Germany

[kato]

The "Airmobile Platform" project is now being fasttracked. In order to move originally planned IOC 2027 to 2025 the requirements catalogue has apparently been cut from well over a thousand individual requirements to a few hundred.

"Airmobile Platform" is intended to replace all Mungo, Wolf and Wiesel 2 vehicles in the 1st Airborne Brigade with a new unitary vehicle - with around 1,000 vehicles planned in total. About 500 additional vehicles could be bought for the Dutch 11th Airborne Brigade; there is a letter of intent for combining the procurement.

The cut of the requirements catalogue is remarkable with regard to the Dutch part; the Netherlands had originally signed a contract with Mercedes-Benz for 515 "AASLT" Wolf-derived vehicles, which it annulled last year due to the company not being able to fulfill the complicated requirements set the Dutch had.

Main supplier that has been positioning itself for bidding for the "Airmobile Platform" is a joint venture of dutch company Defenture and KMW with a vehicle family derived from the ATTV sold to Dutch KCT and German KSK (SOF forces). Defenture had also submitted a bid for "AASLT" but lost back then.

 

[kato]

Non-military, but possibly interesting to some:

The German parliament has signed off on sufficient funds for the tender for a successor ship to the arctic research vessel Polarstern to be formally launched. The tender war thus published last friday. Projected investment is likely to end up being around 900 million Euro for a single ship.

The current Polarstern vessel is a 12,000 ton icebreaking supply and passenger vessel owned by the German government and operated on its behalf by the polar research institute AWI. It is used for general research cruises in the Arctic and Antarctic ocean, but also to regularly supply the German antarctic station Neumayer III. It is planned to be replaced in 2027 by its successor vessel.

The successor vessel Polarstern II will be larger, and about twice the displacement; for some indication of design, the 23,000-ton USCG "Polar Security Cutter" under construction is based on the same design submitted for Polarstern II by VT Halter Marine that has been slightly adapted to USCG requirements.

Polarstern II as an (of course unarmed) civilian research vessel will have landing spots and hangars for two helicopters - like the current ship - and is planned to have a moon pool for under-ice UUV deployment. The ship can accomodate 90 scientists in addition to the crew for its cruises.

Polarstern is the largest of the three government-owned large civilian research vessels, and the last to be okayed in the current round of a full fleet replacement which due to cost has been dragged out for years. "Sonne" was commissioned in 2014, "Meteor IV", is under construction to replace its predecessor in 2026. These two ships are both around 10,000 tons, not built as icebreakers, carry about half the payload and scientist numbers of Polarstern II and do not have aviation facilities. The three ships, once the replacement is complete, are slated to be in service until around 2050.

The ships are used extremely frequently (virtually constantly on cruises) globally in a governmental livery similar to that of the German Coastguard, and thus do also fill a representative role to some extent.

 

[kato]

Germany is joining the Finnish Common Armoured Vehicle System (CAVS) programme, with a statement of intent to that effect signed at Eurosatory.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1536653732716371969

CAVS is effectively Patria selling a 6x6 APC which is based off their known Pasi product line (e.g. XA-180, XA-200) but updates it with technology from their AMV product line (XA-360); the programme is about Patria getting technical specs from the member countries to develop derivatives and modules for possible sales to these countries.

Currently signed up are Finland (project leader), Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia and Lithuania. Both Finland and Latvia have ordered vehicles from the programme, 160 and 200 units respectively. First deliveries of the basic APC version started in November 2021.

Joining the programme for Germany has to be seen in the context of looking for a 6x6 armoured vehicle as a successor to Fuchs in most of its roles.

 

[kato]

The German Army is getting 145 AirRobot AR-100H as MIKADO Class I UAS. Delivery from Q3/23. Contract was awarded last month.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1540266431761219585

MIKADO is a group designation for small manpack quadrocopters used by reconaissance troops, used sequentially for first EMT FanCopter (about 21 units in service), then for AirRobot AR-100B (about 147 units bought, 5 lost in Afghanistan).

The new AR-100H at 2.9 kg are considerably heavier than these two types but intended for the same purposes.

It is likely that the AR-100H will fully replace the AR-100B as MIKADO with reconnaissance troops, which are generally defined as 145 tactical units (each with a Fennek vehicle, an ALADIN UAS with two drones and a MIKADO UAS with one drone). As a caveat the BAAInBw tweet does say "additional", but that always should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[kato]

Any news on the HK-Haenel lawsuit? Last I heard was they were both going to court to settle the issue.

