3 janvier 2024 | International, Terrestre
Overcoming data analytics inertia in defense to win future wars
Opinion: If the solution relies on a proprietary data format, disqualify it.
14 août 2020 | International, Terrestre
Army buys $189M counter drone system but already has plans to replace it
The U.S. Army has invested another $190 million into a counter-small unmanned aircraft system (C-sUAS), but it's determined that the system will need to be replaced by a U.S. Marine Corps alternative.
On July 20, the Army announced it was awarding DRS Sustainment Systems $190 million to develop, produce and deploy the Mobile-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Integrated Defeat System (M-LIDS). While the system will be deployed, it doesn't have a long-term future with the military.
Despite the Army investing in the program for years, M-LIDS is a casualty of redundancy. As the Department of Defense has become more concerned by the threat posed by small drones in recent years, the services have each developed their own C-sUAS responses — mobile, stationary and dismounted.
Recognizing the redundancy in that approach, the defense secretary delegated the Army to lead the effort to narrow the number of C-sUAS solutions for use by the joint forces.
On June 25, the Army's Joint C-sUAS announced it had selected eight C-sUAS for future investment and deployment by the joint forces. M-LIDS didn't make the cut. But then, about a month later, the $190 million M-LIDS contract was announced,
“Mobile-LIDS (M-LIDS) was not selected and will be replaced by the next generation mobile system,” said Jason Waggoner, an Army spokesman. In the meantime, “M-LIDS will be deployed with Army units to the CENTCOM area of operations.”
M-LIDS would likely be replaced by the Light-Mobile Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS), a C-sUAS developed by the U.S. Marine Corps and the only mobile solution approved by the Joint C-sUAS Office. L-MADIS has already been deployed for testing and was reportedly used to down a drone off the coast of Iran last year.
The Joint C-sUAS office told reporters in June that the services were conducting an analysis of how many systems would need to be replaced under the new arrangement. However, leaders were not able to provide a timeline for how quickly they expected to replace those systems.
The series of announcements in this market came quickly this summer.
Two days after the M-LIDS award, the Army announced a contract for one of the C-sUAS solutions that was included on the list for future investment: the Expeditionary-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Integrated Defeat System (now known as FS-LIDS).
The $426 million contract with SRC Inc. provides for the development, production, deployment and support of FS-LIDS, the only fixed-site solution approved for the joint forces by the Joint C-sUAS Office.
“Development of FS-LIDS is complete and systems are being deployed to U.S. forces globally, with a focus in the CENTCOM area of operations,” Waggoner said. “FS-LIDS will remain in use until replaced with newer technologies.”
C-sUAS spending hasn't been limited to the Army in recent weeks. On Aug. 10, the U.S. Air Force issued Black River Systems Co. an $89 million contract for an operational C-sUAS open systems architecture
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23 mai 2023 | International, Autre défense
New EU defense designs aim to prep members for high-intensity conflict
The latest batch of PESCO programs targets sea cable protection, torpedo-killing torpedos, new air-to-air missiles, ground robots and more.
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1 décembre 2020 | International, C4ISR
Raytheon and C3.ai announce alliance on artificial intelligence solutions
Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — Raytheon's intelligence and space business is partnering with C3.ai, a software company known for its predictive maintenance business with the U.S. Air Force, the companies announced Monday. The alliance between C3.ai and Raytheon Intelligence and Space aims to speed up artificial intelligence adoption across the U.S. military. The partnership will pair Raytheon's expertise in the defense and aerospace sector with C3.ai's artificial intelligence development and applications. “The military and intelligence community have access to more data now than any time in history, but it's more than they're able to make quick use of,” said David Appel, vice president of defense and civil solutions for space and C2 systems under Raytheon Intelligence and Space. “Artificial intelligence can be used to help them make sense of that data, which will allow them to make smarter decisions faster on the battlefield. And that's just one of the benefits.” In recent years, C3.ai has positioned itself as a trusted partner of the Air Force, providing predictive maintenance capabilities for the service's E-3, C-5 Galaxy, F-15, F-16, F-18 and F-35 aircraft. The Pentagon's Silicon Valley arm that helped bridge C3.ai into the Pentagon, the Defense Innovation Unit, estimated that the program could save the service $15 billion annually in maintenance funds if it was scaled to the Defense Department's entire aircraft fleet. In January, DIU awarded a five-year, $95 million contract to C3.ai for predictive maintenance. The alliance between the two companies will also focus on helping the intelligence community. “Raytheon and C3.ai are driven by similar purposes: Anticipating and solving our customers' most difficult problems,” said Thomas Siebel, CEO of C3.ai. “Together, we offer an end-to-end enterprise AI platform and mission-tailored applications that will dramatically reduce cost and risk, accelerate adoption and deployment of AI solutions, and scale the impact of AI across any organization.” In September, the Air Force's rapid sustainment office selected C3.ai's C3 AI Suite platform and C3 AI Readiness product to support predictive maintenance across the service's enterprise. “Raytheon and C3.ai represent key partners for the U.S. Air Force, and specifically the Rapid Sustainment Office, in realizing the vision of harnessing AI to transform the military into a digital organization,” said Nathan Parker, deputy program executive officer for the Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office. “Fulfilling this vision of broad implementation requires identifying applicable use cases for AI across the Air Force, rapidly piloting solutions, and scaling successes across our enterprise to accelerate the transformation.” Also on Monday, C3.ai announced that it will be launching an initial public offering. It expects shares to be valued between $31-$34. https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2020/11/30/raytheon-and-c3ai-announce-alliance-on-artificial-intelligence-solutions/