26 décembre 2019 | International, Terrestre

Congress injects millions of dollars to advance next-gen combat vehicle technology

By: Jen Judson

WASHINGTON — While essentially killing the U.S. Army's plan to competitively acquire a replacement for the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Congress in its fiscal 2020 defense spending package is injecting more than $100 million to fund the advancement of next-generation combat vehicle technology and is allocated another couple hundred million dollars for technology that will benefit related efforts.

The second top modernization priority is the Army's next-generation combat vehicle, and the service's first major move toward modernizing its combat vehicle fleet was to replace the Bradley. But that hasn't gone according to plan after the Army received only one bid from General Dynamics Land Systems in its optionally manned fighting vehicle, or OMFV, competition to replace the Bradley in October.

While the Army hasn't said how it plans to proceed, Congress cut $172.8 million from the service's budget request for OMFV, making it appear impossible to fund a competitive prototyping effort.

While the Army considers its next steps to replace the Bradley fleet, it's not stopping other technology development efforts to improve its current and future combat vehicle fleets. And congressional appropriators are adding $145 million into next-generation combat vehicle technology development funds on top of the Army's request for $379 million.

Under NGCV technology development, Congress is peppering funding into prototyping energy-smart autonomous ground systems, highly electrified vehicles and autonomous vehicle mobility accounts.

More funding is being applied to additive metals, manufacturing, structural thermoplastics and advanced materials development to make vehicles more survivable on the the battlefield.

Additional funding is included for protection from rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices, and money will go toward modeling and simulation efforts.

Under advanced technology development for NGCV, Congress is adding funding for additive manufacturing to include using it to develop jointless hull technology, hydrogen fuel cells and an ATE5.2 engine.

The Army will also get more money to develop carbon fiber and graphite foam technology as well as advanced high strength and lightweight steels. The service will also fund combat-vehicle weight-reduction efforts, additive manufacturing of critical components and advanced water-harvesting technology.

Congressional appropriators also added funding for Humvee technology development to include augmented reality systems, a health usage monitoring system, autonomy, torque monitoring and automotive enhancements.

More funding was added for NGCV virtual and physical prototyping, too.

While not specifically allocated toward NGCV technology development, Congress also has added $246.4 million in ground technology development funding that could apply to future vehicles.

That funding includes more work on additive manufacturing to include cold spray technology, materials research including polymers for lightweight armor, protection against the elements and threats, and alternative power development.

More plus-ups include funding for sensors for underground detection and also urban subterranean mapping technology as well as unmanned aircraft system-mounted hostile threat detection.

While the Army's plan to field a Bradley replacement may be in flux, the service is also looking further into the future at what could ultimately replace its M1 Abrams tank, for example. The technology development work being done within the service now will help paint a picture of what that future vehicle could look like as well as replacements for other combat vehicles in the fleet.

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/12/23/congress-injects-millions-to-advance-next-gen-combat-vehicle-technology/

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18 juin 2019 | International, Autre défense

