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November 27, 2024 | International, Land

I/ITSEC: Saab to showcase full Ground Combat training offer

The Ground Combat Indoor Trainer is a virtual training solution that offers a cost-effective and highly realistic way to train soldiers.

https://www.epicos.com/article/892572/iitsec-saab-showcase-full-ground-combat-training-offer

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  • New head of Strategic Capabilities Office wants to focus on AI

    September 24, 2018 | International, C4ISR

    New head of Strategic Capabilities Office wants to focus on AI

    By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The Strategic Capabilities Office is under new management, and its new director intends to doubledown on the agency's emphasis on artificial intelligence. In his first interview since taking over the office, Chris Shank, the new SCO director, made it clear he sees artificial intelligence as a sweet spot for his office. Roughly one third of SCO projects deal with autonomous systems, machine learning or AI in some way, Shank said, including long-range fires programs, cyber programs and some assorted with special forces. Shank is the the group's second leader, following Will Roper, the office's founder who is now the Air Force's top civilian acquisitions official. But don't expect major changes in how the office works. “My job is to keep momentum going,” Shank explained. “It's a very high ops tempo group that [Roper was] able to recruit and attract into the office, in terms of working synergistic teams around that. What I am trying to do is take it from a startup organization to a long-term sustainable one.” Although they share some DNA, the SCO's mission is different from that of the Pentagon's technology office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Where the latter is focused on finding and prototyping the game-changing technologies for future battles, the SCO is trying to understand existing needs and address them in new ways. Getting those projects from tests to prototype to a tool used by the services remains a central challenge, Shank acknowledged, but he said that is one of the office's core function. “Where SCO lives is the valley of death,” Shank said, referencing a term for when technologies infamously tend to fail. The SCO had been reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense, but under the Pentagon's recent reorganization, it now reports to Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin. Shank acknowledged the importance of coordination within that office, particularly with AI, which now has a number of different centers of gravity within the Pentagon – a $2 billion push by DARPA, an AI center under Chief Technical Officer Dana Deasy, a directorate under the R&E enterprise, as well as various service-level initiatives. The R&E enterprise has weekly meetings to deconflict investments in AI, Shank said, emphasizing the different business models and goals between the groups. Shank described two programs — each named after pieces of the Iron Man movie mythos — as examples of how SCO can use AI to assist the services in the near-term. Paladium is a broader Navy logistics effort, which involves “smart sustainment” in support of fourth-generation fighter aircraft. A sub project for that is JARVIS, which involves putting a robotics suite out into the field with maintainers that can scan existing parts and quickly re-manufacture them. Shank said the office identified two parts that would require around 2,000 man hours to build out; JARVIS should be able to quickly recreate those, saving both time and the potential errors that come from human-machined pieces. Perhaps those projects aren't as shiny as some of SCO's other programs, such as the Perdix drone-swam, but finding areas where AI can be injected onto existing system and where “the human brain doesn't have to work” as hard will have benefits across the Pentagon, Shank said. The office is primarily focused on the Indo-PACOM and European Command theaters, Shank said. However, he expects to soon provide an update on the Sea Mob/Ghost Fleet initiative, which involves converting existing naval vessels into unmanned systems. He also indicated that there would be unmanned projects in air and land that are unveiled in 2019. One looming cloud for the office: an attempt earlier this year by members of the House Armed Services Committee to kill the SCO by 2020. However, when asked if he was concerned about that proposal, Shank flatly said “no.” He traveled to the Hill shortly after taking office to address that specific issue. In describing the conversation with lawmakers, Shank said, “'I know this wasn't your intent, but this impacted both morale and my ability to recruit talent into the organization,'” he said, “and they [said] ‘that wasn't our intent.'” The SCO is working on a report for Congress on the future of the organization. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/09/21/new-head-of-strategic-capabilities-office-wants-to-focus-on-ai

  • Sikorsky to upgrade HH-60W helo to improve on 2012 baseline capabilities

    February 16, 2021 | International, Aerospace

    Sikorsky to upgrade HH-60W helo to improve on 2012 baseline capabilities

    by Gareth Jennings The US Air Force (USAF) is to contract Sikorsky to upgrade its HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopter to improve on the 2012 requirements baseline. The service disclosed on 11 February that the manufacturer is to bring the capabilities of the Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) up to today's specifications, ahead of the commencement of full rate production in fiscal year 2022. “The current system specification reflects a 2012 requirements baseline which was defined and frozen prior to the 2014 CRH contract awarded for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase,” the USAF said in its sole-source justification document posted on the beta.sam.gov US government procurement website. “During the last five years of EMD execution, the original CRH requirements baseline has evolved as a result of changes in threat conditions and evolving mission requirements. The response to this operational need is the driver for the continuance of new capability development and integration into the CRH baseline.” In response to this requirement, the USAF is to award Sikorsky a USD980.7 million contract over a five-year ordering period, with the work itself to run for seven years. News of the planned award came some 16 months after the USAF issued a request for information (RFI) on 1 October 2019 to assess the ability of companies and industry at large to perform development, integration, verification, production, and installation of a broad spectrum of capability upgrades for the CSAR helicopter, which at that time had only recently been cleared to enter into low-rate initial production (LRIP). https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/sikorsky-to-upgrade-hh-60w-helo-to-improve-on-2012-baseline-capabilities

  • PODCAST: The Navy Budget And Transformation – Opportunities And Challenges Ahead

    May 4, 2020 | International, Naval

    PODCAST: The Navy Budget And Transformation – Opportunities And Challenges Ahead

    An exclusive audio interview with Leonardo DRS CEO Bill Lynn discussing the role industry can play in helping the Navy and DoD achieve its next generation vision. By BREAKING DEFENSEon May 01, 2020 at 11:23 AM The Pentagon's plan to increase readiness, pursue modernization and advance the development of next-generation technologies is becoming increasingly clear. As the Navy budget continues to aim for a growing fleet and transformational capabilities, it will need to make decisions and trade-offs that impact the defense industrial base. Industry, which is pushing the rapid pace of technological innovation, can use its expertise to shape this future. In this brief podcast Bill Lynn, CEO of Leonardo DRS, discusses how the 2020-21 budget cycle creates opportunities for the defense industry to plan and partner with the Navy and DoD, using independent research and development and program investments. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/podcast-the-navy-budget-and-transformation-opportunities-and-challenges-ahead/

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