August 10, 2024 | International, Land
Missile Defense Agency to pick hypersonic interceptor vendor this year
The MDA will soon conclude a competition to develop an interceptor capable of defeating hypersonic threats in the glide phase of flight.
May 10, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Swiss Air 2030 program clears hurdle of external review — with tweaks
COLOGNE, Germany — Switzerland should package the proposed buy of 40 or so combat aircraft as a unique track under the $8 billion Air 2030 program, according to a new study commissioned by the defense ministry. This, the study argues, will increase the chance the purchase will be approved in an eventual national referendum.
The conclusion is part of a report by former Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier, who was tasked earlier this year by the new defense minister, Viola Amherd, to critique the envisioned air-defense reboot.
The recommendation speaks to the government's strategy of seeing the aircraft acquisition through a circuitous decision-making process in a country with a strong plebiscitary tradition. Buying the aircraft makes up the lion's share of the Air 2030 program, at roughly $6 billion. The purchase of ground-based, air-defense weaponry accounts for the rest.
The current Cabinet plan is to pursue the aircraft and ground-based, anti-missile weaponry as a package deal, allowing the populace to vote on both segments en bloc in the likely event that a referendum is called. But advocates for new aircraft, which includes Nicollier, contend that the need for new planes is so great that the decision should be teed up without any distractions whatsoever.
“In my opinion, it is wise to choose this track for the combat aircraft, after the past experiences of our direct democracy,” Nicollier wrote in his report. “It is ... useless to mix another weapon system to this next battle, which concerns only the plane and which promises, as usual, to be much more emotional than professional.”
Nicollier's comment refers to a previous Swiss decision about replacing parts of its aging combat aircraft inventory, composed of F-5 Tiger and F-18 planes, five years ago this month. At the time, the population voted down the government's pick of the Saab Gripen E following a grueling campaign by advocates and opponents that quickly left the realm of national security arguments.
Some believe that putting a specific aircraft model out for a referendum contributed to the program's defeat, a mistake that the defense ministry wants to avoid at all costs this time around. According to a statement on the ministry's website, Nicollier's analysis, submitted in French, recommends that the population should get the chance to vote on the aircraft acquisition only in general terms, leaving the choice of aircraft model up to the government later on.
The competitors for the aircraft procurement are Airbus with the Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin with the F-35A, Boeing with the F-18 Super Hornet and Dassault with the Rafale. Saab and its Gripen E also are taking another go at it.
Nicollier's report will probably be seen as good news for the industry contenders. For one, it supports the idea that Switzerland must quickly act to modernize its abilities to control the national airspace at a time when traditional geopolitical fronts in Europe are becoming murky. In addition, it proposes a path for the aircraft acquisition that appears mindful of lessons learned from the Gripen debacle of 2014.
Cabinet officials are expected to debate the Nicollier report in the weeks ahead and determine how its recommendations will shape the Air 2030 program, a Swiss defense ministry official told Defense News.
