Rheinmetall eyes do-over in new pitch of its Lynx vehicle to the US Army

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  July 2, 2019 | International, Other Defence

  Army awards key contracts to build virtual trainers

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army has awarded several key contracts to build virtual trainers, which make up a critical part of the service's developing Synthetic Training Environment (STE). Cole Engineering Services, Inc. (CESI) was selected from a pool of vendors with solutions for ground and air virtual trainers on June 28 to build a prototype of the Army's Synthetic Training Environment's Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainer (RVCT). The Army sifted through a total of 11 responses to a request for solutions issued in April — eight RVCT solutions that address aircraft, two that address ground platforms and one that covered both air and ground capability in a comprehensive solution. “As a result of a multi-stage competition, the comprehensive solution, provided by Cole Engineering Services Inc., was selected as the winning vendor providing best value to the government,” a June 28 statement sent to Defense News from Army Contracting Command- Orlando said. The total value of the prototype project, if all phases and options are exercised, is $81.4 million. The Army also awarded a $95 million contract June 19 to VT MAK, a subsidiary of Singapore company ST Engineering in the United States, to deliver both Training Simulation Software (TSS) and a Training Management Tool (TMT) — two essential elements that, when combined with One World Terrain, form the STE's Common Synthetic Environment (CSE). The CSE enables the RVCT, the Soldier Squad Virtual Trainer and the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS). The awards mark big progress in developing the STE — essentially a virtual world in which to train soldiers for war and aims to move the service away from its stove-piped training systems from the ‘80s and ‘90s. The new system will allow soldiers to train collectively — which is critical to preparing for multidomain operations across air, ground, sea, cyber and space — with greater fidelity. The STE will ultimately also be used as a mission planning tool. The idea is to be able to click on any place on a virtual globe and go there. Soldiers can then train virtually in an exact environment in which they can expect to operate in reality. The STE was prioritized through the establishment of Army Futures Command and has its own cross-functional team led by Maj. Gen. Maria Gervais to push efforts forward quickly. Prior to the standing up of the new four-star command aimed at rapidly building and procuring more modern equipment, the STE wasn't going to be ready until 2030. Now that timeline has been shrunk through new approaches in development and acquisition. The contracts awarded this month, for example, are Prototype Other Transaction Agreements under the Training and Readiness Accelerator (TReX), which allowed the service to move more quickly through a competitive process. The plan moving forward for the RVCT is “upon successful completion of this prototype effort,” the Army would award a follow-on production contract “without the use of competitive procedures,” according to the ACC-Orlando-issued statement. But if the vendor fails to “demonstrate progress” or “be unsuccessful in the accomplishment of the goals of this prototyping effort,” the Army “reserves the right to return to the results of this competition and award additional Other Transaction Agreements to one or more of the vendors that responded to the initial Request for Solutions, as appropriate within the scope and evaluated results of the competition,” the statement notes. Should the vendor move forward, a follow-on effort could include continued development, further scaling of the solution and integration of future capabilities. The Army estimates the fielding quantity for the prototype would be 210 (or greater) RVCT-Air trainers and 656 ground versions “at various locations for Full Operational Capability,” according to the statement. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/06/28/army-awards-key-contracts-to-build-virtual-trainers/

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  May 13, 2020 | International, C4ISR

  SpaceX could fill the US military’s Arctic communications gap by the end of this year

  Nathan Strout The U.S. Defense Department relies on a mixture of military and commercial satellites to connect its war fighters all over the world. And while users can complain that terminals are too bulky or that they should have the roaming capability exhibited in commercial cellphone technology, the system largely works. But that's not the case in the Arctic. “Very simple things become hard when you're in the Arctic, not the least of which is communication. When you are above about 65 degrees north, satellite communication starts to diminish, and above about 70 degrees north it becomes extremely limited except for some of our more exquisite capability — submarines, for example,” said U.S. Northern Command spokesman Maj. Mark Lazane. The U.S. Space Force's primary communications satellite system, Wideband Global SATCOM, is designed to provide connectivity between 70 degrees north and 65 degrees south — basically to the edge of the polar region. The Space Force also operates two Enhanced Polar System satellites — the Arctic complement to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency constellation. EPS satellites provide highly secure, anti-jamming signals, and like its counterpart, EPS is built for high-priority military communications, like that used with submarines. And while elsewhere in the world the military supplements its purpose-built systems with commercial communications satellites, that option is limited in the Arctic. After all, commercial satellites providing coverage of other areas aren't solely serving the military, and the services rely on commercial consumers to offset the costs of designing, building, launching and maintaining a satellite. But there's far less commercial demand for satellite communications in the Arctic than in more populated areas, and commercial satellite coverage reflects that. That leaves U.S. Northern Command with a significant gap in the connections available to its war fighters and platforms. “Connection capabilities [in the Arctic] are limited and lack resiliency. We're challenged in areas from basic point-to-point connections to communication with our distributed sensors,” Lazane said. “Having a reliable broadband communications capability for Arctic operations is the top unfunded priority of USNORTHCOM. With the increase of great power competition in the Arctic, there is a need for additional communications capability and capacity.” But the command thinks it's found a solution in the form of new, proliferated commercial constellations. Private companies OneWeb and SpaceX have launched hundreds of satellites into low-Earth orbit in an effort to provide competitive broadband to users all around the world. USNORTHCOM is asking Congress for $130 million to explore OneWeb's and SpaceX's capabilities in order to provide reliable and potentially cost-effective connectivity to Arctic platforms, installations and war fighters. “Leveraging emerging proliferated low-Earth orbit commercial SATCOM providers in the Arctic enables the United States (and our allies) the opportunity to scale communications capability and capacity quickly in a cost-effective manner,” Lazane said. “The unique capabilities provided by PLEO [proliferated low-Earth orbit] commercial SATCOM providers in the Arctic enables access to high-bandwidth, low-latency communications capability and capacity.” In a Feb.11 letter to Congress, USNORTHCOM Commander Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy said that funding for this effort was his No. 1 unfunded priority. If approved, the $130 million in funding will be used for polar communications experiments as well as the fielding of prototype terminals that can connect to commercial PLEO constellations. If those experiments prove successful, USNORTHCOM would need another $110 million in fiscal 2022 for full coverage. SpaceX has stated that its Starlink constellation will begin offering broadband services this year, and USNORTHCOM is hopeful that could enable early Arctic capability by the end of the year. https://www.c4isrnet.com/smr/frozen-pathways/2020/05/11/spacex-could-fill-the-us-militarys-arctic-communications-gap-by-the-end-of-this-year/

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  August 9, 2023 | International, Land

  US Army plans to grow Patriot missile defense force

  The Army will grow its Patriot air and missile defense units, but it will take time as the service faces forcewide recruiting challenges.