Turkey to launch its first armed unmanned surface vessel

On the same subject

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  December 9, 2019 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  Wanted: Virtual reality headsets that aren’t made in China

  By: Valerie Insinna ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Air Force wants to tap into the augmented and virtual reality technologies that are proliferating in the commercial market, but the service has run into a problem: Many have parts from China, limiting their ability to be used by the U.S. military in operational environments. “Can we not have an AR [augmented reality] solution that's made in China? I don't think that's good for us,” Col. Gerard Ryan, chief of the Air Force's operational training infrastructure division, said during a panel discussion Tuesday at the Interservice/Industry, Training, Simulation and Education Conference. “I don't think the security policy is going to pass. And I say that sarcastically, but it's true. If we're going to use a gaming engine, let's make sure it's not made by a foreign country that we don't like,” he added. The Air Force is dipping its toes into using virtual reality through its Pilot Training Next program, which seeks to get airmen through basic pilot training more quickly and cheaply. While the PTN program is currently considered an experiment, with only a handful of airmen participating at any given time, the Air Force has already shown it may be able to shave months off the existing training timeline by supplementing live flights spent in the T-6 trainer with virtual ones using Vive virtual reality headsets and flight simulation software. An unclassified environment like basic pilot training is a perfect place for the Air Force to use the augmented and virtual reality devices currently on the market. But for such products to ever see use by fighter and bomber pilots — or any operator that deals with secure information — the service must be sure that no part of the device is made by China, or any other foreign entity that could insert technology that allows for data collection. The Air Force has begun talking to companies about its concerns, Ryan said. The hope is those firms can examine their supply chains and shift away from buying Chinese components. “I've talked to some people in industry. A smaller company has said they've found a set of goggles that's American-made. I'm like: ‘Great, you're the first person to tell me that. The only one so far, too,' ” Ryan said. Another challenge is connecting commercial devices in a classified environment, where Bluetooth and Wi-Fi use may be restricted. “I've talked to one company that has figured [it] out. They have a system where it's a backpack laptop. So it's a direct connect to the goggles,” Ryan said. “Unfortunately it's more expensive, probably, to do that. It's probably more challenging to find the parts.” When augmented or virtual reality systems can be brought into classified environments, they may not be flexible enough for quick reconfiguration to complement different training scenarios, said Col. David Nyikos, Air Combat Command's deputy director of operations. “AR/VR is super cool,” he said during the panel. “But now you need it to evolve, you need it to reprogram to adapt to whatever mission rehearsal you're coming up with. Maybe tonight you're going to go out with guys from AFSOC [Air Force Special Operations Command] working with some Norwegian SOF [special operations forces], working with some Afghans. You've got to be able to train together to rehearse that. We don't have that right now.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/itsec/2019/12/06/wanted-virtual-reality-headsets-that-arent-made-in-china

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  July 3, 2018 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  US spy planes are breaking down ― and lawmakers want answers

  By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― America's aging C-135 reconnaissance planes keep breaking down, and alarmed lawmakers want the U.S. Air Force to tell them why. Based at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, the 55th Wing's Boeing-made reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering aircraft, all more than 50 years old, are meant to carry out critical missions from operating bases in England, Greece, Japan and Qatar. But an Omaha World-Herald investigative series has found that mechanical problems plague the jets, cutting short 500 of their flights since 2016 and one of every 12 missions since 2015. That's prompted Nebraska lawmakers to write to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, urging her to probe and report on the health of the 55th Wing's worn-out fleet. Meanwhile, the Nebraska delegation is trying to fend off an effort within Congress to strip funding to recapitalize the OC-135, which conducts overflights of Russia under the 34-nation Open Skies Treaty. Some lawmakers and Pentagon officials have grown skeptical of the treaty, which allows reciprocal surveillance flights, amid alleged Russian violations, but the administration has requested funds for two new airliners to take over the mission. “It has one of the worst maintenance rates in the United States Air Force,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said of the OC-135 on the House floor last week. “It frequently breaks down in Russia, putting us in very hostile, awkward situations with Russians at their bases.” The chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Deb Fischer, led the letter with Sen. Ben Sasse, a SASC member; Bacon (a retired brigadier general and former 55th Wing commander who sits on the House Armed Services Committee), as well as Reps. Jeff Fortenberry and Adrian Smith. The letter asked Wilson to report on the 55th Wing's safety, security and continued mission effectiveness as well as the Air Force's long-term plans to sustain and recapitalize the wing's capabilities. It referenced the RC-135V/W Rivet Joint, RC-135S Cobra Ball, RC-135U Combat Sent, WC-135 Constant Phoenix, TC-135 Rivet Joint Trainer and the OC-135 Open Skies aircraft. In the current budget season, House and Senate lawmakers have taken divergent approaches to the Trump administration's $222 million request for the two new aircraft. House appropriators and authorizers stripped the funding from their 2019 bills. The authorization bill withholds the funding until Russia adheres to the treaty and agrees to extradite Russians indicted for meddling in U.S. elections in 2016. Fischer helped ensure the Senate-passed 2019 authorization bill did include funding for OC-135 recapitalization, and the bill will have to be reconciled with its House counterpart. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis directed the Air Force to recapitalize the aircraft. He wrote to Fischer in May to acknowledge that unplanned maintenance issues meant the U.S. completed only 64 percent of its scheduled overflights in 2017, while Russia typically completes all of its scheduled overflights. The White House Office of Management and Budget has also issued letters objecting to the absence of OC-135 recapitalization funding in the House bills. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2018/07/02/us-spy-planes-are-breaking-down-and-lawmakers-want-answers/

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  October 11, 2023 | International, Security

  Israel anxiously watches its northern border for warning signs of a wider regional war | CBC News

  Israel's northern border with Lebanon and Syria represents a potential flashpoint in the conflict that erupted over the weekend — one that experts say bears watching over the next several days because it could be a harbinger of a wider regional war in the Middle East.