August 30, 2018 | International, Naval

Navy Making Room for Railguns in Next Warship, But No Extra Investments

THE PENTAGON – The Navy's next large surface combatant will have all the space, weight and power margins the sea service could need now and into the future to accommodate new weapons in development – but the director of surface warfare said the Navy would not accelerate weapons development to get them ready in time to outfit the new ships.

Rear Adm. Ron Boxall, OPNAV N96, spoke to USNI News on Aug. 28, in his first interview on the Future Surface Combatant program since its initial capabilities document was signed out by leadership.

Noting that the next large surface combatant would pull from some of the advances made with the Zumwalt-class destroyers (DDG-1000) – including potentially its integrated power system that could easily support laser guns, an electromagnetic railgun, powerful radars and other power-hungry technologies – Boxall told USNI News that the new large surface combatant represented an opportunity to put these technologies into the surface fleet whereas the legacy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers simply do not have the power and cooling capacity to do so.

“We're just excited that we think we do have something that is expandable, has SWaP-C (space, weight, power and cooling) for the future. I think all of us were kind of a little bit nervous about the DDG Flight III and whether we'll have long-term ability to put future energy weapons on there, or the power that we need for directed energy, lasers, things like that,” he said.

But just because the new ship will be able to support energy weapons doesn't mean Boxall wants to accelerate energy weapons development to ensure they're ready to field on the first new ships. He said moving to the Future Surface Combatant in 2023 is an “aggressive timeline” and that at some point the Navy will have to “snap the chalk line and say, this is what you have that's good enough to go on there” – and if a technology isn't ready, it would wait for fielding in a later block buy of the ship.

With the Navy already seeking a new hull to better support the Aegis Combat System and the AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense radar – collectively called the DDG-51 Flight III capability – Boxall said he didn't want to force too many changes all at once.

“So I'm inclined to say, as long as we build it modularly, we're going to make those assessments in stride” in terms of inserting in new weapons as they come through the development process, he said.
“But I don't want to get too crazy about trying to accelerate new technology in the first of the class as we change hulls, which will hopefully be a hull that will be with us for a very long time.”

Full article: https://news.usni.org/2018/08/29/navy-making-room-railguns-next-warship-no-extra-investments

On the same subject

March 19, 2020 | International, Land

COVID-19: Biotech Innovators Pitch Army Rapid Test Kits & More
The Army launched its Shark Tank-style xTechSearch before coronavirus hit, but several of the small firms competing for $1.2 million in prizes are working on ways to help. WASHINGTON: A portable scanner that checks throat swabs and blood samples for dozens of different pathogens in 60 minutes. Sprayable sealant for wounds that kills germs with nanoscopic particles of silver. A mental health app that tracks the user's state and pushes out tailored tips and resources for, as an example, dealing with coronavirus-induced isolation. These were just the first three pitches I saw yesterday when I tuned in to the Army's webcast of its xTechSearch 4 pitches. Originally planned to happen before a live audience at AUSA's Global Force conference in Huntsville, they're now running online this week as a social distancing precaution. The Army already has the lion's share of the Defense Department's medical assets, since it has both the most personnel and the biggest role in humanitarian disaster response, and the service is playing a leading role in the government-wide response. It's also eagerly pursuing new technology. The 2020 edition of Army's Shark Tank-style competition for innovative technologies – with $1.7 million in prizes at stake this year, $1.2 million in this week's round alone – started long before COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan, China. But with the Army acutely interested in advanced medical science, it's understandable that several of the competitors are working on projects relevant to the coronavirus. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/covid-19-biotech-innovators-pitch-army-rapid-test-kits-more
October 3, 2018 | International, Aerospace

Tiltrotor Experience Positions Bell For MUX Competition
Lee Hudson | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report Bell's experience with V-22Osprey and V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft position the company well for the U.S. Marine Corps' Group 5 unmanned aerial system (UAS) competition, the chief executive says. Mitch Snyder, Bell chief executive officer, said Oct. 2 during a Defense One event that the company's offering for the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Expeditionary (MUX) UAS, the V-247 Vigilant, is the next iteration in tiltrotor technology for the company. The multimission aircraft “it could be airborne early warning on one mission, it can be an attack vehicle, it could just be an operating node—it's whatever you want it to be,” Snyder says. Keith Flail, vice president of advanced tiltrotor systems at Bell, told Aerospace DAILY Sept. 25 during Modern Day Marine at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, that the company is focused on the seven key capability gaps the service outlined during an industry day in June. Full article: http://aviationweek.com/defense/tiltrotor-experience-positions-bell-mux-competition
November 17, 2021 | International, C4ISR

Thales dévoile un radar de surveillance aérienne aux capacités de traitement cinq fois plus élevées
Thales a dévoilé un nouveau radar aux performances significativement accrues par rapport à celles affichées par ses précédents modèles de la gamme GM400. Le radar Ground Master 400 Alpha dispose d'une puissance de traitement cinq fois plus élevée et d'algorithmes d'intelligence artificielles « avancés ». Radar 3D à longue portée, le GM400 Alpha pourra constituer pour les forces armées un « outil précieux pour obtenir un avantage tactique, en détectant tous les types de menaces de manière précoce, offrant ainsi de précieuses minutes pour la prise de décision et l'action », assure l'industriel. Le fonctionnement de ce GM400 Alpha repose sur la technologie numérique à faisceaux superposés, ce qui lui permet de détecter des cibles « allant des jets et missiles rapides aux hélicoptères et drones en vol stationnaire ». Surtout, Thales insiste sur sa capacité à détecter et à poursuive la menace des « drones tactiques volant près du sol », tout en faisant de même, simultanément, pour les chasseurs-bombardiers évoluant à plus haute altitude. Opex360 du 15 novembre

All news