September 21, 2023 | International, Land
Army picks four to build robotic combat vehicle prototypes
The Army will choose a single robotic vehicle from the four companies selected to build prototypes over the next year.
September 4, 2020 | International, C4ISR
Harnessing Quantum Technologies at Room Temperature
Quantum research in both information science and sensing shows great promise for enabling a host of new defense applications. A major hindrance to transitioning breakthroughs from the laboratory to practical use, however, is the extensive equipment needed to cool and trap atoms to exploit their quantum features.
To address this challenge, DARPA has announced its Science of Atomic Vapors for New Technologies (SAVaNT) program. SAVaNT seeks to advance the performance of room-temperature atomic vapors to enable future opportunities for unprecedented combinations of low size, weight, and power (SWaP) with performance across multiple Department of Defense domains.
“The SAVaNT program will explore a new suite of technologies based on room-temperature atomic vapors to address important gaps for military-relevant applications,” said Tatjana Curcic, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. “We're interested in innovative research proposals that significantly advance the performance of atomic vapors for electric field sensing and imaging, magnetic field sensing, and quantum information science.”
The program is focused on warm atomic vapors as opposed to cold-atom technology, which requires cooling atoms to very low temperatures with lasers to reduce thermal noise. This process has enabled the world's most accurate atomic clocks with unprecedented levels of timing precision. But the apparatuses needed to cool the atoms can fill up a laboratory, making laboratory atomic clocks impractical for field use. The warm atomic vapors approach, on the other hand, doesn't require complex laser-cooling and allows for a larger number of atoms, boosting the signal. The challenge, however, is that thermal environment effects – even at room temperature – significantly mitigate how long the quantum effects, or coherence, can last.
SaVaNT researchers will demonstrate novel methods in three technical areas to overcome limitations due to thermal effects: Technical Area 1 seeks to develop a Rydberg sensor – which uses atoms to sense electric fields – that would provide ultra-narrow bandwidth, high-sensitivity electric field detection for millimeter waves. Technical Area 2 focuses on Vector Magnetometry to enable low-SWaP, room-temperature, quasi-DC magnetic field sensors. The third technical area will address vapor quantum electrodynamics to enable critical components for quantum networks at room temperature. Current methods require either cryogenics or laser cooling and trapping.
A Proposers Day for interested proposers will be held virtually via webinar on Sept. 3. The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitation with full details is available here: https://go.usa.gov/xGr4C
On the same subject
-
-
February 1, 2021 | International, Aerospace
France begins backfilling its Rafale fleet after selling some to Greece
By: Christina Mackenzie PARIS – The French Air and Space Force will be getting 12 new Rafales to replace those being removed from its inventory to sell to Greece, Defense Minister Florence Parly said on Friday. The announcement comes a few weeks later than originally planned. Florence Parly had told the National Assembly's Defense Commission last fall that the order would be placed with Dassault Aviation, the Rafale's manufacturer, before the end of 2020. But that was on the provision that the $3 billion contract with Greece for 18 Rafales had been signed by then. That Greek contract was signed four days ago so Parly took the opportunity of a visit to Dassault Aviation's flight controls factory in Argonay, in the French Alps on Jan. 29 to announce the new order. Eric Trappier, Dassault's CEO, had earlier underlined the fact that “Dassault is the only aircraft manufacturer in the world to design and produce its own flight controls.” Contracts to Dassault Aviation, Safran (the engine manufacturer) and Thales (the electronics) will be sent out by the DGA procurement agency in the next few days. While no price tag was given during Parly's announcement, Trappier has previously said one fully equipped fighter costs around 100 million euros, or $121 million, which would put the total package at just under $1.5 billion. Parly said the 12 new aircraft would be built to the latest F3R standard. She added, “We sold 18 Rafales to Greece so it is indeed 18 Rafales that Dassault will have to produce.” Speaking at the factory, the defense minister said one Rafale would come off the production line per month, “which represents 7,000 jobs, jobs within Dassault of course, but also within the 500 or so small and medium enterprises that work with you.” She added that in the current economic context “this is good and reassuring news”. The French Air and Space Force will have its 12 new aircraft by the end of 2025. Together with the 28 Rafales that Dassault is to deliver between 2022 and 2024, this will bring the total to 129, as projected in the 2019-2025 military program law. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2021/01/29/france-begins-backfilling-its-rafale-fleet-after-selling-some-to-greece
-
April 1, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Lockheed Signals Change Is Coming With New CEO
