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  • Statement From Lockheed Martin Chairman, President And CEO Marillyn Hewson On COVID-19 Response

    March 27, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Statement From Lockheed Martin Chairman, President And CEO Marillyn Hewson On COVID-19 Response

    BETHESDA, Md., March 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- At Lockheed Martin, we recognize that the rapid spread of COVID-19 and its wide-ranging impacts have caused severe disruption across society and tragic loss of life around the world. We also recognize that the global pandemic has created a need for urgent action by government, business, communities and citizens. In response to this crisis, our company will be guided by and operate with three clear priorities. First, we will continue to protect the health and safety of our men and women on the job and their families. Second, we will continue to perform and deliver for our customers because what they do for our national security, global communications, and infrastructure is critical to our nation and our allies. Third, we will do our part to use our know-how, resources, and leadership as a company to assist our communities and our country during this period of national crisis. In this regard, today I am announcing that Lockheed Martin will take the following steps as an initial contribution to the national COVID-19 relief and recovery effort: We will advance more than $50 million to small- and medium-sized business partners in our supply chain to ensure they have the financial means to continue to operate, sustain jobs, and support the economy. We will donate $10 million to non-profit organizations involved in COVID-19 related relief and assistance, with emphasis on veterans and military families. We have activated a $6.5 million employee disaster relief fund to assist Lockheed Martin employees and retirees impacted with COVID-19. These are our initial financial steps to help during this time of national need. In addition: We will offer Lockheed Martin's engineering and technical capabilities to help solve the most pressing challenges faced by federal, state, and local officials. We will donate the use of our corporate aircraft and vehicle fleet for COVID-19 relief logistical support and medical supply delivery. We will donate the use of our facilities for crisis-related activities including critical medical supply storage, distribution, and COVID-19 testing, where needed and practical. Finally, during this time of economic uncertainty, we will continue our planned recruiting and hiring. Given the requirement for social distancing, Lockheed Martin will deploy virtual technology and other techniques to sustain our hiring activity during this crisis period. Lockheed Martin understands that the shared effort to combat COVID-19 and recover from its effects will be a long-term one. We will continue to engage national, state, and local leaders to undertake additional measures as needed. And, throughout this crisis, Lockheed Martin remains committed to continuing to deliver critical capabilities for our nation and our allies, supporting job creation and economic recovery, and helping those in need wherever we operate. Marillyn Hewson Chairman, President and CEO Lockheed Martin Corporation About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 110,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. SOURCE Lockheed Martin https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2020-03-27-Statement-From-Lockheed-Martin-Chairman-President-And-CEO-Marillyn-Hewson-On-COVID-19-Response

  • Spirit AeroSystems temporarily suspends Boeing work in some facilities

    March 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    Spirit AeroSystems temporarily suspends Boeing work in some facilities

    By: The Associated Press WICHITA, Kan. — Aircraft parts maker Spirit AeroSystems announced Tuesday that it is temporarily halting work for Boeing that is performed in Wichita, Kansas, and two Oklahoma facilities amid an outbreak of the new coronavirus. The move came after Boeing announced Monday that it was suspending operations at its Seattle, Washington, area facilities. At least 110 people have died from COVID-19 in Washington state, mostly in the Seattle area. Boeing employs about 70,000 people in the region. The company said 32 employees have tested positive for the virus, including 25 in the greater Seattle area. At Spirit, military, non-Boeing work and other programs will continue. In Oklahoma, the suspension affects facilities in Tulsa and McAlester. Spirit will continue to support 787 work for Boeing's Charleston, South Carolina, facility. Spirit did not say how many employees would be affected, but the suspension begins Wednesday and will last until April 8. Employees will continue to be paid during the two-week period. Deep cleaning of work spaces and facilities also is planned. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/03/24/spirit-aerosystems-temporarily-suspends-boeing-work-in-some-facilities

  • COVID-19 Relief Bill Adds $10.4B For DoD; OKs Extending Gens. Goldfein, Lengyel & Raymond

    March 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    COVID-19 Relief Bill Adds $10.4B For DoD; OKs Extending Gens. Goldfein, Lengyel & Raymond

