US Navy should view space, power margins as a 'warfighting capability' worth paying for

On the same subject

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  September 14, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Le contrat Rafale en Inde est-il menacé ?

  Par Vincent Lamigeon Le parti du Congrès, principal parti d'opposition en Inde, attaque durement les conditions du contrat pour 36 Rafale signé par Delhi en 2016. Le camp français évoque une polémique liée au contexte électoral. Et affirme toujours croire à un contrat de 114 avions supplémentaires. "L'affaire Rafale". C'est devenu l'obsession de Rahul Gandhi, leader du parti du Congrès, à l'approche des élections de mai 2019. Depuis novembre 2017, le dirigeant du principal parti d'opposition indien a fait du contrat pour 36 Rafale, signé par Delhi en septembre 2016, l'aiguillon de son offensive contre le premier ministre, le nationaliste hindou Narendra Modi. Gandhi évoque carrément une "escroquerie", accusant le gouvernement d'avoir favorisé un industriel proche du pouvoir, le patron du conglomérat Reliance, Anil Ambani. Ce groupe, jusqu'alors absent du secteur de la défense, avait été choisi par Dassault comme partenaire local pour remporter le contrat. "Un capitalisme de copinage", selon Rahul Gandhi, qui a multiplié ces dernières semaines les manifestations contre le contrat Rafale. L'accord pour 36 appareils pourrait-il être menacé ? Peu probable. Certes, un certain malaise est palpable. La visite à Paris de la ministre de la Défense indienne Nirmala Sitharaman, prévue ces prochains jours, a été reportée sine die, signe de la gêne persistante autour du sujet. Le passage du détachement Pégase de l'armée de l'air française en Inde (3 Rafale, un A400M, un C-135 et 130 aviateurs) début septembre a été accueilli avec un certain embarras par les responsables indiens. Un vol en Rafale de l'ambassadeur français a été annulé, de même que le survol du Taj Mahal par un A400M et le vol d'aviateurs indiens en place arrière sur les Rafale français. Contexte pré-électoral Pour autant, une dénonciation du contrat apparaît très improbable. L'armée de l'air indienne s'est même livrée à une défense en règle du contrat le 12 septembre. Dans un document dévoilé par le site indien LiveFist, elle assure que "l'Inde a obtenu le Rafale au meilleur prix" et "avec les meilleurs armements du marché". Le patron de l'armée de l'air indienne B.S. Dhanoa a même assuré que les "chasseurs high-tech Rafale" étaient plus que jamais nécessaires pour faire face aux menaces pakistanaise et chinoise. Delhi attend ses appareils à partir de septembre 2019, avec des livraisons qui s'échelonneront jusqu'à 2022. Article complet: https://www.challenges.fr/entreprise/le-contrat-rafale-en-inde-est-il-menace_612305

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  August 14, 2019 | International, Land, C4ISR

  Can robots make an Army platoon 10 times as effective?

  By: Kelsey D. Atherton Are humans with robots an order of magnitude better than humans without robots? It's the question the Army's Maneuver Center for Excellence is hoping to solve through trial and experimentation. The National Advanced Mobility Consortium posted a request for white papers Aug. 5 about technologies that might have a place in a robotic, artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy technology demonstration at Fort Benning in September 2020. This project is long in the works, with an announcement of intent dating back to March 2019. The premise, as stated in the March announcement, is to “show a path towards an Army capability that will provide a robotically equipped dismounted infantry platoon that is 10 times more effective than the current dismounted infantry platoon.” In order to do this, the Maneuver Center for Excellence, together with Fort Benning's Maneuver Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate's Robotics Requirements Division, is exploring robotic systems for “ground, air, water,” as well as the virtual space — otherwise known as the four platonic elements of terrestrial war. These robots and systems should be able to improve “mobility, protection, situational awareness, endurance, persistence, and depth” as well as, and this is key, lethality. Taken together, the robots should lend an advantage to the platoon's OODA loop — its ability to observe, orient, decide and act — with the goal that a robot-enabled platoon completes OODA-loop cycles 10 times faster than it would without robots. That's a tremendous amount of promise to put in remote systems, especially since the present paradigm of controlled robotic battlefield tools involves a lot of human observers and controllers checking on, managing, and directing the robots. (The process by which humans are actively involved in robot control is “in the loop” or, with more passive robot monitoring termed “on the loop.”) If robots are going to improve soldier situational awareness by an order of magnitude, they will have to be autonomous. And not just autonomous in movement, but autonomous in sensing, data processing, and in providing that information back to the platoon. Part of this vision involves robots themselves producing intelligence products that are both immediate and ephemeral, useful in the tactical moment and then gone before they can become out of date. Another piece is machines autonomously moving through and responding to the environment on their own, as exercises undertaken by DARPA and the Marine Corps have already explored. If that same autonomy will extend to robot lethality, or if weapons will stay in the hands of humans, remains to be determined. In preparation for the September 2020 exercise, Georgia Tech Research Institute is designated to serve as the technology integrator for the assessment and demonstration parts of the task. As the industry proposals are vetted to meet Army needs, some will receive a Request for Prototype Proposal, and will also be evaluated in a simulation exercise to see if they will be part of the 2020 exercise. Interested parties should look to the National Advanced Mobility Consortium's posted request, and to the earlier proposal announcement, for more specific guidance. Interested observers, meanwhile, should keep an eye on September 2020 in Georgia, where the Army will see if the future of war is really 10 times as promising as expected. https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/robotics/2019/08/08/can-robots-make-an-army-platoon-10-times-as-effective/

