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31 mars 2020 | International, Aérospatial

FVL Q&A: 7 Leaders On The Future Of Army Aviation

New Future Vertical Lift aircraft are just part of the solution. So are new tactics and technology upgrades for existing helicopters.
By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR

WASHINGTON: Drones. Helicopters. Networks. Revolutionary future aircraft. Pressing current missions. Every week, the seven senior officers of the Army's aviation community get together – in person or virtually – to check their collective bearings on all these issues and adjust their course into the future. Last month, I had the privilege of speaking to all seven as part of that weekly meeting.

The “six-pack plus one” represents institutions across the Army:

“If we have a failure, we have a culture where anybody in the six-pack can raise a red flag of concern,” Brig. Gen. Pepin said. “And if there's concern among the six-pack, we're willing to tell the senior leaders early, so we do not go down the road of lost investments.”

We've used choice pieces of this hour-plus interview in our Future Vertical Lift articles so far, but as we wind up our FVL series, we wanted to give our readers the chance to hear from these leaders at greater length, in their own words (edited for clarity and brevity).

Army photo

Gen. David Francis

Maj. Gen. David FRANCIS

Commander, US Army Aviation Center of Excellence, Fort Rucker, Ala.:

Speaking with you here today is what we affectionately refer to as the six-pack-plus-one. It's the senior officers that affect every aspect of Army Aviation.

Oftentimes in aviation, we focus on material piece of this, just because of the cost – but you should understand that there are multiple things happening continuously. It's more than just the airframes themselves. There's a whole host of things that we look at, from potentially changing some of our infrastructure in terms of hangers and so forth to accommodate Future Vertical Lift, to how are we going to train?

Army photo

Brig. Gen. Allan Pepin

Brig. Gen. Allan PEPIN

Commander, US Army Special Operations Aviation Command (USASOAC):

Tactics, techniques, and procedures alone won't allow you to fly into a contested environment and survive. And using technology alone will not let you survive. It has to be a combination of both technology and how we train.

FRANCIS, Aviation Center:

In counterinsurgency operations, the threat has allowed us to operate at altitude, above 1,000 feet, routinely. As we look to large-scale combat operations, we know that the threat will drive us lower [i.e. to evade radar]. That changes the way we train to fight that fight.

When we operate in COIN, we operate in smaller elements [i.e. two helicopters or four on a mission]. When we get to large-scale combat operations, we have to operate more at a battalion level [i.e. 18-24 aircraft]. That means that what we have to be able to do, regardless of the platform, is train to that level of proficiency.

Not only are we training our aviation forces, we're training as part of a combined-arms team — with ground-maneuver elements, with fires, with cyber, and all of the multi-domain things that we're going to bring to bear in a fight.

We are also working, for the first time, on a distinct Aviation supporting concept to talk about how Aviation will fight and contribute in Multi-Domain Operations in 2028. This will all inform the Army concept, which will in turn inform the joint concept that is being written at the joint staff level as we speak.

Army photo

Brig. Gen. Walter Rugen

Brig. Gen. Walter RUGEN

Director, Future Vertical Lift Cross Functional Team (FVL CFT), Army Futures Command:

We are converging with the other services. It's Joint All Domain Operations, no matter the domain. [The official domains of military operations are land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace – ed.]. We need an interface to communicate critical data, whether that data is sustainment or in the tactical operations realm.

When you look at our lines of effort – the FARA [Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft], the future UAS [Unmanned Aerial Systems, i.e. drones], FLRAA [Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft] — those are important. But it really is the ecosystem that they bring.

FRANCIS, Aviation Center:

We know that as we go into a Multi-Domain Operations fight, our enduring fleet – the fleet that we have today, which consists of UH-6OM Black Hawks, AH-64E Apaches and CH-47F Chinooks – stays with us into the 2040s. So not only are we concerned about how we get to Future Vertical Lift, and the capability that brings, we're doing targeted modernization to our enduring fleet.

What we have to do is improve our stand-off and our survivability with the introduction of some technology that will be available prior to the actual FVL platform, like the Long-Range Precision Munition and Air-Launched Effects [i.e. multi-purpose mini-drones].

