Showing posts with label Scout SV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scout SV. Show all posts

Friday, August 14, 2015

German armor sales process

Recently

The Brazilian armed forces are expecting the final delivery of former German Gerpard self-propelled anti-air guns (SPAAG). Back in Novembre 2011 the Gepard was presented to the Brazilian army, where it managed to score several direct hits against remotely operated model aircraft (with a wingspan just above 1 metre) used by in Brazil to represent airplanes at longer ranges. The previously used 40 mm Bofors gun failed at achieving direct hits and required a larger amount of time and ammunition to destroy the aircrafts.

A total of 32 Gepard 1A2 SPAAG were ordered by the Brazilian army. The last 8th were shipped in the first week of August in Germany and are scheduled to arrive 20 days later in Brazil.
The Gepard is based on the Leopard 1 chassis, which is already operational within the Brazilian army.

Source: Jane's IHS

Meanwhile the Croatian army received the first of 12 Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled guns (SPG). All vehicles are former German ones, which were bought by Croatia in 2014 for 14€ million. The total budget of the Croatian army to buy, support and modernize the Panzerhabuitze 2000s is 41€ million. It is expected that all 12 PzH 2000 will be operating in 2016.

Source: Jane's IHS

Rheinmetall has started working on a 130€ million contract for Lockheed Martin UK. The contract is about the production of 245 turrets for the Scout Specialist Vehicle (or rather it's structure bar many components chosen by the British). The weapon mount is also assembled by Rheinmetall.
The Scout SV is going to use a modified version of Rheinmetall's Lance Modular Turret System (Lance MTS). The structure of the turret is assembled in Germany. It seems to consists of steel, but contains many mounting points for composite armor panels.

Two turret structures for the Scout SV in a Rheinmetall facility in Germany

Source: Rheinmetall

Last but not least, the Royal Netherlands Army took over the first of 60 Boxer command post vehicles on the 31. of July. The command post vehicle will be the third version of the Boxer to enters service with the Dutch army. The engineering vehicle version and the cargo transport version of the Boxer will enter service in 2016.

Source: ARTEC Boxer

Thursday, July 2, 2015

UK's defence modernization advances

Apparently the British army modernization programme is running quite well - after already ordering the required MTU engines (which will be licence-made by Rolls Royce), two further milestone have been made.

The UK has ordered a total of 515 40 mm autocanons for use with telescopic case ammunition from CTA International. 245 of these will be used for the Warrior CSP upgrade, while 245 will be used for the Scout SV. 25 guns are used for trials and testing. The costs are a £150 million ($236 million),
delivery of the CTAS cannons is to start in 2015 and last seven years.

Furthermore a study is reviewing the possibility to produce the Scout SV chassis and turret in the UK, after an initial batch of 100 vehicles would have been manufactured in Spain.


Author's opinion: The British army modernization as part of the former FRES programme is getting along well. That is good news for the British army and for the NATO.
Still I have a few troubles with the British implementation of a vehicle armed with the 40 mm Case Telescoped Armament System, it seems one of the problems of the British military to always favor "exotic" calibres nobody else uses.
The MICV-80 Warrior already used the horrendous RARDEN gun, which not only suffered from being cumbersome to use (and being manually loaden), but it also used the rare 30x170 mm catridge, while the rest of the world settled for the 30x173 mm catrige (most NATO members) or the 30x165 mm catridge (Eastern block).
The CTA gun might have a similar fate as the RARDEN gun, as the development partner France still utilizes the 25 mm autocannon on their wheeled VBCI infantry fighting vehicle.

The low ammunition load of the Warrior WSCP is also not a decision I would agree with.

The Scout SV (pictured) is based on the ASCOD 2 from GDELS
The attempt to locally produce a part of the Scout SV in the UK is, frankly, a stupid idea. It's just going to increase the cost and delay the production.

Here are the original reports from Jane's IHS:

Sources: Jane's on CTAS 40 mm cannon , Jane's on possible local production of Scout SV