Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 29, 2020

On the same subject

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  June 25, 2020 | International, Naval

  Dutch leading role for German Frigate project MKS-180

  June 19, 2020 - On June 19th Damen Shipyards Group and the German Bundesamt fur Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr signed the contract for the construction of four MKS-180 frigates for the German Navy. Damen is the main contractor for this complex project which it is undertaking, together with partners Blohm+Voss and Thales, in Germany. The combination of companies was previously declared the winner of a European tender; the largest in the history of the German Navy. On 17 June, the necessary financial resources were released by the German Bundestag budget committee. The contract marks the start of the design and construction phase. Approximately 80% of the project investment remains in Germany as added value. The vessels will be built at Blohm+Voss in Hamburg, but partly also at other shipyard locations in Germany, including Bremen, Kiel and Wolgast. Besides this, approximately 100 small and medium-sized companies from the maritime industry, mechanical engineering and plant construction sectors will be involved in the implementation. These companies originate from almost all German states. Hein van Ameijden, Managing Director Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding: “I am convinced that with the MKS-180 project, we are building a high-quality frigate that meets all the wishes of the German Navy. It is a German-Dutch project. We are already working well with our partners in Germany; Luerssen, Blohm+Voss, and Thales. The project also offers prospects for further European cooperation. The many years of cooperation between Damen and Thales as part of the Dutch golden ecosystem is an important factor in this success. If the Netherlands continues to invest in innovative projects for its own navy, we can further expand our role within European naval construction. That's good for the Netherlands' strategic role, which fits in with the Defence Industry Strategy.” The German added value and knowledge development also apply to Thales's mission systems acquired within the project. Approximately 70% is supplied by Thales's German branches in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven. This is done in close cooperation with numerous subcontractors. Gerben Edelijn, CEO of Thales Netherlands: “This historic contract for both the German Navy and Thales is a significant milestone in more than 50 years of cooperation, and confirms our worldwide leading position in the field of high-end naval mission systems. The women and men on board of these innovative frigates can rely on the latest technologies in the field of cyber defense, radar and fire control. The AWWS system, developed for the Netherlands and Belgian Navies, will soon also enable the German Navy to withstand threats of today and the coming decades.” Damen, Lürssen, Bohm+Vos and Thales are delighted with the confidence that the German government places in it. The implementation of the project will begin soon and involves the delivery of four frigates between 2027 and 2031 for an amount of approximately 4.6 billion euros. There is also an option to supply two more frigates after 2032. View source version on Damen Shipyards Group: https://nlnavy.damen.com/dutch-leading-role-for-german-frigate-project-mks-180/

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  June 18, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Robotic fighter jets could soon join military pilots on combat missions. Here's why.

  By Jeremy Hsu Military pilots may soon have a new kind of wingman to depend upon: not flesh-and-blood pilots but fast-flying, sensor-studded aerial drones that fly into combat to scout enemy targets and draw enemy fire that otherwise would be directed at human-piloted aircraft. War planners see these robotic wingmen as a way to amplify air power while sparing pilots' lives and preventing the loss of sophisticated fighter jets, which can cost more than $100 million apiece. "These drone aircraft are a way to get at that in a more cost-effective manner, which I think is really a game-changer for the Air Force," says Paul Scharre, director of the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington, D.C. Unlike slow-moving drones such as the Reaper and the Global Hawk, which are flown remotely by pilots on the ground, the new combat drones would be able to operate with minimal input from human pilots. To do that, they'd be equipped with artificial intelligence systems that give them the ability not only to fly but also to learn from and respond to the needs of the pilots they fly alongside. "The term we use in the Air Force is quarterbacking," says Will Roper, assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and one of the experts working to develop the AI wingmen. "So the pilot is calling a play and knows how the systems will respond, but doesn't have to run the play for them." Training a robotic wingman Earlier this year, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory took an important step in the development of the AI wingmen by announcing its Skyborg program focused on developing the AI necessary to control the drones. As part of the program, Air Force pilots are already flying simulated missions alongside the drones. Roper says drones like the XQ-58A Valkyrie, a 652-mph drone built by Sacramento-based Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems with a projected manufacturing cost of $2 million apiece, could be AI-enabled and ready to fly within the next three years. "I wouldn't be surprised if the AI becomes tailored to individual pilots," Roper says. "They're actually training their own AI that augments their strengths and weaknesses." The U.S. military isn't alone in working to develop fighter drones. The Future Combat Air System is a $74-million, two-year deal between Germany and France aimed at building a next-generation fighter that would act as a flying command center for swarms of the fighter drones. And the Royal Australian Air Force has teamed up with Boeing to develop an AI-controlled drone with "fighter-like performance" that could accompany human-piloted aircraft or fly solo, Shane Arnott, director of Boeing Australia, says. The latter program plans for the first test flight to take place in 2020, with the goal of eventually selling the system worldwide. Partners or replacements? Given the rise of drones and AI, some experts question whether it makes sense to continue sending human pilots into harm's way. Why not have people on the ground or in an airborne command center give orders to swarms of combat drones — and let them carry out the mission on their own? "If you just make the human go fly in combat and their wingman is a drone, it doesn't change their risk profile at all — it only adds to their workload," says Missy Cummings, director of the humans and autonomy laboratory at Duke University and a former fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy. Scharre says the military still needs humans "forward in the fight" to guide combat drones. But he too sees a coming shift in the role of combat pilots — from flying a fighter jet and controlling its weapons systems to acting as a "battle manager" who decides what actions need to be taken by piloted and drone aircraft. That will likely include deciding when drones should use deadly force and selecting specific targets — decisions that the U.S. military is hesitant to hand over entirely to AI in part because research suggests AI is less skilled than humans at adapting to changing or uncertain situations. "A country that does not have pilots trained as good as we do might see appeal in shifting more and more of their mission to autonomous systems," Roper says. "Well, if they do that, I think we will have the advantage, because those autonomous systems acting alone will never be able to do what people teamed with machines are able to do." https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/robotic-fighter-jets-could-soon-join-military-pilots-combat-missions-ncna1014501

