December 7, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Defense bill would let Air Force retire A-10s, F-15s — but not F-22s
Lawmakers want to see more detailed plans for collaborative combat aircraft and the Next Generation Air Dominance platform.
February 1, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Amberley (Australia), January 28, 2021 – Airbus has recently signed a contract to provide a digital services focus for the maintenance of the Air Refueling Boom System (ARBS) on the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport (A330 MRTT) fleet.
Based on the Airbus suite of digital services SmartForce, this service is intended to support the operator in reducing maintenance costs and improving fleet availability by optimizing the fault diagnosis and troubleshooting tasks for the ARBS of the tanker aircraft, based on data analytics applications.
The Central Data System plays a key role, allowing operators to draw on the flight data recorded by the Mission Recording System and provides information outputs about issues registered during the flight and recommended maintenance actions to fix them.
Within the KC-30A Enterprise, the Central Data System is a joint development built upon a successful long-standing collaboration among Airbus, the Commonwealth of Australia (CoA) and the Australian KC-30A Through Life Support (TLS) provider Northrop Grumman Australia, in sharing data and defining the architecture of the system.
Future proposed development of the capability will allow customers which apply this technology to their fleet to be able to extend the ARBS analytics to entire aircraft level diagnostics.
Stephan Miegel, Head of Military Aircraft Services at Airbus Defence and Space, said:“Since the launch of SmartForce in 2018, Airbus is fully committed to support the digital initiatives of our customers. Working collaboratively with them, we have signed five agreements for the co-development of new services and technologies. We are proud to see that military operators are increasingly joining us on our digital journey.”
Jake Adams, Northrop Grumman Australia KC-30A Program Manager, said: “The introduction of the Central Data System has provided significant benefits in terms of increased availability of the ARBS. The recent agreement between Airbus and Northrop Grumman Australia ensures that the RAAF continues to benefit from this capability as well as providing the opportunity for ongoing collaboration and sharing of data and analytics to enhance the ARBS capability.”
Group Captain Scott Parry, Officer Commanding Heavy Air Lift Systems Program Office, commented: “The Central Data System delivers a significant capability benefit for the KC-30A aircraft and demonstrates the strong commitment within the KC-30A enterprise to innovation and improvement.”
SmartForce is a suite of services enabling military operators to exploit aircraft data to improve troubleshooting, optimize maintenance effort, predict maintenance actions and plan smartly for material demand and improving the fleet availability. SmartForce capitalizes on the new power of big data analytics coupled to secured connectivity to maximize mission readiness.
@AirbusDefence @AusAirForce #A330MRTT
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View source version on Airbus: https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2021/01/royal-australian-air-force-benefits-from-airbus-smartforce-digital-services.html
December 7, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Lawmakers want to see more detailed plans for collaborative combat aircraft and the Next Generation Air Dominance platform.
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May 1, 2020 | International, C4ISR
Arlington, VA, April 28, 2020 - Leonardo DRS, Inc. announced today that it has received a contract from the U.S. Navy to produce advanced consoles and display systems to support the Navy's future surface ship combat system. The awarded contract is worth more than $62 million with options that could be worth up to $462 million. The Leonardo DRS Naval Electronics business unit will provide a suite of Common Display System (CDS) consoles, thin client displays, multi-mission displays, and support equipment. The CDS consoles are a set of open-architecture watch station display consoles comprised of two different console variants: water-cooled and air-cooled. The common display hardware provides the interface between the sailor and the ship's combat systems. “Building these advanced systems gives U.S. Navy sailors the latest in combat networking hardware and provides mission-critical fleet modernization and readiness requirements today and into the future,” said Tracy Howard, senior vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS Naval Electronics business. “We are proud to be a trusted partner with the Navy and this contract builds on our long relationship supplying reliable products, from computing hardware infrastructure for combat systems to tactical networks and common shipboard processors,” he said. The Common Display System consoles are the next-generation of hardware infrastructure representing the latest technology available on the market. Leonardo DRS has a long history of producing reliable advanced hardware for all Navy surface and subsurface platforms for uses in combat systems, tactical networks, processing and machinery control. Work will be performed at the Leonardo DRS Naval Electronics facility in Johnstown, PA. About Leonardo DRS Leonardo DRS is a prime contractor, leading technology innovator and supplier of integrated products, services and support to military forces, intelligence agencies and defense contractors worldwide. Its Naval Electronics business unit provides leading naval computing infrastructure, network and data distribution and middleware enterprise services, as well as world-class manufacturing and support capabilities. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Leonardo DRS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A. See the full range of capabilities at www.LeonardoDRS.com and on Twitter @LeonardoDRSnews. For additional information please contact: Michael Mount Senior Director, Public Affairs +1 571 447 4624 mmount@drs.com View source version on Leonardo DRS: https://www.leonardodrs.com/news/press-releases/leonardo-drs-awarded-up-to-462-million-contract-to-provide-us-navy-advanced-combat-networking-hardware/