    By THERESA HITCHENS on March 25, 2020 at 3:22 PM WASHINGTON: Congress is likely to approve almost $9.4 billion for the Defense Department to use to attack COVID-19 — a sum that includes direct operations and maintenance funding to the services, the National Guard and reserves. There is an additional $1 billion in the bill that may be made available for contracting under the TRICARE health care program — bringing the entire package to $10.4 billion. The DoD funding is part of the $2 trillion relief deal being beaten out between the White House and Congress, that includes significant assistance to the defense industry. “The administration's thinking about how to use the military has evolved substantially from the supplemental proposal the administration submitted just last week,” notes Mark Cancian, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “In that proposal, DoD's funding consisted of an $8.3 billion transfer account. DoD would later decide where to put the money. In this bill, the amount has grown to $10.4 billion, and the destination accounts have been specified, though there is still a lot of uncertainty and slushy-ness.” According to the draft bill obtained by Breaking Defense, the biggest chunk goes to the Defense Health Program “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally.” The program is allocated $3.8 billion, of which $3.4 billion is for operations and maintenance; $415 million is for research, development, test and evaluation. The funds will remain available until Sept. 30, 2020. The TRICARE funds are provided in a separate section, but will be available until Sept. 30, 2021. The Defense Working Capital Fund — which allows DoD to make investments in things like depot maintenance, transportation, and supply management in the near term and recoup the costs through future year pricing deals — gets $1.5 billion. The bill would add $160 million in O&M funding to the Army budget; $360 million to the Navy; $90 million to the Marines; and $155 million to the Air Force. Defense wide O&M funds would be pumped up by $828 million. The Army National Guard is set to receive $187 million in O&M dollars and the Army Reserve is allocated $48 million; the Air National Guard would receive another $76 million. The Army and Air National Guards also would receive a plus up of $750 million and $480 million respectively in military personnel funds. Apart from new funds, the draft bill would allow President Donald Trump to extend the tenure of Air Force Chief Gen. David Goldfein, Space Force Chief Gen. Jay Raymond, and National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Joseph Lengyel, among other military leaders set to retire — a move apparently made to avoid a change of hands during the current crisis. The extension can be for up to 270 days. Goldfein currently is set to retire in June. Raymond is doubled-hatted as chief of the Space Force and head of Space Command, but only for a year as mandated by the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Further, while DoD is given wide latitude to move the new money around to where it is needed, it specifically bans any funds being moved to fund Trump's southern border wall by preventing any transfer to DoD “drug interdiction or counter-drug activities.” Finally, Cancian noted that the language gives DoD “flexibility on contracts and contract decision authority.” The bill would allow DoD Secretary Mark Esper able to delegate authorities for emergency transactions at his discretion. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/covid-19-congress-likely-to-slate-9-4b-to-dod-for-response

  • Latest emergency coronavirus funding package includes tens of billions for defense, VA

    March 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Latest emergency coronavirus funding package includes tens of billions for defense, VA

    Leo Shane III The Department of Defense is poised to get another $10.5 billion in emergency funding and the Department of Veterans Affairs another $19.6 billion as part of a $2 trillion package designed to blunt the economic impact of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak throughout America. The money includes $1.4 billion in direct funding for National Guard deployments to help state governments respond to emerging health needs, $1.5 billion for the expansion of military hospitals and mobile medical centers if needed, and $1 billion for the Defense Department to help with production of medical supplies running short because of the pandemic. The measure — which if passed would be the third major coronavirus response by Congress this month — also includes provisions to deliver billions of dollars to hospitals, new state and local government support, expanded unemployment compensation and massive business loans, all designed to help stabilize the economy amid unprecedented social shut-downs to curb the virus spread. Senate lawmakers are expected to vote on the measure sometime Wednesday afternoon. The House could take it up soon afterwards. Nationally, more than 54,000 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19, the strain of coronavirus causing worldwide disruptions and panic. More than 730 deaths have been connected to the illness in the United States alone, all in the last month. "Combating this disease has forced our country to put huge parts of our national life on pause and triggered layoffs at a breath-taking pace,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said after the deal was reached Wednesday morning. “This strange new reality has forced our nation on to something like war-time footing. A fight has arrived on our shores.” Lawmakers who worked on the agreement said the Defense Department funding is targeted “primarily for the protection of members of the Armed Forces, their families, and military retirees.” None of the funds can be transferred to accounts connected with the construction of a southern border wall, a sticking point between Democrats and President Donald Trump in past appropriations fights. Of the $10.5 billion total, $1 billion will be set aside for use with the Defense Production Act, allowing department officials to “invest in manufacturing capabilities that are key to increasing the production rate of personal protective equipment and medical equipment.” Those items have been in short supply in recent weeks. Trump invoked the act earlier this week but has yet to order any civilian production of the scare items. Veterans Affairs Within VA, the majority of the money — nearly $15.9 billion — will be used for direct care specifically in response to veterans health needs. “This covers treatment of veterans nationwide for coronavirus within VA hospitals as well as in community urgent care clinics and emergency rooms,” a bill summary stated. “These funds allow VA to cover overtime for their clinical staff, the purchase of personal protective equipment, test kits, and other necessary equipment to manage the impacts of this pandemic among the veteran population.” Another $3.1 billion will be set aside for new telemedicine efforts within VA, including staffing and equipping mobile treatment sites and “remodeling to VA facilities and state run veterans homes to address the needs of veterans being treated for coronavirus.” Nearly 300 veterans have already been diagnosed with the coronavirus strain, and four deaths of VA patients connected to the illness. The bill also includes a number of expanded authorities for VA officials to respond to the threat, including extended overtime pay rules for medical providers, new agreements with broadband internet suppliers to increase telemedicine options for veterans, and waiving some rules regarding income-level eligibility for department benefits. Lawmakers also included $360 million for the Department of Labor to invest in programs providing training and supportive services for dislocated workers, to specifically include homeless veterans. White House officials have indicated Trump will sign the measure into law if it passes Congress. Earlier this week, Trump called on lawmakers to quickly pass some deal, saying that the economic impact of the illness on the country could be more devastating than the health complications. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/03/25/latest-emergency-coronavirus-funding-package-includes-tens-of-billions-for-defense-va/

