Page 12 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2022

12 NEWS REVIEW
INDUSTRY UPDATE
JULY-AUGUST 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
MORE FUNDING FOR NEW TRITON CONFIGURATION
under the nose; Automatic Identifica- tion System (AIS); and a Sierra Nevada AN/ZLQ-1 Electronic Support Measures (ESM) payload for SIGINT gathering.
IFC-4 will allow the RAAF and US Navy to share data and maintain an ‘unblinking’ autonomous intelligence, surveillance, re- connaissance and targeting capability over some of the world’s most critical maritime regions. Australia is slated to acquire at least three under Air 7000 Phase 1B and possibly seven Triton aircraft in this config- uration, and Northrop Grumman delivered the first MQ-4C Triton in IFC-4 configura- tion to the US Navy in February this year.
In US Navy service, the Triton is de- signed to replace the Lockheed P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft (and complement the Boeing P-8A Poseidon). It will also re- place the US Navy EP-3E Aeries signals intelligence (SIGINT) platform, meaning the aircraft will provide Australia with a significant SIGINT capability beyond that offered by the current AP-3C (EW) Orions and future MC-55A Peregrine fleets.
The US Navy plans to deploy Triton to five orbits worldwide.
ABOVE LEFT: Northrop Grumman delivered the first MQ-4C Triton in IFC-4 configuration to the US Navy in February
ing for many years as we explore further opportunities to use Bisalloy steel in the wider Hanwha product range building on our strong foundation.
“Strategic supply for Korea is an essen- tial national requirement and Bisalloy are now a part of this solution.”
“Bisalloy Steels have been working with Hanwha Defense for the supply of armoured steel for the Huntsman pro- gram in Australia,” Bisalloy Steels CEO and MD, Rowan Melrose said. “We are very pleased to be partnering together on this with our first orders of armour plate for the Australian program now received.”
NORTHROP Grumman has received ad- ditional funding to upgrade new MQ-4C Tritons to an Integrated Functional Ca- pability 4.0 (IFC-4) multiple intelligence configuration for the US Navy and the Australian government.
The contract modification is worth US$15 million and, according to Northrop Grumman, will keep the MQ-4C Tritons on path to achieving Initial Operating Ca- pability (IOC) in 2023.
IFC-4 will bring an enhanced multi- mission sensor capability as part of the US Navy’s Maritime Intelligence, Sur- veillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (MISR&T) transition plan. The IFC-4 configuration has sensors which include: a Northrop Grumman AN/ZPY-3 Multi- Function Active Sensor (MFAS) X-band electronically scanned surveillance radar under the fuselage; a Raytheon AN/DAS- 3 electro-optic, infra-red (EO/IR) sensor
EGYPTIAN K9 PROGRAM TO USE AUSTRALIAN STEEL
HANWHA Defense will be working with Australia’s Bisalloy for the steel involved in the $1.7 billion Egyptian K9 artillery program, leveraging the work done with the company on Australian programs un- der Land 8116 for the Australian AS9 and AS10 vehicles and Land 400 Phase 3. An order is expected to be in made Q4 of 2022.
Hanwha Defense entered into the agree- ment with the Government of Egypt in Feb- ruaryofthisyeartosupplysubstantialquan- tities of Self Propelled Howitzers (SPH) and Armoured Resupply Vehicle (ARV).
The contract is valued around $1.7 bil- lion for hundreds of the K9 Self-Propelled Howitzer (SPH), K10 Ammunition Resup- ply Vehicles, and K11 Fire Direction Con- trol Vehicle with the SPH variant to be known as the K9A1 EGY. The K11 Fire Di- rection Control Vehicle is a new vehicle to
be developed for the Egyptian military. Us- ing the K9 chassis, the command-post ve- hicle will be equipped with a range of high- tech sensor and communication equipment in accordance with operational require- ments of the Egyptian Army and Navy.
“It has been a tremendous experience working with Bisalloy, and to see Austra- lian companies enter the wider Hanwha Defense offering internationally is fan- tastic,” Hanwha Defense
Australia MD, Richard Cho said. “We see this very pro- ductive partnership continu-
RIGHT: The overall contract is valued around $1.7 billion for hundreds of the K9 Self- Propelled Howitzer to Egypt
HANWHA
NORTHROP GRUMMAN