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☆ Ukraine will soon receive new hybrid tanks built on powerful Cold-War-era equipment
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-18 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Ukraine is set to receive a hybrid air defense tank from Germany. It consists of a Skyranger turret mounted on a Leopard 2 chassis, per arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. AdvertisementUkraine's war effort may soon get a boost from a new hybrid tank that merges a Cold War-era tank chassis with an advanced air defense system. Rheinmetall, a German arms manufacturer, revealed in a media release on Monday that the new design consists of a Skyranger turret mounted on a Leopard 2 chassis. Björn Bernhard, Head of Land Systems at Rheinmetall, hinted to German media outlet Bild that more such hybrid tanks could be in the works.

Persons: —, Björn Bernhard Organizations: Rheinmetall, Service, Land Systems Locations: Ukraine, Germany, German

☆ China sanctions Boeing, two U.S. defense contractors for Taiwan arms sales
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Wang Wentao, China's commerce minister, attends a news conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. China's Ministry of Commerce announced sanctions against Boeing and two other defense companies Monday for arms sales to Taiwan, on the day of Taiwan's presidential inauguration. The move is the latest in a series of sanctions Beijing has announced in recent years against defense companies for weapons sales to Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China considers as part of its own territory. Lai Ching-te, Taiwan's new president, has vowed to strengthen Taiwan's security through imports of advanced fighters and other technology and strengthening its domestic defense industry. In April, China froze assets of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems held within China.

Persons: Wang Wentao, Lai Ching Organizations: National People's Congress, China's Ministry of Commerce, Boeing, Boeing's Defense, Space & Security, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems Locations: Beijing, China, Taiwan, China's

☆ US Marine Corps urgently modernizes its counter-drone capabilities to keep pace with Russia and China
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Drew F. Lawrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewThe Marine Corps wants to field better counter-drone capabilities yesterday. Since that is not possible, the service says it's looking to get them to Marines right now, or at least very soon. Over the last five years, the Marine Corps has been improving its counter-drone systems as it looks to reshape the force and compete with near-peer adversaries. US Marines observed targets during a counter-unmanned aircraft system (UAS) range on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. That challenge has only grown, according to officials Tuesday, and the need for the Marine Corps to thwart it is critical.

Persons: —, Steve Bowdren, It's, it's, Neil Mabini Bowdren, Stephen Lightfoot, Moises Sandoval Lightfoot, Camp, Military.com, Col, Brendan Sullivan, Lance Cpl, Anakin Smith, David Berger, Lightfoot Organizations: Service, Corps, Marines, Marine Corps, Modern, Business, Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems, US Navy, Marine Air Defense Integrated, Carter, . US Navy, Air Defense Battalion, Darwin, 1st Marine Division, Marine Corps Base, US Marine Corps, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Light Marine Air Defense Integrated Locations: Washington ,, Russia, China, Yuma, Yuma , Arizona, Ukraine, Brig, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina

☆ How the US Army botched a $1 billion upgrade of the Stryker armored vehicle's gun
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Fearing that its Stryker armored vehicles were outgunned by Russian and Chinese designs, the US Army had an idea for a quick fix: Develop an unmanned Stryker turret with a 30-mm autocannon. The Army obliged in 2018 with the Infantry Carrier Vehicle-Dragoon, which added a remote-controlled 30-mm gun turret — manufactured by Norwegian firm Kongsberg — to 91 flat-bottom-hull versions of the Strykers. This would be enough to upgrade Strykers in three brigades of 83 vehicles each, plus an additional 20 for testing. Instead of a Kongsberg MCT-30 turret, the vehicles would receive a Samson turret made by Israeli firm Rafael. A big red flag should have been the glitches in the turret software that degraded the 30-mm cannon's accuracy.

Persons: Germany —, Rafael, Stryker, Kevin Payne, Mona Sehgal, Sehgal, Michael Peck Organizations: Service, Stryker, US Army, Business, Army, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, General Dynamics Land Systems, VN, Infantry Carrier Vehicle, Dynamics, The Army, Systems, Oshkosh Systems, Northrop, Hull, GAO, Oshkosh, Department of Defense, Defense, Foreign Policy, Rutgers Univ, Twitter, LinkedIn Locations: Europe, Asia, Germany, Russia, Norwegian, Kongsberg, Oshkosh, Forbes

UKRAINE DIVERSIONReuters spoke to around a half dozen Czech and Polish defence companies and government officials who described renewed efforts to carve out a bigger share of the African arms market as the Ukraine conflict diverts Russia's attention. Privately-held defence and civil manufacturing company Czechoslovak Group - the biggest Czech defence company - said its ability to maintain and modernize armoured vehicles using Soviet-era standards has helped it win business in Africa. ...in Poland where our stand was visited by numerous delegations from African countries that appeared here for the first time," WB Group spokesman Remigiusz Wilk said. The effort to supply Ukraine has pushed Czech companies to boost production and expand supply lines, something Czech-based independent defence analyst Lukas Visingr said has burnished the region's reputation. "The Czech arms industry is stepping up its efforts towards certain African countries still using Soviet-style equipment but who start to see Russia as a problematic supplier," Visingr said.

