December 2, 2020 | International, Security
Rome, November 30, 2020 - Leonardo announced today that the Polícia Rodoviária Federal (PRF) of Brazil will introduce into service six AW119Kx single engine helicopters.
The first aircraft is expected to be introduced in Brazil beginning next year, with the delivery of the remainder helicopters to the operator planned to be completed by mid-2021.
The AW119Kxs will be operated by the Air Operations Division (DOA) from its bases in the five Regions of Brazil to perform a range of missions including transport, rescue, emergency medical service, firefighting, surveillance and law enforcement.
The selection of the AW119Kx by the PRF was made following a rigorous assessment of technical capabilities to best meet the law enforcement agency's needs.
The handover of these helicopters will further expand the fleet of Leonardo helicopters used by law enforcement, rescue and public service operators across Brazil which already includes the AW119 single engine type in addition to the AW109 light twin and AW139 intermediate twin models.
The helicopters will feature an advanced customized configuration including, among others, a Garmin G1000NXi glass cockpit, an infrared capable electro-optics system, rescue hoist, cargo hook, bambi bucket to counter fires, rappelling kit on both sides for special forces operations, advanced communication systems.
To date there are over 190 Leonardo helicopters of various types operating in Brazil performing many roles including: corporate/private transport, law enforcement, public services, offshore transport, and naval applications.
As the success of Leonardo's product grows further, the Company is committed to further strengthening its existing level of localized services with the establishment of a new regional support centre, run by Leonardo do Brasil, in Itapevi, 30 km from São Paulo whose groundbreaking was celebrated in February.
The new support centre will expand the services already provided by the existing facility headquartered in São Paulo.
Leonardo is committed to serving and protecting communities around the world, contributing to their sustainable growth by leading in next generation technologies. Partnering with Governments, private organizations and industries for the best security and safety capabilities is a cornerstone of Leonardo's Be Tomorrow 2030 Strategic Plan.
Note to editors on the AW119Kx helicopter
The AW119Kx is the best in class single engine helicopter today available in the market, featuring a state-of-the-art avionics system for enhanced situational awareness, mission effectiveness and safety.
The AW119Kx has a large cabin which is able to accommodate up to six passengers and redundancy of all critical systems that are typically available on twin engine aircraft, ensuring outstanding reliability and safety.
The AW119Kx is perfectly suited to perform many roles including EMS, law enforcement, utility, fire-fighting, passenger transport, training and government/military duties.
Over 350 AW119 helicopters have been ordered by over 130 customers in 40 countries. A number of law enforcement, public service agencies or armed forces around the world have chosen or are already using the AW119 in Brazil, USA, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Portugal, Finland, Latvia to name a few.
A variant of the AW119 was selected by the United States Navy in January to train the country's next-generation of naval aviators.
View source version on Leonardo: https://www.leonardocompany.com/en/press-release-detail/-/detail/30-11-2020-leonardo-to-strengthen-security-and-rescue-operations-in-brazil-with-the-supply-of-six-aw119kx-helicopters-to-the-policia-rodoviaria-federa
January 20, 2022 | International, Naval
The Navy and Lockheed Martin are still negotiating the cost breakdown for a fix to the Freedom variant Littoral Combat Ship that has restricted the operations of most ships in the class, a service official said last week. Capt. Andy Gold, the program manager for the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship, told reporters at the annual …
January 21, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Louis Neveu En attendant l'arrivée d'un nouvel avion de combat européen à l'horizon 2040, le Rafale va bénéficier d'une importante mise à jour du standard dit F4. Il va renforcer sa connectivité pour évoluer en réseau et s'enrichir de capteurs et d'intelligence artificielle. Explications. Disponible dans l'armée française depuis près de 18 ans, le Rafale est aujourd'hui considéré comme l'un des meilleurs avions de combat au monde. Il est souvent en lice avec le F-35 américain de dernière génération qui bénéficie pourtant d'un puissant soutien de nombreux pays et des membres de l'Otan. Pour se hisser à ce niveau, l'avion de chasse made in France bénéficie depuis ses débuts de mises à jour importantes reposant sur des