August 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace
The Air Force's new military leaders, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass, made their first trip with Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett Thursday.
The leadership team traveled to Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas, where they were shown Air Education and Training Command's plans to take lessons from its virtual reality and artificial intelligence-infused pilot training experiment, called Pilot Training Next, and incorporate them into a new version of undergraduate pilot training, which the Air Force is calling UPT 2.5.
In a conference call with reporters Friday, Barrett said the leadership team was “celebrating innovation” and airmen during their trip. The trio also visited AFWERX, the Air Force's innovation hub in Austin, and saw some of the programs it is working on. One of those, Agility Prime, aims to improve logistics and transportation with “flying cars, very Jetsons-like,” Barrett said.
Barrett said the Air Force expects virtual pilot training not only will produce pilots cheaper and faster, but also better.
Brown, who became the 22nd chief of staff Aug. 6, said that taking care of airmen and their families, and ensuring their quality of service and quality of life remain high, are among his top priorities. That is why he, Barrett and Bass decided to come to Randolph for their first trip together, he said, to see how the Air Force develops its future leaders.
“We start leadership development the first day they walk in the door,” Brown said. “That, to me, is important, particularly when you look at the dynamics of what we're dealing with, whether it's COVID, racial disparity, potential budget pressures, high-end fight.”
November 30, 2024 | International, Land
General Jennie Carignan, the Chief of the Defence Staff, and Robyn Hynes, Interim Ombud, are pleased to announce an exciting new collaboration between the Office of the DND/CAF Ombudsman and the Canadian Armed Forces.
October 25, 2019 | International, Aerospace
La ministre des Armées, Florence Parly, a salué la livraison des deux premiers avions de surveillance Dassault Aviation ATL2 mis au standard 6 et arrivés sur la base de Lann-Bihoué en juillet et août derniers. Florence Parly, ministre des Armées, s'est vue présenter les nouvelles capacités des avions de surveillance maritime Dassault Aviation ATL2 mis au standard 6 lors d'un vol de deux heures. Les deux premiers ATL2, le prototype et le premier de série, respectivement arrivés à Lann-Bihoué les 18 juillet et 27 août dans leur version logicielle finale, "ont été minutieusement testés par une équipe intégrée associant le centre d'expertise et d'essais DGA Essais en vol, le centre d'expérimentations pratiques et de réception de l'aéronautique navale (CEPA/10S) de la Marine nationale et Dassault Aviation". "L'expérimentation opérationnelle de la Marine, débutée à Istres en parallèle des dernières phases d'essais, se poursuit à Lorient pendant les dernières vérifications contractuelles effectuées par la DGA en vue de la qualification. Elle a pour but d'élaborer les tactiques d'emploi permettant d'utiliser au mieux les nouvelles capacités de l'aéronef", indique le ministère des Armées qui poursuit :" La mise en service opérationnel du standard 6 est prévue fin 2021, après la formation des équipages, la transformation d'un premier lot d'aéronefs, et la livraison du simulateur à terre pour l'entraînement tactique de nouvelle génération (SIMTAC NG), en cours de réalisation sous la conduite de la DGA". Les chantiers de mise à hauteur au standard 6 s'effectuent en parallèle par Dassault Aviation (6 chantiers en plus de l'avion prototype) et le Service industriel de l'aéronautique (SIAé) du ministère des Armées (11 chantiers). "Au-delà du traitement des obsolescences d'un avion conçu dans les années 1980, la rénovation porte principalement sur le remplacement de certains matériels par des équipements numériques issus des meilleures technologies actuellement disponibles : calculateur tactique, systèmes de renseignement optronique et acoustique, consoles des opérateurs, radar. En particulier, le nouveau radar Searchmaster bénéficie de la technologie d'antenne active développée par Thales pour le Rafale. Naval Group est également impliqué avec le logiciel de traitement de l'information, ainsi que le SIAé pour la rénovation des consoles de visualisation", souligne le ministère des Armées qui rappelle que si les ATL2 sont "prioritairement destinés à la maîtrise du milieu aéromaritime via la lutte contre les sous-marins et les navires de surface, de la zone littorale jusqu'au grand large", ils peuvent aussi "constituer un appui aux opérations aéroterrestres gr'ce à leur capacité à mener des actions de renseignement et de frappes au sol". https://www.air-cosmos.com/article/deux-premiers-dassault-atl2-pour-la-marine-21912
October 9, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR
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