Back to news

August 2, 2019 | International, Aerospace

NORTHROP AND RAYTHEON TO COMPETE TO BUILD LASER WEAPON FOR SHORT-RANGE AIR DEFENSE

By: Jen Judson

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has awarded a contract each to Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to build a 50-kilowatt-class laser weapon for Stryker combat vehicles for the Short-Range Air Defense (SHORAD) mission, according to an Aug. 1 statement from the service's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.

The two companies will build their respective directed-energy weapons as subcontractors to Kord Technologies. The Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, or RCCTO, entered into a $203 million agreement with Kord under the OTA, or other transaction authority, contracting mechanism that is used to rapidly fund the production of prototypes.

The contract could increase to $490 million for the delivery of four prototypes.

One of the laser weapon systems developed through the OTA could be integrated onto a platoon of four Stryker vehicles in fiscal 2022. But the Army is leaving competition open to any vendors that did not receive an OTA contract to compete using their own internal research and development dollars.

The Army is rapidly developing and fielding Manuever-SHORAD vehicles in response to an urgent need in Europe.

A year ago, the Army chose Leonardo DRS to integrate a mission equipment package that will include Raytheon's Stinger vehicle missile launcher onto a Stryker as its M-SHORAD capability. General Dynamics Land Systems — which produces the Stryker — will be the platform integrator for the system. The final prototypes will be delivered to the service by the first quarter of FY20.

The directed-energy M-SHORAD capability will protect brigade combat teams from unmanned aircraft, helicopters, rockets, artillery and mortars.

“The time is now to get directed energy weapons to the battlefield,” Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, director of hypersonics, directed energy, space and rapid acquisition, said in a statement. “The Army recognizes the need for directed energy lasers as part of the Army's modernization plan. This is no longer a research effort or a demonstration effort. It is a strategic combat capability, and we are on the right path to get it in soldiers' hands.”

The award marks progress toward the Army's new strategy for accelerating and fielding directed-energy weapons.

The M-SHORAD laser weapon prototypes are part of a technology maturation effort — the Multi-Mission High Energy Laser.

The Army is also building a High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator. While the laser for the demonstrator will be a 100-kilowatt-class laser on a Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles platform — developed by Dynetics and Lockheed Martin — the service aims to develop 250- to 300-kilowatt-class directed-energy weapons.

More powerful laser weapon systems will allow the services to protect against rockets, artillery, mortars and drones “as well as more stressing threats,” according to the release.

The Army plans to deliver prototypes of approximately that power onto tactical vehicles for the High Energy Laser Indirect Fire Protection Capability to a platoon by FY24.

“By teaming with the other services and our industry partners, we will not only save resources, but exponentially increase the power level and get a better system to soldiers faster,” Thurgood said.

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/08/01/northrop-and-raytheon-to-compete-to-build-laser-weapon-for-short-range-air-defense/

On the same subject

  • New England guardsmen test their skills in Cyber Yankee 2020

    August 6, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security

    New England guardsmen test their skills in Cyber Yankee 2020

    Mark Pomerleau Members of the National Guard from New England states concluded a two-week cyber exercise that sought to test the cyber skills of guardsmen and critical infrastructure operators. Cyber Yankee 2020, which took place July 21-31 in New Hampshire, involved more than 200 National Guard members and their civilian counterparts from across New England states, along with some active-duty partners and participants from local, state and federal agencies. In its sixth year, there was less attendance than previous years due to the coronavirus pandemic, but several were able to participate remotely. “Cyber Yankee is primarily a hands-on keyboard cyber incident response exercise for National Guard soldiers and airmen in FEMA Region 1, which are the six New England states,” said Lt. Col. Woody Groton, a member of the New Hampshire National Guard and the director for Cyber Yankee, according to a Facebook post by the New Hampshire Air National Guard. Groton said in a video that the exercise is primarily focused on the electrical and water sector. The exercise is “a great training opportunity for us to work with those people who would actually own the network that we would potentially respond on and for our soldiers and airmen to get that experience and for the engineers from those various entities, they get the training in working with us,” he said. The Guard units within the various states are a critical resource to defend against cyberattacks when they overwhelm localities. “If a large-scale attack happened against a power company, water company, or any other critical department around the state, we would be able to get activated and help them mitigate the threat,” Capt. Frederick Bond, 103rd Air Control Squadron cyberspace operator and exercise Team 3 lead from the Connecticut National Guard, said in a release. “It's similar to when a storm comes and we help remove fallen trees or shovel snow from roofs to help get critical infrastructure going again.” The friendly blue team had to deal with simulated attacks from an opposing red team. Social media posts were used to simulate a real internet environment, where forces must sift through the noise and discern what information is needed to make decisions and identify threat actors. In one case, these actors defaced a public website. “We found some discrepancies including website, it looks like it may have been defaced. The team is digging into finding the source of that defacement and then making steps to correct it,” Master Sgt. Eric Lewis, a blue team member in the New Hampshire Air National Guard, said in a video. Other actions tested included protecting computer files from being stolen or manipulated. “We received intel that potential threat actors may be using a certain capability to transfer files,” said Senior Airman Stephen LaLuna, 103rd Communications Flight cyber systems operations specialist with the Connecticut National Guard. “We see the traffic that's using it, that sets off a flag on our end to look deeper into that. If we determine it is malicious, we send it up the chain with our findings and recommendations to block it.” Officials explained that one of the most critical aspects of these training events is the partnerships built between Guard units, critical infrastructure operators and government entities so that when a crisis breaks out, everyone is acquainted. “We have built enduring partnerships with state government and the critical infrastructure sector. Something that if we did have a major cyberattack against one of those, we would be ready to respond and already know each other,” Groton said. Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Lt. Col. Woody Groton. He is with the Army National Guard. https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2020/08/03/new-england-guardsmen-test-their-skills-in-cyber-yankee-2020

