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  8 novembre 2018 | International, Terrestre

  More than meets the eye: Army selects next-gen camouflage system

  By: Kyle Rempfer The Army has finally selected a company to provide it with the next generation of ultra light-weight, general-purpose camouflage. The Army's Ultra-Light Camouflage Netting System, or ULCANS, will be an all-weather, state-of-the-art signature concealment system that provides multi-spectral protection for troops and equipment. The program aims to replace the legacy woodland and desert camouflage variants developed in the 1990s, and will be developed in light and dark woodland, snow and alpine, desert, and urban variants. The Army hopes ULCANS will better conceal the signatures of troops and equipment from high-end sensor threats on the battlefield. The contract to produce the next-generation camouflage was awarded to Fibrotex USA Inc., according to a company statement provided to Army Times. The contract is a 10-year, indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity award, with a total value of $480 million. Fibrotex is expected to begin full-rate production in early 2019, according to the company. ULCANS is the result of nearly two years of testing, trials and data collection conducted by the U.S. Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center in Massachusetts. Natick tested camouflage technologies from major global manufacturers against the Army's most advanced battlefield surveillance sensors. Many of the technologies underpinning ULCANS are based on developments by Fibrotex's Israel-based parent company over the last two decades, but have been specially modified for the U.S. Department of Defense. The Fibrotex system will provide multi-spectral camouflage, which conceals objects from detection across several portions of the electromagnetic spectrum at the same time. Traditional military camouflage simply hides an object in the visible spectrum, but the multi-spectral design obscures detection in the infrared, thermal and radar spectrum as well. “Today more than ever, military forces and opposition groups are using night vision sensors and thermal devices against our troops, but by using Fibrotex's camouflage, concealment and deception solutions, we make them undetectable again, allowing them to continue keeping us safe," said Eyal Malleron, CEO of Fibrotex USA. Fibrotex will also deliver the ULCANS material in reversible designs — allowing for the first time a different pattern and capability on each side, enabling soldiers, vehicles and systems to disappear into light or dark woodland, snow or alpine and desert or urban environments in any operational theater. “We have more than 50 years of experience, with thousands of hours in the field and a deep understanding of conventional and asymmetric warfare," Malleron said. "The U.S. Army tested our best camouflage solutions, and the camouflage repeatedly demonstrated the ability to defeat all sensors known to be operating in the battlefield and throughout the electromagnetic spectrum.” ULCANS will also be manufactured stateside, in a new state-of-the-art facility in McCreary County, Kentucky, creating hundreds of new skilled American jobs over the next decade, according to Fibrotex. “I firmly believe we have the best workforce in the country, and that their hard work and dedication has earned these new jobs, helping deliver a vital new military contract from McCreary County," Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said in a press statement. "I take great pride in knowing that our people are crafting these products to keep our warfighters and allies safe, giving them an edge on the battlefield.” The new facility is being established next to Outdoor Venture Corporation, which is a strategic partner to Fibrotex USA and already designs modular personnel tents and command post tents for the Army. https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/11/07/more-than-meets-the-eye-army-selects-next-gen-camouflage-system

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  29 juillet 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  COVID-19 is changing the Air Force’s cyber training

  Mark Pomerleau WASHINGTON — The Air Force is ensuring its mission essential cyber training goes on during the global COVID-19 pandemic but officials are also delaying some training related to the service's networks. “When all this kicked off, we prioritized all of the mission essential courses that are supplying operators to the cyber mission force. We wanted to make sure that those units continue to get the trained operations that they needed so that their readiness levels didn't suffer,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Williams, commander of the 39th Information Operations Squadron, which provides intermediate cyber weapons system training to airmen, told C4ISRNET. The cyber mission force are the teams each of the services provide up to U.S. Cyber Command. In addition to training cyber mission force personnel, the 39th IOS also trains specific weapon systems for the Air Force network (AFNET), which were either postponed or reduced class size to ensure students are safe. The reduction in those Air Force specific courses have allowed the mission essential courses to reduce in person class sizes for classified work that can't be done remotely to ensure the proper social distancing measures are taken. To learn outside the classroom, the schoolhouse is relying on a partnership with Carnegie Mellon for an entirely online cyberspace fundamentals course, Microsoft Teams and WebEx. Students also don't have to necessarily travel to the 39th in Hurlburt Field, Florida for some training. They can remotely take courses such as the cyber fundamentals course online saving money for temporary duty travel. Williams said he expects to see more of that in the future. The remote tools have also allowed students to gain a unique experience with members of the operational force, while simultaneously saving the taxpayer money. Students are able to hear from operational commanders and operators and even participate in exercises with units. Previously, the students would have to travel to those units to participate, but now, they can dial in. “That helps us in the classroom hit it home. We get those war stories to use in the classroom and the students actually, those light bulbs start to turn on and it really starts to hit home,” TSgt Jonathan Zinski, a course instructor, said. “Now that we have more of an eye-opening capability to use some of our virtual tools, we've actually been able to enroll and participate an entire team of instructors and cadre here at the 39th IOS to participate in a no-kidding virtual exercise with an operational unit to not only hone our skills and help some of our instructors here bring the lessons learned into the classroom but to also help the operational units from our standpoint and help them get better at their jobs.” This experience also gives the students a flavor of what to expect at their units prior to arriving. Officials explained that while the actual courseware didn't change, the schoolhouse shifted the courseware and maneuvered the syllabus to accommodate students doing a combination of distance learning and in person classes. They looked at what courses needed to be conducted in person, then worked around that to ensure the class sizes were small enough while supplementing with remote learning tools. The pandemic has also accelerated certain initiatives the school planned to undertake at a later date. Williams said one includes combining cyber mission force and AFNET defensive cyber training. He said they are re-imagining the defensive cyber training pipeline with something they're calling defensive cyber operations initial qualification training. “Instead of creating a blanket training for each of these weapon systems, we're trying to integrate the AFNET systems with the CMF where it makes sense and also tailor the training,” he said, noting this should be up and running in October regardless of COVID-19. This re-imagining was always planned, but Williams said COVID accelerated it. The adaptations the 39th has been forced to make as a result of the pandemic has rendered some valuable lessons as well. Williams said some initiatives never would have been considered if the pandemic didn't hit. He explained officials are turning a conference room into a recording studio so instructors can either deliver training to students in a separate room or record lectures for students to view later. https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2020/07/27/covid-19-is-changing-the-air-forces-cyber-training/

