Page 18 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb-Mar 2023

18 NEWS REVIEW
INDUSTRY UPDATE
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
NIGEL PITTAWAY
INDIAN SU-30S ARRIVE IN JAPAN FOR VEER GUARDIAN EXERCISE Indian Air Force fighter jets have made their first-ever deployment to Japan to take part in a long-delayed bilateral fight- er training exercise.
The exercise, codenamed Veer Guard- ian 22, saw four IAF Sukhoi Su-30MKI Flanker multi-role fighters carrying out training with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force between 16 and 26 January.
Four Su-30MKIs landed at Japan’s Hyakuri Airbase 80 miles north of Tokyo on 10 January. The IAF contingent at the exercise was accompanied by two IAF Boeing C-17A Globemaster III airlifters and an Ilyushin Il-78 tanker – the Sukhois and C-17s having made the trip via stop- overs in Thailand and the Philippines.
According to a press release issued by the JASDF, the Su-30MKIs are from the IAF’s 220 Sqn ‘Desert Tigers’, normally based at Halwara in the north western state of Punjab.
The JASDF participants at Veer Guard- ian comprised of the Mitsubishi F-2s of the 7th Air Wing and F-15J Eagle inter- ceptors of the Air Tactics Development Wing. The latter is the JASDF’s aggressor
ABOVE: Four Su-30MKIs landed at Japan’s Hyakuri Airbase, 130 km north of Tokyo
rating the two Koreas, with at least one briefly breaching a no-fly zone around the presidential office in the South Korean capital.
South Korea’s military scrambled mul- tiple aircraft in response to the drone incursion and fired multiple shots at the drones without any known success. The responding aircraft included F-15K Slam Eagle interceptors, AH-1 Cobra attack he- licopters and KA-1 turboprop light attack aircraft. One of the latter crashed soon af- ter take-off from its airbase, although the
crew managed to eject safely.
MARINES REORGANISE JAPAN-BASED UNIT FOR LITTORAL STRIKE MISSION
The United States Marine Corps will re- organise one of its forward-deployed units based on Japan’s Okinawa Island for lit- toral strike missions.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a press conference follow- ing a 2+2 meeting between the US and Japanese foreign and defence ministers that the 12th Marine Regiment at Camp Smedley Butler, Okinawa will be reor- ganised into a Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR) by 2025.
He added that the reorganisation will see the unit equipped “with advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnais- sance, as well as anti-ship and transporta- tion capabilities that are relevant to the current and future threat environments”.
According to the Marine Corps’ web- site, a typical MLR is made up of 1800- 2000 personnel and includes a Littoral Combat Team, a Littoral Anti-Air Battal- ion, and a Combat Logistics Battalion.
It is not yet clear what anti-ship plat- form will be operated by the MLR, but the Marines have been testing Rogue Fires, an unmanned Joint Light Tactical Vehi- cle that is paired with Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile (NSM) to become the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS.
The 12th Marine Regiment is currently an artillery unit, with its principal weap- ons being the M777 howitzer and M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). ■
REGIONAL OUTLOOK
MIKE YEO | MELBOURNE
unit, which plays the role of the enemy during training.
Veer Guardian was to have taken place in 2020 but was postponed due to the CO- VID-19 pandemic.
SOUTH KOREA CONSIDERS
ISRAELI COUNTER-UAS SYSTEM FOLLOWING NORTHERN INCURSION
South Korea is considering the acquisi- tion of Rafael’s Sky Spotter system follow- ing an incursion by numerous North Ko- rean drones across the demilitarised zone that saw breaches of airspace over Seoul’s sensitive sites.
Yonhap reported that the country’s mil- itary was looking at an urgent purchase of the counter drone system, which can also be used for the early detection and track- ing of balloons and kites.
Rafael says that the passive system establishes an aerial defence sphere, from a one-kilometre radius to tens of kilometres and more using “highly sen- sitive” short- and medium-wave infra-red as well as day electro-optical sensors. It can track multiple targets using an au- tomated, Artificial Intelligence-powered algorithm.
The drone incursion on 26 December 2022 saw at least five small North Korean drones cross the demilitarised zone sepa-