Airbus demos Remote Carrier 'loyal wingman' connectivity with Eurofighters and Tornados

Sur le même sujet

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  7 octobre 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  En Slovénie, Emmanuel Macron aborde la question de la défense européenne

  Lors du dîner entre les chefs d'État et de gouvernement de l'UE, réunis en Slovénie le 6 octobre pour un sommet informel consacré à l'élargissement aux six pays des Balkans occidentaux, le président français, Emmanuel Macron, a souhaité aborder la question de la défense européenne. Appelant de ses vœux une Europe de la défense plus forte et plus unie face aux États-Unis, il a appelé ses homologues à « tirer les leçons des récentes crises », soit le départ des troupes américaines d'Afghanistan et l'accord stratégique Aukus conclu entre les États-Unis, l'Australie et le Royaume-Uni dans la région Indo-Pacifique. Le débat « nous a permis de progresser vers une unité plus forte sur le plan international », s'est félicité le président du Conseil européen Charles Michel, tandis que Clément Beaune, le secrétaire d'État auprès des Affaires européennes, saluait « une large convergence » des Etats européens sur cette question, rappelant toutefois que « l'idée n'est pas d'opposer l'OTAN à la future défense européenne ». Le Figaro et RFI du 7 octobre

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  21 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Sécurité

  Navy Hires Boeing To Develop A Very Fast And Long-Range Strike Missile Demonstrator