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  4 décembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  The US Air Force wants to buy a big robot to help with bomb disposal

  By: Valerie Insinna and Jen Judson UPDATE — This story has been updated to add comment from L3Harris on its participation in the competition. WASHINGTON — A year after the U.S. Army awarded a contract to build a heavy-duty robot able to dispose of bombs and other explosives, the Air Force is looking for its own system — and it wants to see what's on the market before committing to purchasing what the Army buys. The Air Force in October released a solicitation for a large explosive ordnance disposal robot, a commercial off-the-shelf system equipped with a maneuverable arm and a camera system that can function in all terrain types, environments and weather conditions. An Air Force spokesman declined to confirm how many companies submitted bids for the program, which were due Nov. 20. One competitor has already come forward: FLIR, which is set to rake in as much as $109 million building its Kobra robot for the Army's Common Robotic System-Heavy program. The company began full-rate production of Kobra last month and is confident the Air Force will follow the Army's example by choosing the same system. “As the chosen provider for the Army's Common Robotic System-Heavy (CRS-H) program, FLIR believes its extensively tested and proven unmanned ground system meets the Air Force needs in the large EOD robot category, while enabling commonality of equipment with other services' EOD forces,” said Tom Frost, who runs FLIR's unmanned ground systems business. QinetiQ, which lost out to FLIR in the CRS-H competition, did not respond to a query about whether it had bid on the Air Force program. An L3Harris spokesperson confirmed to Defense News that it had submitted its T7 EOD robot to the Air Force competition. L3Harris said it wanted to be chosen for the CRS-H program in 2018. The company unveiled the robot at the Association of the US Army's annual conference in 2016 letting show attendees take a crack at operating the arm on the robot. The controller looks like the back end of a gun making it easy to hold, and is hooked to sensors that transfer information to the robotic arm on the T7. The United Kingdom is a customer of the T7 for EOD missions. At times, the Air Force has joined Army robot programs without needing to hold a competition. But in the case of larger EOD robots, the two services have differing requirements that have led the Air Force to seek out its own system instead of jumping into the CRS-H program, said S. Chase Cooper, a contracting officer who is managing the EOD robot solicitation on behalf of the Air Force's 772nd Enterprise Sourcing Squadron “The major difference is that the Army's mission is primarily to operate ‘outside the wire' ” — that is, outside of a secure military installation — “where the Air Force's mission is primarily ‘inside the wire.' These are two entirely different environments,” he said in a statement to Defense News. Cooper also pointed to additional considerations such as the size and weight of the system. Most Air Force EOD missions occur after bombs or other improvised explosive devices are found at a base or installation. When that happens, teams load robots and other gear into a Base Response Vehicle or Bomb Squad Emergency Response Vehicle, drive out to the location of the explosive device, and safely dispose of the explosive. Whatever robot the Air Force chooses must be small enough to fit inside those vehicles, Cooper said. That includes passing through a 32-inch-wide door opening and parking into a space 91 inches long and 63 inches high. The Air Force's requirement for weight, which is set at a maximum of 1,000 pounds, is less stringent than the Army's 700-pound limit. The Air Force also called for a system with a minimum 800-meter, line-of-sight radio range, and a 3-hour runtime that will allow it complete the majority of EOD missions. Cooper noted that the Air Force's decision to pursue an open competition does not preclude the FLIR robot from being chosen by the service. “It is unknown at this time if that system would meet our requirements,” Cooper said. “Through our contracting process, we are evaluating all of the proposed large robot systems against the Air Force's requirement so we can make sure the system we purchase is the best one for our airmen.” The Air Force has a history of both collaborating with the Army on EOD robots and going its own way. For its medium-sized unmanned ground vehicle, the Air Force opted to use the Army's existing contract under the Man Transportable Robotic System Increment II program for FLIR's Centaur UGV, which is also being purchased by the Navy and Marine Corps. But while QinetiQ beat out FLIR in the Army's competition for CRS-Individual — a man-packable robot that is less than 25 pounds — the Air Force ended up pursuing a separate contract to meet its own unique needs for small unmanned ground vehicles. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/12/03/the-air-force-wants-to-buy-a-big-robot-to-help-with-bomb-disposal/