12 mars 2019 | International, Aérospatial

Air Force offers glimpse of new, stealthy combat drone during first flight

By:

The XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator, a long-range, high-subsonic unmanned combat air vehicle, completed its inaugural flight Tuesday at Yuma Proving Grounds, in Arizona.

The Air Force's fleet of current drones, such as the MQ-9 Reaper, are basically giant gas bags that fly — able to loiter for long periods above friendly forces in order to provide armed overwatch and intelligence. But the airspace over future battlefields will likely not be permissive, and so new drones will need to be developed.

XQ-58A Valkyries were developed under the low-cost attritable aircraft technology program — meaning they're cheap and can be lost in combat without too much concern.

The drone and its derivatives are anticipated to perform a range of missions, including suppression of enemy air defenses, offensive and defensive counter-air maneuvers, nap-of-the-earth or terrain masking flight and high-altitude flying.

The Valkyrie appears to come with a stealthy, low radar signature design, meaning it may be able to be paired with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in a manned-unmanned configuration.

When entering enemy airspace filled with counter-air systems, the Valkyrie could conceivably soak up enemy fire or even attack enemy positions and aircraft.

The F-35 has been touted by the Air Force chief of staff as the “quarterback of the joint team," and not simply another stealth aircraft. The fifth-generation fighter is expected to come with a suite of information fusion capabilities, enabling its pilot to process information and coordinate on the battlefield like never before.

Full article: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/03/08/air-force-offers-glimpse-of-new-stealthy-combat-drone-during-first-flight

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  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - February 09, 2021

    11 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - February 09, 2021

    ARMY Covalus LLC,* Dallas, Texas (W912DY-21-D-0006); Holitna Construction LLC,* Anchorage, Alaska (W912DY-21-D-0007); Martek Global Solutions LLC,* Bethesda, Maryland (W912DY-21-D-0008); and Workplace Solutions Inc.,* Jacksonville, Florida (W912DY-21-D-0009), will compete for each order of the $495,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to support military healthcare construction/renewal projects. Bids were solicited via the internet with 19 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 3, 2026. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Vectrus Systems Corp., Colorado Springs, Colorado, was awarded an $18,337,000 modification (P00021) to contract W52P1J-18-C-0025 to provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, transportation, tools, materials, supervision and other items and non-personal services necessary for food services at the Area Support Group-Kuwait dining facility. Work will be performed in Kuwait City, Kuwait, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 10, 2022. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $18,337,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Garland, Texas, was awarded a $12,722,355 modification (P00004) to contract W52P1J-18-C-0052 for MK82-1, MK82-6, MK82-8, MK83-4, MK84-6 and BDU-56/B bomb bodies. Work will be performed in Garland, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 aircraft procurement (Army) funds in the amount of $12,722,355 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Chromalloy Component Services, San Antonio, Texas, has been awarded a $74,632,104 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the remanufacture of the F108 Module 14 low pressure turbine assembly. This contract provides for the remanufacturing of the F108-200 (CFM56-2A) low pressure turbine assembly (Module 14) to like-new condition. Work will be performed in San Antonio, Texas, and is expected to be completed Feb. 8, 2026. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and two offers were received. Defense agencies working capital funds will be used, but no funds are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Sustainment Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8122-21-D-0002). CORRECTION: The $95,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract awarded on Feb. 4, 2021, to Scientific Research Corp., Atlanta, Georgia (FA7037-21-D-0001), is for Full Spectrum Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance operational numbered Air Forces Support; not Full Spectrum Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance operational non-appropriated funds Support. NAVY Gichner Systems Group Inc., Dallastown, Pennsylvania, is awarded a $57,319,314 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract procures up to a maximum quantity of 732 mobile facility shelters used for human habitation as well as permanent equipment storage or operation to support the testing, repairing, and operation of various avionics and non-avionics gear for the Navy, Marine Corps and Army. Work will be performed in Dallastown, Pennsylvania, and is expected to be completed in February 2026. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal and two offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (N68335-21-D-0214). Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $26,825,606 modification (P00010) to previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract N00019-20-C-0037. This modification exercises an option to provide continued support for training system product development, integration and test for current, fielded and planned hardware baselines in support of the F-35 training systems labs for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and non-Department of Defense (DOD) participants. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida (98%); and Fort Worth, Texas (2%), and is expected to be completed in March 2022. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,000,000; fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Air Force) funds in the amount of $2,000,000; and non-DOD participant funds in the amount of $881,107, will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. General Electric Aviation, Lynn, Massachusetts, is awarded a $21,095,294 firm-fixed-price modification (P00016) to previously awarded contract N00019-18-C-1007. This modification procures 4 T408-GE-400 turboshaft spare engines and various spare engine parts in support of CH-53K Lot 5 low rate initial production aircraft. Work will be performed in Lynn, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed in December 2024. 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Metro Medical Equipment and Supply, Saint Ann, Missouri, has been awarded a maximum $42,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for hospital equipment and accessories for the Defense Logistics Agency electronic catalog. This was a competitive acquisition with 140 responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Missouri, with a Feb. 8, 2026, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency, Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DH-21-D-0058). Base Utilities Inc.,* Grand Forks and Cavalier, North Dakota, has been awarded a maximum $16,285,037 modification (P00012) to a 50-year utilities privatization contract (SP0600-18-C-8322) with no option periods for additional utility services for two water and two wastewater systems at Grand Forks Air Force Base and Cavalier Air Force Station. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract. Location of performance is North Dakota, with a Jan. 31, 2069, performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2069 Air Force operations and maintenance funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY Perspecta Enterprise Solutions LLC, Chantilly, Virginia (HC1084-21-D-0002), has been awarded a competitive single-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for Global Content Delivery Services II for the Defense Information Systems Agency Operations Center. The contract ceiling is approximately $201,543,314, and the minimum guarantee is $10,000. The place of performance will be at government data centers or future government centers within the continental U.S.; data centers outside the continental U.S.; and other government-approved locations worldwide, in which the government may acquire an operational responsibility. Solicitation HC1084-20-R-0005 was posted on the beta.SAM.gov website as a competitive acquisition and four proposals were received. The period of performance consists of a three-year base period and three one-year option periods, for a total contract life cycle of six years. 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  • Pentagon research office wants innovative tools to spot influence campaigns

