RCAF instructor launches program to teach Indigenous youth to fly - Skies Mag

Sur le même sujet

• 

  3 janvier 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  China’s Moon Landing: ‘New Chapter in Humanity’s Exploration of the Moon’

  By Steven Lee Myers and Zoe Mou BEIJING — China reached a milestone in space exploration on Thursday, landing a vehicle on the far side of the moon for the first time in history, the country's space agency announced. The landing of the probe, called Chang'e-4 after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology, is one in a coming series of missions that underscore the country's ambitions to join — and even lead — the space race. China landed another rover on the moon in 2013, joining the United States and the Soviet Union as the only nations to have carried out a “soft landing” there, but the Chang'e-4 is the first to touch down on the side of the moon that perpetually faces away from the Earth. The mission “has opened a new chapter in humanity's exploration of the moon,” the China National Space Administration said in an announcement on its website. The agency said the spacecraft landed at 10:26 a.m. Beijing time at its target on the far side of the moon. The probe sent back to the earth the first close-up image of the moon's far side using a relay satellite China calls “Queqiao,” or “Magpie Bridge,” the space agency said in a notice that included images it said were taken by the probe. Although a latecomer by decades to space exploration, China is quickly catching up, experts say, and could challenge the United States for supremacy in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other fields. “This space mission shows that China has reached the advanced world-class level in deep space exploration,” said Zhu Menghua, a professor at the Macau University of Science and Technology who has worked closely with the Chinese space agency. “We Chinese people have done something that the Americans have not dared try.” China now plans to begin fully operating its third space station by 2022, to put astronauts in a lunar base by later in that decade, and to send probes to Mars, including ones that could return samples of the Martian surface back to Earth. Though the moon is hardly untrodden ground after decades of exploration, a new landing is far more than just a propaganda coup, experts say. Full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/world/asia/china-change-4-moon.html

• 

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

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense -November 03, 2020

  ARMY RC Construction Co. and Millstone Weber JV, Greenwood, Mississippi, was awarded an $81,499,929 firm-fixed-price contract for removal and replacement of existing electrical equipment, including airfield lighting and lighting vault equipment, and the reconstruction of Runway 05-23 at Pope Army Airfield. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with an estimated completion date of May 1, 2021. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $81,499,929 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah, Georgia, is the contracting activity (W912HN-21-C-3001). Phylway Construction LLC, Thibodaux, Louisiana, was awarded a $59,310,781 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of hurricane protection features in Plaquemines Parrish, Louisiana. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work will be performed in New Orleans, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 10, 2024. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds in the amount of $59,310,781 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Mississippi, is the contracting activity (W912P8-21-C-0002). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Medtronic USA Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been awarded a maximum $62,658,150 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for spinal orthopedic procedural packages. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Location of performance is Minnesota, with a Nov. 2, 2021, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DE-21-D-0001). NAVY Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Chandler, Arizona, is awarded a $57,096,626 firm-fixed-price contract. This contract provides for the manufacture and delivery of 19 full rate production Lot 14 GQM-163A Coyote supersonic sea skimming targets; 16 for the Navy and three for the government of Japan. Additionally, this contract procures associated technical and administrative data. Work will be performed in Camden, Arkansas (43%); Chandler, Arizona (35%); Vergennes, Vermont (8%); Cincinnati, Ohio (4%); Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (4%); Lancaster, Pennsylvania (4%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (2%), and is expected to be completed in December 2023. Fiscal 2020 weapons procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $48,081,369; and Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $9,015,257 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-21-C-0005). Detyens Shipyards, Charleston, South Carolina, is awarded an $18,144,376, 76-calendar day, firm-fixed-price contract (N32205-21-C-4015) for the regular overhaul dry-docking availability of the fleet replenishment oiler USNS Leroy Grumman (T-AO 195). The contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the total contract value to $18,144,376. Funds will be obligated Nov. 3, 2020. Work will be performed in Charleston, South Carolina, and is expected to begin Jan. 20, 2021, and be completed by April 5, 2021. Contract funds in the amount of $17,554,850, excluding options, are obligated for fiscal 2021 using working capital funds (Navy). This contract was competitively procured with proposals solicited via the beta.sam.gov website and three offers were received. The Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity. HDR Engineering Inc., Charlotte, North Carolina, is awarded a firm-fixed-price task order modification (N40085-19-F-6080) at $8,492,340 under architect/engineer, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for post award construction services in support of Hurricane Florence Recovery Package 2, located at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Hurricane Florence Recovery Package 2 consists of eight separate military construction projects. Work will be performed in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and is expected to be completed by October 2024. Fiscal 2020 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $8,144,376 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N40085-18-D-0601). Sealift Inc. of Delaware, Oyster Bay, New York, is awarded an $8,030,000 option for the fixed-price portion of previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N32205-17-C-3510 with reimbursable elements to exercise a one-year option period to support Military Sealift Command's Sealift program for U.S.-flagged container vessel M/V MAJ Bernard F. Fisher to support the Air Force for the prepositioning and transportation of cargo. The contract includes one 116-day firm period of performance, four one-year option periods, and one 212-day option period, which if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $42,579,948. Work will be performed worldwide and is expected to be completed, if all options are exercised, by June 11, 2022. Transportation working capital funds in the amount of $7,238,000 are obligated for fiscal 2021 and will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. Contract funds in the amount of $792,000 for the remainder of Option Four are to be provided for fiscal 2022 and are subject to the availability of funds in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.232-18. This contract was a small business set-aside with more than 50 companies solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website and four offers received. The Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N32205-17-C-3510). AIR FORCE Supertel Network Inc., Melbourne, Florida, has been awarded a $9,099,694 cost-plus-award-fee contract for the Minuteman III Remote Visual Assessment program. Work will be performed in Ogden, Utah; Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana; Minot AFB, North Dakota; and F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 3, 2021. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,181,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, Hill AFB, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8214-21-C-0001). *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2403972/source/GovDelivery/

