2 août 2022 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR
Lockheed to launch space-based testbed for joint all-domain operations
The testbed is scheduled to be on orbit in time for next year's Northern Edge exercise hosted by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
10 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Autre défense
By: Valerie Insinna
LE BOURGET, France, and WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force has started work on a data architecture for its Advanced Battle Management System, the family of platforms that will eventually replace the E-8C JSTARS surveillance planes.
But the “biblical” rule for the program, according to the service's acquisition executive Will Roper, is that “we don't start talking platforms until the end,” he told Defense News at the Paris Air Show in June.
“It is so easy to start talking about satellites and airplanes and forget what ABMS is going to have to uniquely champion, which is the data architecture that will connect them,” Roper explained.
“I'm actually glad we don't have big money this year because we can't go build a drone or a satellite, so we've got to focus on the part that's less sexy, which is that data architecture,” he said. “We're going to have to do software development at multiple levels of classification and do it securely. All of those are things that are hard to get people energized about, but they're going to be the make-or-break [undertakings] for this program.”
Some initial work has begun on identifying the requirements for ABMS data architecture. The service in March named Preston Dunlap, a national security analysis executive at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, as the program's “chief architect.” Dunlap will be responsible for developing the requirements for ABMS and ensuring they are met throughout the menu of systems that will comprise it.
The Air Force Warfighter Integration Center, or AFWIC — the service's planning cell for future technologies and concepts of operation — provided feedback to Dunlap about how ABMS should work, Roper said.
The Air Force is still deliberating what ABMS will look like in its final form, although officials have said it will include a mix of traditional manned aircraft, drones, space-based technologies and data links.
The effort was devised as an alternative to a replacement for the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.
While the service first considered a traditional recapitalization program where it would buy new JSTARS aircraft equipped with more sophisticated radars, leaders ultimately backed the more ambitious ABMS proposal, believing it to be a more survivable capability.
But defense companies are hungry for more information about the platforms that will comprise ABMS, seeing the opportunity to develop new systems or upgrade legacy ones as a major potential moneymaker.
Once the service has defined an ABMS data architecture — which Roper believes will occur before the fiscal 2021 budget is released — it will need to form requirements for the data that will run through and populate it as well as the artificial intelligence that automatically sorts important information and passes it to users.
“Maybe one sensor needs to be able to fill a gap that others are creating,” he said. “We're going to have to look at requirements at a systems level and tell satellites that you need to be able to provide this level of data at this refresh rate. UAVs, you need to be able to do this rate and so on and so forth. Once we do that, then we'll be in the traditional part of the acquisition, which will be building those satellites, building those UAVs.”
The Air Force intends to conduct yearly demonstrations throughout this process, the first of which will involve “ad hoc mesh networking,” which will allow platforms to automatically begin working together and sharing information without human interference. By FY21, full-scale prototyping could start, he said.
In the commercial sector, where devices can be seamlessly linked and monitored over the internet, this concept is known as the internet of things. But that construct — where companies build technologies from the get-go with open software — is difficult to replicate in the defense world, where firms must meet strict security standards and are protective of sharing intellectual property that could give competitors an edge.
“Openness in the internet of things makes sense because you can monetize the data,” Roper said. “That's not going to exist for us, so we're going to have to have a contracting incentive that replicates it. The best theory we have right now is some kind of royalty scheme that the more open you are and the more adaptation we do on top of your system, the more you benefit from it.”
The service wants to hold a series of industry days to see whether such a construct would be appealing to defense companies, and how to structure it so that it will be fair and profitable. One unanswered is how to incentivize and compensate defense firms that build in new software capability.
“If you create the system that allows us to put 100 apps on top of it, you benefit differently than if we can only put one. But the details are going to be difficult because maybe that one app is super important,” Roper said.
“But if we can't replicate profit and cash flow on which their quarterlies depend, then they're going to have to go back to the old model of saying they are for open [architecture] but secretly giving you closed.”
2 août 2022 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR
The testbed is scheduled to be on orbit in time for next year's Northern Edge exercise hosted by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
10 octobre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Seth J. Frantzman JERUSALEM — Elbit Systems is providing more than 1,000 of its THOR drones and other UAVs to a Southeast Asian country under a $153 million deal, the Israeli company announced Oct. 6. This is the latest UAV-related deal for an Israeli firm after Cyprus announced it will buy $13 million in drones from Aeronautics Limited on Oct. 3. The THOR is a multi-rotor vertical-takeoff-and-landing mini-drone. Elbit will supply a variety of drones over the next two years — including the THOR, Skylark LEX, Skylark 3 and Hermes 450 tactical UAS — as well as ground control stations. “This contract award underlines our competitive edge as armies increasingly view multi-layered UAS solutions as key to providing superior intelligence and maintaining a high level of operational flexibility,” said the president of Elbit, Bezhalel Machil. The Israel Defense Forces uses an array of UAVs, including very small ones, as it faces threats on its northern border with Lebanon and clashes with adversaries along the Gaza border. While 1,000-plus drones may seem like a lot, the U.S., Australian and Israeli militaries have each used large numbers of similar DJI Mavic-style drones for years. The THOR offers a real-time data link and a 360-degree view in all weather and terrain conditions, according to Elbit. “THOR is suitable for operation in urban areas with non-line of sight communications, as well as in marine zones,” the company said. It can fly up to 2,000 feet and has a a range of 10 kilometers. It can carry a payload of 3 kilograms for about an hour and 15 minutes. The drone was designed for surveillance and reconnaissance missions, specifically for monitoring houses, roads or other areas where lightweight versatility would be beneficial. Along with the Skylark and Hermes product line, Elbit has been highlighting it at DSEI and Milipol Paris as an effective low acoustic signature solution. Israel is a pioneer in UAV production, once exporting about $500 million worth of drones a year, but it is facing competition, particularly from Chinese exports, that reduced that figure to $100-200 million, depending on the year. But Asian markets are proving fruitful for Israeli companies, particularly India. The Philippines was reportedly nearing a $180 million deal with Elbit this summer that included Skylark and Hermes 450 drones. The country had acquired 13 Hermes UAVs in 2018. The government there has been trying to upgrade its UAVs for years, increasingly so following its fight against the Islamic State group in Marawi, which illustrated the need for small tactical VTOL drones, such as the THOR. Media reports said that under the 2018 deal, some of the UAVs might be produced at the joint venture Adani Elbit UAV complex in Hyderbad, India. Elbit would not reveal the country involved in the latest THOR sale, and a query to the Philippines Embassy in Tel Aviv went unanswered. https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2019/10/09/israels-elbit-sells-over-1000-mini-drones-to-southeast-asian-country
11 juin 2024 | International, Terrestre
Senators introduced bill today that aims to ensure the U.S. is on track to strengthen its contested logistics capability in Pacific to deter China.