Aeronautica & Difesa - Gennaio 2011 - ELT

martedì 1 febbraio 2011 estratto da pag 40-40 .. .. ..
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1ùrning to Oman, Thales has scored a
major success with its Vigile ES system,
whkh has been selected for installation
aboard the country's Al Bushra dass patrol
vessels (Vigile 200), Dhojar class fast
attack craft (Vigile 200) and Khareef and
Qahir class corvettes (Vigile 400). Of these.
theKhareefclass (three ofwhich are building,
with the first-of-class being expected
to be delivered during 2011) also benefits
from a MASS-2L installation. For its part,
the Qatari Navy has a requirement for a
new 45-meter patrol craft which may
(or may not) bcncfit from EW provision,
wlu1e Saudi Arabia is looking to replace
its Medina-Class frigates. If consummated,
this will be a big-ticket program that wiU
involve up to six ships with sources suggesting
the Franco-Italian FREMM or one
of the two American Littoral Cornbat Ship
designs as being potential candidates for
sucha buy.
Last but by no means least (and aside
from its Baynunah-Class corvettes), the
UAE Navy has embarked on its Abu Dhabi-Class
corvette and Falaj 2-Class strike
craft programs, with sources suggesting
that both wiU be equipped with variants
of Elettronica's Seal ES architecture
(Seal-H for the Abu Dhabi Class and Seal­
L for the Falaj 2 vessels) an d MASS decoy
launchers. Of these various ship classes
(and as this is being written), one Abu
Dhabi-Class corvette is being built (with
an option for a second pending), with a
pair of Falaj 2-Class strike craft scheduled
for first delivery during 2012.
&ROUNDEW
While identifying Middle Eastern
air and naval EW activity is relatively
easy, finding hard information concerning
ground applications is much more
difficult. Indeed (and outside Turkey).
the author has only been ab le to firmly
identify two relevant programs, namely
Egypt's acquisition of six 0.5- to 18-GHz
band, shelter-mounted, ITT Electronic
Systems ES-3000 ES/ELINT systems and
a Jordanian order for what is termed as
an Electronic Warfare Battalion System
(EWBS) that was announced in late December.
Here, DRS Defense Solutions has
been awarded a $37.1 million Foreign
Military Sales contract covering the
supply of two EWBS architectures for
the Jordanian military. Each turn-key
EWBS is described as comprising an EW
operations center, two electronic attack
systems and six ES/surveillance systems
and is intended (as its designation
suggests) for use at Battalion level (see
related artide in World Report). At the
time of this writing, no delivery date for
this architecture had been ascertained.
Elsewhere, the author is aware that
variants of Thales UK's 0.4 to 18 GHz
band Corvus III EUNT system have been
supplied to at least one unidentified
Middle Eastern customer while the 1ùrkish
contractor Asclsan produces a rangc
of COMINT an d communications jamming
systems (including the 20 to 1,000 MHz
band DFINT-3A2 direction-finder and intelligente
system, the V /UHF band DFINT-
3T2 direction-finder and the V/UHF band
JAMINT-3 and the 1 to 30 MHz band JA­
MINT-4S communications jammer) that
JED believes have been supplied to the
Turkish military. Just as interestingly,
Tehran-based IRAN Electronics lndustries
is known to have developed two
ground-based communications jammers
(designated as the HJS-1000 and the VJS-
200 and covering the 2 to 30 MHz and 2
to 500 MHz bands respectively). Again,
IRAN Electronics is also billed as manufacturing
a 40 mm naval chaff decoy
under the designation CCC 40 and it is
possible that the Iranians have managed
to keep operable some of the EW equipment
(such as the AN/ALQ-119 jammer
and the 'Ibex' SIGINT aircraft) that the
US supplied to the country prior to the
fall of the Shah in 1979.
r-r-n
FFR
eco
There can be no doubt that there is
a ready market for radio frequency surveillance
equipment as Middle Eastern
rulers and governments struggle with
the religious radicalization of their populations,
calls for more democratic rule
and the rise of terrorism and insurgency
aimed at toppling existing regimes. It is
no t rocket science therefore t o forecast a
significant market for cellular telephone
monitoring and locating equiprnent and
technological fixes for controlling the
Internet throughout the region.
As a fina t thought o n EW in the Middtc
East, readers should be aware of a growing
trend toward industrial participation
rather than merely passive equipment
purchase. Here, Saudi Arabia is looking to
develop its defense manufacturing base,
both as a means of maintaining sovereignty
and as a way of soaking up the
energies of its young people in order to
prevent their radicalization. Again, Turkey
(with its already developed defense
electronics industry) requires industrial
participationjoffset as a standard part of
many of its offshore defense purchases.
As before, it is not hard to see that such
requirements can only increase with time
and that industrialjtechnology transfer/
training packages could form a significant
revenue stream in the not too distant
future.
While by no means all encompassing,
it is hoped that the foregoing will have
given the reader some insights into EW
activity in this difficult but enorrnously
important region of the world. -"