The Hornet Jumps

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  September 7, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  Fully autonomous ‘mobile intelligent entities’ coming to the battlefields of the future

  By: Kelsey Atherton WASHINGTON — A killer robot by any other name is far more palatable to the general public. That may be part of the logic behind the Army Research Laboratory Chief Scientist Alexander Kott's decision to refer to thinking and moving machines on the battlefield as “mobile intelligent entities.” Kott pitched the term, along with the new ARL concept of fully autonomous maneuver, at the 2nd Annual Defense News Conference yesterday, in an panel on artificial intelligence that kept circling back to underlying questions of great power competition. “Fully autonomous maneuver is an ambitious, heretical terminology,” Kott said. “Fully autonomous is more than just mobility, it's about decision making.” If there is a canon against which this autonomy seems heretical, it is likely the international community's recent conference and negotiations over how, exactly, to permit or restrict lethal autonomous weapon systems. The most recent meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems took place last week in Geneva, Switzerland and concluded with a draft of recommendations on Aug. 31st. This diplomatic process, and the potential verdict of international law, could check or halt the development of AI-enabled weapons, especially ones where machines select and attack targets without human interventions. That's the principle objection raised by humanitarian groups like the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, as well as the nations that called for a preemptive ban on such autonomous weapons. Kott understands the ethical concern, drawing an analogy to the moral concerns and tradeoffs in developing self driving cars. “All know about self driving cars, all the angst, the issue of mobility... take all this concern and multiply it by orders of magnitude and now you have the issues of mobility on the battlefield,” said Kott. “Mobile intelligent entities on the battlefield have to deal with a much more unstructured, much less orderly environment than what self-driving cars have to do. This is a dramatically different world of urban rubble and broken vehicles, and all kind of dangers, in which we are putting a lot of effort.” Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/06/fully-autonomous-maneuver-coming-to-the-battlefields-of-the-future

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  June 10, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Des commandes publiques pour les armées et les forces intérieures, à hauteur de 832 millions d'euros

  Afin de soutenir les entreprises aéronautiques, le gouvernement anticipe des commandes d'avions, d'hélicoptères et de drones militaires pour les armées et les forces intérieures, pour un montant de 832 millions d'euros. La ministre des Armées, Florence Parly, a annoncé l'acquisition de trois avions ravitailleurs A330-MRTT, d'un avion de surveillance et de renseignement, de huit hélicoptères de transport militaire Caracal et de drones de surveillance navale, ce qui représente « une charge de travail de 1 200 emplois sur trois ans». «La commande de trois nouveaux MRTT à livrer en 2021 et 2022 au lieu de 2027 et 2028 est très importante. Elle va nourrir la chaîne de fabrication des A330 à un moment critique, alors que la crise pèse davantage sur les gros-porteurs A330 et A350 », explique Antoine Bouvier, directeur de la stratégie chez Airbus. La sécurité civile et la gendarmerie ont également concentré leurs commandes sur les nouveaux modèles d'hélicoptères afin d'appuyer leur commercialisation. La Sécurité civile commande ainsi deux hélicoptères H145 de nouvelle génération (5 pales), dont la certification est en cours, tandis que la gendarmerie commande 10 H160 pour 200 millions d'euros. En développement depuis près d'une décennie, le nouvel H160, présenté pour la première fois dans sa version militaire au Bourget en juin dernier , attend de manière imminente sa certification européenne. La ministre des Armées a également indiqué que de nouveaux engagements sur la commande d'avions de combat Rafale de Dassault Aviation pourraient être examinés. Ensemble de la presse du 10 juin

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  July 22, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Lockheed Martin May Go Shopping if Defense Budgets Fall Next Year

  July 21, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak If defense spending goes down in the coming year—expected because of large COVID-19 bailout packages—it could be an opportunity for Lockheed Martin, company President and Chief Executive Officer James D. Taiclet said July 21. In a second-quarter results call with investors and financial reporters, Taiclet—in his first such call after succeeding Marillyn A. Hewson in the job—said the company isn't betting on defense budgets to go up or down. But Lockheed is sitting on so much cash—nearly $8 billion—it could go shopping for other companies in distress if budgets fall, he said. “If there is a downturn, we're going to look for silver linings that may be there,” Taiclet said. Given the company's strong backlog and balance sheet, “there could be opportunities for us to act in a period where asset prices are depressed, for things we may want to bring into the company.” Acquisition targets “we really wanted ... might be even more available at attractive prices.” He did not discuss large possible acquisition interests, and only broadly mentioned looking at small companies able to build Lockheed's vertical integration in some technology areas. Taiclet declined to speculate on whether budgets will rise or fall. “We're just getting the company ready for either scenario, frankly,” he said. “If it's stable or slightly rising, ... we know how to handle that. But if it's declining, we're planning for that, too.” In case of a downturn, he's asked business area managers to do “a ‘Red Team' kind of exercise ... We would offer our customers ... ‘this is what we think you should do with our products and programs for extending'” the life of existing platforms. With a $150 billion backlog in hand, though—a new company “high water mark,” Taiclet said—“it's going to be two to three years” before any defense budget cuts “actually go into the defense industrial base production lines, so we have time to work with the customer ... They can have their contingency plan and we're behind them 100 percent.” Taiclet said international customers may also see budget declines, but doesn't expect Lockheed to be hit hard by that. While some requests for proposals are “moving to the right,” the planned in-service dates of prospective customers are not, he noted. Taiclet and Kenneth R. Possenriede, vice president and chief financial officer, said the company expects 90 total new F-16 orders from Taiwan and another country; C-130s for Indonesia; Aegis systems for Japan; and MH-60R helicopters for India, as well as increasing orders for missile defense systems. They also said the chief competitors to the U.S. are spending lavishly on defense systems and the threat is not diminishing, despite COVID. China is “aggressive and ... aspirational,” Taiclet said, while Russia is “back in the game,” making strategic investments in long-range systems to make up for its diminished ground forces. Production of the F-35, Lockheed's marquee aeronautics program, will likely be 40 percent for foreign users in the coming years, Possenriede said. Of the aeronautics division's $9 billion in orders, $7 billion is accounted for by the F-35, with a backlog of 411 airplanes. Taiclet noted that Lockhed has hired 9,000 new employees since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and is seeking to hire 3,000 more in this calendar year. https://www.airforcemag.com/lockheed-martin-may-go-shopping-if-defense-budgets-fall-next-year