Lockheed Martin To Develop Cyber/Electronic Warfare Podded System For U.S. Army

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  February 22, 2024 | International, Land

  Russia’s maxed-out arms makers face labor, tech shortages

  As the war against Ukraine enters is third year, Moscow's carefully orchestrated image as a defense-industrial juggernaut is facing headwinds.

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  November 27, 2017 | International, Aerospace

  CAE and Rockwell Collins join forces to develop integrated Live, Virtual, Constructive training solutions

  Companies to demonstrate integrated LVC-enabled capabilities at I/ITSEC 2017 Orlando, Florida, USA, November 27, 2017 - Today at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), CAE and Rockwell Collins announced a collaborative agreement to develop integrated Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC) training solutions. During I/ITSEC, CAE (Booth #1734) and Rockwell Collins (Booth #2201) will conduct several demonstrations of an integrated mission training exercise using fully connected, LVC training elements. A live-flying LVC-enabled L-29 aircraft, operated by the University of Iowa's Operator Performance Laboratory (OPL), will be networked with a variety of virtual simulators and constructive forces to demonstrate an integrated, joint, multi-dimensional mission training environment. The live, real-time LVC training exercises will take place at I/ITSEC at the following times: Tues., Nov. 28 - 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. and 2 to 2:45 p.m. Wed., Nov. 29 - 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. and 2 to 2:45 p.m. Virtual participants in the demonstration will include blue force F/A-18 aircraft simulators as well an E-2 aerial surveillance platform operated in the Rockwell Collins booth, networked to Naval Combat System Simulators (NCSS) and remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) desktop trainers running in the CAE booth. A variety of constructive elements representing enemy and friendly forces will be injected into the live and virtual training systems for the demonstration of immersive LVC training capabilities. Both CAE and Rockwell Collins will jointly conduct distributed command and control tasks during the exercise. "Integrated live, virtual, constructive training is becoming more critical as defense forces look to cost-effectively maintain readiness and prepare for operational missions," said Gene Colabatistto, group president, Defense & Security for CAE. "As a training systems integrator, we are focused on supporting our customers' training and readiness requirements and recognize that cooperation and collaboration will be necessary to deliver integrated LVC training capabilities." "As a recognized leader in aerospace solutions providing avionics for live assets and integrated virtual training systems and products, we'll be able to provide solutions to make LVC-enabled training more routine without boundaries, ultimately resulting in our military customers achieving optimal mission readiness," said Nick Gibbs, vice president and general manager of Simulation & Training Solutions at Rockwell Collins. The demonstration at I/ITSEC will showcase how synthetic environments built on different database standards can be correlated and interoperate as part of an integrated LVC training exercise. This includes the use of synthetic data onto the Rockwell Collins L-29 pilots' integrated Helmet Mounted Display (HMD). CAE and Rockwell Collins will also utilize the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) and High-Level Architecture (HLA) industry standard networking protocols to link LVC assets. About CAE CAE's Defense & Security business unit focuses on helping prepare our customers to develop and maintain the highest levels of mission readiness. We are a world-class training systems integrator offering a comprehensive portfolio of training centers, training services and simulation products across the air, land, naval and public safety market segments. We serve our global defense and security customers through regional operations in Canada; the United States/Latin America; Europe/Africa; and Asia-Pacific/Middle East, all of which leverage the full breadth of CAE's capabilities, technologies and solutions. CAE is a global leader in training for the civil aviation, defense and security, and healthcare markets. Backed by a 70-year record of industry firsts, we continue to help define global training standards with our innovative virtual-to-live training solutions to make flying safer, maintain defense force readiness and enhance patient safety. We have the broadest global presence in the industry, with over 8,500 employees, 160 sites and training locations in over 35 countries. Each year, we train more than 120,000 civil and defence crewmembers and thousands of healthcare professionals worldwide. www.cae.com Follow us on Twitter: @CAE_Inc and @CAE_Defence About Rockwell Collins Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL) is a leader in aviation and high-integrity solutions for commercial and military customers around the world. Every day we help pilots safely and reliably navigate to the far corners of the earth; keep warfighters aware and informed in battle; deliver millions of messages for airlines and airports; and help passengers stay connected and comfortable throughout their journey. As experts in flight deck avionics, cabin electronics, cabin interiors, information management, mission communications, and simulation and training, we offer a comprehensive portfolio of products and services that can transform our customers' futures. To find out more, please visit www.rockwellcollins.com. Follow us on Twitter: @RockwellCollins http://www.cae.com/CAE-and-Rockwell-Collins-join-forces-to-develop-integrated-Live-Virtual-Constructive-training-solutions/?contextualBUID=103

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  February 10, 2020 | International, Naval

