7 mai 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Ben Werner
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Naval Air Systems Command has a handshake deal in place to start production of the Sikorsky VH-92A, the next generation presidential helicopter, officials said on Monday.
NAVAIR has already taken possession of three VH-92A aircraft and the program is scheduled to have a milestone decision meeting at the end of the month with Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts.
Based on the feedback from test pilots, VH-92A production is expected to start soon after the milestone meeting, Marine Maj. Gen. Gregory L. Masiello, the program executive officer for Air anti-submarine warfare, assault and special mission programs (PEO (A)) said during a presentation at the Navy League's 2019 Sea Air Space exposition.
“I believe that things went reasonably well,” Masiello said of the recent VH-92A testing. “The reason I say that is because I know where the aircraft took off from every day and I know where they landed every day, and it was where it was supposed to. The feedback was relatively positive.”
In one instance, a VH-92A flew into Washington D.C., swooping low over the National Mall on an otherwise quiet Saturday morning, and practicing landing on the White House lawn. That VH-92A was the first helicopter delivered to NAVAIR. The initial operational capability is expected to occur in late 2020, and the full production line is on track to complete in 2023.
Assuming the end of May meeting with Geurts is positive, Masiello said the plan is to award Sikorsky a production contract and executive options to build the VH-92 throughout the life of the program as needed, Masiello said.
As part of the Presidential Helicopter Replacement Program, Sikorsky was in 2014 awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build a fleet of six helicopters to start, but with options for the Navy to purchase up to 17 more helicopters.
This is the second attempt to replace the current decades-old VH-3Ds presidential helicopters currently in use. In 2005, Lockheed Martin's proposed VH-71 helicopter beat the Sikorsky helicopter in the competition to build the Presidential helicopters. Years of delays and cost overruns caused the Pentagon to scrap the project in 2008 and start the process over with a new round of bidding, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
A decade later, Sikorsky won a new competition with its VH-92A design, a variant of the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter which is used by 11 other nations to transport their heads of state. Lockheed Martin purchased Sikorsky for $9 billion in 2015.
https://news.usni.org/2019/05/06/navair-new-presidential-helicopter-production-to-start-soon
14 mars 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Norway's military plans to buy six Seahawk helicopters for 12 billion crowns ($1.14 billion) from Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky, the defence minister said on Tuesday, to boost its ability to monitor its vast seas and Arctic territory.
19 septembre 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran remain high, despite the release of five American detainees from Iran this week.
3 août 2020 | International, C4ISR
Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's top IT official provided an update July 30 on a wide range of ongoing initiatives underway at the department as it continues to grapple with a remote workforce amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy highlighted several ongoing projects related to artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, while also discussing the department's Commercial Virtual Remote Environment that's allowed nearly 1 million Department of Defense employees to collaborate while working from home Here's a roundup of what Deasy told reporters: Cloud developments The Defense Department has struggled for more than a year to procure its enterprisewide cloud, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, a platform DoD leadership has continuously said will break down data silos and enhance artificial intelligence capabilities. But, as Deasy has stated repeatedly, JEDI is not going to be the DoD's only cloud. “Cloud has always been much more than JEDI,” Deasy said. Work on the JEDI cloud, which was awarded to Microsoft in October last year and subsequently protested by Amazon Web Services, is on hold after a federal judge issued an injunction earlier this year upon determining it was likely the DoD erred in its evaluations of the two tech companies' proposals. The DoD is taking corrective action on the award, with Deasy saying the department intends to re-announce the winner “probably sometimes towards the very end of August, barring any last minute, unforeseen additional issues that are raised.” In the meantime, the DoD has stamped the Air Force's Platform One cloud offering as an enterprise service, giving DoD components a certified place to go for DevSecOps, Deasy said. “What the big message there was, we actually for the first time had designated a cloud across DoD that could be used for a common way of doing DevSecOps,” he said. AI and JADC2 The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is pivoting to focus on Joint All-Domain Command and Control, a Pentagon-led effort to connect sensors and shooters. Through its Joint Common Foundation, Deasy said, the JAIC has tools and capabilities to develop AI capabilities at scale. “That has now allowed us as we've matured to say: ‘What we've always known we really need to ... get JAIC focused on is the joint all-domain space,‘ ” Deasy said, adding that the center is looking at joint fires, the electromagnetic spectrum and strategic mobility. The JAIC, he said, is working on a cognitive assistant to deliver commanders relevant data from the hoards of information that come from the battlefield to quicken decision-making. But he added that the JAIC will expand into other areas of joint all-domain operations. “JADC2 is made up of a bunch of different areas ... including electromagnetic spectrum, how do we move forces, how do we target,” Deasy said. “But right now it's all about how do you take streams of information and allow the machine and human to interact together to make better decisions.” The new chief data officer In June, the DoD announced that former Special Operations Command chief data officer Dave Spirk would become the DoD's new CDO. Deasy told reporters July 30 that Spirk will focus on “strengthening data governance, interoperability, and data protection across the department,” which he went on to describe as a “major effort.” “The chief data officer is on a directed, 90-day listening tour where he is talking to senior leaders in the Pentagon, war fighters and at the combatant commands, industry and academia to assess the overall department's progress,” Deasy said. “At the conclusion of the 90-day tour, Dave will provide a written assessment with a plan of action.” Deasy added that a DoD data strategy will be released “in the coming months.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/07/31/pentagon-cio-provides-updates-on-several-it-initiatives/