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  July 20, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

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  July 25, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  JSTARS Recap is officially dead

  By: Valerie Insinna LONDON — The Air Force scored a major win in the 2019 defense authorization bill: Not only will it be able to cancel the JSTARS recap program, it is getting additional funds for its alternative effort called Advanced Battle Management System. However, the service will have to make some concessions in terms of its plans to retire the existing E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System fleet, which is used for ground surveillance and command and control missions. The Air Force had planned to retire three E-8Cs in 2019 that had become “hangar queens” cannibalized for spare parts for the rest of the fleet, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said earlier this year. However, according to the new defense policy bill unveiled Monday, it will not be able to retire any of the 17 planes until “increment 2” of the ABMS system is declared operational, although Congress will allow the Air Force secretary to phase out planes on a case-by-case basis if an aircraft is no longer mission capable. While the Air Force has not spelled out to the public exactly what comprises its ABMS plan, it involves a host of different upgrades for existing platforms —for instance the MQ-9 Reaper and E-3 AWACS early warning aircraft — that will allow them to network together in new ways. A congressional aide told Defense News on July 24 that the Air Force have three ABMS increments in a series of classified briefings to members of Congress' defense committees. Phase one, which lasts from now until about 2023, involves upgrades to datalinks and some space-based technologies, as well as linking sensors from several stealth platforms and drones together, the aide said. Increments 2 and 3 quickly get into more classified territory, said the aide, who declined to provide greater specifics. The defense authorization bill would accelerate ABMS by adding $120 million for six MQ-9 Reapers, which the aide said could be used to help boost the architecture's ability to prosecute targets during a low-end conflict. It also included $30 million to continue development of the ground moving target indicator radar developed by Northrop Grumman for the JSTARS recap program. In addition, Congress levied a number of other restrictions and reporting requirements on the Air Force as part of the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act, including: The Air Force's plan for modernizing and sustaining the current JSTARS fleet, including how it will increase the availability of the E-8Cs to support demands worldwide. Quarterly reports from the Air Force secretary on the progress of ABMS. Certification by the defense secretary that the Air Force has a long term funding plan that will allow it to retain JSTARS and that the ABMS acquisition strategy is executable. A report on ABMS from the Government Accountability Office, which provides independent oversight to Congress. The report will review the maturity of the plan and any risk associated with fielding or funding it. A directive to the Pentagon's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office to reexamine the cost and schedule for restarting a re-engine effort of the E-8C, which had begun in 2008 but was since abandoned. The Air Force “procured three ship-sets of engines, after investing $450.0 million, and the engines remain unused,” even though “the legacy E-8C engines are the number one issue driving excessive non-mission capable maintenance metrics for the E-8C fleet,” the bill stated. The end of the JSTARS recap program is bad news for Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, who were each vying for the prime contractor spot and the $6.9 billion contract for engineering, manufacturing and development. A total of 17 new planes were planned to be built throughout the program. Over the past year, Air Force leaders grew disenchanted with JSTARS recap, saying that new battle management planes would not be survivable in future, contested battlespaces. But while the Senate defense committees leaned in to support ABMS, House lawmakers sought to force the service to keep going with JSTARS recap. Will Roper, the Air Force's top acquisition official, told Defense News on July 17 that he was hopeful that Congress would move forward with ABMS. However, he still acknowledged that the Air Force had never modernized a “system of systems” like ABMS before. “It definitely needs to be a program where we embrace failure up front and prototype, because there's going to be a lot of learning to do about how do you make things work together as a team,” Roper said. “We get a sense of how commercial industry is solving it and I imagine we can use a lot of their lessons learned, but probably not all of them.” Infighting in Georgia What was once a disagreement between the House and Senate seems to have turned into a fight among the members of the Georgia delegation. In a surprising move, Republican Rep. Austin Scott pointed the finger at Sen. David Perdue, a fellow Georgia Republican, for allowing the recap program to be cancelled. Georgia's Robins Air Force Base is home to the 461st Air Control Wing, the joint Air Force-Army unit that operates JSTARS. “When Senator Perdue [...] withdrew his support of this program which the Georgia Congressional Delegation – including Senator Perdue – has overwhelmingly supported throughout the last seven years, it effectively ended the program,” said Scott. “Unfortunately [...] the replacement aircraft will not be fielded, forcing a higher risk to our men and women in uniform by continuing to fly the 48 year old legacy JSTARS aircraft which are in need of recapitalization.” Perdue hit back in his own statement, saying that ABMS is a better long term solution for Robins. “The Advanced Battlefield Management System will give us the capability to access both restricted and non-restricted airspace. This is a necessity in supporting our troops in harm's way as well as our overall intelligence gathering,” Perdue said. “With the solution I support, we save JSTARS jobs, maintain the JSTARS fleet into the next decade, accelerate the implementation of ABMS, and gain a new mission for Robins. All of this guarantees a very bright future for my hometown base.” https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/07/24/jstars-recap-is-officially-dead/

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  July 31, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Ilias Solutions signs deal with Lockheed Martin for sustainment and fleet management of the Slovak Air Force F-16 Fighter jets

  Brussels, 31 July 2020 – ILIAS Solutions is proud to announce Lockheed Martin have, once again, chosen them and their defense logistics software to support the implementation and sustainment of the new F-16 Block 70 fleet of the Slovak Republic. ILIAS Solutions will work with the Slovak Air Force to implement its defense logistics software into the Sliač Air Base IT platform. Prior to the fleet's arrival, the staff will be fully trained to manage and sustain the new fleet of F-16 Block 70 fighter jets with the ILIAS Defense Platform. Jean-Pierre Wildschut, Managing Director ILIAS Solutions says, “I'm excited to extend our cooperation with Lockheed Martin and start working with the Slovak Air Force; providing the capability to manage their F-16 fleet at Sliač Air Base. The ILIAS Defense Platform will minimize the logistics footprint of their F-16 fleet while assuring mission readiness at all times.” The ILIAS Solutions-Lockheed Martin collaboration already lead to significantly improved sustainment performance of multiple F-16 fleets and other weapon systems. By bringing together decades of expertise, ILIAS Solutions and Lockheed Martin merge military sustainment know-how via the ILIAS commercially available off-the-shelf software into a long-term capability for the customer. The combined expertise of ILIAS Solutions and Lockheed Martin will provide Sliač Air Base a proven solution to assure mission readiness for their F-16 fleet. Danya Trent, vice president of Lockheed Martin's F-16 program added, “ILIAS Solutions will be instrumental in providing the Slovak Republic first class capabilities for the sustainment and fleet management of these advanced F-16 Block 70 fighter jets. I'm confident in their capabilities, and welcome them on board the Lockheed Martin team that is already working closely with the Slovak Air Force preparing for the arrival and deployment of the F-16 at Sliač Air Base.” The ILIAS software platform will provide the Slovak Air Force with total asset visibility. This will allow them to asses mission readiness and plan deployments of the F-16 for military missions or training. If you would like to know more about the new F-16 Block and the ILIAS implementation, do not hesitate to contact us. View source version on ILIAS Solutions: https://www.ilias-solutions.com/news/ilias-solutions-signs-deal-lockheed-martin-sustainment-and-fleet-management-slovak-air-force-f