September 4, 2020 | International, Other Defence
Open Call for International Entries to Reimagining Energy for the DoD Challenge. Creating the Future of Resilient Energy Production, Transmission, Use and Storage.
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 4, 2020 /CNW/ -- AFWERX, the U.S. Air Force's innovation catalyst, announces the Reimagining Energy for the DoD Challenge, seeking solutions to create the future of resilient energy production, transmission, use, and storage. The Department of Defense (DoD) is currently the largest energy consumer globally. By reducing demand and reliance on petroleum and modernizing the energy infrastructure, the U.S. Air Force can improve the way it consumes energy, increases sustainability, and remains adaptable to future impacts of climate change and reduction in fossil fuels.
This is an incredible opportunity for the DoD to partner with innovative industries and academia to identify, fund, and launch new energy strategies from now until 2045. The Challenge is seeking solutions that can be implemented immediately, those that require some further development and also moonshot ideas that may not be implemented until 2045.
"The disruption of the energy sector is already happening. There's unbelievable innovation occurring in how we produce, transmit, and store energy. The DoD must partner with those leading this disruption in both industry and academia to ensure we maintain our competitive advantage," stated Colonel Charles Bris-Bois, Air Force Disruptive Technology Team.
The Reimagining Energy for the DoD Challenge will gather the right people from industry, government, and academia to identify solutions for a sustainable energy infrastructure for the Department of Defense. The goals of the Challenge are to leverage all energy sources for military use such as wind, solar, thermal, hydro, nuclear, and hydrogen and increase mission effectiveness and quality of life, while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Our aspirational targets are to eliminate all fossil fuel dependency and achieve a carbon negative DoD.
The Reimagining Energy for the DoD Challenge encompasses six specific topics:
"I am really excited for this Challenge for two reasons. First, this will change the way the DoD consumes, stores, distributes, and uses energy which has strategic benefit and benefits the planet at the same time given the aspirational carbon-negative target. Second, this Challenge is running concurrently with a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) focus area which creates a lot of opportunity for small businesses in the U.S. to receive government funding to support this initiative," said Mark Rowland, Innovation Actualizer for AFWERX.
The open call for solutions for the Reimagining Energy Challenge launches on Sept. 2, 2020. The submission window will remain open until Oct. 1, 2020. Teams that submit their solutions by Sept. 14 will be invited to participate in an event on Sept. 17 where they will receive feedback to improve their submissions; participate in a Q&A session and also a networking and collaboration opportunity. Submissions are accepted from across the globe, both domestic and international organizations and individuals are encouraged to participate. The full challenge overview and details to submit a proposed solution is available at afwerxchallenge.com/energy. Preview the video for additional information here.
ABOUT AFWERX
Established in 2017, AFWERX is a product of the U.S. Air Force, directly envisioned by former Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson. Her vision of AFWERX — to solve some of the toughest challenges that the Air Force faces through innovation and collaboration amongst our nation's top subject-matter experts. AFWERX serves as a catalyst to unleash new approaches for the warfighter through a growing ecosystem of innovators. AFWERX and the U.S. Air Force are committed to exploring viable solutions and partnerships to further strengthen the Air Force, which could lead to additional prototyping, R&D, and follow-on production contracts.
January 3, 2023 | International, Aerospace
The system that captured Maverick’s flying skills in the original Top Gun film is a product of Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions, known as Combat Training System. Like the aircraft in the movie, the system has since evolved considerably and is utilized today by the U.S. Air Force and Navy.
