House defense bill pushes US Air Force on jet trainer availability

On the same subject

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  May 31, 2019 | International, C4ISR

  The Army wants C5ISR systems on demand

  By: Mark Pomerleau Across the Department of Defense, organizations and agencies want to transport parts and ready-to-go systems to field units on demand. For the Army's sustainment community, this means keeping up with the dynamic pace of deployments to by placing qualified workers closer to the battlefield or assembling reserve systems ahead of time. Mobile, expeditionary equipment, which includes communications and networking gear, wasn't required for the counterinsurgency fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. There, the Army was able to take advantage of predicable rotations in a relatively permissive theater from a technology standpoint, Communications and Electronics Command Commander Maj. Gen. Randy Taylor told C4ISRNET in a May 20 interview in his office at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Now, Communications and Electronics Command, responsible for sustaining and refurbishing Army command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems, is looking to adjust to this new unpredictable world. Taylor said the Army is focusing on global hot spots where it thinks it might have to respond with soldiers by sending the proper technicians ahead first. Army staffers are also making sure they configure systems as much as possible in advance of competition, however, but forward technicians can assist if systems break or need to be tweaked. The Army's premier depot maintenance center, Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania, has established depot maintenance facilities in Korea and Europe. This allows much of the depot work to be done in the field, reducing the repair times so units can get their equipment back faster. This setup means only items that have to go back to Tobyhanna are then shipped back. One of the big shifts in a renewed focus on so-called great power competition versus the prior years of counterterrorism, Taylor said, is supporting mobility and immediacy, or what senior Army leaders refer to as “fight tonight.” “What we're looking at now with this possible near peer conflict is fight tonight expeditionary,” he said. “That's part of the imperative for modernizing the network so it's lighter, faster, more capable, but sustainment has to keep pace with those expeditionary units.” One area in particular the Army has reevaluated in this vein is its pre-positioned stocks. These are equipment that sit forward so units that deploy don't have to take everything they need with them. While declining to offer a region by name, Taylor said in certain areas, rather than just putting C5ISR systems in proximity of platforms stored in the same compound, they are installing the systems on the platform in these pre-positioned areas so that they can be ready to “fight tonight.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-networks/2019/05/30/the-army-wants-c5isr-systems-on-demand/

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  August 27, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Army Researchers Develop Breakthrough Sensors For Small Drones

  Imagine asmall aerial drone navigating a field with electrical power lines. How will it see them? More importantly how will it avoid this significant obstacle in its flight path? At the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory, researchers developed a novel sensor and software application to detect and avoid energized power lines in the vicinity of unmanned aerial system, or UAS. The goal is to provide autonomous systems sufficient time and distance to react, avoid wires and navigate follow-on maneuvers. Army researcher David Hull developed the innovative approach using a unique configuration of field and 3-D sensors, in conjunction with low-power processing methods. This resulted in detecting power lines and informing the device's autopilot to prevent collision with the wires. This method allows UAS equipped with these to use smaller, lower power and lower cost sensors to detect the location and Poynting vector (i.e. the directional energy flux density) of nearby power lines. This allows the UAS to autonomously avoid or navigate alongside the detected power lines. While existing wire-detection and wire-avoidance technologies that use radar and/or optical sensors have had commercial success, they are known to be expensive, bulky, and power-intensive with technical limitations. The detection algorithm developed at the lab will result in size, weight, power and cost reduction. By combining both sensing modalities in one sensor, Army researchers estimated the direction of power flow, something no traditional sensor can do, Hull said. The lab recently announced a patent license agreement with Manifold Robotics, a startup company based in New York, who will produce the new technology for drone-based commercial applications. Engineers and drone experts at Manifold Robotics said they intend to create a drone-based system that will detect power lines at a distance and determine their precise location to enable safe navigation. They said this will overcome the factors that limit the efficacy of drones in the vicinity of power lines and unleash their full potential for autonomous power line inspection as well as other Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations. From a military perspective, UASs are increasingly used by Soldiers for a variety of missions. In many cases, these drones must successfully operate in urban environments with a high number of power lines in and around the area. The development goal is to see significant improvement in the safe usage of aerial drones in close proximity to power lines and power grids. Researchers said they believe the licensed Army technologies will enable commercial and military drones to detect power lines at a greater distance. Additionally, the technology is expected to accelerate the development of drone applications such as power line inspection systems and freight delivery drones. https://uasweekly.com/2020/08/25/army-researchers-develop-breakthrough-sensors-for-small-drones/

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  April 4, 2024 | International, C4ISR

  CISA Joins the Minimum Viable Secure Product Working Group | CISA