Essor de l’industrie spatiale chinoise et enjeux stratégiques mondiaux

On the same subject

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  September 28, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land

  Here’s how the Corps could shave about 6 pounds off your body armor

  By: Shawn Snow The Corps is in the beginning stages of researching a new, lighter alternative ballistic body armorplate for counterinsurgency style conflicts that is nearly six pounds lighter than the legacy plates. And on Thursday, it held an industry day with 16 companies vying to produce the Corps' latest body armor. The goal is to reduce battlefield fatigue and provide commanders with flexibility on the type of armor protection they decide to carry into combat, according to Keith Pierce, the armor team lead for Infantry Combat Equipment at Marine Corps Systems Command. While the current Enhanced Small Arms Protective, or ESAPI, have been highly effective in saving lives on the battlefield, they weigh nearly a combined 15 pounds, the Corps wants to shave that down to roughly 8.6 pounds for a medium-sized Marine, Pierce said. But don't expect the ESAPI to disappear just yet. The new plates are being crafted for low intensity threat environments like the counterinsurgency style wars that have embroiled American forces for nearly 20 years. While the new plates will “defeat a preponderance of threats” in low intensity conflicts, the ESAPIs will still be “critical in some threat environments,” Pierce explained to Marine Corps Times. But the changes to the new plates are still likely to be minimal. The Corps has decided to keep the same basic shape of the ESAPI, and there's unlikely to be any major changes in materials used to construct the armor plates “The materials for plates haven't had a big tech leap,” Pierce said. “A lot of people are trying to find that next leap.” The Army recently fielded a new plate, but its relatively of the same construction as the ESAPI, according to Pierce. “There may be incremental changes ... like the ceramic improving a little bit,” Pierce explained. But Pierce said he didn't expect any major changes over the next five years. “We are looking at some unique things,” he added. A lot of data and analysis is being pored over, to include assessments of the threat environment by the intelligence community for the construction of the new plates. So far, the Corps has tested a prototype of the lighter plates and found Marines had nearly eight percent faster mobility over the heavier ESAPIs. The new plates — when combined with the new Plate Carrier Gen III system — will reduce a Marine's load burden by a total of eight to 10 pounds, according to Pierce. The Corps expects to award a contract sometime in fiscal 2019 for the lightweight plates, and fielding might kick off in 2020, Pierce said. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/09/27/heres-how-the-corps-wants-to-shave-about-6-pounds-off-body-armor/

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  April 11, 2024 | International, Aerospace

  Space Force launches weather satellite to replace 1960s-era spacecraft

  The launch is a first step toward modernizing the Space Force’s more than 60-year-old weather constellation, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.

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  July 3, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Italy’s new defense minister commits to F-35, butts heads with France

  By: Tom Kington ROME ― Italy's new populist government may slow down but not reduce its order of F-35 fighter jets, while trimming its manpower in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta has told Defense News. In one of her first interviews since taking office at the start of June, Trenta said Italy remained a faithful ally of the U.S., but added she was skeptical about sanctions imposed on Russia by the West. A former defense academic at the Link University in Rome and a veteran of the Italian Army's civil reserve unit, Trenta was named defense minister by a coalition government formed in June, which groups the anti-migrant League party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement. Five Star officials promised last year to scrap Italy's purchase of 90 F-35 fighters, but Trenta said the new government would not cut orders, even if it might stretch out its purchase plan. “It's a program we inherited and we have lots of questions; that is why we will evaluate the program considering the industrial and technology benefits for national interest, as we are the new government,” she said. “What I would like to do is lighten the load since we have other spending commitments in Europe. We will try to stretch out deliveries instead of cutting the order, which would reduce offsets and mean penalties,” she said. Foreign military invovlement Trenta met U.S. national security adviser John Bolton on June 26 as he visited Rome, and she confirmed the new government's strong ties with the U.S. “The U.S. is our historic ally, we have never doubted that,” she said. Trenta said she told Bolton that Italy aims to reach NATO's defense spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product. “But we would also like our strong presence in military missions recognized as an added value,” she said. She said that presence would still be substantial despite the government's plan to trim its headcount in Afghanistan from 900 to 700, if and when replacements could be found to step in from other nations. “We don't want to undercut stability or reduce support for Afghans. We want to start a change of pace, as established by the previous government, keeping at the same time the mission operative,” she said. “We don't want to weaken the mission, so we will look for other partners to take over tasks like logistics.” The minister said she asked Bolton for help launching a planned Italian military mission to Niger in Africa to help combat people smugglers who send migrants across the Sahara to Libya, where they embark on boats heading for Europe. The mission was announced last year but has been blocked by the Niger government, she said. She said she also asked Bolton to help Italy take a “leadership” role in bringing peace to lawless Libya, noting she would visit the country next month in hopes of meeting Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the military commander hostile to the United Nations-backed Tripoli government that is supported by Italy. Italy has been irked by French diplomacy in Libya, including backing for Haftar and support for elections by year-end. The election plan, Trenta said, was “not the best thing to do — the U.S. has seen in Iraq what happens when you rush things.” Butting heads France and Italy have meanwhile bickered this month over differing plans to deal with migrants arriving in Europe, but Trenta said no amount of political arguing would derail a planned merger between the naval operations of Italian shipyard Fincantieri and France's Naval Group. “Both countries are planning on the deal going ahead — there has been no impact from the migration discussion,” she said. The new government in Rome has not yet signed up to a French plan for a multinational rapid intervention force, which would contain fellow European Union members, but also the U.K., which is planning to leave the EU. France said it wants the initiative to exist separately to the EU's Permanent Structured Cooperation initiative for security and defense. Trenta said Italy would probably sign. “As a new government, we wanted to study it and make sure it does not weaken the EU PESCO initiative,” she said. Italy's new government rattled its European allies earlier this month when Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he would like to end sanctions that were imposed on Moscow after Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Trenta shares his view. “We have to consider Italy's strategic interests — sanctions have damaged Italian exports, and it would be a good idea to evaluate alternative instruments,” she said. “We see the U.S. as an ally, but we don't see Russia as a threat — we see it as an economic partner,” she said. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/06/29/italys-new-defense-minister-commits-to-f-35-butts-heads-with-france/