New hypersonic testing facility could boost US development

Sur le même sujet

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  5 mars 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité, Autre défense

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - March 1, 2019

  AIR FORCE Millennium Engineering and Integration Co., Arlington, Virginia, has been awarded a $340,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for research and development. This contract provides research, engineering, and technical management for performing space technology concept development, analysis, development, integration, experimentation, demonstration, and evaluation in support of the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate. Work will be performed at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, and is expected to be complete by April 30, 2026. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and five offers were received. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $5,000,000 are being obligated on initial task orders at the time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, is the contracting activity (FA9453-19-D-0002). Rowe Contracting Service Inc., Mandeville, Louisiana, has been awarded a $25,000,000 ceiling indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for academic and athletic custodial services. This contract provides for custodial services for the academic and athletic facilities at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Work will be performed at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, and is expected to be complete by Feb. 29, 2024. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and 27 offers received. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $1,667,389 are being obligated at the time of award. The 10th Contracting Squadron, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, is the contracting activity (FA7000-19-D-A002). Polskie Zaklady Lotnicze Sp. z. o.o., Mielec, Poland, has been awarded an $18,982,157 firm-fixed-price contract for M28 Block 05 aircraft. This contract provides for two new, commercially produced, M28 Block 05 aircraft, associated initial aircraft and maintenance training, technical publications, and ferry flight service for the M28 Block 05 aircraft from Mielec, Poland, to Kathmandu, Nepal. Work will be performed in Mielec, Poland, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 20, 2019. This contract involves foreign military financing to Nepal. This award is the result of a country-directed sole-source acquisition. Foreign military financing funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8625-18-C-1201). Phoenix Management Inc., Austin, Texas, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $7,886,394 firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable contract for base operating support services. This contract provides for base operating support services in support of supply management, vehicle operations and maintenance, traffic management operations, real property maintenance, fuels management, and airfield management functions. Work will be performed at Westover Air Reserve Base, Massachusetts, and is expected to be complete by Nov. 30, 2019. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 and operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $3,943,197 are being obligated at the time of award. The 439th Contracting Flight, Westover ARB, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (FA6606-19-C-A003). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY City Light & Power (CLP), Greenwood Village, Colorado, has been awarded an estimated $126,616,791 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for the ownership, operation and maintenance of the electric distribution system at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. This was a competitive acquisition with four responses received. This is a 50-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Mississippi, with an Aug. 31, 2069, performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. The type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2069 Air Force operations and maintenance funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Virginia (SP0600-19-C-8320). Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, has been awarded a maximum $26,490,520 firm-fixed-priced contract for receiver transmitters. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a three-year, two-month contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Rhode Island, with a June 28, 2022, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2022 Navy working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPRPA1-19-F-LY00). Travis Association for the Blind,** doing business as The Lighthouse for the Blind, Austin, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $19,958,826 modification (P00014) exercising the first one-year option period of a two-year base contract (SPE1C1-17-C-B003) with three, one-year option periods for warehousing, storage, logistics and distribution functions. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract. Location of performance is Texas, with a Feb. 29, 2020, performance completion date. Using customers are Air Force, Marine Corps, and Defense Logistics Agency. