April 19, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
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October 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR
With artificial intelligence, every soldier is a counter-drone operator
With the addition of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the aim is to make every soldier, regardless of job specialty, capable of identifying and knocking down threatening drones.
While much of that mission used to reside mostly in the air defense community, those attacks can strike any infantry squad or tank battalion.
The goal is to reduce cognitive burden and operator stress when dealing with an array of aerial threats that now plague units of any size, in any theater.
“Everyone is counter-UAS,” said Col. Marc Pelini, division chief for capabilities and requirements at the Joint Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, or JCO.
Pelini and Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, JCO director, who spoke Thursday at the virtual Association of the U.S. Army conference, told reporters that the original focus was on smaller Tier I and II threats. But that has now extended to Tier III threats, traditionally covered by the Army's air defense community, such as Avenger and Patriot missile batteries.
Some of that work includes linking the larger threat detection to the smaller drones that now dot conflicts across the world, including the hot zone of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.
In June, the Department of Defense conducted a “down select” of existing or in-the-pipeline counter-drone systems from 40 to eight, as Military Times sister publication C4ISRNET reported at the time.
That was an effort to reduce redundancy in the flood of counter drone programs taken on in the wake of a $700 million funding push in 2017 to get after problems posed by commercially available drones being used more frequently by violent extremist organizations such as the Islamic State to harass, attack and surveil U.S. and allied forces.
Those choices, in the down select, included the following, also reported by C4ISRNET:
Fixed/Semi-Fixed Systems
* Fixed Site-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Integrated Defeat System (FS-LIDS), sponsored by the Army
* Negation of Improvised Non-State Joint Aerial-Threats (NINJA), sponsored by the Air Force
* Counter-Remote Control Model Aircraft Integrated Air Defense Network (CORIAN), sponsored by the Navy
Mounted/Mobile System
* Light-Mobile Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS), sponsored by the Marine Corps
Dismounted/Handheld Systems
* Bal Chatri, sponsored by Special Operations Command
* Dronebuster, no sponsor, commercial off-the-shelf capability
* Smart Shooter, no sponsor, commercial off-the-shelf capability
* Forward Area Air Defense Command and Control (FAAD-C2), sponsored by the Army (includes FAAD-C2 interoperable systems like the Air Force's Air Defense System Integrator (ADSI) and the Marine Corps' Multi-Environmental Domain Unmanned Systems Application Command and Control (MEDUSA C2))
The four areas evaluated to determine which systems stuck around for use or further development were effectiveness, integration, usability and sustainment, Gainey said Thursday.
A kind of virtual open house with industry is planned for Oct. 30, in which JCO will evaluate what options are out there.
Some of what they're learning is being gathered through a consortium, of sorts, that involves regular meetings between service branch representatives during monthly sessions at the two-star level, Gainey said.
That goes into a real-time, updated “common threat library” that helps those in the field identify trends and changes that can be met across forces.
They use those sessions to share what each component is seeing in theater as far as drone use and changes. But it's more than simple intelligence gathering, he said.
They also form rapid response teams.
"My operations team works with the warfighters, [the] intelligence community” and others, he said. They “triangulate” common problems with drones and send the rapid response teams to the area of operations most affected.
