July 14, 2020 | International, Aerospace
The U.S. Air Force is to add a dozen weapons systems to its Enhanced Reliability Centered Maintenance (ERCM) model that employs artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) for predictive maintenance.
Those systems are the Boeing [BA] F-15 fighter, B-52 bomber, RC-135 reconnaissance plane, C-17 transport, and A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support aircraft, the Lockheed Martin [LMT] AC/MC-130 gunships, F-16 fighter, and HH-60 helicopter, the Bell [TXT] and Boeing CV-22 tiltrotor, the Northrop Grumman [NOC] RQ-4 Global Hawk and the General Atomics‘ MQ-9 Reaper.
“We have a couple of different initiatives under what we would call the umbrella of predictive maintenance,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Warren Berry, the service's deputy chief of staff for logistics, engineering and force protection, said during a July 9 Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies' Aerospace Nation virtual discussion. “One is Condition Based Maintenance Plus [CBM+]. We have three weapons systems in there right now: the C-5, the KC-135, and the B-1. They've been doing it for about 18 to 24 months now, and we're starting to get some real return on what it is that the CBM+ is offering us. The other element is called Enhanced Reliability Centered Maintenance [ERCM], which is really laying that artificial intelligence and machine learning on top of the maintenance information system data that we have today and understanding failure rates and understanding mission characteristics of the aircraft and how they fail, and then laying that into the algorithms that then tell us when parts are likely to fail based on failure rates and the algorithms we plug in.”
“We're in the process of adding another 12 weapons systems under the ERCM umbrella this calendar year,” Berry said. Defense Daily has asked Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) for the names of the 12 systems.
AI/ML is to assume a significant role in predictive maintenance for the 11 combatant commands (COCOMs).
JAIC said that its Joint Logistics Mission Initiative (MI), one of six JAIC AI projects, is working “to develop a repeatable, end-to-end AI ecosystem” to bring EHM to scale across the Black Hawk fleet.
EHM, developed in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, “predicts the probability of an engine hot start so decision-makers can consider next steps,” including replacing the engine or holding it back for training missions instead of deployments in high-risk missions, Army Col. Kenneth Kliethermes, JAIC's Joint Logistics MI lead, said in a recent JAIC blog post.
Another JAIC mission initiative, the Joint Warfighting MI, “is working with several COCOMs to build, test, and expand its Smart Sensor, a video processing AI prototype that rides on unmanned aerial vehicles and is trained to identify threats and immediately transmit the video of those threats back to manned computer stations for real-time analysis,” according to the JAIC blog post.
Army Col. Bradley Boyd, the lead for the Joint Warfighting MI, said that the Smart Sensor could lead to “a dramatic reduction in the amount of data that has to be pushed back for a human to cull through.”
“Instead of staring at one video feed and hours and hours of trees and rocks and nothing happening, that person can instead be monitoring 10 video feeds because they are only seeing the stuff that really matters,” Boyd said in the JAIC blog post.
July 4, 2024 | International, Land
By 2029, GlobalData predicts that Poland will see an increase in defence spending, reaching $48.5bn, driven by geopolitical worries.
