July 18, 2024 | International, Land, C4ISR
DARPA picks UT Austin to house microelectronics manufacturing hub
Through the $1.4 billion partnership, DARPA will establish a domestic center for microelectronics manufacturing at the university.
May 14, 2018 | International, Aerospace
La Luftwaffe ne posséderait que 4 chasseurs Eurofighter aptes au combat
Suite à l'absence de munitions et à des problèmes techniques rendant les appareils «aveugles», seuls 4 des 128 chasseurs Eurofighter dotant l'armée de l'air allemande sont aptes au combat.
L'écrasante majorité des 128 chasseurs Eurofighter équipant la Luftwaffe ne sont pas aptes au combat, relate l'hebdomadaire Der Spiegel, se référant à ses propres sources.
D'après l'édition, la cause réside dans le problème que présentent des containers avec des capteurs spéciaux installés sur les ailes des appareils et appelés à déterminer l'approche des avions ennemis. Or, le système de refroidissement de ces dispositifs, précise Der Spiegel, présente de graves dysfonctionnements, ce qui rend les avions de combat «aveugles» et réduit l'efficacité de leur utilisation.
Un autre problème cité par les interlocuteurs de l'hebdomadaire d'investigation résiderait dans le manque de munitions. Ainsi, selon les données fournies par l'édition, seuls quatre chasseurs Eurofighter sont actuellement aptes au combat suite au manque de missiles.
Tentation dangereuse: le F-35 pour l'Allemagne, une menace potentielle pour l'Europe
L'Eurofighter Typhoon est un chasseur polyvalent de la quatrième génération fabriqué par Eurofighter GmbH et exploité par l'Allemagne, l'Autriche, l'Arabie saoudite, l'Espagne, l'Italie et le Royaume-Uni. L'appareil en question est entré en service en 2003.
Plus tôt, les médias allemands ont rapporté que les avions Tornado ne se conformaient pas aux normes de l'Otan. Il a été indiqué que les 93 appareils avaient besoin d'une lourde modernisation. En même temps, la ministre allemande de la Défense, Ursula von der Leyen, a déclaré que ces appareils seraient exploités jusqu'en 2035.
https://fr.sputniknews.com/international/201805021036182820-luftwaffe-allemagne-chasseurs/
On the same subject
-
-
August 10, 2020 | International, Aerospace
US Space Force completes upgrade to help protect GPS capabilities
Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force has completed upgrades to the Global Position System's ground segment that will allow it to partially use a new military GPS signal known as M-code, the service announced Aug. 6. While the new anti-spoofing, anti-jamming, encrypted M-code signal has been available on many GPS satellites for years, the military has not had the corresponding ground and user equipment to access and leverage it. The $6.2 billion Next-Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, being built by Raytheon Technologies for that purpose is five years behind schedule and isn't expected to be delivered until June 2021. To provide access for war fighters in the interim, the Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a contingency operations contract in 2016 to build an M-code upgrade to the current GPS Operational Control System. That M-Code Early Use upgrade will allow war fighters with the appropriate equipment to use some aspects of the new military signal until OCX is ready. M-Code Early Use was delivered in June 2019, entered a trial period in October and was approved for everyday use in March 2020. The M-Code Early Use hardware and software upgrades were completed July 27, clearing the path for the system to enter the operational acceptance phase in November 2020. Installation took place at the master control station at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado and the alternate master control stations at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The upgrades allow OCS to task, upload and monitor M-code on the GPS constellation and will support testing and fielding military ground user equipment that can receive the signal. “Working closely with Lockheed Martin and our other mission partners — with the common national goal of providing enhanced [positioning, navigation and timing] signal security and safety always in sharp focus — means we're able to deliver the right mission capability faster to our warfighters,” said Lt. Col. Steven Nielson, program manager of the M-Code Early Use project. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/08/07/space-force-complete-m-code-upgrades-to-gps-control-segment/
-
August 11, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Support to pursue Hawaii-based missile defense radar continues after DoD drops funding
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Support is growing both in Congress and in the Pentagon to pursue a Hawaii-based ballistic missile defense radar that the Missile Defense Agency did not include in its fiscal 2021 funding request. Previous MDA budget requests in FY19 and FY20 asked for funding for the discriminating radar as well as another somewhere else in the Pacific. The plan in FY19 was to field the Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii, or HDR-H, by FY23, which meant military construction would have taken place beginning in FY21. Then in FY20, MDA requested $247.7 million for the radar. Lockheed Martin received an award to develop the radar in December 2018. But in FY21, funding for both the Hawaiian radar and the Pacific radar was missing in the request. MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill said in February, when the request was released, that the agency decided to hit the brakes on its plans to set up the radars in the Pacific, instead planning to take a new look at the sensor architecture in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command region to figure out what is necessary to handle emerging threats. Hill noted that the area is covered by a forward-deployed AN/TPY-2 radar in Hawaii as well as the deployable Sea-Based X-Band radar. Additionally, Aegis ships with their radars are mobile and can be repositioned as needed to address threats in the near term, he added. Yet, over the summer, the Hawaiian radar gained traction in Congress via funding support in the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee's version of the FY21 defense spending bill and the Senate Armed Services Committee's version of the defense policy bill. The House subcommittee injected $133 million to pursue the homeland defense radar in Hawaii, and the SASC added in $162 million to continue HDR-H development. The SASC also included language that essentially reminded the Pentagon that HDR-H was a response to a mandate in the FY18 National Defense Authorization Act to improve coverage for the threat of ballistic missiles in Hawaii. The HDR-H was also listed as an unfunded requirement for FY21 by Indo-Pacific Command. The SASC also directed the MDA to provide an updated plan that accounts for delays related to finding a site in Hawaii, noting it expects the Pentagon to fund the program in subsequent budget requests. During a presentation at the virtually held Space and Missile Defense Symposium on Aug. 4, Hill showed a slide listing focus areas for the agency in FY21. The presentation included the currently unfunded radar, third from the top of the list. “The potential for getting a radar onto Hawaii as part of another major sensor allows us to have that launch-all-the-way-to-intercept view out in a very large ocean area in the Pacific,” Hill said. The HDR-H is categorized as a focus area for the MDA “because if the [Defense] Department decides to move forward with HDR-H, then the HDR-H will be deployed as part of the U.S. homeland defense architecture against long-range threats,” Mark Wright, MDA spokesman, told Defense News in an Aug. 6 statement. The missile defense architecture “must evolve with advancements of the threat,” he added. “Space sensors do not replace but complement ground-based radars by providing track custody during radar coverage gaps. Having both terrestrial radar and space sensors provides dual phenomenology to accurately track and discriminate the threat as it continues to become more complex.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2020/08/07/support-to-pursue-hawaii-based-missile-defense-radar-continues-after-dod-drops-funding/