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January 19, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Aerovironment buys Arcturus UAV in $405M deal
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Aerovironment, a leading supplier of unmanned aircraft systems to the U.S. military, has purchased Arcturus UAV for $405 million. Arcturus is currently competing for a $1 billion Army contract to replace the Shadow tactical unmanned aircraft system. Arcturus, which was founded in 2004 in California, specializes in Group 2 and 3 UAS, which run the gamut between drones over 20 pounds and under roughly 1,300 pounds. Army units are evaluating Arcturus' Jump 20 UAS. The drone is competing against Martin UAV and Northrop Grumman's V-Bat, Textron's Aerosonde HQ, and L3Harris Technologies′ FVR-90. The Jump is a multimission, medium-endurance, vertical-takeoff-and-landing system that can become airborne independent of a runway. Arcturus also makes the T-20, a multimission, medium-endurance, catapult-launched system. The Army is moving toward a final request for proposals with its Future Tactical UAS program that will replace the Shadow UAS, so the sale of Arcturus to a much larger UAV company is timely. Aerovironment did not have a path to Group 3 UAS, and bringing Arcturus into the fold fills that gap. According to those following the industry, Aerovironment has products that, when integrated into Arcturus' capabilities, could make for attractive future systems. Being acquired by a larger company like Aerovironment would also help the company become a more serious contender in the Army competition by building up its manufacturing capability to radidly produce UAS in large quantities, which the Army would require if the Jump is selected. The total purchase price of the sale is a combined $355 million in cash and $50 million in Aerovironment stock, according to a Jan. 13 news release. Arcturus previously supplied UAS to U.S. Special Operations Command's $1.4 billion MEUAS III and IV programs, the release noted. “We are excited about the opportunities for value creation through our acquisition of Arcturus UAV, which will enable us to accelerate our growth strategy and expand our reach into the more valuable Group 2 and 3 UAS segments,” Wahid Nawabi, AeroVironment president and CEO, said in the statement. “Group 2 and 3 UAS and services, collectively, potentially represent more than one billion dollars in annual contract value, according to an independent forecast,” he added. “Combining our highly complementary products and technologies will enhance our portfolio, deliver top and bottom-line growth, and enable us to provide customers with a complete set of Group 1 through 3 UAS, tactical missile systems, high-altitude pseudo-satellites and unmanned ground vehicle solutions.” With Aerovironment, “we will have greater scale, expanded resources, cutting-edge technology and superior capabilities to meet the growing global demand for our products and solutions,” D'Milo Hallerberg, Arcturus UAV president and CEO, said in the statement. “We are confident that with AeroVironment, we can accelerate our growth as part of a larger, more diverse company and look forward to working closely with the team to complete this exciting transaction.” The transaction is expected to be complete by the final quarter of fiscal 2021, and Arcturus will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Aerovironment. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2021/01/15/aerovironment-buys-arcturus-uav-405m-deal/
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June 12, 2018 | International, Aerospace
Défense : dernière chance pour la vente du Rafale à la Belgique
C'est une course contre la montre quasiment désespérée. Ce lundi 11 juin, le Premier ministre Charles Michel et ses ministres de l'Intérieur et de la Justice vont rencontrer leurs homologues français sous le patronage d'Édouard Philippe. À l'agenda de cette visite, le remplacement des avions de chasse belges de type F-16, comme le révèle la RTBF. Depuis des mois, le dossier empoisonne la politique de défense belge. Initialement, le gouvernement avait reçu trois offres pour remplacer son avion de chasse américain vieillissant. En plus du Rafale, l'Eurofighter, construit par un consortium britannico-germano-italiano-espagnol, et le F-35 américain de Lockheed Martin étaient sur les rangs. Mais la proposition française faite par Dassault était assez différente sur la forme. Dénonçant dans un biais de l'appel d'offres, qui, selon le PDG de l'avionneur à Challenges, aurait favorisé le F-35 américain, Dassault a décidé d'agir directement à l'échelle intergouvernementale. Plutôt qu'une simple offre respectant l'appel lancé par le gouvernement belge, la France, par la voix de sa ministre des Armées Florence Parly, a proposé en octobre dernier un partenariat stratégique. Face au refus du ministre belge de la Défense, Steven Vandeput, l'affaire semblait très mal engagée pour le fleuron de l'aéronautique français. Accès aux porte-avions français pour les avions belges Cependant, les atermoiements et les divisions politiques sur ce sujet – les francophones du Mouvement réformateur (MR) étant les plus fervents partisans de l'offre française –, ont permis à la France de conserver des chances. « Notre proposition couvre les demandes faites par la Belgique dans le cadre de l'appel d'offres, a expliqué à la RTBFl'ambassadrice de France en Belgique, Claude-France Arnoult. En plus, depuis septembre, l'offre française s'est développée à la lumière des événements : vous trouverez des propositions comme celle de donner aux Belges l'accès aux porte-avions français, s'ils prennent la version navale du Rafale. C'est un partenariat global pour un système de combat qui a été proposé en septembre, et qu'on affine depuis, qui est sur la table et qu'on est prêt à discuter plus en profondeur ». Après des mois de tergiversations, le dénouement est imminent. http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/defense-derniere-chance-pour-la-vente-du-rafale-a-la-belgique-11-06-2018-2225992_24.php