28 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR
By: Mark Pomerleau
The Army's Rapid Capabilities Office is beginning to expand to new areas of interest.
Initially stood up in 2016, the RCO was designed to address the Army's biggest capability gaps by delivering solutions in one to five years. The original focus areas for the office included electronic warfare, position navigation and timing and cyber.
While in the past few years it has moved out a bit into areas such as countering unmanned aerial systems, officials presenting Aug. 22 at TechNet Augusta explained the organization is now officially looking into much broader areas.
The first is in future communications and narrowband communications. Rob Monto, Emerging Technologies Office lead at the RCO, explained these new areas of interest for the RCO could allow for fall-back or redundancy in denied environments.
They could also allow paths for certain specific messages, such as medevac, to be transmitted.
Monto then outlined an interest in robotics for employing logistics and maintenance for heavy platforms. Robots can help replace parts faster during war or even augment humans in the way Special Operations Command has conducted experiments with exoskeletons.
The next area is in conformal antennas, which Monto said were of interest in order to reduce the profile of vehicles.
Monto described a keen interest for the RCO in electric drives and drivetrains, noting that commercial industry and heavy machinery have started to take this route.
Lastly, Monto noted that the RCO is interested in high-energy lasers and directed energy technology.
Anything in these areas are starting to become a broader portfolio for the RCO, Monto said, adding they are looking to bring new technologies in that might not be specifically leveraged today.
8 mars 2021 | International, Aérospatial
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wa.) said the U.S. military look for ways to reduce its dependence on the F-35 fighter jet, a notoriously expensive weapons platform.
10 septembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Steve Trimble September 09, 2020 The U.S. Army has revealed a mysterious new payload called Blasphemy for the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. MQ-1C Gray Eagle. The name of the payload appeared in public for the first time on a presentation slide displayed by a panel of Army unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) program managers during the virtual AUVSI Defense Systems conference on Sept. 9. Blasphemy appeared as one of several payloads listed on the slide, but no other information about it was provided. When asked a follow-up question during the question-and-answer period seeking details about the new payload, the Army program manager demurred. “I think we're going to skip that one,” said Lt. Col. David Benjamin, the Army's product development manager for the MQ-1C program. The slide showed the Blasphemy payload loaded on to the same pylon as the Multi-Function Electronic Warfare (MFEW) pod. The Army plans to deploy the MFEW-Air Large pod on the MQ-1C next year, but hasn't before revealed any plans for a payload called Blasphemy. The slide showed a list of “integrated capabilities” for the MQ-1C in fiscal 2020. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/sensors-electronic-warfare/us-army-reveals-mystery-uas-payload-called-blasphemy
28 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval
By: Vivek Raghuvanshi NEW DELHI — India's Ministry of Defence's apex procurement body, the Defence Acquisition Council, approved procurement of naval multirole and naval utility helicopters, but induction will not be made anytime soon. MoD's DAC approved the purchase of 24 MH-60 Romeo multi-role helicopters from the U.S. through a foreign military sale at a cost of more than $2 billion. DAC also approved purchase of 111 naval utility helicopters, costing around $3.39 billion, to be built under the Make in India policy by domestic private companies in partnership with overseas original equipment manufacturers. But this is only budgetary approval for purchase of two types of naval helicopters; that budget has yet to be allocated, and no timeline has been set for when the procurement process would kick-start, said a senior MoD official. “The procurement of naval multirole helicopters will take at least three to five years, while induction of naval utility helicopters will take from eight to 10years,”he noted. Another MoD official said the budgetary allocation for the naval multirole helicopters would come in the next three to six months; thereafter MoD will issue a letter of request, or LOR, to the U.S. Department of Defense, outlining specific requirements., beginning negotiations. MoD plans to pursue the procurement of 111 naval utility helicopters under Make in India's strategic partners policy, under which choppers will be produced by selected private companies though a possible joint venture and technology transfer from foreign companies. No private defense company in India have produced helicopters before, which could create a lengthy selection process. In July last year, Indian Navy floated a request for information (RFI) to both domestic and foreign original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, to participate in naval utility helicopter program. Foreign OEMs including Airbus Helicopters of France, Russian Helicopters of Russia, Lockheed Martin and Bell of United States have expressed interest in supporting procurement efforts. Domestic private defense companies Adani Group, Bharat Forge Ltd, Reliance Defence, Mahindra Aerospace and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd have also responded to the RFI to build naval utility helicopters in the country. https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/08/27/india-is-one-step-closer-to-spending-billions-on-new-naval-helicopters-from-us-allies