standards (F1, F2, F3...). Le standard actuel est opérationnel depuis 2018 et s'appelle F3R. Avec lui l'avion s'est bardé de capteurs, de nouveaux missiles d'équipements laser et des améliorations logicielles. Le 14 janvier 2019, Florence Parly, la ministre des Armées a remis à Dassault le contrat de développement du nouveau standard F4 du Rafale sur son site d'assemblage à Mérignac. Il en coûtera 2 milliards d'euros pour voir voler le premier démonstrateur mis à jour dès 2025. Il ne faut pas s'attendre à une révolution esthétique de l'avion de chasse. Et pourtant, cette mise à jour est une véritable révolution ! C'est sous la carlingue et dans les datacenters de l'armée que l'innovation va débarquer. Ce standard F4 va faire basculer le Rafale dans l'ère du big-data et de l'hyperconnexion. Sa connectivité va, en effet, être renforcée pour qu'il puisse communiquer et échanger de nombreuses quantités de données en réseau avec tous les véhicules alliés et même les autres forces déployées au sol ou en mer sur le champ de bataille. C'est ce que les militaires appellent le combat collaboratif. Dans tous les cas, la communication doit être fiable, rapide, sécurisée et ce, quelle que soit la distance. Pour cela, il sera équipé d'un nouveau système de radio chiffré renforcé par des nouvelles liaisons satellitaires. Un saut technologique, un saut stratégique Le Rafale va également se barder de nouveaux capteurs ou les optimiser, pour détecter les menaces. Ainsi, son radar à balayage électronique sera amélioré, son système de protection avec son brouilleur dernier cri sera renforcé (Spectra). Côté armement, il pourra emporter de nouvelles générations de missiles et une nacelle de visée laser. L'intelligence artificielle va aussi s'inviter à bord. Elle servira de mécano d'appoint pour prédire les opérations de maintenance à venir, ainsi que réaliser des pronostics de pannes et les diagnostiquer. Il faut dire qu'un avion de chasse comme le Rafale doit bénéficier d'importants travaux de maintenance qui viennent le clouer au sol. L'idée est de réduire ce temps de diagnostic et de maintenance. Ce standard F4 devrait arriver progressivement de 2023 à 2025 au fil des innovations technologiques. Cette importante mise à jour du Rafale va être un premier pas pour dessiner concrètement ce que sera l'avion européen du futur baptisé Scaf (système de combat aérien du futur). Cet avion sera mis au point à l'horizon 2040 par Dassault et Airbus afin de remplacer le Rafale actuel et l'Eurofighter. CE QU'IL FAUT RETENIR Le Rafale va renforcer sa connectivité et se doter d'intelligence artificielle dans une mise à jour baptisée F4. Les premiers démonstrateurs sortiront en 2025. Ces standards se retrouveront dans l'avion de chasse européen du futur à l'horizon 2040. https://www.futura-sciences.com/sciences/actualites/avion-futur-rafale-sera-ultra-connecte-chasser-reseau-74660/
September 15, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR
Nathan Strout The Global Positioning System of satellites remains the prime source of positioning, navigation and timing for the military, but it's increasingly vulnerable as adversaries develop capabilities that can undermine the signal. Delivering capabilities that allow the war fighter to verify such data or replace it in a degraded or denied environment is a major problem that the Army now wants to solve. Col. Nickolas Kioutas — program manager for position, navigation and timing, Army Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors — is leading the Army's efforts to develop anti-jamming and anti-spoofing technology and get it into the hands of war fighters as soon as possible. Kioutas and Director of the Assured PNT Cross-Functional Team Willie Nelson held a media roundtable Oct. 4 announcing the fielding of one such solution: the Mounted Assured Position Navigation and Timing System (MAPS). Kioutas sat with C4ISRNET Oct. 15 at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference to discuss MAPS, the Military Encrypted GPS Signal and what he would like to see from industry as he looks for assured PNT solutions. C4ISRNET: Your office recently announced that you fielded MAPS with 62 Stryker vehicles in the Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany. What's next in the development of the MAPS program? COL. NICKOLAS KIOUTAS: We've got two generations right now that we're working with. Generation 1 is really an anti-jamming capability that we fielded to 2CR second cavalry unit in Germany just this last month, and we're looking to upgrade now to our Gen. 2 capability, which would add the spoof protection. Right now we're doing prototyping with the Gen. 2 and we're actually going to compete the Gen. 1. Hopefully, it can integrate some spoof protection, but we'll be competing the Gen. 1 against the Gen. 2 to ask, “Hey, is that really the right capability to go forward with,” and field a