Those combined, we think, will keep us very, very competitive in that [anti-aircraft] environment until we get the increased speed and survivability of our Future Vertical Lift platforms.

RUGEN, Futures Command:

When we look at ALE and Long-Range Precision Munition, what we're finding, in our modeling and our experimentation at Yuma last year, is you really generate that stand-off and overmatch against threats. We can stay outside their weapon engagement zone and put effects on them.

Air-Launched Effects are what is going to find and fix these threats, and then what the Long-Range Precision Munition is going to do is finish that threat.

In the Presidents' Budget [request for] 2021, there's $152 million dedicated to getting Spike N-LOS missiles into up to three Combat Aviation Brigades in the swiftest possible manner. We're currently projecting that it would be an FY22 initial capability. We're currently projecting that it would be an FY'22 initial [operational] capability. But that's just our initial increment of the Long-Range Precision Munition. We will follow that on with more detailed requirements to fix some of the challenges that we see already with Spike [and] improve upon that capability.

FRANCIS, Aviation Center:

Another example is the ITEP [Improved Turbine Engine Program]. That's going to be the engine that goes into FARA. It's also going to be retrofitted onto our UH-60 and AH-64 fleet. That's an extremely successful, well-funded program that is going to affect both of those fleets.

Another is maintenance. Col. Barrie was the previous program manager for the CH-47. He initiated a process for the CH-47 fleet that is starting to bear results today in reducing the maintenance burden. We're looking to expand that across both our attack and utility fleets as well.

Army photo

Col. Robert Barrie

Col. Robert BARRIE

Deputy Program Executive Officer, PEO Aviation:

We're finding ways that we can better leverage our investment dollars in the future. We balance the imperative that we have to modernize [with FVL] and the imperative that we have to maintain the readiness of the enduring fleet.

When we're modernizing towards a future capability, are there opportunities [for spin-offs] that can benefit the enduring fleet? In similarly, shame on us if we are doing anything on our enduring fleet that does not reduce the risk for the development of our future fleet.

For example, there's the Aviation Mission Common Server. We can now have processing capability that is government owned and the cost will be significantly reduced. As we go forward, we want to reduce risk on whatever we wind up doing for processing capability on our future fleets, but, in the near term, this allows us a processing capability that we have significantly more control over.

Army photo

Geoffrey Downer

Mr. Geoff Downer

Director of Special Programs, US Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM):

How do we miniaturize components and gain capability on these other aircraft? We're working on degraded visual environments, electronic counter measures, terrain following, terrain avoidance.

We're losing a lot of aircraft, and about 49 percent of our fatalities, due to degraded visual environment landings [i.e. when the pilot can't see clearly]. So we're actually working to put a degraded visual environment system on the aircraft.

The idea is that they use LIDAR and IR cameras, so when the pilot is landing in a brown-out situation, he can look down and have a synthetic display that shows exactly where the obstacles are, with cues to where he can land and where he can't land. We've done testing, and the feedback from the testing is absolutely remarkable. We believe that this is going to add survivability to our enduring fleet.

RUGEN, Futures Command:

[That said], at the end of the day, we've squeezed everything we can out of these aircraft that were built in an industrial age, a very analog age.

We want survivability in those very contested large-scale combat operations [in the future]. We want to be lethal. We want superior reach, so we want speed, range and endurance at range, in our next generation fleet. That's the aspect that the enduring fleet doesn't bring.

In our survivability studies, with these advanced rotor craft configurations, we basically saw large percentage increases in survivability, from 24 percent to, in some scenarios, nearly 50 percent more survivable — just based on physical characteristics of the aircraft [i.e. not factoring in new electronics, tactics. etc.]

Once our penetration force moves forward, we will generate joint force freedom of maneuver [i.e. not just for the Army, in other words, but for all the services] and our enduring fleet can now start coming forward to help us.

Army photo

Brig. Gen. Michael McCurry

Brig. Gen. Michael MCCURRY

Director of Army Aviation, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for Operations, Plans, & Training (G3/5/7):

Once we've kind of fractured the Anti-Access/Area Denial piece in Multi-Domain Operations, then we're able to exploit using some of our enduring fleet systems.