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2020 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND International Auto Logistics LLC, Brunswick, Georgia, has been awarded a task order modification (P00022) on contract HTC711-14-D-R025. This modification provides continued support of transportation and storage of Department of Defense-sponsored shipments of privately-owned vehicles belonging to military service members, and transportation of DoD-sponsored shipments of privately-owned vehicles belonging to DoD civilian employees. Work will be performed at multiple locations within the U.S. and outside the U.S. The option period of performance is March 1, 2019, to Aug. 31, 2019. Fiscal 2019 Transportation Working Capital Funds in the amount of $89,700,672 (estimated) were obligated at award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $927,409,026 from $837,708,354. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. NAVY HDT Expeditionary Systems Inc. (HDT), Solon, Ohio (N00178-19-D-4503); and Design West Technologies (DWT),* Tustin, California (N00178-19-D-4504), are each awarded multiple award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with firm-fixed-pricing arrangements for the procurement of M98 gas particulate filter sets. The maximum ceiling dollar value for both contracts combined is a possible $78,565,403. The two contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contracts. Work will be performed in Solon, Ohio, for the filters manufactured by HDT and Tustin, California, for the filters manufactured by DWT, and is expected to be complete by March 2024. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $1,605 for HDT and 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) $1300 for DWT will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. In accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304, these contracts were competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with two offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00178-18-R-5005). Rockwell Collins, ESA Vision Systems, Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $22,137,097 firm-fixed-price contract for the production and delivery of 132 Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), Night Vision Cueing and Display Systems (NVCD); 56 in support of Navy, 55 in support of the government of Australia and 21 in support of the government of Switzerland. In addition, this contract provides technical data, non-recurring engineering and all other supplies and services necessary to perform installation and testing of the JHMCS/NVCD systems. Work will be performed in Merrimack, New Hampshire (79 percent); Wilsonville, Oregon (15 percent); Atlanta, Georgia (4 percent); and Fort Worth, Texas (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in February 2021. Fiscal 2017, 2018 and 2019 other procurement (Navy); and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) funds in the amount of $22,137,097 will be obligated at time of award, $292,060 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract combines purchases for the Navy ($9,312,361; 42 percent), the government of Australia ($9,108,738; 41 percent); and the government of Switzerland ($3,715,998; 17 percent). This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-19-C-0008). Austal USA, Mobile, Alabama, is awarded a $13,586,012 fixed-priced-incentive undefinitized contract modification to previously awarded contract N00024-16-C-2217 for the incorporation of a structural bow section engineering change proposal to the 11th and 12th Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) ships (formerly Joint High Speed Vessel – JHSV). The EPF provides high-speed, shallow-draft transportation capability to support the intra-theater maneuver of personnel, supplies and equipment for the Navy, Marine Corps and Army. This modification is an undefinitized contract action for implementation of change to the bow structure on EPF 11 and EPF 12 on the DD&C Contract Line Item (CLIN) for each respective ship. Work will be performed in Mobile, Alabama (56 percent); Pascagoula, Mississippi (35 percent); Franklin, Massachusetts (7 percent); and Wilmer, Alabama (2 percent), and is expected to completed by July 2019. Fiscal 2015 and 2016 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $8,151,608 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. General Atomics, San Diego, California, is awarded an $11,739,438 for ceiling-priced delivery order N00383-19-F-NA09 under previously awarded basic ordering agreement (N00383-18-G-NA01) for the manufacture of 181 various line items for initial spares acquisition in support of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System used on aircraft carriers. Work will be performed in Tupelo, Mississippi, and work will be completed by January 2022. Fiscal 2019 working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $5,752,324 will be obligated at the time of award and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One firm was solicited for this non-competitive, sole-source requirement in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1, and one offer was received. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity. Chemring Ordnance Inc., Perry, Florida, is awarded a $10,406,730 single year firm-fixed-price (FFP) contract, in response to solicitation number N00174-18-R-0031, for the manufacture, assembly, test, and delivery of 57mm High Explosive – Point Detonating cartridges. The 57mm HE-PD Cartridge is a 57mm/70, electrically-primed cartridge designed to function in the 57mm MK 110 Gun Mount (GM). The MK 110 GM is employed on the Navy Littoral Combat Ship class and the Coast Guard Legend-class National Security Cutters. This requirement is to develop and produce 57mm HE-PD cartridges intended for combating surface and ground targets. The cartridge consists of a high explosive projectile with the ability to point detonate, a brass cartridge case loaded with propellant charge, and an electric primer. Government First Article Testing will be required. Work will be performed in Perry, Florida, and is expected to be complete by February 2021. Fiscal 2019, 2018, 10`7 Procurement of Ammunition, Navy and Marine Corps funds in the amount of $10,406,730 will be obligated at award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with three offers received via the Federal Business Opportunities website. