Australia Commits to Additional MQ-4C Triton

Sur le même sujet

• 

  3 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Eurofighter: flight tests continue with the E-SCAN radar

  May 29, 2020 - A Eurofighter flight test campaign dedicated to the configuration chosen by Kuwait, with E-SCAN radar and other important enhancements, is certainly demanding and complex. Mario Mutti, Head of Project Test Pilot Fighters and Standardization of Leonardo's Aircraft Division, tells us how it is proceeding. Leonardo ISPA 6 (Instrumented Series Production Aircraft) is the most advanced Eurofighter Typhoon test aircraft with E-SCAN radar and it recently joined the other EF Typhoon test aircraft after the successful completion of an important lay-up in November last year. "The testing campaign for the new radar is particularly demanding - Mario Mutti, Head of Project Test Pilot Fighters and Standardization of Leonardo's Aircraft Division tells - there is a need for very large and dedicated work areas, the support of other aircraft that act as "smart" targets, an extremely accurate post-flight data analysis that involves multiple sites (in Italy and partner Countries) and optimizes the "set-ups" of the next flight. A very complex flight test system. The Italian Air Force contributes in a fundamental way: the aircraft available in support of test flights are always on time and offer a very consistent capability both quantitative and in terms of skill. The complex scenarios planned in flight are possible only thanks to the experience of the military pilots and our two-seater prototype that allows for synergy, even in the cockpit, between test pilot and flight test engineer." This challenging programme was completed as planned notwithstanding the difficulties created by the pandemic conditions under which the teams were operating; all flight test points were tested and all the required evidences obtained to provide final clearance on Kuwait's Typhoon. The tactical advantage given by the radar's Antenna Repositioner – allows a field of regard 50 per cent wider than conventional E-SCAN fixed plate systems - was clearly evident since the early stages of development. "The COVID emergency did not stop us, on the contrary, it strengthened us! - Mutti continues - Very stringent procedures, always in line with national and corporate protocols allowed us to operate with a motivated team that has challenged adversity with great dedication and sense of responsibility. International sharing is actually more difficult and efforts are being made to restore it to maximum effectiveness." With the above flights, ISPA6 has completed the overall P3Eb Flight Test campaign, which represent a significant step forward to allow the delivery of the Eurofighter to the Kuwait Air Force. "The Eurofighter is always an excellent platform – Mutti comments with satisfaction - and demonstrates its extensive development capability already foreseen in the design phase. Ergonomics are even more optimized and the new radar is perfectly integrated into a general growth of capabilities that includes sensors, weapons and increasingly advanced and performing functions”. The Eurofighter Typhoon ISPA 6 ISPA 6 is one of the three EF Typhoon test aircraft equipped with the Electronic Scan Radar made by the EuroRadar Consortium, led by Leonardo UK in Edinburgh, and it's currently allocated to the EF/NETMA P3Eb (Eurofighter Consortium/NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency - Phase 3 Enhancements Package b) development programme to perform E-SCAN Entry Into Service flight tests and provide final clearance to the Kuwait customer. After its first flight in the current configuration, at the end of last year, on the 3rd of March ISPA 6 started the so-called “E-SCAN XCR#1” flight test campaign and performed several sorties successfully concluded on the 27th of March. The first sorties were performed in cooperation with Leonardo's IPA2 (Instrumented Production Aircraft) test aircraft and the last ones were conducted in cooperation with Eurofighter Typhoons of the Italian Air Force. Recently ISPA 6 has flown to refine ECCM (Electronic Counter-Countermeasures) Radar capabilities, while in the next months will perform final E-SCAN software release certification flights; then will progress flying to test further E-SCAN software capabilities by the end of the year. View source version on Leonardo: https://www.leonardocompany.com/en/news-and-stories-detail/-/detail/eurofighter-flight-tests-continue-with-the-e-scan-radar

