June 30, 2021 | International, Naval
Navy's powerful aerial jamming pod moves to next phase
The jammer is the Navy's premier aerial electronic attack platform that will replace the ALQ-99 jamming pod and be mounted aboard EA-18 Growler aircraft.
August 3, 2020 | International, Aerospace
An email was recently circulated from the U.S. Embassy in Montreal regarding a new competition jointly organized by U.S. and the UK called the International Space Pitch Day that is open to “space entrepreneurs” around the world.
The registration questionnaire deadline for the International Space Pitch Day is Wednesday, August 19, 2020 7:00 a.m. EDT (12:00 p.m. BST). Proposals must then be submitted by 7:00 a.m. EDT (12:00 p.m. BST) on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2020.
The email provides the following information:
The International Space Pitch Day is a joint U.S. – UK initiative that aims to find, fund and fast-track innovation and technology that gives advantage to military operations in space. The competition is open to innovators from all over the world and delivered through the UK Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA). The endeavour is jointly funded by the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Royal Air Force and the U.S. Air Force. A grand coalition of Dstl, DASA, Royal Air Force, UK Strategic Command, the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Force, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has been assembled to find, fund, and fast-track the best ideas from start-up innovators to the front line.
The competition is seeking solutions to six challenges set by the U.S. and UK Space teams:
Visualisation of key events and information for combined space operations with allies and commercial partners.
Understanding current satellite systems relevant to the operations of a particular commander.
Understanding the present and potential impact of space weather on users across all domains.
Provision of training against realistic threats and opportunities, incorporating live data, and integrating space across multiple domains.
Enabling common and user-defined operational pictures to support multi-national space domain awareness and command and control.
A verification and comparison tool for Space domain awareness, which can take orbital observation data from a variety of sources and in a variety of formats and produce a single, reliable operational picture.
£800k (approximately US$1M) is available to fund up to 15 proposals, with a maximum value of £53k (approximately US$67k) each. The duration of each of the funded projects is to be no longer than 3 months.
June 30, 2021 | International, Naval
The jammer is the Navy's premier aerial electronic attack platform that will replace the ALQ-99 jamming pod and be mounted aboard EA-18 Growler aircraft.
May 5, 2024 | International, Land
The Canadian Army learned two valuable lessons Friday: appreciation of art is in the eye of the beholder and it pays to be precise, even on social media.
January 21, 2021 | International, Aerospace
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON —The United Arab Emirates on Jan. 20 signed off on a deal to purchase up to 50 F-35 joint strike fighter aircraft and 18 MQ-9 Reaper drones from the United States. According to Reuters, which broke the news, the agreement was one of the final acts of the Trump administration, occurring just an hour before President Joe Biden was inaugurated. A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed separately to Defense News that the U.S. and UAE officials on Wednesday signed a letter of agreement, which solidifies the terms of a foreign military sale between two nations. The departments of State and Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The agreement delineates the cost of the aircraft, technical specifications and the schedule for F-35 deliveries to the UAE, people familiar with the deal told Reuters. Those sources could not confirm when the first F-35 is due to be delivered to Abu Dhabi, but stated that an initial proposal stipulated 2027 as one possible date. The UAE deal was previously estimated at a $23.37 billion value, including 50 F-35A fighters worth $10.4 billion, 18 MQ-9B drones worth $2.97 billion, and $10 billion worth of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions. Those dollar totals are expected to shift around during further negotiations with F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin and MQ-9 maker General Atomics. It's unclear whether the incoming administration will seek to undo the deal. Biden's pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told reporters in late October that the sale is “something we would look at very, very carefully,” due to U.S. obligations to preserve Israel's qualitative military edge. In December, the Senate rejected an attempt to block the sale, with Republicans largely voting to preserve the deal. The first vote concerned the drones and munitions and failed 46-50, while the second concerned the F-35s and fell 47-49. Aaron Mehta and Joe Gould in Washington contributed to this report. https://www.defensenews.com/global/mideast-africa/2021/01/20/just-hours-before-bidens-inauguration-the-uae-and-us-come-to-a-deal-on-f-35-sales