December 3, 2020 | International, Aerospace
By: Tom Kington
ROME – Italy is planning to buy up to eight new Gulfstream signals intelligence aircraft and build a maintenance hub for similar aircraft operated by other nations around the Mediterranean.
The plans, which were outlined in documents supplied to the Italian parliament, would reinforce Italy's signals intelligence capability as the Mediterranean becomes a flashpoint for regional tensions with neighbors like Turkey and Egypt tussling over the future of lawless Libya.
The Italian acquisition was first mentioned in this year's budget document, released in October, which cited the need for ‘multi-mission, multi-sensor' Gulfstream G-550 jets and listed an outlay of 1.23 billion euros.
An illustration of the aircraft in the document resembled Israel's ‘Shavit' Signals Intelligence Gulfstream, while the required capabilities listed included command and control, “electronic superiority” and “electronic protection of forces.”
Now, the government has sent parliament a second document giving more details of the plan ahead of a vote by the parliamentary defense commission on the purchase.
The document calls for the purchase of two aircraft which have already been converted for Sigint missions and equipped with the required systems before the purchase of a further six G-550 jets ready for subsequent conversion.
Analysts have suggested the need to buy the unconverted aircraft quickly is due to the Gulftstream G550 going out of production.
The aircraft would be based at the Italian Air Force's Pratica di Mare base south of Rome, which is already home to the two Gulfstream 550 Conformal Airborne Early Warning aircraft Italy purchased from Israel's IAI in 2012.
With up to 10 G-550s in its fleet, Italy would build up a maintenance operation which would not only serve its own aircraft but be able to “offer services to the Gulfstream fleet operating in Europe and the Middle East, with about 200 jobs created,” the document stated.
No indication was given about which company would be contracted to supply the two converted jets or carry out the conversion work on the other six, but the document stated that “given the complexity” of the program, a non-Italian contractor would be brought in. National offset work would be sought the document stated.
Funding for the buy is due to kick off next year and will stretch out to 2056 stated the document, which has been seen by Defense News.
December 6, 2023 | International, Aerospace
France's Safran does not exclude a protest against Italy's decision to block part of its planned $1.8 billion purchase of the flight control systems business of Collins Aerospace , Chief Executive Olivier Andries said.
September 11, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Mike Gruss Leaders at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced Sept. 7 a $2 billion initiative, known as AI Next, that aims to substantially improve artificial intelligence research. “With AI Next, we are making multiple research investments aimed at transforming computers from specialized tools to partners in problem-solving,” Steven Walker, the agency's director, said in a press release. “Today, machines lack contextual reasoning capabilities, and their training must cover every eventuality, which is not only costly, but ultimately impossible. We want to explore how machines can acquire human-like communication and reasoning capabilities, with the ability to recognize new situations and environments and adapt to them.” As a result of the effort, DARPA leaders envision improving day-to-day processes, such as vetting for security clearances in a week or accrediting software systems for operational deployment in a day or less. DARPA said it plans to announce multiple broad agency announcements in the next year. The announcement marks the second major artificial intelligence-related initiative in the last three months. In late June, the Department of Defense announced its Joint AI Center, which is expected to help provide a road map for the department's nearly 600 AI-related programs, including the controversial Project Maven program. The funding is a parallel effort to the Department of Defense's Joint AI Center, known as JAIC, which is expected to cost about $1.7 billion in the coming years. That program is run through the DOD CIO's office and is expected to focus more on applications for artificial intelligence while the DARPA programs will concentrate on answering questions related to the “foundational science” related to AI. DARPA has a history of working on AI project. It is currently funding about 20 AI related programs and said its initial funding on the topic dates back to the 1960s. Leaders describe the new investment as working toward what they call the third wave of AI. The first wave focused on rule-based systems for narrow tasks and a second wave has been used to find statistical patterns in large data sets. But DARPA leaders are describing a third wave as one of “contextual adaptation.” In a press conference at the conclusion of DARPA's D60 symposium, agency leaders said the new initiative would include a focus on explainable AI, in other words, how a machine arrived at its answer. They also said they expect a broader discussion of ethics related to artificial intelligence. https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-networks/2018/09/10/darpas-new-2-billion-initiative-for-next-level-ai
November 24, 2021 | International, C4ISR
The communications exercise risk-reduction leading up to a major Army exercise last year took six weeks. Now the lab is able to fulfil that same need in 10 days.