CACI Secures $880 Million Task Order to Provide Information Technology and Engineering Services for U.S. Army's Personnel and Force Management Systems
ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CACI International Inc (NYSE: CACI) announced today it has secured an $880 million task order to provide information technology and engineering services to the U.S. Army's Product Lead Reserve Component Automation System-Force Management System (PL RCAS - FMS). The Information Technology Enterprise Management Systems Solution (ITEMSS) task order, made under the U.S. General Services Administration's Alliant 2 contract vehicle, represents continuing work for CACI and expansion to support the Army's vision for Global Force Information Management. The government will rely upon CACI's Agile Solution Factory (ASF), already one of the largest and most modern Agile frameworks used by the federal government, to more quickly develop software for the Army's personnel and force management systems. Since 2013, the ASF has consistently delivered increased productivity, reduced costs, higher quality, and more secure software to its customers. On the previous RCAS contract, the ASF increased software development productivity by 60% and reduced implementation costs by more than 50%, software quality averaged 99% defect free, and time-to-market was reduced by 70%. Ken Asbury, CACI's President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “CACI's Agile Solution Factory has set the standard for continuous software development on an enterprise scale through its iterative and transparent approach. Under the ITEMSS contract, CACI's ASF will help the Army implement multiple personnel and force management systems, including RCAS and FMS, two of the most efficient large-scale personnel and force management systems in the world.” Under the seven-year ITEMSS task order, CACI will provide a broad range of information technology and engineering services, including hardware and software design, sustainment and modification, and network, cybersecurity, distance learning program, and military construction services to support the Army's dynamic force management, mobilization and readiness missions. CACI provides information solutions and services in support of national security missions and government transformation for Intelligence, Defense, and Federal Civilian customers. A Fortune World's Most Admired Company, CACI is a member of the Fortune 1000 Largest Companies, the Russell 2000 Index, and the S&P MidCap 400 Index. CACI's sustained commitment to ethics and integrity defines its corporate culture and drives its success. With approximately 22,000 employees worldwide, CACI provides dynamic career opportunities for military veterans and industry professionals to support the nation's most critical missions. Join us! www.caci.com. There are statements made herein which do not address historical facts, and therefore could be interpreted to be forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results. The factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in CACI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018, and other such filings that CACI makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Any forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon and only speak as of the date hereof. CACI-Contract Award https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190618005167/en
10 mars 2020 | International, Naval

Destroyers left behind: US Navy cancels plans to extend service lives of its workhorse DDGs
By: David B. Larter WASHINGTON — In a move with sweeping consequences for the U.S. Navy's battle force, the service is canceling plans to add 10 years to the expected service lives of its stalwart destroyer fleet, a cost-savings measure that would almost certainly hamper plans to grow the size of the fleet. In written testimony submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Navy's Assistant Secretary for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts said performing service life extensions on Burkes designed to bring them up from 35-year hull lives to 45 years was not cost-effective. “Service life extensions can be targeted, physical changes to specific hulls to gain a few more years, or a class-wide extension based on engineering analysis,” the testimony read. “The Navy has evaluated the most effective balance between costs and capability to be removing the service life extension on the DDG 51 class.” The Navy's destroyers are the workhorses of the fleet, with sailors spending an average of one in every four days underway, the highest rate in the fleet, according a recent report from Defense News' sister publication Navy Times. The decision to ax the service life extensions for the Arleigh Burke class comes after years of assurances from Navy leaders that the destroyers would be modernized with an eye to growing the fleet over the coming decades. Navy leaders have offered assurances that the fiscal 2021 budget continues to grow the fleet despite its significant cuts to shipbuilding and existing force structure, but it is unclear how the fleet will continue to grow past the next five years if service life extensions on the earliest Burkes don't go forward right away. It would also seem to have significant impact on the current push from acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly to grow the fleet to 355 ships in a decade. In its FY20 30-year shipbuilding plan, the Navy said extending the lives of the Arleigh Burkes was an imperative to growing the fleet to a battle force of 355 ships. Instead, the cancellation of the service life extensions means that between 2026 and 2034, the Navy is slated to lose 27 destroyers from its battle force. Those losses would compound the impact of cutting 10 ships from the five-year projections in the FY21 budget, including five of the 12 proposed Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers from the FY20 budget and a Virginia-class attack submarine. The Defense Department has yet to submit its FY21 30-year shipbuilding plan, which means that it's impossible to tell how the Navy thinks these cuts would affect its total ship count in the years when it would lose Burkes at a rate of more than three per year. But the Burke retirements would begin in 2026 or 2027, years just after the service completed shedding 13 cruisers from its fleet, leaving just nine of the Navy's largest combatants in the fleet. In a statement, Capt. Danny Hernandez, spokesman for Geurts, said there are a lot of variables in getting the fleet to its goal of 355 ships, but that the Navy's top priority is keeping the recapitalization of its retiring Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines on track. “Like Navy leaders have stated during testimony, the tradeoffs were complex to get the right balance,” Hernandez said. Service lives According to a Naval Sea Systems Command document obtained by Defense News in 2018, the earliest Arleigh Burke destroyers — 27 so-called Flight I and early Flight II destroyers — have an expected hull life of 35 years. The lead ship, the Arleigh Burke, was commissioned in 1991, meaning its hull life is up in 2026. DDG-51 through DDG-78 — the Flight I destroyers — were commissioned between 1991 and 1999. Later models — Flight IIA — have 40-year hull lives. In 2018, then-Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Systems Vice Adm. Bill Merz told USNI News that there were distinct advantages to upgrading the entire class, and that instead of just a combat systems modernization aimed at boosting ballistic missile defense systems, the ships would get the full hull and mechanical upgrades that would extend the ships out to 45-year service lives. “This is an HM&E [hull, mechanical and electrical] extension, but every destroyer is already in the modernization pipeline, so every destroyer will be modernized,” Merz said. “The modernization they receive that's already programmed may carry them through. “Obviously the threat's going to get a vote on that, but one of the beauties is instead of doing an individual ship-by-ship extension and extending the entire class, now we have the visibility to actually plan for that. We can pace it, plan it, fund it efficiently instead of one-and-done, one-and-done, one-and-done. We can be a lot more deliberate about how we handle this class.” In testimony that year, Merz said ballistic missile defense was the biggest requirement driving the retention of the DDGs to 45 years. Compounded with cuts to the Flight III destroyers, it seems likely that the Navy by 2034 will have a significantly reduced ballistic missile defense capability with at least 32 fewer ballistic missile defense-capable destroyers in the fleet, if this budget is enacted. When asked during its FY21 budget rollout if cutting five Flight III DDGs corresponds to a reduction in demand for ballistic missile defense-capable ships, Navy budget director Rear Adm. Randy Crites told reporters it was a decision based “strictly [on] affordability.” The Navy has in recent years declared the Arleigh Burke hull design maxed out, with the Flight III being packed to the gunwales with power and cooling to support the inclusion of Raytheon's SPY-6 air and missile defense radar. Future combatants will have to accommodate more power generations and storage to support systems such as laser weapons and rail guns. The excess electrical power capacity in the Ford-class aircraft carrier, for example, is one of the main reasons the Navy considers the new class valuable even as aircraft carriers become more vulnerable to high-speed, anti-ship missiles. Bryan Clark, a retired submarine officer and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said the cuts were a necessary step. Clark recently authored a study with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments that called for canceling the DDG service life extensions. “It's crazy to throw good money after bad for a bunch of ships you say you don't need,” Clark said. “I think the Navy is coming to grips with the fiscal realities; the unsustainable nature of their current plan; and the recognition it is going to have a need for fewer large surface combatants in the future and needs to husband its resources to build a larger fleet of smaller surface combatants. Those are going to be the bulk of the distributed force they intend to have.” https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2020/03/07/destroyers-left-behind-us-navy-cancels-plans-to-extend-service-lives-of-its-workhorse-ddgs/
11 février 2019 | International, Aérospatial

