8 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

Coronavirus drives AFA’s massive Air, Space and Cyber conference online

The Air Force Association announced Monday that it will hold its massive Air, Space and Cyber conference virtually this September, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

AFA's annual conference typically draws about 12,000 airmen, civilians, contractors and other attendees to National Harbor, Maryland, and features addresses from major Air Force, Defense Department and industry figures.

For the first time this year, the virtual conference will feature a combination of live and on-demand conference sessions streamed online, beginning Sept. 14 and lasting at least three days.

The events will include live addresses from senior leaders, and will allow viewers to ask questions and engage in other “unique opportunities ... with Air Force, Space Force and industry leadership,” AFA said.

There will also be a virtual exhibit hall to display developments and demonstrations from industry, online meetings and interactive presentations, AFA said.

Retired Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, the president of AFA, said the decision to move the conference online was “extremely arduous.” But with the pandemic still ongoing, he said, it would not be possible to safely host a conference in-person of the quality the association desired.

AFA considered Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, state and county directives, and feedback from potential speakers, attendees, sponsors and exhibitors.

“Our goal is to continue AFA's long tradition of hosting the premier event for defense and aerospace professionals around the world,” Wright said in the release. “Our virtual Air, Space and Cyber conference will offer the same exceptional line-up of speakers, world-class exhibits, professional development opportunities, and networking opportunities for industry, government, media, academia and the public.”

Air Force leaders often use their addresses to the AFA conference to make major announcements, such as former Secretary Heather Wilson's 2018 “Air Force We Need” address laying out a plan for a major expansion of the service's operational squadrons.

Past speakers and guests at AFA's conference have included the top leaders of the Air Force, defense secretaries such as Jim Mattis, and Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee, who last year helped unveil the name of the T-7A Red Hawk.

Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone, the airman who charged a knife-wielding terrorist on a train in France in 2015, also was celebrated at the conference that year, when the Air Force announced he would be promoted two grades for his heroism.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2020/07/06/coronavirus-drives-afa-s-massive-air-space-and-cyber-conference-online/

Sur le même sujet

  • Elbit Systems Awarded a $200 Million Contract to Supply Helicopter Self-Protection Suits to a Country in Asia-Pacific

    17 novembre 2022 | International, Aérospatial

    Elbit Systems Awarded a $200 Million Contract to Supply Helicopter Self-Protection Suits to a Country in Asia-Pacific

    MUSIC DIRCM systems have been selected to-date by numerous customers across the globe

  • Space Development Agency confirms SpaceX, L3Harris awards following protest

    11 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial

    Space Development Agency confirms SpaceX, L3Harris awards following protest

    Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — Following a protest by Raytheon Technologies, the Space Development Agency has reevaluated awards it made for eight satellites capable of tracking hypersonic weapons, opting to stick with its original vendors: SpaceX and L3Harris. “The reevaluation confirmed the original selection decision announced in October and concluded that [SpaceX] and L3Harris Technologies' proposals offered the best value to the government,” said SDA spokesperson Jennifer Elzea in a Jan. 7 statement. The agency initially announced contracts Oct. 5 for the eight satellites. L3Harris and SpaceX were awarded $193 million and $149 million respectively to each design and develop four satellites equipped with wide field of view (WFOV) overhead persistent infrared (OPIR) sensors. Those satellites would make up the agency's inaugural tracking layer, a low Earth orbit constellation capable of detecting and tracking ballistic and hypersonic weapons. Shortly thereafter, competitors Raytheon Technologies and Airbus U.S. Space and Defense individually filed protests against the award with the Government Accountability Office. A stop work order was put in place, preventing L3Harris and SpaceX from moving forward with the contracts. In response to the protests, SDA elected to reevaluate proposals. Raytheon filed another protest Dec. 17 claiming the agency's corrective was inadequate, but the GAO dismissed that action as premature. SDA completed its reevaluation in late December, confirming its original awards, and on Dec. 28 the stop work order was lifted. “SDA is confident that reevaluation resulted in a fair outcome for all involved parties,” said Elzea. “The agency continues to make all efforts to keep the tracking layer of the National Defense Space Architecture on schedule.” In dismissing Raytheon's protest as being premature, GAO did note that the company could still protest the agency's actions following the corrective action. Neither Raytheon nor Airbus immediately responded to inquiries as to whether they would file more protests. Back in October, SDA Director Derek Tournear told C4ISRNET the contracts were the result of a full and open competition based purely on technical merit. “SpaceX had a very credible story along that line — a very compelling proposal. It was outstanding,” he said. “They are one of the ones that have been at the forefront of this commercialization and commodification route.” In addition, “L3Harris had an extremely capable solution. They have a lot of experience flying affordable, rapid, small satellite buses for the department,” he said. “They had the plant and the line in place in order to produce these to hit our schedule.” The tracking layer is just one facet of the agency's National Defense Space Architecture, a planned mega-constellation that will eventually be made up of hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit. SDA is using a spiral development approach to build out that constellation, by adding more satellites every two years. These eight satellites in question will be part of the first tranche, which is set to launch starting in 2022. More tracking layer satellites will be launched in later tranches. Tournear has previously stated that one of the agency's priorities is avoiding vendor lock, hosting an open competition for tracking layer satellites for future tranches. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2021/01/07/space-development-agency-confirms-spacex-l3harris-awards-following-protest

