11 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial

Air Force unveils ‘Digital Air Force’ initiative

By:

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.”

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/07/10/air-force-unveils-digital-air-force-initiative/

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  • Pencils down: Bids are in to replace the US Army’s Bradley fighting vehicle

    2 octobre 2019 | International, Terrestre

    Pencils down: Bids are in to replace the US Army’s Bradley fighting vehicle

    By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The bids are in for a chance to build prototypes for the Army's Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle that will replace its Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Among them is a Raytheon and Rheinmetall team putting forward Rheinmetall's Lynx 41 Infantry Fighting Vehicle, and General Dynamics Land Systems, which showcased its Griffin III technology demonstrator equipped with a 50mm cannon a year ago at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual exposition. It is currently unknown if any other teams submitted bids by the service's set deadline of Oct. 1. None have come forward publicly despite rumors of a dark horse or two. Absent from the usual brood of combat vehicle manufacturers is BAE Systems. Defense News broke the news earlier this year that the company wouldn't compete in the OMFV competition. Textron has joined the Raytheon and Rheinmetall team with plans to, if chosen to build the new vehicle, build Lynx here in the United States at its Slidell, Louisiana, manufacturing facility. Raytheon and Rheinmetall announced a joint venture Oct. 1 — calling it Raytheon Rheinmetall Land Systems LLC — to pursue the OMFV competition. “General Dynamics Land Systems submitted our OMFV proposal and bid sample to the US Army on 27 September. GD's bid sample was purpose built to address the desired system lethality, survivability and mobility as substantiation of our response to the Army's request for proposal,” the company said in a statement sent to Defense News. The company did not provide details on the submission. GDLS did note, however, that it is proposing a “purpose built vehicle” using technologies from other platforms and “years of investment in advanced capabilities to include a 50mm cannon,” according to the statement. The Army released its request for proposals in March opening a competition to build prototypes. The service plans to choose from the pool of bidders up to two teams to build 14 prototypes each. The service will choose a winner that will start replacing Bradleys in 2026 that is designed to better operate in future environments that would allow soldiers to maneuver to a position of advantage and “to engage in close combat and deliver decisive lethality during the execution of the combined arms maneuver,” according to an Army statement issued along with the RFP release. Some of the threshold requirements for OMFV are a 30mm cannon and a second-generation, forward-looking infrared system, or FLIR. Objective requirements are a 50mm cannon and a third-generation FLIR. Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, who is in charge of Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) modernization efforts, said at the Defense News Conference in September that he is confident the requirements set for OMFV are right and had no plans to change them. The selected prototypes will go through “rigorous” operational testing and soldier assessments. The Army plans to downselect to one vehicle for low-rate initial production following the assessments and testing. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/10/01/pencils-down-bids-are-in-for-armys-bradley-fighting-vehicle-replacement

  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - June 19, 2019

    20 juin 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité, Autre défense

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - June 19, 2019

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This is an enterprise-level blanket purchase agreement (BPA) call for Microsoft software and support against the Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) BPA for Microsoft. This procurement is to renew Microsoft licenses for 72 customers within Defense Health Agency (DHA), Air Force, Army, and Navy. These licenses are required for products including VISIO Professional, Windows Server Standard, Project Standard, and SQL Server Enterprise. The requirement was competitively solicited among all awardees under the ESI multi-award BPA for Microsoft, and the proposals were evaluated on the lowest-price-technically-acceptable (LPTA) basis. The amount of $27,631,903 for the base year is obligated at the time of the award. The DHA Health Information Technology Contracting Division (HIT-CD), located in San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity (HT0015). 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  • Inde: Airbus et Lockheed Martin au coude à coude pour vendre leurs avions de chasse

    20 avril 2018 | International, Aérospatial

    Inde: Airbus et Lockheed Martin au coude à coude pour vendre leurs avions de chasse

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