8 août 2018 | International, Terrestre
By: Jen Judson
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Raytheon and a Lockheed Martin-Dynetics team are now locked in a head-to-head battle to build a powerful 100-kilowatt laser for the U.S. Army, pushing the envelope on directed-energy capability development.
And the Army is moving full-speed ahead with plans to select one winner to integrate its laser system onto the Family of Medium-Tactical Vehicles, or FMTV, in early 2019.
The effort will culminate in a test of the entire system in 2022 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The Army began its effort to get a more powerful laser onto a vehicle less bulky than a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck in 2016.
Raytheon announced last month that it had won a $10 million contract to develop a laser for the Army's High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstration program.
Dynetics released a statement Aug. 6, just ahead of the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, revealing it had won, along with its partner Lockheed Martin, the second $10 million development contract to build a laser for the HEL TVD program.
2 octobre 2024 | International, Terrestre
China has emerged as a key supplier to Ukraine's defence SME sector, while Beijing is also providing non-lethal support to Russia.
18 décembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Brazilian aerospace firm Embraer and Boeing have officially formed a joint venture on Embraer's KC-390 multimission aircraft as part of a larger partnership on the companies' commercial sides. Under the new agreement, Boeing and Embraer will work together to “promote and develop new markets” for the KC-390, according to a statement released early Monday. Embraer will own a 51 percent stake in the KC-390 joint venture, with Boeing owning the rest. The announcement on the KC-390 comes as the companies approved the terms of a strategic partnership that gives Boeing an 80 percent stake in Embraer's commercial and services business for $4.2 billion. Before the parties move forward with the transaction, the government of Brazil — which holds a “golden share” in Embraer — must consent to the agreement, and the deal is also subject to the approval of shareholders and regulatory agencies. “Boeing and Embraer know each other well through more than two decades of collaboration, and the respect we have for each other and the value we see in this partnership has only increased since we announced our joint efforts earlier this year,” said Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing chairman, president and CEO. “We are confident that this partnership will deliver great value to Brazil and the Brazilian aerospace industry as a whole. This alliance will strengthen both companies in the global market and is aligned with our long-term sustainable growth strategy,” said Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva, Embraer president and CEO. Boeing and Embraer have partnered on the KC-390 before. The companies agreed to pacts in 2012 and 2014 that gave the U.S. firm a role on global marketing and logistics support of the KC-390. However, in the wake of the commercial Boeing-Embraer deal, officials said a new KC-390 joint venture could be broader in scope than those partnerships. How this new joint venture differs from past agreements is unclear, and the news release contained only sparse details. According to a July 5 memorandum of understanding between the two companies, a KC-390 joint venture would “grow KC-390 sales and aftermarket opportunities through joint efforts in sales, marketing, engineering and industrial collaboration,” hinting that the partnership could involve an enhancement of the KC-390's capabilities or Boeing's help on technology and industrial development. In October, a Brazilian newspaper reported that Boeing and Embraer were discussing the prospect of building a KC-390 plant in the United States. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/12/17/boeing-embraer-agree-to-kc-390-joint-venture/
26 juin 2019 | International, Autre défense
By: Shawn Snow No, it's not going to turn you into Marvel's Iron Man or Captain America, but you might run a better PFT or have fewer fitness-related injuries. The Corps is on the hunt for new wearable gear with biosensing technology that can boost human performance and help build a more lethal battlefield force. On Monday, the Corps posted a request for information to the government's business opportunities website to glean information from industry leaders on available tech to address the Corps' focus on human performance augmentation. The Corps is looking at a number of possibilities from T-shirts, watches, wristbands or chest straps with embedded biosensing technology that can link to and download performance and physiological information to a database. The new biosensing tech will afford battlefield commanders information about the “physiological status and readiness” of Marines, according to the RFI. The new tech will also help commanders to "tailor conditioning and operational training in order to minimize injuries and optimize strength building and overall operational performance,” the posting reads. But with any new tech — especially gear that can track, collect, store and upload data — comes with various operational security, or OPSEC, concerns. In August 2018, the Defense Department banned the use of Fitbits and other fitness tracking devices for troops deployed overseas following data firm Strava's posting of a heat map that revealed the location and details of a number of U.S. bases and military outposts. “The rapidly evolving market of devices, applications and services with geolocation capabilities presents a significant risk to the Department of Defense personnel on and off duty, and to our military operations globally,” then-Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Robert Manning III, said in a command release. Manny Pacheco, a spokesman with Marine Corps Systems Command, told Marine Corps Times that there are “OPSEC concerns with any effort” to procure new gear for Marines and that the Corps will look for “ways to mitigate those concerns.” “In this particular case we are just looking at technologies for potential future use and will address the OPSEC issues as they arise,” Pacheco said about the RFI for the new wearable tech. The Corps listed human performance augmentation as a key focus area headed into 2020. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/06/25/this-wearable-marine-tech-can-boost-human-performance-and-track-physiological-status/