2 mai 2022 | International, Aérospatial
Les autorités de Kiev ont appelé à limiter l'utilisation des drones DJI, affirmant que les problèmes techniques de ces appareils pourraient avoir été intentionnellement provoqués par le fabricant chinois pour saboter les défenses du pays. Si la société chinoise, DJI Technology, le plus grand fabricant de drone au monde, nie les accusations selon lesquelles elle a joué un rôle dans l'invasion russe, le gouvernement ukrainien appelle à ne plus utiliser ces drones à la suite de nombreux dysfonctionnements, alors que les forces russes se serviraient de ces technologies sur le front. La controverse autour de DJI a renforcé les préoccupations de longue date de certains décideurs et régulateurs américains en matière de sécurité nationale, à savoir que la Chine contrôle une technologie commerciale qui a aussi clairement des applications militaires. Les adversaires de DJI à Washington font pression pour l'adoption d'un projet de loi proposé par des parlementaires républicains qui ouvrirait la voie à l'interdiction, pour les appareils du fabricant chinois, d'utiliser l'infrastructure de communication américaine. A l'opposé, plus d'une demi-douzaine de startups américaines ont vu en Ukraine une opportunité à ne pas rater et ont déclaré avoir donné ou vendu leurs drones et leurs systèmes de défense anti-drones à l'Ukraine. Depuis le mois dernier, BRINC Drones, établi à Seattle, a fait don de 10 drones à l'Ukraine et en a vendu environ 50 autres pour aider le pays à se défendre, et Skydio, de la Silicon Valley, a offert plusieurs dizaines de drones au ministère ukrainien de la Défense, et des centaines d'autres ont été vendus à des organisations non gouvernementales et à des gouvernements soutenant l'Ukraine. Ces startups, dont la clientèle se compose essentiellement de l'armée et des agences de sécurité publique, affirment que leurs produits offrent une sécurité supérieure, en comparaison avec les drones DJI.
L'Opinion et le Wall Street Journal du 26 avril
18 août 2024 | International, Terrestre
Initial work will focus on the production of solid rocket motors for the GMLRS and will be performed at the General Dynamics facility in Camden, Arkansas starting in 2025.
19 juin 2023 | International, Autre défense
Ukraine is in negotiations with Western arms manufacturers to boost production of weapons, including drones, and could sign contracts in coming months, a Ukrainian minister told Reuters.
9 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Last week's deal between Boeing and the U.S. Air Force on a fix for the KC-46 could pave the way for the tanker to refuel other aircraft without a person needed to manually control the process, a top service official said Thursday. On April 2, Boeing agreed to fix the KC-46's troubled Remote Vision System by creating an overhauled RVS 2.0 with new hardware and software. Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper told reporters those changes would include the addition of 4K high-definition cameras that will display imagery in color as well as modern processors and LiDAR (light detecting and ranging) sensors that will help improve depth perception. “A proper RVS like that is right on the doorstep to autonomy,” Roper said. “All you have to do is take that data that tells the world inside the jet the reality of geometries between the airplane and the boom outside the jet. Once you have that, you simply need to translate it into algorithms that allow the tanker to tank itself.” The KC-46's Remote Vision System has been a thorn in the side of the aircraft program since 2017, when issues with the system were first discovered. The RVS is basically a suite of cameras, sensors and software that is supposed to allow boom operators sitting inside the aircraft to safety steer the boom into the aircraft needing fuel. But in certain conditions, the system produces distorted imagery that increases the risk of the boom hitting another aircraft. The new LIDAR system will be key to fixing that problem, said Roper, who likened it to a backup camera on a car that also provides cues to a driver for parallel parking or assessing whether a vehicle is aligned flush to a curb. “We'll have something very similar to that for the boom operators, so telling them are they left, right and how close are they getting to the airplane,” he said. “[It's] something very intuitive and easy to work with, and I think that will help significantly with them understanding their distance [from the other aircraft] because LIDAR is extremely accurate.” Because Boeing is locked into a firm fixed-price contract for the development of the KC-46, it will have to pay for the upgrade to RVS 2.0 out of its own pocket, as the Air Force maintains that the current system does not meet requirements. But the service is so confident in the prospect of using the RVS 2.0 as a stepping stone to an autonomous tanker that it included an option in last week's agreement to fund the development of technologies that enable autonomous or semiautonomous refueling. “We have added an engineering change proposal into the deal with a not-to-exceed threshold of $55 million, so that when RVS 2.0 is done, we can then take the next step beyond 2.0 to develop those autonomy algorithms and install them if we think we can certify them for safe use,” Roper said. “We took that step because, one, we're excited about being on the doorsteps of autonomy and, [two], we wanted to send a clear signal in the deal that this is our tanker for the future,” he said. If the Air Force decides to move forward with those design changes, more will need to be done to hammer out the contractual details, said Jamie Burgess, Boeing's KC-46 program manager. “There was no commitment one way or another on who pays for what. But there's definitely a strong partnership between Boeing and the Air Force as far as developing this technology,” he said. Autonomous refueling capability has been of increasing interest to the Air Force over the past few years, as sensing and artificial intelligence technologies grow by leaps and bounds. Boeing previously signaled it could include such technology as part of a menu of potential upgrade options for the KC-46, as reported by FlightGlobal in 2018. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/04/08/boeings-kc-46-tanker-now-has-a-pathway-for-autonomous-aerial-refueling