September 21, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval
Navy's New Refueling Drone - How It Provided Gas to an F-35
Meanwhile, the MQ-25 gets a nod of approval from...China.
November 19, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Pentagon is bullish on health of defense industrial base, even as COVID-19 cases mount
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — Despite increasing coronavirus cases in the U.S., the Pentagon's top weapons buyer on Wednesday sounded a note of confidence that defense companies would remain open throughout the winter and keep weapons production on track.
“I am concerned about that — as we see within [the Defense Department] — the number of [COVID-19 positive] individuals still are increasing in industry,” Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Ascend conference.
However, she added she doesn't anticipate another wave of facility closures.
“We're very hopeful that all of the steps that industry took during the pandemic — to space out [production] lines, to do telework, to find ways to comply with all the CDC regulations — that those have really prevented severe cases and the need to shut down,” she said, using an acronym for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“So I'm optimistic that although cases are going up, industry is going to continue to be very resilient. And we will continue at pretty impressive productivity rates,” she added.
At the height of the pandemic earlier this year, almost 700 defense companies shut down operations in the hopes of quelling the spread of the virus. By June, that number had decreased to 33 businesses, according to data from the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Contracts Management Agency
Currently, only one of those companies remains closed, Lord said.
However, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has been trending upward in the country since the end of September, with a high of almost 195,000 new cases reported Nov. 12, according to CDC data.
But there is cause for hope: On Wednesday morning, Pfizer announced that phase 3 trials of its vaccine showed it was 95 percent effective in preventing the virus, and the company could seek emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration within days, CNN reported.
During the conference, Lord was asked whether defense contractors would get priority access to COVID-19 vaccines, given the defense industry's status as an “essential” business sector during the pandemic.
“I don't have the answer to that,” she said. “That's being sorted out right now in the White House.”
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May 15, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Macron: France open to training Ukraine fighter jet pilots
French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with France's TF1 television on Monday that France is open to training Ukrainian fighter jet pilots in France and that those training programmes could start right away.
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December 19, 2018 | International, Aerospace
New Materials Architectures Sought to Cool Hypersonic Vehicles
Hypersonic vehicles fly through the atmosphere at incredibly high speeds, creating intense friction with the surrounding air as they travel at Mach 5 or above – five times faster than sound travels. Developing structures that can withstand furnace-like temperatures at such high speeds is a technical challenge, especially for leading edges that bear the brunt of the heat. To address this thermal challenge, DARPA recently announced its Materials Architectures and Characterization for Hypersonics (MACH) program. The MACH program seeks to develop and demonstrate new design and material solutions for sharp, shape-stable, cooled leading edges for hypersonic vehicles. A Proposers Day describing the program will take place January 22, 2019 in Arlington, Virginia: https://go.usa.gov/xEcEy. “For decades people have studied cooling the hot leading edges of hypersonic vehicles but haven't been able to demonstrate practical concepts in flight,” said Bill Carter, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. “The key is developing scalable materials architectures that enable mass transport to spread and reject heat. In recent years we've seen advances in thermal engineering and manufacturing that could enable the design and fabrication of very complex architectures not possible in the past. If successful, we could see a breakthrough in mitigating aerothermal effects at the leading edge that would enhance hypersonic performance.” The MACH program will comprise two technical areas. The first area aims to develop and mature fully integrated passive thermal management system to cool leading edges based on scalable net-shape manufacturing and advanced thermal design. The second technical area will focus on next-generation hypersonic materials research, applying modern high-fidelity computation capabilities to develop new passive and active thermal management concepts, coatings and materials for future cooled hypersonic leading edge applications. Both technical areas will be described in a Broad Agency Announcement solicitation expected in mid-January 2019 on DARPA's FedBizOpps page here: http://go.usa.gov/Dom. The MACH program seeks expertise in thermal engineering and design, advanced computational materials development, architected materials design, fabrication and testing (including net shape fabrication of high temperature metals, ceramics and their composites), hypersonic leading-edge design and performance, and advanced thermal protection systems. Registration details for Proposers Day are available here: http://events.sa-meetings.com/MACHProposersDay. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2018-12-17