Germany announces deal to repair tanks for Ukraine at hub in Poland

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  July 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  US Air Force awards another batch of contracts to build new battle management system

  Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force on July 1 announced its second round of Advanced Battle Management System contracts, a series of awards to 18 companies worth up to $950 million apiece. Each of the winning companies will receive indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity awards worth $1,000 to start with, but will have the chance to win additional funding over the next five years for the products that will make up the ABMS family of systems. The Air Force views ABMS as its primary vehicle to accomplish what the U.S. military is calling Joint All Domain Command and Control, or JADC2. The goal of JADC2 is to transform the often-stovepiped nature of current weapons systems by rapidly fielding technologies that will allow sensors and shooters to share data securely and instantly. “Just like the Internet of Things, our Air and Space Force platforms will only be as effective as the data they can access, machine-to-machine,” Will Roper, the Air Force's assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in a statement. “To field a complex set of capabilities at digital speeds requires a different, more innovative acquisition strategy,” he said. “With ABMS, we are adopting best practices from the private sector to get capabilities into the hands of the warfighter years ahead of traditional approaches.” With the Air Force projecting to spend $3.3 billion on ABMS over the next five years, not every contractor will receive funding up to each contract's $950 million ceiling, or even close to that. Instead, each contract is meant to establish a list of companies that can respond to future ABMS solicitations, said Air Force spokesman Capt. Clay Lancaster. The 18 contractors include: Accenture Federal Services; Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.; Black River Systems; Booz Allen Hamilton; CAE USA Mission Solutions; Cubic (GATR Technologies); Global Air Logistics and Training; Leidos; Mercury Defense Systems; Metron; NetScout Systems; Octo Consulting Group; Omni Fed; Rincon Research Corporation; Rise8; SAIC; Strategic Mission Elements; and Wind River Systems. An additional 28 companies also won indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts in late May. To get an IDIQ contract, companies had to submit general cost and technical information about their products, Lancaster said. Each $1,000 award would allow each firm to prepare a more comprehensive presentation as the Air Force details what it's looking for under each of the ABMS product lines, which include applications for fusing and sharing data, a cloud-network, items like government-owned software-defined radio, and apertures and devices like smartphones and tablets that can be used to receive classified data. “There will be follow-up technical discussions where the government can inform vendors in more detail what we're looking for, and vendors can let the government know what they have to offer,” Lancaster said. “After that, a series of focused solicitations will be announced across multiple categories and made available to vendors that are on the IDIQ. Vendors will then submit specific proposals against these solicitations. The government will review these solicitations and award task orders to support technology development and then integrate these technologies into ABMS product lines and potential participation in ABMS onramps.” Instead of a traditional acquisition program, where a service comes up with requirements and then companies compete to build it, the Air Force intends to hold “ABMS onramps” multiple times per year to experiment with existing technologies and test whether they'd work in an operational environment —allowing commanders to weigh in and pick which capabilities are funded and when. The service held the first demonstration in December 2019. The second onramp, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been rescheduled for late August and will simulate an attack on U.S. space assets. U.S. Space Command, U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Strategic Command are to participate in the simulation. The third demo, scheduled for September, will involve U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Space Command. https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-networks/2020/07/01/the-air-force-awarded-another-batch-of-contracts-to-build-its-new-battle-management-system

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  August 30, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  UK eyes alternative to Galileo satellite system as Brexit row widens

  By: Andrew Chuter LONDON — Britain is moving toward launching its own satellite navigation system in a response to moves by the European Union to freeze it out of the Galileo constellation over the country's divorce from the EU. The Conservative government in London announced Aug. 29 it was setting aside £92 million (U.S. $119 million) to undertake an 18-month study looking at the feasibility of designing and developing an alternative to the Galileo satellite system. The move is the latest development in a growing row between Britain and the EU after Brexit negotiators in Brussels told their U.K. counterparts they would only be allowed standard, third-party access to Galileo and would not receive data from the system's Public Regulated Service — an encrypted navigation service primarily designed for military users and resistant to jamming, interference and spoofing. The Brexit squabble has also snared Britain's fast-growing space industry, which has been excluded by the EU from bidding for further Galileo-related contracts. Paul Everitt , the CEO of ADS, the lobby group representing the U.K. space and defense industries, said the space industry here has played a “key role in creating the Galileo program, from early pathfinder spacecraft more than a decade ago, to encryption and ground control operations.” “The government's new investment to develop a national satellite navigation system, to make sure valuable U.K. capability continues to be supported, irrespective of the outcome of Brexit negotiations, is very welcome,” Everitt said. The British announcement comes just days after a European Space Agency rocket launched the last four of 26 Galileo satellites required to complete the €10 billion (U.S. $11.7 billion) satellite navigation network. Further spacecraft are scheduled to be launched as backups. The row between London and Brussels could have wider implications for Britain's security relations with the EU, according to analyst Sophia Besch with the Centre for European Reform. As the disagreement over Galileo gathered momentum earlier this year, the think tank tweeted: “#Galileo could set a dangerous precedent for #Brexit #defence negotiations in the future — or it could serve as a wake-up call for EU and UK negotiators argues @SophiaBesch.” Britain has invested about £1.4 billion in the Galileo system, and industry here has been a significant provider of technology in critical areas like encryption as Europe moved to obtain autonomy in navigation satellite systems alongside rival systems owned and operated by the U.S., Russia and China. In a July 29 statement , the British government said it wants to remain part of the Galileo program but will go it alone if it can't negotiate an acceptable agreement. “Without the assurance that UK industry can collaborate on an equal basis now and in the future, and without access to the necessary security-related information to rely on Galileo for military functions such as missile guidance, the UK would be obliged to end its participation in the project,” the statement said. Business secretary Greg Clark said Britain's position on Galileo has been consistent and clear. “We have repeatedly highlighted the specialist expertise we bring to the project and the risks in time delays and cost increases that the European Commission is taking by excluding U.K. industry," Clark said. “Britain has the skills, expertise and commitment to create our own sovereign satellite system, and I am determined that we take full advantage of the opportunities this brings.” The UK Space Agency is leading the study-phase work supported by the Ministry of Defence. Britain is due to lay out its wider plans for military space later this year when Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is due to publish the long-delayed defense space strategy. The British government announced at the Farnborough Air Show last month that it is investing in building a space port in Scotland to launch spacecraft. Williamson, who is currently embroiled in a bitter fight with the Treasury and the Cabinet Office over the level of funding for Britain's cash-strapped military, said in a statement that the sector is one of his personal priorities. “The danger space poses as a new front for warfare is one of my personal priorities, and it is absolutely right that we waste no time in going it alone if we need an independent satellite system to combat those emerging threats,” he said. The cash for the satellite navigation study hasn't come from the MoD, but it has been allocated from the £3 billion Brexit readiness fund announced last year by the government. https://www.defensenews.com/space/2018/08/29/uk-eyes-alternative-to-galileo-satellite-system-as-brexit-row-widens

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  March 3, 2021 | International, Aerospace

  Australia's Potentially Game-Changing Loyal Wingman Drone Has Flown For The First Time

  Boeing Airpower Teaming System is set to revolutionize how the Royal Australian Air Force fights and the drone's export potential continues to grow.