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October 9, 2024 | International, Land

Beyond the politics, China's missile test reflects military need

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  • Rafael offers its next-gen combat vehicle suite to South Korea

    December 9, 2020 | International, Land

    Rafael offers its next-gen combat vehicle suite to South Korea

    by Yaakov Lappin Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has offered South Korea its Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Suite (NGCV-S) as the Republic of Korea Army (RoKA) prepares to upgrade its K1A2 main battle tanks (MBTs) and procure some 600 Hyundai-made armoured personnel carriers (APCs) as part of its Tiger 4.0 modernisation programme. Rafael has submitted requests for information from South Korea on both the MBT and APC programmes Udi N, head of marketing at Rafael's land manoeuvre systems directorate, told Janes that the NGCV-S offers several capabilities for armoured vehicles to boost their lethality, survivability, and ability to engage multiple targets simultaneously. He said the suite includes the company's Armor Shield P passive add-on armour and the Trophy active protection system (APS), the latter of which is used on US Army MBTs as well as on the Israeli military's Namer heavy APCs. Other offers as part of the suite include reactive armour kits and the Samson medium-calibre remote weapon station (RWS). The station is designed to mount a 30 mm or 40 mm gun and co-axial 7.62 mm machine gun that be integrated with Rafael's Spike missile launcher as well as the fifth-generation Spike anti-tank guided electro-optical missile for mid- and long-range attacks. “Combining the Spike missile system with the Samson Integrated 30 mm RWS and its combat management systems transforms the remote-controlled weapon station and the vehicle into a versatile fighting machine – able to simultaneously neutralise targets at multiple ranges, with the pinpoint accuracy required in the urban arena as well as in GPS-denied zones,” said Rafael in a statement. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/rafael-offers-its-next-gen-combat-vehicle-suite-to-south-korea

  • University Of Central Florida Opens Its Doors To The Lockheed Martin Cyber Innovation Lab

    February 18, 2019 | International, Aerospace

    University Of Central Florida Opens Its Doors To The Lockheed Martin Cyber Innovation Lab

    ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) celebrated the grand opening of a new Cyber Innovation Lab on UCF's campus that will help meet the growing local and national need for cybersecurity talent. The lab's opening was celebrated with a ribbon cutting, a demonstration by UCF's Collegiate Cyber Defense Club (Hack@UCF) and a panel discussion with U.S. military and Lockheed Martin cyber experts about technology trends and how students can prepare for a career in the growing field. UCF-Photo "This lab will serve as the campus' primary hub for students to develop and expand their information security skills, preparing them to enter this high demand field and take on the cyber security threats of the future," said UCF President Dale Whittaker. "We are grateful for Lockheed Martin's longtime partnership and strong commitment to our students' success." The National Institute of Standards and Technology estimates there are more than 13,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in Floridaalone. That trend will continue, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts jobs for information security analysts will grow 28 percent by 2026. "The future battlespace will be heavily reliant on cyber... even more so than we're seeing today," said Stephanie C. Hill, deputy executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems. "By working with institutions like UCF, through labs like this one, we'll all better understand and accelerate our shared capabilities and potential to adapt and innovate in the fifth domain." In 2018, Lockheed Martin donated $1.5 million to UCF to help create the Cyber Innovation Lab and encourage the next-generation of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) talent to collaborate and solve today's challenging cyber problems. The company's donation will fund software and technology support to the lab, and employees will also provide cyber training and professional mentoring to engineering students. "Having a centralized space will streamline the way we organize our meetings and practices," said Hack@UCF President David Maria, a senior studying computer engineering. "With this lab, we can practice for competitions, host workshops and speakers, provide cyber security tools and resources, and give our student members a sense of community and help get them ready for future careers. It's not just a practice space. It's a home for us." The 970-square-foot lab is located in UCF's Engineering I building and will serve as a learning hub for the more than 350 students participating in cyber programs at UCF. Hack@UCF, a four-time national champion in competitions like the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and the U.S. Department of Energy CyberForce Competition, will also use the lab as its primary practice center. In Orlando, Lockheed Martin employs approximately 2,500 UCF graduates, with plans to expand its cyber workforce. The company's local Cyber Solutions business grew 400 percent over the past five years and expects that growth to continue as the nation seeks offensive and defensive cyber security capabilities to address the evolving cyber threats. To learn more about cyber at Lockheed Martin, visit www.lockheedmartin.com/cyber. About the University of Central Florida Founded in 1963 with a commitment to expanding opportunity and demanding excellence, the University of Central Florida develops the talent needed to advance the prosperity and welfare of our society. With more than 68,000 students, UCF is one of the nation's largest universities, offering more than 200 degree programs at its main campus in Orlando, medical school, and more than a dozen other locations in Central Florida and online. UCF was ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation's top 10 most innovative universities and rated by Kiplinger and Forbes as one of the best college values in America. For more information, visit ucf.edu. About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 105,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. SOURCE Lockheed Martin https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2019-02-15-University-of-Central-Florida-Opens-Its-Doors-to-the-Lockheed-Martin-Cyber-Innovation-Lab