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division, Indian Head, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00174-19-C-0006). L-3 KEO, Northampton, Massachusetts, is awarded an $8,665,266 fixed-price-incentive modification to previously awarded contract N00024-15-C-6250 to exercise options for the production of Low Profile Photonics Mast. The low profile photonics mast provides visual and other capabilities for Navy submarines. Work will be performed in Northampton, Massachusetts, and is expected to be complete by March 2021. Fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) in the amount of $8,655,266 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Kollsman Inc., Merrimack, New Hampshire, was awarded a $7,251,573 modification (P00001) to delivery order M67854-19-F-1523 on previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract M67854-15-D-6001 for the purchase of Contractor Logistics Support, 10 Common Laser Range Finder – Integrated Capability (CLRF-IC) systems, 10 Objective Lens Covers, and Retrofit of 396 CLRF-IC systems. Work will be performed at Merrimack, New Hampshire, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2019 procurement (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $7,251,573 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The base contract was competitively awarded via Federal Business Opportunities website with three offers received. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity (M67854-15-D-6001). (Awarded Feb. 28, 2019) ARMY Tetra Tech Inc., Pasadena, California (W912GB-19-D-0003); AMEC Foster Wheeler E & I GMBH, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany (W912GB-19-D-0004); and AECOM International Inc., Neu-Isenburg, Hessen, Germany (W912GB-19-D-0005), will compete for each order of the $41,100,000 firm-fixed-price contract for environmental remediation services. Bids were solicited via the internet with nine received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 29, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wiesbaden, Germany, is the contracting activity. American Engineers Inc.,* Glasgow, Kentucky (W91237-19-D-0006); Stantec Consulting Services Inc., Lexington, Kentucky (W91237-19-D-0007); and Terracon Consultants Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio (W91237-19-D-0008) will compete for each order of the $20,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Dam Safety Modification Mandatory Center of Expertise National Inland Floating Plant and land drilling services. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 29, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington, West Virginia, is the contracting activity. Manson Construction Co., Seattle, Washington, was awarded a $15,476,150 firm-fixed-price contract for Thimble Shoal Channel maintenance dredging project. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 28, 2019. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance Army funds in the amount of $15,476,150 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (W91236-19-C-0007). DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY Lintech Global Inc., Farmington Hills, Michigan, was awarded a $12,849,369 firm-fixed-price, non-personal services contract to provide data processing, data validation operations and maintenance of the TRICARE Encounter Data/Purchased Care Data Warehouse and Military Health System Data Repository programs, as well as the development, update, enhancement, repair, and testing of specific information technology applications that are managed by the Defense Health Agency, Health Information Technology (HIT) Directorate, Solutions Delivery Division Program Executive Office. The contractor's place of performance is Falls Church, Virginia. This contract has a base period of nine months with one option, if exercised, for a total of 29 months. This contract is an acquisition under GSA's IT Schedule 70 with fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $12,849,369 obligated at time of award. The Defense Health Agency, Contract Operations - Health Information Technology (CO-HIT), San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity (HT0015-19-F-0032). DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY SES Government Solutions Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract modification (P00007) to exercise Option Period Four on task order GS-35F-0328V / HC101315F0008 for commercial satellite communications service. The face value of this action is $8,356,608 funded by fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds. The total cumulative face value of the task order is $45,264,960. Performance directly supports the U.S. Central Command Southwest Asia Area of Responsibility. Quotations were solicited via the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Schedule, Information Technology Schedule 70, and five quotations were received from 22 offerors solicited. The period of performance for Option Period Four is March 6, 2019, through March 5, 2020, and there no remaining unexercised option periods for this task order. The Defense Information Technology Organization, Scott AFB, Illinois, is the contracting activity. * Small Business ** Mandatory source https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1772993/

