The ministry listed 49 ongoing modernization and acquisition projects across the military. Here are some that stood out:

Land Forces

M60 tank: Two separate modernization projects are ongoing. The first will replace the existing fire control system with the new Volkan-M, as well as provide additional armor protection and protected crew seats to M60T tanks. The contract was signed in January 2023. The second bolsters the firepower, survivability and mobility of M60A3 tanks. Prototype development studies are continuing.

Leopard 2 A4 tank: The platform variant is undergoing modernization work through a contract signed in 2022 between the government’s defense program management agency SSB and local defense contractor BMC Otomotiv. Aselsan, another Turkish business, is providing the fire control systems; remote controlled weapon stations; command, control, communication and information systems; laser warning systems; driver vision systems; active protection systems; and close-range surveillance systems. BMC will integrate these systems into the tank and overhaul the chassis.

T-155 Firtina self-propelled howitzer: The next generation of the T-155 is under construction by BMC Otomotiv. The original contract covers the delivery of 130 units. As of the end of 2023, the company had delivered eight. BMC is also developing an engine for the weapon. Inspection and acceptance activities of the prototype engine concluded Feb. 24, 2023.

ACV-15 vehicle: Aselsan is modernizing the combat vehicle by providing the 25mm Nefer turret, among other systems. The Defence Ministry’s 2nd Main Maintenance Factory Directorate is conducting the repair and overhaul of the engine and the transmission of the vehicles.

Naval Forces

Milden submarine project: The Naval Forces’ design office is working on the country’s first indigenous submarine program. Construction is to take place at Gölcük Shipyard Command. A test block is to undergo construction this year, and efforts to build the first submarine are scheduled to start in 2025.

Reis-class submarine program: Hizirreis, the second submarine of the Reis project, which includes the production of six submarines, began May 25, 2023. Gölcük Naval Shipyard is carrying out the work.

Preveze-class submarine: After integration and testing activities ended on the TCG Preveze submarine, which acted as a testbed for the early delivery of the systems, the Gölcük Naval Shipyard started midlife upgrades for the TCG Sakarya in July 2022. That platform is the first submarine to receive the modernization features, and work is ongoing. The plan is to modernize all Preveze-class subs during maintenance and overhaul periods until 2027.

Barbaros-class frigate: Turkey is working on a midlife modernization project focused on the sensors, weapons and combat management systems of Barbaros-class frigates. The first ship to receive upgrades, the TCG Barbaros, is currently performing acceptance tests.

Air Forces

F-16 fighter jet: There are two separate projects for the Turkish Air Forces. The first one is the procurement of new F-16 Block 70 aircraft and the application of Viper modernization to the existing F-16 Block 40/50 airframes in service. The second is meant to extend the structural service life of F-16C/D Block 40/50 aircraft currently in service to 2050, and to strengthen them structurally. This project will take place in facilities run by the 1st Air Maintenance Factory Directorate.

Akinci and Anka-S drones: There are ongoing efforts to buy various types of Akinci and Anka-S drones. For both of these projects, Turkey considers the extension of their range via satellite as critical.

Hürjet aircraft: The primary goal of this project is to design and produce a single-engine, tandem-seat jet trainer with performance features that will play a critical role in training pilots for modern fighter aircraft. The prototype made its maiden flight in April 2023.

Hürkuş-B aircraft: This program for a new-generation basic jet trainer is meant to meet Air Force Command’s need for additional training aircraft. Ultimately, this is to improve the quality of combat readiness training and the effectiveness of flight personnel training. The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery in 2025.

Militaries the world over are increasingly developing and deploying drones and robotics, with the systems posing a threat on land, at sea and in the air. The growing importance of uncrewed systems has been on display for two years in Ukraine and is at the heart of the Defense Department’s clandestine Replicator initiative.

In discussions about the Army’s fiscal 2025 spending plans, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush said a multiyear procurement for something that changes as fast as unmanned aerial systems “may not be appropriate.”

“There’s also a lot of new entrants in that space,” Bush said in a briefing at the Pentagon. “Committing to one, as good as that company might be, would perhaps foreclose other options because there’s so much innovation with new companies in that space.”

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Multiyear procurements are typically used to secure mass amounts of munitions. They are thought to motivate defense suppliers, who can count on longer-term demands and ramp up production as a result, and save money by buying in bulk over the long run.

But locking in on the same drone year after year is a different circumstance, according to Bush. Demands for technology can change month to month, let alone year to year.

“What you buy in one year, I’m not sure you’d want to buy that exact same [unmanned aerial system] for five years,” Bush said. “We might be heavy one year in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and heavy the next year in strike.”

The Army’s fiscal 2025 budget blueprint totals nearly $186 billion, an uptick of $400 million compared to the year prior. The service is asking for $175.4 billion in its base budget and another $10.5 billion to pay for overseas operations.

The budget levels also presume the congressional passage of supplemental funding to cover the costs of funneling military aid to Ukraine and to support increased operations in the Middle East, Defense News reported.

The difficulty is that Replicator requires disruptive innovation — innovation that rapidly introduces new concepts and/or technologies, and significantly changes the operational level of warfare. This is exceptionally hard and should not be confused with the incremental evolutionary innovation that the DoD historically exploits in peacetime. Critically, emerging technology and creative warfighters can rapidly disrupt traditionally dominant forces, such as in the spectacular example playing out in Ukraine.

The good news is that the DoD has recent successes.

In 2022, the Navy began a two-year experiment known as the Unmanned Task Force. While much of the UTF effort was classified, it operationalized and fielded multiple disruptive capabilities to the naval and joint forces. This success is being institutionalized as the Navy’s new Disruptive Capabilities Office and will directly support Replicator.

Key to the UTF’s success was unblinking adherence to four principles:

1. Solve problems, don’t meet requirements. Starting with requirements constrains thinking and immediately eliminates options because it begins with a solution rather than trying to solve the problem itself. It also takes many years, involves organizational politics and includes individuals far removed from today’s problems.

The UTF focused on problems identified by four-star combatant commanders and further refined their detail with the operational community. While the warfighters are the experts in the operational problems, they rarely have bandwidth to dive deep into every facet of every problem they face or to optimize their problem articulation for the innovation ecosystem. This was a critical functionality performed by the UTF.

2. Protect, incentivize and embed the innovators. An organization’s primary innovation activities (i.e., its evolutionary innovation activities) will destroy all attempts to innovate disruptively. This isn’t because of stodginess or bad behavior — it’s by design.

Because evolutionary innovation seeks to improve the status quo while disruption seeks to overthrow it, the bulk of an organization will see disruption as misaligned, attempt to kill it and assimilate its resources. A common reaction to this tendency is to isolate the innovation group. This is a mistake. Organizational separation will give the innovation group speed and agility, and build barriers ensuring their fruits are impossible to leverage.

To this end, the UTF did two rare, seemingly counterintuitive things. First, it remained physically located inside the Pentagon and vehemently fought all attempts to relocate to more so-called innovation-friendly settings. Second, it remained administratively located in the Navy’s resourcing and requirements organization. While these choices throttled the UTF’s tactical speed and agility, the strategic gains from always having a seat at the table were a cornerstone of its successes.

3. Experiment early, incrementally and only against actual hypotheses. Experimentation is too often confused with testing. Cost-performance-schedule cultures typically conduct tests (often mistakenly called experiments). In a test, failure is an undesired result, and those championing failure lose credibility and resources. In an experiment, an undesired result is a learning experience, and organizations that learn fastest typically prevail (not those that fail fastest).

