Nordic Defense News, pictures, videos and history

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For the first time in many years the CV90 used it's capabilities to take out airborne targets. In this case, a drone. This time it was the Telemark Battalion who conducted the shooting at Rena.

 

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Flotex 2105

 

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The Army Engineer Divers are members of the Norwegian Army's Engineer Battalion who are trained to undertake reconnaissance and salvage tasks underwater.

 

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Border guards outside observation post 247 which is situated at Grense Jakobselv close to the Russian border.

 

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SAAB's Gripen NG Fighter Has An Awesome Way To Make Its Radar More Capable

AESA radars have changed aerial combat, offering a quantum leap in range, resolution, fast scanning capabilities, stealthiness and reliability among many other advantages. But, an AESA’s somewhat narrow field of view can still be an issue. SAAB has come up with a ingenious solution to this problem—spin an angled AESA radar array around on a platter.

This system, which is called a repositioner, is ingenious as it allows the Gripen NG’s Raven ES-05 radar to gain another 40 degrees of scanning ability to either side of the aircraft’s nose. This is in addition to the 60 degrees AESA radar sets typically provide (120 degrees combined).

The ability to take a beyond-visual-range missile shot, then turn 90 degrees, while still providing mid-course updates for the missile fired and keep situational awareness at its peak is a great thing, and it opens up many tactical advantages for Gripen NG crews.

This system will allow beaming into the enemy’s radar notch without losing track of the bad guys. Beaming is when a fighter turns around 90 degrees away (perpendicular) from the enemy’s pulse doppler radar array. Because these types of radars use doppler shift to gauge a target’s relative velocity, and as such they filter out low relative velocity objects, especially ground clutter, the beaming fighter, which is not moving to or away from the enemy radar much while beaming, can enter the enemy radar’s notch.

This is a blind spot where the radar’s velocity gate, which acts like a filter, sees a target at low enough speed from its perspective that it discounts it. So even though the fighter may be moving at 500 mph, the right angle to the radar makes it only detect maybe 60 mph of closure, as such it throws this information out as it would ground clutter. This is an especially useful tactic when the enemy fighter is above you, and trying to lock you up in the look-down-shoot down scenario.

The issue is that with a typical fixed AESA radar array, pulling off such a maneuver means the fighter doing so will lose its radar picture and lock on the enemy it is trying to evade. Without third party sensors feeding this data to the beaming fighter via data-link, its pilot will become blind to the tactical situation when it matters most.

Now, with a system like SAAB’s repositioner, the radar can be rotated to gain the extra azimuth to continue scanning the area over 90 degrees off its nose. As such, the pilot will not lose situational awareness and their missiles can continue to get mid-course updates as they fly towards their targets. Paired with low-probability of intercept mode, where the AESA radar uses very directed beams of radar energy in quick succession, and while hopping frequencies, the fighter that is beaming can be hard to detect even by passive sensors, such as radar warning receivers.

With new missiles that have extreme ranges, like MBDA’s Meteor, a Gripen NG could fire these missiles at enemy fighters at long-ranges, and then jump into the enemy’s doppler notch to hide while still guiding its missiles. This could put the Gripen NG beyond the reach of the enemy’s infrared search and track system (IRST) that is impervious to jamming or beaming tricks during the entirety of the engagement, as well as the enemy’s radar for much of it. As such, the enemy fighters would not be able to detect the Gripen even while its missiles are well on the way. First shots, first kill.

Other solutions to this problem have been designed into other fighters. The F-22 Raptor was supposed to have AESA radar arrays on both sides of its nose in order to give the jet more radar coverage at extreme angles. Sadly, the equipment was never installed due to budget reasons. Still, the F-22, with its low observability (stealth) really has less a need for such a system than less stealthy aircraft.

Unlike the F-22, Russia’s T-50 has side-mounted AESA arrays, which may be necessary due to the aircraft’s less stealthy design when compared to the F-22. The Eurofighter consortium also has an answer to this problem with theirswashplate design tied to the CAPTOR-E radar, which is very similar to SAAB’s repositioner.

With the 4.75 generation fighter marketplace looking to be stable much longer than originally anticipated, AESA radar upgrades breathe new life into not so new designs. The Gripen NG in particular packs a ton of capability into a small package, and it will be interesting to see how the jet does once it becomes operational.

Currently, Brazil has an order for 36 of the jets (24 single-seat Gripen Es and 12 two-seat Gripen Fs) that should begin being delivered by 2019, and Sweden will order 60.

 

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Norwegian police advisers

 

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A formation of U.S. and Norwegian F-35 Lightning II soar over Luke Air Force Base, Arizona November 10, 2015. Today was the scheduled arrival of two F-35s for the Royal Norwegian air force while simultaneously celebrating the Norwegian air force’s birthday.

Royal Norwegian Air Force Maj. Morten Hanche, 62nd Fighter Squadron training pilot, climbs in for his first F-35 Lightning ll flight Nov. 10, 2015 at Luke Air Force Base. His flight coincides with the arrival of the first Norwegian F-35 and the Norwegian Air Force 71st.

