October 5, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR, Security
Military.com | By Matthew Cox
The Army just awarded a $1.2 billion contract to General Dynamics Land Systems for Stryker combat vehicles equipped with new short-range air defense weapons.
Under the contract, the company will produce, test and deliver Interim Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD) Strykers to the Army, a key modernization effort for the service, according to an Oct. 2 company news release.
The IM-SHORAD is designed to counter threats from unmanned aerial systems, as well as enemy helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft, according to the release, which adds that the Army's initial, $230 million order calls for 28 Stryker IM-SHORAD vehicles.
"This dedicated SHORAD capability adds a new operational dimension to the Stryker fleet in all of the Army's maneuver formations," Don Kotchman, vice president and general manager of GD Land Systems -- the company that also manufactures Stryker vehicles for the service -- said in the release.
General Dynamics has partnered with Leonardo DRS and Raytheon on the deal, which has an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2025, according to the release.
Air and missile defense is a major modernization priority for the Army as it prepares for future, large-scale conflicts with adversaries such as Russia and China.
The IM-SHORAD vehicles will be equipped with Raytheon's Stinger Missiles.
The Army is also working to equip Strykers with 50-kilowatt lasers under the Directed-Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) effort.
In July 2019, the service selected Northrop and Raytheon to develop competing prototypes of 50-kilowatt laser-equipped Strykers as part of a $203 million deal that includes Kord Technologies as the prime contractor.
Northrop and Raytheon will each bring their laser-equipped Stryker to a competitive shoot-off scheduled for the third quarter of fiscal 2021. Army officials plan to select one of the prototypes, which will ultimately be among four vehicles fielded to the first platoon equipped with the 50-kilowatt version of M-SHORAD.
July 22, 2021 | International, Aerospace
The U.S. Navy plans to modernize the most critical standoff jamming system in the military’s inventory for the first time since 1971.
October 1, 2020 | International, Land, Other Defence
Ashley Roque Weight and mobility challenges have forced the US Army to abandon a government-designed autoloader for its Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) programme and the service is now looking for help from six tech companies. Brigadier General John Rafferty, the head of the Long-Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team, spoke at a virtual Fires Conference on 29 September and provided an update of programmes under his purview. One notable change is an army's decision not to move forward with an autoloader that it had been developing for the new weapon based off BAE Systems' Paladin M109A7 self-propelled howitzer. “The integration challenge for [it] was too much of a trade with mobility and durability, and some of the results from putting 3,000 miles on a combat vehicle [out at Yuma Proving Ground] weighted up with the centre of gravity issue that we had,” the one-star general told the audience. “It was an easy decision to say that we can't do that.” Instead the army is looking to a group of six companies previously picked to help find artillery munition resupplying solutions – Actuate, Apptronik, Carnegie Robotics, Hivemapper, Neya Systems, and Pratt Miller. Although Brig Gen Rafferty did not provide in-depth information on the path ahead, he noted that a future capability may not be an autoloader at all. ”I've learned that it was really stupid to go into this saying, ‘Hey, we want an autoloader'. I don't want an autoloader; What we want is an improved rate of fire,” he added. ”What I told them is I don't care if there's cannoneer there setting fuses if we're able to get the six to 10 rounds a minute,” Brig Gen Rafferty furthered. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/us-army-scraps-erca-autoloader-plans-heads-back-to-the-drawing-board
July 9, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR
Mark Pomerleau The Army is awarding delivery orders to three vendors to support equipment for three Expeditionary Signal Battalion-Enhanced (ESB-E) units. Specifically, the awards will support fielding of satellite baseband equipment, said Paul Mehney, director of public communications at Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical. Expeditionary signal battalions support units that don't have organic communications capabilities. These groups could include military intelligence battalions, chemical battalions, engineering battalions or air defense artillery branches. The ESB-E aims to be more mobile and require less equipment in order to drop in, support units and move more quickly on the battlefield. Overall, the vendors will be responsible for providing 48 baseband sets of equipment for each ESB-E formation. “Due to aggressive initial fielding timelines, after the first six ESB-E formations are fielded, the program office intends to open baseband capability competition for future ESB-E needs,” Mehney said. PacStar was recently awarded a contract to support the ESB-E program to provide its 400-Series modular platform to enhance tactical expeditionary communications, the company said in a July 7 release. The 400-Series is lightweight allowing these smaller and expeditionary units to maneuver more quickly. It includes 128 GB RAM, virtual routing and the PacStar 463 Radio Gateway. “Network modernization to meet warfighter needs and defense priorities is a core focus for the Army and across the DoD, and we are proud to support these efforts with PacStar 400-Series for ESB-E,” Peggy J. Miller, chief executive of PacStar, said in a statement. “With these solutions, ESB-E [Scalable Network Node] will get the smallest, lightest, modular tactical communications platform in the industry, which is part of our larger initiative to enable increased reliability and innovation for warfighters.” The other vendors include Klas and DTECH, with all three supporting one ESB-E. An additional delivery order for each vendor to a second ESB-E will be issued, meaning in the near future, each vendor will support two units a piece. After that, the Army will open up the contracts to competition. This approach follows how the Army has been experimenting to date by providing similar, yet comparable equipment to several ESB-E's. These companies have provided separate equipment to three units allowing the Army to gain useful feedback from units to see what they liked and disliked about the gear. This has allowed the Army to execute rapid prototyping and experimentation on a tighter timeline for making fielding decisions while providing equipment to soldiers in the interim. The first two ESB-Es fielded include the 57th ESB-E at Fort Hood and the 50th ESB-E at Fort Bragg. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2020/07/08/army-to-award-new-contracts-to-support-mobile-comms-units