A gold standard for early, incremental, hypotheses-based experimentation is the NASA lunar landing program that conducted many launches from 1961 to 1972. All launches were against explicit learning objectives, and many produced arrays of unexpected lessons that shaped the next experiments. The UTF emulated this approach by jumping to experimentation with users, existing technologies and explicit hypotheses before any development was initiated. This was contrary to traditional procedures.

4. Optimize for discovery and speed, not for efficiency or scale. Clayton Christensen defined the difference between crux evolutionary innovation and disruption as seeking to improve the current business model versus searching for a new one. Improving a business model is the realm of process improvement such as Lean Six Sigma or the Toyota Production System where finding and scaling efficiencies is paramount.

Searching for a new business model requires nearly the opposite behavior. The key insight is that disruption has an unknown end state. Thus, it involves an iterative search for true customer pain points and rapidly iterating potential solutions. This requires different processes, risk tolerances, organizational configurations and cultures.

To this end, the UTF rejected a one-size-fits-all innovation approach. In one example, the UTF’s primary contributions were shepherding and funding incremental experimentation to eventually hand off to others. In another, it was distilling insight from an operational problem, finding relevant solutions in other operational communities, and shepherding the matchmaking process. In yet another, it was a year of daily, small-scale skirmishes against political and organizational antibodies to allow the disruption sufficient time to prove itself on its own merits.

While these activities were directly driven by the UTF’s standardized innovation process, the tactical execution was adapted to the unique nature of each operational problem and user base.

Disruptive innovation inside any large organization is extremely hard. Few organizations have shown they can sustain disruptive innovation over time. Most militaries excel at disruption during wartime but struggle in absence of an existential threat.

Nevertheless, the DoD has recent successes to leverage for Replicator. The question remains: Which path will the DoD choose?

Jason Stack is the chief technology officer and co-founder of a dual-use maritime logistics startup and a senior adviser at the consultancy BMNT. He co-founded the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Task Force and previously served as the deputy director.

Army Gen. Michael Kurilla told lawmakers on March 7 that he would “love” to have the Navy deploy more directed-energy arms capable of downing drones. Having supplemental directed energy on hand, he added, would also mean expending fewer U.S. missiles, which can cost millions of dollars a pop. Iranian drones being funneled to extremist groups can cost thousands of dollars each.

“The bigger concern is if you start talking about swarms. We need to continue to invest in things like high-power microwave to be able to counter a drone swarm that is coming at you,” Kurilla said during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington. “Nothing is 100%. At some point the law of statistics will come up. You have to have a layered defense.”

High-energy lasers and microwave weapons are capable of zapping overhead threats in ways dissimilar to traditional munitions and at a fraction of the cost. Lasers can fire at the speed of light and punch holes through material, while microwaves can fry electronics at a distance, rendering tech obsolete. Both are considered a critical element of layered defense, or having multiple countermeasures ready to thwart different threats in different situations.

The Defense Department has for decades pitched money into directed-energy weapons, an average $1 billion annually in the past three years, according to the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog.

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At least 31 directed-energy initiatives are underway across the department, with some more mature than others. Among them are Lockheed Martin’s High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS, installed aboard the Navy destroyer Preble in 2022, and Epirus’ Leonidas, delivered to the Army in 2023 in furtherance of its Indirect Fire Protection Capability.

Bringing such systems to fruition — let alone mass production — has proven tricky. Aside from their technological complexity, laser- and microwave-based weaponry demand precious components and materials such as germanium and gallium.

Kurilla on Wednesday said the Army “sent us some directed-energy mobile short-range air defense” that are being experimented with. He provided no details about initial results. The service dispatched four Stryker-mounted 50-kilowatt laser prototypes in February, Breaking Defense reported.

Militants across the Greater Middle East have in recent months conducted more than 175 attacks on U.S. and allied forces. A drone strike in Jordan, at the Tower 22 installation near al-Tanf garrison, killed three troops in January. A Houthi missile attack on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden this month killed three crew members, as well, and forced an evacuation of the vessel.

“This is not the same central region as last year,” Kurilla said. “Iran’s expansive network of proxies is equipped with advanced, sophisticated weaponry, and threatens some of the most vital terrain in the world with global and U.S. implications.”

While the war between Ukraine and Russia has emphasized the crucial role drones can play — and the threat they can pose to troops — Gen. Piotr Blazeusz remains unconvinced of their value during waterway crossings.

“Traditionally, you would not use drones just for a water crossing. You might use them for reconnaissance purposes to collect intelligence ahead of time, but while you are doing the actual crossing you would not really need them in the air,” the deputy chief of the General Staff told Defense News in an interview on the sidelines of the Polish-led Dragon drill held here. “You’d want them ahead, at the front, making sure there are no roadblocks, or identifying enemy positions or threats for the vehicles disembarking.”

During the March 4-5 drill, organized as part of NATO’s larger-scale Steadfast Defender exercise, drones were nowhere to be seen. A single unmanned aerial system — AeroVironment’s Puma drone — was visible during the static display portion but was reportedly not involved in the training. It had previously flown during the recently concluded NATO Brilliant Jump exercise.

In the last two years, the 2,200-kilometer-long (1,367-mile-long) Dnipro River — which flows through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine — has served as a critical part of the front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces as well as a major target for both sides.

In November, both Ukrainian and Russian officials confirmed that Ukrainian units were able to cross it and had established footholds on the east bank of the river.

Drone and aerial reconnaissance units were reportedly involved in the crossing operation, in part having provided cover for soldiers traversing and detecting Russian movements.

“Combat drones are probably of little use in a river crossing,” said Samuel Bendett, an adviser on Russian military capabilities at the Center for Naval Analyses. “What’s more important is to have ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] ones flying for constant overwatch, as well as a menagerie of counter-drone and electronic warfare systems to protect personnel and equipment.”

“You would, however, need combat drones — especially tactical [first-person view drones] — if you identify an enemy position not far from the crossing trying to disrupt it with mortar, artillery and [anti-tank guided missiles], or if you locate an enemy drone unit that is using either ISR or combat drones against your attempt to cross the river,” Bendett added.

Blazeusz said one reason drones were not used as part of the Dragon demonstration at the Vistula River had to do with the smaller distance forces needed to cross.

“The Vistula crossing is only 320 meters, so it’s not that big. But if it was a longer distance, potentially you may want them, but we do have other means of communicating beyond just drones,” he explained.

In contrast, some parts of the Dnipro River in Ukraine can be nearly 1.6 kilometers long.

Some observers present at the exercise shared concerns that not everyone in the West adapts tactics fast enough to match the requirements of modern warfare, ushered in by the Russia-Ukraine war.

While countries must keep a close eye on happenings there, Blazeusz cautioned that militaries should not try to simply duplicate strategies.

“Never in history was the next war an exact copy of the previous one, so we have to be really careful about identifying lessons learnt in Ukraine and then applying them, because yes, there’s clear indications of what we need to be doing, but we shouldn’t be looking to just replicate what they’re doing over there,” he said. “We have our own set of considerations [as a country] to think about.”

Militaries and extremist groups around the world are deploying drones and other robotic technology to collect intelligence, aid targeting and even attack from relative safety. Learning how to intercept and neutralize them has quickly become a priority for Defense Department officials, who are monitoring skirmishes across Ukraine and the Greater Middle East.

The proliferation of sophisticated uncrewed systems “poses a challenge to the department and our nation’s nuclear enterprise,” Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton said in his 2024 Strategic Posture Statement, which was sent to Congress on Feb. 29. The matter is further complicated by an “accelerating technological race with our adversaries,” namely Russia and China, he said.

Cotton’s command, headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, oversees the U.S. nuclear arsenal and supports electromagnetic operations and missile threat assessment.

