June 30, 2024 | International, Land
March 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Nearly All the F-35 Jet Engines Ordered Last Year Arrived Late
By Anthony Capaccio
Nearly all the engines ordered for the next-generation F-35 jet were delivered late last year as the Pratt & Whitney unit of United Technologies Corp. struggled to solve nagging difficulties with parts and suppliers, according to the Pentagon.
About 85% of the engines for the stealthy fighter were delivered late in 2019, the Defense Department's F-35 program office reported, adding that Pratt & Whitney did manage to deliver more engines than required. The tardiness figure was in line with data from 2018, but up from 48% and 58% in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
“In general, the monthly schedule performance continues to be impacted by issues with parts and suppliers which the program office is monitoring closely,” the program office said in statement Tuesday. Pratt & Whitney “continues to perform reviews” within its expansive production chain and “has made some progress but more progress is needed to meet the monthly schedule,” it added.
Engine delivery issues are just one problem that has plagued the jet's manufacturing ahead of a key decision expected in the next year on whether to move ahead into full-rate production on the $428 billion F-35 program. The fighter has also been flagged for breaking down too often, carrying a 25mm gun that doesn't shoot accurately and having shortages in its supply chain for spare parts from tire assemblies to seats. Some of the problems have since been fixed.
Nevertheless, the jet is a key part of a broader weapons modernization effort meant to bolster not just the U.S. military but those of key allies from Poland to Japan. As the sole provider of F-35 engines, Pratt & Whitney and its subcontractors are in line to collect as much as $66 billion of the total jet contract. Congress has approved about $27 billion to date for F-35 engines. But the eventual decision on full-rate production means Pratt & Whitney needs to show it can ramp up production effectively.
Overall, 128 of 150 engines delivered last year arrived late, eight arrived on time and 14 came in ahead of schedule, according to the F-35 program office. Of 93 engines in the 11th low-rate production contract bloc, 90 arrived an average of 41 days late.
In a statement, the company emphasized that it “exceeded its annual F-35 engine delivery commitment” for 2019. “This represents a 60% year-over-year increase in deliveries. We remain laser-focused on working closely” with the program office and “our supply base to achieving on-time delivery in 2020.”
Pratt & Whitney remains under a high-level “Corrective Action Request” that the Defense Contract Management Agency issued in December 2018, citing “poor delivery performance.” The agency said it's evaluating the company's corrective actions and may rescind the CAR by month's end. The company has made improvements in four areas, including deploying “focus teams” to subcontractors for ensuring adequate “critical hardware” and qualifying additional suppliers, DCMA said.
Asked if the company was ready for accelerated full-rate engine production, the agency said “as the P&W suppliers demonstrate success in meeting their contract delivery rate the probability of P&W meeting their full-rate production level increases.
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June 19, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Other Defence
Israel’s Rafael integrates artificial intelligence into Spice bombs
By: Seth J. Frantzman and Kelsey D. Atherton Rafael Advanced Defense System's Spice bombs now have a new technological breakthrough as the Israeli company enables its Spice 250 with artificial intelligence alongside automatic target recognition to be used with scene-matching technology. The Spice 250, which can be deployed on quad racks under the wings of warplanes like the F-16, has a 75-kilogram warhead and a maximum range of 100 kilometers with its deployable wings. Its electro-optic scene-matching technology — which involves uploading terrain data onto the bomb and combining it with real-time electro-optic imagery — allows the weapon to work in GPS-denied environments. And the bomb can use this autonomous capability to navigate and correct its location, according to Gideon Weiss, Rafael's deputy general manager of marketing and business development at the company's air and C4I division. With its AI and “deep learning” technologies, the weapon has the ability to identity moving ground targets and distinguish them from other objects and terrain. This is based on 3D models uploaded to the bomb as well as algorithms. As the weapon identifies and homes in on its target, such as a convoy of vehicles, it separates the convoy of interest from other vehicles it has “learned” to ignore. “The deep-learning algorithm is indifferent to the actual data fed to it for modeling targets of interest and embedding their pertaining characteristics into the system," Weiss said. "However, the