lot more. Obviously, we just fielded 62. We still have in the pipeline some fielding of Gen. 1 before we make that final decision. And then we'll field either Gen. 2, or we'll decide to go to a Gen. 3 and continue fielding more of the Gen. 1 with upgraded spoof capabilities. C4ISRNET: And what did you learn with the fielding of the Gen. 1 capability? KIOUTAS: It's great to get a chance to do a little bit of something before you have to do a lot of something. You kind of learn some lessons and figure out what did the soldiers really like? What did they have problems with? Where can we make those little tweaks that allow us to do really well when we go to do the much broader army. C4ISRNET: Are there lessons from MAPS that can be applied to DAPS? Where is that program now? KIOUTAS: We are learning from what we're doing. It's really a change in the construct of how we do acquisitions. Instead of having the one huge program that's been perfectly thought out, perfectly tested and built, and then we get it to the field and it's 10 years too late and it's really not what we want, we're doing more iterative learning steps. So, everything that we learn even on the MAPS side — [which] is very similar technology — will apply to the DAPS side. With DAPS we're also developing some prototypes. We've got three vendors right now that we're working with to give us early prototypes, get them to the soldiers, let them touch and play with them, tell us what they like and what they didn't like, and then we'll do an initial capability set. And then we'll decide, hey, was there something that we can do different, better and then upgrade? So, [we're] constantly going to try to do that approach. C4ISRNET: The Air Force is working to develop M-Code, a military-grade GPS code with anti-jamming capabilities. How does the eventual delivery of that impact the development of anti-spoofing capabilities in the here and now? KIOUTAS: M-Code is important. It's a much better capability than the existing Selective Availability Anti-Spoof Model, or SAASM. However, it's not the complete answer, and what I always say is PNT does not equal GPS, because it's not just about GPS capability. It's about layering technologies with each other in order to be able to operate in a denied or degraded environment. C4ISRNET: M-Code delivery may be a ways out, but a limited version called M-Code Early Use is supposed to be available in the near future. How does that interim solution factor into assured-PNT solutions being developed now? KIOUTAS: There's probably two answers to that. One is we are already working with the M-Code to put it into the MAPS Gen. 2, as well as the DAPS system. So, we're going to have M-Code from the get-go. The other thing is, the Army has really got to decide how many M-Code modules are we going to buy between now and say 2028, when we're really going to get the increment 2 M-Code capabilities. So, we've really got to project out how many systems are we going to buy, what are they going to look like, [and] there's three different vendors so which vendor do we need to buy [from]? C4ISRNET: Let's talk about the Army's need for a modular open systems architecture as you develop APNT capabilities. How does that inform your acquisitions strategy? What do you want industry to know? KIOUTAS: For a modular open systems architecture, what we're really going to is [a] change from the previous way we did acquisition. Again, we're not going to do the one megalithic program that is perfectly designed and takes 10 years to build and then it gets to the field too late, we need a modular open systems architecture that allows us to be agile, that allows us to constantly take what industry is developing and integrate it to the solution to pace the threat. We're working with the CMOSS architecture to be able to put a bunch of different cards for our MAPS, maybe Gen. 3 capability. We're also working on a similar approach to the DAPS program. So, again, [we're] always looking for, not what is the best integrated solution, but what are the best individual solutions that we can take from across industry back to breed and integrate together. C4ISRNET: We're speaking at AUSA and around us many companies are showing off their assured PNT solutions. What are some of the APNT solutions you're excited to see from commercial industry? KIOUTAS: That's a good question. I don't really know the answer until we do some more testing. Of course, software-defined things are always great. The problem is there's sometimes problems with security and cybersecurity of those systems. And, so, there's probably a balance between do you really want a lockdown solution, where do you want that lockdown solution and where can you accept some risk and have a little more flexibility in software. https://www.c4isrnet.com/thought-leadership/2019/11/29/the-armys-position-on-next-generation-navigation/