STRATCOM in 2022 and 2023 tested counter-drone weaponry to better understand its effectiveness and inform future investments, Cotton said in his statement. He did not disclose results.

So-called “no drone zones” were established years ago at military bases and nuclear weapons sites, including where parts are made and maintained. A provision in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act empowered the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration to protect its facilities from drones considered hazardous to safety or security.

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The zones cover sensitive compounds such as Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where nuclear-weapon cores known as pits are expected to be manufactured; the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, where uranium-processing facilities are being built; and the Nevada National Security Site, where subcritical experiments and nonproliferation research are conducted.

NNSA leadership in December visited the Nevada site, where they were shown counter-unmanned aerial system technologies.

“These capabilities are applicable across all of NNSA’s sites,” Frank Rose, the administration’s deputy, said in a statement at the time. “We are developing the tools we need not only to counter the UAS of today but also to defend against evolving threats.”

Among the equipment showcased was the Anduril Industries-made Anvil. Anvil drones zip toward a target on a collision path with the goal of knocking threats out of the sky. An explosive variant dubbed Anvil-M offers the same sort of countermeasure, but instead relies on a fire-control module and munitions payload.

Rose was also pictured in front of a screen displaying Anduril’s command-and-control Lattice software.

The 74-page whitepaper, which the service unveiled during its annual symposium this week and which builds on a similar document published four years ago, details planned procurements out to 2037.

“The Air Force is aware of [the importance of] long-term development planning and spending of the national budget to achieve maximum value,” said the service’s commander, Air Chief Marshal Panpakdee Pattanakul.

Indeed, part of the whitepaper’s raison d’être is to stake claims for long-term funding as its aircraft inventories age. For instance, the 2020 version stated the fighter fleet had an average age of 26 years, a figure that continues to increase.

But the government’s procurement process is disjointed, according to Greg Raymond, an expert in Asia-Pacific affairs at the Australian National University. He cited factors like political instability, inadequate strategic planning, annual rather than multiyear budgeting measures, and weak civil oversight that allows each armed service to makes its own decisions.

In the latest whitepaper, the Air Force gives priority to a medium-range air defense system possessing a minimum 30-nautical-mile range from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028. Afterward, from FY33 to FY37, the service plans to carry out a second phase for a medium- or long-range air defense system.

From FY28 to FY32, the force plans to buy a short-range air defense system boasting gun-, missile and laser-based weapons. Credence is given to counter-drone systems, too, and a nine-year project to procure these is to commence in 2025.

The service is also eyeing 12-14 new fighters to replace the F-16 jets of 102 Squadron based at Korat. The procurement is scheduled to take place from FY25 to FY34, two years later than originally planned. The squadron’s F-16s from the late 1980s are to retire by 2028.

Two contenders have emerged for the aircraft requirement: Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Block 70/72 and Saab’s Gripen.

“We’re confident the F-16 Block 70/72 will complement the RTAF’s existing F-16 fleet and deliver the advanced 21st century security capabilities and performance needed to address Thailand’s most pressing defense requirements,” a Lockheed spokesperson told Defense News.

Thailand ordered its first Gripen C/D fighters in 2008. Following a January 2021 contract, the aircraft were upgraded to what the manufacturer calls the MS20 configuration.

Robert Björklund, who markets the Gripen to Thailand for Saab, told Defense News the existing fleet is integrated into the Saab-supplied Link T data system and that the aircraft provides its user with “a very wide range of weapon options, including its highly effective RBS15 anti-ship missile.”

A second fighter replacement project for 12-14 aircraft is slated for FY31 to FY35 to replace F-5E/F jets of 211 Squadron at Ubon that are to retire around the end of the decade. An identical number of fighters are needed to replace F-16A/Bs of 403 Squadron at Takhli from FY37 to FY46.

Thailand tries to maintain relations with several competing nations, including the United States, China, Russia and India, the whitepaper noted. Thailand previously purchase materiel from China, such as armored vehicles, air defense systems and a submarine.

Asked whether the Royal Thai Air Force would consider buying a Chinese fighter like the J-10CE, Raymond said the service values its relationship with the U.S. and likeminded allies too much to do so. He noted that Thai-U.S. relations have “largely stabilized,” despite the latter denying the former’s request to buy F-35A jets last year.

“They wouldn’t want to see themselves placed on the outer [circle] in terms of not getting invitations to things like [exercise] Pitch Black in Australia. I tend to think they’d be perhaps more careful about getting Chinese aircraft than the Thai Navy was about getting a submarine,” he said.

The whitepaper also detailed an effort starting this year to refurbish C-130H Hercules transport aircraft. The 2020 version recommended the service buy 12 replacements, but that idea was dropped.

As for pilot training, last year’s delivery of 12 T-6TH trainers allowed the Air Force to retire its Pilatus PC-9 fleet last month. New Zealand-built CT-4E trainers are to retire in 2031, so basic trainers will be needed from FY33. New lead-in fighter trainers are also sought from FY25, with Thailand already operating the South Korean T-50TH in this role.

The new whitepaper also emphasized unmanned technologies. One effort underway is the Thai-developed M Solar X solar-powered drone. Loitering munitions are also schedule for purchase by 2026, as are medium combat drones from FY26 to FY29 and high-altitude pseudo-satellites from FY24 to FY35.

The Air Force also mentioned procurement programs for micro- and nano-drone swarms from FY26, and a research and development effort for weaponized tactical drones from FY29.

And two Saab 340B Erieye airborne early warning aircraft are to receive enhanced command-and-control capabilities, with their dorsal-mounted radars to be replaced. This would take place from FY26 to FY29.

The government’s FY24 defense budget bill calls for a 198 billion baht (U.S. $5.5 billion) fund, of which $1 billion is for the Air Force. The service has already applied for an allocation of approximately $530 million for a first batch of four fighters.

The German vessel, newly arrived in the theater of operations, fired two Standard Missile-2 interceptors at the U.S. drone, but both missed, as German military news website Augengeradeaus first reported.

The attempted shoot-down came after a query with nearby allies about the status of the drone, which flew without a transponder turned on that would allow coalition forces to identify it as friendly, according to the report.

“We can confirm that a U.S. MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was targeted in the Red Sea Feb. 27,” a U.S. defense official told Defense News, adding that the aircraft was undamaged and continued its mission.

“CENTCOM is in close coordination with the EU and Operation Aspides to investigate the circumstances that led to this event and to ensure safe deconfliction of airspace,” the official added, using shorthand for U.S. Central Command, the command overseeing American operations in the Middle East.

Germany’s air defense frigate Hessen received parliamentary approval to partake in the European Union’s Operation Aspides last week while already underway to the Red Sea. It is joining a collection of allied warships organized under the EU auspices or the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect marine traffic in the vital cargo route from drone and missile attacks by the Yemen-based Houthi militia.

The group’s fighters are targeting civilian ships claiming support for Hamas in its war against Israel.

A German military spokesman declined to comment on the incident, pointing instead to comments by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Feb. 27 in which Pistorious confirmed the downing of two hostile drones and two failed attempts to intercept an additional, unspecified aircraft.

The government’s “Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet” review, released Feb. 20, advocates for a flotilla of 26 warships, more than double the 11 hulls the service currently possesses. The government has accepted the recommendations except for one regarding the continuation of an upgrade for aging Anzac-class frigates.

“The size, lethality and capabilities of the future surface combatant fleet ensures that our Navy is equipped to meet the evolving strategic challenges of our region,” Chief of Navy Vice Adm. Mark Hammond said in a statement following the report’s unveiling.

Jennifer Parker, an expert associate at the National Security College within the Australian National University, told Defense News the force could achieve its new goal, even if “plans of this magnitude are going to have challenges.”

