January 7, 2022 | International, Aerospace
May 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Boeing rolls out Australia’s first ‘Loyal Wingman’ combat drone
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — Boeing is set to roll out the first “Loyal Wingman” drone for the Royal Australian Air Force during a Tuesday morning ceremony, putting the RAAF high on the list of countries experimenting with autonomous aircraft.
“This a truly historic moment for our country and for Australian defense innovation,” said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “The Loyal Wingman will be pivotal to exploring the critical capabilities our Air Force needs to protect our nation and its allies into the future.”
The RAAF plans to buy three drones, which Boeing calls the Airpower Teaming System, as part of the Loyal Wingman Advanced Development Program.
Over a series of flight tests and demonstrations, the RAAF hopes to figure out how to best integrate drones with fighter jets and other combat aircraft, allowing the air force to keep pilots safe by putting lower cost unmanned assets at risk during a fight.
“Autonomy is a big element of this, as well as the incorporation of artificial intelligence. Those two elements combined enable us to support existing forces,” said Jerad Hayes, Boeing's senior director for autonomous aviation and technology.
The ATS is semi-autonomous, meaning that fighter pilots will not have to remotely control the maneuvers of the drone, said Shane Arnott, Boeing's ATS program director.
“When you are teaming, say with a Super Hornet, they don't have the luxury during combat maneuvers or operations to be remotely piloting another aircraft while doing their own,” he said.
But one of the biggest technical questions still remains: How much data should be transferred from the ATS to the cockpit of the manned aircraft controlling it, and when does that turn into information overload? That question is one Boeing wants to answer more definitively once ATS makes its first flight later this year and moves into its experimentation phase, Arnott said.
“There's a lot for us to figure out [on] what's that right level of information feed and direction. One of the great benefits of working with the Royal Australian Air Force is having the real operators [give feedback],” he said. “We don't have all the answers yet. We have a lot of understanding through our surrogate simulator and surrogate testing that we're doing, but we will prove that out.”
Boeing first introduced the Airpower Teaming System at the Australian International Airshow at Avalon in February 2019, when the company unveiled a full-scale model. Since then, the company has moved quickly to fabricate the first of three aircraft, completing the fuselage structure this February. In April, the aircraft stood on its own wheels for the first time and powered on.
The ATS air vehicle is 38 feet long, with a removable nose that can be packed with mission-specific sensors and other payloads. Throughout the design process, Boeing simulated a “digital twin” of the aircraft that allowed it to virtualize the operation of the aircraft, as well as how it would be produced and maintained.
It also saved money by incorporating resin-infused composite structures, including one that is the largest piece Boeing has ever manufactured using that technique, Hayes said. That large structure snaps into another to form the plane's wings, cutting down on the manpower needed to fabricate the aircraft.
While the drone's sleek, twin-tailed design is simple, with only four moving surfaces, it was carefully composed to optimize the aircraft's survivability, maneuverability and cost, Arnott said.
While Arnott wouldn't talk about the stealth features of the aircraft, he noted that “there was a lot of thought put into getting that right balance of ‘good enough' across the board, and [radar] signature is obviously an aspect, and affordability is a big one.”
Boeing officials have also declined to comment on the price of the aircraft, but Arnott and Hayes made it clear that Boeing intends to keep it cost-competitive with its main competitor, Kratos Defense and Security's XQ-58 Valkyrie.
The U.S. Air Force has expressed interest in procuring Valkyrie for the loyal wingman role and to host communications relay payloads that would allow the F-35 and F-22 to share data stealthily.
Boeing is also engaged with the U.S. military about potential uses of the ATS, Hayes asid.
“We see the Airpower Teaming System platform as capable of going against many different mission sets, and as such, we're engaging across the Department of Defense to understand their specific mission need, what their requirements are for those, and understanding exactly how the Airpower Teaming System fits those,” he said.
The nose — which is 8.5 feet long with more than 90k cubic inches volume — is key to the company's strategy to sell the system outside of Australia, Arnott said. Boeing envisions working with international customers to create customized modular payloads that could be built with the help of indigenous suppliers, thus increasing its appeal.