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  November 8, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  How the Air Force plans to find ‘defense unicorns’

  By: Nathan Strout Dozens of space companies descended on San Francisco, California Nov. 5 for a unique opportunity: the chance to walk away with a same day contract with the Air Force. Opportunities like that don't happen every day for smaller businesses and start-ups, but at the first Air Force Space Pitch Days, 30 companies presented ideas to Air Force acquisition leaders who were authorized to hand out contracts on the spot. At the end of the first day, the Air Force had issued $9 million in contracts to 12 companies, with more companies slated to pitch their ideas on day two. While the “Shark Tank”-inspired event may seem like a gimmick, it's part of an effort by the Air Force to engage with businesses that don't have the resources or know-how to compete with large, established defense contractors for military projects, but may have innovative solutions that the military needs. “This is part of a broader vision we have to return Air Force to its innovation roots,” said Will Roper, the Air Force's assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics during a Nov. 6 media availability. “We want to be where innovation is happening. We want to partner with commercial companies that have aspirations to make the world a better place with their technologies, but make it clear that there is a way to work with the Air Force to achieve that objective ... Innovation is going to be its own competitive domain, almost a battlefield. And we've got to win the innovation battle." Not every company that presents at pitch days will succeed, but through events like this Roper hopes to give smaller businesses a chance and hopefully discover what he calls defense unicorns, non-traditional companies that have innovative solutions but lack the resources to bring them to market and connect to military customers. “How do we do that, where we can start making defense unicorns?” said Roper. “That must happen if we're going to compete against countries like China long term. If the unicorns in defense are only started by billionaires, then we'll ultimately lose. We need companies that have ambitions without that huge billionaire backing up front to find a way to stardom through us.” With pitch days, the Air Force is using Small Business Innovative Research awards to reach these companies early in the design process and then foster them through to production in three phases. “By the time we get to Space Pitch Day next year, we should have the three-fold approach continually in cycle. Phase 1, get you in the door, very small contract, help you understand your Air Force customer, get you mentored to come to a pitch event like this. Phase 2 you're pitching to the customer and the war fighter, show your product actually has a match to our mission, get you on a bigger contract where you can prototype, develop and test. Then Phase 3, you're productizing. Your getting your product ready to sell to us, ready to use by us, and hopefully that's on a path to selling to the world,” said Roper. “What I expect will happen in an ad hoc way is that a lot of our investment in these companies will be matched by private investors,” he added. The Air Force first introduced the pitch day concept at an event in March, where they doled out $8.75 million between 51 companies. Since then the Air Force has held several other events, with individual days devoted to fields such as hypersonic weapons or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems. “Whether it's data analytics or some sort of software sensing methodology; whether its hardware, advanced rocket designs or better rocket fuel; whether its small sats or new ground sensors–those kind of innovations are the things that we are entertaining this week and will continue to entertain,” said Lt. Gen. John ‘JT' Thompson, commander of the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center. “Maybe not all of them, but many of them could become game changers in our efforts to maintain the United States Air Force's superiority in space.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2019/11/07/how-the-air-force-plans-to-find-defense-unicorns/