19 novembre 2023 | International, Terrestre
Northrop pushes Battle Command tool to a missile-defense hungry Europe
The company is marketing its Integrated Battle Command System as the glue for disparate systems.
22 octobre 2019 | International, Terrestre
Navigation systems that counter jamming and spoofing for Army vehicles, plus some goodies for the dismounted soldier
By: Todd South
Over the past few years, the Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany has seen its Stryker combat vehicles up-gunned and upgraded with better firepower and stronger protection. A recent fielding amid follow-on efforts will give that regiment's soldiers and their supporting rotational brigade protection from invisible threats.
That's because the Mounted Assured Position Navigation and Timing System, or MAPS, has been fielded to 62 Strykers in the regiment, with another 339 systems expected next year.
Willie Nelson — the director of the Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing Cross-Functional Team — and Col. Nickolas Kioutas — project manager for PNT — recently spoke with reporters about both the testing, development and fielding of MAPS and its dismounted version, known as DAPS.
The two systems are key for soldiers to not only navigate but also use weapon systems and communications gear in heavily jammed and spoofing environments.
Some of the most contested spaces with those challenges are in Europe.
The first generation of the MAPS system has replaced then seven GPS antennas with just one, anti-jamming-capable GPS antenna that can distribute information across all systems in a vehicle, Kioutas said.
That iteration has anti-jamming capabilities, a robust GPS receiver and a chip-scale atomic clock.
The system has a seven-element array antenna. If it detects radio frequency energy from one direction that's attempting to jam a signal, then the array shuts off detection from that general direction but continues to scan the sky for the correct radio frequency signals to communicate.
The clock keeps everything in time if the system is jammed for lengthy periods, Nelson said.
The other threat, spoofing, involves an adversary introducing a decoy-type signal.
Researchers are working on a capability for the next generation of MAPS that provides both anti-jam and anti-spoof capabilities. Testing that capability is scheduled for next year, with fielding expected by 2021.
Even as the first generation is used by troops, the Army can continue to upgrade the system with new capabilities as it comes off the production line. Army leaders will decide next year if the fully fielded MAPS gear will serve as its first generation with upgrades, or a revamped, second variant, Nelson said.
And it's not just for Strykers.
The next wave of fielding will go to Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Paladin howitzers and Abrams tanks, which provide the firepower enabled by cavalry formations. And the focus will be to first provide 2nd CR and then the rotational brigade that heads to Europe each year, Kioutas said.
Ultimately, a focused fielding plan will see 20,000 Army vehicles with the new MAPS onboard by 2028, officials said.
For the individual soldiers, the same groups are working on the dismounted version. DAPS does not have an anti-jam capability yet, but it does use the new GPS M-Code signal that has more complicated encryption.
DAPS will replace the existing antenna for the Nett Warrior system, and it is lighter and more effective, Kioutas said.
Nett Warrior is an Android smartphone-based navigation, friendly forces and battlefield chat tool that will connect into the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, a mixed reality goggle expected to tie in communications, navigation, targeting and night vision into an individual soldier's heads-up display.
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18 août 2023 | International, Naval
Turkey to arm 11 naval platforms with Atmaca missiles
The Atmaca will replace Turkey’s aging inventory of more than 350 American-made Harpoon missiles.
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16 août 2019 | International, Aérospatial
Plans for a new base closing round may be running out of time: Report
By: Leo Shane III The next few months could decide whether the Defense Department gets another base closing round in the next decade, according to a new analysis from a conservative think tankwarning military officials not to dismiss the potential looming impact on budgets and readiness. Officials from the Heritage Foundation, whose policy priorities have helped influence President Donald Trump's administration, have in the past supported a new base closing round to cut back on excess military infrastructure and more efficiently spend annual defense funding. In the analysis released this week, author Frederico Bartels — policy analyst for defense budgeting at the foundation — said a Pentagon report on the issue being compiled now represents “the best chance for the Department of Defense to make the case for a new round of BRAC” in years, and perhaps the last realistic chance to advance the idea for the near future. “I think it's the last chance of the Trump administration to make an argument for this,” he said in an interview with Military Times. “Even if he gets re-elected next year, I think it will be hard to go back and make the case if they're unsuccessful this time.” The military convened six base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commissions between 1988 and 2005, shutting down dozens of military installations and turning over that land to state and local municipalities. The process has always been fraught with political turmoil, as lawmakers protest any loss of jobs, military personnel and resulting economic benefits in their districts. But the 2005 BRAC round was particularly controversial, as defense officials consolidated numerous service locations into joint bases and massively rearranged force structure in an attempt to modernize the military. As a result, cost saving projections from that process were significantly below past rounds, and members of Congress have strongly opposed any attempts at another round since then. In the fiscal 2019 national defense authorization act, lawmakers did include language for a new military infrastructure capacity report — due next February — where defense officials can make the case for the need for additional closures. Similar Pentagon reports in the last few years have shown excess capacity of between 19 and 22 percent. Bartels said Pentagon leaders have repeatedly supported the idea of another round in recent years, but have done a poor job selling lawmakers on the idea. “The department needs to make the case for a new round of BRAC based on two key tenets: potential savings and the National Defense Strategy,” he wrote. “A new BRAC round could save $2 billion by reducing unneeded infrastructure. Additionally, a new round of BRAC would permit the department to assess its infrastructure against the threats outlined by the National Defense Strategy, providing a holistic look at all of the infrastructure.” He warns that naming specific locations will only exacerbate political tensions on the issue, and said defense officials also need to publicly acknowledge problems with the 2005 base realignment round to win back congressional support. And Bartels argues that the Trump administration must do more to push the issue. Defense officials requested a base closing round as part of their annual budget for six consecutive years before the Trump White House dropped the idea in their fiscal 2019 and 2020 budget plans. If officials fail to request one next spring, or if the planned infrastructure report is delayed by several months, the department risks pushing the idea back at minimum an entire extra budget cycle and likely several more years down the road. Even if approved, the new BRAC round is likely to take several years of research and debate before any recommendations are made. “I think there is still support for this in Congress,” Bartels said. “I think there are enough people that are about good stewardship of government funds that this can move ahead, if (defense officials) make the right argument. At least, I hope those lawmakers still exist.” The full analysis is available on the Heritage Foundation's website. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/08/15/plans-for-a-new-base-closing-round-may-be-running-out-of-time-report/