13 janvier 2021 | International, Terrestre
By: Mike Yeo
MELBOURNE, Australia — Hanwha-led Team Redback officially launched its Redback infantry fighting vehicle on Tuesday ahead of delivering three for evaluation trials as part of a risk mitigation effort for the Australian Army.
The infantry fighting vehicles are undergoing trials as part of Project Land 400 Phase 3, which is tasked to acquire about 450 tracked IFVs that will replace Australia's fleet of M113AS4 armored personnel carriers. The Redback, which is named after a venomous spider found in Australia, is up against Rheinmetall's Lynx KF41 for the program, which is due to announce a winner in 2022.
The risk mitigation effort involves detailed test and evaluation of the vehicles throughout 2021 with the aim of providing objective quality evidence to support a government decision on the preferred platform.
Team Redback is the group of companies led by Hanwha Defense Australia, and includes Electro Optic Systems, Elbit Systems and several other Australian companies.
Protection for the Redback meets STANAG Level 6 requirements (a NATO standard), and is fitted with a range of active and passive protection systems in addition to survivable seats in the troop compartment, a floating floor to mitigate the effects of mines or improvised explosive devices, and Plasan-made add-on armor.
The passive protection system includes Elbit laser warning devices providing all-around coverage, while active protection comes in the form of the Israeli company's Iron Fist active protection system.
The Redback is based on South Korea's AS21 infantry fighting vehicle and is fitted with an EOS T2000 turret mounting a Mk44S Bushmaster II 30mm cannon and a 7.62mm coaxially mounted machine gun.
An EOS R400 four-axis remote weapons station is also mounted on the turret roof and can be fitted with a range of weapons including machine guns or an automatic grenade launcher.
Grant Sanderson, CEO of the Defense Systems division at Electro Optic Systems, told Defense News that the coronavirus pandemic has slowed efforts to integrate the turret, pointing out that having to fly engineers between Australia, Israel and South Korea has been a challenge.
However, the lethality testing of the integrated turret is continuing and is expected to culminate in a live-fire demonstration of the turret with Australian optics and systems in August.
The Redback is also designed with ride comfort in mind, with rubber tracks and independent suspension in lieu of more common metal running gear and torsion bar suspension. Hanwha added that noise reduction measures has also meant it is possible to conduct conversations in the troop compartment, even when the vehicle is moving.
18 juillet 2024 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Researchers uncover HotPage adware module masquerading as ad blocker, installing malicious kernel driver for elevated Windows access and browser.
19 juin 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna LE BOURGET, France — Things are looking up for Kratos Defense's XQ-58A Valkyrie drone. Fresh off its second flight, the U.S. Air Force is considering buying 20-30 aircraft for further experimentation, the service's acquisition executive said Monday. “I'm now looking at ways to do that and what the cost will be,” Will Roper told reporters on the sidelines of Paris Air Show, saying that the Air Force is looking for prototyping funds that it can access for a rapid procurement of those aircraft. The XQ-5A Valkyrie is an “attritable” drone, the word the military uses for an asset that can be reused but is cheap enough that a commander could use them aggressively and would expect — and be comfortable with — some losses in combat. What sets Valkyrie apart is not only its low price point, which Kratos estimates will be $2 million per copy in a production run of 100 jets or more, but also the aircraft's near supersonic speed, long endurance and maneuverability, which could make it a formidable partner for manned fighter jets. Once the Air Force buys additional Valkyrie drones, the idea would be to pair those unmanned aircraft with manned fighter jets. “Depending on what comes out of that campaign, the idea would be to look and do a program of record. You'd want to start spiraling the development,” Roper said. A decision on starting a program could be made as soon as fiscal 2021, and from there it would be only two to three years to begin production and fielding aircraft, he said. “I am really pleased we're getting strong buy-in, strong appetite at the pointy end for attritable systems by our pilots.” Roper's comments come after another milestone for the Valkyrie — the second flight demo, held June 11 at Yuma Proving Grounds. According to a Kratos release, the aircraft completed unspecified objectives over a 71 minute test. “With this most recent milestone, the readiness of the XQ-58A is accelerating and increasing the near-term application opportunities for the system,” said Steve Fendley, the company's president of its unmanned systems division. “I am extremely proud of our development, production, and test teams who continue to deliver successful results, in record time, on our comprehensive system level efforts — rare within the aerospace and defense industry." The Air Force Research Laboratory is partnered with Kratos to develop Valkyrie through the Low Cost Attritable Strike Demonstrator program, the service's effort to field a “Loyal Wingman”-style drone that can be flown alongside a fighter jet or other combat aircraft in manned-unmanned teams. But Roper has alluded to even more ambitious plans for Valkyrie or other attritable drones like it. Not only does the Air Force want to add sensors and weapons to Valkyrie, but it wants to implant artificial intelligence in the drone so that it can train and learn alongside pilots, eventually growing in skill and becoming able to respond independently to threats. Roper calls that effort “Skyborg” and in May told Defense News that the service was considering how to incorporate it with manned fighters like the F-35 and the F-15EX. “I don't want this to just be a laboratory project that lives and dies there in a petri dish. I want this to become a program,” he told reporters in March. “I want to see real, operational demonstrations within a couple years. And I will push them to be faster than that.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/paris-air-show/2019/06/17/us-air-force-looking-to-fast-track-cash-to-kratos-defense-for-additional-valkyrie-drones/
18 mars 2021 | International, Naval
The study shall describe competences for operators of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) from remote control centres (RCC) and shall propose competency-based curricula for those MASS RCC operator in the different capacities; the competences shall be based on definitions of MASS RCC operators' functions, sub-functions, tasks and capacities to be developed for generic MASS RCCs to be proposed in operational scenarios of remotely controlled MASS of given types and sizes, with and without seafarers on board.