Piranha V Brochure.

Another follow up on some of the vehicles that caught my eye at Eurosatory.  The Piranha V has crossed the threshold.  A 30 ton wheeled armored vehicle?  I can't wait to see how it performs operationally.  The Germans are pushing the class with the 'Boxer' but I'm still not sold.  I wonder if it would be cheaper for the Army to buy new built Piranha's instead of doing a radical upgrade to their Strykers.

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380th Air Expeditionary Wing Unit Poster.

"The mission is and 18-year-old with a rifle. All else is support" is a sentiment expressed by wing leadership at the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing which is home to 1,900 personnel supporting one of the most diverse combat wings in the Air Force. The wing's mission is to provide high-altitude all-weather intelligence, surveillance, reconaissance, airborne command and control and air refueling for Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa. To accomplish its mission the wing is equipped with four diverse weapons systems which are shown as silhouttes. From top to bottom, The RQ-4 Global Hawk, E-3 Sentry, U-2 Dragon Lady and the KC-10 Extender. They are a unique combination of aircraft which act as the "eyes and ears" serving as guardians of the sky for troops on the ground and providing greater range and endurance for coalition aircraft over the battlefield.
Photo by Captain Cathleen Snow.

More AH-1Z's.

via DefPro.

Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $546,001,600 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the manufacture and delivery of lot seven UH-1Y and AH-1Z helicopters for the Marine Corps, to include 18 UH-1Y build new aircraft; nine AH-1Z remanufactured aircraft; and two AH-1Z build new aircraft. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (60 percent), and Amarillo, Texas (40 percent), and is expected to be completed in July 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-10-C-0035).

Another program operating in the background that's getting the  job done.  The change from the AH-1W to AH-1Z is progressing nicely (to include the upgraded UH-1Y).  After a rough start its nice to see them hitting stride.

New NH-90 TTH pics.

courtesy EuroCopter.

BAE TRT-25mm Turret.

Of all the products that are currently being displayed at Eurosatory, the one that is perhaps as exciting as any other is the TRT 25mm turret.
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Compact, modular and able to accommodate weapons up to the 30mm Bushmaster, this could be a system that the US military can finally standardize on.

I like it!

Otokar's Arma Wheeled Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

All images courtesy Otokar.

Via Otokar.  More info on Otokar's vehicle line-up can be found here.

ARMA is the modular multi-wheel configuration wheeled armoured vehicle with superior tactical and technical characteristics. Thanks to the high level of ballistic and mine protection as well as the outstanding design allowing the integration of various types of mission equipments or armament, ARMA is an adaptable 6x6 platform for evolving mission needs in a modern battlefield forming an optimum solution among mobility, modularity and protection.
ARMA 6x6 has an 18,500 kg combat weight and carries a driver, commander and eight dismounts. ARMA is transportable by various means including C130 aircraft.
ARMA with longitudinal and transverse differantial locks, geared hubs and double wisbone type independent hydropneumatic suspension, offers respectable all terrain mobility on difficult terrain, high level safety and comfort for the crew.
ARMA is developed and validated by Otokar's R&D capabilities and now ready for production.

LCS-1 headed to RIMPAC.

via US Navy.

USS Freedom Departs San Diego for RIMPACBy Lt. Ed Early, USS Freedom Public Affairs SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- The Navy's first Littoral Combat Ship, USS Freedom (LCS 1), departed Naval Base San Diego today to participate in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2010, the world's largest maritime exercise.

During this year's RIMPAC, the 22nd in the biennial exercise series, Freedom will operate in and around the Hawaiian Islands with air, land, and maritime forces from 13 other nations.

"RIMPAC is a tremendous opportunity to build upon and to refine Freedom's known surface warfare and maritime security capabilities and to break new ground in LCS employment," said Cmdr. Kris Doyle, commanding officer of Freedom's Blue Crew. "We have several 'first-of' events scheduled, ranging from air defense to anti-submarine to fire support exercises. Every day, we will be stretching ourselves to learn more about what LCS brings to the fleet and how we integrate in a multinational environment."

Freedom recently arrived in San Diego at the conclusion of a historic maiden deployment to the U.S. 3rd and 4th Fleet areas of responsibility. During deployment, the ship conducted counter-illicit trafficking (CIT) operations, making four successful seizures that yielded more than five tons of cocaine, two "go fast" drug vessels, and nine suspected smugglers taken into custody. In addition to independent operations, Freedom successfully integrated with the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Carrier Strike Group for a re-fueling at sea, high-speed operations, surface gunnery events, and Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure evolutions. The ship also completed three theater security cooperation port visits to Cartagena, Colombia; Panama City, Panama; and Manzanillo, Mexico.

The first ship of the revolutionary LCS program, Freedom is a fast, agile, and maneuverable ship designed to compliment the Navy's larger multi-mission surface combatants in select mission areas, including combating submarines, mines, and fast-attack craft threats in the littorals.

Embarked aboard Freedom for RIMPAC are Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22, Detachment 2, based in Norfolk, Va., and the first tailored LCS Surface Warfare Mission Package (SUW MP), based in San Diego.