17 janvier 2024 | International, Aérospatial
30 juillet 2018 | International, Terrestre
DoD researchers literally reinvented the wheel with shape-shifting tracks
By: Kyle Rempfer
Wheels are faster on hard surfaces, while a tracked design performs better on soft ground.
Rather than pushing a ground combat vehicle through terrain it doesn't perform well on, why not just slap on some shape-shifting wheels?
A team from Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center demonstrated the feasibility of such shape-shifting wheel-track mechanisms for the Defense Department recently.
The new technology, dubbed a “reconfigurable wheel-track,” can transition from a round wheel to a triangular track and back again while the vehicle is in motion — allowing for an instant improvement in tactical mobility on shifting terrain.
The wheel-track is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Ground X-Vehicle Technologies, or GXV-T, program, which aims to improve mobility, survivability, safety, and effectiveness of future combat vehicles without piling on more armor, according to a June 22 press release.
“We're looking at how to enhance survivability by buttoning up the cockpit and augmenting the crew through driver-assistance aids,” said Maj. Amber Walker, the program manager for GXV-T in DARPA's Tactical Technology Office. “For mobility, we've taken a radically different approach by avoiding armor and developing options to move quickly and be agile over all terrain.”
The DARPA initiative is looking to build a future in which combat vehicles can traverse up to 95 percent of off-road terrain, including slopes and various elevations.
The new wheel-track design is just one of the contract awardees that recently demonstrated advances on a variety of potentially groundbreaking technologies that meet the program's goals.
DARPA also showcased a new “multi-mode extreme travel suspension” system that allows for "high-speed travel over rough terrain, while keeping the vehicle upright and minimizing occupant discomfort,” the agency said in its statement.
The suspension can move 42 inches upward and 30 inches downward, and keeps itself level on steep grades by adjusting each wheel.
Other enhanced mobility designs include an electric in-hub motor built by QinetiQ, which puts motors directly inside the wheels, offering heightened acceleration and maneuverability with optimal torque, traction, power, and speed over rough or smooth terrain.
“QinetiQ demonstrated a unique approach, incorporating three gear stages and a complex thermal management design into a system small enough to fit a standard military 20-inch rim,” according to the release.
Another new development could impact a vehicle crew's awareness.
Most combat vehicles have small windows. This improves the protection offered to troops, but limits their visibility to spot threats and targets. The GXV-T program is looking at sensor technologies to give mechanized troops their eyes back.
One design by Honeywell International boasts an enhanced 360-degree awareness suite through virtual windows. The company showed that capability off in a windowless cockpit of an all-terrain vehicle with an opaque canopy, according to the DARPA release.
“The 3D near-to-eye goggles, optical head-tracker and wrap-around Active Window Display screens provide real-time, high-resolution views outside the vehicle,” the release reads. “In off-road courses, drivers have completed numerous tests using the system in roughly the same time as drivers in [ATVs] with full visibility.”
No fielding date has been announced by DARPA's offices for the new mobility technologies, but the program could help solve many of the ongoing mobility issues troops have experienced in recent conflicts.
For a full breakdown of the technologies being vetted through DARPA's GXV-T program, check out this YouTube video by the agency.
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29 octobre 2021 | International, Naval
Thales et CS Group s’allient pour proposer aux Marines un nouveau système de navigation
Thales et CS Group, spécialiste des systèmes critiques intelligents cyberprotégés, ont annoncé conclure un partenariat afin de proposer un système de navigation plus performant, résilient et cybersécurisé au profit des b'timents de surface des Marines. L'objectif affiché est de permettre aux marins d'assurer leurs missions, alors que les menaces sont de plus en plus concrètes dans le cyberespace, induisant des risques de brouillage des solutions de radio navigation, comme le GPS. Les deux groupes affirment proposer « une nouvelle approche de la navigation maritime », à travers un système de navigation inertielle maritime compact ne nécessitant aucune calibration au cours de son cycle de vie. Le système est destiné à assurer les fonctions de pointage, de gyrocompas, de localisation et de navigation de haute précision. Associant les technologies complémentaires développées par Thales et CS Group, la production de ce nouveau système de navigation maritime mobilisera les sites de production et d'intégration des deux groupes, situés à Ch'tellerault et à Aix-en-Provence. Boursier du 27 octobre
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11 mars 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Cyber Command doubled its contract spending in the past year
By Mark Pomerleau U.S. Cyber Command nearly doubled the amount of money it issued in defense contracts between fiscal years 2018 and 2019, according to figures provided in written testimony to Congress. In 2019, the command awarded $74.9 million through 81 contracting actions, Gen. Paul Nakasone, the command's leader told the House Armed Services Committee March 4. Those figures are up from the 32 contracts valued at $43 million in fiscal year 2018 that Nakasone provided in testimony in February 2019. Congress gave Cyber Command limited acquisition authority in 2016 following the model of Special Operations Command. It capped acquisition funds at $75 million per year, with a clause that is scheduled to sunset in 2021. However, some members of Congress questioned whether it needed $75 million. Nakasone lauded the role of DreamPort, a public-private partnership in Columbia, Maryland created by Cyber Command to engage with businesses, in increasing the aperture of organizations it works with. “Over the past 18 months, Dreamport has allowed the Command to engage more than 1,000 private companies, educate over 1,000 military personnel on innovative technologies, and involve more than 350 students and interns from 65 colleges and high schools on STEM initiatives,” he wrote. “It has been home to Cyber Command's effort to begin implementing the principles of zero-trust networking on the military's networks. Dreamport also hosted the public-private collaboration that resulted in kits that help enable the Cyber National Mission Force to conduct Hunt Forward operations. The traditional ways of doing business would have been too cumbersome and too slow. Dreamport is key to the command's ability to engage in public-private partnerships at the unclassified level.” Nakasone also told the committee in his written statement that the command has hired its first command acquisition executive responsible for leading the organization's acquisitions and to develop capabilities for the joint cyber force. In total, the command requested a $636 million budget for 2021, compared to the $596 million it used in fiscal year 2020. The executive is largely responsible for procuring and developing capabilities under what Cyber Command calls the Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture, which was established in the last two years to guide capability development priorities. These capabilities fall under five buckets; Common firing platforms to be used at the four cyber operating locations of the service cyber components. These platforms will be worked into a comprehensive suite of cyber tools; Unified Platform, which will integrate and analyze data from offensive and defensive operations with partners; Joint command and control mechanisms for situational awareness and battle management at the strategic, operational and tactical levels; Sensors that support defense of the network and drive operational decisions, and; The Persistent Cyber Training Environment, which will provide individual and collective training as well as a way to rehearse for a mission. The Army is managing PCTE on behalf of Cyber Command and the joint force. The cornerstone of this architecture is the command's data tool called Unified Platform. Nakasone told the House Armed Services Committee that Unified Platform is starting to come online and over the next year it will be the central focus of building the architecture allowing the force to store data and conduct worldwide operations. Budget documents from the Air Force, the service procuring Unified Platform on behalf of Cyber Command and the joint cyber force, for fiscal year 2021 indicate flat funding for the tool for 2021 as compared to 2020. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/cybercom/2020/03/09/cyber-command-doubled-its-contract-spending-in-the-past-year/