February 8, 2023 | International, Other Defence
Under this program, Amentum professionals will be stationed outside the continental U.S. including Europe to provide multiple levels of sustainment solutions
April 28, 2024 | International, Aerospace
DIU wants to improve its process for vetting commercial drones, with the goal of making it easier for companies to sell their systems to the U.S. military.
November 30, 2018 | International, C4ISR
The first test of DARPA's Squad X Experimentation program successfully demonstrated the ability to extend and enhance the situational awareness of small, dismounted units. In a weeklong test series at Twentynine Palms, California, U.S. Marine squads improved their ability to synchronize maneuvers, employing autonomous air and ground vehicles to detect threats from multiple domains – physical, electromagnetic, and cyber – providing critical intelligence as the squad moved through scenarios. Squad X provides Army and Marine dismounted units with autonomous systems equipped with off-the-shelf technologies and novel sensing tools developed via DARPA's Squad X Core Technologies program. The technologies aim to increase squads' situational awareness and lethality, allowing enemy engagement with greater tempo and from longer ranges. The Squad X program manager in DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, Lt. Col. Phil Root (U.S. Army), said Experiment 1 demonstrated the ability for the squad to communicate and collaborate, even while “dancing on the edge of connectivity.” The squad members involved in the test runs praised the streamlined tools, which allowed them to take advantage of capabilities that previously had been too heavy or cumbersome for individual Soldiers and Marines to use in demanding field conditions. “Each run, they learned a bit more on the systems and how they could support the operation,” said Root, who is also program manager for Squad X Core Technologies. “By the end, they were using the unmanned ground and aerial systems to maximize the squad's combat power and allow a squad to complete a mission that normally would take a platoon to execute.” Two performers, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control and CACI's BIT Systems, each are working on different approaches to provide unique capabilities to enhance ground infantries. Manned-unmanned teaming is critical to both companies' solutions. Marines testing Lockheed Martin's Augmented Spectral Situational Awareness, and Unaided Localization for Transformative Squads (ASSAULTS) system used autonomous robots with sensor systems to detect enemy locations, allowing the Marines to engage and target the enemy with a precision 40mm grenade before the enemy could detect their movement. Small units using CACI's BITS Electronic Attack Module (BEAM) were able to detect, locate, and attack specific threats in the radio frequency and cyber domains. Experiment 2 is currently targeted for early 2019. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2018-11-30a
June 26, 2019 | International, Other Defence
By: Shawn Snow No, it's not going to turn you into Marvel's Iron Man or Captain America, but you might run a better PFT or have fewer fitness-related injuries. The Corps is on the hunt for new wearable gear with biosensing technology that can boost human performance and help build a more lethal battlefield force. On Monday, the Corps posted a request for information to the government's business opportunities website to glean information from industry leaders on available tech to address the Corps' focus on human performance augmentation. The Corps is looking at a number of possibilities from T-shirts, watches, wristbands or chest straps with embedded biosensing technology that can link to and download performance and physiological information to a database. The new biosensing tech will afford battlefield commanders information about the “physiological status and readiness” of Marines, according to the RFI. The new tech will also help commanders to "tailor conditioning and operational training in order to minimize injuries and optimize strength building and overall operational performance,” the posting reads. But with any new tech — especially gear that can track, collect, store and upload data — comes with various operational security, or OPSEC, concerns. In August 2018, the Defense Department banned the use of Fitbits and other fitness tracking devices for troops deployed overseas following data firm Strava's posting of a heat map that revealed the location and details of a number of U.S. bases and military outposts. “The rapidly evolving market of devices, applications and services with geolocation capabilities presents a significant risk to the Department of Defense personnel on and off duty, and to our military operations globally,” then-Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Robert Manning III, said in a command release. Manny Pacheco, a spokesman with Marine Corps Systems Command, told Marine Corps Times that there are “OPSEC concerns with any effort” to procure new gear for Marines and that the Corps will look for “ways to mitigate those concerns.” “In this particular case we are just looking at technologies for potential future use and will address the OPSEC issues as they arise,” Pacheco said about the RFI for the new wearable tech. The Corps listed human performance augmentation as a key focus area headed into 2020. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/06/25/this-wearable-marine-tech-can-boost-human-performance-and-track-physiological-status/