{"id":30703,"date":"2017-02-28T12:32:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T01:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=30703"},"modified":"2017-02-28T11:47:23","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T00:47:23","slug":"sea-air-land-space-updates-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/sea-air-land-space-updates-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea, air, land and space updates"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Sea State<\/strong><\/p>\n Cyber attack combat-readiness, intelligence exploitation, drone intelligence, systems streamlining and integrated infrastructure will all be part of the Royal Navy\u2019s forthcoming Information Warrior 17<\/a> exercise. Perhaps the coolest aspect of the exercise is that it\u2019ll explore artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, both as a potential threat and as a combat tool. The exercise will test whether AI can be used as a warship\u2019s \u201cmind\u201d<\/a>, controlling weapons targeting, issuing commands and improving threat response strategies.<\/p>\n The Royal Australian Navy is also war-gaming this week in the inaugural Exercise Ocean Explorer<\/em>. Taking place off the West Australian coast, the exercise involves more than 17 ships and aircraft <\/a>including contributions from Spain, New Zealand and Italy. It aims \u2018to train ships to work together in a series of complex and dynamic warfare scenarios\u2019<\/a>, with the international participants also having the opportunity to grapple with the added challenges around language, customs and technology differences.<\/p>\n Finnish defence firm Patria showcased its Nemo Container<\/a> mortar system at IDEX\u00a0in Abu Dhabi on 20 February. Essentially, it\u2019s a shipping container integrated with a 120mm Nemo mortar turret that can be fitted to both land and sea platforms<\/a>. Check out this<\/a> quick video explaining its versatility.<\/p>\n Flight Path<\/strong><\/p>\n The Pentagon has awarded a new US$15.6 million contract <\/a>to ELTA North America Inc.\u2014a US subsidiary of Israeli Aerospace Industries\u2014to build systems to counter the commercial drones ISIS has employed since 2014<\/a>. Mainly used for reconnaissance and deploying explosives, ISIS\u2019s diversifying array of drones<\/a> are a growing threat to coalition forces on the battlefield. The contract requires that \u201821 Man Portable Air Defense System kits\u2019 be delivered as early as 28 July 2017. According to Defense One<\/em>\u2019s<\/a> insights, the contracted air base suggests that it\u2019ll most likely involve a jamming system that can take down drones without firing any shots.<\/p>\n The Avalon Air Show<\/a> (a.k.a. Nirvana for air power geeks) kicks off today in Geelong. What makes this year particularly special is that it marks the first time Lockheed Martin\u2019s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has landed on Australian soil. The two F-35As have come all the way from Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona<\/a>, and will be met by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Defence Minister Marise Payne, with the government hoping the cameo can sway some of the platform\u2019s critics.<\/a><\/p>\n Russia\u2019s state-owned media announced that the Ministry of Defence is planning a new air-defence division<\/a> to cover the Eastern Arctic, which will protect Moscow and the Ural region against potential aircraft and missile attacks. That move is set to complement Russia\u2019s existing 1st Air Defence Division covering the Western Arctic, and is part of President Putin\u2019s new push<\/a> to strengthen Russia\u2019s Arctic civilian and military capacity.<\/p>\n Rapid Fire <\/strong><\/p>\n Russia\u2019s military recently announced it will test-fire a new intercontinental ballistic missile\u00a0(ICBM) as early as 2019. Currently under development, the new ICBM is expected to be ready for operational deployment by 2020.<\/a>\u00a0 Also known as the \u2018Barguzin railroad combat complex,\u2019 or BZhRK in Russian media<\/a>, these weapons are a revival of train-based ICBMs used by the Soviet Union in the 1960s\u2014built to carry six missiles each, instead of the original three, train-based ICBMs offers several strategic advantages over fixed-silo missiles. Their ability to constantly be on the move means that the enemy can never be certain where they are.<\/p>\n With the Trump administration still trying to find its feet, the US is putting an increasing amount of pressure on European NATO members to raise military spending.<\/a> Germany has provisionally answered this call\u2014recently announcing a decision to expand its army by 5,000 soldiers<\/a> and send additional tanks to support NATO troops stationed in Lithuania. Around the same time, German\u2019s defence ministry announced further plans to increase the number of troops<\/a> in the German armed forces by almost 200,000 over the next seven years. According to German outlets, such a decision comes amid \u2018increasing pressure for Germany to reach its NATO-mandated defense spending target<\/a>\u2019. With an upcoming meeting in Hungary<\/a> set to discuss NATOs transformation, there will clearly be a lot to discuss.<\/p>\n Zero Gravity<\/strong><\/p>\n The talk of the town this week is NASA\u2019s announcement<\/a> of TRAPPIST-1<\/a>, a system of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a cool red dwarf some 39 light years away.<\/p>\n The find has big implications<\/a> for extra-terrestrial life. Three of the planets are in the Goldilocks Zone<\/a>, potentially with liquid water<\/a>, and over the coming decades scientists will leverage increasingly sophisticated techniques<\/a> to analyse their atmospheres. The detection of something like oxygen could suggest<\/a> photosynthesis. Moreover, the very existence<\/a> of this system, around the most common type of star, again ups the odds of life in similar systems elsewhere.<\/p>\n Back on Earth, these kinds of discoveries stoke the public imagination and get everybody talking. NASA\u2019s Exoplanet Travel Bureau<\/a> is already envisaging future planet-hopping<\/a>, spruiking it to a public that\u2019s busy imagining life around another sun. There\u2019s plenty of fanfiction<\/a>, stories<\/a> and poetry<\/a> going around, and conceptual artists<\/a> are working in overdrive. Everyone\u2019s also excited about the scientists involved\u2014astrophysicists like Sara Seager, who was brilliantly profiled last year in the piece, \u2018The Woman Who Might Find Us Another Earth<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n NASA is currently evaluating future roadmaps, including an ambitious proposal<\/a> to crew the first tests of the new Space Launch System<\/a>. While safety<\/a> is the order of the day<\/a>, growing public sentiment should empower the new administration to consider every strategy moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Sea State Cyber attack combat-readiness, intelligence exploitation, drone intelligence, systems streamlining and integrated infrastructure will all be part of the Royal Navy\u2019s forthcoming Information Warrior 17 exercise. Perhaps the coolest aspect of the exercise …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":30704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1647,391,803,261,1640],"class_list":["post-30703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-ballistic-missile","tag-cyber","tag-nasa","tag-nato","tag-space"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n