ATAC awarded F-35 chase flight services contract

On the same subject

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  September 30, 2019 | International, Security

  Switzerland selects Thales for national airspace surveillance and protection

  September 26, 2019 - SkyView has been selected by the Swiss Federal Office for Defence Procurement (armasuisse) to upgrade the country's FLORAKO air surveillance system, which provides 24/7 surveillance and protection of national airspace, territory and populations. SkyView correlates civil and military data in real time, providing a better overall picture of national airspace and allowing faster decisions to be made. It also enables operators to conduct air policing operations and detect and respond to all types of airborne threats. SkyView is the culmination of 50 years of experience in air operations and has been deployed at over 80 command and control centres in more than 30 countries. It processes data from over 600 radars and interconnects with external systems via more than 60 types of interfaces. The product is co-developed with users according to a roadmap that reflects their exact requirements. “I would like to thank armasuisse for its continued trust in us for a project that is vital to Switzerland's national sovereignty. SkyView 4.0 is an all-digital system incorporating the latest Big Data and artificial intelligence technologies, and will provide the Swiss Air Force with a highly capable solution for airspace surveillance and air command and control.” Thomas Got, Thales Vice President in charge of Air Operations and Weapon Systems https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/group/press-release/switzerland-selects-thales-national-airspace-surveillance-and-protection

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  August 9, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  The $25 million contract will provide a system that supports the military’s complex weather prediction workloads.

  By Brandi Vincent, Through a strategic partnership unveiled Wednesday, the U.S. Air Force and Oak Ridge National Lab will acquire a high-performance supercomputing system from Cray Inc. that aims to improve weather forecasting for Air Force and Army operations across the globe. Under the $25 million contract, the new system—called HPC11—will bring supercomputing-as-a-service to the Air Force's 557th Weather Wing, which creates and supplies comprehensive terrestrial and space weather information to the two military branches. “The system's performance will be a significant increase over the existing [high-performance computing] capability and will provide Air Force weather operators with the ability to run the next generation of high-resolution, global and regional models, and satisfy existing and emerging warfighter needs for environmental impacts to operations planning,” Steven Wert, an Air Force official and member of the senior executive service said in a statement. The system is expected to help the Air Force execute its mission more effectively by offering new features that support the military's complex weather prediction workloads. Official expect the system to improve forecasts and weather threat assessments that insiders rely on. Supercomputer manufacturer Cray also recently announced it's delivering the world's fastest supercomputer to the Energy Department by 2021, which it plans to outfit with a first-of-its-kind storage system that can hold more than an exabyte of data. “This is a great example of the upcoming Exascale Era bringing a new set of technologies to bear on challenging problems and empowering the Air Force to more effectively execute on its important mission,” Cray's President and CEO Peter Ungaro said. The system is expected to be delivered at the end of the year and accepted in early 2020. The company also announced Wednesday that the Defense Department selected it for two contracts—together valued at $46 million—to provide supercomputer systems to accelerate research and development at the Army Research Lab, and the Army Engineering and Research Development Center. https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/08/air-force-and-oak-ridge-get-supercomputer-better-weather-forecasts/159037/

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  August 17, 2020 | International, Naval

  Update: US Air Force seeks information on maritime strike weapon

  by Pat Host The US Air Force (USAF) is conducting market research into kinetic weapons capable of engaging and defeating maritime surface vessels, according to a 24 July request for information (RFI) posted on the federal contracting website beta.sam.gov. No further details were available with the public version of the RFI, which had a version classified secret by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) armament systems development division. USAF spokesperson Ilka Cole said on 10 August that while the specific capabilities sought are classified, the service seeks information on any kinetic weapon capable of engaging and defeating maritime surface vessels. An expert believes that this RFI is the USAF's effort to capture weapons compatible with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) that are not the Lockheed Martin AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) nor the Raytheon-Kongsberg Defense Systems Joint Strike Missile (JSM) air-launched anti-ship weapon being developed for the F-35. Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, DC, told Janes on 31 July that the LRASM will probably not be compatible with the F-35 as the stakeholders have not been able to integrate it on to the aircraft for internal carriage due to the weapon's large size. Lockheed Martin spokesman Brett Ashworth said on 12 August that the company is investing in F-35 integration efforts for LRASM and the AGM-158B Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM-ER). He said there is operator interest in both weapons and the company is working to ensure outstanding weapon stand-off and effects. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/update-us-air-force-seeks-information-on-maritime-strike-weapon