Inmarsat Government selects SAILOR XTR terminals for new $578M U.S. Navy contract

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  16 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Israelis To Boost F-35 Fleet’s Electronic Warfare

  By ARIE EGOZIon June 15, 2020 at 1:02 PM TEL AVIV: The Israeli air force's F-35 special test aircraft is set to arrive in Israel, suitably enough, on the Fourth of July, along with three more Joint Strike Fighters. The arrival will start a planned process of upgrading the IAF's F-35 aimed at making them the main target supplier for the Israeli defense forces. In November another three are scheduled to arrive, bringing the IAF's total to 27 out of the 50 in the current contract. The special test aircraft was officially delivered to the IAF a year ago and some new systems developed by Israel have been installed. But the most sensitive systems will be installed only after the aircraft lands in Israel. Currently, the IAF operates 20 F-35 (Adir) and uses them in combat. One of the key capabilities of the F-35 is its capability to absorb electronic signals from radars and air defense systems and to quickly classify them, geolocate them, and display them to the pilot. Then the aircraft can distribute that data to other combatants. The critical data is collected by the aircraft's passive antennas embedded in the F-35's edges. They feed the signals information to the jet's computers. Using interferometers, the slightest time delay between when a signal hits one antenna compared to another, azimuth and range can be defined and target-quality coordinates created on where the threatening radio frequency emission is coming from. The already very advanced ELINT system of the F-35 is going to be further upgraded by the IAF, working with Israel's defense companies. Since the stealth fighter aircraft first arrived in Israel, some locally-made systems have been partially tested in different scenarios, but the test aircraft will allow these new systems to be put completely through their paces. The test aircraft will enable each of the Israeli F-35s to function as a “Target Generator” for all Israeli ground and naval forces thanks to what some have described as an Israeli-built command-and-control system. The Israeli companies that are developing systems for the IAF's F-35's are reluctant to provide details about the systems under development. Eitan Ben Eliyahu, former commander of the IAF, told Breaking Defense that the F-35 will bring two main capabilities to the Israeli air force's existing ones: “The stealth of course is the obvious one and it is crucial in an area where different forces deploy advanced anti-aircraft systems. “The second capability is the one that allows this aircraft to receive and distribute all kinds of combat data from a long list of sensors. This,” Ben Eliyahu said, “is very important for an air force that is performing combat missions almost on a daily basis.” https://breakingdefense.com/2020/06/israelis-to-boost-f-35-fleets-electronic-warfare

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  9 novembre 2020 | International, Terrestre

  Lockheed Martin to build mid-range missile prototype for US Army

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin has been chosen to build the U.S. Army's new mid-range missile prototype, landing a nearly $340 million contract to take elements from naval missiles to forge the new weapon, the service's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office announced Nov. 6. Through an other transaction authority agreement, Lockheed will take the Navy's Raytheon-built SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles to put together a Mid-Range Capability, or MRC, prototype that consists of launchers, missiles and a battery operations center, according to an RCCTO statement. A variant of the Tomahawk missile was used in a land-based cruise missile capability test last year. The SM-6 is a long-range, anti-air missile that has a surface mode. This mid-range missile — expected to hit targets at distances beyond 500 kilometers — is to be fielded to an operational battery in fiscal 2023. Defense News first broke the news that the Army was planning to field a mid-range missile capability designed to go after moving targets at land and at sea. The effort is meant to fill a gap in the service's long-range precision fires portfolio in between the future Precision Strike Missile and hypersonic weapons capabilities. The decision came out of a strategic fires study conducted earlier this year that identified the capability gap and the need to rapidly fill it. The RCCTO shortly after adopted the effort to rapidly field the new missile. “Adapting existing systems as much as possible will allow us to move faster than traditional acquisition methods to get this capability into the hands of Soldiers in support of the National Defense Strategy,” Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, director of hypersonics, directed energy, space and rapid acquisition as well as the RCCTO chief, said in the statement. “Soldier feedback and touchpoints will be embedded throughout the prototyping effort in order to make this system operationally effective the day it is delivered,” he added. To meet the demanding timeline, the MRC prototype “will utilize and modify existing hardware and software from the Army and joint service partners and integrate additional technologies to achieve new operational effects,” the statement read. The Army arrived at the decision to incorporate the SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles after a “broad review of joint service technologies potentially applicable to MRC,” according to the RCCTO. To use the joint service technologies, the Army “will leverage Navy contract vehicles for missile procurement in support of the Army integration [other transaction authority] agreement,” the statement said. “The capability also allows the Army and joint services to synchronize and leverage modernization efforts and investments across mid-range missile programs in support of multi-domain operations,” it added. “The MRC supports one of the Army's chief roles in multi-domain operations: to use strategic fires to penetrate and disintegrate enemy layered defense systems, creating windows of opportunity for exploitation by the joint force.” By 2023, the Army will have begun delivering a portfolio of strategic, mid-range and short-range fires capabilities that will change the paradigm against advanced adversaries Russia and China. The initial fielding of the Precision Strike Missile, capable of hitting targets out to 499 kilometers (with a likelihood of a greater range), will happen in 2023 as well as a ground-launched hypersonic missile. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/11/06/lockheed-martin-to-build-mid-range-missile-prototype-for-us-army

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  12 septembre 2024 | International, Naval

  The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt is leaving the Middle East

  The carrier has been operating alongside the Abraham Lincoln in recent weeks amid fears of war breaking out between Israel and Iran.