South Korea's ADD develops laser-power enhancing technology

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  September 30, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Italian F-35s In Iceland For First NATO Deployment

  Graham Warwick Italy has become the first F-35 operator to deploy the fifth-generation fighter on a NATO mission, sending the aircraft to perform air policing in Iceland. Six Italian F-35s touched down at Keflavik airfield on Sept. 25 for the temporary deployment. Unlike the Baltic Air Policing mission, which is supported year-round by NATO air forces, the Icelandic mission usually lasts several weeks and occurs three-four times each year. The F-35s are due to make Iceland their home for three weeks. According to NATO's Air Command, the deployment by Italy is the country's fifth detachment to Iceland and the second this year; Rome previously provided Eurofighter Typhoons for the mission. “The Italian Air Force detachment is scheduled to work with the controllers at the Combined Air Operations Center in Uedem, Germany, and the Control and Reporting Center at Keflavik, Iceland,” NATO Air Command officials said. No details of the deployment had been released by the Italian air force or defense ministry at the time of writing. The deployment was supported by one of Italy's Boeing KC-767 tanker aircraft, a C-130J airlifter, and a P-72 maritime patrol derivative of the ATR-72 providing cover in the event of an ejection over water. The F-35s will perform a series of familiarization flights to achieve certification for the mission. Italy declared its F-35s operational last November, becoming the fourth air arm to do so after the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Air Force and the Israeli Air Force. Iceland does not have an air force, and the U.S. stopped basing fighters on the island in 2006, prompting the government in Reykjavik to request occasional fighter deployments starting in 2008. NATO describes the mission as a “peacetime preparedness mission,” helping the country to “stay prepared, to monitor and to manage its airspace in peacetime.” The UK Royal Air Force will deploy Typhoons to the island later this year. https://aviationweek.com/defense/italian-f-35s-iceland-first-nato-deployment

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  September 18, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Can the Army secure an American-made quadcopter?

  By: Kelsey D. Atherton In a nondescript parking lot in Andover, Massachusetts, outside an aggressively generic office building, I am piloting an InstantEye quadcopter gently over the Merrimack River. At around 300 feet above the ground, I can no longer hear its rotors or make out its roughly basketball-sized body against the bright sky. With a press of a button and a slight change in angle, the InstantEye MK-2 turns and moves its camera to the porch where I am standing. The shade hides us a little, but after pressing another button the infrared camera identifies several bodies. If I was not piloting the drone, I would have no idea it was out there, looking at me. In recent years, the quadcopter has moved from a hobbyist toy that might see battlefield use to a dedicated family of drones at hobbyist, commercial and military levels. They all aim to provide roughly the same advantage: an unobtrusive eye in the sky, priced cheaply enough to replace easily if lost. That hobbyist drones have been adapted by uniformed militaries and nonstate actors into bomb-dropping threats is a natural outgrowth of technology cheap enough to make expendable. Now the Army wants to take advantage of this paradigm shift. “The UAS asset should be designed to be a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft that is rapidly deployable in austere, harsh environments,” read an Army solicitation posted in April 2019 to the FedBizOpps website. Besides VTOL, the Army wanted a drone with a camera payload, providing electro-optical/infrared radar video on a stable gimbal. It is the kind of capability that an officer could likely pick up for a few hundred dollars at the Pentagon City Mall. The future of tactical war likely looks like what happened with quadcopters: commercial technology cheap and useful enough to be adapted to military ends. But the drone market is compounded by one fact: the majority of hobbyist drones and their components are built in China, and working outside that market means foregoing much of the cost savings that make quadcopters so attractive. “We paint a large portion of the intelligence picture with minimal risk to men and equipment. What may take a scout team a day to do, may only take three hours for us,” Sgt. Christopher Curley, an Army SUAS master trainer, said in 2018. “The quadcopter is a great tool for quick recon. I relate it to fishing; you cast your reel, check that area and then move on.” Curley's suite of drones included the longer-range fixed-wing Ravens and Pumas, built to military specifications. Combined, the set of small drones can gather up to 60 percent of intelligence in training exercises. When it came to the quadcopters, Curley's unit relied on off-the-shelf drones. The Army is already training for a future where military quadcopters are ubiquitous. But to get there, it's had to rely heavily on commercial products. The phantom of the ops era “We don't market our products toward military use, nor we do sell direct to commercial or industrial users,” said Michael Oldenburg, a spokesman for DJI North America. DJI's drones have become ubiquitous in the civilian world and