GA-ASI and SENER Aeroespacial Team to Develop New NATO Pod for MQ-9

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  June 14, 2023 | International, Other Defence

  Germany unveils its first national security strategy

  Find out what the government thinks of Russia and China.

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  June 22, 2023 | International, Other Defence

  IDEaS Innovator Update

  Dear Canadian Innovators,   On Monday, 19 June, NATO DIANA launched its first three pilot challenges. Applications are now open to world-class innovators who have exceptional ideas to help solve dual-use critical defence and security problems.   DIANA’s Pilot Challenge call focuses on the following three areas:   Energy Resilience:      In an uncertain and changing world, there is an urgent need for more reliable, resilient, and efficient energy solutions – particularly in the aftermath of natural disasters or in conflict zones. Climate change and its consequences will only make that need greater.   For this challenge, DIANA is therefore seeking technology solutions that enable the modular design of microgrids that can meet supply demands reliably. Of interest are technologies and systems that are capable of scaling and that are interoperable with other similar systems; renewable power generation; power storage; hardware and software for adaptive and intelligent power conditioning and management; and technologies for the detection and protection of the physical system and components from malicious cyber-attack.   Download the Problem Statement here    Secure Information Sharing:     By secure information sharing, we typically mean the ability to exchange documents and other static content with others safely, without the risk of interference by malicious actors. However, while protecting document-based information transfer in an office environment is important, it is a simpler task than securing multiple forms of information flow when working in the field or on the move, as is often the case with first-responders, peacekeeping forces and the military.   For this challenge, DIANA is looking for ways of creating a secure and trusted information environment – with the emphasis on live data streams such as those used to provide near real-time video, augmented reality feeds, digital radio and more. Of particular interest are hardware and software solutions that operate over open networks and that can function in ‘austere’ or ‘disadvantaged’ environments.   Download the Problem Statement here    Sensing and Surveillance:     Coastal waters are vital to the economic and security interests of the countries whose borders they touch, and critical to all who rely on them for commerce, transportation, recreation, and food, for example. Yet, even today, our understanding of the undersea environment is limited – not least because many standard methods of observation don’t work well underwater and because the marine environment is difficult to access and to work in for extended periods.   For this challenge, DIANA is seeking components and systems for sensing and information gathering in subsurface coastal zones. Applications of interest might include, but are not limited to, novel techniques and/or advanced capabilities for seafloor mapping, undersea infrastructure monitoring, manmade object and marine-life tracking, climate-change-effects sensing, and patterns-of-life visualisations.   Download the Problem Statement here The call for proposals will be open until 25 August 2023.  In Phase one of the DIANA accelerator program, approximately 30 innovators will receive grant funding of $150,000 CAD/ € 100,000 EUR starting in late 2023. At the end of Phase One, a smaller number of companies will be offered an additional grant of up to $450,000 CAD/ € 300,000 EUR and be invited to participate in Phase Two of the accelerator programme called ‘Scale’. During this second six months, companies will focus on demonstrating their technological solution, developing transition strategies, and working with investors and end users to identify pathways to adoption. Once DIANA achieves full operating capability in 2025, DIANA will run up to ten challenge programmes per year and have the capacity to interact with hundreds of innovators each year.   The application portal can be accessed via DIANA’s official website.   Through the web link and the DIANA LinkedIn page, you can also find additional information related to the initiative and stay notified on all of DIANA’s publications and updates.   The Department of National Defence is looking forward to seeing our Canadian Innovator Community actively participating in the NATO DIANA program and wishes you luck in this process.    Note – any questions related to DIANA challenges or eligibility should be directed to NATO DIANA via DIANA’s official website, linked here. 

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  August 14, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Four rocket companies are competing for Air Force funding, and it is war