  • FVL: Army Picks Bell & Sikorsky For FARA Scout

    March 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    FVL: Army Picks Bell & Sikorsky For FARA Scout

    The Bell 360 Invictus and the Sikorsky Raider-X will vie for the final contract to build FARA, with rival prototypes in flight by 2023. Bell and Sikorsky (with Boeing) are also facing off for the FLRAA transport. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR WASHINGTON: The Army has now narrowed its future aircraft choices to Sikorsky vs. Bell. This afternoon, the service announced that it had picked Sikorsky and Bell to build competing prototypes for Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA), a high-speed optionally manned scout to replace the retired Bell OH-58 Kiowa. Just eight days ago, it picked the same two firms – plus aerospace giant Boeing, acting as Sikorsky's de facto junior partner – to compete for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), which will replace the Sikorsky's UH-60 Black Hawk as the military's aerial workhorse for everything from Ranger raids to medevac. The FLRAA transport decision was no surprise. The Army picked the two teams it had been funding for years to develop prototypes, the Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor and the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant. There was more uncertainty over the FARA scout, because the service had given five companies Other Transaction Authority contracts to develop designs. Of those five, only Sikorsky had built and flight-tested an actual aircraft, the S-97 Raider, of which its Raider-X design is basically a super-sized version. Sikorsky and Bell now get to build FARA prototypes, while AVX, Boeing, and Karem have been cut. While AVX and Karem are design houses that have never built an actual aircraft, Boeing is a major aerospace player for which this is just the latest in a series of blows. Sikorsky and Bell have taken starkly different approaches to Future Vertical Lift. For both the FARA scout and the FLRAA transport, Sikorsky is offering its signature compound helicopters, descended from its record-breaking X2, that use a combination of ultra-rigid coaxial rotors and a pusher propeller to overcome the aerodynamic limits that cap the speed and range of traditional helicopters. No compound helicopter has ever entered mass production, but Sikorsky has built and flown two S-97 prototypes and, with Boeing, the much larger SB>1 Defiant: Raider-X will fall between the S-97 and SB>1 in size. Bell's marquee technology is the tiltrotor, most famously the widely used V-22 Osprey, using two massive rotors that tilt forward like a propeller for level flight and upwards like a helicopter for vertical takeoff and landing. It's a next-gen tiltrotor, the V-280 Valor, that Bell is flying for FLRAA. But Bell couldn't scale down their tiltrotor design – whose side-by-side rotors inevitably make for a wide aircraft – enough for the Army's FARA scout, which is meant to fly down city streets in urban warzones. So instead, their Bell 360 Invictus is, in essence, a streamlined conventional helicopter with wings: It has a single main rotor and a tail rotor, just like the old Kiowa, but it adds winglets to help with lift for high-speed fleet. Sikorsky argues their compound helicopter configuration is inherently much more efficient, pointing out that Bell's design requires more horsepower to achieve the Army's required speeds. Bell argues their time-tested single-main-rotor configuration will be less risky to develop, cheaper to buy, and easier to maintain. They each have three years to prove their case to the Army. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/fvl-army-picks-bell-sikorsky-for-fara-scout