ever-present in military use, both formal and informal, as one of the simplest, cheapest ways to put a camera in the sky. All this even though DJI never intended to be a military contractor, and largely shies away from that role. Formally Da Jiang Innovations, the China-based firm was founded in 2006 as a company that made components for remote-control hobbyists. The DJI as we know it today starts in 2013, with the release of the ready-to-fly out of the box Phantom quadcopter. In the six years since the Phantom's release, DJI-produced drones have shown up on battlefields in Ukraine and Iraq. None of this was intended; after footage was released of a DJI Mavic releasing bombs in Ukraine, the company said “DJI strongly deplores any attempts to use our drones to cause harm; we build our products for peaceful purposes.” That DJI looms so large over the military quadcopter market is a second-order effect of the company's market share in the civilian world. A 2018 survey by Skylogic Research (funded, in part, by DJI) estimated that the company owned 74 percent of the hobbyist drone market, a figure that climbed to 86 percent when considering drones that cost $1,000 - $1,999. How extensively has the Pentagon used these drones? DJI said it only offers its products through resellers and so doesn't track what gets purchased by who and only learns about any military acquisitions after the fact. But it is possible to infer the extent of DJI drone use by the agencies within the Pentagon that have explicitly banned the company's products. Consider the fact that the Army issued an order in August 2017 for soldiers to stop using DJI-made drones, which hit communities as diverse as public affairs officers and special operators. Acquisition requests from 2017 show that the Army purchased everything from Phantom 3 quadcopters to Mavic quadcopters to Matrice 600 hexacopters, all made by DJI. A 2018 memo from the Deputy Secretary of Defense suspended all purchases of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) drones, with an exception available by waiver. In May, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., boasted of a provision in the annual defense policy bill that specifically bans the Pentagon from purchasing drones made by a designated “strategic competitor,” primarily China. “We are okay with our products not meeting all of the needs of the DoD,” Oldenburg said. “They're not MilSpec; they're not designed to be used in the field of war or by any military organization that is conducting sensitive missions. We've never made that claim.” Robotic boom, robotic bust To understand how the Pentagon repeatedly found itself buying drones made outside the United States, consider another company: 3DR, a U.S.-based and venture-backed company that started making drone parts, transitioned to a retail quadcopter, and is now a software company for drones. “In 12 months,” Forbes wrote in 2016, “the company has gone from an industry leading U.S. drone startup to an organization struggling to survive – the result of mismanagement, ill-advised projections and a failed strategy that relied on a doomed flagship drone.” Still, there was one area where 3DR could reliably claim an advantage over DJI: the fact it was based in the United States. In August 2018, the Department of the Interior contracted 3DR for a modest purchase of 109 Solo quadcopters. This followed an earlier 2016 contract for the Solo, but by 2017, with 3DR transitioning from the hardware to the software business, Interior still needed a quadcopter that could meet its specific needs. So, the department turned to the makers of the quadcopters that kept showing up in the military. “Market research ... indicated the remaining UAS available from U.S.-based companies were up to 10x less capable for the same price, or up to 10x more costly than similarly capable DJI aircraft,” wrote the Department of the Interior in an evaluation of its DJI systems. In collaboration and consultation with the Interior Department, DJI created a more cyber-minded firmware and software suite for its existing drone hardware, dubbed “Government Edition.” That includes security features like the drone never needing to go online, and being unable to pair with regular, out-of-the-box commercial remotes. Government Edition drones come at a premium, but one of those quadcopters costs less than two retail models. Interior Department testing of the Government Edition hardware/firmware package, done in conjunction with NASA Kennedy Space Center, found “there was no indication that data was being transmitted outside the system and that they were operating as promised by DJI,” which largely matches the independent cybersecurity assessment DJI commissioned from Kivu Consulting. While not designed for military use, the Interior Department's evaluation of DJI quadcopters left an opening: the Pentagon could learn to work with the off-the-shelf drones it has, rather than buy the off-the-shelf drones it wants. Instant eye for the battlefield sky It is easy to assume the military is limited to hobbyist quadcopters built abroad. That's not the case. Most small uncrewed aerial systems used by the military are fixed-wing drones like the Raven, Dragon Eye and Wasp. Specialized quadcopters — such as the Canada-made Aeryon Scout, a high-end military quadcopter — were supplied to anti-Gaddafi forces in Libya in 2012. The problem is that the military version of Aeryon Scout is the $100,000 price tag. Commercial quadcopters — such as the DJI Phantom, Parrot drones and even 3DR Solo — were all available