April 28, 2023 | International, Land
Poland spends $3.1 billion on short-range air defense upgrades
The country banks on new launchers and interceptors from pan-European industry group MBDA to intercept enemy drones and other close aerial threats.
June 26, 2023 | International, Land
General Dynamics, Rheinmetall to compete for potential $45 bln US Army vehicle contract
The U.S. Army said on Monday it had selected General Dynamics and American Rheinmetall to compete to replace the Bradley fighting vehicle, in a deal that could be worth more than $45 billion to the winner.
On the same subject
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March 1, 2019 | International, Other Defence
DARPA: Taking the Next Step in Quantum Information Processing
Universal quantum computers with millions of quantum bits, or qubits – which can represent a one, a zero, or a coherent linear combination of one and zero – would revolutionize information processing for commercial and military applications. Realizing that vision, however, is still decades away. The problem is the performance and reliability of quantum devices depend on the length of time the underlying quantum states can remain coherent. If you wait long enough, interactions with the environment will make the state behave like a conventional classical system, removing any quantum advantage. Often, this coherence time is significantly short, which makes it difficult to perform any meaningful computations. To exploit quantum information processing before fully fault-tolerant quantum computers exist, DARPA today announced its Optimization with Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices (ONISQ) program. This effort will pursue a hybrid concept that combines intermediate-sized quantum devices with classical systems to solve a particularly challenging set of problems known as combinatorial optimization. ONISQ seeks to demonstrate the quantitative advantage of quantum information processing by leapfrogging the performance of classical-only systems in solving optimization challenges. A Proposers Day for interested proposers is scheduled for March 19, 2019, at the Executive Conference Center in Arlington, Virginia: https://go.usa.gov/xEp8M “A number of current quantum devices with more than 50 qubits exist, and devices with greater than 100 qubits are anticipated soon,” said Tatjana Curcic, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. “Qubits' short lifetime and noise in the system limit how many operations you can do efficiently, but a new quantum optimization algorithm has opened the door for a hybrid quantum/classical approach that could outperform classical systems.” Solving combinatorial optimization problems – with their mindboggling number of potential combinations – is of significant interest to the military. One potential application is enhancing the military's complex worldwide logistics system, which includes scheduling, routing, and supply chain management in austere locations that lack the infrastructure on which commercial logistics companies depend. ONISQ solutions could also impact machine-learning, coding theory, electronic fabrication, and protein-folding. ONISQ researchers will be tasked with developing quantum systems that are scalable to hundreds or thousands of qubits with longer coherence times and improved noise control. Researchers will also be required to efficiently implement a quantum optimization algorithm on noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices, optimizing allocation of quantum and classical resources. Benchmarking will also be part of the program, with researchers making a quantitative comparison of classical and quantum approaches. In addition, the program will identify classes of problems in combinatorial optimization where quantum information processing is likely to have the biggest impact. “If we're successful, the outcome of ONISQ will be the first demonstration of a quantum speedup compared to the best classical method for a useful problem,” Curcic said. ONISQ seeks multidisciplinary teams with expertise in experimental and theoretical physics, computer science and applied mathematics among others. DARPA plans to release a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitation in several weeks at: http://go.usa.gov/Dom. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-02-27
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July 3, 2018 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
US spy planes are breaking down ― and lawmakers want answers
By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― America's aging C-135 reconnaissance planes keep breaking down, and alarmed lawmakers want the U.S. Air Force to tell them why. Based at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, the 55th Wing's Boeing-made reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering aircraft, all more than 50 years old, are meant to carry out critical missions from operating bases in England, Greece, Japan and Qatar. But an Omaha World-Herald investigative series has found that mechanical problems plague the jets, cutting short 500 of their flights since 2016 and one of every 12 missions since 2015. That's prompted Nebraska lawmakers to write to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, urging her to probe and report on the health of the 55th Wing's worn-out fleet. Meanwhile, the Nebraska delegation is trying to fend off an effort within Congress to strip funding to recapitalize the OC-135, which conducts overflights of Russia under the 34-nation Open Skies Treaty. Some lawmakers and Pentagon officials have grown skeptical of the treaty, which allows reciprocal surveillance flights, amid alleged Russian violations, but the administration has requested funds for two new airliners to take over the mission. “It has one of the worst maintenance rates in the United States Air Force,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said of the OC-135 on the House floor last week. “It frequently breaks down in Russia, putting us in very hostile, awkward situations with Russians at their bases.” The chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Deb Fischer, led the letter with Sen. Ben Sasse, a SASC member; Bacon (a retired brigadier general and former 55th Wing commander who sits on the House Armed Services Committee), as well as Reps. Jeff Fortenberry and Adrian Smith. The letter asked Wilson to report on the 55th Wing's safety, security and continued mission effectiveness as well as the Air Force's long-term plans to sustain and recapitalize the wing's capabilities. It referenced the RC-135V/W Rivet Joint, RC-135S Cobra Ball, RC-135U Combat Sent, WC-135 Constant Phoenix, TC-135 Rivet Joint Trainer and the OC-135 Open Skies aircraft. In the current budget season, House and Senate lawmakers have taken divergent approaches to the Trump administration's $222 million request for the two new aircraft. House appropriators and authorizers stripped the funding from their 2019 bills. The authorization bill withholds the funding until Russia adheres to the treaty and agrees to extradite Russians indicted for meddling in U.S. elections in 2016. Fischer helped ensure the Senate-passed 2019 authorization bill did include funding for OC-135 recapitalization, and the bill will have to be reconciled with its House counterpart. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis directed the Air Force to recapitalize the aircraft. He wrote to Fischer in May to acknowledge that unplanned maintenance issues meant the U.S. completed only 64 percent of its scheduled overflights in 2017, while Russia typically completes all of its scheduled overflights. The White House Office of Management and Budget has also issued letters objecting to the absence of OC-135 recapitalization funding in the House bills. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2018/07/02/us-spy-planes-are-breaking-down-and-lawmakers-want-answers/