22 octobre 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
28 juillet 2023 | International, Sécurité
The United States is expected to announce as early as Friday that it will provide Taiwan with military assistance worth more than $300 million, two U.S. officials told Reuters, a move likely to anger China.
11 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial
CAE announced that the United States Air Force (USAF) awarded CAE USA a contract to continue providing comprehensive KC-135 training services. The eight-year contract, awarded as a one-year base contract with seven additional one-year option periods, is valued at a total of more than US$275 million. CAE USA became the prime contractor on the USAF KC-135 Training System program in 2010 and has now won the competitive recompete to continue delivering classroom and simulator training for KC-135 pilots and boom operators. CAE USA will also continue to provide updates and upgrades to KC-135 training devices, including KC-135 operational flight trainers and boom operator trainers. In addition, the KC-135 Training System contract now includes training support for the Air National Guard's Boom Operator Simulator System (BOSS). In total, CAE USA will support the training of more than 4,500 KC-135 crewmembers annually. “CAE USA did an outstanding job supporting the U.S. Air Force on the KC-135 training program over the past decade, and we are extremely pleased to win the recompete competition and remain the KC-135 training partner,” said Ray Duquette, President and General Manager, CAE USA. CAE USA will be supported on the KC-135 Training System program by a team of industry partners, including Delaware Resource Group (DRG), Cardinal Point, FAAC, and CymSTAR. “The KC-135 Stratotanker plays a vital role in the U.S. Air Force's ability to deliver global reach, and we are honored to contribute to the training and readiness of the KC-135 aircrews who fly these essential tanker missions,” said Dan Gelston, Group President, Defense & Security, CAE. KC-135 Training System Site Background CAE USA will deliver KC-135 aircrew training to USAF active-duty, Air National Guard and reserve crewmembers at 12 sites in the United States and internationally: Altus Air Force Base (AFB) in Oklahoma, which is the site of the formal training unit; Fairchild AFB, Washington; March Air Reserve Base (ARB), California; Scott AFB, Illinois; Grissom ARB, Indiana; MacDill AFB, Florida; General Mitchell Air National Guard Base (ANGB), Wisconsin; Rickenbacker ANGB, Ohio; Pittsburgh ANGB, Pennsylvania; Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; Kadena Air Base, Japan; Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall, United Kingdom. In addition, the new KC-135 Training System contract includes training support for the Air National Guard KC-135 BOSS, which will be delivered at an additional 12 sites in the United States: Sioux City ANGB, Iowa; Lincoln ANGB, Nebraska; Forbes Field, Kansas; Phoenix ANGB, Arizona; Ronald Wright ANGB, Utah; Eielson AFB, Alaska; Bangor ANGB, Maine; McGuire AFB, New Jersey; Sumpter Smith Joint National Guard Base, Alabama; Selfridge ANGB, Michigan; McGee Tyson ANGB, Tennessee; Key Field, Mississippi. KC-135 BOSS training support will also be provided at Joint Base Pearl Harbor; Pittsburgh ANGB; General Mitchell ANGB; and Rickenbacker ANGB. https://skiesmag.com/press-releases/cae-usa-wins-competitive-recompete-of-u-s-air-force-kc-135-training-system-contract/
13 mai 2020 | International, C4ISR
Nathan Strout The U.S. Defense Department relies on a mixture of military and commercial satellites to connect its war fighters all over the world. And while users can complain that terminals are too bulky or that they should have the roaming capability exhibited in commercial cellphone technology, the system largely works. But that's not the case in the Arctic. “Very simple things become hard when you're in the Arctic, not the least of which is communication. When you are above about 65 degrees north, satellite communication starts to diminish, and above about 70 degrees north it becomes extremely limited except for some of our more exquisite capability — submarines, for example,” said U.S. Northern Command spokesman Maj. Mark Lazane. The U.S. Space Force's primary communications satellite system, Wideband Global SATCOM, is designed to provide connectivity between 70 degrees north and 65 degrees south — basically to the edge of the polar region. The Space Force also operates two Enhanced Polar System satellites — the Arctic complement to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency constellation. EPS satellites provide highly secure, anti-jamming signals, and like its counterpart, EPS is built for high-priority military communications, like that used with submarines. And while elsewhere in the world the military supplements its purpose-built systems with commercial communications satellites, that option is limited in the Arctic. After all, commercial satellites providing coverage of other areas aren't solely serving the military, and the services rely on commercial consumers to offset the costs of designing, building, launching and maintaining a satellite. But there's far less commercial demand for satellite communications in the Arctic than in more populated areas, and commercial satellite coverage reflects that. That leaves U.S. Northern Command with a significant gap in the connections available to its war fighters and platforms. “Connection capabilities [in the Arctic] are limited and lack resiliency. We're challenged in areas from basic point-to-point connections to communication with our distributed sensors,” Lazane said. “Having a reliable broadband communications capability for Arctic operations is the top unfunded priority of USNORTHCOM. With the increase of great power competition in the Arctic, there is a need for additional communications capability and capacity.” But the command thinks it's found a solution in the form of new, proliferated commercial constellations. Private companies OneWeb and SpaceX have launched hundreds of satellites into low-Earth orbit in an effort to provide competitive broadband to users all around the world. USNORTHCOM is asking Congress for $130 million to explore OneWeb's and SpaceX's capabilities in order to provide reliable and potentially cost-effective connectivity to Arctic platforms, installations and war fighters. “Leveraging emerging proliferated low-Earth orbit commercial SATCOM providers in the Arctic enables the United States (and our allies) the opportunity to scale communications capability and capacity quickly in a cost-effective manner,” Lazane said. “The unique capabilities provided by PLEO [proliferated low-Earth orbit] commercial SATCOM providers in the Arctic enables access to high-bandwidth, low-latency communications capability and capacity.” In a Feb.11 letter to Congress, USNORTHCOM Commander Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy said that funding for this effort was his No. 1 unfunded priority. If approved, the $130 million in funding will be used for polar communications experiments as well as the fielding of prototype terminals that can connect to commercial PLEO constellations. If those experiments prove successful, USNORTHCOM would need another $110 million in fiscal 2022 for full coverage. SpaceX has stated that its Starlink constellation will begin offering broadband services this year, and USNORTHCOM is hopeful that could enable early Arctic capability by the end of the year. https://www.c4isrnet.com/smr/frozen-pathways/2020/05/11/spacex-could-fill-the-us-militarys-arctic-communications-gap-by-the-end-of-this-year/