September 9, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Pour soutenir l'innovation, les crédits du ministère de la Défense doivent, selon la loi de programmation militaire, augmenter de 25 % pour atteindre le milliard en 2022. « Nous devons poursuivre notre investissement dans les technologies de rupture : les planeurs hypersoniques capables de parcourir 100 kilomètres en une seule minute, les armes à énergie dirigée, ces armes qui sont capables de perturber, neutraliser voire détruire un équipement ciblé à distance sans projectile, ou encore les technologies quantiques », a déclaré Florence Parly. Les projets souffrent cependant toujours du manque de fonds pour lancer leur industrialisation. La ministre a donc confirmé le lancement avant la fin de l'année, d'un nouveau fonds d'investissement dont la gestion sera confiée à BPI France. Dénommé Definnov, il sera dédié au développement de technologies civilo-militaires et sera doté de 200 millions d'euros pour financer en fonds propres des entreprises innovantes. Les Echos du 9 septembre 2020
August 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace
By: Andrew Chuter LONDON – Rolls-Royce has formed a strategic partnership with British hypersonic-power experts Reaction Engines and is backing that up with a new investment in the company. The new partnership is aimed at developing high-speed propulsion systems for defense and civil applications as well as exploring Reaction Engines' key thermal management technology as part of Rolls-Royce's own gas turbine engines and hybrid-electric systems. Rolls-Royce will invest £20 million ($26 million) over the next two years, building on an initial equity investment made in 2018. Other investors like BAE Systems, Boeing Horizon-X and financial institutions could follow suit, said a Reaction Engines spokesman. The announcement comes as Rolls-Royce steps up its interest in supersonic flight. Earlier in August, Virgin Galactic revealed a delta-winged Mach 3 sub-orbital vehicle concept powered by Rolls-Royce. Earlier this year the British engine builder said it was collaborating with the U.S. company Boom Aerospace on propulsion options for a Mach 2.2 airliner called Overture. “We have been working closely with Reaction Engines for the past two years, including exploring the potential of high-Mach systems for defense applications, and I am delighted that we are able to strengthen that relationship,” said Mark Thompson, director of global strategy and business development at Rolls-Royce.” “Reaction Engines' thermal-management skills, added to our suite of existing technologies and capabilities, will further assist us as we explore opportunities in supersonic and hypersonic aviation,” Thompson added. The two companies have also been involved with BAE and the UK Ministry of Defence in the first phase of a contract related to high-Mach advanced propulsion systems which could eventually find their way on to the British Tempest sixth-generation combat aircraft development. Aerospace and defense consultant Howard Wheeldon, of Wheeldon Strategic Advisory, said the tie-up demonstrated the determination of both companies to be at the forefront of high-speed engine development going forward. “The future of aerospace development from here on is about creating greater efficiency of operation and sustainability. Speed, including supersonic and hypersonic aviation development, will be an important part of this, and high-Mach advanced propulsion systems combined with the potential to apply some of the developed Reaction Engines technology within existing gas turbine engines together with what this offers for future hybrid-electric systems is of huge importance to a world-leading aerospace company such as Rolls-Royce,” he said. Reaction Engines CEO Mark Thomas said the partnership will help speed commercialization of the technology. “This strategic partnership is about developing market-ready applications for Reaction Engines' technology in next-generation engines and is a significant step forward for our technology commercialization plans,” said Thomas. Based at Culham, southern England, and with a test site at Denver, Colorado, Reaction Engines has been developing technology to power aircraft and rockets at supersonic and hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and above – more than twice the speed of the Concorde. Last October Reaction Engines announced its key lightweight air cooling technology had been tested at its Colorado facility as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's HTX project. At the time Reaction Engines said its heat exchanger had been exposed to hypersonic conditions approaching 1,000 degrees centigrade (1,800 degrees F). The heat exchanger performed its precooler function by quenching about 1,800-degree Fahrenheit temperatures in less than one-twentieth of a second. Wheeldon said the Colorado test was a significant step in the development of Reaction Engines' SABRE rocket engine program. “As an enabling technology for a potentially large range of other precooled propulsion systems that have potential commercial applications, the successful testing last year by Reaction Engines of its precooler heat exchanger at airflow temperatures conditions representing Mach 5 was a significant milestone in the development of its revolutionary SABRE air-breathing rocket engine. The new strategic partnership with Rolls-Royce offers further the commercial opportunities and potential for both companies,” said Wheeldon. SABRE, which stands for Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine, is a propulsion system being developed to operate in air breathing and rocket modes using the pre-cooler technology. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/08/21/rolls-royce-backs-hypersonic-power-specialist-reaction-engines-with-new-investment/