Trump’s new Space Force to reside under Department of the Air Force

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  January 21, 2020 | International, Naval

  Australian defense leaders defend submarine buy with France’s Naval Group

  By: Nigel Pittaway MELBOURNE, Australia – Australian defense leaders this week denied claims that their department was urged to consider alternatives to the navy's plans of buying 12 large conventionally-powered submarines from France's Naval Group. The claims, reported by local news media in the wake of an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report about the program earlier this week, suggested negotiations with Naval Group were at such a poor state the Commonwealth-appointed Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board had earlier recommended drawing up contingency plans. However, in a statement released Wednesday by Secretary of Defence Greg Moriarty, Chief of Defence Force Gen. Angus Campbell, Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mike Noonan and Deputy Secretary Naval Shipbuilding, Tony Dalton, denied the claims. “Contrary to media interpretations of ANAO's latest report on the Future Submarine Program, Defence was not advised to ‘walk away' from Naval Group by the Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board,” the statement read. “In line with best practice and following the advice of the Advisory Board, Defence has continued to assess all of the risks that attend this highly complex program. At each stage, we are adopting relevant risk mitigation strategies. The ANAO acknowledges that Defence has taken steps to manage risks.” The 12 Attack-class submarines are being acquired under Australia's Sea 1000 (Future Submarine) program to replace six existing Collins-class boats which, without a major service life extension program, will need to be retired by 2036. The design is based on the French Barracuda-class nuclear attack boat, and the program is valued at either $34.5 billion (50 billion Australian dollars), or $55.2 billion (AUD 80 billion), depending on accounting practices. Either way, it is Australia's largest-ever defense acquisition program. The ANAO report, titled “Transition to Design,” found that the design phase of the program is already nine months behind schedule and two important milestones had been missed. It said Defence “could not demonstrate” its expenditure of $396 million (US $273 million) on the design to date has been fully effective in achieving the two milestones to date. The Defence Department has spent 47 percent of all program expenditure thus far on design work and, despite the risk mitigation strategies, it continues to describe program risk as “high”. “While the first scheduled major milestone under the Submarine Design Contract was reached five weeks later than planned, Defence and Naval Group are working towards the recovery of this delay by the next contracted major milestone in January 2021. Importantly, the delivery of the Attack-class submarine has not been delayed,” the statement continued. “Acknowledging the scale of this program, we remain confident that our work on the Attack-class program with Naval Group and Lockheed Martin Australia (as the Combat Systems Integrator) is progressing thoroughly and will result in the delivery of a regionally-superior submarine from the early 2030s, establishing a truly sovereign capability as we maximize the involvement of Australian industry.” The Sea 1000 program timeline calls for delivery of the first Attack-class boat in 2032 with service entry around 2034. https://www.defensenews.com/2020/01/17/australian-defense-leaders-defend-submarine-buy-with-frances-naval-group

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  May 2, 2019 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  These are the five areas where the Air Force wants to see an explosion of technology

