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June 28, 2023 | International, Aerospace

Georgia base tapped to host F-35 fighters as A-10 fleet retires

The Air Force said Monday it plans to bring two F-35A squadrons to the Valdosta base starting in fiscal 2029.

https://www.defensenews.com/news/your-air-force/2023/06/27/georgia-base-tapped-to-host-f-35-fighters-as-a-10-fleet-retires/

On the same subject

  • Beetle-like Iranian robots can roll under tanks

    October 9, 2019 | International, Land, C4ISR

    Beetle-like Iranian robots can roll under tanks

    By: Kelsey D. Atherton On screen, the small robot slides perfectly underneath the textureless tank. It is a modern iteration of an old promise in remote warfare, rendered with all the processing power of a desktop PC from 1994. Can a small, cheap robot prove useful against the vehicles of an enemy at war? A recent exhibition of unmanned ground vehicles by Iran suggests that the possibility, if not the reality, is already in development. Designed by the Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization of the Iranian Army, the Heidair-1 is almost certainly bound for life as an expendable battlefield platform. “There are many countries and forces using small [unmanned ground vehicles] for ISR and other roles — many belligerents in the Middle East have them, including several DIY models made by non-state actors,” said Samuel Bendett, an adviser at the Center for Naval Analyses. The Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces, or NEZAJA, shared pictures of the new machine on Twitter Oct. 3. The default body of the robot is a six-wheeled tan box, with a pair of antenna sticking out toward the rear of the machine. Of the six Heidair-1 platforms featured, two were models with assault rifles mounted on top of the little rovers, magazines pointed skyward. “NEZAJA had an expo in Tehran where it unveiled several concepts, including this small UGV, Heidar-1. It appears to be a proof of concept, and there is no evidence of this UGV taking part in combat,” Bendett said. In the same video, NEZAJA shows one of the robots driving toward a rough tank-like shape. It explodes, fulfilling the promise of the simulation, and hearkening back to an earlier era of anti-tank warfare. In World War II, Germany fielded thousands of Goliath remote-control anti-tank mines, designed to crawl under parked tanks and detonate through the softer armor below. “This is the first time we have seen Iran unveil such a vehicle,” said Bendett, a fellow in Russia studies at the American Foreign Policy Council. “Equally interesting is their claim that this will be a ‘networked' system of vehicles that can presumably function in more or less autonomous mode. At this point, however, they are remote-controlled devices.” In a video demonstration, the rovers are either single-use mines or armed with machine guns. They are shown being used as combined arms with flying multirotor scouts. Whatever the guts of the new rolling rovers, the ability to guide them remotely to targets spotted by drone adds to the range of threats small robots can pose to armored vehicles. “This Heidair-1UGV may act ... as a kamikaze vehicle that may sneak up on its target much faster given its overall small size,” Bendett said. “We may not see this UGV operate in Iranian Army, but we may see such a vehicle operated by Houthis in their campaign against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its aligned forces.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2019/10/08/beetle-like-iranian-robots-roll-under-tanks/

  • General Dynamics To Invest $1 Billion In Production Facilities Upgrades With Focus on Subs

    January 31, 2019 | International, Naval

    General Dynamics To Invest $1 Billion In Production Facilities Upgrades With Focus on Subs

    By: Ben Werner General Dynamics Corp. plans to invest $1 billion in 2019 in upgrading and retooling its manufacturing operations company-wide, with a focus on its growing submarine construction business. A plurality of this year's capital expenditures – the reinvestment in manufacturing operations, commonly referred to as CapEx – will focus on making improvements to General Dynamics Electric Boat, the maker of the Virginia-class attack submarines and the new Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarines. “We are poised to support our Navy customers and increase the size of the fleet,” Phebe Novakovic, the chief executive of General Dynamics, said during a conference call with analysts today to discuss the company's 2018 financial results and detail financial expectations for 2019. Submarine builder Electric Boat is on pace to build two Virginia-class Block IV submarines a year while preparing to start building the first Block V submarines. At the same time, Electric Boat is preparing for construction of the first Columbia-class submarine to begin in early 2020. “CapEx will be 3 percent of sales in 2019 mostly because of the Columbia-class construction,” Jason Aiken, the chief financial officer of General Dynamics, said during the call. In 2018, General Dynamics reported sales of $36.2 billion, and the company predicts sales to increase in 2019. General Dynamics capital investments will remain at a similar level for the next two to three years, Aiken said. After 2022, once Columbia-production is ramped up, the level of capital spending is expected to taper off, he added. Overall, the company's Marine Systems division, which includes the Electric Boat, Bath Iron Works and NASSCO shipyards, recorded robust sales growth during the year, and Novakovic said the sales growth is expected to continue in 2019. The Pentagon and Capitol Hill are sending signals that Novakovic said she takes to mean, “we'll see nice defense spending for our programs.” General Dynamics predicts the Marine Systems division will post 2019 sales of $9 billion, a 6-percent increase over sales in 2018. The Marine Systems group has a backlog of 11 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers; started construction on the future USNS John Lewis (T-AO-205), a first-in-class oiler for the Navy; and continued building Expeditionary Sea Base ships. “They have done nicely with slow, steady growth, but the real growth driver is Electric Boat,” Novakovic said. https://news.usni.org/2019/01/30/40759

  • Comtech Telecommunications Corp. Receives $4.2 Million of Funding to Develop Upgraded Dual-Mode BFT Satellite Transceiver and Antenna Nulling Technology

    July 16, 2019 | International, C4ISR

    Comtech Telecommunications Corp. Receives $4.2 Million of Funding to Develop Upgraded Dual-Mode BFT Satellite Transceiver and Antenna Nulling Technology

    Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL) announced today, that during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019, its Command & Control Technologies group, through its Maryland-based subsidiary, Comtech Mobile Datacom Corporation, which is part of Comtech's Government Solutions segment, was awarded $4.2 million in rapid innovation funding from the U.S. Army for an enhanced version of Comtech's next generation MT-2025 Blue Force Tracking (“BFT”) satellite terminal that will incorporate a dual-mode BFT satellite transceiver and new antenna nulling technology. Comtech's next generation MT-2025 transceiver, which is also known as the Blue Force Tracker-2 High Capacity ("BFT-2-HC") Satellite Transceiver, meets BFT-2 protocols, provides best-in-class reliability and is fully backward compatible with the U.S. Army's Blue-Force Tracking-1 system ("BFT-1"). “These awards demonstrate the Army's high confidence in Comtech's BFT technology and innovation capabilities that can be used on future BFT systems,” said Fred Kornberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. “Comtech remains committed to providing the U.S. Army and its soldiers with the most innovative technology, enabling them to successfully complete all their missions, regardless of electronic warfare environments.” Comtech currently provides sustaining support for the U.S Army's BFT-1 system and previously shipped over 100,000 BFT-1 mobile satellite transceivers. The Command & Control Technologies group is a leading provider of mission-critical, highly-mobile C4ISR solutions. Comtech Telecommunications Corp. designs, develops, produces and markets innovative products, systems and services for advanced communications solutions. The Company sells products to a diverse customer base in the global commercial and government communications markets. Certain information in this press release contains statements that are forward-looking in nature and involve certain significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from such forward-looking information. The Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings identify many such risks and uncertainties. Any forward-looking information in this press release is qualified in its entirety by the risks and uncertainties described in such Securities and Exchange Commission filings. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190716005226/en

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