NATO drone surveillance hours surge amid growing appetite for intel

On the same subject

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  August 23, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  Here’s how the Army is tackling AI

  By: Mark Pomerleau The Army is “all in” on the Department of Defense's larger efforts to harness the power of artificial intelligence. Speaking before an audience Aug. 22 at TechNet Augusta, Army CIO Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford said the Army is on board with the larger efforts the department is taking, such as building out the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and crafting a DoD AI strategy. DoD's CIO, Dana Deasy, speaking Aug. 13 at the DoDIIS conference in Omaha, Nebraska, said DoD delivered its AI strategy to Congress, including the plan to stand up the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (an unclassified version of the strategy will be released later this year). Deasy noted that the center will deliver new AI capabilities and concepts that will support the DoD's missions and business functions. It will also bring traditional and nontraditional innovators together in a way that's never been seen before, though Deasy did not provide many details. Full article: https://www.c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/technet-augusta/2018/08/22/heres-how-the-army-is-tackling-ai/

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  September 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  General Atomics nets $7.4B MQ-9 Reaper contract with U.S. Air Force

  Ed Adamczyk Sept. 18 (UPI) -- A $7.4 billion contract between the U.S. Air Force and General Atomics, announced this week, will field MQ-9 Reaper drones faster, the Air Force said. The five-year Agile Reaper Enterprise Solution contract for the unmanned surveillance, intelligence, reconnaissance and strike-capability aircraft was awarded on Thursday. It calls for delivery of up to 36 aircraft per year from the San Diego-based company. With a $7.4 billion ceiling, it is expected to reduce the time to deliver operational MQ-9s to operational units by 35%. The Air Force regards it as one of its most in-demand weapons, an Air Force Life Cycle Management Center statement said on Thursday. The ARES contract has a pre-negotiated $3.3 billion price-quantity-curve, allowing the Air Force and foreign military sales partners to order between from four to 36 aircraft in a single year. Foreign Military Sales partners will be allowed to purchase the Dash 21 variant, which is the NATO-exportable version of the MQ-9A. "ARES is a big deal because it answers the 'mail' as far as how do we deal with hard-to-predict demand signals from our international partners and enable increased responsiveness to U.S. budget dynamics," said Alicia Morales, aircraft production manager with the Medium Altitude Unmanned Aerial System Program Office. "So, the team came together and figured out the best and most innovative approach to deal with unplanned requirements, so no matter what comes, we are prepared and able to handle it," said Morales, who mapped out much of ARES . The MQ-9, whose predecessors have been in use since 2001, is the first unmanned aerial vehicle designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance. The Air Force has deployed the UAVs around the world, which were in use in August during a joint Army-Navy training exercise over the Black Sea. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2020/09/18/General-Atomics-nets-74B-MQ-9-Reaper-contract-with-US-Air-Force/7611600455794/

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  October 9, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR

  US Army capabilities integration chief talks multidomain ops

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley is the new Army Capabilities Integration Center director and the first director to guide the center's efforts under the purview of the brand-new Army Futures Command, as opposed to Training and Doctrine Command, where the center lived since its inception. ARCIC will be responsible for the development of future operational and war-fighting concepts that align and inform the service's major modernization priorities that Futures Command is tasked to develop in a new and rapid way. In an unprecedented method, concept and capability development will be formed in parallel. In a wide-ranging interview with Defense News, Wesley discussed how the Army is evolving its major operational concept — Multidomain Operations 1.5 — and how ARCIC will continue to align modernization strategy with the concept as the Army heads toward a fully modernized force by 2028 — one that can provide overmatch against peer adversaries. When are you coming out with the new version of the Army's Multidomain Operations concept (MDO 1.5)? Will it be at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference? We're teasing it out. What we're going to do is deliver all of the principles and tenets of this new concept, and then you'll see the signed version within 30 days of that. Why is getting the MDO concept right so critical? I'll say upfront this is the most fundamental rewrite of an operational concept since AirLand Battle that was published in 1982. Concepts are critical, particularly at a point in time when you see the world's dynamics fundamentally shift in a way that you've got to, in many ways, reconfigure or redesign and modernize your army. What has changed in the world that requires multidomain operations? I'd say there are a number of things. But if there's a word that you want to remember in terms of identifying the challenges we face within the pacing threats, it is the word “standoff.” And what [our adversaries] have invested in are things that mitigate against the United States and our partners and allies' strengths. We're very good at close combat, and they've watched us over the last 30 years or so. And when you give the United States and our coalition partners and allies time to build up against it, usually the outcome is preordained based on ability to get into position and conduct operations the way we like to conduct them. So recognizing that, they've invested in what we oftentimes refer to as anti-access, area denial capabilities, which serendipitously came parallel with our withdrawal from the continent of Europe and the Korean Peninsula over the last 30 years. Fll article: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2018/10/08/us-army-capabilities-integration-chief-talks-multidomain-ops