The plan

To supplement its forthcoming nuclear-powered submarines, to be acquired under the AUKUS agreement with the U.K. and U.S., the future surface combatant fleet will feature nine so-called tier 1 destroyers and frigates, 11 smaller tier 2 frigates, and six optionally manned vessels.

Tier 1 vessels will comprise three existing Hobart-class air warfare destroyers — to receive an upgrade to the Aegis combat system and the installation of Tomahawk missiles — and six new Hunter-class anti-submarine frigates. BAE Systems was originally supposed to produce nine frigates, with the first to be commissioned in 2034.

Parker, a former naval officer, said the most significant problem for the service is a looming capability gap, as the first-of-class Anzac frigate will not sail again, and a second is set to retire in 2026, meaning the Navy will have nine total warships by the end of this decade.

“Most predict an increased period of risk in the late 2020s, and that is where Australia has the capability gap,” Parker said, noting the the service should consider how to maximize its remaining capability and operational availability during this time.

With this pending shortfall, the review recommended commissioning 11 general-purpose frigates at least the size of the Anzacs to “provide maritime and land strike, air defence and escort capabilities,” the government explained in a summary of the report.

Australia plans to procure the first three frigates from overseas, with the remainder constructed in Henderson, Western Australia. The Navy has narrowed contenders to Germany’s MEKO A-200, Japan’s Mogami class, South Korea’s FFX Batch II/III, and Spain’s Alfa 3000. The government will make a selection next year, with the first delivery scheduled in 2030.

The planned six large optionally crewed surface vessels are based on an American design and feature 32 missile cells. Built in Henderson and destined to enter service from the mid-2030s, Parker said these are not traditional surface combatants because “their role will be to extend the magazine capability” of other ships.

Although Defence Minister Richard Marles said they would be crewed, Parker predicted they could end up as unmanned platforms.

“There are legal issues with lethal autonomous weapons and operating uncrewed surface vessels, so until those legal issues are overcome, the Australian government wasn’t about to announce that we’re going to have some sort of floating magazine that can launch missiles,” she said.

Apart from surface combatants, the review proposed a fleet of 25 “minor war vessels” for constabulary tasks. These include six Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels, or OPV, slashed from the original 12 that Luerssen Australia is constructing.

“The OPV is an inefficient use of resources for civil maritime security operations and does not possess the survivability and self-defence systems to contribute to a surface combatant mission,” the review stated.

The money

Marles said the entire plan is “fully funded” thanks to an additional AU$11.1 billion (U.S. $7.3 billion) allocated over the next decade, including AU$1.7 billion (U.S. $1.1 billion) in the next four years.

Parker said this amount is “probably feasible,” but added that the Treasury plans to only increase defense spending from 2027 to 2028. “I don’t know how they’re going to be able to resource those things without increasing defense spending in May,” she explained.

But even with the budget allocation, it doesn’t mean the Defence Department can spend that money, she said.

“They still need to go through the approval processes for that specific project,” she added. “I think the challenge is they need to convince the Australian public that defense requires increased spending.

Marles had promised defense expenditure would move from an anticipated 2.1% of gross domestic product by 2030 to 2.4% by that time, but Parker said that is insufficient to fund so many naval acquisitions.

The people

Amid the plans for new construction, a new shipbuilding plan is due later this year.

Parker noted many questions remain over that sector’s workforce, but a nationwide approach addressing education, migration and infrastructure factors would help.

But another challenge is crewing. The Defence Department planned to raise the number of military members by 2,201 in the 2022-2023 time frame, but instead it suffered a net loss of 1,389 uniformed personnel.

Paris-based Preligens, founded in 2016, offers two AI-based solutions, Robin, an imagery-analysis software, and Xerus, a computer system for military terrain mapping.

The systems work with commercial or government-collected satellite imagery, and they can help analysts determine whether objects of interest are civilian or military.

“It has been primarily designed for site monitoring and has an alerting system that can be set up for the customer for pattern-of-life analysis to cue analysts towards key signals that can identify aircraft, vessels, vehicles, surface-to-air missiles and more,” Coralie Trigano, the company’s senior sales executive for the Asian-Pacific region, told Defense News at the Singapore Airshow here.

The latest improvements made to the firm’s algorithms have included adding new detectable items as well as additional categories of objects that the software can spot.

“We recently developed a helicopter detector, that can now classify and identify precise models, and we have also improved the vehicle detector, which is now capable of detecting and categorizing civil, armored, military and electronics (radars) vehicles,” Sophie Hue, head of communication at Preligens, wrote in an email to Defense News.

Besides adding full-motion video gathered by drones to the mix of data sources, developers are also looking to implement analyses of synthetic-aperture radar images, Hue added.

The influx of the demand and development of drones, driven largely by the Ukraine war, has created a new era in cyber intelligence gathering.

To demonstrate the capabilities of their software, Preligens released its own imagery showing that China was carrying out major military infrastructure work at one of its naval bases in 2022.

The company’s vessel detector also was able to spot Russian air-cushioned landing craft that the country had stationed in the port of Baltiysk, Kaliningrad, in January 2022.

The military’s growing interest in manned-unmanned teaming comes amid a declining pool of 18-year-old conscripts and as relations with neighboring North Korea worsen.

Korea Aerospace Industries, a producer of various drones and crewed fighters, including the KF-21 Boramae and FA-50, is one of the companies leading the national effort.

In an exclusive briefing with Defense News, a KAI executive outlined the company’s four-phase road map to provide manned-unmanned teaming capabilities to the South Korean military.

“We have a very ambitious plan to create a system of systems for the future, and this is a combination of manned aircraft like the KF-21 and FA-50, together with unmanned combat vehicles as unmanned fighters, and also small-sized UAVs,” the executive said on the condition of anonymity, as the individual was not authorized to speak to the press.

South Korea’s Air Force plans to acquire both single-seat and twin-seat variants of the 4.5-generation KF-21, with first delivery scheduled for June 2026. The twin-seat jet, apart from its training role, is expected to perform manned-unmanned teaming, or MUM-T, in its Block III configuration. This would involve a pilot in the back seat — or perhaps artificial intelligence — controlling drones.

The KF-21 was designed so users could equip it with new technology even after production, and the intention is to eventually develop a fifth- and sixth-generation variant. This aim falls under what KAI calls the next-generation air and space combat system, a sophisticated and linked network of sensors and platforms such as satellites, airborne early warning aircraft, crewed fighter jets and drones.

Four phases

KAI is already implementing the first phase of its MUM-T road map, which began in 2023 and is to conclude next year. It involves the company and the Air Force collaboratively developing technologies to make MUM-T a reality with a helicopter and small, air-launched unmanned aerial vehicles. Once KAI proves the concept and technology for high-capacity communications and artificial intelligence, it will transition to more capable UAVs — which the company calls adaptable aerial platforms — to operate in conjunction with an FA-50 aircraft.

Although larger and possessing a longer endurance than the original air-launched UAVs, the recoverable “adaptable aerial platforms,” or AAPs, will not be excessively high-tech because they need to be affordable, the executive noted.

The second phase, to take place from 2025 to 2028, will culminate in a technology demonstration whereby an FA-50 testbed shows whether it can simultaneously control up to four adaptable aerial platforms. The demonstration is to feature AAPs acting as decoys to spoof the enemy; conducting electronic warfare with an onboard jammer; carrying out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions with an electro-optical/infrared payload; or performing strike missions with its own warhead.

The third phase, to conclude by 2037, will transition increasingly capable MUM-T technologies from an FA-50 to a twin-seat KF-21. Simultaneously, KAI is expected to reach the engineering and manufacturing design stage for an additional type of combat drone acting as a loyal wingman to the piloted aircraft.