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  February 18, 2019 | International, C4ISR

  There’s a Big Obstacle to the Pentagon’s New Strategy to Speed AI to Troops

  BY PATRICK TUCKER Defense officials want to accelerate the delivery of artificial-intelligence tools from the lab to the field. But it's hard to obtain the massive data streams that make AI work. The Pentagon's new artificial-intelligence strategy, released on Tuesday, aims to get AI out of research labs and into the hands of troops and employees across the Defense Department. But truly transforming the Defense Department into an “AI First” institution will require help from tech companies — and the military to rethink its approach to the massive data streams that AI needs to work. In a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, Dana Deasy, chief information officer of the Defense Department, and Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, who runs its new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said the JAIC will develop AI tools and programs to assist with everything the Pentagon does. That will eventually include combat operations, although both said the military won't deviate from its core doctrine that dictates how humans are to have authority over autonomous systems. They said near-term projects include efforts to predict forest fires, better spot network anomalies that can indicate cyber attacks, and, most prominently, predictive maintenance. It's an area where some smaller tech firms are already working with the Pentagon. SUBSCRIBE Receive daily email updates: Subscribe to the Defense One daily. Be the first to receive updates. One such firm is Uptake, run by GE alum Ganesh Bell, which has a contract with the Defense Innovation Unit to better predict and accelerate repairs for Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The company is building a virtual Bradley, using data streams from sensors on real Bradleys in the field — what Bell has called a learning, digital twin. “We are able to collect what the best-performing Bradley would look like because we are able to go into many of the subsystems and pull the data,” he said. “Just from a single vehicle, we were able to pull terabytes of data.” Bell aims to also incorporate data from external sensors, and use it to digitally recreate the vehicles' operating environments. It's a process that could be relevant to larger military endeavors, such as the Army's effort to design a new combat vehicle, Bell said. “If we prove the value here, imagine what we can do in that environment as we build that system out? We do the same thing in wind turbines. There's so much to learn from all the unused data in these industries; less than one percent of the data is ever actually used.” Bell says that he's had promising conversations with Army officials about helping out. “It's better to get in all the data right now while you're designing the next generation of vehicles,” he said. Or take California-based C3, whose nine Pentagon contracts include predictive-maintenance work on the Boeing E-3 Sentry for the Air Force's AFWERX office. Here, too, massive amounts of diagnostic data plays the essential role. But finding that data wasn't easy. “You go through the wild goose chase with DOD to get the data that you need,” Lt. Col. Dave Harden, AFWERX chief operating officer, said in December. “I had another project where I literally had people with 10-terabyte hard drives going around the country to get the data. I talk to people who are in charge of the data. The data in the database isn't what we needed. I wonder, ‘Who put these people in charge of the data?'” The main thing that the Defense Department brings to the process isn't the algorithms or machine-learning methodologies. Those are increasingly coming from the private sector and companies like Uptake and C3. It's the unique data sets. Thus, if getting that data is a problem, then the Department has a major obstacle in terms of realizing its ambitions. In their briefing on Tuesday, Deasy and Shanahan said they are willing to work with companies on intellectual property issues, which have deterred some companies from taking government contracts. But Shanahan made one condition clear: “The government owns the government's data.” That begs a few questions: How will contractors get the data that they need if the Department is so bad at collecting and keeping it internally? Who owns a datastream that combines private and government data? AFWERX's Harden said getting the Defense Department to change how it collects and makes data available on systems like the E-3 aircraft is less than totally straightforward. Another challenge is getting the department to actually accept AI-generated recommendations. “All of the processes and procedures need to change,” he said. “When I get a prediction now that says, ‘Hey, this aircraft battery, the data shows you were parked in Alaska and it's cold in Alaska and you were there for years. You don't have to swap out this battery on a regular cycle like you're doing,' how are the policy and guidance and procedures changing to allow that to occur? That is our billion-dollar question for DoD. We haven't solved that. How do we get the technology win that we get and turn that into true ROI?” https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/02/department-has-rolled-out-its-ai-strategy-now-hard-part-begins/154864/