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  1 février 2024 | International, Sécurité

  Saab and MBDA to strengthen co-operation

  They signed Letters of Intent to strengthen the co-operation between their companies in these two fields, at the Business Forum organised in the presence of the highest French and Swedish...

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  15 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  The tiny tech lab that put AI on a spyplane has another secret project

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — It started as a dare. When Will Roper, then the Air Force's top acquisition official, visited Beale Air Force Base in California last fall, he issued a challenge to the U-2 Federal Laboratory, a five-person organization founded in October 2019. The team was established to create advanced technologies for the venerable Lockheed Martin U-2 spyplane, and Roper wanted to push the team further. “He walked into the laboratory and held his finger out and pointed directly at me,” recalled Maj. Ray Tierney, the U-2 pilot who founded and now leads the lab. “He said, ‘Ray, I got a challenge.' We didn't even say hello.” Roper, a string theorist turned reluctant government bureaucrat who was known for his disruptive style and seemingly endless references to science-fiction, wanted the team to update the U-2′s software during a flight. It was a feat the U.S. military had never accomplished, but to Tierney's exasperation, Roper wanted only to know how long it would take for the lab to pull off. The answer, it turns out, was two days and 22 hours. A month later, in mid-November, Roper laid out a second challenge: Create an AI copilot for the U-2, a collection of algorithms that would be able to learn and adapt in a way totally unlike the mindlessness of an autopilot that strictly follows a preplanned route. That task took a month, when an AI entity called Artuμ (pronounced Artoo, as in R2-D2 of Star Wars fame) was given control of the U-2′s sensors and conveyed information about the location of adversary missile launchers to the human pilot during a live training flight on Dec. 15. Now, the U-2 Federal Laboratory is at work again on another undisclosed challenge. Tierney and Roper declined to elaborate on the task in interviews with Defense News. But Roper acknowledged, more broadly, that a future where AI copilots regularly fly with human operators was close at hand. “Artuμ has a really good chance of making it into operations by maybe the summer of this year,” Roper told Defense News before his Jan. 20 departure from the service. “I'm working with the team on how aggressive is the Goldilocks of being aggressive enough? The goal is fairly achievable, but still requires a lot of stress and effort.” In order to ready Artuμ for day-to-day operations, the AI entity will be tested in potentially millions of virtual training missions — including ones where it faces off against itself. The Air Force must also figure out how to certify it so that it can be used outside of a test environment, Roper said. “The first time we fly an AI in a real operation or real world mission — that's the next big flag to plant in the ground,” Roper said. “And my goal before I leave is to provide the path, the technical objectives, the program approach that's necessary to get to that flag and milestone.” Meanwhile, the team has its own less formal, longer-term challenge: How do you prove to a giant organization like the Air Force, one that is full of bureaucracy and thorough reviews, that a small team of five people can quickly create the innovation the service needs? No regulations, no rules During a Dec. 22 interview, Tierney made it clear that he had little interest in discussing what the U-2 Federal Lab is currently working on. What he wanted to promote, he said, was the concept of how federal laboratories could act as innovation pressure chambers for the military — a place where operators, scientists and acquisition personnel would have the freedom to create without being hamstrung by red tape. For those immersed in military technology, focusing on the promise of federal laboratories can seem like a bit of a letdown, if not outright academic, especially when compared to a discussion about the future of artificial intelligence. The U.S. government is rife with organizations — often named after tired Star Wars references that would make even the most enthusiastic fanboy cringe — created in the name of fostering innovation and rapidly developing new technologies. Many of those advances never make it over the “valley of death” between when a technology is first designed and when it is finally mature enough to go into production. Ultimately, that's the problem the U-2 Federal Lab was created to solve. As a federally accredited laboratory, the team is empowered to create a technology, test it directly with users, mature it over time, and graduate it into the normal acquisition process at Milestone B, Tierney said. At that stage, the product is ready to be treated as a program of record going through the engineering and manufacturing development process, which directly precedes full-rate production. “We're basically front loading all the work so that when we hand it to the acquisition system, there's no work left to do,” Tierney said. The lab essentially functions as a “blue ocean,” as an uncontested market that does not normally exist in the acquisition system, he explained. “There's no regulations; there's no rules.” While that might sound similar to organizations the Air Force has started to harness emerging technologies, such as