Austal USA to build sail-powered uncrewed ships in partnership with Saildrone

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  October 26, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Wing installation at Turkish drone maker signals progress on indigenous unmanned tech

  By: Burak Ege Bekdil ANKARA, Turkey — A privately owned Turkish drone specialist has installed the wings on its unmanned fighter jet currently in development. Selçuk Bayraktar, the chief technology officer at Baykar Makina, announced the progress on the Uçan Balık/Akıncı program (Flying Fish/Raider in Turkish). Bayraktar shared photos of the Akıncı on social media after the assembly of the aircraft's wings. “It [the program] is progressing as scheduled,” Bayraktar said. Turkey's vice president, Fuat Oktay, visited the Baykar Makina production unit to inspect the Akıncı. Bayraktar believes the platform's development foreshadows a more advanced version of itself down the road. “We are hoping to have our first unmanned fighter aircraft by 2023. We are also hoping to fly our first unmanned aerial vehicle that can carry up to 1.5 tons of payload for strategic missions in 2019,” Bayraktar said. Baykar is Turkey's leading privately owned drone specialist. It has supplied 58 unarmed and armed drones to the Turkish military that are mainly deployed in areas (southeastern Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq) where the country is fighting Kurdish militants. Fifteen Baykar drones are simultaneously on duty for counterterror missions. The company wants to raise that number to 50. Baykar's TB-2, a drone that comes in both armed and unarmed versions, is mainly deployed in Turkey's southeast to combat Kurdish militants. The armed version uses the MAM-L and MAM-C, two miniature smart munitions developed and produced by state-controlled missile-maker Roketsan. Industry sources say Turkey's industry also is developing BSI-101, a signals intelligence system, for the TB-2 to end the country's dependence on American-made SIGINT systems for drones. The TB-2 can fly at a maximum altitude of 24,000 feet for up to 30 hours. Its communications range is 150 kilometers. The aircraft can carry up to 55 kilograms of payload. “We (the world) are decades away from fully unmanned fighter aircraft. But for countries like Turkey that fight asymmetrical warfare, the gear built between full unmanned fighters and today's armed drones will be crucial,” a senior defense procurement official said. Increasing asymmetrical threats on both sides of Turkey's Syrian and Iraqi borders have urged the country's military and procurement and industry officials to boost existing drone programs and launch new ones. The Akıncı is the latest version of a family of drones Turkey thinks could best fight insurgency at home and abroad. In June, Turkish officials said a contract had been signed for the development and production of the 4.5-ton Akıncı. The first deliveries are scheduled for 2020. The Akıncı features an altitude of 40,000 feet and a payload capacity of 1,350 kilograms, which it can carry for up to 24 hours. The aircraft is powered by two turboprop engines, each generating 550 horsepower. The engine is under development by Tusas Engine Industries, or TEI, a state-controlled engine maker of the PD170. TEI has been working on the PD170 since December 2012 when it signed a development contract with SSM (now SSB), the country's procurement agency,. The 2.1-liter, turbo-diesel PD170 can produce 170 horsepower at 20,000 feet, and 130 horsepower at 30,000 feet. It can generate power at a maximum altitude of 40,000 feet. The PD170 was designed for the Anka, Turkey's first indigenous medium-altitude, long-endurance drone. The Akıncı has a 20 meter wingspan, and is 12.5 meters long and 4.1 meters high. It can be equipped with indigenously developed satellite communications technology; a common aperture targeting system FLIR; a wide area surveillance system; electronic and signals intelligence systems; an electronic support measure pod; a collision avoidance system; a multirole active electronically scanned array air radar; and a synthetic aperture/ground moving target indicator radar. The Akıncı can be armed with a wide range of air-to-ground munitions including MAM-L, MAM-C, CIRIT, Mk81 and Mk82 general-purpose bombs, smart munitions (such as HGK, KGK and LGK) with various guidance kits, and SOM air-launched cruise missiles. https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2018/10/25/wing-installation-at-turkish-drone-maker-signals-progress-on-indigenous-unmanned-tech

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  May 8, 2019 | International, Naval

