May 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Seth J. Frantzman
JERUSALEM — Israel's Ministry of Defense has procured the FireFly, a lightweight loitering munition designed for infantry and special forces.
Jointly developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the MoD, FireFly's canister-deployed design with multiple rotors enables it to hover around buildings and attack concealed enemies that may be beyond line of sight or hiding in urban environments.
FireFly is designed to fulfill a need that platoons and smaller units have on the modern battlefield for an unmanned system that is rugged and lightweight. Mini-UAVs are increasingly in demand for infantry use, and the ability to combine them with loitering munitions that can conduct surveillance and attack has become the next step for ground forces.
FireFly was designed over the last 15 years based on sketches produced as far back as the Six-Day War, when Israeli soldiers had to fight in the early morning amid trenches in Jerusalem during the Battle of Ammunition Hill. Also taken into account during the design period were Israel's experiences fighting militants in close combat in urban areas, such as the Gaza Strip, as well as knowledge of the difficulties armies have faced in fighting in places like Mosul, Iraq, against the Islamic State group.
Gal Papier, director of business development at Rafael's Tactical Precision Weapons Directorate, said the current FireFly model has a seeker, warhead and data link with electro-optical features that are similar to Rafael's larger Spike missile family. The Spike group of munitions includes precision-guided tactical missiles. The main difference is the addition of dual rotors so the FireFly can hover and remain stable in windy environments.
“It's a different way of looking at missile guidance,” Papier said. “This is innovative and new — it's a missile that folds into a small canister.”
First unveiled in 2018, Papier foresees the FireFly as “infantry's best friend,” enabling forces to both scout and attack. The warhead is small, coming in at only 400 grams, but Rafael says it is lethal enough for infantry and special forces missions.
“Normally the targets are insurgents or suppressing machine guns or a sniper,” Papier explain, comparing the FireFly to UAVs that carry 20-kilogram payloads and must be launched by catapult.
FireFly gives an operator up to 1.5 kilometers of line-of-sight use and 500 meters of non-line-of-sight use. It can return to the user with the click of a button, and its technology provides situational awareness to avoid collisions with obstacles. It can also operate during the day or night with a low acoustic signature.
Its battery and warhead can both be replaced; the warhead can be swapped for another battery to provide double the 15-minute flying time for surveillance missions. The press of a button on the operator's tablet causes the warhead to slam into an enemy at up to 70 kph.
It is also designed with safeguards, such as an abort capability.
Rafael also foresees the FireFly launched from vehicles, with several units contained in a pod or “beehive” that would operate from inside the vehicle. This is in line with the increased use of smaller tactical UAVs with armored vehicles, and future battlefield concepts that foresee vehicles and infantry units operating in sync with numerous drones.
“We are in [the] design stage of these pods, tailored for different vehicles. We see it as a building block,” Papier said.
Israel's procurement of the FireFly and its deployment with infantry units are part of the country's multiyear plan to restructure its armed forces, known as “Momentum.” The plan also calls for increased digitization of land forces and for units to have access to more UAVs and technology. This is meant to bring intelligence assets as far forward as possible to battalion- and company-level units sharing information gathered by UAVs on a network.
Papier noted that the increased deployment of loitering munitions like this will change infantry units as they decide how to make soldiers into dedicated drone operators.
June 10, 2022 | International, Land
“It's not just Lockheed Martin,” Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet said. “Industry is willing to invest in efficiency. It's willing to invest in capacity. But the constraints of the Federal Acquisition Regulation limit our ability to invest and get great [return on investment] for investors while helping the government.”
February 17, 2023 | International, Land
The potential sale is worth about $670 million.
April 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
PENTAGON: The Pentagon's acquisition chief today said she expects major defense programs to be delayed by around three months due to COVID-19 closures and disruptions, while DoD rushes to pump $3 billion into the defense industry to bolster programs at greatest risk. Speaking to reporters here this morning, Lord said she expects to have to ask the White House and Congress for “billions” more to reimburse contractors affected by work delays and broken supply chains. “We believe it will cost us something,” she said, declining to get any more specific than “billions” of dollars. The months-long delays to programs will likely be spread throughout the defense industry as small parts suppliers shut down operations for days or weeks at a time. “We're looking at schedule delays and inefficiencies and so forth: this isn't about a particular program.” Lord singled out “a slowdown in the shipyards, to an extent. Aviation is actually the most highly impacted sector we have right now.” It's unclear what programs are at highest risk, but the Navy has been bullish on speeding up its new frigate program to award contracts some time this summer. If work slowdowns continue, that could be pushed further down the road. The Army and Navy have also been moving ahead on their nascent hypersonic weapons program, with a series of critical tests planned this year. Lord pointedly suggested that large defense companies need to start pushing more money into their supplier base to ensure small parts suppliers don't go out of business, further impacting new programs and ongoing maintenance efforts. She did praise Lockheed and Boeing for increasing cash flow to lower-tier suppliers, then not-so-subtly says, she is “hoping for similar public announcements from other major primes.” Last month, Lockheed said it would advance more than $100 million to suppliers hurt by the slowdown, and this week Boeing said it was reopening the Philadelphia-area facility where it makes the Chinook, the V-22 Osprey and other helicopters. The Pentagon is starting to award higher progress payment rates this week, pumping $3 billion dollars in increased cash flow to industry. “We try to anticipate the problems and work with the companies to keep going to the greatest degree possible,” Lord said. As part of that effort, DoD's first priority is the modernization process of the nuclear triad, she said: “we look at the Missile Defense Agency, we look at the critical capabilities. We're looking where the greatest pain points are.” While she singled out Lockheed and Boeing, shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls is making a push to speed up contracts and get money into the hands of sub-tier suppliers early, in order to ensure companies way down the supply base food chain can continue chugging along. In a recent interview, company representatives told me they've reached out to over 2,000 suppliers in 48 of the 50 US states. “We need their products today, but we also need them in 90 days, so we want to help them brave the storm,” said Lucas Hicks, vice president of new construction aircraft carrier programs. “We've actually changed some payment terms on some of our supplier contracts to try to make sure that we can front them what they need to stay afloat. We're doing some creative stuff to try and help them be able to weather the storm.” The Department's efforts to backstop the defense industrial base while taking steps to protect its workforce and purchase critical protective clothing like facemasks is still in its relative stages, despite the COVID-19 pandemic having been with us for months. “We are just really beginning to pick up momentum,” Lord said. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/04/pentagon-pumps-3b-into-industry-as-covid-19-delays-loom