Defense innovation hindered by Cold War-era practices, experts say

On the same subject

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  March 25, 2020 | International, Land

  Raytheon, Uptake partner to bring predictive maintenance to the M88 fleet at the tactical edge

  Indianapolis, March 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) and Uptake, a leader in the development of industrial-use artificial intelligence software, have teamed to bring predictive maintenance capabilities to deployed U.S. Marine Corps teams using M88 armored recovery vehicles. With this partnership, Raytheon brings the technical ability for onboard recording, processing and transfer of large quantities of sensitive data over secure Wi-Fi, while Uptake brings a suite of advanced artificial intelligence software that offers actionable insights at the component level. "Commanders should have data-driven confidence that the vehicles chosen for a critical operation are not trending toward an issue right when it matters the most," said Matt Gilligan, vice president of Raytheon's Intelligence, Information and Services business. "These kinds of decisions don't just save dollars and ensure mission success-- they save lives." Current maintenance and logistics decisions are event based or timeline driven, but militaries are increasingly using advanced data analytics and condition-based monitoring to identify problems and provide alerts before they happen. For Marines using the M88, this proactive approach ensures predictive maintenance strategies are in place to improve long-term vehicle health and maximize availability. "To shift from reactive to predictive maintenance requires advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence technologies," said Brad Kewell, Uptake's Founder and CEO. "We want to radically improve mission readiness, success and safety for deployed Marines at the tactical edge." Raytheon's partnership with Uptake is an example of improving Department of Defense processes by leveraging commercial best practices in support of national security. To learn more about Raytheon's data-driven mission readiness solutions, visit us here. About Raytheon Raytheon Company, with 2019 sales of $29 billion and 70,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 98 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I® products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on Twitter. Media Contacts Heather Uberuaga +1.520.891.8421 iispr@raytheon.com SOURCE Raytheon Company View source version on Raytheon: http://raytheon.mediaroom.com/2020-03-23-Raytheon-Uptake-partner-to-bring-predictive-maintenance-to-the-M88-fleet-at-the-tactical-edge

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  May 1, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  How The Pentagon Is Reaching Small Suppliers

  Jen DiMascio The Pentagon is employing new ways to track and funnel dollars to small- and medium-sized aviation suppliers hit hard by a drop-off in their commercial business since the novel coronavirus took hold. One way has been to accelerate up-front progress payments to prime contractors. Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, announced April 30 that in this week alone, the Defense Department processed more than $1.2 billion out of $3 billion to defense contractors in accelerated payments. The acceleration was enabled by a March 20 memo which lifted the amount that large contractors could receive before delivering a contracted item from 80%-90% and for small contractors from 90%-95%. Lord singled out Lockheed Martin for praise for committing to speed $450 million to its supply chain. As those payments are being released, the U.S. Air Force is studying the needs of small suppliers and charting the flow of those progress payments through the industrial base, service officials said during an April 29 Aviation Week MRO webinar. After the first COVID-19 stimulus package was released, Col. Kevin Nalette, vice director, 448th Supply Chain Management Wing, Air Force Sustainment Center, said his office was asked to find out how much money small companies would need to maintain a constant flow of work to continue to support the defense sector. They had two days to ask contractors–the third- and fourth-tier “mom-and-pop shops” whose work becomes an end item purchased somewhere up the stream. The majority of defense vendors do more work–55% or more–for commercial aviation businesses. “As soon as the commercial sector shut down, we had an amazing ability. We now had their full attention,” Nalette said. “When you come to their attention with basically free cash, it's amazing what you can get done.” Tony Baumann, director of contracting for the Air Force Support Center, is capturing data about where the money and progress payments are going. And he is tracking some 2,700 contracts to find out the COVID-related constraints they are operating under. “My guys talked to all of them,” Baumann said, and they stay in contact so that the Air Force knows when a supplier needs to shut down to clean a business. Then Nalette's group is looking at whether that closure might impact deliveries of critical supplies or inventory. That has caused the Air Force to rewrite service contracts using new authorities granted by the CARES Act COVID-relief bill passed by Congress to keep multiple teams of service personnel on contract so that one group can work and another can be ready to backfill so that no group would experience a 14-day interruption, Baumann said. All of those changes are being tracked and coded based on COVID-19, he added. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/budget-policy-operations/how-pentagon-reaching-small-suppliers

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  October 29, 2023 | International, Aerospace

  CAES Awarded Production Contract from US Navy for New AN/ALQ-99 Low Band Transmitter

  The LBC brings critical upgrades to the AN/ALQ-99 Low Band Transmitter (LBT) to combat evolving and emerging threats