A single KF-21 would control up to four of the combat drones. In turn, each loyal wingman would command four AAPs. This essentially means the combat power of a single KF-21 would expand to 20 unmanned aircraft.

Work is already underway on such combat drones, as the government’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration chose Korean Air Aerospace Division in August 2022 to develop a new loyal wingman. Development of the so-called KUS-LW drone commenced in November 2021.

“The squadron of UAVs will not only support and escort a manned aircraft, but will also be able to perform its own missions including surveillance, electronic interference tactics and precise shooting,” according to Korean Air.

Finally, the fourth phase, from 2038 onward, in which KAI hopes to have sufficiently mastered MUM-T to attain a true system of systems: This is the fruition of the next-generation air and space combat system.

“It’s a kind of compressed development,” the KAI executive said regarding the four-phase process. “We believe we have to move, otherwise we will miss the chance. This time we have to act to get in front, utilizing the technology we have accumulated for the last 30 years.”

Indeed, South Korea’s defense and aerospace industry has the experience and capability to develop MUM-T capabilities, according to Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.

“As with most nations, however, it is at a relatively early stage in exploring, researching and developing such capabilities. Much will also depend on the extent of near-term ambition,” he told Defense News. “Any approach that allows you to bolster your combat mass at reasonable cost, and with systems that might allow the acceptance of higher attrition rates, is going to be attractive.”

Artificial intelligence is a key part of this. Algorithms can outperform their human counterparts in terms of decision-making speed, as crews must await orders from air operations center, plus an AI-enabled network can produce a swift kill chain.

“Within a very short time, they [the AI and aircraft] have to exchange a huge amount of data, so secure communications and software … are necessary for this future battlefield. Eventually, AI command — in other words, AI pilots in the aircraft, maybe in the back seat, we don’t know — will replace some parts of the air combat center,” the KAI executive said. “With these very special capabilities and features of the future system, the AI can make a decision within a very short time frame. This short procedure will give us a huge advantage, considering our enemy is not well prepared for this future battlefield.”

Partnerships

South Korea and KAI are also looking for foreign investors.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik visited the Middle East in early February, during which he met his Qatari, Saudi and Emirati counterparts to discuss defense cooperation and unmanned technology.

Meanwhile, KAI is seeking international partners as it develops the MC-X Orca multirole cargo aircraft. The aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight of 92 tons and is about 132 feet long — between the lengths of a C-130J and A400M. Anticipated roles for the MC-X include transportation, aerial refueling, special forces operations, space rocket launches, airborne early warning, medical evacuation and maritime patrol — as well as MUM-T.

If the project proceeds, production of the MC-X wouldn’t take place until as soon as 2035, a company spokesperson said at the Seoul ADEX defense exhibition last year.

“Our government is pretty much interested in having indigenous hardware, but there is a question when and how much they are willing to invest. So we are in discussion with our government, but at the same time we are looking for international partners interested in this idea of a multirole cargo aircraft. There are a couple of countries that would like to be partners in this initiative,” the KAI executive said, declining to name the countries.

The firm has previously tapped foreign sources to close gaps in its technological know-how. For example, in March 2021, the company signed a collaborative agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries for loitering munitions. In computer-generated promotional videos, KAI has shown IAI-style drones launched by Light Armed Helicopters and Surion choppers.

KAI also has export ambitions. The executive said there’s a potential export market for up to 800 KF-21 fighters over the next few decades, specifically citing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as candidates.

And by demonstrating it can retrospectively integrate MUM-T capabilities onto FA-50 aircraft, the executive added, the company hopes to entice existing users like Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland and Thailand to take advantage of the MUM-T technology.

“For the FA-50 and KF-21, we are not selling the current capability of the aircraft. We are at the same time trying to sell the value of this aircraft to do something else, something greater in the future, by giving them [potential customers] an idea of the MUM-T concept and a fifth-gen combat system — in other words, a system of systems,” the KAI executive said. “There is high value once they purchase the FA-50. With the capability, gradually year by year, they can operate this aircraft to be perfectly prepared for the future battlefield.”

Certainly KAI’s ability to achieve its four-phase MUM-T plan is possible, Barrie noted, but it’s not written in stone.

“In part, this will depend on how far and how quickly South Korea wants to develop the technology, combined with the kinds of roles associated with the uninhabited elements of any teaming architecture,” he said. “While ambition is laudable, it also needs to be realistic.”

The Taurus is the local technology company’s latest remote-operated product, shown for the first time publicly.

The firm completed development of the four-wheel drive electric vehicle last year, but does not have a launch customer, hence its unveiling at the air show this week, a company representative told Defense News on the condition of anonymity.

ST Engineering says the robot can be used for surveillance, casualty evacuation, logistics transport and material handling. The representative said the surveillance configuration has attracted the most interest. For material handling, the firm would fit the vehicle with a robotic arm.

The version at the show featured the company’s DrN-15 multirotor drone, which can fly beyond the operator’s visual line of sight. The drone received approval for flight by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.

When operating in fully electric mode, it can reach distances of about 19 miles and has a base weight of approximately 3,527 pounds.

The representative said the Taurus is useful for manned-unmanned teaming, such as operating alongside the firm’s own eight-wheel drive Terrex s5 infantry fighting vehicle, also launched at the show.

ST Engineering recently doubled down on efforts to present Singapore-made and -designed autonomous ground vehicles, including the Hunter tracked platform, developed as a private venture by the company.

The drone, dubbed Hermes 650 Spark, is the latest member of Elbit System’s Hermes family of systems that have existed for decades.

“The Hermes 650 sits in between the 450 and 900 variants, it can carry 260 kilograms of useful payload spread across two payload bays, and can fly within a line-of-sight range of 300 kilometers with satellite communication capabilities,” Ziv Avni, vice president of business development at Elbit, told Defense News.

Avni said the new variant is able to fly beyond the operator’s line of sight and has an endurance of up to 24 hours. Although the platform wasn’t made for a specific customer, it integrates three key features that buyers have identified as important to them, he added.

“For our general customer base, we have noticed that keeping the life-cycle maintenance cost low — so overall cost-effectiveness — is important, as well as increasing the operational flexibility of flying at different speeds and taking off or landing on short runways,” Avni noted.

The Hermes 650 is able to take off from runways measuring less than 200 meters (656 feet). The company told Defense News it is already under contract from an unspecified customer to begin serial production next year.

The Republic of Singapore Air Force is one of the oldest operators of the Hermes 450, which was one of two drones it had on static display at the air show. The other was the Heron 1, manufactured by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

Singapore often looked to Israel as a key drone supplier, but this could change as the island nation aims to further invest in sovereign capabilities.

Avni declined to comment on whether the Singaporean service expressed interest in the newest variant, but did say he expects the Hermes 650 Spark “will eventually replace the Hermes 450 some customers operate.”

In theory, he added, it would only be a matter of a few weeks for operators to transition from flying one model to the other.

“Many of our customers now want a mixed fleet for drone operations. For instance, if a country is very big, it could choose to opt for the Hermes 900, as it has a greater endurance to carry out monitoring, and use the 650 to survey areas closer to shore,” Avni noted.

Elbit has heavily advertised the new drone for maritime security and border patrol missions. The configuration presented at the show was true to size and featured electronic warfare sensors.

The Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) first announced in 2022 that a reward of one million rubles, or roughly $11,000, would be given to any military personnel seizing a THeMIS vehicle, made by Edge Group subsidiary Milrem Robotics, in relatively intact condition.

On Feb. 15, the center’s director, Ruslan Pukhov, told state-owned news agency RIA Novosti that the award would be raised to two million rubles, or almost $22,000.

