11 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.on June 10, 2020 at 4:18 PM
WASHINGTON: The Army Secretary and Chief of Staff approved a draft spending plan for 2022-2026 yesterday that funds all 34 of the service's top-priority programs, the Army's modernization chief said this morning.
But with the ever-growing cost of COVID looming over the economy and the Pentagon alike, Gen. John “Mike” Murray says he's already made a mental list of which of the 34 the service might have to slow down or sacrifice and which ones it absolutely has to save.
“I have a one-to-N list in my mind” of the 34 programs, Murray told an Association of the US Army webcast this morning.
“That's only in my mind, right now,” he emphasized. “It's pre-decisional.”
In other words, it's not final, it's not official, and it's not ready to share with the public. All that said, however, it's still a telling sign of uncertain budget times that the four-star chief of Army Futures Command not only has such a list, but is willing to say he has it.
Meanwhile, Murray's chief civilian partner, Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Bruce Jette, has launched a long-term study of the Army's economic prospects. In effect, Jette's looking at the supply side, asking how tight the budget will be, and Murray is looking at the demand side, asking what the Army should prioritize within that tight budget.
Beyond The 34: “Critical Enablers”
Gen. Murray is also looking at the Army's 684 other programs, he said, to determine which of them can be cut – while some have been slashed already to free up funding for the 34, others are so far unscathed – and which are essential to the top-34's success.
“We can come up with, you know, the most impressive Next Generation Combat Vehicle in the world,” Murray said. “If you can't get fuel to it, then you're wasting your time.”
Fuel is just one, particularly knotty logistical problem. Ultimately, Murray wants to reduce Army fuel demands by moving to hybrid diesel-electric motors. While electric power by itself might work for civilian cars, he said, he's skeptical the Army can charge batteries in combat, or that any practical amount of batteries can store enough energy to move, say, a 70-ton main battle tank. Likewise, while civilian quadcopters can run off batteries, the Army's new scout helicopter, the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, requires a high-powered turbine.
So for decades to come, the Army will need fuel trucks, storage bladders, pumps, drums, hoses, and so on. And that's just for the gas. Both current and future combat systems require a staggering array of spare parts, repair tools, maintenance facilities, and more.
Logistics is historically a US strength, but it's not a major focus of the 34 priority programs, which range from hypersonic missiles to smart rifles, from tanks to aircraft to robots. Besides weapons, the 34 do include a lot of high-tech information-age infrastructure, both to train the troops in virtual and augmented reality, and to share tactical data like target locations across the battlefield. There has not, however, been nearly as much emphasis on supporting functions such as fuel, maintenance, and transport.
Murray now aims to fix that. Starting with a study by the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, he said, the Army has come up with a list of “18 key critical enablers that are getting funded,” Murray said, again without naming them. Murray's calling the 34 priority programs “Tier One” and the 18 enablers “Tier Two,” he said. “Then tier three is ammo,” he added.
The general didn't elaborate, but certainly a high-tech tank or aircraft can't fight without ammunition, just as it can't move without fuel. The catch is that, in modern warfare, you're not just buying rifle bullets and cannon shells, but a host of precision-guided munitions that are much more expensive to stockpile in bulk for a major war.
Even once the Army has figured out which weapons, support systems, and ammunition it can afford to buy, it still won't be able to buy enough of them to equip every unit at once. The service's recent AimPoint study, Murray said, focused on figuring out which units around the world need to be modernized first and which will have to wait.
“The whole point behind AimPoint was an understanding that you can't modernize the entire army overnight, or in a year, or really even in a decade,” Murray said. As a young officer, he recalled, his unit had M60 tanks and M113 transports “while the rest of the Army was running around in M1s and Bradleys.” While he doesn't to return to the extreme disparities of the past, he said, “somebody has to be first and somebody has to be last.”
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/06/army-ponders-what-to-cut-if-budget-drops-gen-murray/
11 avril 2024 | International, Aérospatial
The launch is a first step toward modernizing the Space Force’s more than 60-year-old weather constellation, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.
