L3Harris Technologies awarded third LRIP order on US Army’s HMS Manpack IDIQ contract

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  28 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre

  Here’s how the Corps could shave about 6 pounds off your body armor

  By: Shawn Snow The Corps is in the beginning stages of researching a new, lighter alternative ballistic body armorplate for counterinsurgency style conflicts that is nearly six pounds lighter than the legacy plates. And on Thursday, it held an industry day with 16 companies vying to produce the Corps' latest body armor. The goal is to reduce battlefield fatigue and provide commanders with flexibility on the type of armor protection they decide to carry into combat, according to Keith Pierce, the armor team lead for Infantry Combat Equipment at Marine Corps Systems Command. While the current Enhanced Small Arms Protective, or ESAPI, have been highly effective in saving lives on the battlefield, they weigh nearly a combined 15 pounds, the Corps wants to shave that down to roughly 8.6 pounds for a medium-sized Marine, Pierce said. But don't expect the ESAPI to disappear just yet. The new plates are being crafted for low intensity threat environments like the counterinsurgency style wars that have embroiled American forces for nearly 20 years. While the new plates will “defeat a preponderance of threats” in low intensity conflicts, the ESAPIs will still be “critical in some threat environments,” Pierce explained to Marine Corps Times. But the changes to the new plates are still likely to be minimal. The Corps has decided to keep the same basic shape of the ESAPI, and there's unlikely to be any major changes in materials used to construct the armor plates “The materials for plates haven't had a big tech leap,” Pierce said. “A lot of people are trying to find that next leap.” The Army recently fielded a new plate, but its relatively of the same construction as the ESAPI, according to Pierce. “There may be incremental changes ... like the ceramic improving a little bit,” Pierce explained. But Pierce said he didn't expect any major changes over the next five years. “We are looking at some unique things,” he added. A lot of data and analysis is being pored over, to include assessments of the threat environment by the intelligence community for the construction of the new plates. So far, the Corps has tested a prototype of the lighter plates and found Marines had nearly eight percent faster mobility over the heavier ESAPIs. The new plates — when combined with the new Plate Carrier Gen III system — will reduce a Marine's load burden by a total of eight to 10 pounds, according to Pierce. The Corps expects to award a contract sometime in fiscal 2019 for the lightweight plates, and fielding might kick off in 2020, Pierce said. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/09/27/heres-how-the-corps-wants-to-shave-about-6-pounds-off-body-armor/

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  29 août 2024 | International, Aérospatial

  Embraer sells A-29 Super Tucano to the Uruguayan Air Force

  Uruguay becomes the sixth nation to operate the A-29 Super Tucano in South America along with Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

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  11 juin 2018 | International, Terrestre

  Marines want a better way do force-on-force tactical shooting training

  After decades of using laser-type devices for shooting simulations and force-on-force tactical warfighting, the Marine Corps is asking for a new way to do fake shooting. A recent request for information is asking the commercial industry to bring ideas to the Corps that would help it make simulated shooting more realistic for up to a battalion-size force and improve current systems. Some versions of those systems have been in operation since Nintendo's Duck Hunt video game was considered high-tech shooting and laser tag advertisements dominated Saturday morning cartoons. This won't hit every Marine Corps installation but many will have it. Based on the RFI, the systems would be employed “to provide turnkey instrumented exercises with After Action Review (AAR) at 29 Palms, Camp Lejeune, Camp Pendleton, MCB Hawaii, MCB Okinawa or MCB Quantico within 3 weeks of notice, as well as support additional exercises upon request at Camp Fuji, Japan, Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Center, MCB Yuma, and specified reserve locations.” And the Marines are not doing this alone. They will be leveraging the Army's Live Training Engagement Component software. That's a tactical training framework so that simulations can be on the same standards and work jointly with other services and potentially foreign partners. One of the key cross functional teams that the Army formed last year included simulated training environment work. The goal is to incorporate better simulations for training at all levels, beginning in the design and procurement of future weapons and other equipment systems. The Corps wants a system that would be able to simulate all weapons and vehicles typically seen in a battalion, which would include at least: M4/M16; M9 or sidearm, the M27 Infantry Automatic Weapon; hand grenades; rocket propelled grenades; Light Anti-Tank Weapon; 60mm mortars; 81mm mortars; Claymore antipersonnel mine; Mk-19 grenade launcher; Russian machine gun; AK-47 variants; M41 TOW; Javelin missile and the Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle. It would distinguish between a hit, wound or miss and record information for after-action reviews. Marine Corps Times first reported news of this initiative last year following an interview with then-program manager for Training Systems at Marine Corps Systems Command, Col. Walt Yates. At the time, Yates described some of the shortfalls of using lasers when gauging accuracy and real-world effects. “A laser is at the speed of light, and the bullet is not,” he said. Yates previously said that though the current shooting systems are a generational change from old MILES, or multiple integrated laser engagement system, lasers have fundamental flaws for realistic battle scenarios. For example, laser-based systems shoot line-of-sight, making arcing weapons such as mortars and grenade launchers more difficult to simulate. Lasers can also be deflected by light concealment such as tree leaves and thin walls. And the number of troops and shooting ranges will change with new systems. The first generation ITESS accommodated 120 Marines and opposition forces, the second generation expanded to 1,500 with a communication radius of 5 to 8 km. The third seeks to track up to 2,500 Marines, making it capable of battalion on battalion exercises envisioned by the commandant, Yates said in the November interview. A new simulator must act more like a real bullet, requiring Marines to lead their moving targets, fire rifles on semi, burst and fully automatic modes and ensure the bullet travels in the realistic path, which is not perfectly line of sight, he said. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/06/04/marines-want-a-better-way-do-force-on-force-tactical-shooting-training/