Czech Republic orders new batch of air-to-air missiles from Rafael

On the same subject

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  January 25, 2021 | International, Aerospace

  General Atomics Advances SeaGuardian Systems

  by David Donald - January 20, 2021, 6:53 AM General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) has revealed that it has completed the development and testing of a self-contained anti-submarine warfare (ASW) package, the first such equipment for an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The package comprises podded sonobuoy dispenser systems (SDS) and a sonobuoy management and control system (SMCS). GA-ASI has been studying unmanned ASW capability for some years, demonstrating sonobuoy remote processing capability from an MQ-9A Reaper in 2017. Subsequently an SMCS has been added, and the SDS has been developed. It employs a pneumatic launch system, and each pod can carry up to 10 A-size sonobuoys or 20 G-size buoys. On November 24 last year GA-ASI carried out a trial at the U.S. Navy's Pacific range in which a company-owned MQ-9A Block 5 released seven SSQ-53G Directional Frequency Analysis and Recording (DIFAR) and two SSQ-62F Directional Command Activated Sonobuoy System (DICASS) sonobuoys, and a single SSQ-36B bathythermograph buoy. Using a General Dynamics Mission Systems-Canada UYS-505 processing system the trial successfully tracked an MK-39 expendable mobile ASW training target (EMATT) for three hours, data being relayed by a satcom link to the Laguna flight operations facility at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. The ASW capability is being developed for the SeaGuardian configuration of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian, which can carry up to four SDS pods under its wings. The SeaGuardian is intended to perform as a stand-alone maritime patrol asset or to act with traditional maritime patrol aircraft as part of a manned-unmanned team. A key part of the SeaGuardian mission set is a surveillance radar, and GA-ASI is working with Leonardo to integrate the Seaspray 7500E V2 AESA radar into the UAS's centerline pod. The radar offers a variety of modes, including inverse synthetic aperture radar that works with the automatic identification system (AIS, a form of maritime IFF) to provide accurate identification of detected surface targets. It can spot submarine periscopes and humans in the water during search and rescue operations. A high-definition optical/infrared full-motion video capability is also included. Another option from Leonardo is the SAGE electronic surveillance system. GA-ASI reports that two undisclosed export customers have ordered the SeaGuardian capability, which was included in the recently approved request for up to 18 MQ-9Bs from the United Arab Emirates. In its standard SeaGuardian configuration the MQ-9B has an endurance of more than 18 hours and can mount an eight-hour patrol at a radius of 1,200 nm. Another store that has recently been trialed by GA-ASI is the Legion Pod, in this case, the carrier being the company's jet-powered Avenger remotely piloted aircraft. The Legion Pod, which is carried by F-15 Eagles, features a Lockheed Martin IRST21 infrared search and track sensor in its nose and datalinks to network the sensor and carrier with other platforms. n early January GA-ASI was selected to support the U.S. Air Force's Skyborg Vanguard program that is developing artificial intelligence/machine-learning autonomous capabilities for future combat aircraft. Two company-owned Avengers are being modified with updated links and the Skyborg System Design Agent software to support this activity, which will test the ability of manned aircraft to control the Avengers in flight and to pass critical mission information between them. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2021-01-20/general-atomics-advances-seaguardian-systems

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  March 13, 2024 | International, Aerospace

  Pentagon clears F-35 for full-rate production

  The decision came almost six months after the F-35 finished a series of Joint Simulation Environment tests.

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  November 30, 2018 | International,

  Reinventing Drug Discovery and Development for Military Needs

  Flying at 50,000 feet, diving deep in the ocean, or hiking for miles with gear through extreme climates, military service members face conditions that place unique burdens on their individual physiology. The potential exists to develop pharmacological interventions to help service members complete their toughest missions more safely and efficiently, and then recover more quickly and without adverse effects, but those interventions must work on complex physiological systems in the human body. They will not be realized under the prevailing system of drug discovery and development with its focus on engaging single molecular targets. DARPA created the Panacea program to pursue the means of rapidly discovering, designing, and validating new, multi-target drugs that work with the body's complexity to better support the physiological resilience and recovery of military service members. The premise of Panacea is that the physiological systems of the human body work in complex and highly integrated ways. Drugs exert effects on our bodies by physically interacting with and changing the functional state of biomolecules that govern the functions of cells and tissues. Most drugs target proteins, which are the principle cellular workhorses. Ideally, drugs would target multiple proteins simultaneously to exert precise, network-level effects. One major problem facing the drug development community is that the functional proteome — the complete collection of proteins and their roles in signaling networks — is largely dark to science. Despite being able to identify many of the proteins within a cell, researchers do not have a firm grasp on everything those proteins do and how they interact to affect physiology. Due to this sparsity of structural and functional knowledge, the state of the art in drug development — what Panacea seeks to transform — is to engage only a very small fraction of known protein targets to achieve an effect. In fact, today's approach to drug design singles out individual proteins in certain cells. That hyper-specificity is an attempt to minimize the risk of side effects and speed time to market, but it also yields a thin stream of drugs, many of which have similar mechanisms and relatively muted effectiveness compared to what might be achieved using a multi-target, systems-based approach. “The current roster of drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration only targets about 549 proteins, yet the body can produce more than six million different protein variants,” said Tristan McClure-Begley, the Panacea program manager. “The opportunity space for pharmacological intervention is vast and effectively untapped, but to access it we need new technology for understanding and targeting the human functional proteome.” Panacea will address the lack of functional knowledge about the proteome. DARPA's call to the research community is to consider complex physiological conditions relevant to military service members — for instance, metabolic stress during extreme endurance missions or pain and inflammation after injury; investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying those conditions; identify multiple, key molecular targets involved; and develop novel medicinal chemistry approaches to synthesize interventions that modulate those targets. DARPA believes that multi-target drugs will deliver safer and more efficacious solutions to military requirements for readiness and recovery over state-of-the-art interventions. “Many of the most successful drugs produced in the past were found rather than made, and we knew what they did long before we knew how they did it,” McClure-Begley said. “To deliver improved interventions, we need to get to a place where we can investigate all of the potential proteins at play for a given condition and then prioritize sets of protein targets and signaling networks to effectively modulate physiological systems, regardless of what prior knowledge exists about those targets.” The Panacea program aims to generate initial proof of concept for this new direction in drug discovery and development. Research will primarily involve animal models, human cell derived organoids, and high-throughput cell culture models. However, to support eventual transition to humans, DARPA will work with federal agencies to develop a regulatory pathway for future medical use. By the end of the five-year program, DARPA will require teams to submit novel drug candidates to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review as an Investigational New Drug or for Compassionate Use. DARPA will hold a Proposers Day on December 14, 2018, in Arlington, Virginia, to provide more information about Panacea and answer questions from potential proposers. For details of the event, including registration requirements, visit https://go.usa.gov/xP6hD. A forthcoming Broad Agency Announcement will fully describe the program structure and objectives. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2018-11-28