That overlap of new and old capabilities — that's not new. I fought in Desert Storm. I flew in OH-58 Kiowa helicopter [which first entered service during Vietnam] and I was teamed with an AH-64 Alpha [which entered service in the 1980s].

We've got to look at, where are the most critical spots to bring capability to first? We will outfit those units [with FVL] first, and then we'll cascade those capabilities throughout the Army.

Gen. FRANCIS, Aviation Center:

As we always done as Army Aviation, you can't field it all at the same time. So there's a sequence to the fielding plans that are developed based on priorities leveled by the G3 [staff] and the Army.

RUGEN, Futures Command:

We want it to be backwards and forwards compatible. We have to be able to extend the network forward and integrate it in a denied environment [i.e. in the face of enemy jamming and hacking].

We've done high-fidelity modeling about how to operate in that environment, with waveforms and architecture that will be resilient. Then we followed that up with an experiment in conjunction with our Special Operations partners up at China Lake. We called it A3I: architecture, autonomy, automation and interfaces.

That system architecture [has] open systems, interfaces, and gateways, so we can push data machine to machine. We're refining our data formats to auto-populate nine-lines [i.e. calls for urgent medical evacuation], calls for fires [i.e. artillery and air strikes], our production, exploitation and dissemination of intelligence.”

Really, the brains behind this is really been our SOF [Special Operations Forces] partners.

DOWNER, Special Programs:

We set up this demonstration in September of last year, using a Black Hawk [helicopter], a Grey Eagle [drone], and a Small Glide Munition [guided bomb]. SOF is still involved in this, we're still using our team, our resources, and the technology that we developed [to build] the network in the sky.

RUGEN, Futures Command:

Then, ultimately, probably one of the hardest things we're going to do is affordability. That gets into our sustainment and logistics concept. Long-term, 68 percent of our total cost of ownership is the sustainment of the fleet.

Army photo

Then-Brig. Gen. Todd Royar during a 101st Airborne Division exercise.

Maj. Gen. Todd ROYAR

Commander, Army Aviation & Missile Command (AMCOM)

In our current systems, Army Aviation has done a phenomenal job of leading the Army on condition-based maintenance. We are pretty far out there about collecting data and knowing when something is going to fail.

However, we did that by platform, and each individual platform uses a different system to be able to do that. As we move forward, the intent is to go ahead and make sure that we have a common platform for condition-based maintenance. We think this will fundamentally change how maintenance is done, which will ultimately drive down cost.

In the draft documents [on FVL], we have put the hooks in there to make sure that industry knows that that is going to be a requirement. When we send out the proposals to industry, we will direct that certain things be common as far as condition-based maintenance is concerned: what they measure, how they measure it, how the ones to zeros are holding, so that the unit can get that same data, regardless of whether they're looking at FARA, FLRAA, or one of our enduring systems.

That effort is a combination, primarily, between the PEO and my office. We have touchpoints with Future Vertical Lift, to make sure that for the new systems, those requirements are written in. This will be a component of MOSA, the Modular Open Systems Architecture.

RUGEN, Futures Command:

The number one challenge we have with MOSA is discipline and management. What allowed the enduring fleet of aircraft to wind up with different architectures [is] there was not a driving central body that said, “this is the architecture that you are going to go with.” With MOSA, we have that.

It really comes down to defining that government standard, and defining that government interface, and then holding to it. The PEO has led the charge with the architecture control working group, meeting quarterly, with industry participating.

This is aligned with the Network CFT [Cross Functional Team].

