9 octobre 2018 | International, Terrestre
By: Todd South
Army researchers are speeding up development on key conventional munitions, from field artillery to long-range missiles, and making them more deadly when they land.
At a panel hosted by Defense News at the annual Association of the United States Army annual meeting, commanders with the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command, Program Executive Office-Ammunition and the Long-Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team gave a few updates on those efforts.
Brig. Gen. Alfred Abramson III, head of PEO Ammo and Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, told audience members that his researchers are finding the quickest ways to go after extending ranges, saying that the XM1113 round will be “critical” for the conventional artillery in the Extended Range Cannon Artillery program, a centerpiece of artillery modernization.
Abramson noted that the existing M795 High Explosive artillery round, the base of the 155mm munition portfolio, includes about 614,000 rounds in the nation's stockpile. But those rounds only reach out to about 30 kilometers.
The problem developers face in pushing the ranges of conventional rounds is keeping them both accurate and having a real effect when they strike, he said.
“You want to push it out to 70 kilometers and ensure it's not just a long-range paintball,” Abramson said.
The XM1128 pushes those ranges to about 40 kilometers currently. But work with “lithographic fragmentation technology,” Abramson said, makes the round more lethal on target.
Col. John Rafferty, director of the LRPF CFT, said that recent testing has gotten 155mm artillery rounds to the 60-kilometer range at the Yuma, Arizona, testing facility.
Abramson said that his organization has seen a significant spike of about $2.5 billion for fiscal years 2017 to 2022 funding for ammunition and armament systems products.
Another $1.5 billion has been allotted to update the aging ammunition manufacturing plants across the Army, he said.
Recent Overseas Contingency Operations funding for 2019 was marked at about $4.1 billion simply to replenish munitions consumed during combat.
What's being done to advance the science?
Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins, commanding general of U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, said that over the past year, $900 million was realigned for science and technology development for the LRPF initiatives, and another $500 million was also realigned for the Air Missile Defense CFT.
His organization just completed a six-month study of energetics propulsion that included a detailed study of adversary capabilities and advancements over the past two decades.
It also looked at how those advances were achieved and what gaps exist in the United States' armaments, he said.
While the study has not yet been released to the public, he said two non-technical gaps that the United States must correct are in their ability to collaborate with global partners and science, chemistry and energy experts within government.
Further down the development pipeline he said was a shortfall in transitioning the research to the PEOs for development and fielding.
One tech challenge is the existing stockpiles. As the developers push the capacities of conventional rounds and their systems they must also maintain “backwards compatibility” with the substantial munition stockpiles, he said.
14 novembre 2023 | International, Aérospatial
The U.S. drive to develop sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using ethanol could be slowed because of growing opposition to proposed pipelines that would curb greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol plants by capturing carbon dioxide and carrying it away to other states for storage.
10 janvier 2020 | International, Terrestre
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has picked winners to build base platforms for its light- and medium-class robotic combat vehicles, according to a service statement released Jan. 9. The Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command and the service's Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team “intends” — pending successful negotiations — to award a contract to QinetiQ North America to build four RCV-light prototypes and another contract to Textron to build four RCV-medium prototypes, the release stated. Through a rapid contracting mechanism, the National Advanced Mobility Consortium is coordinating the Army's awards to industry, and the service expects to be officially under contract with both companies by mid-February, according to the statement. While it was anticipated the Army would award up to two contracts per category at the end of the second quarter this fiscal year, it appears the awards have come earlier and are both limited to one company. The prototypes, according to the statement, will be used to “determine the feasibility of integrating unmanned vehicles into ground combat operations. The Light and Medium RCVs will be used to conduct a company-level experiment at the end of 2021." Results from that effort, as well as a platoon-level experiment in March 2020 and several virtual experiments, will help the Army decide in 2023 how it wants to proceed with robots on the battlefield. “Robots have the potential to revolutionize the way we conduct ground combat operations,” Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, director of the NGCV CFT, said in the statement. “Whether that's giving increased fire power to a dismounted patrol, breaching an enemy fighting position, or providing [chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive] reconnaissance, we envision these vehicles providing commanders more time and space for decisions and reducing risk to soldiers.” Out of a large pool of whitepaper submissions, a Textron and Howe & Howe team, a team of QinetiQ North America and Pratt & Miller, HDT Global, and Oshkosh were each issued a request for prototype proposals in the RCV-light competition in October 2019. Three teams were picked to move on in the RCV-medium competition in November 2019: General Dynamics Land Systems, QinetiQ North America, and the Textron and Howe & Howe team. It is noteworthy that the companies selected to build prototypes in each category are the only two companies to have offerings in both the light and medium competitions, demonstrating potentially that they are the only companies with the flexibility to build in both categories. At the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference in October, Textron and Howe & Howe dramatically unveiled their RCV Ripsaw M5, which is based on the latter's deep history of building unmanned ground vehicles, but adds technology like scalable armor and suspension as well as mobility options to cope with the challenges expected in the future fight. FLIR Systems is also part of the team, contributing its advanced sensors. “Bringing together Howe & Howe, Textron Systems and FLIR Systems really represents a dream team,” Textron CEO Lisa Atherton said in a statement released at the show. “We formed this team based on our shared focus to serve this customer with disruptive ideas and proven experience, and we are dedicated to meeting and exceeding their requirements through the RCV program.” The team told Defense News before the AUSA conference that it planned to submit a version of Ripsaw both for the light and medium variant of the Army's robotic combat vehicle. The Qinetiq and Pratt & Miller team submitted a variant of the Expeditionary Modular Autonomous Vehicle tailored toward the Army's RCV-light requirements. The offering combines Qinetiq's modular open-architecture control systems with Pratt & Miller's advanced mobility platform. The Army is also examining the utility of an RCV-heavy variant but is using robotic M113 armored personnel carriers as surrogate platforms for evaluations. That effort will focus on manned-unmanned teaming in a robotic wingman formation, with a manned Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle serving as the platform for the robot's operators. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/01/09/army-picks-winners-to-build-light-and-medium-robotic-combat-vehicles/
16 juin 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Par manque d’outils adaptés, les administrations et les industries stratégiques françaises rencontrent des difficultés majeures pour collaborer efficacement sur des projets intégrant des données sensibles (Diffusion Restreinte, classifié de niveau Défense). D’autre part, elles font face à la nécessité d’investissements croissants pour maintenir un niveau de service et de sécurité adéquat sur des infrastructures locales (on premise).