30 avril 2019 | International, Terrestre
Nine teams hailing from four continents gathered in Idaho Springs, Colorado, the week of April 5-11, 2019, to test autonomous air and ground systems for navigating the dark, dangerous, dirty, and unpredictable underground domain. The SubT Integration Exercise, known as STIX, took place at the Colorado School of Mines' Edgar Experimental Mine. The event provided a shakeout opportunity for competitors in advance of the Tunnel Circuit in August, the first of three subdomains that teams will tackle in DARPA's Subterranean Challenge.
The teams were divided into three groups. Each group had one day to experiment with their various systems during multiple runs in the mine, followed by a second day in which each team attempted a one-hour mock, scored run. Teams could earn points by accurately locating, identifying, and reporting artifacts placed within the tunnels. Artifacts included thermal manikins, backpacks, fire extinguishers, cell phones, and cordless drills – all inspired by objects an end user such as a warfighter or first responder might encounter.
The mine environment presented teams with low light, high dust, metal rails, and irregular terrain. The DARPA team added to the complexity with a theatrical smoke machine, which mimicked real smoke a warfighter or first responder could contend with in an emergency response scenario, for example.
“It was amazing to see the progression from day one into day two for each team as they explored the tunnels of the mine and began to understand just how complex and unknown these underground environments can be,” said Timothy Chung, program manager for the Subterranean Challenge in DARPA's Tactical Technology Office. “It's not just about testing whether there's enough light or if robots can drive a few meters. It's about how all that has to come together in a difficult environment and the teams are experiencing the challenge of integration in addition to technology development.”
The competitors at STIX included a mix of DARPA-funded and self-funded teams:
CERBERUS
CoStar: Collaborative SubTerranean Autonomous Resilient Robots
CRETISE: Collaborative Robot Exploration and Teaming In Subterranean Environments
CSIRO Data 61
CTU-CRAS
Explorer
MARBLE: Multi-agent Autonomy with Radar-Based Localization for Exploration
PLUTO: Pennsylvania Laboratory for Underground Tunnel Operations
Robotika
Following the Tunnel Circuit, teams will compete in the Urban Circuit, which will focus on underground urban environments such as mass transit and municipal infrastructure; and the Cave Circuit, which will focus on naturally occurring cave networks. Locations for the circuit events have not been announced.
Qualification is ongoing for the circuit events. Requirements can be found in the SubT Qualification Guide available on the Resources Page. Teams interested in joining either the virtual or systems tracks can still register and are encouraged to join the SubT Community Forum to exchange ideas, explore teaming opportunities, and receive updates on the Challenge.
For additional information on the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, please visit www.subtchallenge.com. Please email questions to SubTChallenge@darpa.mil.
24 septembre 2024 | International, Naval
The contract is worth about NOK 436 million and the scope of work includes upgrades to software and hardware to the combat system on board the Ula class submarines.
