Defence Industry Bulletin, January 2016 (Issue #8)

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The New Year begins with the shadow of ISIL hanging over the Middle East as it again threatens to destroy Western civilisation. Investment in national intelligence agencies across Europe promises to abate further attacks – Joseph Carpenter reports on the measures the UK is taking to fight the terrorist scourge. But the New Year doesn’t just bring new threats; old ones remain. Russia is being hit with sanctions as it continues its more aggressive foreign policy while Malcolm Warr asks what can be done in a special feature on defending maritime Scotland, which he reminds us has a coastline longer than India.

In this issue of DIB we have an update on Italy’s Navy modernisation programme with details of another PPA ship order, news of a contract for a Canadian naval supply ship, and an analysis of India’s submarine fleet as it scraps INS Sindhurakshak and considers a reshuffle.

The third and final set of flight tests for the BAE Systems-led Taranis Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator programme have been completed – DIB has the latest on the next stage of the project. This issue also reveals updates on the first F-35 to be assembled outside of the US and has details on the recent approval of the US JSTARS proposal.

Meanwhile in the Land section, Spain and Denmark select the Piranha 5, Australia issues an RFI for 450 tracked IFVs and we speak to the Israeli Defence Forces about the growing challenge of counter tunnelling for combat engineers.

In The Briefing Room, Rory Jackson speaks to Eurofighter about future upgrades and potential customers in 2016 while Georg Mader asks Textron AirLand’s CEO Bill Anderson about the Scorpion’s first year and its prospects for the future. Our intrepid reporter speaks to Saab about its deal with the UAE Air Force to acquire two ‘Swing Role Surveillance System’ (SRSS) platforms and the modification of two earlier AEW&C aircraft.

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