16 février 2022 | International, Aérospatial
Singapore boosts Chinook fleet with deliveries of CH-47F
A helicopter retirement effort in Singapore suggests the Air Force will operate both "SD" and "F" variants of the CH-47 helicopter.
15 juin 2020 | International, Terrestre
From laundry to cleaning, military willing to pay for creative solutions to pandemic problems
'We know that there is some innovation out there that can help us do those things better and sometimes faster'
David Burke · CBC News · Posted: Jun 14, 2020 6:00 AM AT | Last Updated: June 14
The Department of National Defence is reaching out to Canadians for innovative solutions to problems it's facing due to COVID-19.
The department is willing to pay $15 million for that assistance.
The effort is being funded through DND's Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security program, which pays for research by outside organizations, typically businesses and universities.
In this case, DND has three specific goals.
The military wants to be able to rapidly sanitize workplaces and vehicles containing sensitive equipment like computers. It wants to be able to quickly clean uniforms and COVID-19 protective gear so it can be reused.
It's also looking for ways to gather data to support the early detection and monitoring of contagious disease outbreaks.
"We're reaching out to Canadian innovators because we know that there is some creativity out there, we know that there is some innovation out there that can help us do those things better and sometimes faster," said Eric Fournier, director general of innovation for DND.
He said DND is working with the Centre for Security Science Program, the National Research Council of Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada to hunt for solutions that will benefit the whole country.
If a solution to any of the problems is found, it will be passed along to federal, provincial and municipal agencies.
"Although the program doing this is a national defence program," said Fournier, "we are doing this for public safety across Canada. So it's for the first responders, it's also for national defence, it's for everybody and those solutions will be made available to all those government entities."
Rapid, thorough cleaning is DND's goal.
Fournier said it can take a lot of time to sanitize by hand. During a crisis, that time can be in short supply, he said.
He said if a military aircraft is used to transport a COVID-19 patient, the entire vehicle, along with the uniforms and the personal protective equipment worn by the crew, would have to be cleaned.
"We want to make sure that the people are ready to respond, again and again and again and again," said Fournier. "In a pandemic like this, we see that people have to work constantly."
While dropping uniforms and flight suits into the washing machine might be an option, the military wants something faster.
"So we want to make sure you can do it quickly," Fournier said. "In some cases just putting it in the laundry might work, but we might not have the time to do it that way. We might need something to clean it up faster for reuse in a few hours, for example."
It's the same thing with cleaning vehicles by hand. It works, but getting it done fast is hard to do.
Finding a way to sanitize aircraft, ambulances, offices and other spaces without damaging computers or other electronics is essential, Fournier said.
He said it's also important to find ways to collect data on how the virus is moving through the population and to locate hot spots.
DND will choose several winners in each of the three categories.
The winners will be given up to $200,000 and up to six months to deliver on their solution. If the solution works, DND could provide them with more funding for fine-tuning or to adapt it for more widespread use.
Anyone looking to apply for the program can go to the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security website.
There have only been a handful of applications, but Fournier said that number usually jumps up in the final days before the deadline. Applications for the program are due June 23.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/military-dnd-covid-19-research-solutions-1.5607535
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26 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial
British shell out seed funding for ‘loyal wingman’ combat drone
By: Andrew Chuter LONDON — A British initiative to develop an unmanned air vehicle known as a “loyal wingman” has received a boost with the announcement by the Ministry of Defence that a Spirit AeroSystems-led consortium is to build a full-scale test vehicle. The Belfast, Northern Ireland-based arm of Spirit and partners, including Northrop Grumman UK, have been awarded a £30 million (U.S. $41 million) deal to lead a partnership, known as Team Mosquito, for building the demonstrator vehicle in time to start a test flight program by the end of 2023. Work maturing the Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft, or LANCA, will run for three years until the conclusion of the flight trials, an MoD official said. Following completion of the demonstration phase, the Royal Air Force will analyze the data and use it to inform capability decisions, said the official. The unmanned vehicle is part of the air force's push to produce a low-cost machine in a fraction of the time of normal combat jets. The Spirit Mosquito team, previously known as Blackdawn and led by Callen-Lenz , secured the deal beating out proposals from partnerships led by Boeing and Blue Bear Systems. Spirit acquired the Belfast-based aerostructures operations of Canadian commercial and business jet builder Bombardier last year. Designing and building the airframe is a small but significant win for the company, which centers on building structures for the Airbus A220 airliner and other civil sector work. Northrop Grumman UK, the key partner alongside Spirit in Team Mosquito, said in a statement it will be providing model-based systems engineering and agile engineering expertise. The company said it will also integrate its advanced mission management (AMM) and airborne communication node technologies to enable seamless human-machine collaboration and cooperative mission management across distributed manned and unmanned assets. The MoD said further companies in the new team will be announced later. Work on LANCA has been underway since 2015, with the MoD's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory taking the lead pursing innovative combat air technologies and concepts that offer radical reductions in cost and development time. Defense Ministry officials previously said they want to produce a drone for 10 percent of the cost and in one-fifth of the time of a combat jet. “If successful, Project Mosquito's findings could lead to the capability being deployed alongside RAF Typhoon and F-35 Lightning jets by the end of the decade,” said the MoD. The drone is now a RAF Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO)-led project under the Future Combat Air System Technology Initiative (FCAS TI). If the project is successful the Mosquito loyal wingman platform could eventually become the first unmanned platform in British service able to target and shoot down enemy aircraft. The Mosquito effort is one of several future air combat initiatives being pursued by the British, including development of swarming drones and the Tempest next-generation manned and unmanned combat jet. Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston said the British were “taking a revolutionary approach, looking at a game-changing mix of swarming drones and uncrewed fighter aircraft like Mosquito, alongside piloted fighters like Tempest, that will transform the combat battlespace in a way not seen since the advent of the jet age.” The loyal wingman concept is generating increasing interest with militaries across the world, with similar work underway in the United States, Australia and Europe. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2021/01/25/british-shell-out-seed-funding-for-loyal-wingman-combat-drone/
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21 novembre 2022 | International, Aérospatial
How the US plans to train armed overwatch pilots for counterterrorism
The Air Force plans to start training new pilots to fly the OA-1K armed overwatch planes in fall 2025.