• There is a separate court case about offering the automatic version (MK556) to the Bundeswehr with the Düsseldorf Upper State Court. I think this case is not about the patent/rifle itself, but about the decision of the review chamber that Haenel did not submit the cheapest offer in the tender, which came as a sidestep over patent violation concerns. A court decision on that is expected for March this year.

This case was decided last week. Düsseldorf Upper State Court decided that the decision to exclude Haenel from the tender was correct; the reasoning was that Haenel had committed a "professional offense" via patent infringement of HK's ("over-the-beach") patent with the MK556.

If the Bundeswehr still wants to contract HK for the HK416A8 they may now re-enter negotiations. They will likely try to adapt the timeframe of deliveries, acceptance trials etc though. A finalized contract package would have to be signed off by parliament due to its price, which would not occur before September this year.

 

[kato]

The "RHIB 1010 Successor" is the first project from the Special 100 Billion Fund being realized - due to its rather small size.

P.S. to that from the Navy thread: The second project to be realized are 20,000 additional night-vision devices Type MIKRON also ordered now, which are listed in the 100 billion Fund under "Personal Equipment".

Hensoldt and Theon receive OCCAR contract for 20.000 night vision goggles - EDR Magazine

Bonn, 5 July 2022 – The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) signed a contract amendment to an existing contract

www.edrmagazine.eu

MIKRON are procured through OCCAR jointly for Germany and Belgium. Initial procurement for the Bundeswehr was only 5,000 units (Belgium 4,500), the 20,000 now exhaust the full option range of the contract. According to EDR above the contract is worth a "mid-three-digit million sum" (i'd estimate 300-400 million Euro) making it a not quite so small procurement. Delivery based on the original contract should be before 2024.

Won't be posting for all such contracts, in particular since there are many very "diverse" things among them like this.

 

[kato]

The defense and budget committees have signed off on extending the Bundeswehr's contract with BwBekleidungsmanagement GmbH indefinitely, similar to how they have done with other similar state-owned supply organizations.

The contract is worth 6.89 billion Euro and comes from the general defense budget. This sum however includes procurement through BwBekleidungsmanagement, and likely also covers a 2.3 billion Euro package already announced last month. Actual administrative budget of the company is typically around 60 million Euro per year.

BwBekleidungsmanagement GmbH is the privatized, in recent years re-nationalized military supply company responsible for procurement, warehousing, management, issueing and maintenance of all clothing and personal equipment parts for the Bundeswehr, for both soldiers and civilian employees. The company operates about 80 service centers at or near Bundeswehr bases, mobile services for bases not covered, central logistics facilities as well as physical and online shops.

As part of the new contract BwBekleidungsmanagement is streamlining its processes and adapting its logistics towards an effort to procure items originally intended for full issue by the customer by 2032 to a fast-tracked procurement by 2025, i.e. beyond expanding contracting capacities also expanding their warehousing and facilities.

 

[kato]

The Bundeswehr has formally taken over the first batch of its new "Mobile Mission Accomodation for Armed Forces" (Bwgl UiE SK) camping gear.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1544721150525296640

Bwgl UiE SK will be procured in sufficient numbers to cover all ground forces of the Bundeswehr; the first batch is sufficient for 10,000 men and intended for VJTF 2023.

The soldiers keep their manpack short-term entrenchable field accomodation in addition to this. This system is meant to bridge the gap between the carried minimal-standard accomodation and proper field camps set up by non-organic forces, and thus is issued directly to units and typically brought along on their vehicles.

Bwgl UiE SK as procured in 4-man sets includes four individual tents (core component), a central "common room" tent with an added four field beds, table and folding chairs, a separate chemical toilet tent, a gas cooker set and a set for trash collection. The set also includes lighting, modifiable for low-exposure (red light). Expendables are laid out for three days use. The 4-man set weighs about 58 kg in six packs, the core component individual tents are 3.2 kg per man if issued individually. The tents are fairly wind-resistant - core tents up to 110 km/h storms -, are insulated against the ground for cold-weather use and are water-tight even in heavy rain.

