13 janvier 2024 | International, Terrestre
US approves possible Javelin sale to Kosovo amid tensions with Serbia
Kosovo wants new anti-tank weapons from Washington, as tensions in the Balkans continue to simmer.
17 août 2020 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR
‘No lines on the battlefield’: Pentagon’s new war-fighting concept takes shape
By: Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON — For most of this year, Pentagon planners have been developing a new joint war-fighting concept, a document meant to guide how the Defense Department fights in the coming decades.
Now, with an end-of-year deadline fast approaching, two top department officials believe the concept is coalescing around a key idea — one that requires tossing decades of traditional thinking out the window.
“What I've noticed is that, as opposed to everything I've done my entire career, the biggest difference is that in the future there will be no lines on the battlefield,” Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during an Aug. 12 event hosted by the Hudson Institute.
The current structure, Hyten said, is all about dividing areas of operations. “Wherever we go, if we have to fight, we established the forward edge of the battle area, we've established the fire support coordination line, the forward line of troops, and we say: ‘OK, Army can operate here. Air Force can operate here,' ” Hyten explained.
“Everything is about lines” now, he added. But to function in modern contested environments, “those lines are eliminated.”
What does that mean in practice? Effectively, Hyten — who will be a keynote speaker at September's Defense News Conference — laid out a vision in which every force can both defend itself and have a deep-strike capability to hold an enemy at bay, built around a unified command-and-control system.
“A naval force can defend itself or strike deep. An air force can defend itself or strike deep. The Marines can defend itself or strike deep,” he said. “Everybody.”
That “everybody” includes international partners, Hyten added, as the U.S. operates so often in a coalition framework that this plan only works if it can integrate others. And for the entire structure to succeed, the Pentagon needs to create the Joint All-Domain Command and Control capability currently under development.
“So that's the path we've been going down for a while. And it's starting to actually mature and come to fruition now,” Hyten said.
The day before Hyten's appearance, Victorino Mercado, assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities, talked with a small group of reporters, during which he noted: “We had disparate services [with] their concepts of fighting. We never really had a manner to pull all the services together to fight as a coherent unit.”
Mercado also said the war-fighting concept will directly “drive some of our investments” in the future and tie together a number of ongoing efforts within the department — including the individual combatant command reviews and the Navy's shipbuilding plan.
“I can tell you there's some critical components [from those reviews] — how you command and control the forces, how you do logistics; there are some common themes in there in a joint war-fighting concept,” he said. “I can tell you if we had that concept right now, we could use that concept right now to influence the ships that we are building, the amount of ships that we need, what we want the [combatant commands] to do.
“So this war-fighting concept is filling a gap. I wish we had it now. Leadership wishes we had it now,” he added. “It would inform all of the decisions that we make today because now is about positioning ourselves in the future for success.”
Like Hyten, Mercado expressed confidence that the concept will be ready to go by the end of the year, a deadline set by Defense Secretary Mark Esper. But asked whether the department will make details of the concept public when it is finished, Mercado said there is a “tension” between informing the public and key stakeholders and not giving an edge to Russia and China.
“I think there is an aspect that we need to share of this joint war-fighting concept,” he said. “We have to preserve the classified nature of it. And I think I have to be careful what I say here, to a degree.”
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3 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial
Boeing’s F-15EX jet makes its first flight
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Boeing's first F-15EX took to the skies for its inaugural flight on Feb. 2, a milestone that will allow the company to deliver the first two planes to the U.S. Air Force by the end of March. After a couple of hours of delays due to weather — which also held up plans to conduct a first flight on Feb. 1 — Boeing test pilot Matt “Phat” Giese took off from Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, at approximately 1:57 p.m. EST. The flight lasted approximately 90 minutes, and the plane performed as expected, Boeing said in a news release. “Today's successful flight proves the jet's safety and readiness to join our nation's fighter fleet,” said Prat Kumar, Boeing vice president and F-15 program manager. “Our workforce is excited to build a modern fighter aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. Our customer can feel confident in its decision to invest in this platform that is capable of incorporating the latest advanced battle management systems, sensors and weapons due to the jet's digital airframe design and open mission systems architecture.” The Air Force first added the F-15EX to its fiscal 2020 budget at the behest of the Defense Department's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, or CAPE. With the Air Force and Air National Guard's fleet of 1970s-era F-15C/D jets showing signs of age, the service needed to either conduct an expensive life extension or buy new planes to replace them. But with F-35 operations and sustainment costs still financially burdensome, CAPE officials argued that buying an upgraded version of the F-15E Strike Eagle — with new features developed primarily at the cost of foreign customers like Qatar and Saudi Arabia — would be a more cost-conscious option. The Air Force placed its first order for the F-15EX in July 2020, awarding a contract for the first lot of eight jets with a value not to exceed about $1.2 billion. The entire program has a ceiling value of $23 billion. The new jets come with a host of modern features, including Honeywell's ADCP-II mission computer, the Eagle Passive/Active Warning and Survivability System electronic warfare system made by BAE Systems, the Raytheon Technologies' AN/APG-82 radar, fly-by-wire flight controls, and a digital cockpit. The service expects to buy at least 144 F-15EX aircraft, but the contract includes options to allow the Air Force to purchase up to 200 jets. Congress first included funds in December to purchase eight F-15EXs through the fiscal 2020 spending bill, and lawmakers approved spending $1.2 billion to buy 12 F-15EXs in fiscal 2021. According to the Air Force's FY21 budget request, the service plans to buy another dozen planes in FY22, procuring 14 F-15EXs in FY23, and ramping up to 19 jets per year in both FY24 and FY25. Once delivered to the Air Force, the first two F-15EXs will go Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for testing, with the remaining six aircraft set to be delivered to the base in FY23. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/02/02/the-f-15ex-just-made-its-first-flight
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15 novembre 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Can you solve our new waste reduction challenge? / Pouvez-vous résoudre notre nouveau défi sur la réduction des déchets?
Cost and Waste Reduction of Tree Planting Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is seeking a solution that will develop novel processes, approaches and/or technologies, to reduce the cost of tree seedling production, packaging and transportation while also reducing the amount of waste including plastic waste currently generated. Think you can solve our new waste reduction challenge? Compete for funding to prove your feasibility and develop a solution! This challenge closes December 21st, 2021 at 2pm EST! Apply online Réduction des coûts et des déchets dans la plantation d'arbres Ressources naturelles Canada (RNCan) est à la recherche d'une solution qui permettra d'élaborer de nouveaux processus, approches et/ou technologies afin de réduire le coût de production, d'emballage et de transport des semis d'arbres tout en réduisant la quantité de déchets, notamment des déchets de plastique actuellement produits. Vous pensez pouvoir résoudre notre nouveau défi sur la réduction des déchets ? Compétitionnez afin de prouver la faisabilité de votre solution et de la développer ! Ce défi se termine le 21 decembre, 2021 à 14h HNE. Postulez en ligne