MAG, L3Harris to supply Army with ATHENA-equipped spy planes

On the same subject

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  April 29, 2019 | International, Naval

  China’s latest class of warship makes its public debut

  By: Mike Yeo MELBOURNE, Australia – the first of a new class of guided missile destroyer from China made an appearance at a naval review to mark the 70th Anniversary of the country's navy. The Type 055 destroyer, named the Nanchang, was among several ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy or PLAN that took part in the naval review held off the northern Chinese city of Qingdao with Chinese President Xi Jinping in attendance. China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning, a refurbished Soviet-era ship, was also in attendance along with 18 warships from 13 other nations including Australia, India and Japan. The United States declined an invitation to send its ships to the naval review, and France was disinvited after its frigate Vendémiaire sailed through the Taiwan Straits prior to the event, Reuters reported. The Nanchang was launched at Shanghai's Jiangnan Changxin shipyard in June 2017. The Type 055, which is classed as a cruiser by the Pentagon, measures almost 590 feet and displaces 10,000 tons according to specifications released by China — although some naval analysts believe that figure is an underestimation. Each ship is also equipped with a total of 112 vertical launch cells that are capable of launching either surface-to-air or anti-ship missiles, and fitted with a modern sensor suite that includes phased array radars. Speaking at a regular press briefing conducted by China's Ministry National Defense on Thursday, Senior Col. Ren Guoqiang confirmed that the Nanchang is on the verge of completing sea trials and will be officially handed over to the PLAN later this year. In addition to the Nanchang, recent open-source satellite and aerial imagery show that seven other Type 055s are in various states of construction and fitting out at the two major Chinese naval shipyards in Shanghai and Dalian. The latter is also where China's first domestically-built carrier, which is based closely on the Liaoning, is currently being completed. Further underscoring the astonishing pace of China's ongoing naval buildup, the photos also show five other smaller Type 052D destroyers undergoing construction at Dalian with six more being built at Shanghai. The latter shipyard has four more destroyers of an unknown sub-type being put together, along with what are reportedly the modules for China's third and largest aircraft carrier. https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2019/04/26/chinas-latest-class-of-warship-makes-its-public-debut/

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  August 12, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security

  Pentagon requests 30-day extension for re-awarding JEDI

  Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Defense has requested 30 extra days to review vendor proposals as it prepares to make another award decision for its massive enterprise cloud contract, according to a Monday night court filing. The DoD is currently reviewing new revised proposals for its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, which it awarded to Microsoft over Amazon Web Services in October last year. In the filing, the DoD said that it “recently identified the need to reopen limited discussions related to certain aspects of the offerors' pricing proposals.” The request, made in the Court of Federal Claims, is yet another delay for the controversial JEDI cloud. The department was supposed to re-award the contract by Aug. 17 after receiving a 120-day stay to take corrective action on the contract. It's now asking to delay that decision to Sept. 16. “During the remand, DoD has identified areas of concern with respect to the revised proposals received from both offerors, resulting in multiple solicitation amendments, rounds of proposal revisions, and exchanges with the offerors,” the court filing said. AWS, which filed the protest late last year in the Court of Federal Claims after losing the contract, argues that the department made several technical errors while evaluating its proposal and also accuses President Donald Trump of political interference in the contract. AWS does not oppose the Pentagon's new motion, the court document said. In late July, DoD CIO Dana Deasy told reporters that the DoD would “probably sometimes towards the very end of August, barring any last minute, unforeseen additional issues that are raised.” The court filing says that the department “anticipates” that the re-evaluation process will wrap up in early September. The JEDI cloud has been delayed continuously throughout the entirety of the procurement process. Last year, the initial award decision was delayed for months due to a pre-award protest by Oracle. Earlier this year work on JEDI was further delayed when the court placed a temporary restraining order on any work on the JEDI cloud, finding that AWS was “likely to succeed” in proving DoD erred in the evaluation process. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/08/11/pentagon-requests-30-day-extension-for-re-awarding-jedi/

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  March 20, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Reaper : des équipages espagnols viennent se former en France

  L'Armée de l'air a accueilli deux équipages de Reaper venus d'Espagne, à l'occasion de leur stage de requalification. 33e escadre de surveillance, de reconnaissance et d'attaque. Le 13 mars, l'Armée de l'air française a annoncé avoir participé à la formation de deux équipages de drones Reaper espagnols. Il s'agissait en fait d'un stage de requalification, une procédure courante pour les pilotes de drones, qui s'est déroulé au sein de la base 709 de Cognac-Chateaubernard, qui accueille la 33e escadre de surveillance, de reconnaissance et d'attaque. La 33e ESRA est celle qui met en œuvre les drones Reaper français et forment les équipages à travers l'Escadron de transformation opérationnelle drone (ETOD) 3/33 « Moselle ». Coopération franco-espagnole. Les deux équipages espagnols ont ainsi pu suivre ce stage du 3 au 14 février. Le capitaine Redondo, de l'Ejercito del Aire, a déclaré à cette occasion : « c'est une grande chance pour nous de pouvoir bénéficier du retour d'expérience des pilotes et instructeurs français qui travaillent sur ces drones depuis plus longtemps. Nous avons pu échanger sur nos connaissances et nos missions respectives et sommes reconnaissants d'avoir pu apprendre de leur vécu », rapporte l'armée de l'Air. En effet, la livraison du premier système de drones Reaper à la France remonte à 2013, lequel a immédiatement été employé en Opex, dans le cadre de l'opération Barkhane. Un dispositif différent. La France a ainsi accompagné les deux pilotes et les deux opérateurs capteurs espagnols dans ce stage de requalification, qu'ils ont pu valider à l'issue de deux semaines de formation. Les équipages ont particulièrement travaillé sur les procédures de décollage et d'atterrissage de l'aéronef, sur l'emploi du radar ainsi que sur les différentes procédures d'urgence. Mais alors que les équipages espagnols s'articulent autour de deux personnes, la France adopte une approche différente dans ce domaine, avec un équipage à quatre. « Nous travaillons en équipage de deux personnes et les informations recueillies sont envoyées par satellite pour traitement. L'Armée de l'air française forme quant à elle deux personnes de plus qui intègrent l'équipage : un officier renseignement et un opérateur qui traitent les informations instantanément et sont en liaison directe avec leur commandement », met en avant l'Ejercito del Aire. Une distinction dont la France est fière et qui lui permet de transmettre rapidement un renseignement enrichi auprès des décideurs et du C2 lors des missions Reaper. https://www.air-cosmos.com/article/reaper-des-quipages-espagnols-viennent-se-former-en-france-22777