• 

  16 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR

  The US Navy’s ‘Manhattan Project’ has its leader

  David B. Larter WASHINGTON – The US Navy's top officer has tasked a former surface warfare officer turned engineering duty officer to create a powerful, all-connecting network service leaders believe they will need to fight and win against a high-end foe such as China. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday tasked Rear Adm. Douglas Small to lead an effort that will “develop networks, infrastructure, data architecture, tools, and analytics that support the operational and developmental environment that will enable our sustained maritime dominance.” Calling the effort “Project Overmatch,” Gilday called it the Navy's top priority after the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. “Beyond recapitalizing our undersea deterrent, there is no higher developmental priority in the U.S. Navy,” Gilday said. “All other efforts are supporting you. Your goal is to enable a Navy that swarms the sea, delivering synchronized lethal and non-lethal effects from near-and-far, every axis, and every domain.” In the past, Gilday has referred to the effort to field a powerful network as its “Manhattan Project,” harkening back to the rapid development of the atomic bomb in the 1940s. The urgency behind the effort to create this network highlights the growing sense of unease the Navy has around its position in the world as China builds towards its goal of achieving first-rate military power status by 2049. “The Navy's ability to establish and sustain sea control in the future is at risk," Gilday said in his letter. “I am confident that closing this risk is dependent on enhancing Distributed Maritime Operations through a teamed manned/unmanned force that exploits artificial intelligence and machine learning. I am not confident we are building the Naval Operational Architecture connecting and enabling this future force as quickly as we must.” The network is to connect with the Air Force's Joint All-Domain Command and Control effort, which the services are all lining up behind. Breaking Defense first reported the memo. Small started his career as a surface warfare officer but became an engineering duty officer in 1997. He has a background in electronic warfare and above-water sensors, as well as work at the Missile Defense Agency. In the Oct. 1 memo, Gilday has tasked him to report after 60 days, then every 90 days after that. In a separate memo to Vice Adm. James Kilby, the Navy's top warfighting requirements officer, Gilday said he wanted the Navy to develop both a concept of operations and a coherent kill chain based on an “any-sensor, any-shooter,” construct, an idea that would mean that any track obtained by any sensor can be passed to any ship or platform with a missile with which to kill it, something that would be enabled by Small's network. ‘We don't have and adequate net' In comments last year, Gilday said the Navy needed to move out with urgency to create a powerful network. “The biggest challenge for us is to join all the main command and control,” Gilday said. “We're building netted weapons, netted platforms, and netted [command-and-control] nodes, but we don't have an adequate net, and that's a critical piece.” The Navy has been working toward a concept of operations that links its ships, aircraft and unmanned platforms by way of communications relay nodes — such as small drones — or whole ships — such as the future frigate or high-tech aircraft like the E-2D Hawkeye. The idea is to spread the force out over a wide area, as opposed to clustered around a carrier, to put a maximum burden on Chinese intelligence and reconnaissance assets. This spread-out, networked force would connect the various shooters so that if any individual node in the network sees something to kill, any Navy or Air Force asset with weapons within range can kill it. This has led to a push for ever-longer-range missiles. But to make it work, all the pieces must be linked on a reliable communications network. The current architecture, according to the Navy, is insufficient for the job, given Chinese and Russian investments in electronic warfare that can interfere with communications. https://www.c4isrnet.com/naval/2020/10/14/the-us-navys-manhattan-project-has-its-leader/

• 

  12 juin 2020 | International, C4ISR

  Year two post merger, L3Harris looks toward $1B more in divestitures

  By: Jill Aitoro WASHINGTON — One year post merger, L3Harris is a third of the way to its goal of shedding roughly $1.5 billion of the company, with COVID-19 slowing progress, said its two top executives in an interview with Defense News. About $500 million in business has been divested since June 2019, when Harris and L3 Technologies combined into a single, $17 billion company. That total came by way of three deals that shed the EOTech business, the night vision business, and the security detection and automation businesses. “Out of the gates, we were really running at this,” said CEO Bill Brown, who noted in previous interviews the audacious goal for divestitures of 8-10 percent of total revenue. “We continue to make progress on others, but obviously with the COVID crisis and the financial impacts of that, it's moved some opportunities to the right.” The sale of the security detection and automation businesses to Leidos for about $1 billion will ultimately be one of if not the biggest divestiture for the company, said Brown, who declined to point to any specific portions of business as currently up for sale or likely to be shed. Thus far divestitures have been driven either by overlap created by the merger — which subsequently raised the alarm bells of regulators — or by a desire to focus the portfolio even more to become what Brown described as a “powerhouse C4ISR company.” Brown stopped short of stating any intention to exit the commercial or federal business altogether — even as the former took a significant hit from pandemic fallout: Commercial revenues are expected to be down around 35 percent organically for the year. Also likely to suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic is international business. Foreign sales, which account for 20 percent of total revenue, will likely remain flat, versus the increase in low to mid-single digits previously expected. “We identify that as an area where we think we can outperform,” Chris Kubasik, L3Harris chief operating officer, said during the interview. “Clearly the global pandemic applies some pressure, especially in the Middle East with the prices of oil and all the countries having their own bailouts or stimulus plans. Just like the U.S., I think the situation is going to call into question how those countries deal with defense going forward. It's going to be one of these areas that we need to monitor, and are probably going to have to take market share to grow.” An inability to travel has, however, opened doors to new ways of doing business around the world. Kubasik pointed to a particular deal with a customer in a Far East country that was negotiated via Skype. “Nobody's really closed for business,” he said. “We've just got to be creative and do it differently. You feel pretty good when you do a one- or two-hour Zoom [video conference], where in the old days it would have taken four days by the time you flew to the country, cleared customs, got a good night's rest, held a meeting, met again and flew back.” For L3Harris, year two post merger will focus on the remaining $1 billion in divestitures and see a continuation of company integration. In the longer term, those efforts will set the company up nicely for additional acquisitions, which Kubasik called “a clear expectation” for spurring growth. And C4ISR is the area that will likely be the focus of potential buys. “The value of those capabilities and technologies will be even greater in the future in a near-peer competition,” Brown said. “It's not the platforms, but what the platforms do and how they interoperate that requires networks and new ways of communicating, which is in the sweet spot of the company. So I would imagine that anything we would do through acquisition would happen in that broad C4ISR domain.” But for now, he added, the company is focusing on “the basic fundamentals." "And if we do that really well, then we build credibility to go and do another acquisition, another merger over time. The key is earning the right to do that — building the credibility and the muscle to go down that path, and that's what we're doing today.” https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/06/11/year-two-post-merger-l3harris-looks-toward-1b-more-in-divestitures/