Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 29, 2019

Sur le même sujet

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  2 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

  Air Force’s future ISR architecture could feature drone swarms and hypersonics — with AI underpinning it all

  By: Valerie Insinna POZNAN, Poland — The Air Force's ambitious new ISR strategy calls for a sensing grid that fuses together data from legacy platforms like the RQ-4 Global Hawk, emerging technologies like swarming drones, other services' platforms and publicly available information. And deciphering all of that data will be artificial intelligence. Such a system may sound like something out of a sci-fi book, but the service believes it could be in service by 2028. In a July 31 interview, Lt. Gen. VeraLinn “Dash” Jamieson, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for ISR, explained the Air Force's new “Next Generation ISR Dominance Flight Plan,” which lays out the service's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance goals for the next 10 years. In the past, “when we fielded a sensor, we fielded a sensor to answer a question,” Jamieson said. What the ISR flight plan tries to accomplish is far more extensive: “How do I get the data so I can fuse it, look at it and then ask the right questions from the data to reveal what trends are out there?" “We have to do all of that at the speed of relevance — meaning at warfighting speed — so that our decision cycle has shrunk,” she added. “We get our effects in and out, and we create chaos and confusion in the adversary. Once he gets behind, it is extremely difficult to actually catch up.” Full article: https://www.c4isrnet.com/air/2018/08/01/air-forces-future-isr-architecture-could-feature-drone-swarms-and-hypersonics-all-with-ai-underpinning-it-all/

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  12 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Ready, Fire, Aim: PACAF Chief Emphasizes Hypersonics

  Steve Trimble As the U.S. Defense Department accelerates hypersonic weapons fielding, the air force's top commander in the Pacific region emphasizes that the missile isn't the only technology required to realize an operational capability to strike targets at speeds faster than Mach 5. The air force plans to achieve an early operational capability in fiscal 2022 with the Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, a maneuvering boost glide missile fired from the wing of an aircraft, such as a Boeing B-52. Such weapons are capable of hitting targets at ranges over 1,000 km within 10 min., but similarly new advances in intelligence-gathering and command and control infrastructure are required in order to make full use of them, said Gen. Charles Brown, commander of Pacific Air Forces. “In the time of flight, eight to 10 minutes, I've got to have pretty good intel that the target is still going to be there, particularly if it's a mobile target,” Brown said. “Those are things I'm thinking about. It's nice to have this weapon, but I've got to have the whole thing.” The Defense Department also is working on other long-range-missile technologies. In August, Russia and the U.S. governments withdrew from the 32-year-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, allowing both countries to follow China's lead in fielding ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of between 500 km and 5,000 km. Since August, the DOD has demonstrated a rudimentary ground-launched cruise missile and ballistic missile in flight, but a fielding decision is still pending a policy decision by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Brown could offer no update on the status of the policy decision. “That may be a logical conclusion, but I'd refer you to OSD on where their approach is and where the department might land as far as where we're going in the future,” Brown said. https://aviationweek.com/shownews/singapore-airshow/ready-fire-aim-pacaf-chief-emphasizes-hypersonics

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  20 mai 2020 | International, Terrestre