Not included in the contract are future expansion modules that have been considered as typically a company-level add-on, i.e. a shower tent and a heating/cooling/water/energy element. The "common tent" is prepared with attachments for such an element.

Advertising video for Bwgl UiE SK from Kärcher Futuretech below showing full assembly of all modules:

(and yes, Bundeswehr procurement agency BAAInBw for their tweet above just used image material from Kärcher)

 

[kato]

Panzerbataillon 393 has now fully converted to Leopard 2A7V.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1547833619422449665

Tweet shows the last Leopard 2A6 leaving their base. Their 2A6 outfit has been transferred to other battalions, the one shown being transported to its new home at Panzerbataillon 203.

PzBtl 393 is part of PzGrenBrig 37, which fields NATO VJTF 2023 - hence why they get their A7V first.

 

[kato]

TEN is the hardware soldiers use
Sitaware the software soldiers see (well, the main application of sorts)

Apparently the Bundeswehr has decided to fasttrack D-LBO/TEN procurement by planning out a "D-LBO Basic" package. D-LBO basic is planned for full roll-out on "Division 2027" with 10,000 vehicles networked by end of 2025.

• D-LBO Basic involves switching the vehicles to the yet-to-be-procured "D-LBO Command Radio System" that includes the "Mission Enabling Service Bundeswehr" frontend application (MESBw = the Sitaware BMS setup).
• In addition KommServerBw (that's the old backbone comms router hardware connecting between different media) would be switched out for TacticalCore D-LBO.
• Anything beyond that would not be part of D-LBO Basic.

Based on the tender issued last year by BAAInBw for D-LBO Command Radios, the overall number of radios to be procured for Division 2027 - incl. non-vehicle-based - would likely be around 20,000-25,000. Not sure if the tender last year ever picked a winner. The D-LBO comms tenders are kinda a weird quagmire that gets repeated ad nauseam, requirements and contracts get conflated and i'm fairly sure over the last couple years never resulted in anything - other than equipping VJTF2023. Sometimes looking at the tenders makes you think there's at least three separate departments each doing their own thing there.

It is generally assumed that the new tender - before the end of this year - will be issued by IT general contractor BWI, not BAAInBw.

 

[kato]

Primary tasks are object security and object defense as well as convoy security for Bundeswehr and Allied Forces within or transitioning Germany, as well as providing security for critical infrastructure or subsidiary assistance in emergencies if called upon (by the states in both cases).

The Bundeswehr is planning a total of five such regiments with a combined 42 infantry companies for territorial defense, plus roughly one reserve security regiment each in Navy and Air Force; Heimatschutzregiment 2 in Northrhine-Westfalia as the second regiment is currently being established.

Due to a strategic reassessment a sixth regiment has now been announced. This will be established in Lower Saxony state for the primary wartime purpose of securing the coastal area on the North Sea during "overseas troops" reinforcements.

The other three regiments (beyond this one and the two already established in Bavaria and Northrhine-Westfalia states) will be located in Berlin/Brandenburg, Hesse and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern states.

The six regiments are all under a joint "Territorial Command" that was established over the last few months and took over its role this weekend.

The Territorial Command under it combines:

• the then six "Heimatschutz" infantry regiments plus their training infrastructure
• the Wachbataillon guard battalion (same size as above) for the Ministry of Defense
• the 16 state commands (primarily for CIMIC)
• the Multinational CIMIC command
• the commands for military training grounds
• the German components of NATO JSEC and the Multinational Operative Steering Command.

In addition it will have available for its tasks in the sense of OPCOM for units in the SKB Joint Support Force:

• The Military Police Command with three regiments (11 companies each)
• The NBC Defense Command with three regiments (8-9 companies each)
• Mobile forces of the Logistics Command (several battalions)

As stated earlier, the primary task of the Territorial Command in wartime is to provide Host Nation Support for allied troops transferring through Germany, i.e. ensuring they make their way from the ports in the west to the front in the east. In peacetime the Territorial Command with its above forces serves as a crisis reponse force for national emergencies, comparable to e.g. the Covid pandemic or the floods last year.

 

[Big_Zucchini]

Any update on Arrow 3? Last time I checked, Congress isn't answering a request for approval.

 

[kato]

Haven't seen anything new regarding that in the last two weeks.