  • Lockheed and Bell will compete head-to-head to build US Army’s future attack recon aircraft

    March 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    Lockheed and Bell will compete head-to-head to build US Army’s future attack recon aircraft

    By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin-owned company, and Bell have been selected to build and fly Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) prototypes for the U.S. Army in a head-to-head competition, according to a March 25 Army statement. The Army is planning to procure both a FARA and Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) that will slowly replace the current fleet of Sikorsky-manufactured UH-60 Black Hawks utility helicopters and Boeing-made AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. The service plans to initially field both in the 2030s. FARA will fill a critical capability gap currently being filled by AH-64E Apache attack helicopters teamed with Shadow unmanned aircraft following the retirement of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters. The service has tried and failed three times to fill the gap with an aircraft. The Army had selected five teams to provide FARA designs last spring: AVX Aircraft Co. partnered with L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Bell, Boeing, Karem Aircraft and Sikorsky. The Army laid out a handful of mandatory requirements that the vendors had to meet and also a list of desired requirements for initial designs, Col. Craig Alia, the Future Vertical Lift Cross Functional Team chief of staff, told reporters last year. The service also looked at the vendors' execution plans and evaluated timing as well as funding profile requirements. “The ones that were selected were clearly meeting the mandatory requirements and were in the acceptable risk level of the execution plan and the desired requirements," Dan Bailey, who is the FARA competitive prototype program manager, added. The prototype program falls under the purview of the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center's Aviation Development Directorate. Lockheed unveiled its design — Raider X — at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference in October 2019. The company's design uses its Raider X2 coaxial technology with a focus on how it will perform “at the X.” “One thing that always comes out is the importance of this aircraft at the X,” Tim Malia, Sikorsky's director of future vertical lift light, told Defense News in an interview last fall. “The ‘X' is defined by the Army as the terminal area where they actually have to go do the work, do the reconnaissance, do the attack mission. The operation at the X is really critical for this program and for this platform.” That's where Raider X comes in. It's a slightly larger version of the Raider coaxial helicopter that Lockheed has been flying for several years at its West Palm Beach, Florida, flight test center. “Through our mature S-97 RAIDER technology demonstrator, we continue to optimize our FARA solution, which will provide the Army with an integrated weapon system that combines speed, range, maneuverability, survivability and operational flexibility," Andy Adams, Sikorsky's vice president of future vertical lift, said in a March 25 statement. This approach is driving down risk and will result in an aircraft solution that is capable of executing the Army's joint all-domain operations." Bell revealed its design — the Bell 360 Invictus — which is based on 525 technology. But its design features several key differences, including its size in order to adhere to the Army requirement of 40-foot in diameter rotor blades. The design includes a single main rotor helicopter in a four-blade configuration, a low-drag tandem cockpit fuselage and transportability in a C-17. “Bell is proud to continue work on the Bell 360 Invictus as part of the Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Competitive Prototype competition,” Keith Flail, Bell's vice president of advanced vertical lift systems, told Defense News on March 25. “We have made significant investment and begun manufacturing in order to preserve the Army's schedule for FARA CP and we are thrilled to continue our work on the Invictus,” he said. “Bell's approach from the beginning has been tailored to deliver the advanced performance required without excessive complexity in order to get critical capability in the hands of the warfighter quickly and affordably.” The AVX and L3 team was the earliest to unveil its design for the FARA competition at the Army Aviation Association of America's annual summit in Nashville, Tennessee, in April 2019. The design uses AVX's compound coaxial and ducted fans technology. The companies said its single-engine design meets 100 percent of the Army's mandatory requirements and 70 percent of its desired attributes. Karem announced it would team with Northrop and Raytheon and came out with its design at AUSA — its AR-40 — with a single main rotor, tilting compound wings and a rotating tail rotor. Boeing was the last to reveal its design, coming out with it March 3. The company's clean-sheet design featured a hingeless, six-bladed, high-solidity main rotor; a four-bladed conventional tail rotor; and a propeller on the back. The prototype aircraft are expected to start flying in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, and the flight test is expected to run through 2023. The engineering and manufacturing development phase is expect to begin in FY24. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/army-modernization/2020/03/25/lockheed-and-bell-will-compete-head-to-head-to-build-us-armys-future-attack-recon-aircraft

