February 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval
By: Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — India on Wednesday cleared the purchase of 24 Sikorsky MH-60R naval multirole helicopters through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, according to a Ministry of Defence official.
The acquisition, which is worth about $2.12 billion, was approved by India's top defense clearance body, the Cabinet Committee on Security, which is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The MoD had approved funds for the purchase in August 2018.
The clearance comes ahead of a two-day visit to India by U.S. President Donald Trump beginning Feb. 24.
The MoD official said a formal government-to-government contract for the MH-60R helicopters will be signed once cost negotiations are finalized. No timeline has been set, but delivery will take place three years after the contract is inked, he added.
A previous attempt to buy naval multirole helos failed when the MoD canceled the planned purchase of 16 S-70B Seahawks from Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, in June 2017 following expiry of the $1 billion price tag offer.
The 2009 tender for 16 helos was sent to Sikorsky, NHIndustries, Airbus Helicopters and Russian Helicopters. The S-70B was selected over NHIndustries' NH90 helicopter in 2011; the other potential contenders did not participate.
The cost of weapons was not included in the original program, but the recently approved deal for 24 MH-60Rs does include a weapons package, according to an Indian Navy official. The helicopters are to be armed with multi-mode radar, Hellfire missiles, Mark 54 torpedoes and precision-kill rockets.
The Navy plans to use the helicopters for its front-line warships to replace its outdated British Sea King Mark 42 helicopters. They are also to be used in limited intelligence gathering roles, for surveillance missions, and in search and rescue efforts, the Navy official said, adding that the procurement of the helicopters is the top-most priority for the service. The helicopters are also expected to have the capability for conducting amphibious assault and anti-submarine warfare missions.
February 1, 2022 | International, Aerospace
The U.S. Defense Department has finished fielding the first batch of new logistics systems for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, replacing an older, flawed system that has caused program headaches for years.
June 26, 2018 | International, C4ISR
Dedrone announced that its team of Echodyne Corporation, Squarehead Technologies and Battelle, won first place at ThunderDrone's “Game of Drones” outdoor demonstration at Nellis Air Force Base and AFWERX enclave, June 18-20. Hosted by AFWERX, Team Dedrone bested five other teams in the last of three ThunderDrone rapid prototyping events focusing on countering small, unmanned aerial drones. Team Dedrone successfully demonstrated the capabilities of a layered detection, tracking, classification and mitigation solution that defends protected airspace against aerial drone threats. Initially 93 counter-drone technology companies formed teams and were narrowed down through a series of three rapid prototyping events. The Dedrone platform is a fully automatic counter-drone solution, designed to detect, classify and mitigate drone-based threats. Dedrone's software, DroneTracker, gathers intelligence from Dedrone's RF sensors, Echodyne's MESA radar and Squarehead Discovair acoustic sensor. Once DroneTracker makes a positive identification of a drone, Battelle's non-kinetic defense system, DroneDefender™, is automatically triggered to defeat the drone and eliminate the threat. The Dedrone platform combines hardware sensors and machine-learning software, providing early warning, classification of and mitigation against all drone threats. Based in San Francisco, Dedrone was founded in 2014. ThunderDrone is a U.S. Special Operations Command and SOFWERX initiative dedicated to drone prototyping, which focuses on exploring drone technologies through idea formation, testing and demonstrating efforts that are being conducted collaboratively with the Department of Defense's Strategic Capabilities Office. SOFWERX leads collaboration between special operations warfighters and select contributors from industry and academia on technology and innovation efforts to bring drones, tactical swarms and their associated data science applications to the special operations community. Team Dedrone Quotes: “Dedrone's open platform and architecture allows customers to combine the best in drone detection and mitigation technology, such as with RF sensors from Dedrone, radar from Echodyne, acoustic sensors from Squarehead, and jammers from Battelle,” shares Joerg Lamprecht, CEO and co-founder of Dedrone. “This multi-layered sensor platform ensures that all organizations, including those under USSOCOM, are provided complete airspace security that is safe from all drone threats.” “ThunderDrone provided us with our first opportunity to simultaneously engage against multiple UAVs with two DroneDefender V2 systems,” shares Alex Morrow, Technical Director of cUAS Programs at Battelle. “Battelle is pleased with another successful demonstration of our DroneDefender V2.” “Echodyne's compact solid-state radar repeatedly demonstrates an unparalleled combination of range, tracking accuracy and value in countering UAS threats,” notes Eben Frankenberg, Echodyne CEO. “We're pleased that our beam steering radar once again contributed its indispensable capabilities as part of the award-winning Team Dedrone solution.” “Discovair's directional acoustics add a near unspoofable layer of super hearing. The ability to deal with drones hinges on detection. In cluttered areas and up against any drone system, even passive ones – Discovair acoustic sensor has proven to shine,” shares Stig Nyvold, CEO of Squarehead Technology. “Discovair's importance as part in the systems of systems has once again been proved. We are very excited to be part of this team and look forward to the future.” https://www.uasvision.com/2018/06/26/team-dedrone-wins-ussocom-game-of-drones-competition/
August 15, 2019 | International, Aerospace
BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems has been awarded a Phase 2 contract to develop machine learning capabilities aimed to help the military gain better awareness of space scenarios for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The goal of DARPA's Hallmark Tools, Capabilities, and Evaluation Methodology (Hallmark-TCEM) program is to not only develop and evaluate tools and capabilities that increase an operator's understanding of space events, but also enhance the ability to select effective courses of action for any given situation. Space assets such as satellites are becoming increasingly important and relied upon by the Department of Defense for communications, surveillance, and security. As part of Hallmark-TCEM, BAE Systems' FAST Labs™ research and development team will build cognitive-based machine learning algorithms and data models aimed to give space operators the ability to identify abnormal activities and predict possible threats. The team will build on Phase 1 work of the program, and continue to leverage the decade-long development of the company's Multi-INT Analytics for Pattern Learning and Exploitation (MAPLE) technology with a solution called MAPLE Automates Joint Indications and Warnings for Cognitive Counter-Space (MAJICS). “Our technology builds data models based on normal activity and then ingests large amounts of real-time, streaming data to compare against the normal model and determine if any abnormal activity is occurring or will occur,” said Dr. John Hogan, product line director of the Sensor Processing and Exploitation group at BAE Systems. “By using this technology, we hope to reduce the operator's workload by providing a solution that will automatically predict space events such as launches or satellite movements based on millions of pieces of data, helping them make rapid decisions to avoid any potential threats.” BAE Systems' research on the Hallmark-TCEM program adds to the company's machine learning and artificial intelligence segment of its autonomy technology portfolio. The capabilities developed under the Hallmark-TCEM effort will be integrated into DARPA's Hallmark Software Testbed (Hallmark-ST) program. Work for the program will be completed at the company's facilities in Burlington, Massachusetts and Reston, Virginia. Contacts Paul Roberts, BAE Systems Mobile: 603-521-2381 paul.a.roberts@baesystems.com ww.baesystems.com/US @BAESystemsInc https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190813005129/en/