March 31, 2023 | International, C4ISR
Space Force seeking more narrowband communication satellites
The effort will extend the life of the MUOS constellation until the service crafts a longer term plan for narrowband communications.
August 2, 2018 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
Air Force’s future ISR architecture could feature drone swarms and hypersonics — with AI underpinning it all
By: Valerie Insinna
POZNAN, Poland — The Air Force's ambitious new ISR strategy calls for a sensing grid that fuses together data from legacy platforms like the RQ-4 Global Hawk, emerging technologies like swarming drones, other services' platforms and publicly available information. And deciphering all of that data will be artificial intelligence.
Such a system may sound like something out of a sci-fi book, but the service believes it could be in service by 2028.
In a July 31 interview, Lt. Gen. VeraLinn “Dash” Jamieson, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for ISR, explained the Air Force's new “Next Generation ISR Dominance Flight Plan,” which lays out the service's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance goals for the next 10 years.
In the past, “when we fielded a sensor, we fielded a sensor to answer a question,” Jamieson said. What the ISR flight plan tries to accomplish is far more extensive: “How do I get the data so I can fuse it, look at it and then ask the right questions from the data to reveal what trends are out there?"
“We have to do all of that at the speed of relevance — meaning at warfighting speed — so that our decision cycle has shrunk,” she added. “We get our effects in and out, and we create chaos and confusion in the adversary. Once he gets behind, it is extremely difficult to actually catch up.”
On the same subject
-
-
January 14, 2021 | International, Naval
Naval Group prints first propeller for powering French warship
By: Christina Mackenzie PARIS — France's Andromède mine-hunting ship is now being propelled by a 3D-printed propeller designed and manufactured by Naval Group, the company announced on Wednesday. Emmanuel Chol, director of Naval Group's Nantes-Indret site where the propeller was made, said, “It is the largest metal 3D-printed thruster ever to have been manufactured and the first propeller resulting from this technology, embarked on board a military ship and manufactured for use beyond just sea trials.” Weighing 1 metric ton, the propeller is made of five 200 kg (441 pounds) blades which were manufactured using a wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) procedure, less well known than other metal 3D printing techniques but better suited for large-scale applications. It works by melting metal wire heated by an electric arc. The process is controlled by a robotic arm. The French subsidiary of the Japanese group Yaskawa provided the robots and manufacturing tools for this project. Naval Group worked with Bureau Veritas to guarantee that the testing, inspection and certification requirements (like corrosion, fatigue, shock resistance) were met so that the Fleet Support Services organization and the DGA French procurement agency could authorize the trial of the blades on a military ship. The propeller was transferred from the manufacturing site to Brest in October 2020 where it was mounted on the propeller shaft of the Andromède. The ship is one of France's 10 Tripartite mine hunters built in the 1980s, eight of which – including the Andromède – will not be retired for another decade. Sea trials in December were successful, so now the mine-hunter can return to normal operations, equipped with its printed propeller. Eric Balufin, director of Naval Group's site in Brest says “the assembly of this 3D-printed propeller shows great promise for the future. This new technology will enable us to considerably reduce technical constraints, and therefore allow for new manufacturing solutions for complex geometrical shapes which cannot be produced through conventional processes.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2021/01/13/naval-group-prints-first-propeller-for-powering-french-warship/
-
December 21, 2023 | International, Land
Blue Origin, Cerberus looking to buy rocket firm United Launch Alliance - WSJ