PEPIN, Special Ops:

We have to be able to adapt quickly, and that MOSA environment is key. We have to break away from just doing more hardware add-ons to platforms, because it takes an incredible amount of time. [With the Modular Open Systems Architecture], all that's just a software upgrade, you reboot and turn it back on again. You can do it at the speed of need.

https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/fvl-qa-7-leaders-on-the-future-of-army-aviation

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  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - August 07, 2020

    10 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - August 07, 2020

    AIR FORCE United Launch Services LLC, Centennial, Colorado, has been awarded task orders for $337,000,000 for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract. The NSSL Phase 2 contract is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery requirements contract for launch service procurements supporting launches planned between fiscal 2022 through fiscal 2027. This launch service contract includes early integration studies, launch service support, fleet surveillance, launch vehicle production, mission integration, mission launch operations, mission assurance, spaceflight worthiness, and mission unique activities for each mission. Work will be performed in Centennial, Colorado; Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida; and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and is expected to be completed March 2028. Future launch services and launch service support will be placed annually on subsequent task orders, and will be publically announced upon issuance. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, and four offers were received. Fiscal 2020 space procurement funds in the amount of $337,000,000 will be obligated in the first order year for launch service and launch service support task orders to United Launch Services. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (FA8811-20-D-0001). Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, California, has been awarded task orders for $316,000,000 for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract. The NSSL Phase 2 contract is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery requirements contract for launch service procurements supporting launches planned between fiscal 2022 through fiscal 2027. This launch service contract includes early integration studies, launch service support, fleet surveillance, launch vehicle production, mission integration, mission launch operations, mission assurance, spaceflight worthiness, and mission unique activities for each mission. Work will be performed in Hawthorne, California; Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida; and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and is expected to be completed March 2028. Future launch services and launch service support will be placed annually on subsequent task orders, and will be publically announced upon issuance. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, and four offers were received. Fiscal 2020 space procurement funds in the amount of $316,000,000 will be obligated in the first order year for launch service and launch service support task orders to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (FA2211-20-D-0002). BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration, Greenlawn, New York, has been awarded an estimated $144,000,000 five-year firm-fixed-price requirements contract for common avionics and electronic components applicable to B1-B, ASQ-151, APX-113, ALQ-172, USM-464, AN/ALQ-155, ALQ-161, USM-638, B-52 platforms. This contract provides for sustainment of spares/buys, repairs and engineering services related to various systems and components that are sole source to BAE. Work will be performed in Greenlawn, New York; San Diego, California; and Nashua, New Hampshire, and is expected to be completed March 22, 2026. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2020 Consolidated Sustainment Activity Group funds will be used, but no funds are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Sustainment Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8538-20-D-0008). J G Contracting, Nipomo, California, has been awarded a $55,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for simplified acquisition of base engineering requirements. The contract provides all management, labor, material, equipment, transportation, supervision and minimal designs to accomplish numerous, concurrent projects for a broad range of maintenance, repair and minor construction work. Work will be performed at Edwards Air Force Base, California; and Air Force owned/operated facilities located at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, and is expected to be completed July 31, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and 12 offers were received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $142,743 are being obligated at the time of award. The Directorate of Contracting, Edwards AFB, California, is the contracting activity (FA9301-20-D-0004). Apogee Research LLC,* Arlington, Virginia, has been awarded a $41,663,526 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00001) to contract FA8750-20-C-1510 for deliverables that include software and technical reports. The contract modification is for the development and testing of technologies to enable the transition of system technology integration tool chain for heterogeneous electronic systems. This will allow capabilities to rapidly integrate into new mission capabilities for interoperability within and across Department of Defense platforms. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia; Menlo Park, California; Woburn, Massachusetts; and Malden, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed July 31, 2025. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $489,650 are being obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $48,250,998. Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, New York, is the contracting activity. Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Virginia, has been awarded a $21,948,817 cost-plus-award-fee task order under the ground subsystems sustainment contract for the Minuteman III Fast Rising B-Plug service life extension. Work will be performed in Layton, Utah, and is expected to be completed Nov. 17, 2022. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $3,356,951 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8204-20-F-0077). NAVY BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair LLC, Jacksonville, Florida, is awarded an $83,501,649 firm-fixed-price contract for the execution of USS Carney (DDG 64) fiscal 2020 extended dry-docking selected restricted availability and the USS Winston Churchill (DDG 81) fiscal 2021 depot modernization period. These availabilities will include a combination of maintenance, modernization and repair for both the USS Carney and USS Winston Churchill. This contract includes options, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $211,604,822. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy); and other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $83,501,649 are obligated at time of award, $66,389,135 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Work will be performed in both Jacksonville, Florida, and is expected to be complete by July 2022. This contract was competitively solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website with one offer received in response to Solicitation No. N00024-19-R-4468. