May 25, 2021 | International, Naval
Britain launches $2.3B logistics ship competition — again
Britain has relaunched a competition to build three logistic ships to support the deployments of Royal Navy aircraft carriers and other surface ships.
July 13, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Calspan Awarded DARPA Air Combat Evolution (ACE) Contract
July 08, 2020 10:04 ET | Source: Calspan
photo-release
DARPA ACE
Buffalo, New York, July 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calspan Corporation has been awarded a $14.1M, four-year contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop full-scale air combat experimentation infrastructure for its Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program.
The overall focus of ACE is to develop and measure human trust in artificial intelligence (AI). The technologies developed within the ACE program will ultimately enable future pilots to confidently offload some high workload tactical tasks like visual air-to-air engagements so they can better focus on managing the larger battlespace.
Under this contract Calspan Flight Research will modify up to four Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros jet trainers with Calspan's proprietary autonomous fly-by-wire flight control system technology to allow implementation and demonstration of advanced Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) and AI algorithms. Flight tests and demonstrations will be conducted from the Calspan Flight Research Facility at the Niagara Falls, NY, International Airport and flown in the Misty Military Operating Area (MOA) over nearby Lake Ontario.
“Calspan is proud of our selection by DARPA to build an airborne air combat experimentation lab for the ACE program,” said Peter Sauer, Calspan President. Louis Knotts, Calspan Owner and CEO added “Since 1947, Calspan has been the world's premier innovator, developer, and operator of in-flight simulators and UAV surrogates. This program presents an outstanding opportunity for Calspan to partner with DARPA for the use of our programmable flight control technology and provide them with a safe and flexible means to flight test these advanced algorithms.”
The program will be conducted over three phases of development with Phase 1 beginning immediately.
About Calspan
For more than 75 years, Calspan has been providing research and testing services in the aviation and transportation industries. Internationally recognized for safety research and innovation, the company's headquarters is located in Buffalo, NY, housing a variety of research and testing facilities, including a transonic wind tunnel, ground vehicle crash testing, dynamic sled testing and research, and tire research and performance testing. Calspan conducts flight testing, flight training, and aircraft modifications in Niagara Falls, NY where they own a fleet of seven airborne testbeds. Calspan also has prototype test device manufacturing capabilities in Newport News, Virginia, as well as force measurement equipment manufacturing capabilities in San Diego, California.
For more information about Calspan, please visit http://www.Calspan.com.
On the same subject
-
-
October 27, 2020 | International, Naval, C4ISR
Rafael pitches naval capabilities to counter ‘asymmetric power projection’
Seth J. Frantzman JERUSLAEM — Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is presenting a number of technologies during the Euronaval conference meant to counter “asymmetric power projection” at sea. The Israeli company is making its pitch to navies during the European maritime trade show, which is being held virtually this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ran Tavor, vice president of Rafael's naval systems business and a former Israeli Navy officer, said the company's offerings are divided by offensive and defensive purposes. For the former, it is offering naval versions of the Spike ER and NLOS missiles with increased range. The missiles are typically used by ground forces and on helicopters. The NLOS version can reach up to 32 kilometers, and the ER variant can reach up to 10 kilometers. The company says they can operate in GPS-denied environments and penetrate areas defended by electronic warfare systems. The weapons are equipped with electro-optical target automatic recognition as well as artificial intelligence to make them more lethal and precise. The Spike naval system is mounted with a launcher that has multiple cannisters for different systems in the missile family. “You don't need to be too close to the enemy, and this capability allows [it] to launch ship to ship and ship to shore," Tavor said, "and basically it is [a] relatively small footprint due to size and weight, and you can leverage a fast patrol boat to [become] a missile boat, so we change the way the fast patrol boat is used.” The missile systems are operational, but Rafael, like most Israeli defense companies, does not disclose where they have been sold outside of Israel. Rafael is also pitching its Typhoon naval remote weapon station that could be used to counter drones. The company says the platform is aided by multispectral sensors. The system fires 30mm rounds, which can prove ineffective against small drone targets at a distance that might have cross-sections of about 1 foot. Rafael has increased the weapon's magazine to 400 rounds to give it more firepower. Rafael is also showing off its C-GEM rocket decoy and fourth-generation Torbuster decoy for torpedo threats as another example of defensive technology. Tavor said the key to defense at sea is not any one item, but tailored solutions for navies that are part of an integrated, multilayered system involving a variety of sensors, algorithms and artificial intelligence to reduce the necessity for “man-in-the-loop” technology. “You need to detect, classify and engage to deal with a single threat, and if there is multiple-layer threats you are limited with [in terms of] line of sight and you have a big challenge — so here we come into play with all capabilities of detecting and classification and automatic tracking and automatic engagement,” he added The company reports that it has done business with 34 navies, including those of the U.S. and Australia, but doesn't identify other customers. http://https://www.c4isrnet.com/industry/2020/10/23/rafael-pitches-naval-capabilities-to-counter-asymmetric-power-projection/
-
March 30, 2022 | International, Land
Missile Defense Agency seeks $9.6 billion in FY23 budget
The Missile Defense Agency is prioritizing efforts to go up again evolving threats like hypersonic weapons and cruise missiles including funding for a new missile defense architecture on Guam and development of a glide-phase hypersonic weapon interceptor in its FY23 budget request.