July 19, 2023 | International, Naval
The new vessels feature greater cargo and fuel-carrying capacity than their predecessors, with an eye on supplying France's aircraft carrier.
August 10, 2024 | International, Aerospace
The Air Force is looking for more ways to strike enemy vessels at sea as the U.S. prepares for a potential conflict with China in the Pacific.
May 8, 2020 | International, Naval
David B. Larter WASHINGTON – A project inside the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has the potential to pull the Navy's unmanned surface vessel aspirations forward a decade, a senior DARPA official said Wednesday at the annual C4ISR Conference. DARPA's effort to develop a ship designed from the keel up to operate without humans, known as “NOMARS” for “no mariners,” is a separate effort from the Navy's quest to develop a family of large and medium unmanned surface vessels. But the benefits of that program, if successful, could be a giant leap forward for the concept the Navy is developing, said Mike Leahy, who heads the Tactical Technology Office at DARPA. The Navy “will only be able to go so far with where the technology has matured,” Leahy said. “What we're able to do is link to that group [developing USVs for the Navy], get information about what missions they are trying to accomplish, the sizing and other constraints, feed that into NOMARS project so that we can take the same class of ship – looking at the same ideas in terms of a hull form – and when we are successful we can dump that right into their tranche and pull that forward a decade from where it might have been on a traditional path.” The Navy and DARPA have been closely linked in efforts to develop unmanned platforms but DARPA's NOMARs will remain an independent effort, Leahy said. The Navy has “been involved in the source selection, they're involved in the testing we're doing, so that we can make sure that information is flowing,” Leahy said. “But we will reserve the right to take risks that may not be in the direction they want to go. Because sometimes learning what does not work is even more valuable than what does. “The physics is going to tell you what you need to know, and you can't cheat it.” Maintaining separate lines of effort is important because DARPA has the freedom to fail whereas failure in an acquisition program has higher stakes, he said. “NOMARS is going and looking at ‘Can I take people completely off ships,'” he explained. “That's a risky endeavor. We don't know if we're going to be able to do that. We don't know if that's going to pan out. You would not want to link an acquisition program directly to that.” Another Option The Navy is currently pursuing both a large and medium unmanned surface vessel that can perform missions for the surface Navy as a means of increasing aggregate naval power without wrapping a $2 billion hull around 96 missile tubes, as Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday has said publicly, referencing the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. Maintaining separate lines of effort is important because DARPA has the freedom to fail whereas failure in an acquisition program has higher stakes, he said. “NOMARS is going and looking at ‘Can I take people completely off ships,'” he explained. “That's a risky endeavor. We don't know if we're going to be able to do that. We don't know if that's going to pan out. You would not want to link an acquisition program directly to that.” Another Option The Navy is currently pursuing both a large and medium unmanned surface vessel that can perform missions for the surface Navy as a means of increasing aggregate naval power without wrapping a $2 billion hull around 96 missile tubes, as Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday has said publicly, referencing the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. https://www.c4isrnet.com/2020/05/06/heres-the-darpa-project-it-says-could-pull-the-navy-a-decade-forward-in-unmanned-technology/
July 16, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON —The House Appropriations Committee is aiming to resuscitate the MQ-9 Reaper program, which the Air Force wants to curtail in fiscal 2021. The committee's version of the FY21 spending bill, which its defense subcommittee will deliberate Wednesday in a closed hearing, would allocate $344 million for 16 MQ-9 Reaper drones. The language is a good sign for the aircraft's manufacturer, General Atomics, which stood to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in sales if the Air Force stopped buying the aircraft. The service in FY20 had planned to buy nine MQ-9s in FY21, 17 in FY22, two in FY23 and three in FY24, but zeroed out all plans to buy additional Reaper drones as part of its FY21 budget request. However, the Reaper isn't home free just yet. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to unveil its own version of the legislation, leaving it unclear whether the Senate will concur with the House committee's spending bill. The MQ-9 wasn't the only aircraft program to get a boost from House appropriators. The committee added 12 more F-35s to the budget, for a total of 91 jets and $9.3 billion. The lawmakers are also planning to authorize $965 million for 11 C-130J aircraft — an increase of two planes — and they boosted the number of V-22 Ospreys tilt-rotor aircraft from nine to 11. The bill also beefs up the investment for the UH-60 Black Hawk with an additional $141 million, funding a total of 42 helicopters. The legislation funds three P-8A Poseidon submarine-hunting planes for the Navy Reserve force. Those aircraft were not originally included in the budget. The Navy would get an additional E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, for a total of five planes costing $791 million. The committee also approved $1 billion for nine CH-53K helicopters, two more than the request. Additionally, the legislation would allow U.S. Special Operations Command to begin its Armed Overwatch Program, but the bill summary did not state how much funding would be allotted in FY21. The House committee fully funded most other major military aircraft programs, including money for 50 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, five CH-47 Chinook Block II cargo helicopters and long-lead funding for additional Chinooks for the Army. The Air Force would get 12 F-15EX fighters, 15 KC-46 tankers and 19 HH-60W combat rescue helicopters. Meanwhile, the Navy's request of 24 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets was also fully funded by the committee. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/07/08/house-defense-spending-bill-would-give-the-mq-9-reaper-drone-a-second-life