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May 8, 2020 | International, Naval
Here’s the DARPA project it says could pull the Navy a decade forward in unmanned technology
David B. Larter WASHINGTON – A project inside the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has the potential to pull the Navy's unmanned surface vessel aspirations forward a decade, a senior DARPA official said Wednesday at the annual C4ISR Conference. DARPA's effort to develop a ship designed from the keel up to operate without humans, known as “NOMARS” for “no mariners,” is a separate effort from the Navy's quest to develop a family of large and medium unmanned surface vessels. But the benefits of that program, if successful, could be a giant leap forward for the concept the Navy is developing, said Mike Leahy, who heads the Tactical Technology Office at DARPA. The Navy “will only be able to go so far with where the technology has matured,” Leahy said. “What we're able to do is link to that group [developing USVs for the Navy], get information about what missions they are trying to accomplish, the sizing and other constraints, feed that into NOMARS project so that we can take the same class of ship – looking at the same ideas in terms of a hull form – and when we are successful we can dump that right into their tranche and pull that forward a decade from where it might have been on a traditional path.” The Navy and DARPA have been closely linked in efforts to develop unmanned platforms but DARPA's NOMARs will remain an independent effort, Leahy said. The Navy has “been involved in the source selection, they're involved in the testing we're doing, so that we can make sure that information is flowing,” Leahy said. “But we will reserve the right to take risks that may not be in the direction they want to go. Because sometimes learning what does not work is even more valuable than what does. “The physics is going to tell you what you need to know, and you can't cheat it.” Maintaining separate lines of effort is important because DARPA has the freedom to fail whereas failure in an acquisition program has higher stakes, he said. “NOMARS is going and looking at ‘Can I take people completely off ships,'” he explained. “That's a risky endeavor. We don't know if we're going to be able to do that. We don't know if that's going to pan out. You would not want to link an acquisition program directly to that.” Another Option The Navy is currently pursuing both a large and medium unmanned surface vessel that can perform missions for the surface Navy as a means of increasing aggregate naval power without wrapping a $2 billion hull around 96 missile tubes, as Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday has said publicly, referencing the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. Maintaining separate lines of effort is important because DARPA has the freedom to fail whereas failure in an acquisition program has higher stakes, he said. “NOMARS is going and looking at ‘Can I take people completely off ships,'” he explained. “That's a risky endeavor. We don't know if we're going to be able to do that. We don't know if that's going to pan out. You would not want to link an acquisition program directly to that.” Another Option The Navy is currently pursuing both a large and medium unmanned surface vessel that can perform missions for the surface Navy as a means of increasing aggregate naval power without wrapping a $2 billion hull around 96 missile tubes, as Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday has said publicly, referencing the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. https://www.c4isrnet.com/2020/05/06/heres-the-darpa-project-it-says-could-pull-the-navy-a-decade-forward-in-unmanned-technology/
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January 4, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 3, 2019
DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Fulcrum IT Services LLC, Centreville, Virginia, has been awarded a labor-hour contract (HHM402-19-C-0012) with a ceiling amount of $128,003,638 for all-source intelligence analysis and operational support services to the Joint Intelligence Operations Center–Korea (JIOC-K), U.S. Forces Korea and six divisions in Korea. Work will be performed in the Republic of Korea with an expected completion date of July 13, 2024, if all options are exercised. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $10,000,000 are being obligated at time of award. This contract was a competitive acquisition and seven offers were received. The Virginia Contracting Activity, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity AIR FORCE Defense Research Associates Inc.,* Beavercreek, Ohio, has been awarded an $11,098,274 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development. This contract provides research and development to transition technologies related to long-duration multispectral sensor technology utilizing radiation from numerous sources to obtain warfighter objectives/advantages. Work will be performed in Dayton, Ohio, and is expected to be complete by January 6, 2025. This award is the result of a Small-Business Innovation Research Phase III request for proposal. Fiscal 2018 research and development funds in the amount of $200,000 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity (FA8650-19-C-1600). Northrop Grumman Corp., Aerospace Systems, Azusa, California, has been awarded a $7,688,550 contract option modification (P00029) to contract FA8810-15-C-0001 for Defense Support Program (DSP) on-orbit satellite and anomaly resolution support. This support provides root-cause analysis as a key component of the lifetime extension of DSP. Work will be performed in Azusa, California; Aurora, Colorado; and Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2019. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $7,688,550 are being obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value is $108,244,260. Space and Missile Systems Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, is the contracting activity. Awarded on Dec. 31, 2018. ARMY Torch Technologies Inc., Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded an $8,802,273 modification (000043) to contract W31P4Q-09-A-0021 for engineering, integration, test and analysis. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2019. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $8,802,273 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. CORRECTION: The contract announced on Jan. 2, 2019, for $60,736,752 to O'gara-Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Co. LLC,* Fairfield, Ohio, has not been awarded. No award date has been determined at this time. *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1723912/source/GovDelivery/