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  17 mars 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Air Force Acquisition Chief: Reaper Replacement Plan Should Come in FY ’22 Budget Request

  The Air Force is conducting a study that will inform how the service will continue its critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions as it begins to phase out production of its MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial systems, acquisition chief Will Roper said March 10. The service plans to reduce the General Atomics Aerospace Systems Inc.-developed MQ-9 Reaper combat lines from 70 to 60 by eliminating 10 contractor-operated lines while maintaining all MQ-9 aircraft in the fiscal year 2021 budget plan. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) member Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas) sought clarity on why the production line would be reduced in a Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill. “Why the major change in plans, and how will the Air Force address its ISR gap?” he asked. Roper told the committee that the Air Force is planning to build the “next generation” of ISR drones with a mixture of options, including “more high-end, unique” systems that will require lots of money to ensure their survivability, as well as commercial platforms that can “push the price point down” and provide attritable systems for added capacity. “We're doing studies now to see what our mix could be, and I anticipate that will be one of our major decisions in our FY '22 budget for the Air Force,” Roper said during the hearing. The study is being led by the Air Force's Program Executive Office for ISR and Special Operations Forces at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, he told a small group of reporters after the hearing. He expects it to be complete before the end of the fiscal year to inform the service's FY '22 Program Objective Memorandum (POM), which is currently in development, he added. “It's a really great time to give [PEO ISR & SOF] an innovative program because as their portfolio appears to be trending down ... it's important that they have something that's the new version of them that's innovative, that's indicative of their future,” he said. The Air Force has to work on dropping the cost of the counter-violent extremism mission, both in manpower and unit price, Roper said. He added that employing commercial drone services in the defense industry could help smaller, newer companies begin to scale their production while offering the service a “much lower, much cheaper” way to sustain cost. “Working with the Defense Department, you don't need the kind of production capacity that the globe does, so we're a pretty good first stop,” he said. He also told the committee that while the Reaper had “undeniable overmatch in a low-end fight and has certainly saved many lives, ... as we look to the high-end fight, we just can't take them into the battlefield.” Roper warned that if the Defense Department does not move quickly to engage builders of large UAS, the market could go the same way of small, hobbyist UAS and be saturated by Chinese products, as was seen with DJI's Phantom drone. The service's ISR portfolio could look very different in FY '21 if Congress approves its proposed FY '21 presidential budget request, released Feb. 10 (Defense Daily.) It includes the retirement of 24 Block 20/30 RQ-4 Global Hawks, including three EQ-4B drones equipped with Northrop Grumman's Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) system, as well as reducing the MQ-9 lines. In order to provide sufficient levels of ISR with the divestment of the Global Hawk 20/30 assets and reducing MQ-9 combat lines, the Air Force will maintain and modernize the U-2 [Dragon Lady ISR aircraft] and the Global Hawk Block 40 fleets and maintain 60 government-owned/government operated MQ-9 combat lines, the Air Force previously told Defense Daily. The service also plans to procure one Bombardier E-11A BACN-enabled aircraft through the five-year future years defense plan (FYDP), with plans to bring the total fleet up to eight by FY '26. One E-11A aircraft suffered a fatal crash in Afghanistan last month, leaving the Air Force with three in its current inventory. Vela also asked whether the Air Force's proposed MQ-9 retirements could affect other services operating the Reaper. Marine Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder, the service's deputy commandant for aviation, said during the hearing that while the Marines recently welcomed their first MQ-9 operators at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, he is also looking at the “wide-open” unmanned systems industry for the service's next generations of drones. “We hope to be able to continue to operate with the Air Force,” he told Vela. However, “We're ready to step out on our own system,” he added. https://www.defensedaily.com/air-force-acquisition-chief-reaper-replacement-plan-come-fy-22-budget-request/budget/

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  6 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Israel acquires FireFly loitering munition for close combat

  Seth J. Frantzman JERUSALEM — Israel's Ministry of Defense has procured the FireFly, a lightweight loitering munition designed for infantry and special forces. Jointly developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the MoD, FireFly's canister-deployed design with multiple rotors enables it to hover around buildings and attack concealed enemies that may be beyond line of sight or hiding in urban environments. FireFly is designed to fulfill a need that platoons and smaller units have on the modern battlefield for an unmanned system that is rugged and lightweight. Mini-UAVs are increasingly in demand for infantry use, and the ability to combine them with loitering munitions that can conduct surveillance and attack has become the next step for ground forces. FireFly was designed over the last 15 years based on sketches produced as far back as the Six-Day War, when Israeli soldiers had to fight in the early morning amid trenches in Jerusalem during the Battle of Ammunition Hill. Also taken into account during the design period were Israel's experiences fighting militants in close combat in urban areas, such as the Gaza Strip, as well as knowledge of the difficulties armies have faced in fighting in places like Mosul, Iraq, against the Islamic State group. Gal Papier, director of business development at Rafael's Tactical Precision Weapons Directorate, said the current FireFly model has a seeker, warhead and data link with electro-optical features that are similar to Rafael's larger Spike missile family. The Spike group of munitions includes precision-guided tactical missiles. The main difference is the addition of dual rotors so the FireFly can hover and remain stable in windy environments. “It's a different way of looking at missile guidance,” Papier said. “This is innovative and new — it's a missile that folds into a small canister.” First unveiled in 2018, Papier foresees the FireFly as “infantry's best friend,” enabling forces to both scout and attack. The warhead is small, coming in at only 400 grams, but Rafael says it is lethal enough for infantry and special forces missions. “Normally the targets are insurgents or suppressing machine guns or a sniper,” Papier explain, comparing the FireFly to UAVs that carry 20-kilogram payloads and must be launched by catapult. FireFly gives an operator up to 1.5 kilometers of line-of-sight use and 500 meters of non-line-of-sight use. It can return to the user with the click of a button, and its technology provides situational awareness to avoid collisions with obstacles. It can also operate during the day or night with a low acoustic signature. Its battery and warhead can both be replaced; the warhead can be swapped for another battery to provide double the 15-minute flying time for surveillance missions. The press of a button on the operator's tablet causes the warhead to slam into an enemy at up to 70 kph. It is also designed with safeguards, such as an abort capability. Rafael also foresees the FireFly launched from vehicles, with several units contained in a pod or “beehive” that would operate from inside the vehicle. This is in line with the increased use of smaller tactical UAVs with armored vehicles, and future battlefield concepts that foresee vehicles and infantry units operating in sync with numerous drones. “We are in [the] design stage of these pods, tailored for different vehicles. We see it as a building block,” Papier said. Israel's procurement of the FireFly and its deployment with infantry units are part of the country's multiyear plan to restructure its armed forces, known as “Momentum.” The plan also calls for increased digitization of land forces and for units to have access to more UAVs and technology. This is meant to bring intelligence assets as far forward as possible to battalion- and company-level units sharing information gathered by UAVs on a network. Papier noted that the increased deployment of loitering munitions like this will change infantry units as they decide how to make soldiers into dedicated drone operators. https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2020/05/05/israel-acquires-firefly-loitering-munition-for-close-combat/

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  20 janvier 2022 | International, Naval

  Navy, Lockheed Haven’t Reached Cost Deal on LCS Combining Gear - USNI News

  The Navy and Lockheed Martin are still negotiating the cost breakdown for a fix to the Freedom variant Littoral Combat Ship that has restricted the operations of most ships in the class, a service official said last week. Capt. Andy Gold, the program manager for the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship, told reporters at the annual …