at a fraction of the price, and in many cases they were more than adequate to do the job. Pairing the lower cost in the civilian space with the capability and security expected from a product built to military specifications is tricky, but not impossible. But it is happening, for example, in Andover, Massachusetts. InstantEye is a product of Physical Science Inc. Developed with funding from, among other sources, the Army and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the InstantEye Mk-2 GEN3 quadcopters became a program of record for Special Operations Command in 2014. The InstantEye Mk2 and Mk3 quadcopters look like they could be sold on a shelf alongside hobbyist products, with the soft military gray casing slotting in between the bright whites and matte blacks of consumer models. Physical Science said the Pentagon has roughly 2,000 InstantEye kits across all combatant commands. (Each kit has two quadcopters, which means that's roughly 4,000 individual drones). These drones have seen action in Syria and the horn of Africa. A heavy-lift model can carry up to a 44-ounce payload, making it an ideal tool for clearing explosive ordnance with explosives of its own. Code in the drone allows it to maintain the same hovering position while releasing the payload, rather than the sudden loss of weight sending it rocketing upwards. Within the military specification drone market, PSI sees the InstantEye family as a direct competitor with the Black Hornet drone used by the U.S. Army, a sparrow-sized remote-control helicopter that fits into pockets and comes with a hefty price tag. PSI was vague on the cost but said it came in significantly less than the Black Hornet, which costs roughly $60,000 apiece. PSI officials said the drones are Buy American Act compliant, certified through the Defense Logistics Agency. At present capacity, PSI's Andover production facility makes about 50 two-drone kits a month. With greater demand and staffing, the company estimates it could produce between 80 and 100 such kits per month, if needed. In 2018, the Army requested roughly 1,700 small drones. Should FY2021 see a similar quantity of drones requested, it's possible that PSI's Andover facility could, with a modest increase in staffing, supply the whole lot. The Army can presently roll out quadcopters as a specialized piece of kit. But it might not be ready to provide quadcopters to every unit that wants one. Market forces, forces market The durability and use of InstantEye shows that the Pentagon can, if so determined, fund a quadcopter company into existence. It means that, in the face of concerns about the cybersecurity of off-the-shelf drones, the Pentagon still largely has access to the simple utility of an easy-to-fly aerial camera. What remains to be seen is if Pentagon investment can produce a drone made in the United States, priced at a point close to consumer drones and assembled abroad with parts sourced from across the globe. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord announced in May the launch of the “Trusted Capital Marketplace,” a partnership to facilitate private and public capital going to investment in companies deemed critical to the defense industrial base and national security. At an August briefing, Lord announced that the first project for the marketplace would be the development of a small UAS. Why start with quadcopters? “It's because where we are right now in terms of having our entire U.S. marketplace eroded,” said Lord. “Essentially, we don't have much of a small UAS industrial base because DJI dumped so many low-price quadcopters on the markets. And we then became dependent on them, both from the defense point of view and the commercial point of view, and we know that a lot of the information is sent back to China from those.” DJI disputes Lord's claims, highlighting the Kivu Consulting cybersecurity audit that found no evidence of data automatically sent back to China, and stating that DJI's “market-leading position in the drone industry” is because it “continued to research, develop and deliver the most capable products to the market.” Lord gave other reasons for the focus on small drones as the marketplace's first project. One is that small drones are easy for the public to understand. There is also the possibility that, by funding military quadcopter development, the work could rebound into commercial market. “Plus, if we meet our defense needs, we feel that there are simpler versions that would be very, very attractive for the commercial market, as well,” said Lord. “So, there was a great pathway there for industry.” Matrice reloaded Ultimately, the present state of military and domestic quadcopter markets appears guided far more by happenstance than anything else. DJI, which fell into the off-the-shelf drone market following demand from the hobbyist market, has inadvertently found its products repeatedly sanctioned as inappropriate for roles they were never designed to fill. Companies like 3DR stumbled as much because of errors in execution as stiff competition. Through it all, the Pentagon has been able to foster and develop its own quadcopters built to military specifications, specifically by contracting for exactly what it needs. It just has yet to capture the same price point as commercial models. It remains to be seen if new initiatives such as the Trusted Capital Marketplace can balance stated goals of low-cost, military specifications and domestic production. But it is a problem the Army needs to solve. As one product manager for the service told Popular Science earlier this year, “There's no organic quadcopter capability in the Army.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2019/09/17/can-the-army-secure-an-american-made-quadcopter/