25 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR
Published: 23 May 2020 by Mike Ball Leidos has been awarded a contract by the U.S. government's General Services Administration (GSA) to provide software upgrades for the U.S. Army's Unmanned Aircraft System Ground Control Station – Version 4 (UASGCS-V4). The upgraded software solution will be compatible with the existing common baseline and will maximize reusable efficiencies for the existing UAS, as well as U.S. Army, Department of Defense and commercially-available software. This will result in a simplified, efficient and integrated system that will make both training and operation simpler as well as providing commanders with maximum concept of operations (CONOP) flexibility. The new solution will improve the ability of unmanned aircraft ground control station operators to see where they need to go, locate enemies and execute their mission. As part of the contract, Leidos will provide engineering services for technical and logistics support, including software development. Leidos will also support integration of the new design solution into the Army's Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS) as well as system qualification, certification and operational testing for multiple UAS platforms. Michael Hile, Leidos division manager, Airborne Solutions, commented: “We look forward to supporting the U.S Army's UASGCS-V4 through this next-generation software solution. Our team's expertise in software programming and development, along with their deep mission knowledge, will help ensure the success of this critical mission.” https://www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com/2020/05/u-s-army-upgrades-uas-ground-control-station/
18 février 2019 | International, Aérospatial
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) celebrated the grand opening of a new Cyber Innovation Lab on UCF's campus that will help meet the growing local and national need for cybersecurity talent. The lab's opening was celebrated with a ribbon cutting, a demonstration by UCF's Collegiate Cyber Defense Club (Hack@UCF) and a panel discussion with U.S. military and Lockheed Martin cyber experts about technology trends and how students can prepare for a career in the growing field. UCF-Photo "This lab will serve as the campus' primary hub for students to develop and expand their information security skills, preparing them to enter this high demand field and take on the cyber security threats of the future," said UCF President Dale Whittaker. "We are grateful for Lockheed Martin's longtime partnership and strong commitment to our students' success." The National Institute of Standards and Technology estimates there are more than 13,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in Floridaalone. That trend will continue, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts jobs for information security analysts will grow 28 percent by 2026. "The future battlespace will be heavily reliant on cyber... even more so than we're seeing today," said Stephanie C. Hill, deputy executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems. "By working with institutions like UCF, through labs like this one, we'll all better understand and accelerate our shared capabilities and potential to adapt and innovate in the fifth domain." In 2018, Lockheed Martin donated $1.5 million to UCF to help create the Cyber Innovation Lab and encourage the next-generation of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) talent to collaborate and solve today's challenging cyber problems. The company's donation will fund software and technology support to the lab, and employees will also provide cyber training and professional mentoring to engineering students. "Having a centralized space will streamline the way we organize our meetings and practices," said Hack@UCF President David Maria, a senior studying computer engineering. "With this lab, we can practice for competitions, host workshops and speakers, provide cyber security tools and resources, and give our student members a sense of community and help get them ready for future careers. It's not just a practice space. It's a home for us." The 970-square-foot lab is located in UCF's Engineering I building and will serve as a learning hub for the more than 350 students participating in cyber programs at UCF. Hack@UCF, a four-time national champion in competitions like the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and the U.S. Department of Energy CyberForce Competition, will also use the lab as its primary practice center. In Orlando, Lockheed Martin employs approximately 2,500 UCF graduates, with plans to expand its cyber workforce. The company's local Cyber Solutions business grew 400 percent over the past five years and expects that growth to continue as the nation seeks offensive and defensive cyber security capabilities to address the evolving cyber threats. To learn more about cyber at Lockheed Martin, visit www.lockheedmartin.com/cyber. About the University of Central Florida Founded in 1963 with a commitment to expanding opportunity and demanding excellence, the University of Central Florida develops the talent needed to advance the prosperity and welfare of our society. With more than 68,000 students, UCF is one of the nation's largest universities, offering more than 200 degree programs at its main campus in Orlando, medical school, and more than a dozen other locations in Central Florida and online. UCF was ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation's top 10 most innovative universities and rated by Kiplinger and Forbes as one of the best college values in America. For more information, visit ucf.edu. About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 105,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. SOURCE Lockheed Martin https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2019-02-15-University-of-Central-Florida-Opens-Its-Doors-to-the-Lockheed-Martin-Cyber-Innovation-Lab