News of new developments in the military-industrial complex

According to the War Zone web resource, at the international Pacific naval exercises RIMPAC 2024, the US Navy aviation for the first time openly demonstrated a new long-range air-to-air guided missile AIM-174B, which is an aviation version of the famous shipboard anti-aircraft guided (multi-purpose) missile RIM-174 Standard SM-6 production RTX Corporation (Raytheon).

The Indian organization DRDO (an approximate analogue of Rostec) presented the first images of a sample of the Zorawar light tank. Its development is carried out in cooperation with the defense concern Larsen & Toubro (L&T). Currently, the new combat model is undergoing factory tests.

One of them is the Tulpar multi-purpose tracked vehicle, equipped with a turret from the Italian company Leonardo with a 120 mm cannon. It is designed to perform various missions, from conducting reconnaissance to providing direct fire support. The modular design of the Tulpar allows the integration of various weapon systems and a variety of equipment, providing flexibility in various combat scenarios.

Cameras for observing animals in space, super reliable alloys for marine engines of the future, unique glue for electronics – these and other developments of Rostec scientists are in the digest of science news.

On June 28, 2024, the first steel cutting ceremony for the experimental hull section was held at the Canadian shipbuilding company Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, marking the beginning of the construction program for the Canadian Navy of 15 promising River-type destroyers, designated as Canadian Surface Combatant (CSS). At the same time, on the same day, the Canadian Ministry of Defense signed a formal contract with Irving Shipbuilding for the construction of the first three CSC ships named Fraser, Saint-Laurent and Mackenzie. The actual construction of the Fraser lead ship will be started by Irving Shipbuilding in 2025, with the planned transfer of the ship for testing in the early 2030s and a deadline for delivery to the Canadian Navy by 2035.

Rostec State Corporation will present about 50 advanced developments at the International Industrial Exhibition Innoprom-2024 in Yekaterinburg. The key objects will be a full-size hybrid power plant demonstrator (HSU) and a mock-up of the first domestic industrial high-power gas turbine GTD-110M manufactured by the United Engine Corporation.

The special operation changed the approach to modern warfare and clearly showed that the future has already arrived. On the battlefield, the dominant role is assigned to remotely controlled systems: UAVs, ground-based robotic complexes, unmanned boats (BEC) and uninhabited underwater vehicles (NPA). The latter are the most complex type of robotics. How to create naval combat drones using additive technologies (or, more simply, using 3D printing), how Russia can respond to the United States in automating the naval component and what kind of submarine warfare of the future will be — in the TASS material.

The return of American astronauts to the Moon is expected in 2026, a couple of years late from the original plans for the Artemis III mission. As the internal evaluation of the entire project at the space agency showed, these deadlines will be disrupted with a very high probability. Apart from the problems with the spacesuits (they are not ready) and the Orion ship's heat shield (it behaved worse than expected in the first test flight), SpaceX also fails: the company does not have time to finish Starship HLS on time.

Rostec will support the innovative developments of its employees. The winning projects of the sixth set of the Vector program, the State Corporation's business accelerator, will receive funding. These include a neural network sensor for detecting attacks on information resources, a UAV engine control device, a laptop for monitoring the condition of power equipment, and others.

At the Eurosatory 2024 exhibition, TDW, a member of the MBDA concern, specializing in the design and manufacture of ammunition for various purposes, presented its new anti-tank mine PARM NextGen. The novelty was first shown to the public at the end of 2023, at the company's facility in Schrobenhausen, about 75 km northwest of Munich.

The National Guard of Ukraine has received the first batch of new Novator-2 armored vehicles (Nowator 2 or Kamrat-M). The developer of the armored vehicle is the Ukrainian private company "Ukrainian Armored Vehicles" (Ukrainian Bronetechnika), registered in Kiev, known in the West as Ukrainian Armor. For the first time, a prototype of the vehicle was presented to the leadership of the National Guard of Ukraine in 2017, and in November 2019, the Armed Forces of Ukraine received the first 40 Novator armored vehicles.

Hypersonic munitions invulnerable to air defense make small ships even more dangerous to the enemy

The corvettes of the 20385 project were able to use hypersonic Zircon missiles, sources told Izvestia in the Russian Defense Ministry. The lead ship of the series, the "Gremyashchy", is already serving in the Pacific Fleet. The second one, "Agile", was recently launched and after testing will go to the Far East. Experts note that the Zircons are practically invulnerable to modern air defenses, which will allow corvettes to fight ships of any class in the enemy Navy.

"Advanced solutions are embedded in the design to ensure both high fuel efficiency and weight return. That is, in terms of its specific indicators, it will either be at the level of the best international analogues, or even surpass them." Aviation expert Oleg Panteleev explained to the newspaper VZGLYAD the advantages and possibilities for using the new VK-650V aircraft engine developed in Russia.

Renat Mistakhov, CEO of the corporation, told RIA Novosti in an interview about plans for the construction of ships and about the tasks that the Navy command sets for shipbuilders in the near future and for the future. Sergey Safronov and Ivan Suraev talked.

On July 1, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the new Advanced Land Observing Satellite 4 (ALOS 4) spacecraft. This is an advanced satellite for observing the Earth's surface (using an on-board radar with a synthesized aperture of the L—band type with a phased array antenna - PALSAR 3). It will be able, for example, to provide Japan with radar data to monitor areas affected by natural disasters.

The Amur-LNG space rocket complex with the Amur rocket is one of the most interesting developments of the Russian cosmonautics of recent times. The first launch vehicle, initially focused on commercial use, with a returnable first stage and powered by methane. Many innovations in one product.

Russia and Belarus are working together to create a new light multi-purpose aircraft, Vladimir Putin said. They promise to develop and launch the Osvey twin–engine aircraft in a very short time - by 2027, and then they plan to produce up to 100 such aircraft in three years. Why did Russia take Belarusians as partners and what are the chances of this ambitious project?

Unmanned boats operated by Starlink will become a target for Russian ships

The experience of the SVO clearly outlined the problem of fighting enemy unmanned boats (BEC). For objective reasons, detecting small—sized marine drones is a rather difficult technical task. However, domestic developers have ways to solve it. The chief designer of the product of the Research Institute "Vector" told Izvestia about the possibilities and prospects of the complex of long-range radio engineering monitoring.

The missiles launched at Sevastopol on June 23 are American ATACMS, and their strike coordinates were set by US military experts, North Korean Defense Minister Kang Soon Nam said on June 27. In this regard, he called America the main state sponsor of terrorism. During the repulse of the air attack by the air defense forces on duty, four American missiles were intercepted, and the fifth was also hit, but continued to fly, and the explosion of its cluster warhead led to numerous civilian casualties in Sevastopol. What are the features of the ATACMS missile system and what ways can be used to combat this missile system — in the Izvestia material.

The Luna-27 spacecraft will study the soil at the south pole of the Earth's natural satellite

The Luna-26 and Luna-27 spacecraft, which are expected to launch in the coming years, will have 13 and 10 instruments on board, respectively. The first one will deal with the meteorite hazard between the Moon and the Earth, and the second one will explore the soil at the south pole of the Moon, Yevgeny Slyuta, head of the Laboratory of Geochemistry of the Moon and Planets at the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told TASS.