The Green Heat Test Drive - call for proposals has been extended!/Banc d'essai énergie verte - appel de propositions prolongée!

On the same subject

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  June 11, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  Reports: Google won’t renew Pentagon contract to use AI

  By: The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO — Google won't renew a contract with the Pentagon that provides the company's artificially intelligent algorithms to interpret video images and improve the targeting of drone strikes. That's according to reports in Gizmodo, Buzzfeed, and The New York Times Friday. The reports said Google Cloud business head Diane Greene told employees of the decision not to renew the 18-month deal past the end of 2019, when the current contract ends. Google representatives did not respond to a request for comment. The so-called Project Maven had riled Google employees, including several who quit and thousands of others who signed a petition asking CEO Sundar Pichai to cancel the project and enact a policy renouncing the use of Google technology in warfare. https://www.c4isrnet.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/06/03/reports-google-wont-renew-pentagon-contract-to-use-ai/

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  August 19, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Maiden flight of first EMD Red Hawk jet slated for September 2021

  by Gareth Jennings The US Air Force (USAF) has slated September 2021 for the maiden flight of the first of five engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) Boeing-Saab T-7A Red Hawk advanced jet trainer aircraft, Janes has learned. With production of the EMD aircraft set to shortly begin at Boeing's St Louis facility in Missouri and Saab's Linköping facility in Sweden, a USAF official told Janes on 18 August that the hitherto undisclosed date for the first EMD flight has now been set. “Saab has released all EMD aircraft ‘build-to-packages' to support build and manufacturing preparation. The EMD [aft] fuselages (five in total) are currently planned for build at Saab's factory in Sweden with delivery [to St Louis] no later than April 2021. Production is expected to begin with jig load [this] August at Boeing in St Louis. Boeing currently plans for assembly to be complete in June 2021, with the first EMD flight expected in September 2021,” the USAF said. Prior to this disclosure, both Boeing and Saab had declined to comment on the timetable for the first EMD flight, noting only that “this is very sensitive information for the USAF”. With two production-representative jets (PRJs) currently flying, the present EMD phase of the contract covers the five further aircraft and seven simulators. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/maiden-flight-of-first-emd-red-hawk-jet-slated-for-september-2021

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  June 13, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Spain’s military still has eyes for the F-35 despite European fighter push

  By: Sebastian Sprenger MADRID – The Spanish navy and air force are still interested in the American F-35 fighter jet, even though the government is about to join a Franco-German program to develop a new European plane. The two services are in the beginning stages of an analysis in which the Lockheed Martin-made aircraft is emerging as a key contender, officials told reporters on the sidelines of the FEINDEF defense expo here in late May. For the navy, the choice for the short-takeoff-and-landing variant of the jet, dubbed the F-35B, appears to be more clear-cut than for the air force. The Spanish navy wants to replace its 12 Harrier jets, which are launched from the LPH Juan Carlos I. That ship's short, ski-jump deck makes the F-35B the only option on the market, according to Cdr. Antonio Estevan, a staff officer at the service's plans and policy division. “From a technical point of view, it's a very interesting option for us,” Estevan said. “The problem is the cost. The version for us would be, as far as I know, $100 million; the air force version $80 million. We are talking about high prices. Even the American president was surprised when he realized the cost.” Air force officials, meanwhile, are keeping their options more open when it comes to replacing the service's 84 Boeing-made F-18s. Twenty planes of the “A” variant, stationed on the Canary Islands, need to be replaced first, by 2025, according to Brig Gen. Juan Pablo Sanchez de Lara, chief of the Spanish Air Force's plans division. Airbus has its eyes on that business and is offering to outfit the squadron with the Eurofighter. While that outcome is also the air force's expectation, a replacement for the rest of the F-18 fleet, 64 planes of the “M” designation, is still up for grabs, according to Sanchez de Lara. The two services cooperating on the requirements of a potentially joint program means the F-35 is on the table in some form or another, though it's unclear how compatible the branches' needs will be in the end. “For the navy, it's a very simple solution because they need an aircraft for vertical, short takeoff,” Sanchez de Lara said. “For us, it's different.” Both services want new aircraft by around 2030. That would be ten years before the Future Combat Air System program, led by Airbus and Dassault, is scheduled to field a new combat aircraft. The situation in Spain is reminiscent of the choice Germany faced about the F-35, and the government's decision earlier this year to ditch the plane as a contender to replace the Tornado. The Luftwaffe, the German air force, was reportedly in favor of the American fifth-generation plane, while the defense ministry's civilian leadership preferred an upgraded version of the Eurofighter Typhoon. Airbus had lobbied hard against the F-35, arguing that the pick of a new U.S. aircraft at this stage would effectively sink the entire FCAS project. Meanwhile, two F-35s arrived at Llanos Air Base near Albacete, Spain, earlier this week for training with other NATO air forces, according to announcements from the U.S. Air Force and NATO. During the Tactical Leadership Program officials practiced integrating the aircraft into a search-and-rescue drill to extract friendly forces from enemy territory, a June 11 alliance statement reads. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/06/12/spains-military-still-has-eyes-for-the-f-35-despite-european-fighter-push/