Amid Red Sea clashes, Navy leaders ask: Where are our ship lasers?

On the same subject

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  July 22, 2019 | International, Naval

  Lockheed Martin wins FFG(X) combat systems integration contract

  Lockheed Martin has received a contract from the US Navy to serve as the combat system ship integration and test agent for the future Guided Missile Frigate (FFG(X)) ship programme. Valued at up to $125m, the contract will involve the overall integration of the combat system elements into the frigate ship design. Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will also complete waterfront testing to validate the installation. Scope includes integration engineering support, test planning, waterfront ship integration and testing, post-delivery engineering support. Lockheed Martin Surface Navy Integration Systems programme director Chris Minster said: “The US Navy will experience substantial efficiency by utilising the existing processes, tools, and experience of the Lockheed Martin ship integration and test team. “While minimising ship impact and cost, our ship integration and test team will enable the successful integration of the combat system elements into the future frigate ship design.” The company is counting on its ship integration and test experience including Aegis Ticonderoga class guided missile cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers to successfully deliver the contract. Majority of the work will be performed at the selected FFG(X) shipbuilder location. The company will also deliver engineering services for ship integration. Lockheed Martin will also deliver around 30% of work at its Rotary and Mission Systems plant in Moorestown, New Jersey. The ten-year contract includes one base year of performance and nine option years. The contract work is expected to be completed in June 2025. Last month, the navy issued a request for proposals (RfP) for the detail design and construction (DD&C) contract of the next-generation FFG(X) ships. Vessels will be deployed to conduct air warfare, anti-submarine missions, surface and electronic warfare, as well as information operations. https://www.naval-technology.com/news/lockheed-martin-wins-ffgx-combat-systems-integration-contract/

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  July 20, 2023 | International, Aerospace

  Reliable Robotics gets FAA approval to test automated aircraft systems

  Reliable Robotics, a Silicon Valley startup aiming to automate conventional fixed-wing planes, has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to proceed with its plan to test and certify fully automated aircraft systems, the company said on Thursday.

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  October 10, 2019 | International, C4ISR

  The data challenge of space-based hypersonics defense

  By: Nathan Strout Managing data is the biggest challenge to developing a new space-based sensor layer that would help detect hypersonic weapons, the director of the Missile Defense Agency said Oct. 7. The agency is working toward building the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, a layer of sensors on orbit that would be capable of detecting and tracking hypersonic weapons that the nation's current missile defense architecture was not designed to handle. The new system will be built into the Space Development Agency's constellation of low earth orbit satellites. For Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the director of the agency, designing the sensors for the system is a surmountable engineering issue and evolving commercial launch capabilities mean it will be easy to get the technology to space once its ready. The real challenge is “the passing of track data between different space vehicles and maintaining track and dealing with clutter.” Hypersonic weapons are dimmer than traditional ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect. The sensors will have to be able to remove that clutter, detect the threat and then pass their data to the next LEO sensor, which will pick up the object as it travels around the globe at hypersonic speed. Allowing for that data flow from sensor to sensor is essential to the effective operation of the system. Hill compared the complexity of that data transfer to his time in the Navy, where information had to go between moving vessels, but the data issue with satellites is magnitudes of order more difficult. “When you put yourself on a moving body that's moving, not at 30 knots but at a much higher speed, you know, maintaining the stability of that track, being able to pull the clutter out of it, determining how much you want to process up on orbit versus how much you want to feed down and process on the ground, then how you distribute. Do you distribute directly from the sensor? Do you control the weapon from space? Or do you take it to the ground station and do it there? There [are] different trades, and we'll probably do it differently in a lot of different ways because that adds to the overall resilience of the system,” Hill said speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event October 7. Finding the right answers to those questions will be a priority for the MDA as it works to works to get the system on orbit quickly. “It's going to be a great capability. We just need to get it up there as soon as we can and rapidly proliferate,” Hill said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2019/10/09/the-data-challenge-of-space-based-hypersonics-defense/