Paektu North Korea

Last September I was writing about North Korea’s sixth nuclear test, of a hydrogen bomb no less. This September: The leaders of the two Koreas are standing together on the mythical home of the Korean people. You can be skeptical and still say that this is a welcome development pic.twitter.com/HeAuHTVsZt

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) September 20, 2018

Russian MiG-31 crashed in central Russian region of Nizhny Novgorod