    5 novembre 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

    Pentagon research office wants innovative tools to spot influence campaigns

    Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — A new broad agency announcement shows that the Pentagon's top research arm wants to work with industry to develop technology that can track adversarial influence operations across social media platforms. The announcement from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for a project called INfluence Campaign Awareness and Sensemaking (INCAS) will use an automated detection tool to unveil influence operations online. “INCAS tools will directly and automatically detect implicit and explicit indicators of geopolitical influence in multilingual online messaging to include author's agenda, concerns, and emotion,” the BAA reads. The BAA comes as the federal government seeks solutions to defend against foreign influence campaigns, particularly surrounding political campaigns, that aim to sow discord among Americans with inflammatory messages. “The US is engaged with its adversaries in an asymmetric, continual, war of weaponized influence narratives. Adversaries exploit misinformation and true information delivered via influence messaging: blogs, tweets, and other online multimedia content. Analysts require effective tools for continual sensemaking of the vast, noisy, adaptive information environment to identify adversary influence campaigns,” the BAA reads. Through the project, DARPA seeks to improve upon current social media tools to track influence operations. The current tools, the solicitation reads, requires a major manual effort in which analysts have to sift through “high volumes” of messages and decide which ones are relevant and gaining traction, using tools for digital marketing. “These tools lack explanatory and predictive power for deeper issues of geopolitical influence,” the solicitation reads. “Audience analysis is often done using static, demographic segmentation based on online and survey data. This lacks the flexibility, resolution, and timeliness needed for dynamic geopolitical influence campaign detection and sensemaking.” The program has five technical areas. Technical area one focuses on using automated influence detection to enable analysts to analyze influence campaigns. The second area will “dynamically segment" the population that is responding to influence campaigns, and identify “psychographic attributes relevant to geopolitical influence,” such as “worldviews, morals and sacred values.” The INCAS tool's third technical area will assist analysts in linking influence indicators and population response over time across several platforms, in order to capture influence campaigns as they evolve over time. The fourth area will create infrastructure to provide data feeds from online sources to the other three technical areas, and the final technical area will conduct technology evaluations and will not be competed as part the the BAA. DARPA expects multiple awards for technical areas one and two, and single awards for technical areas three and four. Abstracts are due Nov. 17, 2020, with proposals due Jan. 8, 2021. Awards will be made around July 2012 using standard procurement contracts or Other Transaction Agreements. https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2020/11/03/pentagon-research-office-wants-innovative-tools-to-spot-influence-campaigns/

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