FIDAE in its Second Day

FIDAE 2012 is now open for its second day. All of the exhibitors are pleased with the talks during the first day. Many companies are expecting contracts to come up after the trade fair and they are looking forward to the rest of the week.

MBDA brought the CAMM (Common Anti-Air Modular Missile) to FIDAE. From their point of view naval superiority is the most important thing for South American countries, due to their long cost lines. The second thing to look at is Air Defence. The CAMM Air Defence Weapon is common to Land, Sea and Air applications. It is being developed for the UK MoD as a principal air defence capability for its frigates and deployed land forces. Chile just got a newer version of the SEAWOLF but many other South American countries still have old SEAWOLFs, that have to be replaced in the near future. It will be available from 2015 on.

Bell Helicopters is showcasing the 407 AH (Attack Helicopter), that is a civilian but weaponised version of the OA 58. The 407 AH is cheaper and so affordable to countries that can´t or don’t want to spend that much money.

Navantia Sistemas FAVA is showing their land surveillance and reconnaissance system SERT. This RECCE tool is taken from naval platforms and can now be put on any land vehicle. The Spanish Army is already using it. This compact system will be demonstrated at Thursday 11:00 h at booth B-17G. The South American market seems to be a good opportunity for this systems with the current needs of countries like Ecuador, Chile or Mexico.

Navantia Systemas SERT (Photo: Forkert)

Raytheon announced the 1,000th production of a 250-pound PAVEWAY precision guidance kit. Raytheon’s combat proven PAVEWAY is a kit that transforms “dumb” bombs into precision guided weapons, like the press release pointed out. It is integrated on more than 25 aircrafts in 43 countries and is used with the GBU-58. More than 350,000 PAVEWAY systems have been delivered world-wide.

TEKPlus Aerospace brought the CENTAURO VTOL UAS to FIDAE. This UAS is in right now in the military certification process in Spain, that should be done by 2013. The system development started 2008 and was founded by an F&T contract of the Spanish Armed Forces. Right now there are two models in test, the CENTAURO C-30 DATA (20 kg payloads) and the C-40 (50 kg) with flight time up to sic hours. A new modular version for a quicker change of the payloads is planned for the near future. TEKPlus started talks with three different countries and just opened an office in Brazil. They hope to gain a good market chair, as many countries have needs for VTOL UAS.

Panhard of France has a VBL MK2 on display. This light armoured vehicle is used for scouting, RECCE, observation, antitank or air defence as well as troop carrier. !6 nations bought it already (France, Mexico, Qatar, Kuwait, Abu dhabi and Portugal – just to name a few). Right now there are trials going on with the Chilean Army and Navy. The remotely controlled weapon system WASP is also shown and will be entering service in France in June. The WASP will directly send to the troops inn Afghanistan.

Panhard will show new prototypes at the Eurosatory.
                                                                                                                                                        Forkert