In this first episode of Season 3 of The Weekly Defence Podcast, we talk to the Director of Analysis at Shephard Defence Insight for a glimpse of what to expect from current and new defence programmes in 2021; and in an interview with CSIS we discuss recent developments in the US Army OMFV programme.

Newsround [00:40]

Australia has become the seventh country to declare initial operational capability for the Lockheed Martin F-35A multirole fighter aircraft.

A second Israeli-made Iron Dome battery has been delivered to the US Army to protect troops against against rockets, mortars and other ballistic and aerial threats.

This followed the arrival in September 2020 of the first Iron Dome system, which is still being implemented in the US.

Spanish company Escribano Mechanical & Engineering  is developing autonomous swarming UAVs for the country’s MoD, as part of the Rapaz programme to evaluate unmanned technologies.

The UK kickstarted 2021 with the declaration that HMS Queen Elizabeth and its carrier strike group have reached initial operating capability.

In Focus:

News Editor Ben Vogel discusses the Prometheus S-500 with enhanced missile and radar features, as the Russian MoD expects Almaz-Antey to complete development of system in 2021.

Land Reporter Flavia Camargos Pereira looks into recent updates in the US Army’s Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) programme. 

In December 2020, the army released the final Request for Proposals for the concept design phase. What will the new design add to the programme?

From the Air desk, Air Editor Tim Martin wraps up the latest news from the past couple of weeks, including a new $4 billion FMS deal to Kuwait which includes the sale of 24 AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters.

Deep Dive: Defence Insight 2021 forecasts [19:10] 

Senior Editor Naval Richard Thomas is on the line with Matthew Smith, Director of Analysis at Shephard Defence Insight to look ahead at main programme milestones in 2021 across the air, land and sea domains.

Interview : CSIS [35:15]

Flavia Camargos Pereira talks to Mark Cancian, a former colonel in the USMC and senior adviser at CSIS, for expert insight into the updated OMFV programme. What has changed? 

This episode was produced by Noemi Distefano with sound mixing by Fred Prest.