  By ERIC BERGER Monday marked the deadline for four US rocket companies to submit bids for Air Force contracts, encompassing all national security launches from 2022 to 2026. This is a hugely consequential and much-contested bid process that has implications for the American aerospace industry for the next decade and beyond. The Air Force is seeking two providers for about two dozen launches. The prime contractor will receive 60% of the launches while the secondary contractor claims the remaining 40%. As the US military pays a premium for launch contracts to its nine reference orbits, this guaranteed revenue is extremely valuable to US companies aspiring to run a profitable launch business. The lead-up to Monday's deadline has included heavy political lobbying from the four companies: United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Northrop Grumman. As a result of this, Congress is considering some changes to the Air Force's procurement policy, including an on-ramp for a third provider during the 2022 to 2026 period. But so far, the Air Force is resisting this. Here's a look at the four bidders and what is at stake for each of them. United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance—a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that enjoyed a monopoly on national security launches before the emergence of SpaceX—may be bidding for its life. To wean itself off its costly Delta boosters (as well as the Russian rocket engines that go with its workhorse Atlas V rocket), ULA has been developing the Vulcan rocket to cut costs while maintaining performance. The company says the Vulcan will be ready for its first flight in 2021. "Vulcan Centaur will provide higher performance and greater affordability while continuing to deliver our unmatched reliability and orbital accuracy precision from our treasured cryogenic Centaur upper stage," ULA's chief, Tory Bruno, said in a news release Monday. "ULA is the best partner for national security space launch, and we are the only provider to demonstrate experience flying to all orbits including the most challenging heavy-class missions, providing the bedrock foundation for the lowest risk portfolio of two launch service providers for the US Air Force." With increasing competition from SpaceX, Europe's Arianespace, Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Russian launch vehicles, ULA has been unable to capture much of the commercial market for satellite launches in the last decade. Therefore, it has largely been reliant on government business, mostly from the military. But ULA also relies on NASA through its science missions and lifting cargo and crew missions to the International Space Station. If the company does not emerge victorious from this competition, it faces an uncertain future unless Vulcan can become commercially viable. Moreover, ULA will lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in government money to finalize Vulcan if it does not receive an award. Historically, Boeing and Lockheed have been stingy parents, and whether or not they would pay to complete Vulcan is unclear. One intriguing twist with ULA's bid is that its Vulcan rocket will use the BE-4 rocket engine, which is being developed and manufactured by Blue Origin—one of the four competitors in the Air Force bidding process. Blue Origin has said the Air Force competition was designed to unfairly benefit ULA. SpaceX The Hawthorne, California-based rocket company is the only bidder proposing to use rockets that are already flying—the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. This family of rockets has had a string of 49 successful launches since a static fire accident in September 2016, and according to SpaceX, it can meet all of the Air Force's desired orbits and payload specifications. "SpaceX means to serve as the Air Force's long-term provider for space launch, offering existing, certified, and proven launch systems capable of carrying out the full spectrum of national security space-launch missions and requirements," said the company's president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell. Since the Air Force agreed to admit SpaceX to the national security launch competition in 2015, the company has won several contracts for key missions and begun flying them for the military. These include the National Reconnaissance Office Launch 76, Orbital Test Vehicle 5, Global Positioning System III-2, and STP-2 flights. SpaceX also likely will offer the government the lowest price on service to orbit. However, in its criteria for awarding missions, the Air Force listed price among the last of its considerations. Due to its lower price point, especially with is reusable Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX has considerable commercial business to offset the loss of Air Force contracts. But it would hurt financially, all the same. Blue Origin Jeff Bezos' rocket company has bid its very large New Glenn rocket for the Air Force missions. However, when this rocket will begin flying is not entirely clear, as there are questions about whether it will be ready by the beginning of the 2022 contracting period. What is clear is that Blue Origin does not believe the US Air Force has created a fair bidding process. Already, the company has filed a "pre-award" protest with the US Government Accountability Office. "The Air Force is pursuing a flawed acquisition strategy for the National Security Space Launch program," Blue Origin said, according to SpaceNews. The Air Force decision to award contracts to just two companies creates a "duopoly," Blue Origin says, and it limits commercial development of strategic US assets such as rocket engines and boosters. Bezos has been investing about $1 billion a year of his own money into Blue Origin, which has largely been used to support development of the BE-4 engine and New Glenn rocket. He is likely to continue development of the New Glenn rocket without Air Force funding, but company officials say it is not fair to hold their wealthy founder against their bid. Northrop Grumman Northrop has been developing the Omega rocket for this competition since at least 2016. The Omega vehicle differs from the other entrants in the competition as its first and second stages, as well as side-mounted boosters, are powered by solid-rocket motors rather than liquid-fueled engines. The bet by Northrop is that the US military, through its national security launch contract, would want to support one of the nation's most critical suppliers of solid-rocket motors for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Northrop officials have not said whether they would continue development of the Omega rocket if Northrop were to lose out on the Air Force contract. Northrop's bid suffered a setback in May when an "anomaly" occurred during test firing of its solid-propellant Castor 600 rocket motor, the Omega rocket's first stage. From a video provided by the company, a major part of the rocket's large nozzle appeared to break apart, blasting debris around the area. Afterward, a Northrop vice president, Kent Rominger, called the test a success. "It appears everything worked very, very well on this test," he said. "And at the very end when the engine was tailing off, we observed the aft exit cone, maybe a portion of it, doing something a little strange that we need to go further look into." Nevertheless, the test cannot have instilled absolute confidence in the Air Force. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/four-rocket-companies-are-competing-for-air-force-funding-and-it-is-war/