  Defense Secretary Mark Esper on how the Navy can get to 355 ships

  By: Aaron Mehta and David B. Larter WASHINGTON — Despite expected cuts to shipbuilding programs in the fiscal year 2021 budget request, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is committed to a bigger, but much lighter, naval force, he said in an exclusive interview with Defense News. In the wake of reports that the Navy may cut shipbuilding in its upcoming budget request, Esper said he is “fully committed” to building a fleet of 355 ships or larger. But to get there, the Navy is going to have to fundamentally reshape itself around smaller ships that can be more quickly bought than the large, exquisite designs the service now relies on — a shift that could have big implications for both the industrial base and the carrier force. Such a plan would mark a departure from the current Navy force structure assessment that calls for twice the number of larger ships over small surface combatants: 104 large, 52 small. But inverting that structure is essential to building a bigger, more deadly fleet that lives within the constraints of future budgets that the Pentagon expects to remain largely flat, Esper said. To get there, the Navy must push hard on fielding lightly manned ships, Esper said, an effort that has been a major focus of Naval Sea Systems Command's Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office in recent years. The first step, though, is getting through the process of figuring out what the fleet should look like. “What we have to tease out is, what does that future fleet look like?” Esper said. “I think one of the ways you get there quickly is moving toward lightly manned [ships], which over time can be unmanned. “We can go with lightly manned ships, get them out there. You can build them so they're optionally manned and then, depending on the scenario or the technology, at some point in time they can go unmanned. “To me that's where we need to push. We need to push much more aggressively. That would allow us to get our numbers up quickly, and I believe that we can get to 355, if not higher, by 2030.” Cuts versus growth In addition to the reported cut of a Virginia-class submarine out of the FY21 budget, it is expected that other cuts may be coming in the short term for the Navy. Late last year, a memo from the White House's Office of Management and Budget to the Defense Department, obtained by Defense News, outlined a series of cuts over the next five years that OMB contends would shrink the size of the fleet. The cuts outlined in the OMB memo included cutting a submarine, a next-generation frigate and a Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer from the 2021 budget. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that the Navy intends to request eight ships in its 2021 budget, which would be four fewer than was requested in 2020, but that the budget restored the missing Arleigh Burke. The Navy contends that even with the cuts, the service is still on a path to growth. In a recent interview with Defense News, acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said the budget documents that leaked were not final. Esper noted that his stamp on the 2021 budget was relatively limited, given he took office in August, at which point most of the service budget work had already been completed. “The services have already developed their budgets at that point,” Esper said. “So now it's at OSD level. As you know, at this point I was able to go through budgets, free up money. I was able to move some money around, but, to me, my big impact will be on the upcoming budget.” Lighter Navy Esper's backing of a larger Navy built on the backs of lightly or optionally manned ships echoes calls by Modly to get to a fleet of 355 ships in the next 10 years, and is in line with recent statement by the Navy's top officer, Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday. At the USNI Defense Forum in December, Gilday said the Navy needed to change the way it built its ships. “I know that the future fleet has to include a mix of unmanned,” Gilday said. “We can't continue to wrap $2 billion ships around 96 missile tubes in the numbers we need to fight in a distributed way, against a potential adversary that is producing capability and platforms at a very high rate of speed. We have to change the way we are thinking.” Congress, however, has been reluctant to back the push for more unmanned ships, believing that the Navy hasn't done enough work on how the concept of operations would work or how they'd support them. Esper said his office would be taking a leading role in bringing Congress to the table on a new fleet design. “DoD will run this ... I want to invite some of our congressional interested parties in, certainly from the defense committees, to observe the process and watch what we're doing and how we're going about it,” Esper said. “That's part of what I want to do, is to invite folks in.” Retired Navy and defense officials will also be involved in the planning and outreach process to make sure the department is on the right track, Esper continued. “We talk about the gray beards as validators, folks who make sure that nobody's putting their finger on the scale, that we've considered all factors,” Esper said. “I want it to be that type of process, if we can get there.” Expanding the fleet with more small, lightly manned ships will also increase opportunities for smaller shipyards to enter the shipbuilding industrial base, a proposal that may be attractive for congressional members in an election year. The secretary stressed that “the United States must have an expanded and healthy industrial base with modern shipyards” to make such a reality happen, adding that “I think we can actually expand the number of shipyards in the United States and highly skilled workers [as well] around the country to ensure adequate capacity.” In terms of planning, Esper said the Pentagon's Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), along with the Navy, will be conducting a series of war games and exercises in the coming months in order to figure out the way forward. But any major decisions will be based around the completion of a new joint war plan for the whole department, which the secretary said should be finished this summer. “I think once we go through this process with the future fleet — that'll really be the new foundation, the guiding post,” Esper said. “It'll give us the general direction we need to go, and I think that'll be a big game changer in terms of future fleet, for structure, for the Navy and Marine Corps team.” The Carrier Question As the Defense Department looks to craft a lighter Navy, the obvious question is: What will become of the Navy's 11 super carriers? Defense Department officials such as Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin have publicly questioned whether ground-based hypersonic missiles might more effectively deter China than an aircraft carrier that he believes is increasingly vulnerable. Esper said he's not sure what the ultimate answer is on aircraft carriers – but rejected the idea there is a binary choice to be had. “This discussion often comes down to a binary: Is it zero or 12?” Esper said. “First of all, I don't know. I think carriers are very important. I think they demonstrate American power, American prestige. They get people's attention. They are a great deterrent. They give us great capability.” The Navy may have to think about new ways of building carriers, however, if they are going to stay relevant in the future, Esper said. As an example, he pointed to what Japan is doing with its F-35B jump-jet models, which have been tested for use on lighter ships previously designed for use with helicopters. “There are various ways to do carriers,” Esper said. “So, we can talk numbers or we can talk the sizes of carriers, right? There's been discussion in the past about: do you keep building big carriers or do you go to smaller carriers, Lightning carriers? Acting Secretary Modly and I have talked about that. “I think this gets into the future fleet designs we look at. That will be one element that we look at.” https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2020/02/09/defense-secretary-mark-esper-on-how-the-navy-can-get-to-355-ships