Michael Bruno Lockheed Martin Chairman, CEO and President Marillyn Hewson became the prime example of how to stumble into the corner office of the Pentagon's top contractor and still provide laudable business results. Now, as she hands off the reins to an enigmatic successor, Lockheed stakeholders hope the uncertainty ahead will be just as lucrative. On March 16, the Bethesda, Maryland-based prime—the largest contractor to the U.S. Defense Department by annual sales—surprised many followers with the news that current Lockheed board member James “Jim” Taiclet, Jr. will become CEO and president on June 15, while Hewson becomes executive chairman. Lockheed also promoted Frank St. John, current executive vice president of the company's Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) division, to become chief operating officer (COO)—a role that Hewson technically held last, and briefly, before her January 2013 appointment as chief executive. Before that, the COO role was mostly held by Chris Kubasik prior to his downfall at Lockheed. Stephanie Hill, now senior vice president for enterprise business transformation, was appointed to succeed St. John as executive vice president for RMS. These appointments also are effective June 15. Hewson is 66 years old and Taiclet is 59. The company, which does not have a retirement rule, had not announced a formal transition plan or successor process. Nevertheless, industry insiders were watching movements—such as St. John's rise and recent board appointments—and analysts said they assume the transition was planned before the ongoing COVID-19 crisis erupted. While the announcement was a surprise, the timing was not—due to Hewson's age and the fact that Lockheed ended 2019 with a record $144 billion backlog of work and a stock price that has more than tripled under Hewson, including the recent COVID-19-related pullback. Still, many observers are intrigued by the selection. “While Marillyn's retirement has been in the cards for a while, we were not expecting Lockheed to go outside the company for its new CEO,” say analysts at Vertical Research Partners. “Taiclet has an impressive pedigree based on his resume, but from an A&D perspective, he is an unknown quantity. . . . But with Marillyn sticking around as chairman, and a very experienced cohort of senior Lockheed managers, we are not expecting there to be any revolutionary change as a result of this appointment.” Cowen analysts also noted that St. John's appointment as COO further bookends Taiclet with experienced Lockheed managers. St. John, 53, joined Lockheed more than 30 years ago and as COO is naturally positioned as a potential future CEO, analysts say. Taiclet is currently chairman, president and CEO of American Tower, a real estate investment holding company and owner/operator of wireless and broadband communications networks, where he has held the executive reins since 2003. He joined that company in 2001 and, according to Lockheed, is credited with guiding American Tower's transformation from a U.S.-centric focus to a multinational business outlook. Analysts said he also was central in leading mergers and acquisitions as part of the company's expansion. American Tower announced an immediate replacement for Taiclet but said he will remain chairman and an advisor through June 14. Taiclet previously served as president of Honeywell Aerospace Services and before that was vice president for engine services at the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies (UTC). He also worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Co., specializing in telecommunications and aerospace strategy and operations. He is a retired U.S. Air Force pilot and Persian Gulf War veteran. Loren Thompson, a Lexington Institute consultant to Lockheed, says Hewson's selection of Taiclet seems calculated to continue her emphasis on tight financial management and good customer relations while positioning the leading prime for a changing demand environment. “That environment will be characterized by two shifts from previous years,” Thompson writes. “First, the defense budget will enter a flat to declining period very different from the spending increases of the early Trump [administration] years. Second, the preference of military customers for nontraditional suppliers who think like entrepreneurial enterprises rather than government contractors will continue to grow.” Hewson's selection of Taiclet also is telling because she has won the respect of many industry insiders, analysts and advisers. While unplanned, Hewson's tenure as CEO was deemed successful by most. “Hewson's tenure is known for operational execution with such programs as the F-35, while having a successful oversight in maintaining key businesses—such as in the evolving area of space with wins such as Next-Gen OPIR and GPS IIIF,” say Jefferies analysts. Company sales grew at a 5% compound annual growth rate from $45.4 billion in 2013 to an expected $63.3 billion this year. Taiclet's takeover sounds to many like more of the same—but different. “This is the first time Lockheed Martin has promoted someone who did not rise through the corporation to be president and CEO,” writes Capital Alpha Partners analyst Byron Callan. “We find it intriguing that he has a commercial background and wonder if that's not a different direction the company starts to explore in 2020-25.” https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/supply-chain/lockheed-signals-change-coming-new-ceo