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $77,400,000 undefinitized contract modification (P00041) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00019-17-C-0001. This modification provides for the development and installation of flight test instrumentation on one F-35B Lot 14 aircraft and one F-35C Lot 14 aircraft for government testing in support of the F-35 program. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (65%); Palmdale, California (32%); Grenaa, Denmark (2%); and Hoogerheide, Netherlands (1%), and is expected to be completed in June 2023. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Air Force) funds in the amount of $23,255,516; and non-Department of Defense funds in the amount of $6,088,968 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Black Construction-Tutor Perini JV, Barrigada, Guam, is being awarded firm-fixed-price task order N62742-20-F-9924 at $44,093,863 under a multiple award construction contract for design and construction of explosive ordnance compound facilities at Naval Base Guam. The work to be performed provides for the design and construction of a consolidated operations facility, maintenance facility, armory and multipurpose/training facility. The options, if exercised, provide for a civil engineering support equipment canopy, a service craft and boat accounting report canopy, electronic security systems, audiovisual equipment, furniture fixtures and equipment, munitions and explosives of concern and material potentially presenting an explosive hazard work and additional concrete piles. The task order also contains eight unexercised options, which if exercised, would increase cumulative task order value to $50,937,800. Work will be performed in Apra Harbor, Guam, and is expected to be completed by December 2022. Fiscal 2020 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $44,093,863 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Five proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-19-D-1328). PrimeTech International Inc.,* North Kansas City, Missouri, is being awarded a $19,185,938 firm-fixed-price, time-and-materials bridge contract for a six-month base period with three one-month option periods for logistics services to manage, support and operate the Marine Corps Consolidated Storage Program warehouse network. Work will be performed in Barstow, California (23%); Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (18%); Camp Pendleton, California (13%); Okinawa, Japan (10%); Miramar, California (9%); Camp Geiger, North Carolina (7%); Twenty-nine Palms, California (4%); Cherry Point, North Carolina (4%); Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii (3%); Yuma, Arizona (2%); Beaufort, South Carolina (2%); Iwakuni, Japan (2%); New River, North Carolina (2%); and Bridgeport, California (1%). Work is expected to be completed June 2021. 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(Awarded July 27, 2020) DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY Ernst & Young LLP, New York, New York (HT0011-16-F-0014), was awarded a fourth year option to a five year contract (one-year base and four option periods) with an estimated value of $61,223,977 to support the Defense Health Agency (DHA) with a period of performance from Aug. 8, 2020, through Aug. 7, 2021. This non-personal services contract provides audit readiness support. The contractor provides all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items necessary to perform audit readiness support. The Financial Operations Directorate (J-8), Defense Health Program Financial Reporting & Compliance Division has a continuing need for the services. Exercising the fourth option is the most advantageous method of fulfilling the government's need with regards to price efficiency, past performance and experience. Ernst & Young's performance is satisfactory and fulfills the contract's needs. The fourth year option will be funded with fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funding in amount of $13,218,137. The DHA Professional Services Contracting Division, Falls Church, Virginia, is the contracting activity. ARMY Rhoads Industries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $49,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to furnish construction related industrial support services to the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 6, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (W912BU-20-D-0009). Duopross Meditech Corp.,* Farmingdale, New York, was awarded a $48,310,000 firm-fixed-price contract for safety needles/syringes in support of the COVID-19 pandemic response and Operation Warp Speed. V Bids were solicited via the internet with 16 received. Work will be performed in Farmingdale, New York, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 2, 2021. Fiscal 2020 public health and social services emergency funds in the amount of $48,310,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911SR-20-C-0045). (Awarded Aug. 3, 2020) Bates Engineers/Contractors Inc.,* Bainbridge, Georgia, was awarded a $46,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for rehabilitation/modernization of buildings, new building construction, demolition, paving, grading, drainage, excavation, clearing and grubbing, utility work of all types, environmental permitting related to construction, incidental design related to construction efforts, site safety and health efforts and field investigations related to construction projects for the North Alabama Area Office Region. Bids were solicited via the internet with 23 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 6, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W91278-20-D-0072). Pacific Federal Contractors LLC, Honolulu, Hawaii, was awarded a $20,402,508 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a single 61,800 square-foot hangar bay addition at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, with an estimated completion date of March 6, 2022. Fiscal 2019 military construction (Air Force) funds in the amount of $20,402,508 were obligated at the time of the award. National Guard Bureau, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (W912J6-20-C-0001). Cardinal Health Inc., Dublin, Ohio, was awarded a $14,826,870 firm-fixed-price contract for safety needles/syringes in support of the COVID-19 pandemic response and Operation Warp Speed. 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(Awarded Aug. 3, 2020) CORRECTION: The 50,998,450 firm-fixed-price contract announced on July 31, 2020, to Duke Energy Progress LLC, Raleigh, North Carolina (W9124J-20-F-0052), to furnish financing, personnel, management, supplies, equipment, transportation and any other items and services not government furnished to install the energy conservation measures to meet Fort Bragg's energy goals and objectives, was actually awarded on Aug. 6, 2020. U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND Airbus DS Military Aircraft Inc., Mobile, Alabama, was awarded a $10,000,000 maximum ceiling firm-fixed-price contract (H92241-20-C-0005) in support of U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command for the sustainment and modernization of five CASA 212-200 CC60 aircraft with new avionics suites and aircraft maintenance refreshes. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $8,759,134 are being obligated at the time of award. The majority of the work will be performed in Mobile, Alabama, and is expected to be completed by August 2023. This contract is a non-competitive award and is in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302.1. U.S. Special Operations Command, Tampa, Florida, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2305454/source/GovDelivery/

