U.S. Air Force selects Electra for ultra-short takeoff aircraft development | Aerotech News & Review

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  June 12, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Security

  Kirtland Air Force Base gets space defense upgrades

  By SCOTT TURNER (Tribune News Service) — The U.S. Air Force has begun construction on a facility at Kirtland Air Force Base that will play a major role in defending the nation from attacks by other countries on U.S. satellites. The Air Force Research Laboratory's 26,000 square-foot, $12.8 million Space Control Laboratory will consolidate efforts now being conducted in six different facilities on the base. "Space is now a war-fighting domain," said Air Force Col. Eric Felt, director of the Space Vehicles Directorate at the base. "That doesn't mean we want war in space. We certainly don't. It doesn't mean we have to have war in space. ... If our adversaries attempt to counter us in that domain, we need to have the capabilities and the tools for our nation to counter that." At a groundbreaking ceremony at the base on Thursday, Felt said the new facility will help in that effort. He said the building will be a major addition to AFRL's research in advancing in "space situational awareness, command and control of space systems and the survivability of space assets." "This is a space control technology building," he said. "Space control starts with space domain awareness, making sure we know everything that is going on in space. From there, it goes to making sure we can protect ourselves in space, protect our assets that are up in space. "All the basic components that we need to do for that part of the mission is going to be developed here. The next generation cutting edge capabilities that our nation needs are going to be developed here. And if we do need to perform offensive operations in space, we will be working on those components as well." Brian Engberg, the chief of the space control technologies branch of AFRL's Spacecraft Components Division said researchers in the facility would be determining what satellites were doing. He also said researchers would not only be addressing threats from other countries, but "threats from the space environment itself." Work at the facility will also include the development of satellite technology. "Every satellite that we have up there needs to be resilient," Felt said. "It needs to be there when we need it. If we happen to be in a conflict with a peer competitor, our satellites have to have the defense capabilities when we need them the most." The facility will include office and lab space for 65 civilian and military contractors. It will contain a 5,000 square-foot high-bay laboratory space and more than 5,000 square feet of secure office, laboratory and meeting space. Enberg said scientists and researchers had input on the design, "making sure that everything going into this building will be exactly what we need in order to accomplish our mission, and integrate our people and our ideas better in an innovative environment in order to support our war-fighter mission." "We're looking forward to having a sufficient amount of space in order to collaborate with our industrial partners and our partners in government," he said. "We have many, many projects we are working on. This facility will be a great step forward." AFRL principal technical adviser Michael Gallegos helped lead the effort to bring the facility to Kirtland, an effort he said began about two decades ago. "It's a new state of the art facility that will equip our workforce with secure labs, secure conference space and all of the required lab support space that it needs," he said. Construction of the facility is expected to be completed in December 2020. The contractor for the project is KL House Construction Co. "This was envisioned 20 years ago, back before anybody thought of space as a war-fighting domain, back when space control was just a side project," Felt said. "There were visionary folks who saw our nation was going to need this, that our labs were going to need this." https://www.stripes.com/news/us/kirtland-air-force-base-gets-space-defense-upgrades-1.585666

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  January 23, 2019 | International, Land

