Navy extending service lives of three cruisers

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  18 novembre 2020 | International, Naval

  Damen and Thales to build the German MKS 180 frigate of the future

  Hengelo, November 18, 2020 – Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding and Thales signed on November 17, 2020,the contract for the delivery and full integration of Thales's Mission and Combat System for the four MKS 180 class frigates contracted by the German Navy. The system will be designed by Damen and completely built by German shipyards, under Damen's project management. Valued at €1.5B, the contract illustrates Thales's leading position in global naval integration. It will be executed by Thales's naval Centers of Excellence in Hengelo (the Netherlands), Kiel and Wilhelmshaven (Germany) in cooperation with a substantial number of German subcontractors. Underpinning this contract is the proven cooperation of German and Dutch naval industries, including numerous joint opportunities for Damen and Thales in the Netherlands to innovate within naval shipbuilding projects, often with the participation of the Netherlands' Ministry of Defence. The project underscores Damen's and Thales's ambition to build further cooperation with shipyards and partnering industries in high-end European naval programmes. Thales's Mission and Combat System includes the comprehensive Tacticos Combat Management System and the AWWS (Above Water Warfare System) Fire Control Cluster. The contract includes four ship systems, logistic services and multiple land-based test and training sites, as well as the option for one or two additional ships. AWWS is a cutting-edge warfare suite that helps the ship crews to counter and neutralise complex saturation attacks by continuously analysing and optimising the tactical environment and deployment of resources. AWWS will be combined with APAR* Bl2, the evolved version of Thales's proven AESA* multifunction radar. In 2019, Thales signed an AWWS development contract for the new M-frigates for the Belgian and Dutch Navies. In the past years, Thales has been awarded several large contracts by European NATO navies, thanks to innovative solutions and its proven reliability as an industrial partner. These contracts have made Thales the de facto naval combat system partner of NATO. The first ship of the MKS 180 class will be operational in 2028. The entire programme will run for over ten years. “Winning such a substantial contract within the strict framework of an objective scoring system reinforces our global leading position in high-end naval integration. Thanks to our innovative capabilities, the German Navy will be able to execute both current and future tasks whilst substantially contributing to stability in the operational theatres all over the world.” Gerben Edelijn, CEO of Thales Netherlands. “As a partner in the MKS 180 programme, Thales Deutschland not only contributes to a high German value-added share, but also brings many years of experience in European cooperation and proven systems expertise. This programme will create new, high-quality jobs in Germany, within an exemplary framework of European defence cooperation. We will also contribute to maintaining the German Navy's operational capability at the highest level within the alliance,” Dr. Christoph Hoppe, CEO of Thales Deutschland. “We are very honoured by this notification which further solidifies our long-standing cooperation with the German Navy and Damen. We sincerely thank our customers for their continued trust. This huge contract anchors our position as global leader in high-end naval systems integration. The German Navy will benefit from cutting-edge technological systems thanks to the diversity of talents at Thales”. Patrice Caine, Chairman and CEO of Thales. * APAR: Active Phased Array Radar * AESA: Active Electronically Scanned Array Faiza Zaroual Media Relations and Social Media, Land & Naval Defence, Thales Group faiza.zaroual@thalesgroup.com Press office : +33(0)1 57 77 86 26 +33 (0)7 81 48 80 41 @ThalesDefence View source version on Thales Group: https://thales-group.prezly.com/damen-and-thales-to-build-the-german-mks-180-frigate-of-the-future?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=TCKM

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  7 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval

  USAF, US Navy and industry discuss physiological sensors development

  The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has hosted an industry day to brief industry about the need for sensors to reduce physiological episodes in pilots. More than 150 members from the US Air Force (USAF), US Navy and industry took part in the inaugural Physiological Episodes Mitigation Technology Summit and Industry Day conducted in Dayton, Ohio, US. At the event, participants discussed the research and development of sensors to collect physiological data from pilots. The USAF and US Navy intend to develop sensors that are capable of gathering data from pilots before, during and after a flight. USAF Physiological Episodes Action Team (PEAT) lead Brigadier General Gregor Leist said: “Efforts surrounding this issue are really driven by the nature of the challenge. It's a safety-critical issue, and we need to throw everything we can at this and find the root, if there is a root, for the safety of our pilots.” Both the airforce and navy established PEATs to address the spike in the rate of physiological episodes. The services have been working with each other to share data and research. Leist added: “What really drove a lot of the airforce activities for this was the T-6 trainer and the steep rise in air breathing-associated physiological episodes. “We've been partnering continuously with the navy, sharing data in both directions so we're not duplicating efforts, and have the defence department's best working this.” The PEATs used different sensors to collect aircraft data. The effort was aimed at accurately characterising the breathing and pressurisation systems to understand the cause for physiologic episodes. AFRL sensors development team lead Dr James Christensen said: “The Integrated Cockpit Sensing programme aims to identify best-of-breed sensors for near-term operational implementation while defining an architecture, which will allow the airforce to continually add or upgrade the best sensing capability to prevent and/or mitigate the effects of physiological events.” https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/usaf-physiological-sensors-development/

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  7 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  How low-Earth orbit satellites will enable connectivity across all domains of warfare

  Nathan Strout The Space Development Agency will provide the unifying element in the Defense Department's future Joint All-Domain Command and Control concept, pulling together tactical networks developed by the services with a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites. With the JADC2 concept, the department envisions an overarching network capable of connecting sensors to shooters regardless of where they are located. That means U.S. Air Force sensors could feed data to U.S. Army shooters, or even National Reconnaissance Office sensors could send information to U.S. Air Force shooters. “Each of the services have their own way to incorporate [tactical networks], and JADC2 is just a way to make sure they all have the same networking infrastructure to talk to one another, essentially,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said at the C4ISRNET Conference on May 6. “We plug directly into [JADC2] as the space layer to pull all of that communication together.” Service efforts include programs like the Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System and the Army's TITAN ground system. What the Defense Department wants to ensure is that programs like these have a way to share data across the armed services. “All of those are reliant on a way to be able to have a back end to go in space to be able to communicate across one another and across back to [the continental United States], etc. That's where the Space Development Agency's transport layer comes in,” Tournear said. “In fact, in the defense planning guidance, Secretary Esper put out the edict that basically said the transport layer will be the integrating aspect of JADC2 to be able to pull all of this tactical communication together in space.” On May 1, the SDA released its solicitation for the first 10 satellites that will make up its transport layer — a space-based mesh network in low-Earth orbit. When fully developed, that transport layer will provide a global network that various sensors, shooters and tactical networks will be able to plug into for tactical communications. A key part of that effort involves ensuring space-based sensors can feed into the services' battlefield networks in near-real time. Once that transport layer is placed on orbit in 2022, the SDA wants to demonstrate space-based sensor data being downlinked to a ground station, then uplinked to the transport layer for dissemination to the tactical edge via TITAN and Link 16 tactical network. But ultimately, the SDA wants to cut out the ground station and move the data directly from the space-based sensor to the transport layer via optical cross links. That's a stretch goal for those first 10 satellites, and the minimal viable product when the second tranche of 150 satellites is added in 2024, said Tournear. Tournear declined to identify the SDA's mission partners on development of space-based sensors, which will need to use optical inter-satellite cross links to plug into the transport layer. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/05/06/how-low-earth-orbit-satellites-will-enable-jadc2/