Europe
SOURCE: THE WEEK
The French Air Force announced on Tuesday that it had conducted the test launch of a nuclear-capable missile from a Rafale fighter. An ASMPA cruise missile, which is the French military’s main nuclear strike weapon for aircraft, was reportedly used by the Rafale. According to the French Air Force, the nuclear strike mission lasted 11 hours and included aerial refuelling of the Rafale.
“These real strikes are scheduled in the life of the weapon’s system,” French Air Force spokesman Colonel Cyrille Duvivier said. “They are carried out at fairly regular intervals, but remain rare because the real missile, without its warhead, is fired.” Continue reading
SOURCE: DASSAULT AVIATION
France and Germany have awarded the first-ever contract – a Joint Concept Study (JCS) – to Dassault Aviation (stock exchange symbol: AM) and Airbus (stock exchange symbol: AIR) for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme. The launch of the JCS was announced by the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, and her German counterpart, Ursula von der Leyen, at a meeting today in Paris.
The decision by both countries represents a milestone to secure European sovereignty and technological leadership in the military aviation sector for the coming decades. Starting date for the two-year study is 20 February 2019. Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, said: “This new step is the cornerstone to ensure tomorrow’s European strategic autonomy. We, as Dassault Aviation, will mobilize our competencies as System Architect and Integrator, to meet the requirements of the Nations and to keep our continent as a world-class leader in the crucial field of Air Combat Systems.” Continue reading
SOURCE: HT
France’s Dassault Aviation said on Monday it had received a contract from the French government to upgrade the Rafale fighter jet. The so-called F4 version of the multi-role Rafale, which is being developed for a reported investment of €2 billion, will include greater connectivity to allow “networked combat,” Dassault said in a statement.The company added that the validation of the F4 standard is planned for 2024 and that some features will be available from 2022.
The French government inked the contract with the aircraft maker on January 14. However, news of the order, and the fact that Dassault will deliver Rafale aircraft to the French government under an older order resulted in some confusion with some websites reporting that the 28 aircraft were being bought by France for €2 billion. The Congress was quick to react. Continue reading
SOURCE: ENS
Strava, the fitness-tracking app which relies on the smartphone GPS to track a user’s exercise sessions, which includes cycling, running finds itself the subject of a controversy. According to reports, a heat map shared by Strava, which shows the exercise activity of its users across the world, has ended up revealing secret military bases for the US and other countries as well. The app lets users post their activities on the social network and also follow others, who are into the same fitness activities on the app.
The map, which was first shared by the company in November 2017, includes? a total of one billion activities from all Strava data through September 2017. The heat map also shows 3 trillion latitude and longitude points and includes around 10TB of raw input data, according to the company’s original post. Continue reading