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  September 13, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  UK Ministry of Defence orders Leonardo/Thales protection system for RAF Shadow ISTAR fleet

  London September 11, 2019 - The UK Ministry of Defence has contracted Leonardo and Thales, under a single source procurement, to deliver an integrated UK Defensive Aids System (DAS). The procurement will equip the RAF's fleet of eight Shadow R1 intelligence-gathering aircraft, providing an advanced DAS which will protect the aircraft against latest-generation of Infra-Red (heat seeking) missiles. Designed, developed and manufactured in the UK, the system provides a sovereign capability which will be able to evolve in anticipation of changing threats to air platforms. The contract will be delivered by a combined MOD/Leonardo/Thales team under a Leonardo prime systems integration contract, with the equipment being integrated onto the platform by Raytheon UK. Initial Operating Capability is targeted for early 2021. The system consists of the following subsystems: Thales “Elix-IR” Threat Warner Leonardo DAS Controller Leonardo “Miysis” Directed Infra-Red Counter Measure (DIRCM) Thales “Vicon” Countermeasures Dispensing System The single source selection by the MOD follows the recent SALT III international trials hosted by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration in Sweden. There, the integrated Miysis/Elix-IR system, using a jamming waveform developed by the UK MOD's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, proved its ability to defeat Infra-Red missiles in live fire exercises. How the system works: The integrated DAS brings together world-class capabilities in threat warning, self-protection co-ordination, countermeasures dispensing and in DIRCM. At the heart of the system, the DAS Controller is able to assess multiple threats to the aircraft and prioritise the appropriate response using the Countermeasure Dispensing System (CMDS) and Miysis DIRCM. Elix-IR is constantly on the lookout for missile and gunfire threats, providing long range, rapid and accurately-located alerts when they occur. The dual-head fit of the Miysis DIRCM provides 360 degree protection and the ability to defeat multiple threats simultaneously by accurately directing a jamming laser onto the missile's seeker, confusing its guidance system and steering the missile away from the aircraft. The integrated and optimised threat-warning/threat-defeat chain ensures that sequential incoming missiles are thwarted quickly and effectively. Shadow: The RAF's fleet of Shadow aircraft, which are based on the King Air 350CER, are operated by 14 Squadron out of RAF Waddington. Because of the ISR role of the aircraft, it may be required to fly through hostile airspace, necessitating protection from enemy forces. A particularly deadly and prevalent threat are heat-seeking, Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems (MANPADS), which are widely employed around the world. The Shadow's new defensive aids suite will effectively counter this threat, being able to rapidly defeat incoming missiles. About Leonardo Leonardo, a global high-technology company, is among the top ten world players in Aerospace, Defence and Security and Italy's main industrial company. Organized into five business divisions, Leonardo has a significant industrial presence in Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland and the USA, where it also operates through subsidiaries such as Leonardo DRS (defense electronics), and joint ventures and partnerships: ATR, MBDA, Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space and Avio. Leonardo competes in the most important international markets by leveraging its areas of technological and product leadership (Helicopters, Aircraft, Aerostructures, Electronics, Cyber Security and Space). Listed on the Milan Stock Exchange (LDO), in 2018 Leonardo recorded consolidated revenues of €12.2 billion and invested €1.4 billion in Research and Development. The Group has been part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index since 2010.http://www.leonardocompany.com >For the RAF Shadow, Leonardo will draw on its experience providing protective systems for the UK's Eurofighter Typhoon and AW159 Wildcat, AW101 Merlin, Puma and Chinook helicopter fleets. The Company was also contracted in April to provide a UK sovereign defensive aids suite for the British Army's new fleet of Apache AH-64E helicopters. >While being smaller, lighter and drawing less power than other DIRCM systems on the market, the Miysis DIRCM still offers the full spherical coverage required to counter advanced threats. Its Laser Pointer Tracker offers sophisticated tracking to counter long range threats and exceptional response speed to counter short range threats. A multi-band IRCM can defeat even advanced threats. Miysis has been selected by customers in Canada and the Middle East. Contact: Leonardo Press Office pressoffice@leonardocompany.com +39 0632473313 About Thales Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 62,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of €14 billion in 2016. With over 22,000 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design and deploy equipment, systems and services to meet the most complex security requirements. Its exceptional international footprint allows it to work closely with its customers all over the world. https://www.thalesgroup.com > Elix-IRTM is a passive multi-function Threat Warning System that uses single wide spectrum colour Infra-Red sensing technology to deliver simultaneous and unimpeded Missile Approach Warning, Hostile Fire Indication and Situational Awareness from a single sensor system to increase overall platform survivability and help to mitigate the ‘Risk to Life'. Elix-IRTM is an ITAR free UK sovereign capability, developed in collaboration with the UK MOD that ensures Freedom of Action that assures a rapid and timely response to countering evolving threats and supporting new theatres of operation. Designed from the outset to provide the capabilities required to support a DIRCM and output data in support of off-board countermeasures, such as Smart Stores, it enables greater exploitation and utilisation of platform capabilities that support broader operational employment and increased mission success rates. Contact Thales Media Relations – Justine Degez, Media Relations – Land and Naval Defence justine.degez@thalesgroup.com +33 6 89 34 53 09 https://www.epicos.com/article/481146/uk-ministry-defence-orders-leonardothales-protection-system-raf-shadow-istar-fleet

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  May 2, 2019 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  These are the five areas where the Air Force wants to see an explosion of technology

