28 septembre 2023 | International, C4ISR
The surveillance towers will be comprised of multiple subsystems that allow U.S. Border Patrol Agents to continuously detect, identify, classify, and track items of interest along the nation's borders.
1 mai 2024 | International, Aérospatial
With the first production aircraft currently undergoing additional testing and other aircraft in various stages of production, Boeing is on track to deliver the first LRIP aircraft to the Air...
18 août 2020 | International, Terrestre
by Ashley Roque Industry is bracing for surprise entries and team changes in the US Army's up-gunning competition with at least one big switch up: Pratt Miller partnering up with Rafael Defence and Oshkosh Defence. After a two-and-a-half-month deadline extension, all Medium Calibre Weapons System (MCWS) programme proposals and bid samples are due to the army on 24 August. Although many vendors are remaining tight lipped over whether they are still competing, Janes has confirmed with multiple, wholly separate, sources that Pratt Miller is no longer teaming up with CMI Defence and is now saddled up with Rafael and Oshkosh for its bid. The service declined to comment on any team changes and said specific vendor information, including system performance and on-going participation, are considered “source selection sensitive”. “The US [government] does not and has not provided vendor direction on who to partner with or what systems to utilise to protect the integrity of the competition,” Ashley John, director for public and congressional affairs for the Program Executive Office for Ground Combat Systems, told Janes on 12 August. “Each vendor partnership is independent of government input and has been developed directly from party to party.” Under the competition, the army wants to select a team to outfit Stryker vehicles with 30 mm cannons. Service plans called for a two-phased, concurrent approach involving a design integration study phase to help inform requirements development and the acquisition strategy, and a separate Stryker MCWS request for proposal (RFP). https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/new-partnerships-formed-in-quest-to-snag-us-army-stryker-up-gunning-deal
29 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — The German government has canceled plans to buy Northrop Grumman-made Triton drones to the tune of $2.5 billion, opting instead for manned planes carrying eavesdropping sensors. The decision to buy Bombardier Global 6000 aircraft comes after officials became convinced that the Global Hawk derivatives would be unable to meet the safety standards needed for flying through European airspace by 2025, a target date for Berlin's NATO obligations. A defense ministry spokeswoman told Defense News the Triton option had grown “significantly more expensive” compared with earlier planning assumptions. The U.S. State Department in April 2018 cleared Germany's request to purchase four MQ-4C Triton drones for signals intelligence missions under the country's PEGASUS program, short for “Persistent German Airborne Surveillance System.” The program includes a sensor, dubbed “ISIS-ZB” and made by Hensoldt, for intercepting communications and locating targets by their electromagnetic signature. The German Defence Ministry for years had been banking on the Triton purchase to come with a pre-installed safety-technology package that would be easily approved by European air traffic authorities. But officials saw their hopes dashed as Italy recently issued a military-type certificate for a sister drone — NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance fleet of Global Hawks, stationed in Sigonella, Sicily — that prescribes tight restrictions on flights over the continent. Manned aircraft like the envisioned Global 6000 are allowed to routinely fly alongside civilian traffic, a prospect that the Germans see as more palatable than dealing with drone-specific airspace corridors. Berlin hopes to catch the tail end of Bombardier's Global 6000 manufacturing run, as the model is being phased out in favor of an upgrade. While that strategy could yield a better price, Berlin needs to move soon before the production line goes cold, according to officials. Letting drones fly in the same airspace as civilian traffic remains an unresolved problem, as the requisite sensing technology and the regulatory framework are still emerging. Germany previously tried filling its signals-intelligence gap with the Euro Hawk, but the project tanked in 2013 after spending $700 million because officials underestimated the trickiness of attaining airworthiness qualification. With the Triton gone, Germany's next ambition for a fully approved unmanned aircraft lies with the so-called Eurodrone, a cooperation with France. Officials have said that the program is designed from the start with manned-unmanned airspace integration in mind. https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2020/01/28/germany-walks-away-from-25-billion-purchase-of-us-navys-triton-spy-drones