The decision, Pukhov told RIA Novosti, was in response to a statement made by Estonian intelligence connecting the think tank to the Russian intelligence services.

He was referring to a recent report by the Baltic nation’s foreign intelligence service claiming that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was recruiting national academics and think tank experts who interact with foreign embassies.

The report directly targets Pukhov as a “protagonist” in this development, stating that he also has “extensive connections within Russia’s political leadership and the Russian Ministry of Defense.”

As of last month, Milrem had delivered 15 THeMIS unmanned vehicles to Ukraine’s forces, the company said in a Jan. 11 statement.

Company executives have said that the unmanned vehicles were performing especially well in missions related to demining and frontline cargo transport, citing feedback from Ukrainian soldiers.

Manufacturer Milrem is aware of the bounty placed on its vehicles, but executives say they are unfazed about the prospect of technology theft.

“Seems like I don’t have to work again this week since CAST has doubled their reward for capturing a THeMIS in Ukraine for 2 million rubles, thus doing marketing for me,” Gert Hankewitz, director of communications at Milrem, posted on LinkedIn this week.

In additional comments provided to Defense News, Hankewitz said that the company has “complete confidence in the Ukrainian army to utilize their THeMIS UGVs to their full capabilities and safeguard them against potential threats.”

The development speaks to the robot craze that seems to have grasped both sides in the Ukraine war. With troop or vehicle movements immediately detected and attacked, soldiers have resorted to sending robots on dangerous missions instead, according to analysts.

While some of these ground robots possess more advanced capabilities, as is the case for the THeMIS, others that have emerged on the battlefield are very basic in their design but yet appear to be effective in their logistics role.

Even with the special Russian interest in its THeMIS technology, Milrem said the company is ready to send more. “We look forward to providing additional systems in support of Ukraine if requested,” Hankewitz said.

“This is not a contractor-owned, contractor-operated capability, but this is a uniformed capability that we’ll be able to own [and] operate unmanned capabilities that can be employed within particular spaces,” Adm. Samuel Paparo said.

The Navy created its first unit dedicated to surface drones, Unmanned Surface Vessel Division 1, in 2022.

Paparo also said the Navy will launch Integrated Battle Problem 24.1 in March, which will pair manned and unmanned capabilities.

He mentioned that prior exercises involved drones traveling 50,000 miles over seven months, as well as experiments involving the placement of SM-6 missile launchers on large surface drones.

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Paparo also called the Navy’s unmanned work in various fleet commands “complementary battle labs” that are all pushing toward the same goal of honing unmanned and autonomous operations.

A primary goal of the work is to not unnecessarily risk sailor lives, he said.

“Don’t send a human being to do something dangerous that a machine can do better, faster and more cheaply,” Paparo said. “Ensure that you have the means of control.”

He noted much of this work is done quietly “for the simple reason that we don’t want to expose it to an adversary that would emplace a counter to that capability.”

“A key principle within warfare is the element of operational security,” Paparo said. “So for most exquisite capabilities, if I’m doing my job, you won’t be knowing about it.”

He began his keynote speech with a grim warning about the state of the globe. “The world is increasingly descending into chaos and disorder, and from Europe to the Middle East to the Pacific, we’re seeing significant shifts in state behaviors, and they are not random,” he said.

“At a recent state visit to Moscow, the [People’s Republic of China] president, I won’t utter his name, was overheard telling the Russian president that right now, there are changes the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years, and we are the ones driving those changes together,” Paparo said. “The changes referenced are challenges to our security, our freedom and our well-being.”

Vice Adm. Brendan McLane, the commander of Naval Surface Forces, said U.S. ships in the Red Sea are sending data about their engagements with Houthi threats back to the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center, for the experts there to share ideas for how to best tune radars to optimize performance, as an example.

Those recommendations and updated tactics from SMWDC are already reflected in pre-deployment training events such as Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training and Composite Training Unit exercises on both coasts, he said.

McLane, who spoke on a panel at the WEST 2024 conference in San Diego hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and AFCEA International, said the nature of the threat is changing, and as such, SMWDC continues to monitor and push out updated tactics and techniques.

When Houthi forces ashore in Yemen first started shooting at naval and merchant ships in the Red Sea on Oct. 19, McLane said, those early engagements “were drones and land-attack cruise missiles that were shot at long distance. Some of the more recent engagements are anti-ship cruise missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles, for the first time, which have a much shorter reaction time for our ships.”

Elizabeth Nashold, the deputy commander of Naval Information Forces, said during the same panel that Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Carney “was ready on Day 1″ when the missiles began flying, due to its training and focus on battlespace awareness, assured command and control, and integrated fires.

She said the Naval Information Warfighting Development Center, much like its surface counterpart, is poring over data from the Houthi missile and drone shoot-downs and has pushed out updated tactics for those areas the information warfare community is responsible for.

This includes increasing battlespace awareness so a ship commander has as much time as possible to react to an incoming threat — though McLane said that, due to the confined geography in the Red Sea and the quick speeds of the anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles, there might only be 60 to 90 seconds between when the Houthis launch a missile and the destroyer has to shoot it down.

Despite the ongoing and challenging threats, McLane said the force has what it needs, though he’d like to see industry speed development of energy weapons so the ships can shoot down missiles and drones without expending their expensive Standard Missiles and other munitions.

“A layered defense across the strike group is the way to go for now, and then hopefully with industry’s acceleration of directed energy in all forms, lasers and microwaves, we will be able to get something sooner onto our ships,” McLane said.

The autonomous MQ-4C Triton intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting drone can fly for more than 24 hours at a time and at altitudes greater than 10 miles, with a range of more than 8,000 nautical miles. Sensors aboard can cue onto electronic signals and adversary communications, and that information can be relayed to warships and other aircraft.

Vice Adm. Craig Clapperton, the Navy’s leader of Fleet Cyber Command, told attendees at the West conference in San Diego the Triton’s signals and geospatial intelligence capabilities are of particular interest to him and his teams. The drone achieved initial operating capability last year, following use in the Indo-Pacific.

Clapperton expects improved information-sharing across the service as Triton usage continues. Northrop has delivered at least five of the uncrewed systems to the service.

“If Triton is on an INDOPACOM orbit, it doesn’t just communicate with Naval Information Operations Command Pacific in Hawaii,” he said. “They’re communicating with Whidbey Island, they’re communicating with Task Force 1060 in NIOC Maryland. They’re communicating with Task Force 1050.”

Northrop last year said it was able to shuttle information between its Triton and simulated battlefield assets, including an F-35, an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, destroyers and carrier strike groups. The connectivity was made possible via a “gateway” that hooked into the drone’s onboard radar and advanced computing.

To stay ahead of China and Russia, the U.S. military is attempting to dissolve the membranes that have long compartmentalized the services, their databases and their weapons. The multibillion-dollar push, referred to as Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, envisions any sensor feeding any shooter the data he or she needs — meaning responses to foreign aggression will likely be quicker, more efficient and less constrained by geography.

“Around the globe, as these Tritons expand their orbit, they will be communicating with all of my NIOCs and bringing, really, a federated approach to that battlespace awareness and how we can help the warfighter have a better understanding of what’s going on in their area of responsibility,” Clapperton said.

In testing on the East Coast in December, a Martac-supplied and Northrop-outfitted T38 ship autonomously identified, chased and surveilled a target moving through the Chesapeake Bay.

Now, company officials told C4ISRNET, energy has shifted to getting Project Scion products ready for action at the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International’s Xponential 2024 in California in April as well as the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division’s Silent Swarm in Michigan in July. The former is focused on collaborative autonomy and applications beyond national security, the latter on electromagnetic warfare and digital deception.