11 avril 2024 | International, Terrestre
11 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump's defense budget request for fiscal 2021 includes major investments in research and development portfolios as well as “crucial” technologies as part of what the Pentagon is branding an “irreversible implementation” of the National Defense Strategy. However, the budget also features overall cuts to the Army and Navy top lines, as well as the divestment of legacy platforms from the Air Force. The president is requesting $705 billion for the Defense Department, including $69 billion in overseas contingency operations, or OCO, wartime funds. Total national security spending, including for the National Nuclear Security Administration and other outside agencies, is $740 billion, as set by a congressional budget agreement last year. Although not included in the budget documents, total top-line projections over the Future Years Defense Program, or FYDP, are $722 billion in FY22, $737 billion in FY23, $753 billion in FY24 and $768 billion in FY25, according to a senior defense official. Service budget top lines are $178 billion for the Army, a drop by $462 million from FY20 enacted levels; $207 billion for the Navy, down $1.9 billion from FY20; and $207 billion for the Air Force, up $1.7 billion from FY20. The budget also requests $113 billion for defensewide efforts, which includes the so-called fourth estate agencies, down $6.5 billion from FY20. Overall procurement funding sits at $136.9 billion. The OCO request of $69 billion is down dramatically from last year's $164 billion, and it comes in three flavors: $20.5 billion in “direct war requirements,” or funding for combat operations that will end at some point in locations like Iraq and Syria. $32.5 billion in “enduring requirements,” which covers funding for the sustainment of bases, as well as pots of money like the European Deterrence Initiative. $16 billion in “OCO for base,” a funding mechanism for money that could be in the base budget but is classified as OCO for the purpose of skirting budget caps imposed by Congress. Projection for OCO funding falls $20 billion in FY22 and FY23, and then to $10 billion for FY24 and FY25, as “certain OCO costs” are absorbed by the base budget, according to the White House's summary tables. There's no nondefense discretionary OCO proposed for FY21 or the out years. “This is a budget that makes difficult choices but they are actually choices that support the National Defense Strategy,” a senior defense official said on condition of anonymity ahead the budget rollout. “We can't have the best of everything in all areas,” the official added. “The low-hanging fruit is gone.” Among the tough choices: retiring 17 B-1 bombers, 44 A-10 planes, 24 Global Hawk drones, as well as 16 KC-10 and 13 KC-135 tankers from the Air Force. “When you look at these aircraft, they disproportionately take too much of the readiness account. That's where we've got to go,” the official said. “Those are really the tough choices we had to make. Because we can now take the additional manpower, the [spare parts], all those things we need to make those other aircraft more operationally available and have more flight hours available in the mission we need them to do.” Congress usually revises presidential budget submissions substantially before passing them into law. A prime target for lawmakers this year will be the Trump administration's favoritism for defense spending over nondefense, which contradicts the rough parity between two that's characterized bipartisan budget deals in recent years. Congress will also likely upend the administration's FY21 proposal to cut the nondefense base budget by 5.1 percent while adding 0.08 percent to the base defense budget. There are slim odds for Trump's proposal extending budget caps — set to expire next year — through 2025, wherein defense would increase by roughly 2 percent each year as nondefense discretionary decreases 2 percent each year. ‘Irreversible' Budget documents were branded with the phrase “irreversible implementation of the National Defense Strategy,” a notable signal in an election year that, should Trump not be reelected, could result in major changes to the national budget and American strategy come January. The branding in support of the NDS can be found throughout the document, even at lower levels. For instance, the Pentagon's security cooperation account has been rebranded the “NDS Implementation (NDS-I) account.” Missing from the budget request are funds for Trump's border wall with Mexico. However, CNN reported this weekend that “billions” of defense dollars will be going toward the wall effort, with an announcement expected later this week. Key defense spending accounts break down like this: Mission-support activities: $66.8 billion Aircraft and related systems: $56.9 billion Shipbuilding and maritime systems: $32.2 billion Missiles and munitions: $21.3 billion Space-based systems: $15.5 billion Ground systems: $13 billion C4I systems: $11.9 billion Missile defeat and defense programs: $11.6 billion The department is requesting $106.6 billion to fund research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) efforts, an increase of $2 billion over the FY20 enacted figures — something another senior defense official called the “largest [RDT&E] request in over 70 years.” Funding for that came from savings from the defensewide review, which found $5.7 billion in money to reprogram in FY21, as well as the retirement of older platforms. Four “crucial” technologies are now bunched together under a new acronym — ACE, which stands for advanced capability enablers: hypersonics at $3.2 billion, microelectronics/5G at $1.5 billion, autonomy at $1.7 billion, and artificial intelligence at $800 million. However, for the second straight year, science and technology funding for early technology development (the Pentagon's 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 accounts) is requested at $14.1 billion; that includes $3.5 billion for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Congress plussed that funding to $16.1 billion in FY20 enacted levels, meaning the request here is $2 billion less than what the Pentagon received this current year. Cyber activates total $9.8 billion, including $5.4 billion for cybersecurity-focused projects. The rest of the funding goes toward supporting defensive cyber operations. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/federal-budget/2020/02/10/pentagon-budget-request-increases-rd-funding-cuts-legacy-planes/