  • Russian drones can jam cellphones 60 miles away

    19 novembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

    Russian drones can jam cellphones 60 miles away

    By: Kelsey D. Atherton Russia's Defense Ministry announced Nov. 6 that the nation had extended the range on its drone-carried jammers to 100 km, or over 60 miles. Drones as a platform for, and not just the target of, electronic warfare means that the sight of a flying robot overhead could signal incoming strikes as well as a sudden inability to call for help. “Russia has been using a UAV-mounted cellphone jammer for a number of years now,” said Samuel Bendett, a research analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses. The drones operate in a two- or three-vehicle pod with a ground station, collectively grouped as a “Leer-3” system. “When these UAVs fly in teams, one acts as a signal-and-comms relay while another acts as a jammer,” Bendett said. “These Leer-3 systems have been around for about two years at this point.” What is changed is the range of the jammer. The Orlan-10 drones already have a range of 75 miles, which means that, with the latest update on the jammer, the drone pod can interfere with signals up to 135 miles away from where the drone was launched. TASS reports that the 60-mile range is a 3.5 times increase in distance from the initial range. In addition, Bendett said there's a chance this capability, or an earlier version of it, has already been witnessed in conflict. “Ukrainian forces claim to spot Leer-3 systems in eastern Ukraine, while there is potential evidence that Leer-3 was used in Syria as well,” Bendett said. “Russian forces are constantly training with Leer-3 UAVs as they practice adversary signal and cell comms suppression, identification and eventual destruction of the enemy force. In fact, this kind of training is part of the official [tactics, techniques and procedures] in electronic warfare and other forces across the Russian military.” Advancements in electronic warfare are one of the key components guiding the development of autonomous systems for the military. For now, drones are conducting electronic warfare against cellular communications, but it's not hard to imagine the same doctrines applied with new technology. In that scenario, it easy to picture other vehicles transforming into jamming machines on future battlefields ... and maybe even present ones. https://www.c4isrnet.com/newsletters/unmanned-systems/2018/11/16/russian-drones-can-jam-cell-phones-60-miles-away

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    7 janvier 2022 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR

    Exportations d'armements : l'année fabuleuse de la France en 2021

    La France a exporté pour environ 28 milliards d'euros en 2021. Un montant jam...

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