June 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace
June 24, 2020 - This past January, the Polish government took the bold step to acquire thirty-two F-35A Joint Strike Fighters (JSF). Poland is becoming a major player in NATO. It is working to modernize its air, sea and land forces. It is also forging closer relations with the United States, hosting U.S. forces, allowing the prepositioning of military equipment, and working to improve interoperability. By making the decision to buy the F-35, Poland will leap ahead of a number of its European allies, most notably France and Germany, and enter the elite group of countries operating fifth- generation aircraft.
The F-35 will not only be America's premier fifth generation fighter, but the world's. From its inception, the JSF was going to be an international fighter. The F-35 Consortium, consisting of the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Norway, Denmark, and until recently Turkey, contributed more than $4 billion towards the program's development costs. The aerospace industries in each of these countries also contributed critical technologies. Current estimates for international purchases are between 600 and 700 JSFs.
If all the NATO members currently planning to acquire the JSF fulfill their commitments, the F-35 will constitute NATO's single biggest fighter fleet, ahead of the Franco-German-British Eurofighter. This will provide a major boost to air power interoperability for the Alliance.
The move from the current fourth-generation platforms to fifth-generation is both inevitable and urgent. There is a general consensus that fourth-generation aircraft have decreasing survivability in the face of advanced, integrated air-defense networks. Efforts to sustain the ability of older aircraft to penetrate increasing lethal defenses will require larger force packages and the extensive use of scarce support assets, such as airborne jammers. Given that NATO air forces will also be fighting outnumbered, with their infrastructure under continuous attack from long-range-fire systems, this is a losing proposition.
The F-35 will inevitably become the centerpiece of NATO's air capability. Fifth-generation aircraft with low-observable features, commonly referred to as “stealthiness,” and an array of advanced sensors are able not only to counter advanced air defenses, thereby restoring the West's erstwhile advantage in the air, but improve the performance and survivability of fourth-generation aerial platforms. Employing its sophisticated suite of sensors, the JSF can pass high-quality, near-real-time targeting information to fourth-generation platforms operating at a distance from high-threat air defenses. In addition, with its revolutionary array of sensors and computers, the F-35 can serve as both a penetrating ISR and stand-in electronic warfare platform.
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View source version on F-35.com: https://www.f35.com/news/detail/the-f-35-will-give-poland-a-more-advanced-air-force-than-some-major-nato-al
May 3, 2021 | International, Aerospace
The program for the high-speed target-drone system began in 2009 to meet the Turkish military’s need for training against aerial targets, simulating enemy aircraft or missiles.
August 12, 2020 | International, C4ISR
Trieste, August 5, 2020 - INSIS, a Fincantieri Group company, has been awarded, under the restricted procedure, the European tender for the supply of a programmable EO/IR (electro-optical/infrared) seeker emulator for Electronic Defence systems countermeasures effectiveness assessment. The supply, requested by the Italian Ministry of Defence - Secretariat General of Defence / National Armaments Directorate (SGD-DNA) - General Directorate of Naval Armaments (NAVARM) - 3rd Department (Combat Systems) - 8th Division - Surface Systems and Weapons - involves the design and development of a support system for verification and validation of techniques to defend against electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) guided missiles, represented by countermeasures such as flares and DIRCM systems combined with evasive manoeuvres actuated by Italian Navy ships. The system, composed of a multi-sensor gyro-stabilized hardware unit, transportable aboard naval ships or deployable in firing ranges, integrated with a software component developed ad hoc for simulation of engagement and tracking techniques typical of various types of missile seekers, will enable assessment of a scenario in which a missile threat, simulated primarily by the system in question, is directed at a naval ship under test. The system will also be designed to support verification and validation of anti-air missile countermeasure systems installed onboard self-protected aircraft or helicopters. The programme will have an overall duration of about 30 months and will end with the performance of field test campaigns carried out in collaboration with the Italian Navy's Naval Experimentation and Support Centre (CSSN-ITE) based in Livorno. View source version on Fincantieri: https://www.fincantieri.com/en/media/press-releases/2020/programmable-eo-ir-seeker-emulator-for-electronic-defence-countermeasures-effectiveness-assessment/
April 14, 2020 | International, Land
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army's acquisition chief, Bruce Jette, has directed the Army's Expeditionary Technology Search program to hold a competition for solutions to rapidly build ventilators to support the COVID-19 virus emergency response, according to an April 9 service statement. Addressing the United States' ventilator shortage needed to treat severe cases of COVID-19, the xTechSearch team will tap industry for innovative approaches to building an inexpensive, emergency ventilator “that requires minimal components and is designed for simplified mass production,” the statement reads. The competition will be open to “any American business, regardless of size,” the statement notes. The team will begin accepting virtual pitches from competitors starting April 13. “Novel solutions” will win a prize of $5,000 to present pitches of the concepts virtually to a panel of judges, according to the statement. The Army will then award $100,000 cash prizes to winning solutions to develop concept prototypes, it adds. Some technologies could receive follow-on contracts for further production and deployment. "The technology solution must provide a rapid-response breathing apparatus capable of short-term, rugged field operation in a small footprint that will support field hospitals," Zeke Topolosky, the Army xTechSearch program manager, said in the statement. The statement did not detail how rapidly technologies should move from concept to prototype to production. xTechSearch is a competition sponsored by the Army's acquisition branch “targeting small businesses to uncover novel dual-use science and technology solutions,” according to the program's website. “The competition aims to tackle the Army's most critical modernization challenges supporting the top Army focus areas.” https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/04/09/army-to-hold-competition-to-build-ventilators-for-covid-19-emergency-response/