14 juin 2018 | International, Terrestre
A Senate committee is asking for a report that could radically alter the “roles and missions” of the services — especially the Army and Marine Corps.
Senate bill 2987 calls for the services to put together this report by February. However, the bill is still in draft form and would require House agreement to become law.
The proposal for the report suggests the Marine Corps could take over all counterinsurgency missions from the Army, thereby eliminating the newly established and deployed Security Force Assistance Brigades.
The bill's authors instead want the Army to beef up its presence in the “great power competition” against Russia and China by increasing the size and strength of its vehicle fleet. The service would also use more drones and fewer manned aircraft to support ground units in the multi-domain fight.
The Senate Armed Services Committee's request also calls for the services to conduct or provide the following:
The analysis isn't limited to ground forces either. The SASC wants an assessment of the feasibility of current plans and investments by the Navy and Marine Corps to operate and defend their sea bases in contested environments.
One assessment may strike deeply into current Marine Corps and Navy projects — amphibious connectors and the ships that carry them.
SASC is asking the Pentagon to conduct the following:
Special operations forces would join the Army's shift back to fighting big militaries, getting out of the counterinsurgency business as well, according to the Senate proposal.
Senators are seeking:
Additional reviews include the space mission, requirements for the KC-46 tanker aircraft, and logistics in contested environments.
If approved, the Senate Armed Services Committee wants the report by Feb. 1.
7 avril 2023 | International, C4ISR
The Army's capability set venture kicked off in 2021, with special attention paid to infantry. Additional batches of gear are expected every two years.
1 novembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By THERESA HITCHENS WASHINGTON: The Air Force is expanding a key data tool, the cloud-based Unified Data Library (UDL), that may underpin the service's ambitious Multi-Domain Operations push. Air Force leaders (including acquisition chief Will Roper) believe the UDL will be able to mesh data from all types of sensors to provide space situational awareness (SSA) and command and control (C2) for most Air Force missions. The small $37 million contract, awarded Tuesday to Bluestaq LLC, will “expand the Advanced Command and Control Enterprise Systems and Software (ACCESS) project for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Data Program Management Office and the Directorate of Special Programs, Space Situational Awareness Division.” ACCESS will feed the UDL, integrating data “from a wide range of sources spanning commercial, foreign, Department of Defense (DoD) and the Intelligence Community (IC),” according to a company press release. The contract, awarded under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, appears to fulfill exactly what Roper and other Air Force acquisition officials are pressing for: drawing in small and innovative companies that can move fast to help the service get inside the speed of Moore's Law instead of taking years or decades to develop new software systems. “We can't specify all specific data sets over the next three years because prioritization is dynamic, but the goal is to eventually integrate all of AFSPC data there along with other sources such as commercial space (already there but more coming), multi-domain data from such as air, land, sea, data from other agencies, and even academia,” an Air Force Space Command spokesperson told Breaking D yesterday. The spokesperson noted that the expansion will support Space Command's National Space Defense Center, designed to run future combat operations in space and to integrate Intelligence Community data with that of the military. It also will support the Combine Space Operations Center (CSPOC), that shares space domain awareness information with allies, the spokesperson said, as well as administrative functions. UDL is the brain child of Maj. Gen. Kim Crider, Air Force Space Command's (AFSPC) data integration guru. Crider is charged with developing AFSPC's classified Enterprise Data Strategy and Roadmap to underpin multi-domain command and control (MDC2) operations. “The Unified Data Library consumes, processes, and distributes millions of unique data products daily originating from dozens of commercial, academic, and government organizations across the world to a diverse user base spanning 25 countries,” according to Bluestaq. “The Unified Data Library storefront provides a robust interactive online API to assist users or developers with education and discovery of available dashboards, data streams, services, structures, and formats. The Air Force plans to expand the Unified Data Library to allow different security classification user access levels and fuse data from all types of sensors to provide command and control for most Air Force missions.” Indeed, AFSPC said in its email, “UDL data is available to any partner organization today, depending on clearance, authorization of the data provider, and classification of the data in question.” The UDL also is being tested by the Commerce Department as it readies itself to take over the mission of providing space situational awareness (SSA) information to commercial and foreign satellite operators. To get some idea of how different the culture is at this company note this comment by Andy Hofle, Bluestaq chief engineer and co-founder: “It has been exciting to see the growing community interest in the data management platform over the last 18 months, and our team has had a tremendous amount of fun playing a role in the development of the project.” https://breakingdefense.com/2019/10/air-force-hires-startup-to-build-up-mdos-unified-data-library
11 juin 2018 | International, Aérospatial
By: Jeff Jeong SEOUL, South Korea ― The South Korean military's long-sought purchase of training helicopters has been ruptured due to price issues, prompting the arms procurement agency to prepare a rebidding process for the aircraft acquisition project code-named TH-X. Bell (formerly Bell Helicopter) and Leonardo Helicopters were competing for the $155 million project to procure 41 training helicopters both for the South Korean Army and the Navy, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, or DAPA. “The TH-X selection, originally due late last year, has been delayed, and a bidder failed to meet some of the TH-X requirements,” DAPA spokesman Kang Hwan-seok said. “As the TH-X acquisition is a competition basis, we're scheduled to proceed with a rebidding soon.” Multiple industry sources said the TH-X negotiations broke down mainly because of cost concerns. “Bidding price was an issue, but there are some other reasons, too,” Kang said, adding his agency would issue a request for proposals again between June and July. He declined to elaborate further. The South Korean military has sought to introduce new training helicopters to replace the older fleet of MD 500s, which have been operational for more than 30 years. The DAPA issued an RFP for the TH-X in November 2015. Bell offered its new 505 Jet Ranger light helicopter, which successfully completed its first flight in November 2014, while Leonardo suggested its SW-4 light single-engine multirole helicopter produced its Polish subsidiary PZL Swidnik. Both companies are expected to participate in the TH-X retender, according to DAPA officials. https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2018/06/01/south-korea-to-reboot-training-helicopter-acquisition/