  Teams Will Test Concepts for Exploring Underground in SubT Integration Exercise

  In early April, nine qualified teams will attempt to remotely navigate the dark and dirty corridors of Edgar Experimental Mine in Idaho Springs, Colorado, in preparation for the Circuits Stage of the DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge later this year. The SubT Integration Exercise, known as STIX, offers teams an opportunity to try out their technologies, including robotics, sensors, and communications solutions, in a representative environment. The locations for the Circuits Stage events have not been announced. The Subterranean Challenge seeks to revolutionize how first responders and warfighters operate in human-made tunnel systems, urban underground settings, and natural cave networks that are too dangerous, dark, deep, and unknown to risk human lives. Teams are competing to develop breakthrough technologies that rapidly and remotely map, navigate, and search subterranean environments. To qualify for STIX, teams were required to demonstrate baseline performance capabilities and appropriate safety measures. The participating teams and members are as follows: CERBERUS: CollaborativE walking & flying RoBots for autonomous ExploRation in Underground Settings University of Nevada, Reno ETH Zurich, Switzerland Sierra Nevada Corporation University of California, Berkeley Flyability, Switzerland CoSTAR: Collaborative SubTerranean Autonomous Resilient Robots Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology KAIST, South Korea CRAS: Center for Robotics and Autonomous Systems Czech Technological University, Czech Republic Université Laval, Canada CRETISE: Collaborative Robot Exploration and Teaming In Subterranean Environments Endeavor Robotics Neya Systems CSIRO Data61 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia Emesent, Australia Georgia Institute of Technology Explorer Carnegie Mellon University Oregon State University MARBLE: Multi-agent Autonomy with Radar-Based Localization for Exploration University of Colorado, Boulder University of Colorado, Denver Scientific Systems Company, Inc. PLUTO: Pennsylvania Laboratory for Underground Tunnel Operations University of Pennsylvania Exyn Technologies Ghost Robotics Robotika.cz Robotika.cz, Czech Republic Czech University of Life Science, Czech Republic The SubT Challenge comprises two competitions – the Systems Competition, where teams will develop novel hardware solutions to compete in physical underground environments, and the Virtual Competition, where teams will develop software-based solutions to test in simulated scenarios. Teams will compete in three preliminary Circuit events and a Final event pursuing high-risk and high-reward approaches. The Final event, planned for 2021, will put teams to the test with courses that incorporate diverse challenges from all three environments. Teams in the Systems track will compete for up to $2 million in the Systems Final event, with up to $200,000 in additional prizes available for self-funded teams in each of the Systems Circuit events. Teams in the Virtual track will compete for up to $1.5 million in the Virtual Final event, with additional prizes of up to $500,000 for self-funded teams in each of the Virtual Circuit events. Other teams interested in participating in the SubT Challenge may submit their qualification materials to be eligible for future events. The next qualification deadline is April 22, 2019, to establish eligibility for the Tunnel Circuit in August. Requirements can be found in the SubT Qualification Guide available on the Resources Page. Interested teams are also encouraged to join the SubT Community Forum, where they can engage with other participants and ask any questions. For additional information on the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, please visit www.subtchallenge.com. Please email questions to SubTChallenge@darpa.mil. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-01-22

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  December 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  U.S. Arms Sales Remain Robust Despite Pandemic

  12/4/2020 By Jon Harper Business is still booming on the foreign military sales front even though the world is reeling from the economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Boosting exports of U.S.-made defense equipment has been a top policy goal of the Trump administration. The government finished fiscal year 2020 with a total of $84 billion in potential FMS sales that had been approved. Roman Schweizer, an analyst with the Cowen Washington Research Group, called it a “massive” case load. “This isn't technically the ‘real' number but it's still impressive,” he said in a newsletter, noting that not all of the deals had been consummated. In 2019, $68 billion in potential FMS cases were announced, with $55 billion in actual sales reported, according to the research group. The 2020 numbers were better than many observers anticipated. “Some of the concerns that have been initially identified in April have not come to fruition,” R. Clarke Cooper, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, told reporters in October. In July, the U.S. government processed the second highest amount of FMS case work in the history of the State Department, he noted. “On large items that would take a long train or trail in contracting and production, have we seen a change there? No,” he said. “If anything, the work toward getting significant procurement for, let's say, F-16s or a Patriot missile battery, those things have not abated.” What explains this dynamic? Some nations have had better than expected economic recoveries, Cooper said. “There has been a recommitment by states who at one point understandably could have put on park or pause their modernization plans,” he said. “Overall, if we're looking at long-term modernization plans across the board ... we're currently remaining on a trajectory of where we were in FY '19 going into '21.” That doesn't mean nothing will change, he noted. There will probably be fluctuations on payments and payment schedules, he said. Some buyers could seek foreign military financing or grant assistance, or sequence their procurements differently. While trends seem positive, government officials don't have a crystal ball when it comes to FMS in 2021 and beyond, he noted. The new fiscal year began strong, with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announcing in October that it had cleared more than $4 billion worth of missiles to Taiwan, as well as $27.2 billion worth of aircraft to Finland including F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers and F-35 joint strike fighters. https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2020/12/4/us-arms-sales-remain-robust-despite-pandemic