10 juillet 2019 | International, Autre défense
From: Ministry of Defence, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and The Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP
The Ministry of Defence is developing cutting-edge laser and radio frequency weapons which have the potential to revolutionise the battlefield
The state-of-the-art weapons systems, known as Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), are powered solely by electricity and operate without ammunition.
The systems could be fuelled by a vehicle's engine or a generator, significantly reducing their operating costs and providing unprecedented flexibility on the frontline.
In a Prior Information Notice (PIN) published this week, the MOD announced it is seeking to develop three new DEW demonstrators to explore the potential of the technology and accelerate its introduction onto the battlefield.
The laser weapons systems deploy high energy light beams to target and destroy enemy drones and missiles. Radio Frequency weapons are designed to disrupt and disable enemy computers and electronics.
Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:
Laser and Radio Frequency technologies have the potential to revolutionise the battlefield by offering powerful and cost-effective weapons systems to our Armed Forces.
This significant investment demonstrates our commitment to ensuring our Armed Forces operate at the forefront of military technology.
The new systems are expected to be trialled in 2023 on Royal Navy ships and Army vehicles but, once developed, both technologies could be operated by all three services. The Armed Forces will use these exercises to get a better understanding of DEW, test the systems to their limits and assess how they could be integrated with existing platforms.
The MOD aims to invest up to £130m in this package of Directed Energy Weapons, including the construction of the demonstrators, the creation of a new Joint Programme Office and the recruitment of personnel to manage the programme.
These demonstrators are part of the MOD's “Novel Weapons Programme” which is responsible for the trial and implementation of innovative weapons systems to ensure the UK remains a world leader in military technology. They are expected to reach the frontline within 10 years.
The MOD already has plans for initial trials of laser weapons systems, with the Dragonfire demonstrator commissioned by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory to be tested later this year.
The Dragonfire represents a world-first in laser weapons technology, combining multiple laser beams to produce a weapons system that is more powerful than its predecessors and resistant to the most challenging environmental conditions.
The MOD also has over 30 years' experience in Radio Frequency DEW, during which time the UK has become a world leader in developing new power generation technologies and a global hub for the performance testing and evaluation of these systems.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mod-to-develop-cutting-edge-laser-and-radio-frequency-weapons
16 août 2018 | International, Naval
Lee Hudson In keeping with the Pentagon's focus on rapid prototyping, the U.S. Navy opened an Innovation Hub (iHUB) this month at the Naval Air Warfare Command Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) in Patuxent River, ... http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/us-navy-opens-innovation-hub-pax-river
10 décembre 2019 | International, Naval
By: David B. Larter WASHINGTON — Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly in public comments and in a directive to the force has mandated that the service find a path to quickly get to 355 ships. Despite some soft-pedaling from Navy leadership on the 355-ship goal, Modly has made it clear that such an inventory is national policy and that he wants leadership to get behind it. “[Three hundred and fifty-five ships] is stated as national policy,” Modly told an audience at the USNI Defense Forum on Dec. 5. “It was also the president's goal during the election. We have a goal of 355, we don't have a plan for 355. We need to have a plan, and if it's not 355, what's it going to be and what's it going to look like?” In a memo released Thursday to the force, Modly said he wanted an actionable plan by the end of the 2020s. In the memo, Modly called for the services to develop “an integrated plan to achieve ... 355 ships (or more) unmanned underwater vehicles, and unmanned surface vehicles for greater naval power within 10 years.” The push toward the 355-ship fleet, which kicked off after a 2016 force-structure assessment, has been on shaky ground of late, with former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer calling it “aspirational.” Last year, the service's former top requirements officer told an audience at the Navy's largest annual conference that people should focus more on capabilities and less on the number. The issue is that the Navy is required by law to pursue a 355-ship Navy, something that was the focus of House and Senate lawmakers early on in the Trump administration. The fleet currently stands at 292 ships. During his comments at the USNI Defense Forum, Modly said that if the Navy must fight the other services for money to achieve that goal, then that's what it should do. “We ought to be lobbying for that and making a case for it and arguing in the halls of the Pentagon for a bigger share of the budget if that's what is required,” Modly said. “But we have to come to a very clear determination as to what [355 ships] means, and all the equipment we need to support that. “How many more hypersonics are we going to need? Where are we going to put them? These are long-term investments that we will have to make, but we have to get our story straight first. So I'm going to focus a lot on that this year.” Modly's comments and his Dec. 6 directive got a boost from President Donald Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, the following day at the Reagan National Defense Forum. O'Brien told the audience there that Trump meant business when he called for a larger Navy during the 2016 campaign. “When President Trump says a 350-ship Navy, he means a 350-ship Navy, and not decades from now,” O'Brien said. https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2019/12/09/acting-us-navy-secretary-deliver-me-a-355-ship-fleet-by-2030/
30 juin 2024 | International, Naval
The legislation overrides an authorization bill from the Armed Services Committee that moves in a different direction on attack-submarine and F-35 buys.