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  March 26, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - March 21, 2019

  DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Federal Resources Supply Co.,* Stevensville, Maryland (SPE8EH-19-D-0014); L.N. Curtis & Sons,* Oakland, California (SPE8EH-19-D-0015); Mallory Safety and Supply,* Longview, Washington (SPE8EH-19-D-0016); Noble Supply & Logistics,* Rockland, Massachusetts (SPE8EH-19-D-0017); Quantico Tactical Inc.,* Aberdeen, North Carolina (SPE8EH-19-D-0018); and W.S. Darley & Co.,* Itasca, Illinois (SPE8EH-19-D-0019), are sharing a maximum $985,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPE8EH-16-R-0001 for fire and emergency services equipment. This was a competitive acquisition with 13 offers received. These are two-year base contracts with three one-year option periods. Locations of performance are California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Washington, with a March 20, 2024, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal year 2019 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Government Scientific Source,* Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a maximum $475,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for laboratory supplies. This was a competitive acquisition with four responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Virginia, with a March 20, 2024, performance completion date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DE-19-D-0004). SND Manufacturing,* Dallas, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $7,997,485 firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Navy and Marine Corps running suit jackets. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year options. This was a competitive acquisition with three responses received. Location of performance is Texas, with a March 17, 2020, performance completion date. Using military services are Navy and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2020 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-19-D-5038). Viasat Inc., Carlsbad, California, has been awarded a maximum $7,133,760 firm-fixed-price contract for radio receivers for the P-8 aircraft. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a nine-month contract with no option periods. Location of performance is California, with a Dec. 19, 2019, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2020 Navy working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPRPA1-19-C-V037). NAVY General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co.-Bremerton, Bremerton, Washington, is awarded a maximum value $465,150,000 cost-cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aircraft carrier (CVN) shipyard availabilities. The primary purpose of this contract is to execute work required to support the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in accomplishing repair, maintenance, and modernization of closely scheduled maintenance availabilities, including non-nuclear boundary control efforts. This contract includes five ordering periods which, if executed, would make the maximum value of this contract $465,150,000. Work will be performed in Bremerton, Washington, and is expected to be completed by March 2024 when all five ordering periods have been executed. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $928,336 will be obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via Federal Business Opportunities website, with three offers received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-D-4310). BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair, San Diego, California, is awarded a $41,895,897 firm-fixed-price contract for the execution of USS Anchorage (LPD 23) fiscal 2019 selected restricted availability. This availability will include a combination of maintenance, modernization, and repair of USS Anchorage. This is a “long-term” availability and was competed on a coast-wide (West Coast) basis without limiting the place of performance to the vessel's homeport. BAE will provide the facilities and human resources capable of completing, coordinating, and integrating multiple areas of ship maintenance, repair, and modernization. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $48,428,791. Work will be performed in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed by July 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy); and fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) in the amount of $41,895,901 will be obligated at time of award, and contract funds in the amount of $34,002,448 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured using full and open competition via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with two offers received in response to Solicitation No. N00024-18-R-4411. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-C-4407). United Technologies Corp., Pratt & Whitney Engines, Hartford, Connecticut, is awarded $18,434,122 for modification P00003 to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm contract (N00019-18-C-1021). This modification provides additional funding for F-135 long lead items in support of non-U.S. Department of Defense (U.S. DoD) participants. