February 26, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Contracts for February 24, 2021
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July 31, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Lockheed Martin sells Indago 3 UAV to Switzerland
by Pat Host
Armasuisse has contracted Lockheed Martin to procure a fleet of the company's Indago 3 small Group 1 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the Swiss Army, according to a company statement.
The deal also provides options for spares, training, technical support, and additional systems. Brandon Reimschiissel, Lockheed Martin Procerus Technologies senior systems engineer, declined to specify terms of the agreement to Janes on 20 July.
The first phase of Lockheed Martin's contract comprises manufacturing development to optimise the Indago 3's configuration to meet the Swiss Army's requirements. These include integration of a transponder for sense-and-avoid and installation of a Silvus Technologies radio.
The first phase also includes implementation of Lockheed Martin CDL Systems VCSi Touch small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) ground control system (GCS) software. This includes access to Swiss maps, including digital terrain elevation data (DTED) and geofencing.
The first set of optimised Indago 3s will be delivered to the Swiss Army later this year with the remaining systems to be delivered several months following the first delivery. These Indago 3s will support tactical level reconnaissance and surveillance to support information collection, search and rescue, disaster relief, and battle damage assessment.
Depending on the payload and operating environment, the Indago 3 has a flight time of up to 50 minutes with a range of 10 km. The aircraft can operate at cruise speeds of 25 kt. The Indago 3 can operate at temperatures ranging from -34 to 49°C.<
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/lockheed-martin-sells-indago-3-uav-to-switzerland
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July 14, 2020 | International, Naval
Navy Inks Deal For New Unmanned Fleet
The $34 million deal marks the service's first real thrust to get unmanned ships into the water, despite Congressional worries the service is moving too fast. By PAUL MCLEARYon July 13, 2020 at 5:37 PM WASHINGTON: Despite deep and bipartisan skepticism from Capitol Hill over its plans to build three new classes of unmanned warships, the Navy went ahead today with its plans to begin building as many as 40 Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels. The service awarded L3 Technologies Inc. a $34.9 million contract for a prototype MUSV, along with an option for up to eight additional ships. If the company builds those eight unmanned ships, the contract will be worth $281 million through June 2027. Overall, the Navy wants to build about 40 MUSVs in coming years, which will clock in at between 45 to 190 feet long, with displacements of roughly 500 tons. The medium ships are thought to skew more toward mission modules revolving around intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads and electronic warfare systems. In their versions of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, however, both the House and Senate told the Navy to slow down on its acquisition of some unmanned ships, specifically the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel. Both documents boost Congressional oversight over the LUSV, an ambitious new ship the Navy hoped to begin building in 2023. While the MUSV will focus on gathering intelligence, the LUSV will act as a forward-deployed missile launcher, bristling with missile tubes and other weapons, Navy planners have said. Lawmakers are looking to ensure the Navy finalizes its design and operational plans before building the larger ship, something the service has struggled with as it built other classes such as the Littoral Combat Ship, the Ford class of aircraft carriers, and the Zumwalt destroyers, all of which fell behind schedule, went over budget and struggled with new technologies. “USVs are one of the centerpieces of distributed maritime operations,” Rear Adm. Casey Moton, head of the Unmanned and Small Combatants office, said last month at a U.S. Naval Institute event. The ships will act as platforms to enable the fleet to spread out and counter China's ambitions in the Pacific either as a forward screen for a carrier strike group or as vessels pressed forward with an acceptable risk of attrition. The Navy hasn't yet fully prepared to deploy or sustain a new fleet of unmanned vessels, Capt. Pete Small, program manager for unmanned maritime systems said in May. “Our infrastructure right now is optimized around manned warships,” Small said. “We're gonna have to shift that infrastructure for how we prepare, deploy, and transit” over large bodies of water before the navy begins churning out unmanned ships in greater numbers, he added. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/07/navy-inks-deal-for-new-unmanned-fleet
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August 17, 2022 | International, C4ISR
Why US Army network leaders are so interested in identity management
The Pentagon's 2020 ICAM strategy acknowledged failures to 'maximize the strategic, operational, and tactical benefits of information sharing.'