Rafale : la DGA commande des nacelles NARANG supplémentaires
Par Justine BOQUET La DGA a commandé quatre nacelles de ravitaillement NARANG supplémentaires, qui viendront équiper les Rafale M. La direction générale de l'armement a annoncé le 7 février avoir notifié une commande de quatre nacelles de ravitaillement NARANG à Zodiac Aerotechnics. Cette nacelle de ravitaillement de nouvelle génération viendra équiper les Rafale Marine F3-R, standard qualité le 31 octobre dernier. Comme le rappelle la DGA, l'emploi de nacelle de ravitaillement permet d'accroître le rayon d'action des Rafale du groupe aérien embarqué « en particulier lorsque le porte-avions est déployé en opération loin du territoire national ». Gr'ce à ce dispositif de nacelle « nounou », les Rafale M pourront ravitailler en vol d'autres chasseurs. « Par rapport à la génération précédente, les nouvelles nacelles permettent notamment de réduire le temps de ravitaillement du fait de leur augmentation de débit », rapporte la DGA. Les NARANG disposent également d'une meilleure disponibilité gr'ce à une maintenance simplifiée. La livraison de ces quatre nacelles supplémentaires est attendue entre 2021 et 2022. Quant aux douze NARANG commandées au préalable, elles devraient être réceptionnées entre mi 2019 et fin 2021. http://www.air-cosmos.com/rafale-la-dga-commande-des-nacelles-narang-supplementaires-120263

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