September 18, 2018 | International, Naval
By CAITLIN DOORNBOS | STARS AND STRIPES YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran heard right from the source how the Navy's largest foreign command is keeping up with readiness challenges, including a significant maintenance backlog and an ever-increasing competition landscape. Moran — the service's second-highest ranking officer — visited Navy bases in South Korea and Japan last week on a listening tour that he said brought helpful insight into on-the-ground operations in the Pacific. “We in Washington have our own views about things and it's largely programmatic in nature, budgetary in nature and some policy,” he told Stars and Stripes in an interview Thursday. “But to get feedback from sailors, commanding officers, chiefs and master chiefs in the fleet really helps us refine and make sure that we're supporting from Washington what they need [in the Pacific].” Readiness challenges At Yokosuka on Thursday, Moran spent time on the waterfront discussing ship maintenance. The base is home to U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility Japan Regional Maintenance Center, which is working on what Moran called a “not insignificant” backlog. A request for exact numbers on that backlog went unanswered. The 7th Fleet is operating with fewer ships than it had planned after two of its guided-missile destroyers — the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain — were severely damaged in separate fatal collisions at sea last year. While Yokosuka added an additional destroyer — the USS Milius — earlier this year, the fleet remains down two operational ships because Milius was originally intended to be an additional ship in support of Indo-Pacific operations, former Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Scott Swift told Stars and Stripes last year. Moran said the McCain, which is being repaired in Yokosuka, is expected to get out of drydock this fall and the Navy is aiming to have it underway in the spring. The Fitzgerald is undergoing maintenance in Pascagoula, Miss., and the service has said the goal is to return it to sea by 2020. Moran said ship maintenance “is a key critical element for overall fleet readiness.” “Everybody recognizes that we've got to do the maintenance that's built up over time. While that's important to everybody, no one likes to be in the yards,” Moran said. “There's a cost of doing that right now and we have to re-baseline the maintenance of our ships across the fleet, particularly [in the Pacific] because it is so active, it has been a very busy place for a long time.” On Sept. 12, Moran and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith toured Yokosuka's USS Blue Ridge, which has been undergoing maintenance for about two years. Crews first re-lit the boilers on the Navy's oldest commissioned operational ship in June, and Moran said the 7th Fleet's flagship is “about ready to go to sea.” “She's outfitted like an old ‘57 Chevy that we've took the engine out, took the dashboard out and put all modern capability in, and man, she sounds and she's going to run kind of nice,” Moran said. The Blue Ridge's staff moved back onto the ship this summer. Capt. Brett Crozier, the Blue Ridge's commander, said it was an honor to host Moran. Full article: https://www.stripes.com/news/after-pacific-tour-navy-s-no-2-talks-readiness-staying-ahead-of-competition-1.547999
December 31, 2018 | International, Aerospace
By: Shawn Snow The same innovative rocket artillery unit that fired HIMARS from a ship is once again mixing things up, but this time they're doing it with aircraft. The tactic is called HI-RAIN, which is short for HIMARS Rapid Infiltration, where the Corps takes its precision-guided rocket artillery system, stuffs it in a KC-130 and flies it to a location to destroy a target. Once on the ground, the HIMARS crew offloads the system and strikes a target and then rapidly exfils from the target site. The Corps says HI-RAIN is the progression of an aerial artillery raid capability they already have, which can be done with sling loaded M777 howitzers hauled by the Corps' heavy lift helicopters like the CH-53. The MV-22 Osprey is also capable of lifting the M777. Aerial artillery raids provide battlefield commanders flexibility by inserting a long-range fire capability beyond a captured beachhead or behind enemy lines to quickly destroy a target. But the HIMARS will greatly extend the Corps' range of that existing raid capability, which should prove useful should the Corps find itself stretched thinly across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean in a fight with a sophisticated adversary like China. A Marine HIMARS unit known as 5th Battalion, 11th Marines, recently executed a HI-RAIN mission on Dec. 7 as part of an annual exercise with the 1st Marine Division dubbed Steel Knight. For the exercise, Marines with 5/11 loaded two HIMARS systems onto two KC-130 aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station, Camp Pendleton, California, and flew to Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. Once on the ground, the a HIMARS unit fired one M31A1 GMLRS – Unitary precision rocket, striking a target approximately 15 km away. The GMLRS round is short for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System. HIMARS are capable of striking targets several hundred kilometers out, the short range was due to range limitations, Marine officials said. The Corps says 5/11 began aerial embarkation testing with KC-130s in 2014, and since then have carried out many HI-RAIN missions across the U.S. from Alaska to Arizona, all during training exercises. Other Marine HIMARS units are honing the same skill. The Corps is also capable of carrying out artillery raids inserting howitzers via helicopter. In August, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines, carried out the first lift in an austere environment in Australia of an M777 howitzer using an MV-22 Osprey. The Marines of 5/11 are known for their innovative experimentation firing HIMARS from the deck of the amphibious transport dock Anchorage in fall 2017. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/12/28/the-corps-himars-are-going-airborne-as-marines-bring-them-to-targets-via-kc-130s