CAE USA wins competitive recompete of U.S. Air Force KC-135 Training System contract

Sur le même sujet

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  28 septembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval

  Lockheed Martin to perform ‘unique sea trials' of F-35 for non-US customers

  Gareth Jennings The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has contracted Lockheed Martin to conduct aircraft carrier trials of its F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) for potential international operators. The award, announced on 24 September, is part of a wider USD245.5 million developmental support contract for DoD and international operators of the F-35 that will run through to March 2022. “[Additional to the wider developmental support work], this modification provides unique sea trials on aircraft carriers for non-DoD participants,” the contract notification stated. Though no further details pertaining to the aircraft carrier trials were disclosed, they are likely to relate to the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B variant of the aircraft. To date, the US Marine Corps (USMC), United Kingdom Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Air Force (RAF), and Italian Navy (Marina Militare Italiana: MMI) have procured the F-35B to equip their respective amphibious assault ships and aircraft carriers, while current F-35A customers, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and South Korea, have all expressed interest in the STOVL jet's carrier capabilities over recent years, as had Turkey before it was disbarred from the wider JSF programme. Australia was reporting its interest in the F-35B for the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN's) two Canberra-class landing helicopter dock (LHD) amphibious assault ships as far back as 2014. The two 27,800-tonne LHDs – HMAS Canberra and HMAS https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/lockheed-martin-to-perform-unique-sea-trials-of-f-35-for-non-us-customers

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  16 août 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Air Force Tests Contraption That Can Turn Any Plane Into a Robot Plane

  Air Force scientists have announced that they had tested a robot kit that can turn virtually any plane into a self-piloting drone, through a program called ROBOpilot. Why is that important? For starters, planes and drones are expensive. The drone shot down over Iran last month cost $220 million. For years the military has rushed to fund fabulous, exquisite drones of all shapes and sizes. Some, like the $15 million MQ-9 Reaper from General Atomics, are cheaper than manned military aircraft. But the big ones are more expensive than many types of civilian sport aircraft. “Imagine being able to rapidly and affordably convert a general aviation aircraft, like a Cessna or Piper, into an unmanned aerial vehicle, having it fly a mission autonomously, and then returning it back to its original manned configuration,” said Dr. Alok Das, senior scientist with the Air Force Research Lab's, or AFRL's, Center for Rapid Innovation, in a statement. “All of this is achieved without making permanent modifications to the aircraft.” AFRL has partnered with DZYNE Technologies to produce the kit. The system interacts with flight controls just like a human pilot, pushing all the correct buttons, flipping the switches, manipulating the yoke and throttle and watching the gages. “At the same time, the system uses sensors, like GPS and an Inertial Measurement Unit [essentially a way for a machine to locate itself in space without GPS] for situational awareness and information gathering. A computer analyzes these details to make decisions on how to best control the flight,” AFRL said in a statement. Once the flight is done, the kit can be pulled out and the plane reconverted to one requiring a human pilot. On August 9, the system completed a two-hour test flight at Utah's Dugway Proving Ground. In theory, the same or a similar technology could be applied to expensive fighter aircraft. And the military has said that the next, sixth-generation fighter will be optionally manned. But the military has expressed reservations about allowing autonomous software to undertake lethal actions, so don't expect to see ROBOpilot doing combat missions anytime soon. https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/08/air-force-tests-contraption-can-turn-any-plane-robot-plane/159211/

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  27 janvier 2023 | International, C4ISR

  Generative AI like viral ChatGPT lands on DISA technology watch list

  An Air Force official said the military must "automate more" in order to remain dominant in a world of advanced computing and quick decisions.