If they treat it as "somewhat similar to a foreign military sale" then i wouldn't expect anything from the US side within the next 3 months. At least.

 

[kato]

There's apparently an article in (paywalled) German defence press authored by a senior German Army field troop officer that claims that a decision for the ZukSysIndirF gr.Rw.. is planned to be taken before the end of the year.

ZukSysIndirF gr.Rw. is the intended outfit for future long-range tactical missile strike artillery in the Army.

It will be somewhat interesting whether requirements for this have been "adapted" due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Before that, the broad requirement was for a precision-strike surface-to-surface missile system exceeding 300 km range, with industry proposals at the time already remining people that with regard to what they'd see as viable for the requirement set MTCR is basically just a "political hurdle".

 

[ngatimozart]

Before that, the broad requirement was for a precision-strike surface-to-surface missile system exceeding 300 km range, with industry proposals at the time already remining people that with regard to what they'd see as viable for the requirement set MTCR is basically just a "political hurdle".

I strongly suspect that "political hurdle" has been removed from the track and the capability now racing on a flat track.

 

[Big_Zucchini]

US reportedly green-lights Israeli sale of Arrow 3 systems to Germany.

https://www.kan.org.il/Item/?itemId=137457

The deal is rumored to be worth 3 billion euros, and likely to grow as the system's reach expands to other countries.

 

[kato]

Polaris got a contract this week to actually build a scale demonstrator for the Bundeswehr based on last year's RDRS study.

No exact size has been given for the RDRS demonstrator, but a statement that it is "about 10 times the weight" of the current ALEDA demonstrator. Since the overall shape seems to be relatively fixed down that would translate to an about 7.5 to 8.0m-length demonstrator

Polaris is actually building several scale demonstrators as part of this project.

The first of these - and their first one built to customer order - is dubbed ATHENA, at 3.5m length is the same size as their last inhouse demonstrator ALEDA and took off for its first test flight November 8th, i.e. last week. This current first flight campaign is about testing flight systems; the aircraft is currently powered by four turbojet engines and after this campaign will have a rocket engine additionally installed with another flight campaign following.

The identically-sized, but structurally lighter ALEDA demonstrator, which was already under construction before the contract, also took part in the campaign and performed 13 flights as part of it. ATHENA mostly differs from ALEDA in being prepared for installation of the rocket engine and being structurally strengthened for maneuvers at up to 6.6g.

For safety reasons the flight campaigns are performed at Peenemünde Airport (and yes, that's the same Peenemünde that has been in use for aircraft and rocket tests since 1938). This is due to Peenemünde being the only airport in Germany with a 2.5 km runway directly facing the open sea. Some pictures and videos of the flight campaign can be found here.

The next, much larger demonstrator to be built is currently dubbed NOVA and planned to be ready in H2/2023.

 

[ngatimozart]

Came across this video on YouTube the other night. Finally got around to watching it last night. It's a WELT documentary in English.

 

[kato]

As part of PEGASUS Lufthansa Technik will buy and refit three civilian Bombardier Global 6000 small passenger aircraft, presumably used (there's supposedly a former Canadian government Global 6000 that has been bought as part of this by Lufthansa already). These will then be equipped with the ISIS system - three sets were produced and stored in 2017, but of course will have to be adapted for the new platform.

Bombardier Defense as subcontractor has begun the refit of the Global 6000s bought for PEGASUS.

Bombardier begins PEGASUS work for Luftwaffe

Bombardier has inducted the first Global 6000 business jet ahead of conversion to the Persistent German Airborne Surveillance System (PEGASUS) configuration for Germany.

www.janes.com

Bombardier's workshare is about engineering changes to the aircraft; Lufthansa Technik is the system integrator.

There seems to be some confusion over whether the aircraft are Global 6000 (which they are) or Global 6500, apparently due to their serial numbers which put them in the 6500 range.
The stored ISIS-ZB systems have been adapted and are now part of Hensoldt's "Kalaetron Integral" Air Sigint solution.

 

[kato]

FFG has delivered the first couple rebuilt Wiesel with MELLS launchers.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1602996835945168896

In total the company is upgrading about 54 Wiesel in this configuration, along with about 108 Wiesel with 20mm guns and 16 Wiesel for recce teams in a contract signed end of 2019. The upgrade is intended to extent usage of the Wiesel 1 platform to 2030.