  • U.S. Army Flexes New Land-Based, Anti-Ship Capabilities

    October 21, 2020 | International, Naval, Land, C4ISR

    U.S. Army Flexes New Land-Based, Anti-Ship Capabilities

    Steve Trimble Lee Hudson Finding ever new and efficient ways to sink enemy ships is usually assigned to the U.S. Navy and, to a lesser extent, the Air Force, but not anymore. Though still focused on its primary role of maneuvering against land forces and shooting down air and missile threats, the Army is quietly developing an arsenal of long-range maritime strike options. As the Army carves out an offensive role in the Pentagon's preparations for a mainly naval and air war with China, service officials now seek to develop a capacity for targeting and coordinating strikes on maritime targets with helicopter gunships in the near term and with long-range ballistic missiles by 2025. The Project Convergence 2020 event in September focused the Army on learning how to solve the command and control challenge for a slew of new land-attack capabilities scheduled to enter service by fiscal 2023. The follow-on event next year will expand to include experiments with the Army's command and control tasks in the unfamiliar maritime domain. “I think we have a long way to go in terms of partnering with the Navy for some of the maritime targeting [capabilities],” says Brig. Gen. John Rafferty, the Army's cross-functional team leader for Long-Range Precision Fires. “And I think that'll be a natural evolution into Project Convergence 2021,” Rafferty says, speaking during the Association of the U.S. Army's virtual annual meeting on Oct. 15. The Army operates a small, modest fleet of watercraft, including logistics support vessels and Runnymede-class large landing craft, but service officials have been content to respond to attacks on enemy ships at sea with the Navy's surface combatants and carrier-based fighter squadrons. Last year, the Air Force also revived a maritime strike role by activating the Lockheed Martin AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile on the B-1B fleet. But the Army's position has changed. The AH-64E Capability Version 6, which Boeing started developing in 2018, includes a modernized radar frequency interferometer. The receiver can identify maritime radars, allowing the AH-64E to target watercraft at long range for the first time. Meanwhile, the Defense Department's Strategic Capabilities Office started working in 2016 to integrate an existing seeker used for targeting ships into the Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms), which is currently the Army's longest-range surface-to-surface missile at 300 km (162 nm). Beginning in fiscal 2023, the Lockheed Martin Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is scheduled to begin replacing the Atacms. The Increment 1 version will extend the range of the Army's missiles to 500 km. A follow-on Increment 2 version of PrSM is scheduled to enter service in fiscal 2025, featuring a new maritime seeker now in flight testing by the Army Research Laboratory. “As we begin to develop the PrSM [Increment 2] with the cross-domain capability against maritime and emitting [integrated air defense system] targets, obviously we'll be partnering with the Navy on that,” Rafferty says. Targeting ships from land-based artillery systems is not unique to the Army. The U.S. Marine Corps plans to introduce the Raytheon-Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile, firing the ground-based anti-ship cruise missile from a remotely operated Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. To strike a moving target at ranges beyond the horizon, the Army needs more than an innovative new seeker. A targeting complex linking over-the-horizon sensors with the Atacms and PrSM batteries is necessary. Moreover, the Army will need to adapt command and control procedures to an unfamiliar maritime domain. The annual Project Convergence events offer a laboratory for the Army to prepare the targeting and command and control complex before new weapons enter service. With the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, a medium-range ballistic missile and PrSM also set to enter service in the next three years, the Army is seeking to adapt quickly. Last month, the Army used the first prototype of the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node ground station. An artificial intelligence (AI) program named Prometheus sifted through intelligence information to identify targets. Another AI algorithm called SHOT matched those