its Kessel Run software development factory, Tierney bristled at the comparison. “We're basically developing on the weapon system, and then working our way back through the lines of production, as opposed to a lot of these organizations like Kessel Run, which is developing it on servers and server environments,” he said. That distinction is critical when it comes to bringing modern software technologies to an aging platform like the U-2, an aircraft that took its first flight in 1955 and is so idiosyncratic that high speed muscle cars are needed to chase the spyplane and provide situational awareness as it lands. Because the team works only with the U-2, they understand the precise limitations of the weapon system, what its decades-old computers are capable of handling, and how to get the most out of the remaining space and power inside the airplane. Besides Tierney, there are only four other members of the U-2 Federal Lab: a National Guardsman with more than a decade of experience working for IBM, and three civilians with PhDs in machine learning, experimental astrophysics and applied mathematics. (The Air Force declined to provide the names of the other employees from the lab.) As the lone member of the team with experience flying the U-2, Tierney provides perspective on how the aircraft is used operationally and what types of technologies rank high on pilots' wish lists. But what most often drives the team are the projects that can make the biggest impact — not just for the U-2, but across the whole Defense Department. Making it work One of those projects was an effort to use Kubernetes, a containerized system that allows users to automate the deployment and management of software applications, onboard a U-2. The technology was originally created by Google and is currently maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. “Essentially, what it does is it federates or distributes processing between a bunch of different computers. So you can take five computers in your house and basically mush them all together into one more powerful computer,” Tierney said. The idea generated some resistance from other members of the lab, who questioned the usefulness of deploying Kubernetes to the U-2′s simple computing system. “They said, ‘Kubernetes is useless to us. It's a lot of extra processing overhead. We don't have enough containers. We have one processing board, [so] what are you distributing against? You got one computer,'” Tierney said. But a successful demonstration, held in September, proved that it was possible for even a 1950s-era aircraft to run Kubernetes, opening the door for the Defense Department to think about how it could be used to give legacy platforms more computing power. It also paved the way for the laboratory to do something the Air Force had long been aiming to accomplish: update an aircraft's code while it was in flight. “We wanted to show that a team of five in two days could do what the Department of Defense has been unable to do in its history,” Tierney said. “Nobody helped us with this; there was no big company that rolled in. We didn't outsource any work, it was literally and organically done by a team of five. Could you imagine if we grew the lab by a factor of two or three or four, what that would look like?” The lab has also created a government-owned open software architecture for the U-2, a task that took about three months and involved no additional funding. Once completed, the team was able to integrate advanced machine learning algorithms developed by Sandia National Laboratories in less than 30 minutes. “That's my litmus test for open architecture,” Tierney said. “Go to any provider that says I have open architecture, and just ask them two questions. How long is it going to take you to integrate your service? And how much is it going to cost? And if the answer isn't minutes and free, it's not quite as open as what people want.” The U-2 Federal Lab hopes to export the open architecture system to other military aircraft and is already in talks with several Air Force and Navy program offices on potential demonstrations. Could the Air Force create other federal laboratories to create specialized tech for other aircraft? The U-2 lab was designed from the outset to be franchisable, but Tierney acknowledged that much of the success of future organizations will rest in the composition of the team and the level of expertise of its members. “Can it scale? Absolutely. How does it scale is another question,” Tierney said. “Do you have one of these for every weapon system? Do you have just a couple sprinkled throughout the government? Does it proliferate en masse? Those are all questions that I think, largely can be explored.” For now, it's unclear whether the Air Force will adopt this framework more widely. The accomplishments of the U-2 Federal Laboratory have been lauded by Air Force leaders such as Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, who in December wrote on Twitter that the group “continue[s] to push the seemingly impossible.” However, it remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will give the lab the champion it found in Roper, and continued pressure on the defense budget — and to retire older aircraft like the U-2 — could present greater adversity for the lab. But as for the other challenge, the one Tierney and Roper didn't want to discuss, Tierney offered only a wink as to what comes next: “What I can say is that the future is going to be an interesting one.” https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/02/11/the-tiny-tech-lab-that-put-ai-on-a-spyplane-has-another-secret-project/