  • La filière aéro va recruter à tour de bras

    June 10, 2022 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    La filière aéro va recruter à tour de bras

    La filière aéro voit le bout du tunnel. Enfin, elle veut l'espérer, même si le trafic aérien mondial n'a pas encore retrouvé son niveau...-aero-spatial

  • PBO to examine $60 billion price tag of new warships and compare to other less expensive foreign programs

    August 10, 2020 | International, Naval

    PBO to examine $60 billion price tag of new warships and compare to other less expensive foreign programs

    David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen, Postmedia News (dpugliese@ottawacitizen.com) Published: Aug 07 at 6:31 p.m. Updated: a day ago The $60 billion price tag of Canada's proposed new fleet of warships will come under the scrutiny of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who will also examine other less costly similar projects underway in other countries. The House of Commons government operations committee requested that Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux examine the cost of the Canadian Surface Combatant project and take a look at the cost of two other types of warships: the FREMM and the Type 31. PBO spokeswoman Sloane Mask said the analysis would be presented to the committee by Oct. 22. “The analytical work is currently underway,” she added. Last year the Liberal government signed an initial deal that is expected to lead to the eventual construction of 15 warships in the largest single government purchase in Canadian history. Lockheed Martin offered Canada the Type 26 warship designed by BAE in the United Kingdom. Irving is the prime contractor and the vessels will be built at its east coast shipyard. Construction of the first ship isn't expected to begin until the early 2020s. But the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) program has already faced rising costs. In 2008, the then-Conservative government estimated the project would cost roughly $26 billion. But in 2015, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, then commander of the navy, voiced concern that taxpayers may not have been given all the information about the program, publicly predicting the cost for the warships alone would approach $30 billion. The overall project is currently estimated to cost around $60 billion. “Approximately one-half of the CSC build cost is comprised of labour in the (Irving) Halifax yard and materials,” according to federal government documents obtained by this newspaper through the Access to Information law. But some members of parliament and industry representatives have privately questioned whether the CSC cost is too high. There have been suggestions that Canada could dump the Type 26 design and go for a cheaper alternative since the CSC project is still in early stages and costs to withdraw could be covered by savings from a less expensive ship. Canada had already been pitched on alternatives. In December 2017, the French and Italian governments proposed a plan in which Canada could build the FREMM frigate at Irving. Those governments offered to guarantee the cost of the 15 ships at a fixed $30 billion, but that was rejected by the Canadian government. Earlier this year, the U.S. Navy selected the FREMM design for its newest fleet of warships. The estimated cost is around $1.3 billion per ship. The other type of warship the PBO will look at is the Type 31, which is to be built for the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Those ships are to cost less than $500 million each. In 2017, then Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette estimated the CSC program would cost $61.82 billion. The entry of the BAE Type 26 warship in the Canadian competition was controversial from the start and sparked complaints that the procurement process was skewed to favour that vessel. Previously the Liberal government had said only mature existing designs or designs of ships already in service with other navies would be accepted on the grounds they could be built faster and would be less risky. Unproven designs can face challenges if problems are found once the vessel is in the water and operating. But the criteria was changed and the government and Irving accepted the BAE design, though at the time it existed only on the drawing board. Construction began on the first Type 26 frigate in the summer of 2017 for Britain's Royal Navy. Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020 https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/canada/pbo-to-examine-60-billion-price-tag-of-new-warships-and-compare-to-other-less-expensive-foreign-programs-482874/

All news