 

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Instructor course level one and two in urban operations at Rødsmoen in the urban warfare training village at Rena.

 

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The Patria NEMO 'Mortar Boat' Is Small And Fast With A Huge *** Gun

Littoral warfare is all the rage these days, being able to snuggle in around shoals and the muddy water of contested territory and vanquish your enemy with speed and overwhelming force. That exact mission is what Finland's Patria NEMO 120mm mortar boat is all about. It is a small and fast shallow draft vessel with one huge ***, surgically accurate gun.

The NEMO, which stands for 'NEw MORrtar,' is a fully automated, gyro stabilized, breach-loading 120mm mortar turret system. In the past, originally it was designed for land-based applications, now it has gone to sea. It can fire while the ship is rolling and pitching, even at high speed, and it is ridiculously accurate.


NEMO boasts a range beyond that of anti-tank missiles, a weapon that is becoming a staple when it comes to countering small boat swarms. The gun's stated range is over 10km, and its barrel can traverse -3 to +85 degrees while spouting off 7 shots a minute continuously or a three round burst in just 12 seconds.

The base for this mini battleship of sorts is Alutech Marine's Watercat M12 landing craft, which is an enlarged and more powerful version of the JurmoClass landing craft. The M12 is a super maneuverable and very stable fast landing craft that uses twin 525 kW marine diesel engines and Rolls-Royce FF410S water jets to sling it through even very shallow water at speeds approaching 45 knots.

The boat's bow ramp is hydraulically powered, allowing access to rapidly load and offload 16 troops, all of which sit on impact dampened seats within the boat's Kevlar lined bow-cocoon. Another eight troops can be held above deck. In the Patria NEMO's case, this space is used for accessing the automatic gun turret and space left unused by the big gun can be utilized for storing additional 120mm shells and other cargo. The M12 also has a lavatory and small galley, so extended missions are not a problem.

In addition to the big gun, the M12 has a pair of 50 cal machine guns for self defense, but there is no reason why these could not be replaced with smaller 7.62 machine guns, mini-guns or even automatic grenade launchers.

The idea is that the Patria Nemo can provide hard hitting, medium-range indirect fire support from places where larger surface combatants could never operate from. For instance, if a special forces team were operating deep in a reverine environment, the Patria Nemo could be almost ten kilometers away, hidden deep in an inlet or tributary of a river, ready to rain down hell on the enemy at a moments notice. Then, in a 'run and gun,' direct fire combat environment, the Patria Nemo can rapidly engage multiple fast boats, even at very close range, providing a robust anti-boat swarming capability.

Being that it fires a highly adaptable mortar round, different ammo variations with different fusing options can be selected based on the target. For instance, an air-burst round could probably knock out a small boat without even having to nail it directly, as a burst of explosive shells detonating a few dozen feet above the waterline would result in a mission kill.

For clearing beaches or providing sustained fire support, rounds fired in succession can sanitize large areas of enemy personnel. This can be accomplished via programming the fire support plan into the NEMO fire-control system's user interface, or via coordinates that can be data-linked to the boat via forward spotters. If a bunker or hardened vehicle needs to be targeted, an armor piercing high-explosive (HEAT) round salvo could be fired at it. In other words, the 120mm 'smart' mortar is like the Swiss Army Knife of highly mobile fire support, it can quickly adapt to the situation at hand, for situations that require both within line of sight and beyond line of sight attacks.

The Patria NEMO was originally tested on a larger craft, the Naval Fast Patrol Boat, in its harder hitting, twin-barrel AMOS form. Yet the low-cost of operation, maneuverability, small target size and the M12's ability to operate 'up river' in areas where nearly no draft exists, made it a more attractive surrogate for the big single barreled 120mm NEMO turret.

This heavily armed jet boat's tactical attractiveness has already panned out in some sales. The Finnish Navy has bought the system and so has the UAE. This makes total sense as the boat's unique abilities are incredibly well suited to the tactical challenges of Persian Gulf. The land-based NEMO system also has many interested parties and a few sales already under its belt, making the water-borne version that much more attractive to potential operators of both systems.

The M12/NEMO system seems incredibly well suited for riverine special operations forces here in the US. Being able to support a special forces team up river with their own dedicated indirect fire support would be a very valuable capability. With this in mind, it wouldn't be surprising if these big gun toting jet boats start showing up in the US, with US Navy SWCCs at their controls.

 

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Special Forces diver technoloy - DSG Supercavitating Ammunition

DSG Technology of Cyprus/Norway have developed a supercavitating underwater round which can be adapted for standard rifles, allowing Special Forces divers to fight both above and below the surface.

Historically underwater weapons have been cumbersome, expensive and rarely needed. In fact underwater guns have possiblynever been used in combat - they are a last ditch option. Modern rifles are ever more comfortable in the water (limitations accepted!) so combining the above and below surface weapon into one seems an obvious evolution, especially as it allows a seemless transition from underwater to above water defense for divers emerging from the surf for an over-the-beach mission.

 

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