October 2, 2024 | International, Land
Replicator 2 drones to focus on counter UAS mission - Army Technology
A memo from Secretary of Defence Austin determined Replicator 2's new mission, countering small UAS and protecting military assets.
November 8, 2019 | International, Aerospace
DOD: Space Force, F-15EX ‘In Peril’ Under CR
By Lee Hudson
The Pentagon has issued a laundry list of items that are “most in peril” during a potential six-month continuing resolution (CR) that includes the UH-60M helicopter, aircraft carrier maintenance, establishing a Space Force and new-start programs like F-15EX.
Congress voted to pass a stopgap CR to keep the federal government funded through Nov. 21. Passing a CR buys Democrats and Republicans more time to reach consensus on fiscal 2020 appropriations bills, which are being held up for defense because of disagreement on funding a border wall. Operating under a CR only allows the Pentagon to operate at prior-year funding levels and the services cannot begin work on new-start programs.
“We would like to see Congress find ways in the CR to fund those,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters Nov. 7 during a briefing. “The bottom line is that a CR, top to bottom, is debilitating. Whether it's readiness, we lose buying power, we lose predictability with our contracting, we lose the ability to train.”
A six-month CR lasting through the first half of fiscal 2020 (ending March 31, 2020) would slash munitions procurement by 1,000 Joint Direct Attack Munition tailkits, 99 Sidewinder Air-to-Air Missiles and 665 Small Diameter Bomb IIs, which will constrain industrial production capabilities and delay inventory buildup. The Pentagon says delaying F-15EX production forces the Air Force to operate and sustain the aging F-15C fleet longer than planned, which would incur extensive maintenance actions.
Operating under a six-month CR puts at risk Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk production of 15 aircraft valued at $247 million. A year-long CR would upset the current strategy for the Precision Strike Missile and increases risk to contract the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft competition.
Operating under a longer CR in fiscal year 2020 will curtail 14 ship availabilities, cancel ship underway training, shut down non-deployed carrier airwing and expeditionary squadrons and restrict fleet flying for training and deployments, Navy spokesman Lt. Tim Pietrack told Aerospace DAILY.
The budget uncertainty will detrimentally affect the midlife refueling of the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), which requires funding for advance planning and long lead-time material purchases to begin the maintenance period in January 2021.
“Failure to fund the CVN 74 [refueling and complex overhaul] will cause a month-for-month slip, increase costs, and delay the return of CVN 74 to the fleet,” Pietrack said.
The CR also would impact the production rate of 22 F-5s, three MQ-9s, five F-35Cs and one KC-130J. Operating under budget uncertainty also blocks the Navy from increasing the production rate for the Tomahawk, Amraam, Rolling Airframe Missile, Joint Air to Ground Munition, Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Over-The-Horizon missile, Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, Mk. 48 torpedo and LCS module weapons.
“Based on required progress payments, the CVN 80/CVN 81 Carrier Replacement Program will not have sufficient funding to make a required payment on May 1, 2020,” Pietrack said. “This could result in required renegotiation of the contract and higher end costs for both CVN 80 and CVN 81.”
https://aviationweek.com/defense/dod-space-force-f-15ex-peril-under-cr
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January 24, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Greece builds first locally made combat drone
The Grypas will serve as a multipurpose system equipped for combat assignments.
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October 1, 2019 | International, Naval
Kongsberg unveils Vanguard warship design that could ‘rock the market’
By: Andrew Chuter OSLO, Norway — Are you a navy looking to spend less when buying and operating warships? Norwegian defense company Kongsberg reckons it may have the answer. Kongsberg has taken the wraps off a new multirole warship design that the company says extensively uses commercial systems and can be built in commercial yards for substantially less money and in less time than traditional warships. With warship procurement becoming eye-wateringly expensive, Kongsberg's defense and aerospace arm is pitching its Vanguard design as a way to save money via a 50 percent life-cycle cost reduction. Vanguard will have what is effectively a plug-and-play capability, enabling the multipurpose vessel to pack containers — that meet this International Organization for Standardization's guidelines — with equipment to swap missions as diverse as hydrographic survey to anti-submarine, area-denial and other roles in a matter of hours. Kongsberg doesn't traditionally build or design warships. The Norweigian company is better known in the defense sector for pioneering the use of remote weapons for land vehicles and development of the surface-to-surface Joint Strike Missile for use on the F-35 fighter jet. Design work on the platform was led by Norwegian maritime consultancy Salt Ship Design. It's the company's first major military program, having previously focused on complex commercial ship design work in the offshore energy sector, among other markets. Kongsberg and Salt have been collaborating on the project for more than two years. Salt executives said conceptual work was more or less finished, and they are now engaged in initial design work. Vanguard has been fitted out with Kongsberg equipment like a commercial bridge system overlaid with military specifications. But company officials said the flexibility to install other systems to meet customer requirements is a key element of the program. Baseline ship equipment is predominantly supplied by Kongsberg Defence Systems. Its sister operation, Kongsberg Maritime, is a major player in the commercial maritime sector and earlier this year acquired Britain's Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine. Frank Tveiten , Kongsberg's vice president of naval integrated defense systems, said Vanguard has sparked the interest of potential customers and shipyards. “We have tested it in the market with very positive reactions. The baseline warship fitted with Kongsberg systems and sensors is substantially cheaper than other warships. It's going to rock the market a little bit,“ he said. Tveiten said the economies stretched beyond procurement with manning levels as low as 16-20 people, and a speed requirement that results in very low fuel consumption. Build time for a Vanguard in a commercial yard could be as little as two years, according to the Salt executives. Kongsberg executives said Vanguard would suit emerging navies as well as interest some larger navies looking to increase offshore patrol, corvette and frigate numbers without breaking the bank. Senior Norwegian naval officers at a Kongsberg briefing in Oslo on Sept. 26 said they are interested in the concept but were guarded about whether Vanguard could be a contender to replace the Navy's Helge Ingstad frigate, which was written off after a collision with an oil tanker last year. Chief of the Navy Rear Adm. Nils-Andreas Stensones said there is a gradual move to the use of commercial systems onboard warships, and that Norway's experience with Coast Guard vessels and other ships using similar systems had been positive. “We have had a very good experience when it comes to the Coast Guard over the last 30 years. Also, our new supply ship is built to civilian standards with some military adaptions, and the experience so far is good,” Stensones said. “We see that in many areas we can use civilian technology to great benefit. We see [the use of] commercial equipment sliding gradually to the more high-end applications, but how far [one[ can go with that we don't know yet." “The cost of building military-specified platforms today is becoming prohibitively expensive. If you can reduce the cost of the platform, you can invest more in weapons and sensors. It's finding the best balance,” he added. “Whether we will end up with this concept [Vanguard], I don't know. The hardest part is the training. If you have a mission module onboard, you also need a trained crew — that may be the biggest challenge.” https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2019/09/30/kongsberg-unveils-vanguard-warship-design-that-could-rock-the-market