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (67 percent); Indianapolis, Indiana (26.5 percent); and Bristol, United Kingdom (6.5 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2022. Non-U.S. DoD participant funds in the amount of $18,434,122 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. JJLL LLC, Austin, Texas, is awarded $18,353,983 under a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N62742-17-C-3580) to exercise the second option period to provide services for Philippines operations support for the Marine Corps Forces, Pacific and Pacific Command Augmentation Team, the Republic of Philippines. The work to be performed provides services for management and administration; commercial telephones, cable television and other services; security; airfield facilities; passenger terminal and cargo handling; ordnance; material management; supply services; morale, welfare and recreation support; galley; billeting; facility management; facility investment; facility services; utilities; base support vehicles and equipment; and environmental services. After award of this option, the total cumulative contract value will be $99,551,165. Work will be performed in the Republic of the Philippines, and this option period is from April 2019 to March 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $15,370,311 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE L3 Technologies Systems Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, has been awarded a $131,780,189 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Cockpit-Selectable Height-of-Burst Sensor. This contract provides for the replacement of the current DSU-33D/B height-of-burst sensor and will address obsolescence issues, improve performance and add functionality. Work will be performed in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is expected to be complete by April 2027. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and three offers were received. Fiscal 2018 procurement funds in the amount of $513,244 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8213-19-D-0006). General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, Calif., has been awarded a not-to-exceed $123,293,911 undefinitized contract action for MQ-9 Block 5 procurement. This contract provides for four MQ-9 unmanned air vehicles, four Mobile Ground Control Stations, spares, and support equipment. Work will be performed predominately in Poway, California, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, 2020. This contract involves 100 percent foreign military sales to the Netherlands. Foreign military sales funds in amount of $38,928,607 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8620-19-F-2310). MAG Aerospace, Newport News, Virginia, has been awarded an $11,386,672 predominantly firm-fixed-price contract for the UK MQ-9 Reaper Operations Center. This contract provides for ongoing sustainment, management, development and network administration of the United Kingdom MQ-9 Reaper Operations Centers. Work will be performed at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada; and Royal Air Force Waddington, United Kingdom, and is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2021. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition and involves 100 percent foreign military sales to the government of the United Kingdom. Air Force Life Cycle Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8620-19-C-2002). Call Henry Inc., Titusville, Florida, has been awarded a $10,200,000 predominantly fixed-price incentive modification (P00051) to previously awarded contract FA4610-18-C-0005 for the exercise of Option Year Two. This modification provides management and support, maintenance and repair, operations, other services and minor alteration related to launch operations support. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $55,975,903. Work will be performed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and is expected to be complete by June 30, 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $3,000,000 will be obligated at the time of award. The 30th Contracting Squadron, Vandenberg AFB, California, is the contracting activity. ARMY Whitesell-Green Inc., Pensacola, Florida, was awarded a $26,376,465 firm-fixed-price contract to design and build student dorms. Bids were solicited via the internet with five received. Work will be performed in Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, with an estimated completion date of March 21, 2021. Fiscal 2019 military construction funds in the amount of $26,376,465 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W91278-19-C-0012). SAP National Security Services Inc., Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $16,014,307 time and materials contract for consulting services. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Alexandria, Virginia; and Aberdeen, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of March 21, 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation; and operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $4,011,556 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-19-C-0020). Valiant Global Defense Services Inc., San Diego, California, was awarded an $8,717,022 modification (P00086) to contract W91QVN-14-C-0033 for operations support services for the Korea Battlefield Simulation Center. Work will be performed in Seoul, South Korea, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2019. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $7,474,936 were obligated at the time of the award. 411th Combat Support Battalion, Korea, is the contracting activity. *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1792112/