  The Navy will use the new high-speed demonstrator to help refine its requirements for future stand-off anti-ship and land-attack missiles. oeing has received a contract to help develop a ramjet-powered high-speed missile demonstrator for the U.S. Navy. The company says that the design will aid the service in identifying requirements for future air-launched missiles, possibly ones able to reach hypersonic speeds, that its F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and other combat aircraft within its carrier air wings will be able to employ against targets on land or at sea. The company's Defense, Space & Security division announced that the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), part of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), had awarded it this contract, worth approximately $30 million, on Oct. 20, 2020. The work will be conducted under what is officially called the Supersonic Propulsion Enabled Advanced Ramjet (SPEAR) program. The goal is to conduct the first flight of the demonstrator in late 2022. "We have a talented team of engineers to meet the challenging technical demands and schedule timeline that the SPEAR program requires," Steve Mercer, the Program Manager at Boeing for the SPEAR effort, said in a statement. "We look forward to working with Navy experts to advance technologies for the Navy's future capabilities." It's not entirely clear what kind of missile demonstrator the Navy is looking for exactly for the SPEAR program. The acronym includes the word "supersonic," but Boeing's press release cites its prior work on the X-51A Waverider, an experimental air-breathing hypersonic vehicle that featured a scramjet engine. Hypersonic speed is generally defined as anything above Mach 5. At the same time, Boeing also highlighted its work on "the Variable Flow Ducted Rocket propulsion system under the Triple Target Terminator program in 2014." The Triple Target Terminator program, or T-3, which the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) led, explored concepts for very-long-range air-launched missiles that would be able to engage hostile aircraft, cruise missiles, and air defense threats on the ground, hence the name. A Variable Flow Ducted Rocket propulsion system is a kind of rocket ramjet, a relatively well-established concept at its core, in which gas produced by burning a source of solid fuel is mixed with compressed air fed into a combustion chamber via a duct or air intake to produce thrust. Advanced designs that allow for varying the flow of gas into the combustion chamber make it possible to throttle the thrust and adjust the speed of the vehicle the ramjet is powering. With this in mind, it's worth noting that NAWCWD issued a request for information regarding "Solid Fuel Ramjet Propulsion Manufacture/Test" in March, though it is unclear if that contracting notice is related in any way to SPEAR. In addition, Boeing's press release says that it will "co-develop" the SPEAR demonstrator, but it's unclear if this means another company is involved in the effort or that the Navy's own engineers and scientists will be directly assisting with the work. The website of the Naval Aviation Systems Consortium (NASC) lists a contract award to the company relating to the SPEAR program on Aug. 31, valued at just over $32 million, but for the demonstrator's airframe only. NASC "has been formed to support the technology needs of the Naval Air Warfare Centers (NAWCs) and the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) through the use of Other Transaction (OT) Authority," according to the site. There is no mention of this award in the Pentagon's daily contracting announcement for Aug. 31, which is supposed to include any deal valued at more than $7 million. The SPEAR contract that Boeing has just announced also does not appear in today's notice, so it's unclear when the Navy formally awarded these two contracts and whether or not they are, in fact, the same one. The War Zone has already reached out to Boeing for more information about its involvement in the SPEAR effort. Whatever the company's role in the project is or isn't, the press release certainly indicates that it will be a stepping stone to the development of future anti-ship and land-attack missiles that will be integrated onto aircraft in the Navy's carrier air wings. This includes the services F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, another Boeing product, a significant number of which eventually slated to go through the Block III upgrade program, which will add a host of advanced features that you can read about in more detail in this past War Zone piece. At the same time, the clear indication is that any operational weapons that follow-on from the SPEAR effort could be added to the arsenal of the service's F-35C Joint Strike Fighters, as well. An F/A-18E Super Hornet, at left, and an F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, at right, share space on the flight deck of the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during tests in 2018. "The contract award comes after the Department of Defense requested information from the defense industry to help the Navy determine technical requirements of future carrier-based land and sea strike weapons systems," Boeing's press release said. "The SPEAR flight demonstrator will provide the F/A-18 Super Hornet and carrier strike group with significant improvements in range and survivability against advanced threat defensive systems," Mercer, the firm's SPEAR program manager, added. Very-long-range, high-speed strike weapons could be very valuable for the Navy's carrier air wings, especially as potential near-peer adversaries, such as China and Russia, continue to develop and field increasingly longer-range and otherwise more capable surface-to-air missile systems and associated radars and other sensors. Aircraft carriers and their associated strike groups and air wings are also increasingly at risk from various anti-access and area-denial capabilities, further underscoring the need for weapons with greater range and that are able to prosecute targets faster to help ensure their survival. At present, the primary air-launched stand-off anti-ship and land-attack missiles available to them are the AGM-84D Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile, the AGM-84H/K Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER), and the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), all of which are subsonic. The service is in the process of developing the AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER), which will have at some surface strike capabilities and will also serve as the basis for a Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW) for the U.S. Air Force. However, the exact speed and range of this weapon are unclear. The Navy is also developing a powered cruise missile derivative of its AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW) glide bomb. Boeing's SPEAR announcement comes as the U.S. military as a whole is pursuing a wide array of new hypersonic strike weapons, including unpowered boost-glide vehicles and air-breathing missiles. The Air Force is working toward its own "Expendable Hypersonic Multi-Mission Air-Breathing Demonstrator" as part of a program called Mayhem, which is linked to work on advanced turbine-based combined cycle engines. That service is also working closely with DARPA on the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) project and its own Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) effort. Lockheed Martin, which is leading the development of the HAWC missile, has proposed a follow-on design for use by the Navy in the past. In August, the Air Force had said it was looking at designs from Boeing, as well as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, to meet a requirement for "a solid-rocket boosted, air-breathing, hypersonic conventional cruise missile, air-launched from existing fighter/bomber aircraft." It's not clear if that announcement was related to HACM or not, but the following month, Boeing released a computer-generated promotional video featuring a B-1 bomber firing what the company described as a notional hypersonic missile. The company has subsequently released a more detailed still rendering featuring this conceptual missile that, at least visually, appears to be an air-breathing design. All told, it's hardly surprising that the Navy is also in the process of pursuing its own high-speed strike missiles to arm its carrier aircraft. There's no reason to believe that the weapons that emerge from SPEAR won't be suitable for integration onto land-based platforms, such as the service's P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, as well. Whatever SPEAR's final design looks like, it's an important step forward for the Navy in providing this capability to its combat aircraft fleets in the future. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/37170/navy-hires-boeing-to-develop-a-very-fast-and-long-range-strike-missile-demonstrator

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  22 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - May 21, 2020

