Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - August 03, 2020

Sur le même sujet

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  26 juin 2023 | International, Terrestre

  General Dynamics, Rheinmetall to compete for potential $45 bln US Army vehicle contract

  The U.S. Army said on Monday it had selected General Dynamics and American Rheinmetall to compete to replace the Bradley fighting vehicle, in a deal that could be worth more than $45 billion to the winner.

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  20 juin 2019 | International, C4ISR, Autre défense

  This mobile comms unit has people talking

  By: Mark Pomerleau The Army has a slew of ongoing efforts to modernize its tactical network, including a focus on a pilot unit that moves quickly through the world and spectrum to tailor critical communications systems support. The Expeditionary Signal Battalion-Enhanced (ESB-E) supports units that don't have organic comms capabilities. These could include military intelligence battalions, chemical battalions, engineering battalions or air defense artillery branches. The ESB-E can also augment regular Army units, as a renewed focus on great powers requires all units to be much more mobile and expeditionary. What that means for signal battalions is their gear will have to be easily carried and set up to enable them to maneuver with units in a rapid manner. “The Army's transitioned to focusing on data environment and near-peer threat. The need for those logistical tails and for the enablers to move rapidly has increased, which is part of the demand signal that has gotten us away from” the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical of the past, Maj. Jeff Forry, S-3 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, told C4ISRNET during a demo of Army network modernization efforts at Fort Myer June 18. Forry said they've provided much more modular and scalable capabilities than the Humvee-mounted, satellite transportable terminal-based capabilities of year's past. In March 2018, the Army authorized the beginning of the ESB-E pilot, which is intended to create more mobile and agile kits for signal brigades. As part of the pilot, three companies under the battalion have been outfitted with capabilities from three vendors. This includes basebands — made by DTech, PacStar and Klas — with accompanying Tampa Microwave or L3 satellite terminal dishes of varying diameter depending on the users the unit needs to accommodate. Overall, the battalion has packages to provide communications for a variety of users. “When I plan a mission, less than 20 users, I'd start looking at small [packages] ... when we start pulling 20 up to 48 I'm looking at medium, and then after that we'd either use multiple mediums or start looking at the [large] package,” Forry said. The modularity of the kits mean, in many cases, just adding more users merely involves just sliding a small router into the baseband and utilizing a slightly larger satellite terminal. This is easier than the old WIN-T way of doing things where teams needed to bring full transit cases to add more users and bandwidth. One user noted that the modularity of the kit allows teams to mix and match based on the requirement. For example, if they only need connectivity to the Pentagon's secret network, as opposed to the unclassified network, they only need to bring those services with them. During a recent event at Dugway Proving Grounds, members from the signal battalion supported a chemical brigade, which had to get in and out of affected areas very quickly. The team took a small package and was able to get communication up in less than 10 minutes. They were onsite for 20 minutes, packed up and moved to the next site. The Army is continuing to utilize training events, combat training center rotations and exercises such as Saber Guardian in Europe to evaluate systems within the pilot program and execute operational tests for the gear. “The different approach we took for this prototype that we're doing is we didn't go set off a dedicated unit to do an operational test,” Col. Greg Coile, project manager for tactical networks at Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, said. “Their operational test is when they go to Saber Guardian, when they go do the operational support, that is how we're testing and ... we use that user feedback going forward.” Coile added that this ongoing experimentation also allows units to get more repetitions as opposed to the old way of doing things, where the unit would get the equipment two weeks ahead of an operational test at something like the Network Integration Evaluation. Now units get an entire year with the equipment, which means the value of feedback is much higher, Coile said. The capabilities for the ESB-E unit will be part of the Army's first delivery of capability in 2021 for its network modernization the service is calling capability set 2021. Coile said the pilot will run until September, after which the Army will begin to make decisions on down-selecting vendors and outfitting actual units with the kits. The plan is to have every unit have the same equipment, as opposed to three companies currently outfitted with different vendor equipment for the prototype. A battalion will be complete in 2019, Coile said, and they are funded for three more in 2020. Moreover, they'll buy more in late 2020 to early 2021 and field those three. In 2021 there is funding for another three units, but the Army leadership will have to make a decision on what units get that. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2019/06/19/this-mobile-comms-unit-has-people-talking/

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  18 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial

  Air Force calls for 74 more squadrons to prepare for possibility of war against major power

  By: Stephen Losey How will the Air Force get to 386 squadrons? Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson on Monday called for growing the Air Force from its current size of 312 operational squadrons to 386 by 2030, as it prepares for a possible conflict against a major nation such as China or Russia. This 24 percent increase in squadrons is the centerpiece of the service's “Air Force We Need”proposal, which has been in the works for six months. This proposal seeks to lay out what it would take for the Air Force to fight a peer adversary and win, as well as defend the homeland, provide a credible nuclear deterrent, counter a medium-sized rogue nation that might try to take advantage of the Air Force's focus on the major adversary, and fight violent extremists such as the Taliban and the Islamic State. This follows the National Defense Strategy that the Pentagon unveiled earlier this year, which is structured around the need to shift away from the violent extremist fight and instead focus on deterring or fighting nations with significant, well-developed militaries. In her keynote address at the Air Force Association's Air, Space, Cyber Conference, Wilson referenced the massive Russian military exercises launched last week, involving more than 300,000 of their troops, and China's unveiling of its first aircraft carrier and its ongoing militarization of islands in the South China Sea to extend its long-range bombers' reach. “We must see the world as it is,” Wilson said. “That was why the National Defense Strategy explicitly recognizes that we have returned to an era of great power competition.” But Wilson reiterated the service's view that the Air Force is not big enough to carry out all the missions currently being asked of it. The Air Force has to meet the threats facing the nation with its most basic unit: the squadron, Wilson said. “Our operational squadrons are the combat power of the Air Force," Wilson said. "They are the clenched fist of American resolve.” Full article: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/09/17/air-force-calls-for-74-more-squadrons-to-prepare-for-possibility-of-war-against-major-power