NATO Meets a World of New Threats - Policy Magazine

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  July 22, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR

  General Atomics Selected for the Army’s Digital Guided Missile Program

  San Diego, CA, (July 20, 2020) - General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced today that it has been selected as a prime contractor for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Aviation and Missile Center's (AvMC) Digital Guided Missile (DGM) prototype program under the Aviation and Missile Technology Consortium (AMTC). GA-EMS will develop advanced missile conceptual designs in direct support of the Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) for the Army Modernization Campaign. “We are excited to be chosen to help frame the next generation of weapon systems for the U.S. Army,” stated Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “GA-EMS has more than a decade's worth of experience developing and advancing hypersonic weapons technologies for the joint service. We develop missile designs that have a digital model grounded with vetted modeling and simulation infrastructures. We are eager to leverage that expertise to develop competitive new ideas that better equip our men and women across a multi-domain battlespace.” GA-EMS will conduct required analysis and design to develop new missile system prototype concepts for the Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF), Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV), Future Vertical Lift (FVL), and Air and Missile Defense (AMD) Cross Functional Teams (CFTs) and their high priority missions. The DGM prototype program intends to augment critical warfighter capabilities that have potential to provide increased lethality and overmatch by 2028. “GA-EMS has organic capabilities for the development of missile systems,” stated Nick Bucci, vice president of Missile Defense and Space Systems at GA-EMS. “Our key technical personnel with decades of experience in weapons design and manufacturing, along with our flight technologies and space and air systems engineering groups located in Huntsville, AL, bring the missile development knowledge and capability needed to support the U.S. Army's critical MDOs in the 2028 timeline.” The Aviation and Missile Technology Consortium (AMTC), Other Transactional Agreement (OTA) effort, will be executed for AvMC through Advanced Technology Incorporated (ATI). About General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) Group is a global leader in the research, design, and manufacture of first-of-a-kind electromagnetic and electric power generation systems. GA-EMS' history of research, development, and technology innovation has led to an expanding portfolio of specialized products and integrated system solutions supporting aviation, space systems and satellites, missile defense, power and energy, and processing and monitoring applications for critical defense, industrial, and commercial customers worldwide. For further information contact: EMS-MediaRelations@ga.com Effort sponsored by the U.S. Government under Other Transaction number W9124P-19-9-0001 between AMTC and the Government. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation thereon. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government. View source version on General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems: https://www.ga.com/general-atomics-selected-for-the-army-s-digital-guided-missile-program

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  June 4, 2024 | International, Aerospace

  NATO space enterprise must throttle up — or risk falling short

  Opinion: Here are some actions NATO should undertake and articulate as specific objectives at the 2024 NATO summit in Washington.

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  July 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  British next-generation fighter program taps new suppliers

  By: Andrew Chuter LONDON – A raft of top systems suppliers have been recruited to join the team leading Britain's development of the Tempest next-generation fighter aircraft. Bombardier in Northern Ireland, GKN, Martin Baker and Qinetiq, alongside the UK arms of Collins Aerospace, GE Aviation and Thales, have signed up to collaborate with the BAE Systems-led team working on the future air combat system, it was announced July 20 on what should have been the opening day of the Farnborough air show before Covid-19 caused the event's cancellation. At the same time as the announcement, Sweden's Saab revealed it was setting up a UK hub to potentially participate in future combat air systems work between the two nations. It's been almost two years to the day when the wraps were taken off a plastic mock-up of a Tempest fighter at the Farnborough show. The British revealed a BAE-led partnership, also involving Leonardo, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, that would begin investigating the technologies required for a future combat air system. Some $2.5 billion has so far been committed to the program. Now, just months before an outline business case to develop the program further is due to be delivered to the UK government, Team Tempest, as the industrial team is known, has signed up its first seven systems suppliers. With the first phase of the new partnerships signed, the companies will seek opportunities to join forces on established projects and developments with the core Team Tempest partners. More than 60 technology demonstration activities are currently underway on future combat air systems in the UK employing 1800 people – a number expected to grow to 2500 by the end of the year. In a statement, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he was “delighted seven more companies have joined this mission to work in collaboration with the MoD, under the Team Tempest banner. They will bring the ambition, invention and expertise that will deliver the breakthroughs we will depend on for decades to come.” The rising employment levels and increasing industrial support comes at a crucial time for a program which will pretty much dictate Britain's future position in the defense industrial world, given the air sector's importance to jobs, skills and exports here. An integrated defense, security and foreign policy review is underway led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his advisors, who are said to be skeptical of local industry's ability to deliver major programs on time and on budget and would rather buy defense equipment off the shelf. With Covid-19 pretty much emptying government coffers, launching a multibillion-dollar program like Tempest is likely to be an issue unless the British can sign up some major international partners to share the cost. Last year Italy and Sweden both signed up to investigate partnering with the UK on a future combat air system, and those studies are ongoing with neither country yet committing to the program. Sweden may not have yet committed to a partnership with the British and others, but its biggest defense company, Saab, announced July 20 it was to invest an initial $63 million setting up a new future combat air center with other initiatives in the UK. Saab leads Sweden's future combat air system industrial participation in cooperation with the defense ministry. Details of where and when the company will invest in the UK are sparse, but Micael Johansson, the president and CEO of Saab, said the move demonstrated the company's commitment to combat air development and the UK. “Saab took the decision to create a new future combat air system center so that we can further develop the close working relationship with the other FCAS industrial partners and the UK MoD. This emphasizes the importance of both FCAS and the United Kingdom to Saab's future,” said Johansson. The British have cast their net beyond Europe in the search for partners, with India and Japan also having held discussions about a potential tie-up on a future combat air system. Across the English channel France and Germany are together developing a new combat jet to a similar time frame. Attempts to merge the two European programs have so far failed, but that's not to say that post Covid-19 financial reality may not cause a potential tie-up to be revisited. Howard Wheeldon, of consultants Wheeldon Strategic Advisory, said that the British government knew was at stake in the development of a future combat air system. “Team Tempest is a very significant program for the UK. ... A partnership between government, military, industry and international partners all of whom are determined to succeed,” he said. “Industry, along with the RAF Rapid Capabilities Office, have already achieved a vast amount in a very short period of time. I, for one, am in no doubt that the government fully understands the importance of what ‘Team Tempest' means to the UK, not only to jobs and maintaining necessary skills, but in the potential that the development has in terms of future prosperity,” said Wheeldon. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/07/20/british-next-generation-fighter-program-taps-new-suppliers