“The industrial aspect of this is of a lot of interest for a number of countries,” said Arnott. “Being able to do meaningful work on the systems to the extent of creating whole new payloads or role capability is of great interest.”
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November 19, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Defence cooperation: Council launches 17 new PESCO projects
The Council adopted an updated list of projects to be undertaken under PESCO. There will be 17 new projects in addition to the initial 17 projects agreed on 11 December 2017 and formally adopted on 6 March 2018. The projects cover areas such as training, capability development and operational readiness on land, at sea and in the air, as well as cyber-defence. Background On 11 December 2017, the Council adopted a decision establishing Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). PESCO enables EU member states to work more closely together in the area of security and defence. This permanent framework for defence cooperation allows willing and able member states to develop jointly defence capabilities, invest in shared projects, and enhance the operational readiness and contribution of their armed forces. The 25 member states participating in PESCO are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. Updated overview of the collaborative PESCO projects (table) Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) - Factsheet https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2018/11/19/defence-cooperation-council-launches-17-new-pesco-projects/
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April 7, 2020 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
The Pentagon will solicit its first mesh network in space May 1
Nathan Strout and Valerie Insinna The Space Development Agency plans to award contracts for a mesh network in space this August, with the expectation that an initial batch of 20 satellites will be placed on orbit during summer 2022. The agency expects to release a request for proposals for the contracts May 1. The announcement came during an industry day the agency hosted over the phone April 2. The industry day was originally slated to take place during the 36th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs April 2, however, after that event was cancelled due to the circumstances with COVID-19 the agency opted to hold a virtual industry day instead. According to SDA Director Derek Tournear, 580 people called in for the event. That first batch will include 20 satellites and will comprise what Pentagon leaders are calling Tranche 0 of the SDA's Transport Layer, a mesh network of satellites operating primarily in low earth orbit and will be able to connect space-based sensors to the war fighter. According to Tournear, the agency has six goals for its Trache 0 Transport Layer: Demonstrate low latency data transport to the war fighter over the optical crosslink mesh network. Demonstrate the ability to deliver data from a space sensor to the war fighter via the Transport Layer. Demonstrate a limited battle management C2 functionality. Transfer Integrated Broadcast System data across the mesh network to the war fighter Store, relay and transmit Link-16 data over the network in near real time. Operate a timing signature independent of GPS references to the US Naval Observatory. Following Tranche 0, the SDA plans to continuously upgrade and add to its on orbit constellation in two year cycles, with Tranche 1 coming online in FY2024, Tranche 2 supplementing the system in FY2026. The SDA will procure two types of satellites for Tranche 0, with one main difference being that one set of satellites will have enough optical intersatellite links to communicate with other satellites operating in LEO and satellites in medium earth orbit or geosynchronous orbit, while the other will only have enough to communicate with other satellites in LEO. The agency is tasked with building the National Defense Space Architecture, which will be made up of hundreds of satellites operating in low earth orbit providing a multitude of missions, from tracking hypersonic weapons to providing alternative position, navigation and timing data. The Transport Layer will serve as the backbone of the NDSA, connecting the various satellites to each other and to the war fighter. And according to Tournear, the Transport Layer will provide the key space network component to the Department of Defense's Joint All-Domain Command and Control. “The transport layer, which is what the draft RFP and the industry day was talking about today, is going to be the unifying effort across the department. That is going to be what we use for low latency (communications) to be able to pull these networks together, and that, in essence, is going to be the main unifying truss for the JADC2 and that effort moving forward. That is going to be the space network that is utilized for that,” explained Tournear. The agency released the draft RFP March 26. The SDA is soliciting feedback on the draft RFP for Tranche 0 through April 17 and plans to release the full RFP May 1. Contracts will be awarded in August, Tournear said, though the agency wants to see the proposals before deciding how many companies it will award contracts to. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/04/06/the-pentagon-will-solicit-its-first-mesh-network-in-space-may-1/