9 octobre 2018 | International, Terrestre
By: Jen Judson
WASHINGTON — The modernization team tasked with advancing the Army's next-generation combat vehicles is focused, as its top priority, on replacing the Bradley Fighting Vehicle with an Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, according to the team's leader, Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman.
The OMFV is meant to “provide options to commanders in combat, so it's a decision to, manned or unmanned, gain contact with the enemy, and that can be visual or through firepower, and it actually provides options to commanders so that they can use the best way to accomplish their mission,” Coffman said in an interview with Defense News shortly before the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting.
The Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team — established as part of the Army's new Futures Command — tackles the service's second highest priority out of six major lines of effort that are intended to fully modernize the force by 2028.
The CFT has had many conversations with industry to determine what's possible. The team has laid out what it thinks will be the requirements for the vehicle, Coffman said, including aspects like an optionally manned capability, loading it on a C-17 aircraft, protection elements and lethality.
Even though the Army plans to rapidly prototype and procure the OMFV, Coffman said the team will continue to roll new technologies in through constant experimentation, in parallel with OMFV procurement, so that the first OMFV that comes out and gets fielded is constantly improved.
The Army will roll those improvements into manufacturing “so that we can always maintain the current technology on these vehicles,” he said.
The Army is requesting that designs have lots of room for upgrades and to add in new technology.
"We know technology will continue to move at the pace it is today or faster, and it is going to allow us to have enough physical space and computing power as well as propulsion power that, if we want to add things to these vehicles, we have the ability to build them [to be] the best they can be,” Coffman said.
Jumping right in, the service plans to release a request for proposals, not just a draft, by the end of the year, Coffman said.
It is anticipated that the proposals will be due in May next year, and then the Army will downselect to two competitors who will build 14 prototypes in an engineering and manufacturing development phase in the first quarter of fiscal 2020, according to industry sources.
Coffman said he hoped to cast a wide net with industry, including looking to partners around the world for solutions.
“We want them to bring us their best, and we will evaluate and downselect to some number and do a procurement contract at the end of the final evaluation,” he said.
To accommodate for the OMFV effort and the other lines of development within the CFT's portfolio, the Army has downgraded its prototype activity within the Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center.
A year ago, the Army had kicked off a major prototyping effort to develop what the service was calling its NGCV by awarding an industry team a contract to build two demonstrators by fiscal year 2022.
The Army awarded a seven-year, $700 million contract to a team consisting of SAIC — the team lead — as well as Lockheed Martin, Moog Inc., GS Engineering Inc., Hodges Transportation Inc. and Roush Industries.
Jim Scanlon, senior vice president and general manager of SAIC's Defense Systems Group, told Defense News in a recent interview that while the initial plan was to build prototypes, the strategy has evolved. Now, the team is working on sub-system experimentation for TARDEC using Bradley assets, to test capabilities such as mobility systems and manned-unmanned teaming.
SAIC, according to Scanlon, sees the Mobile Protected Firepower solution it is hoping to prototype for the Army as possessing technological capabilities that will serve as “hooks” — or a pathway — to fulfilling OMFV requirements.
Other companies are likely to emerge with offerings for OMFV, including General Dynamics Land Systems, AM General and BAE Systems.
BAE Systems brought its CV90 fighting vehicle, developed for the Swedish army, to AUSA. The Netherlands, Finland and Denmark are also customers of the vehicle. According to BAE, it brought the CV90 to the show as a starting point to discuss possible options for the NGCV program.
Raytheon and Rheinmetall announced at the AUSA conference Oct. 8 that they are partnering to provide Rheinmetall's Lynx combat vehicle as its submission to the impending OMFV competition.