targets to particular weapons with the appropriate range and destructive power. An underlying fire-control network, called the Advanced Field Artillery Data System, provided SHOT with the location and magazine status of each friendly weapon system. A process that would otherwise take minutes or even hours dwindled—in an experimental setting—to a few seconds. The first Project Convergence event last month focused on the Army's traditional mission against targets on land. The next event will seek to replicate that streamlined targeting process against ships possibly hundreds of miles away. These experiments are intended to help the Army familiarize itself with new tools in the command and control loop, such as automated target-recognition systems and targeting assignments. The event also helps the Army dramatically adapt, in a few years, institutional practices that had endured for decades. “In order for a bureaucracy to change, [it has] to understand the need, and we have to create the use case in order for a bureaucracy to change,” says Gen. Mike Murray, the head of the Army Futures Command. “I think in Project Convergence, what we're able to demonstrate to the senior leaders in the army will further help drive that change.” In a way, the Army is seeking to achieve in the maritime domain a networked sensor and command and control system that the Navy introduced to its fleet nearly two decades ago. To improve the fleet air-defense mission substantially, the Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) generally develops a common, shared database of tracks from the multiple airborne, surface and subsurface sensors available to a carrier battle group. But the Navy also is building on the CEC standard. In 2016, a Lockheed F-35B demonstrated the ability to develop a target track of an over-the-horizon enemy warship. The track information was sent via the CEC to a launcher for a Raytheon SM-6. Although primarily an air- and missile-defense interceptor, in this case the SM-6 demonstrated an anti-ship role. A follow-on development SM-6 Block 1B is expected to optimize the weapon system as a long-range, anti-ship ballistic missile with hypersonic speed. More recently, the Navy has been quietly experimenting with its own series of Project Convergence-like experiments. Known as the Navy Tactical Grid experiments, the Navy and Marine Corps organized a series of demonstrations in fiscal 2019, according to the latest budget justification documents. Building on the common operating picture provided by the CEC, the Navy Tactical Grid is possibly experimenting with similar automation and machine-learning algorithms to streamline and amplify the targeting cycle dramatically. A new initiative is now replacing the Navy Tactical Grid experiments. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday tapped Rear Adm. Douglas Small, the head of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, to lead the effort known as Project Overmatch. Small must provide a strategy, no later than early December, that outlines how the Navy will develop the networks, infrastructure, data architecture, tools and analytics to support the operational force. This includes linking hundreds of ships, submarines, unmanned systems and aircraft. “Beyond recapitalizing our undersea nuclear deterrent, there is no higher developmental priority in the U.S. Navy,” Gilday wrote in an Oct. 1 memo that revealed the existence of Project Overmatch. Aviation Week obtained a copy of the document. “I am confident that closing this risk is dependent on enhancing Distributed Maritime Operations through a teamed manned-unmanned force that exploits artificial intelligence and machine learning.” While Small is tasked with creating the “connective tissue,” Gilday directs Vice Adm. James Kilby, deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities (N9), with accelerating development of unmanned capabilities and long-range fires, Gilday wrote in a separate Oct. 1 memo outlining the details of Project Overmatch. Kilby's assessment must include a metric for the Navy to measure progress and a strategy that appropriately funds each component. His initial plan is also due to Gilday in early December. “Drive coherence to our plans with a long-term, sustainable [and] affordable view that extends far beyond the [future years defense plan],” Gilday wrote. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/missile-defense-weapons/us-army-flexes-new-land-based-anti-ship-capabilities

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