  • Federal contractors face great uncertainty as coronavirus spreads

    March 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Federal contractors face great uncertainty as coronavirus spreads

    Andrew Eversden To stop the spread of the new coronavirus, federal agencies could shutter facilities. States and localities are already issuing shelter-in-place orders. And with obscure rules surrounding telework for federal contractors as well as the potential for supply chain disruptions and employee infections, there could be a new level of unpredictability for the contractor community. “There's both a little bit of stability and a fair amount of uncertainty,” said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council, an interest group representing more than 400 government contractors. “Things that were normal yesterday are not normal today. Behaviors that were planned for over the last couple days have been changed as government missions are changing,” he added. In the near term, schedules laid out in contracts will likely experience delays and costs may increase due to disruptions caused by COVID-19, said Jonathan Aronie, head of law firm Sheppard Mullin's government contracts practice group. These disruptions could be caused by employees not coming into work, or their suppliers' employees not working. President Donald Trump said March 18 that he's willing to use the Defense Production Act to force companies to manufacture goods the government needs to fight the virus, like ventilators or masks. These orders become “rated,” essentially allowing the government to skip to the front of the line. That poses other challenges. “While some companies are going to have problems that are slowing them down, other companies are going to have the problems associated with an influx of new orders,” Aronie said. Aronie warned of a complex web of orders that companies could have to fulfill, pulling businesses in different directions. For example, he said, companies could get an order from a hospital, an order from a state government with a preexisting contract, and then a rated order from the federal government as well as agencies without rated authorities — potentially overwhelming and confusing manufacturers. “Somehow you're going to have to make sense of this all,” Aronie said. Effects of telework Across the government, federal employees eligible for telework have generally been allowed to do so. But contractors haven't always followed the same rules. Not allowing contractors to telework could have significant ramifications, experts warned. Many contractors are required by their contracts to work in government facilities. But to stop the spread of COVID-19, access to these facilities could be limited or completely shut off. This conundrum leaves contractors with questions for the government. “Are there going to be access issues? Are contractors going to be asked in some cases to work from home where previously they were going into a government facility? What does that mean from a performance perspective? What does that mean from a cost perspective? How do you work that out with the government?” said Roger Waldron, president of the Coalition for Government Procurement. “These are some of the thing people are thinking about.” On March 20, the Office of Management and Budget's deputy director for management, Margaret Weichert, released a memo urging agencies to “maximize telework for contractor employees.” But, as reported by Federal News Network, Weichert's memo did not mandate telework for federal contractors, leaving industry frustrated. Several interest groups that represent government contractors called on congressional leaders and the White House to allow contractors to work from home. PSC wrote a letter to OMB on March 18 warning that not issuing guidance regarding extending telework flexibility to contractors could lead to layoffs. “The duration of this is a huge uncertainty, if it does get worse before it gets better, if folks are really unable to perform the kind of work that need to be done at some government locations, that'll have some impact on people,” Chvotkin told Federal Times. Over the last few days, several states such as California and New York have begun following shutdown orders that could leave contractors in tenuous positions. A Justice Department memo from March 20 also directed U.S. attorneys general to tell state and local officials that federal employees must be allowed to travel and commute, “even when travel restrictions are in place.” This action didn't mention contractors either. State governments are going to have to “recognize that exceptions are going to be essential and some federal missions are just going to be so important to continue on that they'll have to accommodate them,” Chvotkin said. How does this compare to the government shutdown? This is the second consecutive year that contractors have faced challenges due to a crisis; last year's was the record 35-day government shutdown. Some aspects of the 2019 shutdown and the coronavirus crisis are the same. For example, Aronie said, both increase delays and incur higher costs on contractors. The big difference is that some companies will receive more work, instead of less. Another significant difference is that employees, both from the federal government and contractors, are still working — many federal employees from home. This increase in telework has increased agencies' demands for IT infrastructure as they work to accommodate the rise in telework. Last week, the White House requested several billion dollars for agencies to improve their IT infrastructure. Under the COVID-19 pandemic, the uncertainty is greater than during a government shutdown, experts said, because the ending was solely in the hands of the government. “Even in the shutdown ... everybody recognized that it was going to end sooner or later. It was under both the congressional and presidential control to bring an end to it — not so here,” Chvotkin said. “There's nobody who can just decree that the coronavirus has been cured.” https://www.federaltimes.com/govcon/contracting/2020/03/24/federal-contractors-face-great-uncertainty-as-coronavirus-spreads

