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  June 3, 2019 | International, C4ISR

  Air Force awards $20M contract for new common ground system

  By: Nathan Strout The Air Force is one step closer to the creation of a new common platform for satellite command and control. The Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center Braxton Technologies of Colorado Springs a $20 million contract May 17 to begin prototyping and integrating the new Enterprise Ground Services (EGS). The Air Force announced the deal in a May 31 press release. The purpose of EGS is to develop a common ground system and end user experience for all of the Air Force's upcoming satellite programs. Today, most military satellites have custom-built ground systems. Not only can that be expensive, it also makes it difficult for end users to adapt to new systems and for ground systems to communicate with each other. The new architecture will still allow for flexibility among the various space systems, as individual systems will need to be tailored to their specific mission requirements. The goal of EGS is to ensure all those space systems are built on a common base with similar end user experiences. “We are excited to embark on this partnership which will enhance our ability to drive speed in our processes, to deliver capabilities to support the warfighters, and develop innovative solutions that add resiliency to fight and win in a war that extends into space,” Joshua Sullivan, material leader for EGS, said in a release. “This contract will allow SMC and Air Force Space Command to concentrate resources to provide the most secure, effective, and interoperable tactical command and control experience to mission partners across the Air Force space enterprise.” The $19 million Small Business Innovative Research contract awarded to Braxton Technologies has a ceiling of $100 million. The work is expected to be completed by May 10, 2024. The Braxton Technologies award follows up on a $655,000,000 contract awarded to Engility Corp. in January to provide engineering, development, integration and sustainment services supporting the Ground System Enterprise and the eventual transition to Enterprise Ground Services. That work is expected to be completed January 31, 2026. https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/satellites/2019/06/02/air-force-awards-20m-contract-for-new-common-ground-system

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  October 29, 2019 | International, Naval

  Submarines are poised to take on a major role in strike warfare, but is that a good idea?

  By: David B. Larter WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is preparing to ink one of the largest contracts in its history with General Dynamics Electric Boat and the firm's partner shipyard Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News that will make the new generation of attack submarines a major force in strike warfare. The Block V Virginia contract is expected to produce 11 boats with eight Virginia Payload Modules, and will triple the Virginia's Tomahawk Land Attack Missile capacity to 40 missiles per hull. Experts say that the new Virginia Payload Module will also be large enough to accommodate boost-glide hypersonic missiles like those the Navy is developing with the Army. But the logic for the Virginia Payload Module has always been about replacing the Ohio-class guided missile submarines retiring in the 2020s. Because submarines have been the Navy's go-to asset to penetrate areas threated by Chinese and Russian surface-to-surface and anti-ship missiles, attack submarines loaded with strike missiles would have to be the ones to get close enough to be able to launch land-attack strikes. That model upends decades of the surface Navy's supremacy in the world of strike warfare from the sea, but experts are beginning to question the logic of giving the strike warfare mission to submariners in an era of great power competition. With Russia and, to an even greater extent, China investing heavily in anti-submarine technology, does it make sense to give a stealthy asset a mission that will blow its cover? Bryan Clark, a retired submariner and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, wonders if the surface fleet is the best place inside the force to house the strike mission. “I think the requirement may be changing,” he said in an Oct. 22 phone call with Defense News. “Over the past 10 years there has been a real emphasis on the submarine as the one tool we have that may be able to get into contested areas — the East and South China seas, up in the north Atlantic, etc. “That's changing now: These countries are investing in their own anti-submarine warfare systems. China has put a lot of money into ASW systems, they are installing surveillance systems akin to our SOSUS [sound surveillance system]. So the idea that our submarines are our go-to asset to gain access, that may not be true in the next few years as it was in the past 10, so there is a question as to whether we should be investing in submarines to maintain the undersea strike capacity.” ‘Increasingly vulnerable' The issue is not just that submarines run the risk of being detected, which is an ever-present risk anytime a submarine leaves the pier, but that it won't be able to create the volume of fires that the surface fleet could, especially with new concepts in development such as a large unmanned surface vessel that could act as a kind of arsenal ship. “The surface fleet is likely going to be our best strike capacity asset in the next decade,” Clark said. “Submarines are going to be increasingly vulnerable, so the question becomes: Do I want to take my [Virginia Payload Module]-equipped SSN, put it inside the South China Sea to launch strikes, get counter-detected and harassed for days afterward? I lose it from the fight for a long time just evading attacks. “Whereas if you used unmanned surface vessel[s], those can launch just as many cruise missiles as a Virginia class, many times cheaper; they can rotate, get reloaded and just keep launching strikes at a much higher rate of fire as you would ever get out of the SSN force.” Jerry Hendrix, a retired naval flight officer and analyst with The Telemus Group, agreed that the surface fleet is likely going to be the place to house a strike capability, especially in the era of mass hypersonic fires, because of the cost it would impose on the U.S. to try to match Chinese capabilities on subs. “I think there is a powerful argument to distribute these weapons across the surface force,” Hendrix said. “If you can create a strike weapon that allows the surface force to stand outside of DF-21 and DF-26 range and shoot three-pointers from outside, then yes. To create mass and volume in the submerged force is twice to three times as expensive as it is to create that volume from the surface force. “So there is a solid argument just from the standpoint of cost. If I was trying to create 2,000 tubes of hypersonics — which are much more massive than Tomahawks, wont fit into a Mark 41 vertical launch system and hence will have to go into a different configuration — to create that mass in the submerged force is going to be very expensive.” The Navy is looking at back-fitting destroyers with larger vertical launching system tubes to accommodate so-called prompt-strike weapons, Defense News reported in June. But some analysts say the mission is better suited for a large unmanned surface vessel. “I think this is going to one of the main things driving the design of the large unmanned surface combatant,” said Dan Gouré, an analyst at the Lexington Institute think tank. “We're back to arsenal ship: long-range, park it into a surface action group of carrier strike group — kind of like a surface version of the SSGN.” https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2019/10/28/submarines-are-poised-to-take-on-a-major-role-in-strike-warfare-but-is-that-a-good-idea/

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  February 1, 2024 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  Korean Air begins producing reconnaissance drone for South’s military

  Four underwing hardpoints are visible on the prototype, indicating the unarmed drone may evolve into a combat-capable UAV.