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The Air Force has a new science and technology strategy, and it's built around the idea that the service needs to generate leap-ahead capabilities like the 1950s-era Century Series that spawned six new fighter jets in five years. To do that, the service wants to restructure about 20 percent of its S&T efforts into “vanguard programs” that will tie together different developmental efforts across the Air Force's research institutions and experiment with them to see whether it shows promise. “If you're playing hockey, you shouldn't be shooting where the goalie is. You should be shooting where the goalie isn't,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Wednesday. “So the idea with part of this strategy is to assess where our adversaries can't easily go and get there first and fastest. That's a winning strategy.” Among the new strategy's biggest changes is the addition of a new position, the Air Force's chief technology officer, who will be charged with coordinating efforts across the S&T enterprise and making strategic decisions about the direction of the service's development efforts, to include the vanguard programs. This yet-to-be-named official will work directly with the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability team, which is defining future concepts of operation and helping the service understand what technologies it needs to meet advanced threats. Wilson wasn't sure exactly when the CTO will be named, but she's already signed a memorandum that makes Will Roper, the service's acquisition executive, responsible for hiring a “design agent” that will figure out how to best structure the CTO office within the Air Force and help select the new official. “One of the things that this design agent will do is start to look in at acquisition, how will we change both possibly the organizational reporting lines for research, but [also] how will we manage that and change that over time,” she said. “This is not something where we're going to flip a switch today, but it does mean over time we're going to change the way we manage our research dollars.” Still unknown is whether the new strategy will impact the size or makeup of the S&T budget, which runs about $2.8 billion per year. The Air Force also hasn't identified any potential vanguard programs yet, officials said. “For some things, if it's smaller, that could be really quick” and result in an experimentation program similar to the light attack program, said Lt Gen. Arnold Bunch, the service's top uniformed acquisition official. “Or it could be a big project that we align a lot of dollars to” so that it can transition quickly to a program of record. The service also wants to use vanguard programs to fuse together emerging technologies in their early stages of development, which are usually developed in a more stovepiped manner, said Air Force Chief Scientist Richard Joseph. “If it doesn't work well, then we know at a very early stage the kinds of things we have to work on and change,” he said. “This is probably a less expensive vanguard, but it's one that's really vital and important.” Although no specific vanguard projects have been announced, the S&T strategy identifies five technology areas where it wants to see “transformational” growth: Complexity, Unpredictability and Mass The military has talked for years about the need for swarms of autonomous drones and space systems that can be purchased on the cheap, and the Air Force continues to see a need for such assets in the future to augment their legacy fleet of exquisite platforms. “Progress will rely heavily on a wide range of robotics and autonomy technologies, along with sensors and wireless communications,” the strategy states. “The growing autonomous vehicle market provides an industrial and applied research base that the Air Force can leverage, but military research is needed well beyond what can be expected from the commercial sector.” Speed and Reach of Disruption and Lethality The Air Force needs a more diverse inventory of weapons that are faster and have longer endurance. Although hypersonic weapons — and enabling technologies like scramjet propulsion and high-temperature materials — might be the most visible program for such investment, the S&T strategy notes several others such as low-cost cruise missiles and guided munitions. Microwave and laser-directed energy weapons hold potential for decreasing the cost of shooting down a target. The service also sees promise in “advanced penetrating kinetic weapons combined with new effects from the electromagnetic spectrum and the space and cyberspace domains to create new offensive and defensive options.” Global Persistent Awareness The platforms the Air Force uses for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — everything from the U-2 spyplane to its missile warning satellites to the cameras on an MQ-9 Reaper — have given the service unparalleled access to information. But those assets are too expensive, can't stay long enough on station, and lack the survivability needed to stand up against more advanced threats. Further, it takes far too long to process the information from these legacy systems, and too much manpower is needed to turn that data into actionable intelligence. The strategy posits a move toward distributed, low-cost sensors where information can be fused together to “provide resilience through numbers and redundancy and complement more exquisite sensors on standoff platforms.” Small satellites and low cost launch can help enable this architecture, as can “edge computing” that “autonomously analyzes sensor data at the source” and reduces the burden on legacy communications nodes. The strategy also recommends investment in new sensing technologies — such as laser and multistatic radar, hyperspectral sensing and quantum field sensing—as well as the microelectronics, photonics and other materials that are used to build sensors. Resilient Information Sharing The Air Force relies on its battle networks in order for fighter jets to get accurate targeting information, to share intelligence across platforms, and to conduct close air support of troops on the ground. But despite huge advances in commercial communications technologies, the Air Force “cannot rely” on the private sector for information sharing capabilities that are able to resist electronic attacks, cyberattacks and GPS jamming. “The military's demands on these capabilities exceed the limits of current wireless network technology, even under favorable circumstances,” the S&T strategy reads. “In future conflicts, the challenge will be far beyond any of those encountered in the commercial sector.” As such, the Air Force will need to field more flexible and survivable battle networks that can autonomously reconfigure itself when threatened. The service sees promise in areas such as software-defined systems, more resilient satellites, encryption and alternate position, navigation and timing systems. Rapid, Effective Decision Making Air Force Chef of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein has spoken at length about the need for the Air Force to move the right information to users more quickly. To do that, the serviced will need to continue investments in areas such as artificial intelligence, predictive data analytics, data fusion and visualization, and autonomous electronic warfare and cyber. “Automation is especially important in electronic and cyberwarfare where contests occur at far-beyond-human speeds,” the strategy states. “Where possible, automation can assist electronic warfare, cybersystems, and other means to hinder the adversary's decision-making by introducing uncertainty.” https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2019/04/17/these-are-the-five-areas-where-the-air-force-wants-to-see-an-explosion-of-technology

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  October 12, 2022 | International, Other Defence

  Acquisition revamp needed to meet demand surges, defense industry says

  A stable demand for weapons is necessary after months of viewing and supplying the war in Ukraine, defense industry leaders said during a panel.