July 24, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By Gina Harkins
One Marine could soon dispatch more than a dozen drones to jam enemy communications and take out targets -- all from a single handheld tablet.
The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab has successfully tested the ability to have a single Marine operate six drones in the air simultaneously. The goal is to get that up to 15 and to see the small unmanned systems stay in the air for hours at a time.
"What we're looking at is ... minimal operator burden so [a Marine's] face isn't down in a tablet," said Capt. Matt Cornachio, a fires project officer with the Warfighting Lab's science and technology division. "It's sort of having the machines do the work for you, so you give them intent and they operate."
That could help ground troops in remote or hotly contested locations augment 60mm mortar fire with precision strikes. Cornachio said they're looking for drones with a host of potentials, including swarming, automatic-target recognition, kinetic-strike and electronic-warfare capabilities.
"Your swarm is multifaceted so you have several warheads that hold their own capabilities in that cloud," he said. "... We see the precise nature of loitering munitions to augment company-level fires."
In order to carry out a range of missions -- from delivering explosives to jamming communications, the Marine Corps is on the hunt for drone swarms that can stay in the air for hours. The Warfighting Lab held a drone-endurance test in the desert this month, Cornachio said, during which one unmanned aircraft flew for nearly two hours straight.
"It's not out of the realm of possibility that these things could be in the air for three or four hours, so the smaller, the better," he added.
Getting to the point where one Marine controls a swarm of drones is a big change from unmanned systems like the Switchblade, which required one operator per drone. That kamikaze-style drone delivers a payload equivalent to a 40mm grenade.
The Warfighting Lab's efforts are part of a larger Marine Corps strategy called Sea Dragon 2025. Marines are experimenting with drones, self-driving vehicles, robotics and other technology that can limit their exposure in the field. The use of unmanned technology could be especially beneficial in complex urban environments, said Brig. Gen. Christian Wortman, head of the Warfighting Lab.
"We can use manned-unmanned teaming and unmanned systems to take on some of the most dangerous tasks that Marines are executing in that kind of an urban environment," he said.
August 28, 2021 | International, Aerospace
NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion are big-government programs trying to keep pace in a marketplace increasingly dominated by commercial industry, meanwhile, the U.S. military is looking to build bridges to international partners, that same commercial industry and to the intelligence community.
July 19, 2019 | International, Other Defence
By Matthew Cox The Army general in charge of modernizing soldier lethality said recently he is confident that the service will begin replacing both M249 squad automatic weapons and the M4 carbines in infantry brigades in 2023. Army testers are currently shooting the first 6.8mm rounds through a variety of rifle and automatic rifle prototypes of the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, Brig. Gen. David Hodne told Military.com at a June 16 Army Futures Command media event. The service's goal is to select a final design for both weapons from a single provider in the first quarter of 2022 and begin replacing M4s and M249s in an infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) in the first quarter of 2023, said Hodne, director of the Army's Soldier Lethality Cross Functional Team. "We are going to do both," he said, explaining the Army won't be sure how long it will take to equip that first IBCT until it can evaluate the winner's production capability. "The first unit equipped spans a period of months, and that first unit equipped will include both [weapons]," Hodne said. The NGSW effort is part of the modernization strategy being orchestrated by Army Futures Command (AFC). Based in Austin, Texas, the command will reach full operating capability as of July 31, AFC Commander Gen. Mike Murray told reporters at the event. Both the NGSW carbine and automatic rifle are being designed to fire a special, government-designed 6.8mm projectile that Army leaders say will penetrate modern enemy body armor at greater distances than the current M855A1 5.56mm Enhanced Performance Round. The Army intends to conduct live-fire tests on NGSW prototypes from several gun makers until August, when it is scheduled to select up to three vendors that will move to the next phase of testing, Hodne said. The August down-select will involve the companies that participated in the Army's second prototyping opportunity notice (PON), released in January, that directed gun makers to develop prototypes of both the rifle and auto rifle versions of the NGSW to ensure both work with the common 6.8mm projectile. Army officials would not release the names of the companies chosen to make prototypes for the second PON effort. Last July, the service awarded contracts for the first PON effort to several companies, but that effort involved only prototypes for the automatic rifle version of the NGSW. "We learned a lot in this process. ... Industry took a very hard problem, and they have developed some very innovative solutions," Hodne said. "The first prototyping opportunity notice was centered around an automatic rifle. What we learned was -- to get the best rifle and the best automatic rifle -- we realized the approach had to be centered around a common cartridge that was supportable by both systems." The Army left it up to vendors to design the type of 6.8mm cartridge they wanted to use in their prototypes, Hodne said, adding that some gun makers went with "traditional bottleneck" brass cartridges while others used newer, case-telescoped cartridges. Another part of the NGSW effort is the advanced fire control system, which is being designed to calculate range to target, atmospheric conditions, and the ballistics of both weapon and ammunition, according to the May 30 prototype opportunity notice. The Army expects to receive fire-control prototypes sometime in October, according to Brig. Gen. Anthony Potts, commander of Program Executive Office Soldier. "People as, 'Is the technology going to be there?' " Potts said. "The answer is yes. ... I am very enthused about next generation squad weapon ... it's not just an evolution in capability. It's a revolution in capability. It really will change the lethality of our squads." https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/07/17/army-reveals-timeline-fielding-new-infantry-weapons.html
November 14, 2022 | International, Aerospace
The Hermes 900 UAS has been selected to-date by more than 15 customers attesting to its competitive edge combining technological sophistication, reliability, open architecture and a solid growth path