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.
31 août 2023 | International, Terrestre
This collaboration is a response to the insights gained from recent conflicts in Europe, emphasizing the need for cutting-edge technologies to enhance national and European security.
23 juin 2022 | International, Aérospatial
A production decision is now anticipated to occur in 2023, having slipped from the original date of September 2021.
21 juin 2019 | International, C4ISR
By: Nathan Strout Inmarsat Government Inc. has been awarded a contract worth as much as $246 million over five years to provide commercial satellite communication services for the U.S. military. The single-award blanket purchase agreement with the Defense Information Systems Agency was announced June 18. The initial award covers a one-year span from June 19 to June 18, 2020, with four option years. The contract provides for commercial satellite bandwidth for U.S. Africa Command. “The government expects to order Ku-band services sufficient to support airborne intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and command and control missions,” a DISA spokesperson said in an email June 20. According to the announcement, DISA received two bids for the contract. Inmarsat declined to comment on the award until after the protest period was over. The company has faced issues due to protests in the recent past. In September 2015, DISA awarded Inmarsat a potential five-year $450 million contract to provide worldwide commercial telecommunications services on the Ku, Ka and X-Band for the Navy's Commercial Broadband Satellite Program. That award was protested by Intelsat, who successfully convinced the Government Accountability Office that DISA had given different companies different bid requirements. That decision led to a stop-work order on the new contract, though DISA ultimately lifted the stop work order through a contract modification in July 2016. A DISA spokesperson confirmed that the two contracts are not mission related. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2019/06/20/inmarsat-awarded-246-million-contract-for-satellite-services/