  U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND Marine Terminals Corp., San Pedro, California, has been awarded a $95,835,034 firm-fixed-price contract (HTC711-20-D-R046) providing stevedoring and related terminal services at ports in Northern California. Work will be performed at the Military Ocean Terminal, Concord, California; and the Port of Oakland, California. The contract period of performance is from Aug. 7, 2020, to Aug. 6, 2025. Fiscal 2020 transportation working capital funds were obligated at award. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, in the contracting activity. NAVY AECOM-BAKER-CARDNO NAVFAC Atlantic Planning JV, Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $95,000,000 maximum amount, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, architect-engineering contract for architect-engineer services for preparation of Navy and Marine Corps planning and engineering services for work located primarily in the continental U.S. east coast, but also worldwide. The work to be performed provides for: (a) Plans: global shore infrastructure plans; installation development plans; regional integration plans; functional plans; maintenance and sustainment plans; integrated product support plans; encroachment action plans; family housing and bachelor quarters comprehensive neighborhood plans; activity overview plans; and installation appearance plans; (b) Project Planning Documents: the preparation of military construction project planning documentation; preparation of construction cost estimates, preliminary and parametric cost estimates and siting-land use studies/analyses; special site approvals; economic analyses; asset evaluations; basic facility requirements documentation; facilities planning documents; preliminary hazard analyses; preliminary hazard lists, and sustainable design studies; (c) Studies: concept studies; special planning studies, business case analysis studies and traffic/parking/movement studies; facilities planning studies, feasibility studies, safety studies and air installation compatible use zones; range air installation compatible use zones studies; site studies; facilities life cycle studies; activity planning and management models and electronic land use/planning tools/studies. Work is expected to be complete by May 2025. No task orders are being issued at this time. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) (O&M,N) contract funds in the amount of $10,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by O&M, N. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website and two proposals were received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N62470-20-D-0006). Lockheed Martin Corp. Rotary and Mission Systems, Baltimore, Maryland, is awarded a $48,965,154 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract N63394-20-C0004 to exercise options for launch sequencer MK 5 Mod 2 production units in support of the Vertical Launch System. Work will be performed in Oldsmar, Florida. The Vertical Launch System provides area and self-defense, anti-air warfare capabilities, counter-air and land attack cruise missile defense and surface and subsurface warfare capabilities. Work is expected to be complete by April 2022. Fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $48,965,154 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity. The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded a $27,770,370 modification (P00174) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00019-14-C-0067. This modification procures integrated logistics support for the Boeing P-8A Poseidon warfare aircraft for the Navy, the government of Australia, and the government of the United Kingdom. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (68%); Jacksonville, North Carolina (16%); Whidbey Island, Washington (4%); Sigonella, Italy (3%); Kadena, Japan (2%); Bahrain, Bahrain (2%); Misawa, Japan (2%); Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii (2%); and various locations within and outside the continental U.S. (1%). Work is expected to be complete by March 2023. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,391,473; Royal Australian Air Force cooperative program funds in the amount of $256,187; and Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $133,083 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. DRS Laurel Technologies, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is awarded a $26,047,878 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N63394-20-C-0002 to exercise options for launch control unit Mk 235 Mod 11 and Mod 12 production units in support of the Vertical Launch System (VLS). Work will be performed in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. This option exercise is for the manufacture, assembly, test and delivery of additional production units of the VLS launch sequencer launch control unit Mk 235 Mod 11 and 12, part numbers 7104280-119 and 7104280-129, respectively. The VLS provides area and self-defense, anti-air warfare, surface and subsurface capabilities, counter-air and land attack cruise missile defense, and is equipped with two redundant launch control units, each of which is electrically interfaced with all of the launch sequencers in the system. Work is expected to be complete by February 2021. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $26,047,878 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity. Management Services Group Inc.,* doing business as Global Technical Systems, Virginia Beach, Virginia, is awarded a $24,385,746 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-20-C-5608 for procurement of network, processing and storage (NPS) technical insertion (TI) 16, modification (MOD) 1 production equipment, which provides computer processing and memory, data storage and extraction, network systems and input/output interfaces to host software applications of Navy combat systems. