19 mai 2024 | International, Terrestre
In data: Romania's defence modernisation strategy - Army Technology
An analysis of Romania's defence sector, covering budgetary surges, procurement strategies, and market dynamics.
14 avril 2020 | International, Terrestre
Pandemic not slowing Army plans to field enduring indirect fires protection capability
By: Jen Judson
WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic is not slowing down the Army's plans to field an enduring indirect fires protection capability, according to Lt. Col. Juan Santiago, the service's program development manager for the effort.
The Army has had to take a few steps back over recent years to reconsider its ways forward to develop an enduring capability to defend against rockets, artillery and mortars as well as cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft systems.
As the service re-examined its path, Congress mandated that it buy an interim capability aimed directly at protecting the force from a growing cruise missile threat, but the Army has stressed that the system it will use — Rafael's Iron Dome — won't cover all the bases needed for a lasting capability.
Earlier this year, the Army sent a report to Congress outlining its plans to get after the enduring capability, partly by hosting a shoot-off with vendors that bring launcher and interceptor capabilities next year.
The Army issued a request for information to industry at the beginning of March with plans to conduct an industry day.
But with the COVID-19 pandemic raging in the United States and limiting travel and social contact, the IFPC program office had to get creative in order to keep the program moving forward.
The office was able to host one-on-one meetings with interested vendors as part of an industry day this month and is planning to answer industry questions, which have been submitted virtually, Santiago told Defense News in an April 9 interview.
To stay on track with the program, the office couldn't afford to delay industry engagements in order to keep the ball moving, Santiago explained.
The next big step for industry is to submit white papers to the Army toward the end of April, Santiago said.
The Army will review the papers over the course of a month and will notify industry by the end of May whether or not they will be invited to proceed into an agreement with the service to move forward, he said.
Those selected will move into a modeling and simulation phase that will also include some hardware-in-the-loop activities where capabilities are demonstrated in a simulated environment to determine if they are ready to go out on the range for the live shoot-off next year in the 3rd quarter of fiscal 2021 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Santiago said he could not disclose the number of agreements that might be awarded.
The Army will invite vendors to submit final proposals following the shoot-off, Santiago said, but even if a vendor isn't ready for that phase, it can still submit a final proposal that draws upon performance in a simulated environment and includes a plan to get to a live-fire capability within the desired timeline.
The government will evaluate final proposals and choose one vendor to provide the launcher and interceptor solution in the fourth quarter of FY21, Santiago said.
Initial capabilities are expected to be fielded by FY23.
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22 août 2024 | International, Aérospatial
US Air Force eyes missile defense for dispersed bases in China fight
The Air Force plans to spread out forces during a fight with China, and Gen. David Allvin wants to do more to defend dispersed bases from missile attacks.
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3 juin 2019 | International, C4ISR, Autre défense
DARPA Announces ERI Summit 2019 Workshops
For the second year in a row, DARPA is convening the electronics community to discuss the ambitions and achievements of its five-year, upwards of $1.5 billion investment in U.S. microelectronics advancement. Attendees at the second annual Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) Summit – being held July 15-17 in Detroit, Michigan – will hear from commercial and defense leaders as they share their insights on the domestic semiconductor industry and the applications driving next-generation electronics. The Summit will close on July 17 with 11 public workshops designed to demonstrate program accomplishments, shape future areas of research, and provide insights into working with DARPA as well as transitioning technologies to use. “Continued collaboration across industry, defense, and academia is critical to creating the next wave of microelectronics innovation,” said Dr. Mark Rosker, director of DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). “Last year's Summit allowed these groups to come together and collectively work towards creating a more specialized, secure, heavily automated, and DoD-available electronics industry. This collaboration contributed to the formation of six new DARPA programs. With this year's expanded roster of workshops, we are again asking the community to share their perspectives, provide guidance, and foster the connections that will help define the future of an innovative and competitive domestic electronics enterprise.” In areas ranging from security and privacy to rapid circuit design, ERI's programs are already working to address both commercial and manufacturing realities as well as the needs of the defense enterprise. Several “Ongoing Efforts” workshops will provide updates on these active research efforts, including presentations on secure hardware and software architectures for high-risk transactions; trusted-by-design components and their impact on supply chain security; and novel atomic clock architectures. Attendees will also experience live demonstrations of autonomous chip design tools as well as open source IP and verification technology in development on two ERI programs – IDEA and POSH. Both programs are addressing the complexity and cost barriers that have limited the competitive field for circuit design by exploring novel approaches to automated circuit design and IP sharing. Shaping the future of microelectronics innovation requires research and development across a vast number of technical areas and applications. Several “Emerging Concepts” workshops will explore potential future areas of investment, and will seek input from the community to help define the most critical challenges to address. These workshops will focus on enhanced security for commercial hardware; energy-efficient computing for distributed machine intelligence; and novel approaches to designing and verifying distributed systems. A four-hour workshop will also focus on the challenges facing heterogeneous integration – a critical area of exploration for an emerging wave of alternatives to traditional transistor scaling. The workshop will cover problems associated with dense digital integration and mixing silicon with compound semiconductors, as well as potential solutions and paths forward. Finally, two “Enhancing Collaboration” workshops will provide guidance to attendees who are new to working with DARPA or are interested in transitioning DARPA-funded inventions out of the lab and into the commercial world. During the “DARPA/MTO Collaboration 101” workshop, Rosker will provide both a history of the agency and information about how to work with DARPA in the future. The deadline to register for the ERI Summit is Monday, June 24, 2019 at 11:59 PM EST. Registration information as well as a full agenda and workshop descriptions are available at www.eri-summit.com. All attendees must register in advance. Workshop headcount limits will be pre-determined based on attendee interest. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-05-31