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January 12, 2023 | International, Aerospace

More can be done to ban US government use of Chinese drones

The U.S. national security community must eschew companies and supply chains controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2023/01/12/more-can-be-done-to-ban-us-government-use-of-chinese-drones/

On the same subject

  • Massive simulation shows the need for speed in multi-domain ops

    September 13, 2019 | International, Aerospace

    Massive simulation shows the need for speed in multi-domain ops

    FORT BENNING, Ga. – The Army tested its current and future equipment and warfighting methods for the potential next war in a massive, weeks-long simulated experiment that wrapped up recently. The Unified Challenge 19.2 experiment in August involved more than 400 participants working with 55 formations, 64 concepts and 150 capabilities, said Col. Mark Bailey, chief of the Army's Futures and Concepts Center's Joint Army Experimentation Division. The exercise ran Aug. 5-23. The simulation allowed Army leaders to “understand some of the complex patterns” that come out of the very complex systems that the United States and its adversaries are using, or developing to use, in future scenarios, Bailey told reporters this week. Much of what was tested couldn't be done in the real world because it hasn't been invented yet. For example, the Army's priorities in the Cross Functional Teams, from Future Vertical Lift to the Next Generation Combat Vehicle, are years away from fielding their platforms to the force, but through mathematical models and algorithms, researchers can plug in the day and play out a very detailed set of events. And the scope of the experiment dove deeper than what a typical tabletop exercise or wargaming scenario might. It allowed experimenters to see down to the small unit level and all the way up to the division and corps level what would likely play out if those formations collided with a near-peer competitor on foreign turf in a battle for territory. Chris Willis, the chief of the Maneuver Battle Lab's Model and Simulations Branch, said that for the first time, experimenters were able to use “nonlethal effects” in a simulation — electronic jamming, cyber-attacks and other methods — to support maneuver warfighting. That helped them gather data on concepts that Army leaders have been considering and theorizing about for years. But the multi-domain operations tools that were used in simulation were not being flung about the simulated battle space by random privates. Currently, the experiments look at having commanders below the brigade level aware of what MDO tools are at their disposal and how to get access to them when needed from higher echelons, which would likely house them. “The brigade would get access to some effects but those wouldn't rest inside of the brigade proper,” said Col. Chris Cassibry, director of the Maneuver Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate's Concepts Development Division. Cassibry emphasized that at this stage it's more important for the brigade commander to understand what's happening across the battlefield and use those effects to execute maneuver. For instance, the idea is that by enabling space and cyber assets, ground forces can have more freedom to maneuver. That was assumed to be the case but the complex simulation has put some data behind the concept for researchers to now analyze. A lot of what presented challenges that will consume commanders of the future was creating “windows of domain superiority,” Bailey said. Converging effects The basic plan is to converge effects, fires or non-kinetic or other types, which create that window. Commanders can plan for that and they do. But to do that at the speed that leaders believe MDO will unfold presents a whole other set of challenges. “Things happen so fast you must have this flexibility to do that in a moment's notice so that when you identify a target on a battlefield and don't have the artillery tube in range you have to quickly identify what else you have in range to hit that target,” Bailey said. And also, to understand that even if you switch “guns” quickly enough to another asset, drone, missile, electronic warfare, that means the new tool you've chosen will now not be used on another quickly emerging target or threat. That's where artificial intelligence must fill the gap, by offering up those menus of options for commanders and identifying the targets so that the human can then fire. Unified Challenge is a twice a year event; this was the second. Though it provides a lot of data, it's not something easily replicable. That means that in the near term, smaller experiments will unfold using some of the lessons learned from the larger experiment, further refining concepts and next steps on many of the ways in which the Army goes after MDO. The next step will be for the Futures and Concepts Center to compile a report of lessons learned and recommendations moving forward with some of the platforms, capabilities and doctrine. That will be delivered to the center director in the coming months, and once approved, spread across the Army to inform smaller scale experiments with portions of the larger effort to develop MDO doctrine and materiel, Bailey said. https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/09/12/massive-simulation-shows-the-need-for-speed-in-multi-domain-ops

  • Lockheed dives into next-generation missile defense interceptor competition

    August 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    Lockheed dives into next-generation missile defense interceptor competition

    By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin said it will compete to build the Missile Defense Agency's Next-Generation Interceptor designed to protect the homeland against intercontinental ballistic missile threats from North Korea and Iran. The company is “excited to confirm that we are putting in a bid for the Next-Generation Interceptor,” Sarah Reeves, Lockheed's vice president of missile defense programs, told reporters Aug. 3. Bids were due July 31. Boeing and a Raytheon-Northrop Grumman team have already announced their intentions to compete to develop and field the agency's new interceptor following the cancellation of the Redesigned Kill Vehicle meant to replace the warhead on the current Ground-Based Interceptors. Those missiles are part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System, which is operational at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The RKV program was paused in May 2019 and then abruptly terminated in August 2019 due to insurmountable technical issues resulting in delayed schedules and cost increases. The Defense Department announced at the time that it would embark on an entirely new program to field a future interceptor. MDA now plans to downselect to two companies, which will then compete for the right to build the interceptor. While MDA struggled with RKV, Lockheed invested the last two decades on multi-kill vehicle technology,” Reeves said. Lockheed had one of three small contracts to design a kill vehicle that could take out multiple warheads several years ago that would lead to a program that would replace the RKV called the Multi-Object Kill Vehicle (MOKV) program. Raytheon and Boeing had won the remaining two contracts. Reeves stressed the need for the new interceptor to be able to go after threats that disperse multiple objects including decoys. “We are looking carefully at the lessons learned from RKV including parts survivability testing which, in that program, was done too late and caused a major system redesign, as well as ensuring early-and-often testing and fly-before-you-buy mentality,” Reeves said. Lockheed plans to conduct two successful flight tests before going into production, Reeves said, which as an MDA program requirement. “The time is right now,” Reeves said. “We have significant investments and the technology a couple of decades ago, when this was initially a vision of MDA, wasn't quite there, but now it is ready to go.” The company plans to take elements from its existing capabilities such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, which Reeves said has had a 100 percent mission success rate, and the Aegis missile defense system. Lockheed also will garner experience from its partnership with the U.S. Navy on its Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile system, which “has to survive these more hostile environments,” she said. And Lockheed's experience with space is another asset that will contribute to understanding technology needed for an NGI, which will need to travel through space, according to Reeves. Lockheed is also optimistic, Reeves said, that it can meet a faster schedule for NGI than currently planned. Some Defense Department officials said NGI could not be fielded until the 2030s but the MDA director and U.S. Northern Command's commander believe it is possible to move that timeline to at least 2028 or earlier. The company plans to use tools such as artificial intelligence, machine-to-machine learning, big data analytics and 3-D printing to “accelerate the schedule and to deliver products faster than we have had in the past,” Reeves said. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/08/03/lockheed-dives-into-next-generation-missile-defense-interceptor-competition

  • Safran va fournir le train d'atterrissage pour un avion de nouvelle génération développé par Lockheed-Martin - Zone Militaire

    June 2, 2022 | International, Aerospace

    Safran va fournir le train d'atterrissage pour un avion de nouvelle génération développé par Lockheed-Martin - Zone Militaire

    Le groupe français Safran en a trop dit... ou pas assez. Via un communiqué diffusé le 31 mai, il a en effet indiqué que sa filiale "Safran Landing Systems

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