• 

  27 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  New ‘Air Force Ventures’ Set To Transform Technology Strategy

  Steve Trimble The U.S. Air Force has adopted a three-phase strategy to select small, innovative companies outside the traditional defense industry to perform advanced development work and to tap Silicon Valley-style venture capital firms to help taxpayers finance the new technology. A new process could help rationalize the one-year-old Air Force effort to attract high-tech startups with dozens of Air Force Pitch Day events. These conferences have led to hundreds of small contract awards but no obvious path to guide the aspiring defense contractors further into the byzantine military acquisition process. U.S. Air Force plans to make 50 large “bets” on technology New acquisition training to be based on Fighter Weapons School For the private startups and venture capitalists involved, the Air Force Ventures initiative is designed to offer a new route to the commercial market for potentially game-changing technologies that could benefit from a risk-tolerant government customer providing funding and early support. “We don't really think of ourselves as a [stand-alone] market, but we purchase things in quantities that [are] meaningful enough that we can bridge companies until they reach a level for commercial success,” says Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. “That's one reason that [venture capitalists] are interested in this.” The Air Force Ventures process starts with the Pitch Day events, during which the Air Force can place initial “bets” worth up to about $50,000 each in Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants on promising, potentially game-changing ideas, says Roper, speaking to about 1,000 Air Force acquisition officials during a Feb. 14 webinar. As the companies transition toward Phase II SBIR awards, the Air Force plans to grant about 300 contracts worth up to $1 million each—with a program office agreeing to fund about one-third of the costs. The funding match is meant to link the SBIR award to a program office, creating a path for the technology to potentially transition beyond the laboratory stage and into a program of record. The third and final step in the Air Force Ventures concept whittles the pool of awards to about 50 recipients. The amount of the award is potentially “unlimited,” Roper says, but is generally regarded as at least $10 million. The first of the “big bets” in Phase III are now under evaluation, Roper says. The contract awards could be announced at South by Southwest, a week-long technology conference and entertainment festival scheduled for March 13-22 in Austin, Texas. The initiative explicitly seeks to help the Air Force break from traditional defense contractors. As the Air Force attempts to field leap-ahead capabilities within the next decade for the Advanced Battle Management System and Next-Generation Air Dominance, leveraging the innovative ideas and technology flowing into the commercial market is seen as critical. “[R&D] in this country is 80% commercial,” Roper explains. “So in the 21st century, the [defense] industrial base should be dual-use. And so we've got to crack the code on how to have public and private funding work seamlessly inside an Air Force program.” But there are significant challenges as the Air Force tries to leverage commercial-sector technology investments: Small companies often need to find a market quickly to generate revenue and cash flow, whereas government program offices tend to make decisions slowly—and inconsistently. “In many cases, their commercialization [strategy] is devalued [by investors] if they have government funds,” Roper adds. The Air Force's program managers also face a learning curve. “If we're making 1,000 small bets a year, the reason we're making 1,000 is that we know most of them aren't going to pan out. So we can't manage the companies the way we would a traditional program,” Roper says. “But we can manage them as a portfolio—the same way that a private investor or a venture capitalist would.” To prepare, the Air Force is sending acquisition officials back to school. Next year, a cadre of program managers will be enrolled in a six-month course at Stanford University, which will teach the Air Force to manage technology investments like a venture capitalist, Roper says. The next step is to expand educational opportunities within the Air Force. A new acquisition curriculum, modeled on operational training centers such as the Fighter Weapons School, will be created, Roper says. https://aviationweek.com/shows-events/air-warfare-symposium/new-air-force-ventures-set-transform-technology-strategy