Vigilance can reveal that British Army Apaches have fired Hellfire missiles for the first time whilst flying from a Royal Navy warship.
Our Defence Team gathered today that a significant milestone in proving the capability of Apache to operate and strike from the sea, 30mm cannon and Hellfire missiles were successfully fired against seaborne targets in a long-planned exercise near Gibraltar.
An MoD source said in total, 550 rounds of 30mm and 9 radar-guided Hellfire missiles were fired, achieving a 100% strike rate. This was the first time that Hellfire has been launched in the maritime environment.
It is said the last two weeks have seen a succession of ‘firsts’ for the Army Air Corps (AAC) Attack Helicopter Force at sea. Currently deployed onboard HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy’s largest warship, 656 Squadron from 4 Regiment AAC have spent the past few weeks conducting intensive training that will allow them to operate by day and by night.
Major Mike Neville Army Air Corps, who commands 656 Sqn onboard HMS Ocean, said: “Today we proved that Apache can operate effectively from a Royal Navy ship, transporting munitions from the ship’s magazine, aircraft upload, launch, firing and then recovering to HMS Ocean. Once again 656 Squadron is at the leading edge of Attack Helicopter capability development. We are now well on the way to proving the maritime strike capability in highly complex scenarios.”
Another Defence source said despite the majority of 656 Squadron having seen recent service in Afghanistan, the maritime environment presents many new challenges. Understanding shipborne life and learning new procedures for the preparation and movement of ammunition from the ship’s magazine to the deck, efficiently and safely, was no small achievement. In combination with the successful live firing aspect of the exercise, 656 Squadron have established a firm base on which to develop their maritime role.
Commander Jol Woodard, Royal Navy, the Commanding Officer of HMS Ocean’s Air Group, said: “Today’s achievement is a landmark in the integration of the Apache into the maritime domain and is also a very important step in the development of the UK’s amphibious capability. I have been delighted with the way in which 656 Sqn and their support elements have integrated into the air group as a whole and the success of this whole-ship evolution demonstrates just how potent a truly Joint air group can be.”
While Captain Andrew Betton, Royal Navy, HMS Ocean’s Commanding Officer said: “HMS Ocean is the UK’s only dedicated amphibious helicopter carrier and it is fitting that we provided the platform from which the Army Air Corps have made history. 656 Squadron have fully integrated themselves onboard the ship and are an integral part of HMS Ocean’s ship’s company.”
Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox enthused: “This important milestone in Army aviation and amphibious operations demonstrates clearly the versatility of our cutting edge military equipment. To see Apache operating to its full capacity at sea reinforces the Government’s commitment to shape and equip our armed forces to best meet the range of current and future commitments.”
Below is a media alert from Amit Klein, Trusteer's CTO new research on the Sunspot Trojan a new piece of financial malware whose infection rates are similar to SpyEye and Zeus in some regions. There are confirmed fraud losses associated with Sunspot, so the threat is real.
This is a very modern malware platform with sophisticated fraud capabilities. Equally concerning, the detection rate for Sunspot by leading anti-virus programs is painfully low. According to a Virus Total analysis, only nine of 42 anti-virus programs tested, or 21%, currently detect Sunspot. It can carry out man-in-the-browser attacks including web injections, page grabbing, key-logging and screen shooting (which captures screenshots of the mouse vicinity as a user types his/her password on a virtual keyboard).
Commenting on a consumer TV report into the insecurity of RFID-equipped credit and debit cards, SecurEnvoy says that the apparent ease with which researchers have been able to create a `magic wand’ that reads cards at a distance shows that more work needs to be done on wireless encryption.
To expose official corruption in Nigeria, re-orientate the psyche of Nigerians and usher in the Nigerian renaissance
Have you got news/articles for us? We welcome news stories and articles from security experts, intelligence analysts, industry players, security correspondents in the main stream media and our numerous readers across the globe.
About Vigilance
Vigilance is the brain child of a group of veteran journalists and international scholars who have worked in the mainstream media and distinguished themselves nationally and internationally before veering into security practice.