  Scandal-ridden Ukroboronprom seeks fresh start in ties with Western arms makers

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — If Ukroboronprom is to continue as anything more than a local defense firm, the Ukrainian conglomerate will need to find industrial partners abroad, according to director general Aivaras Abromavicius. And attracting those foreign investors will be nearly impossible without a set of needed reforms to the government-owned company, Abromavicius warned Tuesday— reforms he acknowledged seem to be stalling out at the government level. “Western investors and Western companies are very sophisticated and they're very smart. You know, Ukroboronprom for years has had a tainted reputation,” Abromavicius said at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council. “So it is very clear that almost no Western company of any reputation and size is interested in directly acquiring any assets in the defense sector in Ukraine because of the reputational risks.” That is one of the many reasons Abromavicius is pushing reforms of the company, whose questionable reputation was further damaged by a massive scandal in 2019 involving executives receiving kickbacks on parts smuggled in from Russia. The scandal rocked Ukrainian politics, with some arguing it was a major factor in the loss of the presidency by Petro Poroshenko. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, inaugurated in May 2019, launched an effort to clean up the mess, which included appointing Abromavicius, a former minister of economy and trade, to oversee a reorganization of the company. Abromavicius, who is pushing a full financial audit of the company alongside a potential reorg of its business units, stressed that “we need to raise governance standards to completely different levels,” factoring in increased transparency, if the company is to have any hope of working with nations abroad. And, he said, Ukroboronprom needs partnerships to survive as anything other than a local, small concern. “The way forward for us is to do joint ventures,” Abromavicius said. “Obviously the way forward is just to set up production facilities in Turkey, in India, you now, United Arab Emirates, whereby our [intellectual property] and their financial resources [combine] together to produce for the domestic and global needs.” While acknowledging that U.S. firms are reluctant to work with Ukroboronprom given its history, such a tie-up would be cheap for any of the major American defense companies, said the Atlantic Council's Michael Carpenter. And, he warned, the American government may soon have a major geopolitical incentive to try and push a Lockheed Martin or Raytheon to work with the Ukrainians. “With the economic chaos that's being wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, I predict you will see China moving into a lot of countries in Eastern Europe and looking to buy up distressed assets at bargain prices, and it's going to be crucial that when Ukroboronprom looks for outside investors or looks for doing joint ventures, that U.S defense industry is poised to partner, and to invest,” Carpenter said. “It's going to be very important for, I think, the U.S. government also to push our defense industry a little bit to look at this as an opportunity,” continued Carpenter. “It's going to be important from a sort of strategic sense not to allow this industrial base to get snapped up by Chinese or other countries that are going to be, frankly, operating in a predatory manner in the months ahead, and that we allow for that matchmaking, not just with U.S. firms but with European firms as well to go forward.” While not directly tied to defense matters, Boeing is reportedly considering some sort of team up with Antonov on the cargo side, with the Ukranians pushing for a formal joint venture. Beijing, meanwhile, has attempted major inroads in Ukraine, with Chinese aerospace firm Skyrizon attempting to purchase a controlling stake in engine manufacturer Motor Sich and the Tianjiao Aviation Industry Investment Company attempting to purchase a chunk of the Antonov facility which produced the An-225 Mriya. China has emerged as a major economic trading partner with Ukraine in the years since Kyiv cut off relations with Russia. (Antonov falls under the Ukroboronprom umbrella.) Pentagon acquisition head Ellen Lord has warned several times since the COVID-19 pandemic began that the DoD needs to be keeping an eye on both the domestic and foreign defense industry, with the expectation China will attempt to use the economic downturn to its advantage. “Western allies took a backseat, ignored the Ukrainian defense sector, and you know, [the] Chinese stepped in and snapped up the best of the private companies in this sector in Ukraine,” said Abromavicius. “So I would urge, obviously, our allies to take a better look at the defense sector which is being reformed right now in Ukraine. And, you know, show us, show more interest in doing things together.” While Zelenskiy came into office promising major reforms to the country, activists have accused his government of stalling out on many of the promised efforts. Abromavicius “fully” acknowledged that the reorganization of Ukroboronprom has slowed recently, saying he hopes Western officials can “give it a kick” to get things moving again, but he expressed his hope that in the coming weeks there may be legislative action. “So it is a bit too early to say that we have a full support, because I say that everybody and their dog has its own view of what Ukroboronprom reform should look like,” he said. “And I think overall, the Defense and Security Committee is a strong supporter, Ministry of the Economy is a strong supporter, I believe that president's offices as well. And I hope that Ministry of Defense is on our side” soon, he said. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/05/20/scandal-ridden-ukroboronprom-seeks-fresh-start-in-ties-with-western-arms-makers