Lockheed planning big shift away from LCS propulsion system for its future frigate offering

Sur le même sujet

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  21 novembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  NATO to upgrade its AWACS surveillance aircraft for $1 billion

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — NATO officials plan to spend $1 billion on upgrades to the alliance's fleet of AWACS reconnaissance planes, according to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “I can confirm we will sign a contract upgrading, modernizing the AWACS fleet — $1 billion,” Stoltenberg was quoted as telling reporters ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday. The news comes coupled with an announcement that the first of five Global Hawk drones making up the Alliance Ground Surveillance program was en route from the United States to its future home base at Sigonella, Sicily. “This reflects how NATO is investing in high-tech capabilities,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu wrote on Twitter. The Boeing-made AWACS planes, introduced in 1982, are slated to remain in service until 2035. Their job is to detect enemy missiles and aircraft threatening NATO airspace. Alliance pilots have flown the aircraft to support missions against the Islamic State group and to secure the eastern flank in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. NATO's website bills the AWACS enterprise as the “largest collaborative venture” and one of the few military assets owned and operated by the alliance. The fleet of AGS drones is based on the Northrop Grumman-made Block 40 Global Hawk of the U.S. Air Force. The primary job of the UAVs will be ground and maritime surveillance for commanders and deployed forces. The two announcements come as the alliance is in dire need of signs of life after French President Emmanuel Macron famously declared NATO “brain dead” in an interview with the Economist magazine some weeks ago. While experts are still debating whether the vivid assessment was constructive in nature or rather an unnecessary dig at an alliance already weakened by trans-Atlantic squabbling, there are signs that key European nations like Germany and France have plans to reanimate the pact. German Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday referred to the alliance as Europe's “life insurance,” proposing a reform commission headed by Stoltenberg. NATO members' heads of state are slated to convene in London in early December. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to attend the summit, determining in large part whether the alliance will be able to celebrate a revival or witness something of a funeral. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/11/20/nato-to-upgrade-its-awacs-surveillance-aircraft-for-1-billion

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  16 août 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Air Force Tests Contraption That Can Turn Any Plane Into a Robot Plane

  Air Force scientists have announced that they had tested a robot kit that can turn virtually any plane into a self-piloting drone, through a program called ROBOpilot. Why is that important? For starters, planes and drones are expensive. The drone shot down over Iran last month cost $220 million. For years the military has rushed to fund fabulous, exquisite drones of all shapes and sizes. Some, like the $15 million MQ-9 Reaper from General Atomics, are cheaper than manned military aircraft. But the big ones are more expensive than many types of civilian sport aircraft. “Imagine being able to rapidly and affordably convert a general aviation aircraft, like a Cessna or Piper, into an unmanned aerial vehicle, having it fly a mission autonomously, and then returning it back to its original manned configuration,” said Dr. Alok Das, senior scientist with the Air Force Research Lab's, or AFRL's, Center for Rapid Innovation, in a statement. “All of this is achieved without making permanent modifications to the aircraft.” AFRL has partnered with DZYNE Technologies to produce the kit. The system interacts with flight controls just like a human pilot, pushing all the correct buttons, flipping the switches, manipulating the yoke and throttle and watching the gages. “At the same time, the system uses sensors, like GPS and an Inertial Measurement Unit [essentially a way for a machine to locate itself in space without GPS] for situational awareness and information gathering. A computer analyzes these details to make decisions on how to best control the flight,” AFRL said in a statement. Once the flight is done, the kit can be pulled out and the plane reconverted to one requiring a human pilot. On August 9, the system completed a two-hour test flight at Utah's Dugway Proving Ground. In theory, the same or a similar technology could be applied to expensive fighter aircraft. And the military has said that the next, sixth-generation fighter will be optionally manned. But the military has expressed reservations about allowing autonomous software to undertake lethal actions, so don't expect to see ROBOpilot doing combat missions anytime soon. https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/08/air-force-tests-contraption-can-turn-any-plane-robot-plane/159211/

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  28 août 2023 | International, C4ISR

  US Pentagon provides BlackWatch with semiconductor support worth up to $96.9m

  US institutions try to boost their domestic semiconductor industry as the commodity becomes a hot topic in the nation’s tech war with China.