“We’ve been working since December, the two months since we demoed, on taking those next steps,” Dennis Grignon, a business development manager at Northrop, said in an interview. “We did this on a single platform, but we could scale our package down to a very small USV, so we could repeat this.”

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The experimentation and investment at the Virginia-based company come amid surging U.S. Navy and Coast Guard interest in uncrewed technologies.

Former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday sought a hybrid fleet, with one update to his so-called Navigation Plan pitching 373 manned ships collaborating with 150 uncrewed vessels. The Coast Guard similarly published an unmanned road map last year. It described a force augmented by robotic aids, ready to counter unlawful activity and domestic threats.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense in August launched the Replicator initiative, meant to field thousands of uncrewed systems in 18-24 months to overcome the perceived mass of China.

Project Scion pools technologies from other domains, such as aerial drones, ground robotics and smart buoys, to produce payloads that can turn platforms into “true combat-and-surveillance systems for our customers,” according to Grignon.

Northrop, which is exhibiting its tech at the West naval conference this week in San Diego, builds the Fire Scout autonomous helicopter, the Triton unmanned aerial system and more.

“The flexibility with our payload allows it to be programmed for multiple missions,” he said. “It’s part of a bigger-picture need for doing more with fewer resources, and that’s the gap we’re trying to fill here.”

Manpower, knowhow and other resources will be strained in the future fights U.S. defense leaders are girding for. A war with China in the Indo-Pacific would put serious pressure on Navy vessels, the sailors aboard and their logistics chains.

Robo-ships could act as eyes, ears, supply shuttles and even firepower where they would otherwise be lacking.

“We’re receiving the data, processing and analyzing it, and then taking an action on that data, based on commander’s intent,” Matt O’Driscoll, a Northrop chief engineer for maritime systems and integration, said of Project Scion and its December trial.

“The effectors that were onboard our vessels were just cameras,” he added. “But going forward, that could be anything from an electronic attack like jamming, or cyberattack, or it could be kinetic with a human in the loop.”

Development and deployment of semi-autonomous or fully autonomous weapons is governed by what’s known as Directive 3000.09, originally signed a decade ago and updated last year. The Defense Department directive is meant to reduce the risks of failed autonomy and arms. It does not apply to cyber.

Northrop is the third largest defense contractor in the world when ranked by revenue, according to Defense News Top 100 analysis. It made $32.4 billion in 2022 and $31.4 billion in 2021.

The Feb. 9 ceremony also involved a flight of the Akinci, according to the Azeri government. The chief technology officer of Akinci manufacturer Baykar, Selcuk Bayraktar, posted images of the event on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Attendees included Bayraktar, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and his son Heydar Aliyev, as well as other high-ranking officers.

The training facility is for UAV operators, while the hanger will serve as a maintenance headquarters.

Azerbaijan had quietly purchased the Akinci. In March 2022, Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar said during a news conference that three nations were interested in buying drone type. According to the company, the first group of Azeri pilots for the Akinci completed training in October 2022.

In April 2023, Baykar and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of Baykar drones in the country. Azerbaijan previously used TB2 combat drones in its war against Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The Akinci is a high-altitude, long-endurance drone with a maximum takeoff weight of 6,000 kilograms (12,228 pounds), compared to the TB2′s 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds). The Akinci’s 1,500-kilogram payload is 10 times more than that of the TB2.

The Akinci can also fly higher than the TB2 at around 30,000-40,000 feet max. The Akinci also uses a wide range of ammunition and missiles, including MAM –L, MAM-C, Cirit, L-UMTAS, Bozok, SOM-A, and the Mark 81/82/83 bomb series.

The service agreed to pay $75 million for 600 of the ground-launched, radar-guided Coyote 2C devices, it said Feb. 9.

The effort was led by its Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, tasked with developing overhead defenses, long-range rocket systems, directed-energy lasers and more. Using a method known as rapid acquisition authority, the Army is expected to secure the counter-drone munitions in less than 30 days. Other, more traditional means can take months or years.

While the Army already deploys some Coyote systems in mobile and stationary setups — in what’s known as the Low, slow, small, unmanned aircraft Integrated Defeat System, or LIDS — this latest purchase marks growth in demand and production. It comes on the heels of a contracting notice describing the military’s intent to obtain and deploy thousands of Coyote interceptors and hundreds of their associated launchers and radars in the next five fiscal years.

Houthis, Russians wield same Iranian-supplied drones, DIA studies show

“The U.S. Army has a need to develop, produce and maintain countermeasures against enemy armed and intelligence-gathering UASs operating at various speeds and altitudes, which are targeting both U.S. and their allies’ interests at home and abroad,” the government notice stated.

The deal with RTX was inked days before Iran-backed militants killed three soldiers and injured dozens more with a one-way attack drone at the Tower 22 installation in Jordan, near the Syrian border. The strike underscored the pressing need to bat down drones, which can be assembled with off-the-shelf parts and can be relatively cheap.

RTX, formerly Raytheon Technologies, is the second largest defense contractor in the world when ranked by defense-related revenue. The Virginia-based company made $39 billion in 2022 and $41.8 billion in 2021, according to Defense News Top 100 analysis.

The order has an estimated value of $11 million (€10.2 million), according to a notice published this week by the Tenders Electronic Daily website, an online repository for European public procurements.

Little information was provided on the requirements for the autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, apart that it is lightweight and suitable to carry out operations in shallow waters.

The definition of a shallow-water AUV varies in terms of the depths it can reach, however, this class of system is typically designed to be used at depths of around 50 meters (164 feet). This is in contrast to deep-water AUVs, which are generally made to perform missions at depths of more than 2,500m.

Kongsberg Maritime’s AUV is in the Hugin systems, of which the Italian Navy is already a customer. In an interview given over the summer, Italian Rear Admiral Gianguido Manganaro, head of the Command of the Mine Countermeasures Forces, said that they have operated the Hugin 1000 since 2013, and that a second 3,000m capable one was set to be delivered by the end of 2023.

A report published last year by the Italian think-tank Istituto Affari Internazionali further stated that the Italian Navy already uses the Hugin 1000 and 3000, which have respective maximum depths of 1,000m and 3,000m.

Based on this information, the latest contract for a light AUV, could be the third HUGIN procured by the country’s naval forces.

One of the most recently developed variants is the Hugin Edge, described on the manufacturer’s website, as the smallest and most lightweight member of the Hugin family that possesses an autonomous launch and recovery system.

As part of the Italian Navy’s Future Combat Naval System 2035 vision, unmanned systems are listed as a procurement priority.

An Italian company that has doubled down on efforts to advance their naval systems is Fincantieri NextTech, a subsidiary of the Italian group. In 2019, it launched its surface advanced naval drone, dubbed SAND, as a multi-role unmanned surface vehicle.

“Over the past year, a launch and recovery system capable of launching and retrieving underwater unmanned vehicles for naval mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and critical seabed infrastructure protection was integrated onto SAND,” the company said in an email statement to Defense News.

There is no defined deadline for when the platform will become operational. However, a roadmap of improvements for 2024-2025 has been identified, as market demand for such systems is expected to increase as militaries further define their requirements.

“We have seen USVs become the protagonist in 2023 in new and unexpected wars like Ukraine, and although major navies and industries started developing this kind of technology years ago, the market is relatively young,” the statement said. “In 2024 and years to follow, we will see an increase in demand for interoperability and related improvements in autonomous capabilities.”

The effort, dubbed Sandtrap, produced prototypes that improved the speed and accuracy of unmanned aerial system countermeasures, according to a Feb. 9 announcement from CENTCOM, the Pentagon’s combatant command whose area of responsibility includes Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Downing a drone or other aerial threat requires spotting, classifying, tracking and targeting it in a process that is increasingly digital.

