28 janvier 2019 | International, Aérospatial
Florence Parly a annoncé le 21 janvier avoir notifié un contrat à ArianeGroup pour le lancement d'un démonstrateur de « planeur hypersonique » qui devrait effectuer son premier vol d'ici à la fin 2021. Ces systèmes, dont s'équipent les grandes puissances nucléaires, permettent d'échapper aux défenses antimissiles et de réaliser des frappes très précises. Beaucoup d'experts estiment qu'ils ont un rôle « déstabilisateur » des équilibres stratégiques.
Une simple phrase glissée au milieu d'un long discours de vœux. C'est ainsi que la ministre des Armées Florence Parly a annoncé le lancement d'un « planeur hypersonique », un projet d'importance stratégique. Ce « démonstrateur », qui devrait voler d'ici « à la fin 2021 », s'inscrit dans la relance actuelle de la course aux armements stratégiques entre les grandes puissances. Cette annonce a provoqué la surprise dans les milieux spécialisés et le ministère des Armées est réticent à fournir publiquement beaucoup plus de détails. Toutefois, plusieurs experts et proches du dossier, tenus à l'anonymat, se sont confiés à l'Opinion et permettent de mesurer l'importance de ce projet.
Article complet: https://www.lopinion.fr/edition/international/defense-france-veut-planeur-hypersonique-175912
17 juin 2022 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
The French president has made an impassioned plea for Europe to focus inward to defend itself amid an evermore unstable geopolitical environment.
10 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The fielding of a U.S. Air Force radar to detect ballistic missile threats, currently being installed at Clear Air Force Station, Alaska, is delayed by roughly a year, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. Information provided by the Missile Defense Agency in June to the GAO indicated all construction and integration activities for the Long Range Discrimination Radar had stopped in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. While initial fielding was planned for fiscal 2021 and transfer to the Air Force was planned for fiscal 2022, the service is now expected to take ownership of the operational radar in late fiscal 2023. “We did have some fallback in developing and delivery of systems because it requires people to be in close, confined spaces and sitting at computer terminals working through really tough problems like the development of an algorithm,” MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill said at the virtually held Space and Missile Defense Symposium on Aug. 4. MDA shut down radar installation efforts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, entering a “caretaker status,” Hill said. “That requires additional work. I mean, you've got a radar that is being built in a tough environment like Alaska — you can't just stop. You have to go in and make sure the radar arrays are protected,” he added. The LRDR is an S-band radar that will not only be able to track incoming missiles but also discriminate the warhead-carrying vehicle from decoys and other nonlethal objects for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System, which is designed to protect the continental U.S. from possible intercontinental ballistic missile threats from North Korea and Iran. Lockheed Martin is LRDR's manufacturer. The program, according to the GAO report, wrapped up its system prototype assessment in an operational environment in FY19, which showed the hardware and software was mature ahead of full-rate manufacturing. That assessment was delayed from FY18, the report noted, after testing took longer due to “required antenna reconfigurations and software fixes to complete.” The fixes resulted in a cost overrun of $25 million and caused a delay in completing a developmental step associated with satellite tracking expected in FY18, according to the report. “While construction was ongoing in [FY19], the program was monitoring risks that could threaten the upcoming transfer of LRDR custody and ownership to the government,” the report stateed. “Specifically the program was focusing on manufacturing of the Array Panels, Sub Array Assembly Suite modules, and Auxiliary Power Group cabinets, as well as ensuring integration on site.” Those issues “depleted schedule margin on the path towards the transfer,” which was scheduled for the fourth quarter of FY20, according to the GAO, and the transfer of LRDR custody to the government was pushed back to the first quarter of FY21 due to radar component production issues. “The good news is construction is back up and running,” Hill said, “and we are delivering those arrays that are going into low-power and high-power testing later this year, so we are pretty excited about that.” According to the GAO, the current test plan for LRDR has just one flight test scheduled in the third quarter of FY21, after two ground tests. The report does not clarify if the pandemic has caused a delay in these tests. The GAO indicated concern about conducting two ground tests before the program's only flight test, as it “increases the likelihood that the models will not be accredited when testing is complete.” As a result, “the performance analysis and the majority of the model validation and accreditation will have to be made concurrently, just prior to the LRDR Technical Capability Declaration,” scheduled for the third quarter of FY21, the report stated. “This increases the risk of discovering issues late in development, which could result in performance reductions or delivery delays.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2020/08/07/alaska-based-long-range-ballistic-missile-defense-radar-fielding-delayed-by-a-year/
20 juin 2019 | International, C4ISR, Autre défense
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/