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (62%) and the government of the Commonwealth of Australia (38%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The NPS program consists of enterprise products in use across surface Navy combat systems which introduce powerful, commercially available, off-the-shelf processors as part of a general strategy to achieve a modular and open architecture design. NPS is comprised of two different common processing system enclosure assemblies and three variants: advanced storage area network, core computing system, and air-cooled processing and storage subsystem. Aegis weapon system Aegis modernization upgrade equipment systems are also included in this procurement and align requirements to include the Aegis local area network interconnect system, Aegis conversion equipment group Input/Output 1 and 2, and digital video display system. Work is expected to be complete by December 2021. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; FMS Australia funds; 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2016 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; and 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $24,385,746 will be obligated at time of award, and funds in the amount of $39,356 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Innovative Defense Technologies LLC,* Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $22,506,572 modification (P00007) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00014-19-C-1054 for the Cloud to Edge Environment. This modification adds Options 5 through 10, and exercises Options 5, 9 and 10, which increases the contract value by $22,506,572. Under this modification, the contractor will continue work to deliver a secure development and operations (SecDevOps) environment enabling cloud-based collaborative development, simulation, testing and certification of evolving Navy software systems. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia (68%); Mount Laurel, New Jersey (23%); Washington, D.C. (6%); Rhode Island (2%); and various places below 1%. Work is expected to be complete by February 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $77,844 are obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $20,453,641 are obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Alere San Diego Inc., doing business as Immunalysis Corp., San Diego, California, is awarded a $7,066,152 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for U.S. Food and Drug Administration and quality management documented fentanyl/norfentanyl immunoassay reagent kits for use with the currently installed Beckman Coulter AU5800 series systems for the Department of Defense Drug Demand Reduction Program. This is a two-year single award contract, and deliveries are expected to be complete by May 2022. Fiscal 2020 defense-wide, one-year operations and maintenance funds will be obligated on decentralized individual delivery orders during the base period. No funds will be obligated at the time of award and the minimum guarantee under the contract is 100 kits. The contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, and three offers were received. The Naval Medical Logistics Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N62645-20-D-5004). ARMY Raytheon Co., Tewksbury, Massachusetts, was awarded a $92,370,000 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and firm-fixed-price) contract for sustainment, maintenance, training, refurbishment, overhaul, engineering services and spares to support ongoing operations of the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 14, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-20-D-0008). AECOM Management Services Inc., Germantown, Maryland, was awarded a $10,507,113 modification (0001BW) to contract W52P1J-12-G-0028 for logistics support services, including maintenance, supply and transportation. Work will be performed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 17, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $10,507,113 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Integration Innovation Inc.,* Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded an $8,310,128 modification (000117) to contract W31P4Q-18-A-0089 for the International Apache Technical Lifecycle Support task order. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of June 4, 2021. Fiscal 2020 Foreign Military Sales (Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Netherlands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Republic of Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom) funds in the amount of $8,310,128 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Creighton AB Inc.,* Reidsville, North Carolina, has been awarded a maximum $12,080,120 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for men's and women's dress coats. This was a competitive acquisition with two responses received. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Locations of performance are North Carolina and New York, with a May 20, 2021, performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-20-D-1274). AIR FORCE LinQuest Corp., Los Angeles, California, has been awarded an $11,008,552 firm-fixed-price modification (P00047) to contract FA8819-15-F-0001 for the Space and Missile Systems Center technical support follow-on task order bridge extension. This modification provides continued technical support services for the Special Programs Directorate, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. Work will be performed at Los Angeles AFB, California, and is expected to be completed May 31, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $856,651; and fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $3,000,000 are obligated at the time of award. The U.S. Space Force, Space and Missile Systems Center, Special Programs Directorate, Los Angeles AFB, California, is the contracting activity. Central Coast Water Authority, Buellton, California, has been awarded a $7,600,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity delivery order to provide Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and outlying municipalities with potable water. Work will be provided at Vandenberg AFB, California, and is expected to be completed June 14, 2032. The cumulative value of this contract is $165,443,388. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $7,593,715 are being obligated at the time of award. The 30th Contracting Squadron, Vandenberg AFB, California, is the contracting activity (F04684-92-D-0013). *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2194990/source/GovDelivery/