General Dynamics Land Systems awarded $1.2 Billion U.S. Army Contract for Stryker IM-SHORAD Vehicles

On the same subject

• 

  March 11, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contracts for March 10, 2021

  Today

• 

  June 13, 2019 | International, Security, Other Defence

  What’s so sweet about sugar cube-sized robots?

  By: Kelsey D. Atherton If there is anything the future is lacking, it's robots the size of Chiclets. Draper, working under a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is creating centimeter-sized robots, for future use in rescue work. The project is named “SHort-Range Independent Microrobotic Platforms,” or “SHRIMP” for short. And short is the nature of the game. SHRIMP is based on the 4 cm long, 1.5 g Harvard Ambulatory MicroRobot (HAMR), and wants to shrink it down to a single cubic centimeter. That will require microelectromechanical systems, 3D printing, piezoelectric actuators and, this is crucial, low-power sensors. Once all of that is in place, Draper claims the microbot will be able to jump, sense, navigate and control itself. The design will rely on feet inspired by living creatures to give it extra friction on rough and vertical terrain, and inertial measurement to detect where it is on the ground. “The microrobotic platform capabilities enabled by SHRIMP will provide the DoD with significantly more access and capability to operate in small spaces that are practically inaccessible to today's state-of-the-art robotic platforms,” declared DARPA in the proposer's day note. “Such capability will have impact in search and rescue, disaster relief, infrastructure inspection, and equipment maintenance, among other operations.” The exact “how” of what these robots will do in disaster relief, inspection, maintenance or other operations is yet to be determined, and will largely hinge on the sensors that can be fit to the platform. The most useful thing a small robot can do is get into a space and send information back to humans about that space, but that's hardly the only metric to evaluate the platform. As part of the SHRIMP program, DARPA will have the robot designs compete through a series of events modeled after the Olympics. These include high jump, long jump, weightlifting, shot put, tug of war, rock piling, steeplechase, biathlon, vertical ascent — all ways to find out what useful tasks tiny robots can do. There's a world of speculation between a dime-sized robot that can pile rocks and a useful military tool, but the fact that DARPA is invested in the technology as a platform suggests that, should the technology get there, the design will have some unexpected utility. In the meantime, DARPA's interest suggests there's good odds on a future market for sensors designed for dice-sized robots. https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/robotics/2019/06/12/what-does-darpa-want-with-sugarcube-sized-robots/

• 

  June 19, 2020 | International, Naval, Land

  Huntington Ingalls Industries Awarded $145 Million Advance Procurement Contract for Amphibious Assault Ship LHA 9

  Pascagoula, Miss., June 17, 2020 -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) announced today that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division has received a third contract modification from the U.S. Navy for $145 million to provide long-lead-time material and advance procurement activities for amphibious assault ship LHA 9. This modification brings the total advance funding for LHA 9 to $350 million. “This advance procurement contract will help protect the health of our supplier base and strengthen our efforts to efficiently modernize the nation's amphibious fleet as we continue to build amphibious ships for the Navy,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias said. Ingalls is the sole builder of large-deck amphibious ships for the Navy. The shipyard delivered its first amphibious assault ship, the Iwo Jima-class USS Tripoli (LPH 10), in 1966. Ingalls has since built five Tarawa-class (LHA 1) ships, eight Wasp-class (LHD 1) ships and the first in a new class of amphibious assault ships, America (LHA 6), in 2014. The second ship in that class, Tripoli (LHA 7), was delivered to the Navy earlier this year. Bougainville (LHA 8) is under construction. About Huntington Ingalls Industries Huntington Ingalls Industries is America's largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HII's Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HII's Technical Solutions division supports national security missions around the globe with unmanned systems, defense and federal solutions, nuclear and environmental services, and fleet sustainment. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs more than 42,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit: HII on the web: www.huntingtoningalls.com HII on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HuntingtonIngallsIndustries HII on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hiindustries HII on Instagram: instagram.com/huntingtoningalls CONTACT INFORMATION Teckie Hinkebein Manager of Media Relations (228) 935-1323 teckie.hinkebein@hii-co.com View source version on Huntington Ingalls Industries: https://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/huntington-ingalls-industries-awarded-145-million-advance-procurement-contract-for-amphibious-assault-ship-lha-9