IAI ELTA Awarded 125 Million-Dollar Contract for Czech Mobile Air Defence Radar (MADR) Program

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  7 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial

  The Army Wants Autonomous Aviation Tech. But Do Pilots Trust It?

  By Matthew Cox U.S. Army leaders are looking to autonomous technology to be the game-changer on the future battlefield, but experts are wrestling with how the service will convince aviators and leaders to trust machines to help them make life-or-death decisions in a split second. Part of the Army's new modernization effort involves manned-unmanned teaming, a concept that will rely on unmanned, autonomous aircraft and ground vehicles working, in some cases, as forward scouts to identify and select targets much quicker than humans can. Army leaders have stressed that there will always be a "human in the loop" to prevent misjudgements that could result in unintended casualties. But aviators and leaders are still reluctant to trust machines to think for themselves. "Trust in autonomy is going to be a challenge as we move forward; there is a huge psychological component to it," Patrick Mason, deputy for the Army's Program Executive Office Aviation, told an audience Wednesday at the Association of the United States Army's Aviation Hot Topic event. Col. Thomas von Eschenbach, director of the Capability Development and Integration Directorate at the Army's Aviation Center of Excellence, has been running simulations to experiment on how autonomy and artificial intelligence can make aviators more effective. "When you add autonomy and you add AI ... you quicken the pace of decisions," von Eschenbach said. "We don't want to take things away from a human; we want to want to enable humans to be faster [and] more agile, and make the decisions inside somebody else's decision cycle. Full article: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/09/06/army-wants-autonomous-aviation-tech-do-pilots-trust-it.html

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  13 août 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Most grounded C-130s OK’d to fly again

  By: Stephen Losey The Air Force has inspected, and cleared to fly again, most of the 123 C-130 Hercules that were grounded last week due to concerns about potential cracking in a crucial wing joint. Air Mobility Command has returned 74 C-130s to service as of Aug. 9, AMC spokeswoman Alexandra Soika said on Monday. Just one of those grounded C-130s has been found to have a defect so far, she said. Soika said it is unclear how long the remaining 48 C-130s might take to be inspected, since the pace depends on each base's capacity. The inspections take about eight hours. “We are making tremendous progress,” Soika said. The Air Force temporarily grounded the aircraft after finding cracks in the lower center wing joint, or “rainbow fitting," of a C-130 during scheduled depot maintenance. The affected aircraft represented nearly a quarter of the 450 C-130H and C-130J aircraft in the fleet. AMC said that even though only one C-130 was originally found to have cracks, the potential risk of a wing becoming dislodged from the aircraft was so serious that the Air Force decided to inspect all planes that could be affected. Each of those 123 C-130s that were grounded have flown more than 15,000 hours, and have not received an “extended service life center wing box.” Repairing cracked rainbow fittings will take about one to two months to finish, depending on how busy a depot is, AMC said. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/08/12/most-grounded-c-130s-okd-to-fly-again/

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  27 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

  China to sanction Boeing, Lockheed and Raytheon over Taiwan arms sales

  Joe McDonald BEIJING — China's government said Monday it will impose sanctions on U.S. military contractors including Boeing's defense unit and Lockheed Martin for supplying weapons to rival Taiwan, stepping up a feud with Washington over security and Beijing's strategic ambitions. Raytheon Technologies Corp. and “relevant American individuals” associated with the sales also will be affected, said Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. He gave no details of what penalties might be imposed or when. The ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan, which split with the mainland in 1949 during a civil war, as part of its territory and has threatened to invade. Washington promised in the 1980s to reduce and eventually end weapons sales to Taiwan but insists its dispute with Beijing must be settled peacefully. “In order to safeguard national interests, China decided to impose sanctions on the American companies that were involved in arms sales to Taiwan,” Zhao said at a regular news briefing. Chinese-U.S. relations have plunged to their lowest level in decades amid disputes about security, technology, the coronavirus pandemic and human rights. Taiwan has long been an irritant in relations. Washington has no formal relations with the island's democratically elected government but is its main ally. U.S. law requires the government to ensure Taiwan can defend itself. Weapons sales to the island have increased in quantity and quality. Last week, Beijing demanded Washington cancel a planned sale of 135 precision land-attack missiles valued at more than $1 billion to improve its defenses. The sale “seriously undermined China's sovereignty and security interests,” Zhao said. China has stepped up military activity around Taiwan in an attempt to force concessions from the pro-independence administration of President Tsai Ing-wen. The Communist Party is using the mainland's growing economic weight to pressure other governments to cut diplomatic and unofficial ties with Taiwan. Beijing regularly pressures American companies, including Boeing, in an effort to influence U.S. policy. China is one of Boeing's biggest markets for commercial aircraft, which might make it vulnerable to a boycott, but Zhao mentioned only Boeing's military arm, Boeing Defense, not its civilian jetliner business. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon also supply radar and other technology for civilian aviation. The two governments have put sanctions on companies and individuals on both sides over complaints about human rights, computer hacking and other issues, though it is unclear whether they have any effect. Washington has imposed travel and financial bans on Chinese officials and companies it says are linked to abuses in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where Muslim minorities have been detained in re-education camps, or Hong Kong after Beijing tried to tighten control by imposing a national security law. Beijing has retaliated by announcing sanctions against some U.S. legislators. Zhao called on Washington to “stop arms sales to Taiwan and stop any military interaction with Taiwan,” adding: “We will continue to take necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty and security interests.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/10/26/china-to-sanction-boeing-lockheed-and-raytheon-over-taiwan-arms-sales/