US Air Force stages dogfights with AI-flown fighter jet

On the same subject

• 

  December 19, 2018 | International, Land

  Are the days of pulling pits at the rifle range coming to an end?

  By: Shawn Snow As a shooter on rifle range qualification day, have you ever seen your target come up crooked, barely hanging onto the stand, and wonder, “What the heck are the Marines doing in the rifle pits?” Pulling pits at the rifle range might be most Marines' least favorite task. It requires constantly raising and lowering targets just to see them fall off the rickety stands, and quickly patching them up with pasties to give the shooter a clean canvas ... just to watch them fall off again. It's a frustrating, tedious task. There's the fact you have to rely on another Marine in the pit to accurately score your shots — and that one-point difference between the marksmen pizza box badge and sharpshooter can save a a lot of scorn before the next chance to qualify. There's the shooter who probably missed the target entirely during the last course of fire, leaving the scorer staring at the target for an eternity, seeking a nonexistent shot hole. There's always the Marine who shoots on the wrong target — those must just be bonus points to help a buddy who is about to fail on the range. The Corps' entire rifle range qualification process is rife with human error and inefficiencies that can impact Marines' scores on the range. Well, the Corps finally is looking to remedy this. In a request for information posted on the government's business opportunities portal, the Corps is in the hunt for an automatic scoring system for its ranges. In the posting the Corps said that the purpose of the new scoring system is to “reduce the amount of labor necessary to conduct KD [known distance] training/qualification. By eliminating the need for target operators in the pits, the labor overhead associated with KD training is greatly reduced.” “During marksmanship training the KDAS [known distance automated scoring] will be required to accurately show the shooter where they hit the target, to provide feedback that will assist the shooter in developing their shooting skills," the RFI stated. And the Corps is looking for a complete system that will streamline the scoring process and ease the rifle range qualification process. According to the RFI, the Corps wants new scoring platform display systems for coaches and shooters. For marksman coaches on the range, a new display unit will allow the coach to view and track the shots of four shooter lanes at once. Shooters will have a display unit that will let them track their individual shot placement and score as well. A single control system will be able to communicate wirelessly and control up to 100 targets at once, according to the RFI. That means no more Marines in the pits manually pulling targets up and down. The new scoring system is intended to reduce “the amount of time shooters need to spend on the range, freeing them up to perform other work,” the RFI reads. So maybe the days of showing up to the range at dawn also are coming to an end? Responses to the Corps' request for information regarding the new scoring system are due by Jan 11. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/12/18/are-the-days-of-pulling-pits-at-the-rifle-range-coming-to-an-end

• 

  February 28, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Lockheed Seeks Options As F-35 Cost Pressure Rises

  Steve Trimble ORLANDO, Florida—Lockheed Martin sees Poland's defense industry as a potential low-cost manufacturing source for the F-35 program, as “upward pressure” continues to grow on aircraft prices beyond Lot 14 partly due to the loss of Turkey as a low-cost manufacturing source. “Poland is a new opportunity to provide higher quality and lower cost,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed's vice president and general manager of the F-35, speaking to journalists at the Air Warfare Symposium here. Last month, Poland signed an order to buy 32 F-35As from production lots 16-23. The acquisition helps the NATO member that shares a border with Russia to replace its remaining fleet of Soviet-era fighters. But the deal also opens a new industrial source for the overall program. Meanwhile, the U.S.-led Joint Program Office is still working out procedures for finally expelling Turkey from the F-35 supply chain. A decision by Ankara last July to accept deliveries of Russian S-400 air defense systems prompted the U.S. government to cancel Turkey's remaining F-35 orders and suspend the country from participating in the program. An executive steering group is continuing to finalize plans to expel Turkey's companies, Ulmer said. The loss of Turkey's industrial base comes as the F-35 production system enters a transition period. After annual output more than doubled to 134 aircraft in 2019 from 66 in 2017, the pace of growth is slowing, with about 170 deliveries expected by 2023 as upgraded Lot 15 jets roll off the assembly line. The production ramp-up helped Lockheed dramatically lower prices, with F-35As from Lot 14 delivered in 2022 projected to cost $78.9 million each. As the pace of the ramp-up slows, Lockheed is starting to see “upward pressure” on recurring procurement costs after Lot 14, Ulmer said. A request for proposals sent by the U.S. program office to Lockheed recently for Lot 15 includes a greater variance between guaranteed orders and priced options than the company has seen before, Ulmer said. The minimum number would decline in annual production after Lot 14, he said, and the maximum could increase deliveries. The insertion in Lot 15 of Technical Refresh 3 upgrades under the Block 4 modernization program should not change recurring production costs, Ulmer added. The upgrades, which include a new integrated core processor, panoramic cockpit display and additional computer memory, should be a “cost neutral” upgrade, Ulmer said. https://aviationweek.com/shows-events/air-warfare-symposium/lockheed-seeks-options-f-35-cost-pressure-rises

• 

  May 25, 2021 | International, Naval

  Fincantieri dedicates all its US shipyards for Navy frigate orders

  Fincantieri is to use all three of its U..S shipyards to build new FFG(X) frigates and will hire 600 more staff by year-end to handle the work, a company official said following the U.S. Navy’s order for a second vessel out of a potential 10 in total.