11 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial
The Air Force is launching a “Digital Air Force” initiative aiming to revamp its data management, IT architecture and business operations so the force will remain competitive against adversaries.
“Our advantage in future battles depends on our ability to fuse vast amounts of data to accelerate our decision cycle to guarantee the success of any mission," said acting Air Force Secretary Matthew Donovan in a news release Tuesday. “Victory in combat will depend on us becoming a Digital Air Force.”
This means the Air Force must establish tools to efficiently generate information and data in real-time to help the service make informed and quick decisions, he said. "Doing so will allow the Air Force to rely less on personal experience or intuition.
The Digital Air Force initiative, detailed in a July white paper, focuses on eliminating “antiquated processes” and overhauling how the service curates, uses and shares data and information, amid difficulties coordinating systems across air, land, sea and cyber domains.
Specifically, the initiative calls for cultivating a 21st century IT infrastructure that can react to the demands of modern combat. This will require cloud-based solutions to store and share data so airmen have constant access to data, the white paper says.
Additionally, the Air Force said it is creating data management architecture and standardized policies that facilitate sharing data and using platforms.
“This requires data that is gathered, stored and transmitted in commonly read and digested formats to minimize the delay between receiving, processing and using information derived from multiple systems,” the white paper said.
The service said it is hiring contracted service providers to handle daily IT infrastructure management so cyber professionals can “focus on warfighter tasks and connecting information operations to our tactical and strategic ends.” The process accompanies the Air Force's plan to streamline its business practices to free up funding for “efforts that increase the lethality and readiness of the force.”
“We must move beyond antiquated processes, systems and mindsets,” the white paper says. “We will pursue new ways to leverage technology and institute a culture of innovation and informed risk-taking.”
Such changes will influence every segment of the service, the Air Force said. The undersecretary of the Air Force is spearheading the initiative.
“The Air Force must control and manipulate massive volumes of information to out-think and out-maneuver its opponents,” Donovan said. “The Digital Air Force initiative will ensure all Airmen have uninterrupted access to the data they need, where and when they need it.”
28 septembre 2021 | International, Aérospatial
A federal jury found that a helicopter maker backed by financier Lynn Tilton defrauded the U.S. military, awarding $36 million in damages to the government and whistleblowers, an amount that could be tripled under a federal law.
12 novembre 2021 | International, Aérospatial
Efforts include an integrated sense-and-strike exercise in Idaho that saw the debut of an improved artificial intelligence-enabled C2 system.
12 septembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Jen Judson LONDON — Raytheon is expecting a boom in international sales of its counter-UAS system already battle-tested with the U.S. Army. The Howler system — which includes a Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensor, a command-and-control system, and a Coyote unmanned aircraft system designed to take out enemy drones — could soon see an abundance of buyers. The system could also include a high-energy laser defeat solution and a high-powered microwave capability to provide a non-kinetic approach to knocking drone threats out of commission, according to company officials. “We have experienced quite a bit of interest from our international friends, partners and allies,” James McGovern, Raytheon vice president of mission systems and sensors in its Integrated Defense Systems business, told Defense News during an interview at DSEI, a defense exposition in London. “It's exploded: Counter-unmanned aircraft systems is the in-vogue discussion on weapon space and solution set at every trade show we've been to. It's a nonstop revolving door of interested customers in our solutions,” he added. Over the past five years, drone threats — cheap, commercial off-the-shelf ones — have proliferated in use, posing a threat on the battlefield as well as to airports, sports stadiums, government buildings and urban areas. Raytheon is preparing to reach initial operational capability with the U.S. Army of its Block II version of the Coyote, which is a variant that makes the Block more missile-like in appearance. The IOC goal is for the first quarter of 2020, according to Pete Mangelsdorf, director of the Coyote and rapid development programs within the land warfare systems portfolio at Raytheon. In the meantime, the company is soon expecting congressional notification for a sale to its first foreign country, Mangelsdorf said. Raytheon expects to see roughly 15 more countries issue letters of request for the Howler system to include Block II Coyote rapidly following the first congressional notification, he added. The company has license to separately sell sensors abroad, but generally customers are not just interested in what the sense-and-detect capability sensors would bring but rather want full-up systems that include all of Howler's elements. Raytheon's Howler system is flexible and can integrate into other systems and platforms, according to McGovern. Currently, Howler is used on a U.S. Army truck, but it could be integrated onto a pallet at a fixed site or mounted on a different truck depending on customer needs, McGovern said. The U.S. Army system was developed in response to a joint urgent operational need statement to find something that could counter drones as well as rockets, artillery and mortars, according to Mangelsdorf. The Block I version of the Coyote, which looks more like a plane or loitering munition than a missile, was the interim capability in response to the joint urgent operational need statement. The system is scalable in size. McGovern said Raytheon has used its gallium nitride technology to scale down the radar array while maintaining range and detection sensitivity, and while fitting it onto a smaller vehicle in the event a customer has a need for increased mobility, like in the case of special operations forces. The radar has the ability to see singular drones and identify drone swarms with high fidelity. Other radars might just pick up a drone swarm as one big blob, McGovern noted. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/dsei/2019/09/11/raytheon-anticipates-international-boom-in-counter-drone-sales