Photo Source: Clipart.com

It has been awhile since we looked at the world's military to see what was going on, so let's do it now.

The Brazilians are updating their strike aircraft. They have hired Elbit Systems of Israel to modernize the planes. The planes are scheduled to get new computers and displays and a large digital map. Along with these improvements will come a helmet mounted display and a new system to manage ammunition along with other systems that the Brazilians are not talking about. Brazil is also designing a new transport plane.

Well when things are going badly with the Bush administration they seem to just get worse. Again the administration has tried to assure Russia that US missiles in Poland pose no threat to them and has now also said that we intend to put the radar for these missiles in the Czech Republic. Are we doing this on purpose to anger the Russians, it certainly seems so? These missiles could have been put anywhere and didn't need to be put that close to Russia. The selection of countries seems to be an obvious snipe and Moscow has said that they will put up their own missiles near that border. This is all we need right now, a missile race. By the way, the outgoing head of the US Missile Defense Agency has warned President Elect Obama not to reject the missile system. Do these guys have nerve or what? This system could be put almost anywhere in Europe and the Russians had even offered to make their new super radar available to us if we didn't put them in Poland.

The US is going to upgrade about 1,100 vehicles it has in Kuwait. It wants to make them more resistant to mines and IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). The program will begin in 2009.

The French are conducting exercises to test new technologies in the field. They are also testing a new type of variable-draft landing craft known as the L-Cat. A French company called Thales is vying to become the supplier of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) in Europe. Right now the US dominates the market.

Do you think money is tight right now because of the bad economy? The Defense Department must not, because it has released money to build more F-22 Raptor fighter jets. Janes Weekly states that 50 million dollars was released for four more planes, but there is a problem with this figure. One F-22 Raptor costs about 138 million dollars, so it is a mystery to me how 50 million dollars can buy four of these planes? The total cost for the initial 183 planes was over 63 billion dollars, but that included the facilities.

The Spanish have acquired a surface-to-air missile system called NASAMS. It is a version of the Raytheon AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range system known as AMRAAM. A successful test firing took place on November 11^th of this year (2008).

Every nation wants to get UAVs. UAVs are unmanned aerial vehicles. Turkey is no exception and they have stated that they want to buy the Predator UAV. The problem with that is how they want to use them. They want them to use against the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Despite this fact, the US has pledged that if Turkey buys them, they will be shipped within 18 months. This is ironic since they would be used in Iraq against people that are not our enemy. By the way, it is being stated privately that we have been letting them use a Predator for quite a while now to gather intelligence.

The British have so many of their Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan that they don't have enough of them to deploy on their helicopter assault ships. The budget that is needed to purchase the UK's Future Nuclear Deterrent Capability, which are the Trident submarines is in jeopardy. Somewhere around 20 billion pounds or more will be needed and it is not clear if that money will be forthcoming or not.

Vietnam is trying to become the largest ship builder in the world and it may make it. They intend to increase subsidiaries to this industry along with increasing the skills of the workers.

Remember the Carlyle Group? That is the company that employees many of the former world leaders and pays them huge amounts of money to make speeches. That is also the company that bought one of the most profitable parts of General Motors, Allison Transmission Inc. They have been the subject of many conspiracy theories and now they are in the news again. They are selling AxleTech to General Dynamics.

The US Strike Eagles are going to get a radar upgrade. The F-15E Strike Eagle is considered one of the most important planes in our air force. After the upgrade the plane will have the ability to track much smaller objects. This should prove quite handy in tracking those small unmanned vehicles and tiny helicopters. The type of radar it will get will be an active electronically scanned array or AESA.

Israel has agreed to have Elbit systems supply new Night Vision Imaging for many of the helicopters in the Israeli Defense Force. This is the same company that is updating the Brazilian fighter planes.

The US is still playing with unreliable anti-missile missiles. They fired their new SM-3 missiles from a Arleigh Burke class destroyer and hit one incoming missile and missed another. It seems that all an enemy has to do is launch a few missiles and one is sure to get through, unfortunately.

Russia has come up with what they call a mine-resistant vehicle. The Russian company Voyenno-Promyshlennaya Kompaniya (VPK) has stated that they have developed a new 4x4 ambush-protected vehicle known as a MRAP. They claim that this vehicle is a totally new design.

The Greeks have upgraded the protection for their air bases. An upgrade of their Valos air-defense system has been completed. The Valos batteries protect all Greek air bases. The batteries work in concert with a truck-mounted surveillance radar system and each radar controls 2 batteries.

Cambodia has just announced that it is going to double its defense spending. It will hit 25% of all government spending. This was deemed necessary after a skirmish between Thai and Cambodian troops. A dispute over who owns a temple has been going on for some time now.

An Italian company has begun to ship its new guided ammunition. The company has declined to tell who the customer was.

The European Union has a plan that would allow them to pool all countries military forces. Will defense forces from different countries be able to work as one, this is yet to be seen, but if it succeeds, it will be responsible for quite a formidable military.

The Indian air force is going to buy the Tejas light combat aircraft and form several squadrons of the planes. The planes will be produced by a local company.

A military ship builder in Spain is warning that it is going to go into the red. Navantia is owned by the state and despite the fact that it was in the black in 2007, it has slid into the red in 2008. It is currently the victim of work stoppages.