Congress passes fourth stopgap funding bill as 1% sequester looms

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  November 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  NATO Partners Collaborate to Develop Next Generation of Medium Multi-Role Helicopters

  France, Germany, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom announced the launch of a multinational project on Next-Generation Rotorcraft Capabilities on 19 November 2020. The project is dedicated to the modernization of existing rotorcraft fleets and is one of NATO's High Visibility Projects (HVP). The project highlights NATO Allies' commitment to maintain a technological edge and to pursue multinational cooperation whenever possible. It aligns with Europe's desire to reduce dependency on U.S. defence equipment. A significant number of medium multi role helicopter capabilities currently operated by Allies will reach the end of their life cycle in the 2035 – 2040 period and beyond, with the subsequent need for replacements. The Next Generation Rotorcraft project aims to develop a solution for these upcoming requirements, leveraging a broad range of recent advances in technology, production methods, as well as operational concepts. Over the coming years, experts from all five nations will cover an exhaustive programme of work, starting with defining a robust Statement of Requirements and a multi-phase cooperation plan. The Defence Ministers of the five Allies signed a Letter of Intent to develop an entirely new helicopter capability. The signature was added virtually from the capitals of participating nations. “By investing our resources and channeling our development initiatives through a multinational framework, we are making sure Allies are equipped with the best available capabilities, which helps to maintain NATO's technological edge," stressed NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană. https://www.defenseworld.net/news/28368#.X71e6s1KiUk

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  August 28, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  Army announces winners of electronic warfare challenge

  By: Kelsey Atherton A platypus, several Australians and a thundering panda walk into an electromagnetic spectrum, then leave with $150,000. The result is, potentially, a technique and a tool that will allow soldiers to discover what signals in a war zone are relevant to their mission and what are merely noise. The Army Rapid Capabilities Office announced Aug. 27 the winners of the Army Signal Classification Challenge, a competition for artificial intelligence and machine learning with the goal of creating a thinking machine that can accurately classify signals on the fly. Platypus Aerospace, a team from the federally funded Aerospace Corporation, won the event, taking home $100,000. A group of data scientists from Australia competing as TeamAU won $30,000, and a team from Motorola Solutions named THUNDERING PANDA placed third, winning $20,000. These winners beat out a pool of over 150 teams from universities, industry, laboratories and government. The challenge ran from April 30 through Aug. 13. Participants had a 90-day period to develop a model and train on data sets provided by the Rapid Capabilities Office. After that, the models were tested against two data sets ranging in complexity. For the challenge, the Army office said that “the classic signal detection process is no longer efficient in understanding the vast amount of information presented to electronic warfare officers on the battlefield” thanks to the multiplicity of satellite signals, radar signals, phones and other devices transmitting across the electromagnetic spectrum. The understated goal is that the winners' creation is needed not just for a hypothetical future battlefield, or even any of the long-running active theaters where soldiers see combat today. Instead, as noted in the release, “this was the office's first competitive challenge, which grew from the fielding of electronic warfare prototypes to address operational needs in Europe earlier this year.” That “operational need in Europe” may refer to the electronic warfare taking place in Ukraine, which has become something of an open laboratory for both Russia and the United States. Or it might be a broader acknowledgement of the potential threat picture in the region generally. In June, the Army conducted an electronic attack within Latvia as part of a NATO training exercise. The Rapid Capability Office already outfitted the Army with several new electronic warfare tools for countering Russian electronic warfare in Europe, and in July announced that it was bringing those capabilities home to field with a unit stateside. Research into a versatile, flexible artificial intelligence that can find electronic warfare specialists the interesting signals amidst the irrelevant noise is likely to continue. The Rapid Capabilities Office will announce a Phase 2 for the program later this year. https://www.c4isrnet.com/electronic-warfare/2018/08/27/army-announces-winners-of-ai-for-electronic-warfare-challenge

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  August 28, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  US Space Force schedules pitch day for spring 2021

  Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center will host a Space Force Pitch Day in spring 2021. While the current plan is to host the event in person in Los Angeles, California, SMC noted that it may move to a virtual environment due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Air Force first introduced its pitch days in March 2019, and has since held several to find “defense unicorns” — nontraditional companies with innovative solutions that lack the resources and know-how to secure Department of Defense contracts. Inspired by the popular television series “Shark Tank,” select companies are given the unique opportunity to present their solutions to acquisition leaders, who are then able to award Small Business Innovation Research grants. “Space Force is committed to procuring things differently. We continue to recognize the need for faster and smarter methods to quickly identify, procure and develop military space solutions. Space Pitch Day is one way SMC is bridging the gap between small businesses and the military,” said Maj. Ryan Pennington, project lead of SMC's deputy space ventures. A major draw of the events is the responsiveness, giving smaller companies the chance to forgo the traditional, lengthy DoD contracting process. The Air Force boasts that on its first pitch day, the service awarded a contract within three minutes of seeing the presentation. During the first Space Force Pitch Day in November 2019, the Air Force issued $9 million to 12 companies. “The inaugural Air Force Space Pitch Day last year was very successful. Although SMC is hosting its second pitch day event, it really is the first under the USSF. We are excited to host another event that enables us to grow and leverage small-business innovation into thriving ecosystems,” said Roberta Ewart, SMC's chief scientist. “The next SMC Space Force Pitch Day event will have the same focus and that is to open doors for innovative technologies and ideas and then create transition on-ramps into the USSF enterprise and architecture. We are fielding tomorrow's Space Force faster and smarter and we do this by changing the way we buy things.” SMC has laid out 11 focus areas for the upcoming Space Force Pitch Day: Innovation in early missile detection and warning Space situational awareness Space communications Space visualization Multidomain command and control Data mining Operations within electronically contested environments Artificial intelligence Responsive launch systems Space logistics Protection of critical space assets Interested companies can register and submit their proposals at www.spaceforcepitchday.com. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/08/27/space-force-sets-pitch-day-for-spring-2021/