General Atomics Awarded Army Contract Supporting Hypersonic Glide Body Prototype Development

On the same subject

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  March 30, 2022 | International, Aerospace

  Boeing announces new leadership at defense unit

  Boeing's current defense CEO, Leanne Caret, will retire later this year.

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  October 25, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Europeans propose siccing self-learning drone swarms on air defenses

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — A European consortium has pitched the idea of grooming intelligent drone swarms to confuse, disable and destroy enemy air defenses. The proposal is part of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research effort by the European Union to improve collaboration on among member states. Under the heading “Emerging Game Changers,” EU officials asked companies earlier this year to submit ideas for “promising breakthrough technologies” in the field of artificial intelligence for defense applications. The idea behind “SEAD Swarm” is to create the necessary algorithms that would enable a mass of aerial drones to inspect the characteristics of air defense systems, distribute the information within the swarm and derive a plan of attack against weak points. Actions taken could include blinding radar sensors, overwhelming anti-aircraft fire with kamikaze-type tactics, or attacking sites with explosive or electronic-warfare payloads. The acronym SEAD is short for “suppression of enemy air defenses,” military platforms that often expose pilots of manned aircraft to significant risk of getting shot down. The proposed project comes in the wake of Finland designating advances in AI a key objective for its six-month term leading the Council of the European Union. The idea is backed by a consortium of 12 private companies, national research institutions and universities from six countries, with Finnish company Insta as the lead. A decision from European decision-makers on the award of an approximately $2 million grant to start the project is expected in the next few months. Consortium officials stress that nothing would be built during the initial phase of the project. Instead, the idea is to incubate the necessary “swarm logic” and learning algorithms in a simulation environment, where scenarios can be gamed out and quickly adapted, Ari Kosonen, a senior systems engineer at Insta, told Defense News. Letting the drone swarm and air defense systems battle it out in a controlled cyberspace environment would yield patterns of problem-solving that can continuously improve both the attackers' and the defenders' performance, Kosonen said. In addition, thinking through the idea on a purely theoretical level would allow proper consideration for ethical and legal questions that arise whenever AI is weaponized, he added. If adopted by the EU, the participating countries of Finland, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia, the Netherlands and Austria would detail military officials to an advisory board to help ensure the planned simulations reflect real-world combat situations. That includes resisting the urge of crafting scenarios that are too clear-cut in allowing judgments about when to apply force and when to stand down, said Christian Brandlhuber, a senior adviser at consortium member Reply AG in Munich. “Does this work in an environment where our situational awareness is less than perfect?” Therein lies the novelty of the SEAD Swarm idea, Brandlhuber argued: Working through the rules of engagement first, only later considering requirements and finally establish concrete acquisition plans could help bring AI-enabled military technology into the EU-wide defense conversation. “There were heated discussions in the consortium about how pronounced the legal and ethical side should be,” Brandlhuber said. Dicey situations could arise, for example, when drones are cut off from communicating with human decision-makers in the final phase of an attack, while the prerequisite is to have a person in the loop for pulling the trigger. “There is a lot of uncertainty in this,” Brandlhuber said, though he argued analysts should strive to understand the complexity that comes with combining drones and AI in a military context. “You can't determine any of this a-priori.” Notably, the consortium includes sensor and hardware manufacturers, like Diehl Defence of Germany and Milrem of Estonia, that could be tapped to build prototypes if the SEAD Swarm project is selected to go forward. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/10/22/europeans-propose-siccing-self-learning-drone-swarms-on-air-defenses/

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  January 18, 2021 | International, Aerospace

  China’s WJ-700 Armed Reconnaissance Drone Completes Maiden Flight

  China's new WJ-700 high-altitude, long-endurance and high-speed armed reconnaissance drone successfully completed its maiden flight earlier this week. The “rare type” drone is capable of executing both attack and reconnaissance missions in China, according to a statement the Third Academy of the state-owned arms firm China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) sent to the Global Times. First unveiled at Airshow China in 2018, the WJ-700 is expected to have a maximum take-off weight of 3,500 kg, with a maximum endurance of 20 hours. It is capable of performing air-to-surface precision strikes in multiple situations such as stand-off ground attacks, anti-ship, and anti-radiation attacks, the statement said, noting that it will “create a new pattern for drone combat.” China wants to begin selling the drones to domestic and international market needs in the next five to 10 years. Compared to other popular drones, the distinguishing characteristic of the WJ-700 is its large size, meaning it has an outstanding payload capacity that allows it to carry larger munitions like anti-ship missiles and stand-off weapons that enable the drone to launch attacks from outside of an enemy anti-aircraft fire coverage zone, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, said. Key tactical and even strategic battlefield hubs, including radar installations, warships and command centers could be targets of the WJ-700, analysts said. The WJ-700 could deliver diverse combat missions in high-threat battlefield environments with its precision combat and wide-area reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities. After completing various system-level tests and verifications, it will be officially put into combat applications, the academy said. https://www.defenseworld.net/news/28768#.YAXP_-hKiUk