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The Air Force has a new science and technology strategy, and it's built around the idea that the service needs to generate leap-ahead capabilities like the 1950s-era Century Series that spawned six new fighter jets in five years. To do that, the service wants to restructure about 20 percent of its S&T efforts into “vanguard programs” that will tie together different developmental efforts across the Air Force's research institutions and experiment with them to see whether it shows promise. “If you're playing hockey, you shouldn't be shooting where the goalie is. You should be shooting where the goalie isn't,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Wednesday. “So the idea with part of this strategy is to assess where our adversaries can't easily go and get there first and fastest. That's a winning strategy.” Among the new strategy's biggest changes is the addition of a new position, the Air Force's chief technology officer, who will be charged with coordinating efforts across the S&T enterprise and making strategic decisions about the direction of the service's development efforts, to include the vanguard programs. This yet-to-be-named official will work directly with the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability team, which is defining future concepts of operation and helping the service understand what technologies it needs to meet advanced threats. Wilson wasn't sure exactly when the CTO will be named, but she's already signed a memorandum that makes Will Roper, the service's acquisition executive, responsible for hiring a “design agent” that will figure out how to best structure the CTO office within the Air Force and help select the new official. “One of the things that this design agent will do is start to look in at acquisition, how will we change both possibly the organizational reporting lines for research, but [also] how will we manage that and change that over time,” she said. “This is not something where we're going to flip a switch today, but it does mean over time we're going to change the way we manage our research dollars.” Still unknown is whether the new strategy will impact the size or makeup of the S&T budget, which runs about $2.8 billion per year. The Air Force also hasn't identified any potential vanguard programs yet, officials said. “For some things, if it's smaller, that could be really quick” and result in an experimentation program similar to the light attack program, said Lt Gen. Arnold Bunch, the service's top uniformed acquisition official. “Or it could be a big project that we align a lot of dollars to” so that it can transition quickly to a program of record. The service also wants to use vanguard programs to fuse together emerging technologies in their early stages of development, which are usually developed in a more stovepiped manner, said Air Force Chief Scientist Richard Joseph. “If it doesn't work well, then we know at a very early stage the kinds of things we have to work on and change,” he said. “This is probably a less expensive vanguard, but it's one that's really vital and important.” Although no specific vanguard projects have been announced, the S&T strategy identifies five technology areas where it wants to see “transformational” growth: Complexity, Unpredictability and Mass The military has talked for years about the need for swarms of autonomous drones and space systems that can be purchased on the cheap, and the Air Force continues to see a need for such assets in the future to augment their legacy fleet of exquisite platforms. “Progress will rely heavily on a wide range of robotics and autonomy technologies, along with sensors and wireless communications,” the strategy states. “The growing autonomous vehicle market provides an industrial and applied research base that the Air Force can leverage, but military research is needed well beyond what can be expected from the commercial sector.” Speed and Reach of Disruption and Lethality The Air Force needs a more diverse inventory of weapons that are faster and have longer endurance. Although hypersonic weapons — and enabling technologies like scramjet propulsion and high-temperature materials — might be the most visible program for such investment, the S&T strategy notes several others such as low-cost cruise missiles and guided munitions. Microwave and laser-directed energy weapons hold potential for decreasing the cost of shooting down a target. The service also sees promise in “advanced penetrating kinetic weapons combined with new effects from the electromagnetic spectrum and the space and cyberspace domains to create new offensive and defensive options.” Global Persistent Awareness The platforms the Air Force uses for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — everything from the U-2 spyplane to its missile warning satellites to the cameras on an MQ-9 Reaper — have given the service unparalleled access to information. But those assets are too expensive, can't stay long enough on station, and lack the survivability needed to stand up against more advanced threats. Further, it takes far too long to process the information from these legacy systems, and too much manpower is needed to turn that data into actionable intelligence. The strategy posits a move toward distributed, low-cost sensors where information can be fused together to “provide resilience through numbers and redundancy and complement more exquisite sensors on standoff platforms.” Small satellites and low cost launch can help enable this architecture, as can “edge computing” that “autonomously analyzes sensor data at the source” and reduces the burden on legacy communications nodes. The strategy also recommends investment in new sensing technologies — such as laser and multistatic radar, hyperspectral sensing and quantum field sensing—as well as the microelectronics, photonics and other materials that are used to build sensors. Resilient Information Sharing The Air Force relies on its battle networks in order for fighter jets to get accurate targeting information, to share intelligence across platforms, and to conduct close air support of troops on the ground. But despite huge advances in commercial communications technologies, the Air Force “cannot rely” on the private sector for information sharing capabilities that are able to resist electronic attacks, cyberattacks and GPS jamming. “The military's demands on these capabilities exceed the limits of current wireless network technology, even under favorable circumstances,” the S&T strategy reads. “In future conflicts, the challenge will be far beyond any of those encountered in the commercial sector.” As such, the Air Force will need to field more flexible and survivable battle networks that can autonomously reconfigure itself when threatened. The service sees promise in areas such as software-defined systems, more resilient satellites, encryption and alternate position, navigation and timing systems. Rapid, Effective Decision Making Air Force Chef of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein has spoken at length about the need for the Air Force to move the right information to users more quickly. To do that, the serviced will need to continue investments in areas such as artificial intelligence, predictive data analytics, data fusion and visualization, and autonomous electronic warfare and cyber. “Automation is especially important in electronic and cyberwarfare where contests occur at far-beyond-human speeds,” the strategy states. “Where possible, automation can assist electronic warfare, cybersystems, and other means to hinder the adversary's decision-making by introducing uncertainty.” https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2019/04/17/these-are-the-five-areas-where-the-air-force-wants-to-see-an-explosion-of-technology

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  June 17, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  L3Harris Technologies awarded sustainment contract for US Air Force B-1B bomber electronic warfare

  Melbourne, Fla. June 11, 2020 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has been awarded a five-year contract by the U.S. Air Force for sustainment of the B-1B Bomber's Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) system which helps to protect the aircraft against evolving electronic threats worldwide. L3Harris will provide AN/ALQ-161A repair support to the Air Force as part of the contract. The unit is an integrated radio frequency ECM system designed specifically for the B-1B. It detects and counters radar-based weapon systems and also provides a tail warning function to detect and counter incoming missiles from behind the aircraft. The system sorts threats by priority and reacts against them automatically while allowing for “man-in-the-loop” intervention. “The combat-proven and versatile AN/ALQ-161A has been the ECM solution for the B-1B since the 1980s and has helped to protect its aircrews against evolving electronic threats since the Cold War,” said Ed Zoiss, President, Space and Airborne Systems, L3Harris. “L3Harris continues to sustain the system to meet the future strategic airpower needs of the Air Force through the aircraft's projected retirement in 2040.” L3Harris has delivered electronic warfare solutions for a wide variety of airborne platforms for more than 60 years. The company's airborne EW systems support and enable missions for strategic bombers, tactical fighters and rotary aircraft by helping aviators to detect, avoid, and where necessary, defeat electronic threats at every level of engagement. L3Harris' Space and Airborne Systems segment provides space payloads, sensors and full-mission solutions; classified intelligence and cyber defense; avionics; and electronic warfare solutions. About L3Harris Technologies L3Harris Technologies is an agile global aerospace and defense technology innovator, delivering end-to-end solutions that meet customers' mission-critical needs. The company provides advanced defense and commercial technologies across air, land, sea, space and cyber domains. L3Harris has approximately $18 billion in annual revenue and 48,000 employees, with customers in more than 100 countries. L3Harris.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect management's current expectations, assumptions and estimates of future performance and economic conditions. Such statements are made in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and future trends to differ materially from those matters expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Statements about system capabilities are forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties. L3Harris disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. # # # Sleighton Meyer Space & Airborne Systems +1 321 727 4020 Sleighton.Meyer@L3Harris.com Sara Banda Media Relations +1 321 674 4498 Sara.Banda@L3Harris.com View source version on L3Harris Technologies: https://www.l3harris.com/newsroom/press-release/2020/06/89891/l3harris-technologies-awarded-sustainment-contract-for-us-air-force-b-1b-bomber-electronic-warfare-system?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=&utm_content=01-b1b-pr&utm_campaign=sas-e