Poland shortlists Babcock, Thyssenkrupp for $2 billion frigate program

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  5 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Armed Services committees and the election: Here’s what we know

  By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON — As results for key congressional races and the presidency continue to roll in, several Senate Armed Services Committee leaders are still battling tough races. But here is what we do know, as of mid-morning Thursday. This story will be updated as results come in: • Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue, the chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee, is leading in his race against Democrat John Ossoff, potentially denying Democrats what would have been a vital pickup for seizing control of the Senate. It's also too soon to call the race between Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump for the state's 16 electoral votes. Democratic hopes of controlling the Senate for the first since 2015 appear to be slipping. To win the Senate, Democrats would have to gain three seats if Biden prevails against Trump, or four seats if Trump wins the election. • Senate Military Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., led challenger Cal Cunningham by 96,000 votes and declared victory Wednesday, but Cunningham refused to concede while more than 117,000 absentee ballots were outstanding. • Senate Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee Chairman Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, on Thursday morning appeared to have a 60,000-vote lead on Independent challenger Al Gross, with only half the votes counted. However, Alaska's tally is expected to take days as officials count mail-in ballots. • Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, had a similarly tough race but denied Democrats what would have been a key pickup for seizing control of the Senate. Ernst, the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee chair and a member of Senate Republican leadership, is the first female combat veteran elected to Congress. • Michigan Democrat Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking member on the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, prevailed Wednesday night in a razor-tight race against businessman and Iraq war veteran John James. Hours after Biden defeated Trump in the state, Peters was roughly 60,000 votes ahead. • Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., both won reelection handily, and if the Senate stays in Republican hands, they will almost certainly stay in their leadership roles. Senate Airland Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., had no Democratic challenger and won reelection. Senate Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Mike Rounds, R-S.D., also won. New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, another senior member of SASC, easily won a third term. All three were projected wins. • SASC Republican Sen. Martha McSally, the Air Force's first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, lost to Mark Kelly, an astronaut and retired Navy captain, in Arizona. She has yet to concede, however. • SASC Democrat Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., lost decisively to Republican opponent Tommy Tuberville. • House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., soundly defeated his Republican challenger, while two lead Republican contenders to replace Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, as ranking member ― Reps. Mike Turner of Ohio and Mike Rogers of Alabama ― also won reelection. • Two Democratic freshmen on HASC ― Reps. Kendra Horn of Oklahoma and Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico ― lost seats that Democrats flipped in 2018. As of Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y., was trailing his Republican challenger but refused to concede until absentee ballots are counted. • Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon, a former Air Force one-star general whose policy positions sometimes clashed with Trump, carved out a reelection win. Because Nebraska awards its electoral votes by congressional district, NE-02 was also a crucial win for Biden. • Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., won reelection. Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Pentagon official, is at the top of an influential class of Democratic freshmen who have hands-on national security experience. Addressing supporters Wednesday, she reportedly said Biden will win in Michigan, but there may be a tumultuous transfer of power. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/11/04/armed-services-committees-and-the-election-heres-what-we-know/

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  4 septembre 2018 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR

  Russia, U.S. Are In a Military Exoskeleton Race

  By Patrick Tucker A look at the Iron Man-like dreams and power-starved realities of dueling technology programs. The Russian suit, Ratnik-3, is an imposing web of hexagonal armor plates, black webbing, and small joint motors called actuators. Oleg Faustov, an engineer working with weapons maker TsNiiTochMash, told Russian media outlet TASS this week that the government had already tested a prototype. “It really enhances a serviceman's physical abilities. For example, the tester was able to shoot from a machine-gun only with one hand and accurately hit targets,” he said at Russia's recent Army-2018 weapons show. As part of the Army-2018 publicity push, the makers of the suit also made vague and unverifiable claims that it had seen actual combat, according to Sam Bendett, an associate research analyst at CNA and a fellow in Russia studies at the American Foreign Policy Council. “It was interesting that the Russian announcement during Army-2018 stated that the exoskeleton was ‘tested in combat,' though without any specific details. It's likely that it was tried in Syria, though the press and media did not cover that development,” he said. While the statement came from the suit's maker, Bendett said he assumes the claim “had to be approved by the state given the combat claims.” The suit is supposed be officially released in 2025. In addition to an almost comically Black Manta-esque helmet, the Ratnik-3 features “40 life-saving elements,” Russian media says. In many ways, it resembles some of the more recent concept images of the TALOS suit that U.S. Special Operations Forces Command, or SOCOM, is attempting to develop. In both, all those bells and whistles seem to be an obstacle to the suit reaching full utility. Both the Ratnik-3 and TALOS efforts seem constrained by available power. “There are issues with the battery and energy sources for this exoskeleton, as Russia—along with other nations working on this—are trying to create a compact energy source that would allow the soldiers to act independent of any stationary or vehicle-borne sources of energy,” Bendett said. Even Russian media have noted the suit's power constraints, noting that a battery life of less than four hours isn't super practical for a day of marching. A forthcoming series of reports from the Center for New American Security, or CNA, takes a deep dive into the issue of soldier augmentation and reaches a similar conclusion. “The current state of technology still does not have sufficient power to manage the intense load-carrying capacity that the SOCOM TALOS suit concept requires...and development is needed before full-body exoskeletons will be feasible for infantry combat away from a reliable power source. Still, these advances represent a major step forward in the necessary technology for dismounted soldier exoskeletons,” notes the report. While size and power constraints are hindering the realization of militaries' most ambitious Iron Man dreams, more modest exoskeleton suits are moving closer to real-world use. The U.S.Army is experimenting with two exoskeleton designs at the Natick Soldier Systems Center in Massachusetts. These won't protect soldiers from enemy fire but they will help soldiers carry more stuff for longer. And they'll likely be on the battlefield far sooner. “Exoskeletons with more modest goals, such as lower-body exoskeletons that are designed simply to increase mobility, reduce energy expenditure, and reduce musculoskeletal injuries, may show more promise in the near-term,” according to the CNAS report. The larger of the two is the ONYX from Lockheed Martin. At a Pentagon event in May, Defense One caught up with Keith Maxwell, a product manager from Lockheed Martin, who described the results of initial tests in November, 2016. “We did an evaluation with some soldiers. They were doing 185-pound squats with the barbell. At the beginning of the day, fresh, Johnny comes in and does 26 reps at 185, puts it down. hat's as many as he can do. We put this on; over the course of the day, he's doing casualty evacuations, carrying people up five flights of stairs and down, going through subterranean tunnels. At the end of the day, we put him back in the gym, ask him, ‘How many squats can you do?' He knocks out 72.” Full article: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2018/09/russia-us-are-military-exoskeleton-race/150956/

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  28 novembre 2023 | International, Terrestre

  Early Ford carrier maintenance costs lower than planned, Navy says

  Early Ford-class maintenance costs are lower than expected, meaning the aircraft carriers could save more than predicted compared to the Nimitz class.