22 mars 2021 | International, Aérospatial
Capital pour la coopération européenne en matière de défense, le projet de Système de combat aérien futur (SCAF) est fragilisé, alors que les parties prenantes (pays participants et géants de la défense)
9 mars 2021 | International, Aérospatial
L'armée de l'Air et de l'Espace a effectué le 4 mars son premier vol opérationnel avec un Rafale équipé de 2 missiles Meteor. L'intégration du missile Meteor entre dans le cadre de la montée en puissance du Rafale F3-R de Dassault Aviation. Le missile Meteor, développé par MBDA, est propulsé par un statoréacteur pilotable qui lui apporte vitesse, portée et manoeuvrabilité terminale. Son intégration « apporte une allonge considérable dans le combat air-air, avec une portée estimée à une centaine de kilomètres », précise Aerobuzz. Son emploi se conjugue à celui du radar RBE2 AESA à antenne active, capable de détecter et désigner des cibles à cette distance. La prochaine étape pour le Rafale en matière de missile concerne l'intégration du MICA de nouvelle génération avec le standard F4, dans les années 2023-2024. Air & Cosmos et Aerobuzz du 9 mars
14 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Last year, the Air Force tapped seven defense companies for a $6.4 billion opportunity for “Red Air” training where contracted pilots pose as aggressors in air-to-air combat. With the fiscal 2020 budget finally approved, those firms are hungry to hear for more information about when and where they start flying. The companies — Air USA Inc., Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), Blue Air Training, Coastal Defense, Draken International, Tactical Air Support and Top Aces Corp. — currently find themselves waiting for the next phase of the competition, when the Air Force will issue individual work orders for a total of 22 bases that will allow contractors to begin flying this year. “I think we've all watched the Air Force program develop over the last two years kind of in awe at the size of it and the ambition, the commitment they're making to have enough adversaries out there to challenge their pilots,” said Russ Bartlett, CEO of Textron Airborne Solutions, which is the parent company of ATAC. “That's great for industry, because the Air Force knows they need to do that.” Unlike major programs for weapon systems, which have a dedicated line item in the budget, the work orders for adversary air services will be paid out of the operations and maintenance account, which is more flexible. While the Air Force's FY20 budget request flags a $151 million increase for “contract air training,” it's unclear how much of that amount will ultimately be set aside for that adversary air services. It will be up to Air Combat Command “to decide how much money they're going to put against the adversary air budget. So we're really just waiting to figure out how that all works,” said Russ Quinn, president of Top Aces. “We and the program office are looking very forward to hearing how Air Combat Command is planning on funding the contract.” Draken International is already conducting aggressor flights at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., as part of a five-year contract awarded in 2018. That work is helping the company keep its Red Air planes ready ahead of work at other bases, said Sean Gustafson, Draken's vice president of business development. "We're flying 6,000 to 7,000 hours a year out there right now,” he said. “We're excited for the task orders to come out shortly, looking to expand and set up operations on the East Coast and then supporting those bases.” The Draken pilots, who currently fly the Aero Vodochody L-159E Honey Badger and Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, regularly deploy from Nellis AFB and visit other installations, including Hill AFB in Utah, Eglin AFB in Fla., and Holloman AFB in N.M. The company will begin adding Mirage F1s to the mix next month, Gustafson said. “We're very excited about that, because that will be the first radar-equipped, supersonic aircraft in the industry. We have the first three [of 24 total] going out there in February,” he said. The company has also purchased 12 radar- equipped, supersonic Atlas Cheetah fighters that will help cover Air Force requirements outside of Nellis. Meanwhile, the other companies are doing training and modifications necessary to get their aggressor fleets ready to fly whenever the U.S. Air Force decides it needs those planes. Top Aces has purchased 29 used F-16s from an undisclosed user specifically for the Air Force's adversary air contract. Those aircraft are not yet in the United States, but Quinn is confident that the company will have the aircraft in hand in early spring, he said. After that, Top Aces will begin modifying each jet with an open architecture system that will allow the company to more easily outfit the aircraft with a range of radar, sensors, electronic warfare pods or other technologies that increase the capability of Red Air forces, he said. Depending on whether the company wins a contract with Germany for adversary air services, it may also have excess capacity with its Douglas A-4N Skyhawk fleet, which it could also offer to help supplement the U.S. Air Force's needs, Quinn said. ATAC plans to use its new fleet of Mirage F1 jets to meet the Air Force's requirements. So far, the company has fully trained one F1 pilot, who flew the first ATAC Mirage in August. Another two pilots were set to begin training in December, Bartlett said late last year. “On the airplane side, we're in really good shape. Sixty-three airplanes is a huge win for us. There are a lot of economies of scale that we intend to capitalize on,” he said. “The challenge is going to be — of course — hiring and retaining pilots. The services are trying keep their pilots and grow their pilot cadres; the airlines are hiring aggressively and paying lucrative salaries, and this industry is growing by leaps and bounds with just this Air Force program.” So far, recruiting pilots has not been a problem for Draken, Gustafson said. The company has employed 52 aggressor pilots to meet the demands of its contract with Nellis, and has a “stack of resumes” from pilots that jobs as the company expands to other bases. “We're doing well on [hiring],” he said. “Some folks, they don't want to go to the airlines. They recently retired from the military and they want to keep flying fighters.” The company is looking to grow its fleet with new aircraft, as well, he added. “We should have some pretty exciting news about five to six months from now,” he said. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/01/13/red-air-providers-prep-for-a-big-year