  • Open source platforms, flexible airframes for new drones

    March 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    Open source platforms, flexible airframes for new drones

    By: Kelsey D. Atherton Designing a drone body is about settling on the right compromise. Multirotor drones excel at vertical lift and hover, while fixed wing drones are great at both distance and wide-open spaces. In February, Auterion announced a two-pronged approach to the rotor- or fixed-wing drone market, with a pair of drones that use the same sensor packages and fuselage to operate as either the Scorpion Trirotor or the Vector fixed wing craft. “As we started to develop our tactical UAS Platform, our plan was only to develop a VTOL fixed wing solution (like our Vector),” said Dave Sharpin, CEO of Auterion Government Solutions. “During the development process we decided to build a Tri-Copter Platform as well, as a result of many discussions with law enforcement agencies and Search and Rescue Units.” Adapting the fixed-wing fuselage to the tri-copter attachments means the drone can now operate in narrow spaces and harsh conditions. Scorpion, with the rotors, can fly for about 45 minutes, with a cruising speed of zero to 33 mph. Put the fixed wings back on for Vector, and the flight time is now two hours, with a cruising speed of 33 to 44 mph. The parts snap into place without any need for special tooling, and Auterion recommends the drone for missions in rain or snow. Both platforms share a gimbal EO/IR with 10x optical zoom, 720p EO video, 480p IR video, laser illuminator, IR laser ranger. Common between modes is also a tactical mapping tool using a 21 megapixel Sony UMC R10C camera. For the scorpion, there's also the option of a gimbaled electro-optical camera with a 30x optical zoom. Both drones are designed to fit in rucksacks that a person can carry one at a time. While many features are common across Vector and Scorpion, the plan is not to include both rotors or wings in the same kit. Once a team packs into the field with a drone on its back, that's the mode the drone can be used in. Auterion intends to ship the drones by the fourth quarter of 2020, with preorders available. Designing a drone body is about settling on the right compromise. Vectr and Scorpion are built on top of open source code. This includes an operating system capable of programmable autopilot , as well as machine-vision collision prevention and obstacle detection and avoidance. Software for the ground station and cloud data management of the drone are also built on open source code. The Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit awarded the company a $2 million contract last year to work on the PX4 software to help drive compatibility standards in the drone industry. As militaries across the world look to the enterprise sector for capable drones at smaller profile than existing military models, transparency in code and flexibility in airframe could become more widely adopted trends. In the meantime, there is Vector, and there is Scorpion. https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2020/03/25/open-source-platforms-flexible-airframes-for-new-drones

  • Appel à idées : Formulaire en ligne et précisions des critères

    March 25, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Appel à idées : Formulaire en ligne et précisions des critères

    INNOVONS SANS PERDRE DE TEMPS Face à la situation sanitaire unique que nous vivons tous dans nos vies personnelles, professionnelles, sociales, nous avons lancé un appel à idées la semaine dernière. Nous avons déjà reçu des dizaines de demandes en quelques heures, preuve de l'intérêt et de l'implication de tous. C'est extraordinaire, merci beaucoup. À des fins d'efficacité, nous mettons en ligne un simple formulaire afin que les analyses, la qualification et la transmission vers le Ministère de l'Économie et de l'Innovation soient encore plus rapides. Nous ne voulons pas perdre de temps. Aussi, nous désirons vous préciser les priorités et les critères. LES PRIORITÉS SONT (par ordre d'importance) : Projets avec impact le plus direct possible sur la santé, des technologies médicales reliées au diagnostic ou au traitement de nos concitoyens. Innovations utiles aux institutions et cliniciens sur la ligne de front de la lutte contre la pandémie, soit des solutions d'optimisation d'efficience et multiplication d'impact. Solutions permettant aux travailleurs et entreprises de mieux s'adapter aux nouveaux défis et contexte auxquels ils font face en ces temps difficiles. LES CRITÈRES D'ANALYSE SONT : la pertinence et ampleur des retombées et des résultats attendus vs les ressources requises; les chances de succès à relativement court terme; la qualité du ou des organisations porteuses du projet; Les demandes qualifiées seront par la suite envoyées au Ministère de l'Économie et innovation pour analyse. Encore merci de votre aide et de votre mobilisation. FORMULAIRE

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