Persons: David W Cerny, Jiri Hynek, Filip Kulstrunk, Andrej Cirtek, Pieter Wezeman, Sebastian Chwalek, –, Remigiusz Wilk, Petr Fiala, Tomas Pojar, Tomas Kopecny, Kopecny, Lukas Visingr, Visingr, Michael Kahn, Anna Koper, Alex Richardson Organizations: Aero Vodochody, REUTERS, Western, Central, Russia Czech, Defence, Western NATO, Warsaw, Defence and Security Industry Association of, Reuters, Aero, Privately, Czechoslovak Group, CSG, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, WB Group, WB, Ivory, Thomson Locations: Odolena Voda, Czech Republic, Russia, Africa, PRAGUE, WARSAW, European, Western, Czechoslovakia, Czech, UKRAINE, Polish, Ukraine, Stockholm, China, Saharan Africa, Poland's, Poland, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Prague, Mozambique

☆ An arms dealer says he sold 49 secondhand Leopard 1 tanks to an undisclosed EU country to send to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An arms dealer said he sold 49 Leopard 1 tanks to an unnamed EU country to send to Ukraine. German newspaper Handelsblatt, meanwhile, reported that the Leopard 1 tanks were bought by German arms maker Rheinmetall for use in Ukraine, and that the deal involved 50 tanks. Ukraine began receiving deliveries of Leopard tanks from its allies in February 2023, after months of asking for advanced armored vehicles. Older tanks, once discarded as obsolete, are now in high demand, The Guardian reported, given battlefield needs. Experts say that the West's hesitancy to send tanks to Ukraine gave Russia the time to build up its defenses.

Persons: Freddy Versluys, Versluys, Handelsblatt, Volodymyr Zelenskyy Organizations: Handelsblatt, Rheinmetall, Service, OIP, Systems, Guardian, Leopard, Reuters, Ukraine, Russian, Kiel Institute Locations: Ukraine, Wall, Silicon, Belgium, Germany, Russia

The German-made Leopards were at the centre of a public spat earlier this year after Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder said the government had explored buying back tanks to send to Ukraine but had been quoted unreasonable prices. Freddy Versluys, CEO of defence company OIP Land Systems, bought the tanks from the Belgian government more than five years ago. The German Defence Ministry had no immediate comment. Several of Kyiv's Western allies agreed earlier this year to send modern Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and also to send older Leopard 1 models. A spokesperson for the Belgian defence ministry declined to comment on the sale of the tanks.

Persons: Freddy Versluys, Read, Ludivine Dedonder, Germany's, Versluys, Krauss, Andrew Gray, Christoph Steitz, Sabine Siebold, Jonathan Oatis, Alex Richardson Organizations: OIP, Systems, Belgian, Leopards, Belgian Defence, Reuters, Rheinmetall, LinkedIn, NATO, German Defence Ministry, Maffei, Thomson Locations: Belgian, Ukraine, Wallonia, Germany, Tournais, Belgium, BRUSSELS, Vilnius

☆ The war in Ukraine has shown the value of tanks, but militaries are now looking to stock up on slimmed-down versions of them
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Even before the war, some militaries were developing "light tanks" to complement heavier main battle tanks. Light tanks are seen as filling a capability gap between main battle tanks and other armored vehicles. Though not as powerful or as heavily armored as main battle tanks, light tanks are increasingly seen as filling a capability gap between full-fledged tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Light tanksA US Army M24 Chaffee light tank on a street near Bologna, Italy in April 1945. NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty ImagesThat capability gap stirred interest in light tanks, and over the past decade, three major militaries have adopted new designs.

☆ 'Business is very good, unfortunately': Arms fair spotlights bonanza year ahead for weapons companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Mohammed Zarandah | Anadolu Agency | Getty ImagesFew things illustrate the health of the arms industry like a massive defense fair. Indeed, many countries are ramping up their defense spending to unprecedented levels. On top of that, U.S. military spending on Ukraine alone hit nearly $50 billion in the last year. China and Saudi Arabia also set respective records for their own governments' defense spending in 2022, despite inflation, giving no indications of slowing down. France's Caesar self-propelled guns, which have been highly effective in battle for the Ukrainian military, normally take two years to make; the government aims to cut that time in half.

☆ Belgian arms trader tangles with minister over tanks for Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Andrew Gray | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Yves HermanTOURNAI, Belgium, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Freddy Versluys does not like to be called an arms dealer. Tanks sold for 10-15,000 euros each are being offered for sale at 500,000 euros, despite not being operational, she has said. That would mean a unit price of 40,000 euros for 50 tanks, or some 60,600 euros for 33. The Leopard 1 is the predecessor of the Leopard 2 tanks that Germany, Poland, Finland and other countries agreed last month to send to Ukraine. He worked as an engineer in the Belgian military before going into business.

☆ This is the M1 Abrams, the powerful US battle tank that Kyiv wants but can't have
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Ryan Pickrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But German Leopards and American Abrams tanks are still off the table. "I just don't think we're there yet," Colin Kahl, undersecretary for defense policy, said this week, "The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment," he argued. Just over 2,000 Abrams tanks were deployed with combat units during the war, and only 23 were damaged or destroyed. In the aftermath of the Gulf War, the US military developed the M1A2 Abrams, which has steadily been upgraded over the past two decades. The Abrams tank also saw extensive combat early in the Iraq War and was used to some extent in Afghanistan.

☆ America's next main battle tank may be a slimmed-down, high-tech version of the iconic Abrams
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The US military has fielded the Abrams tank for more than 40 years. General Dynamics, which builds the Abrams, recently unveiled an updated version of the M1. The diet M1General Dynamics' AbramsX tank. US soldiers do maintenance on an Abrams tank in Germany in August 2017. "If you keep the armor protection at a very minimal level, that's how we achieve the 60 tons," Reese said.

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