more the data used for modeling is representative of the target of interest, the more robust the recognition probability will be in real life.” Rafael has completed the development and testing phase of the Spice 250, including flight tests, which have “proven the robustness of the ATA and ATR, so it is mature for delivery,” Weiss said, using acronyms for automatic target acquisition and recognition. Asked if the ATR algorithm will select a secondary target if the computer cannot find the initial human-selected target, Weiss said: “This goes into the area of user-defined policies and rules of engagement, and it is up to the users to decide on how to apply the weapon, when and where to use it, and how to define target recognition probabilities and its eventuality.” Automatically selecting a secondary target may eventually become part of the upgrade profile for the munition, if customers express significant interest in the feature. With a two-way data link and a video-streaming capability, the bomb can be aborted or told to re-target up until a “few second before the weapon hits its target,” Weiss explained. That two-way data-link, enabled by the weapon's mounting on a Smart Quad Rack, or SQR, will enable future deep learning to be based on data extracted from earlier launches. Data recorded will include either live-streaming video or a burst of still images of the entire homing phase up until impact. “These are automatically and simultaneously recorded on the SQR — enabling two functions: (a) real-time and post-mission BDI (Bomb Damage Indication); (b) post-mission target data extraction for intel updates, etc.," Weiss said. "The ATR capability, including its deep learning updates, must be more agile than the enemy's ability to conceal and/or change its battlefield footprint, tactics, appearance or anything else which might impede the ATR from accurately recognizing and destroying targets.” The Spice family of weapons is operational with the Israeli Air Force and international customers. https://www.defensenews.com/artificial-intelligence/2019/06/17/israels-rafael-integrates-artificial-intelligence-into-spice-bombs/
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July 8, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security
Leonardo DRS delivers 70,000th mounted family of computer system to the U.S Army
Arlington, VA, July 7, 2020 - Leonardo DRS, Inc. announced today that the company has delivered its 70,000th mission command computing system known as the Mounted Family of Computer Systems (MFoCS), to the U.S. Army. The delivery marks two decades of providing the U.S. military advanced tactical computing units for ground combat vehicles and command post operations. MFoCS systems provide ruggedized modular computing capabilities for the U.S Army and other services, giving warfighters the next-generation of computing and display technology with faster processing performance. This enables support for simultaneous applications as well as the integration of additional sensors and communications networks. “We are honored to continue supporting the delivery of the next generation of mission critical computing in support of our soldiers and Marines at the point of the spear,” said Bill Guyan, senior vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS Land Electronics business unit. “We take great pride in having designed a mission-critical family of network systems using the latest commercial off-the-shelf technologies that can be confidently relied upon when in harm's way,” Guyan said. Over a twenty year period working with our partners at the U.S. Army Project Manager - Mission Command, the Leonardo DRS Land Electronics business has designed and built multiple generations of MFoCS, building on each with innovative advancements in technology and supporting the Army's Network Modernization Plan. The platform has also continuously met the Army's current Mounted Computing Operating Environment requirements and is ready to satisfy the Army's advanced Mounted Mission Command requirements in the future. For more information about Leonardo DRS Mounted Family of Computer Systems, visit www.LeonardoDRS.com/MFOCS About Leonardo DRS Leonardo DRS is a prime contractor, leading technology innovator and supplier of integrated products, services and support to military forces, intelligence agencies and defense contractors worldwide. Its Land Electronics business unit Provides C4I Network computing and integrated situational awareness, as well as state-of-the-art embedded diagnostics, vehicle power management and combat vehicle integration products and services. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Leonardo DRS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A. See the full range of capabilities at www.LeonardoDRS.com and on Twitter @LeonardoDRSnews CONTACT US Michael Mount Vice President, Public Affairs mmount@drs.com +1 571 447 4624 View source version on Leonardo DRS: https://www.leonardodrs.com/news/press-releases/leonardo-drs-delivers-70-000th-mounted-family-of-computer-system-to-the-us-army/