  • One company wants to help herd US Army robots

    21 novembre 2018 | International, Terrestre

    One company wants to help herd US Army robots

    By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Endeavor Robotics has provided quick, off-the-shelf solutions to the U.S. Army for many years, but the Boston-based company is now gaining significant traction at a time when the service is looking to streamline its petting zoo of ground robots. By necessity, during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army scrambled to buy unmanned ground vehicles that could provide a level of standoff between soldiers and the dangers faced on the battlefield. This resulted in the procurement of roughly 7,000 UGVs from Talons to PackBots to Dragon Runners. Endeavor, which launched as a private company in 2016 but previously existed as iRobot's defense and security business, supplied PackBots to the service as well as a few other small UGVs. It gained more traction in October 2017, when the company secured a to provide the service a platform it calls Centaur: a medium-sized robot (less than 164 pounds) to provide standoff capability to identify and neutralize explosive hazards. That served as the groundwork for what the company hopes will be major expansion in the Army, not only delivering an array of systems but supporting a strategy of interoperability. Future bots Now Endeavor is setting its sights on two other efforts underway that would transition the Army from its hodgepodge procurement strategy used during the wars in the Middle East to a common chassis for a small, medium and large UGV, all managed by one common controller. Each system is meant to have a high level of interoperability and plug-and-play capability as missions expand for ground robots and technology improves. The Army already whittled down the competition in April to provide a Common Robot System-Individual, or CRS-I — a man-packable robot that is less than 25 pounds and highly mobile, equipped with advanced sensors and mission modules for dismounted forces. The design will allow operators to quickly reconfigure for various missions in the field. Endeavor will compete against QinetiQ for a contract expected to be worth up to $400 million to build more than 3,000 robots. The contract award is anticipated in the first quarter of calendar year 2019. Endeavor's offering has been kept under wraps, literally and figuratively, with its CRS-I platform covered in a shroud inside of a case at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference. The Army's other major program — the Common Robotic System-Heavy or CRS-H — is a larger platform expected to weigh 500 to 1,000 pounds. The system will be expected to perform highly dexterous manipulation procedures to disarm vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices from a safe distance. Endeavor survived a first downselect in the CRS-H competition with plans to use its Kobra platform as the base, Tom Frost, Endeavor's president, told Defense News in a recent interview. There are now three competitors in the mix as of this summer. The program will have a series of demonstrations that will assist the Army in choosing a winner. The first demonstration is underway at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and the second is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2019. Beyond the Army's current programs, Endeavor has been working to refine its technology through programs like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's effort to build a system-of-systems solution that can operate in subterranean environments. It's the only company among a list of participants in academia to secure a $1.5 million contract to participate in the DARPA challenge. The company's solution consists of the Kobra robot that will enter subterranean environments carrying radio repeaters — based on the company's small, throwable FirstLook robots — and drop them off along the way to continue connectivity as it travels deeper underground, according to Frost. The system will also carry a four-legged robot supplied from Ghost Robotics. The robot would deploy from Kobra to explore more difficult and rugged terrain, and a quadcopter will investigate vertical shafts and other hard to reach places, Frost described. “All robots will be linked by the same radio technology and all the data they gather will be assembled into one picture,” Frost said. The final winner of the challenge will win $2 million in 2021. An era of autonomy While robots have been around for years and “are really fantastic,” Frost said, “the way you really recognize the full potential of the ground robots is to make them autonomous.” The company has been working on capability for its robots to self-build maps of an area, travel autonomously, and report or tag noteworthy information along the way. All of Endeavor's systems have built-in algorithms, for instance, to detect a human or an explosive. “They don't require an operator to have their hand on the joystick the entire time,” Frost said. “Our systems have eliminated the joystick altogether” in favor of a touchpad with self-explanatory icons. Looking deeper into the future, Endeavor is positioning itself to participate in the Army's newest, and potentially largest ever, ground robotics modernization effort, the Robotic Combat Vehicle program, which is just beginning to take shape under Army Futures Command. https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2018/11/12/one-company-wants-to-help-herd-us-army-robots

Toutes les nouvelles