  The US Navy is eyeing a big change to its new stealth destroyers

  By: David B. Larter NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The U.S. Navy is considering a significant change to its new stealth destroyers, one driven by the change of mission announced in last year's budget documents, the head of the program said May 7 at the Sea-Air-Space conference. The service has been struggling to find a use for the ship's advanced gun system — the largest of its type fielded by the service since World War II — and now is considering stripping them off the platform entirely, said Capt. Kevin Smith, the DDG-1000 program manager at Program Executive Officer Ships. The Navy sidelined the guns after the service truncated the buy to just three ships, and after the ammunition, called the Long-Range Land-Attack Projectile, ballooned in price to more than $800,000 per round. "The guns are in layup,” Smith said. “We're waiting for that bullet to come around that will give us the most range possible. But given that that is offensive surface strike, we're going to look at other capabilities potentially that we could use in that volume.” The ships shifted missions from land attack to ship-hunting and -killing last year. The Navy is integrating the SM-6 missile, which has a surface-attack mode, and are integrating the maritime strike Tomahawk to fill out the new capabilities. In April testimony, the Navy's top requirements officer, Vice Adm. William Merz, told Congress that the slow development of the Advanced Gun System was holding back the Zumwalt. “Even at the high cost, we still weren't really getting what we had asked for,” he said. “So what we've elected to do is to separate the gun effort from the ship effort because we really got to the point where now we're holding up the ship.” The Navy has touted the ship's excess space, weight, power and cooling as advantages the service would want throughout the ship's life. Everything from directed energy and electromagnetic rail guns to electronic warfare equipment has been floated as add-ons to the Zumwalt-class destroyers. The Navy got in its present pickle with the 155mm/.62-caliber gun with automated magazine and handling system because the service cut the buy from 28 ships, to seven, and finally to three. The AGS was developed specifically for the Zumwalt class, as was the LRLAP round it was intended to shoot. There was no backup plan, so when the buy went from 28 to three, the costs remained static, driving the price of the rounds through the roof. The program itself is coming along, said Smith. The Zumwalt is going through trials as its combat system installation wraps up; the Michael Monsoor is heading into the yards for its combat system installation; and the Lyndon B. Johnson is nearly 85 percent complete. The remaining work on Johnson involves running cables, painting spaces and otherwise putting the finishing touches on the ship. The ship will then leave Bath, Maine, and head toward its home port of San Diego, California. “We're going to energize high voltage in September, lighting off the generators in the spring, then we'll be going to test and activation for the [hull, mechanical and electrical systems], trials in the fall, then delivery.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/navy-league/2019/05/07/the-us-navy-is-eyeing-a-big-change-to-its-new-stealth-destroyers

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  April 20, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Inde: Airbus et Lockheed Martin au coude à coude pour vendre leurs avions de chasse

  Airbus et Lockheed Martin tentent de s'implanter en Inde afin de décrocher des commandes d'avions. Objectif, bénéficier des 620 milliards de dollars investis dans la défense sur la période 2014-2022 par l'Inde pour renouveler son armée. La décision de l'Inde de ne pas commander d'avions Rafale à Dassault en 2018, révélée par La Tribune, a enflammé la concurrence chez les principaux avionneurs. Deux géants font figure de favoris : Airbus, producteur de l'Eurofighter Typhoon, et le géant américain Lockheed Martin, qui construit le célèbre F-16, révèle le média économique américain Bloomberg. L'Inde a annoncé en 2014 vouloir investir 620 milliards de dollars en huit ans. Mais derrière ce marché faramineux pour les entreprises, les conditions sont drastiques. New Delhi demande en effet à ce qu'au moins 30% de ses importations en matière de défense soient produites sur son sol. Un transfert de technologie réclamé par la classe politique indienne, qui serait à l'origine de l'annulation de la commande géante de Rafale français (100 à 200 appareils) selon La Tribune. Plusieurs entreprises ont, depuis, décidé de s'implanter sur le territoire indien, dans l'espoir de décrocher une commande. Airbus, qui n'a pas remporté de contrat militaire en Inde depuis plus de cinquante ans, comme le rappelle le média américain, forme notamment des fabricants de pièces pour ses avions commerciaux. Une manière de faire qui permet de s'adapter aux normes et règlements locaux, dont se sont inspirés les concurrents de l'avionneur européen, Lockheed Martin, Saab ou encore Boeing. Chacun a fait le choix de la production locale pour taper dans l'œil de Narendra Modi, le Premier ministre indien. Du commercial au militaire. Limite à cette stratégie, la qualité de formation de la main d'œuvre indienne, cantonnée principalement aux postes de monteurs et ajusteurs. Airbus a compris la situation et a nommé, en 2016, l'homme public indien Ashish Saraf, au poste de chef de la production en Inde. Il s'agit de la seule compagnie étrangère à avoir un tel poste dans son organigramme. Un signal fort émis en direction du gouvernement indien. Airbus entend « adapter au domaine de la défense ce que la compagnie fait déjà pour l'espace commercial afin d'être plus performant, que ce soit pour les hélicoptères ou les avions militaires », a déclaré Pierre de Bausset, directeur d'Airbus Group en Inde, dans un discours prononcé à Hyderabad, ville du sud de l'Inde, en mars. Face à ce positionnement stratégique, Lockheed Martin a contre-attaqué explique Bloomberg. Pour vendre 110 avions de combat F-16, une commande estimée à 15 milliards de dollars, il a promis de migrer la production de ce parc aérien en Inde en cas d'accord. Le pays deviendrait de fait l'un des plus gros producteurs d'avions de combat au monde. https://www.lopinion.fr/edition/international/inde-airbus-lockheed-martin-coude-a-coude-vendre-leurs-avions-chasse-146872