August 18, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR
WASHINGTON — As Lockheed Martin works on the U.S. Army's first ground-based integrated signals intelligence, electronic warfare and cyber system, the company is placing a heavy focus on coalition interoperability.
The Army awarded Lockheed a $6 million other transaction authority contract — a highly flexible contracting tool — in May to build the first phase of the Terrestrial Layer System-Large. Boeing subsidiary Digital Receiver Technology also won an award for the program for $7.6 million. The two companies will build and outfit their systems to Stryker vehicles during the 16-month-long phase one, while also participating in operational assessments, after which the Army will choose one company to move on.
John Wojnar, director for cyber and electronic warfare strategy at Lockheed, told C4ISRNET in a July interview that the company had a keen eye toward integrating its system with international partners as well as the Army, given the U.S. military doesn't fight alone.
“Being able to bring in our coalition partners, maybe starting with the Five Eyes first and in particular the U.K., and aligning the architecture that we provided ... really drove us to the architecture that we came up with,” he said.
He added that Lockheed examined the building blocks of the U.K.'s cyber and electromagnetic activities to help inform the offering. Being in close partnership with coalition members is key, he said, so whatever architectures the company designs should be interoperable with partners to maximize effectiveness on the battlefield.
Lockheed's system was an internal research and development project that is a companion of sorts to its aerial cyber/electronic warfare system Silent Crow, which the Army awarded a year ago for its Multi-Function Electronic Warfare-Air Large system.
Wojnar said the ground system went through testing in September at the Army's Cyber Blitz event, which helps the service understand how to mature cyber and electronic warfare operations with traditional units through actual experimentation with emerging technologies and soldiers at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
“Based on lessons learned from those tests as well as the other activities that have been underway tied to Silent Crow IRAD, we were able to leverage the best of the best to then come up with our TLS-Large system offering,” he said.
The work that will be ongoing between now and next summer when the first phase of TLS wraps up, Wojnar added, includes ensuring all the component parts developed internally and externally have been acquired and integrated into the ground vehicles, as well as conducting a variety of software drops.
February 16, 2022 | International, Aerospace
'The show might be smaller, and the pandemic may have mitigated the number of exhibitors, but it doesn't mean that defense procurement has been slowing down.'
October 10, 2018 | International, Land
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army has entered the final stages of hashing out requirements for ramping up Stryker combat vehicle lethality and will make a decision in January on what it wants in order to increase its battlefield effectiveness. The service in January will hold an Army Requirements Oversight Council meeting, with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, to cement requirements on how it will improve the Stryker fleet's lethality, according to Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, the service's new G-8 lead, in charge of program development and justification. The AROC will produce a “kind of ‘Y in the road' of what we think we are going to want to look at,” when it comes to making the Stryker more lethal, Pasquarette told Defense News in an interview ahead of the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting. The Army conducted a test fire of one of its 30mm cannon solutions on Stryker at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, as recently as last month, he noted. “We know we believe the Stryker has to have capability to defeat light armor,” Pasquarette said. “We are developing the concept more to validate that on the front-end.” The Army is looking at roughly three different caliber weapons systems, he said. They include a couple of Common Remotely Operated Weapon Stations with different caliber weapons, as well as a 30mm cannon like what was outfitted on Strykers that went to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany earlier this year. “We want to make sure the concept is tight, about what we think we need based on threat and capability we want to have, then we will have to see what direction we go,” which could include competitions to upgun the fleet — or parts of the fleet — in the future, Pasquarette said. “We are still determining balance. Does everyone need to have this, or is it just parts of the fleet?” Pasquarette asked. “How do we want to fight Stryker units, if we have this capability in there?” Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2018/10/10/army-in-final-stages-of-hashing-out-stryker-lethality-requirements
February 28, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Atlanta, February 26, 2020 - Lockheed Martin has awarded a $15M firm-fixed price contract to Terma North America to provide the ALQ-213A Defensive Aids Controller (DAC) and Range-Less Electronic Warfare Training (REWT) for the USAF HC-130J. The program allows integration of the Defensive System Suite to the HC-130J and provides the aircrew with the capability to perform realistic EW training while flying their mission. This provides a more flexible, cost-effective EW training compared to training on EW ranges. Terma has been providing EW Embedded Training systems for various military aircraft over the past 15 years with great success. REWT is latest version of advanced realistic EW training systems from Terma. Further the ALQ-213A based integration will provide the aircrew enhanced control of the HC-130J defensive systems and provisions that allow the addition of future systems to the Defensive Systems Suite. Lockheed Martin will be the prime contractor and will certify the Defensive Systems Suite capability on the HC-130J. “This program will provide the warfighters with capabilities that have long been sought after. The company leverages legacy products to ensure the safe return of pilots everywhere, so it's important that Terma deliver to the mutual mission of protecting those who use our products. It's important to focus on the overarching goal – to keep our warfighters out of harm's way, even when they fly into a potentially hostile environment,” said Lars Tolstrup, Business Development Director, Terma. Terma North America has provided the ALQ-213A DAC in the past for several international C-130J aircraft, where special defensive systems integration was required, under contracts with Lockheed Martin in Marietta. The company's primary focuses are providing advanced System Level Capabilities, hardware, integration, and sustainment to protect the warfighter. Because of the company legacy on these aircraft, Terma North America is honored to continue to provide hardware to the USAF C-130J fleet. Terma North America, Inc. Operating in the aeronautics, defense, and security sector, Terma North America supports customers and partners all over the world. Headquartered in Crystal City, Virginia, operating from two additional main offices in Georgia, Atlanta and Warner Robins, which hosts a production/repair facility. Terma NA also maintains remote locations, such as Crane, Indiana and Ft. Worth, Texas, where US team members work directly with customers on a regular basis. Terma Group Terma North America is part of the Denmark based high-tech Terma Group that develops products and systems for defense and non-defense security applications; including command and control systems, radar systems, self-protection systems for aircraft, space technology, and aerostructures for the aircraft industry. Follow us on www.terma.com Instagram Twitter Linkedin Youtube Media contact: Kasper Rasmussen T:+45 2022 6091 E:kar@terma.com View source version on Terma: https://www.terma.com/press/news-2020/terma-north-america-under-contract-with-lockheed-martin-on-the-c-130j/