The U.S. military has in recent months faced a barrage of drone and missile attacks, including in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. A one-way drone strike at the Tower 22 installation, near the al-Tanf garrison and Syrian border, killed three soldiers in January. Iranian-supplied militants were blamed.

Houthis, Russians wield same Iranian-supplied drones, DIA studies show

Schuyler Moore, the chief technology officer at CENTCOM, in a statement said the command is committed to “leveraging every talented individual, technical solution and innovative process available” to advance counter-drone efforts.

“The Sandtrap hackathon combined all three: exceptional coders, brilliant software prototypes, and a repeatable process that can give us creative solutions in the future,” she added. Moore previously served as the chief strategy officer for Task Force 59, an outfit designed to quickly fold artificial intelligence and uncrewed systems into Navy operations.

Additional events similar to Sandtrap are expected going forward. Hackathons are organized to bring together specialists — developers, data scientists, software engineers and others — who then quickly improve upon existing programs or build novel ones.

Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM, in a statement said the Sandtrap endeavor brought “new and creative solutions to the table.” Future hackathons, he added, “will drive better solutions to critical missions and advance data-centric warfighting for the command.”

Both forces have used unmanned aerial vehicles to attack from afar and modernize their arsenals. Since October, the U.S. Navy has shot down dozens of one-way drones bound for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, while the Ukrainian military many miles away contends with what has been described as a drone war in Eastern Europe.

The Defense Intelligence Agency this week published a report documenting how Iran arms Houthi militants, highlighting among other weaponry the Waid 1 and 2 drones. The DIA said they share distinctive features — pitot tubes, fuselages, stubby nose cones — with Iran’s Shahed-131 and -136, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles.

Another DIA study published in August said Russia’s Geran-1 and -2, although rebranded, were of Iranian origin for similar reasons. The findings were based on retrieved parts as well as visual comparison of publicly available images. Parades and other military showcases provide analysts a chance to scour foreign firepower.

“The Waid 2 wing stabilizers displayed by the Houthis in Yemen are consistent with the size and shape of the winglets on the Shahed-136 displayed in Iran and debris from the Geran-2 — the Russian name for the Shahed-136 — recovered after Russian attacks in Ukraine,” the DIA assessment stated.

Asked about the proliferation of Iranian drones among two different forces in two different regions, a DIA spokesperson said all the information the agency has “on this topic is in the report and the accompanying release.” The agency, based at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling just south of the Capitol, is a principal source of foreign intelligence for military endeavors.

Stateside leadership has expressed increasing concern about Iran’s influence abroad. U.S. and allied forces have interdicted more than 18 Iranian smuggling vessels since 2015, seizing ballistic missile components, UAVs, anti-tank guided missiles, firearms, rockets and more.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh on Feb. 6 told reporters that the department has “been very clear that Iran does supply the Houthis, and other [Iranian Revolutionary Guard]-backed militias, with weapons and different capabilities, including UAVs.”

She declined to comment on the specifics of DIA’s assessment.

A one-way drone attack last month that killed three U.S. soldiers at the Tower 22 installation, near al-Tanf garrison and the Syrian border, was blamed on Tehran-backed militants. Washington responded by hitting more than 85 targets linked to the Revolutionary Guard, including command-and-control headquarters, intelligence centers, and drone and ammunition storage sites.

The strikes featured long-range B-1 bombers.

The award comes after DIU selected the Dive-LD platform to perform in a “swim-off” last year that put commercially available large unmanned underwater vehicles through an obstacle course to assess their maturity and applicability to conduct “distributed, long-range, persistent underwater sensing and payload delivery in contested environment,” according to a Feb. 8 Anduril news release.

DIU is the Pentagon’s commercial innovation hub.

Anduril said the U.S. Navy selected it for a follow-on contract that allows operational units to borrow the unmanned vehicles for experiments or buy them as a routine tool for their missions. The company could not disclose information about the value or duration of the contract, which was awarded through DIU’s Commercial Solutions Opening process.

Anduril’s chief strategy officer, Chris Brose, told Defense News the company had worked on maturing and demonstrating the Dive-LD vehicle for the last two years, but the contract now provides a mechanism to get the drone into the hands of sailors across varied geographies and unit types so they can “start solving a lot of different problems across the seabed and undersea domain.”

The contract creates direct access between Anduril and operators. A unit that has never worked with an autonomous underwater vehicle may want to experiment with one for a couple weeks or months, while another unit with a more refined concept for how they’d use the Dive-LD vehicle may want to buy several right off the bat.

Brose said the contract allows for whatever the operators prefer, as well as payload integration and other engineering to get the units a tailor-made system to meet their specific needs.

The Navy has struggled to bring large unmanned underwater vehicles to the fleet.

It kicked off a Snakehead large-diameter unmanned underwater vehicle program in 2017, though the original research program dates to before 2015. The first Snakehead prototype wasn’t christened until 2022, and the Navy and Congress agreed to cancel the program later that year. However, it’s been somewhat resurrected as a market research effort to identify commercially available technology that could be useful to the fleet.

The Navy also pursued an Orca extra-large UUV program, first selecting Boeing as one of two companies for a 2017 design contract and then selecting the firm as the sole winner of a 2019 contract to build four prototypes. The program has seen developmental and manufacturing delays. The company in December delivered a pre-prototype test asset but has not yet completed and delivered any of the prototypes on contract.

Brose said the Dive-LD — which Anduril acquired in early 2022 when it bought Dive Technologies ­— was designed for manufacturability, payload integration and artificial intelligence-powered smart operations.

The vehicle is made using advanced manufacturing processes, and the outer shell is 3D printed. Brose said this means the company can scale up production to meet demand under this DIU contract and others that may follow.

He referred to this DIU effort as a “breakthrough opportunity” that’s led to Anduril “really beginning to invest and facilitize for larger-scale production, which is something we’re doing in other parts of the business.”

He could not speculate how many Dive-LD vehicles the company might build for Defense Department customers under this DIU contract, but he called it “a really significant next step” for the company.

Because of the advanced manufacturing processes, Anduril can easily redesign pieces of the modular unmanned vehicle to accommodate a payload, reshape or resize the whole vehicle to fit a certain need, and more, based on what customers want.

“I think the excitement for us is the ability to really start doing the things at scale that the vehicle was designed to do,” he said.

In addition to this contract with DIU, Anduril signed a three-year agreement with Australia in 2022 to create something akin to an Orca XLUUV. The company, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Australian government’s Defence Science and Technology Group — in a $100 million co-funding effort — will design, develop and manufacture the extra-large autonomous undersea vehicles.

Global Industrial Defence Solutions describes the Ranger as a runway-independent tactical UAV. It was designed for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance missions, as well as for an artillery fire correction role.

Its multi-sensor gimbal payload incorporates a high-definition, electro-optical, medium-wave infrared sensor, and its laser range finder allows it to carry out daytime and nighttime operations. Its line-of-sight control is 100 kilometers (62 miles).

GIDS touts the drone as able to operate autonomously with artificial intelligence-enabled payloads.

Four small rotors provide vertical lift, while a larger pusher rotor delivering forward propulsion.

GIDS was also promoting its Fatah II guided multi-launch rocket system, first tested in December 2023. The export version has a range of 290 kilometers.

GIDS told Defense News that its presence at the defense expo is its largest to date as it attempts to secure more export deals, with the offer of local production as a sweetener. It has already sold products to Peru and has broken into the African market.

It is also keen to expand business with Pakistan’s close allies. On the first day of the show, the organization signed an agreement with Turkey, but a GIDS spokesman would not offer specifics when asked by Defense News.