4 janvier 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Kyle Rempfer
A growing cohort of Air Force researchers are arguing that the service needs to undergo a munitions revolution if it is to take on a peer-level adversary in open conflict.
“We're developing a range of technologies to enable next-generation and improve precision effects on the battlefield,” Col. Garry Haase, who helms the Air Force Research Lab Munitions Directorate, told an audience at the Air Force Association Annual Conference this fall.
In some instances, that will mean more powerful munitions to breach and destroy Russian and Chinese structures in the event of war.
“There is now a shift in emphasis away from minimizing to maximizing effects in a high-end fight,” said John Wilcox, vice president of advanced programs and technology at Northrop Grumman, at the conference.
“Requirements from our missions directorate say we continue to have to deal with the whole spectrum of threats as we shift to more of a near-peer threat focus,” Wilcox added. “We are looking at larger munitions with bigger effects.”
And while neither members of the AFA panel named Russia or China specifically, a recent study by the Mitchell Institute, which is aligned with the Air Force Association, certainly did.
In the document, titled “The Munition Effects Revolution," several retired senior Air Force officers argue that the U.S. munitions arsenal is overdue for a shakeup.
“The bomb body, a steel shell filled with explosive material, is relatively unchanged across the past 100 years," the study reads. "But some elements of modern munitions have significantly evolved—particularly guidance elements. Munition effects—the destructive envelope of heat, blast, and fragmentation—remain essentially unchanged.”
High demand for combat aircraft is a key driver behind the need for enhanced munitions options, according to the Mitchell Institute.
“The Air Force is currently operating the smallest and oldest aircraft force in its history,” the study reads. “Additionally, current mission capable rates are low and pilots are in increasingly short supply. To best meet combatant command requirements amidst these constraints, it is crucial to ensure each sortie flown and every bomb dropped yields maximum potential.”
1 février 2022 | International, Aérospatial
L'Espagne s'engage à verser une contribution de 1,75 milliard d'euros au programme Eurodrone cofinancé avec l'Allemagne, la France et l'Italie....-aero-spatial
7 janvier 2019 | International, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR
By: Todd South Each of the past three years has seen the Army build and upgrade its newest warfighting concept, one that leaders look to transform the service in an era of greater competitionand multi-faceted threats. That concept, while improved, will continue to evolve in the coming year as well, with more experimentation and feedback from soldiers at all levels. The Army will fight its future battles through formations geared toward multi-domain operations and guided by real-world threats to global military superiority, according to an updated version of Army warfighting called Multi-Domain Operations 2028. “U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations 2028” is both a revision to ongoing warfighting plans and an invitation for input from across the force. “The American way of war must evolve and adapt,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley wrote. “It describes how U.S. Army forces, as part of the Joint Force, will militarily compete, penetrate, dis-integrate, and exploit our adversaries in the future.” And while it has been formed by commanders at Army Training and Doctrine Command, Army leaders know it needs more. “Every one of you is part of our evolution and the construction of our future force,” Milley wrote, addressing soldiers, “and we want your critical feedback.” The main task of this new battle concept is to get after “layered stand-off,” in which adversaries have created ways to deny historical U.S. dominance of domains such as air-land-sea, and new ones such as information and electromagnetic spectrums to keep U.S. and allied military units at bay. In the newly released document's preface, Gen. Stephen Townsend, TRADOC commander, focused on how the Army will operate and enable the joint force in future conflicts. “If deterrence fails, Army formations, operating as part of the Joint Force, penetrate and dis-integrate enemy anti-access and area denial systems; exploit the resulting freedom of maneuver to defeat enemy systems, formations and objectives and to achieve our own strategic objectives; and consolidate gains to force a return to competition on terms more favorable to the U.S., our allies and partners,” he wrote. To reach those goals, the Army will need some new functions, new equipment and advanced processes to select, train and retain capable soldiers. Some of that was evident this past summer in the Pacific, where fires soldiers found novel approaches to integrating traditionally land-focused Army assets and networks to link up with partner forces and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps teams to share information and strike ships at sea in simulated, contested environments. The director of the Army's Capabilities Integration Center, Brig. Gen. Mark Odom, in an Army release, highlighted key factors in the new concept's importance. The concept focuses on operational problems with competitors such as Russia and China, as opposed to the counterinsurgency and counterterrorism focus in recent decades. This means it returns the Army to a focus on threats rather than capabilities-based approaches, he wrote. https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/01/04/new-in-2019-the-armys-new-way-of-warfighting-will-continue-to-evolve
11 juin 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Stephen Losey The Air Force has awarded a $499 million contract to L3 Technologies to modernize avionics for the service's Guard and Reserve C-130H Herculesfleet. In a June 6 release, L3 said it had received the Air Force's C-130H Avionics Modernization Program Increment 2 contract, to design, produce and certify a plan to upgrade the 176 Hercules aircraft belonging to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. L3 said its upgrades will improve the Hercules' availability, reliability and sustainability, while lowering its costs to operate the transport aircraft. The aircraft will receive a commercial off-the-shelf avionics suite and L3 will provide training services, according to the release. The contractor will carry out the work at its facility in Waco, Texas. “L3 is committed to delivering innovative, cost-effective solutions to ensure mission readiness in support of the U.S. Air Force's modernization strategy,” L3 CEO and president Christopher Kubasik said in the release. “We are focused on providing an agile and low-risk approach to modernizing the Air Force's diverse fleet of C-130s, enabling these assets to operate well into the future.” The Air Force's C-130Hs are among the older transport aircraft in the fleet. In 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, the Air Force's 188 C-130Hs had an average age of 28 years. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/06/10/c-130hs-to-get-avionics-upgrade-in-half-billion-dollar-deal/