Rheinmetall supplies AI-powered navigation system for UK MoD’s Project Theseus 2.2

Sur le même sujet

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  6 août 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Dedrone Provides UK With Protection Against Drone Terrorism and Threats

  LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Key to the success of integrating drones into UK airspace is collaboration that embraces the speed of innovation, while also addressing and preparing for the emerging security gaps that drones pose. In an interview this week with German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, the EU Commissioner for Security Union, Julian King, shared that drones are becoming more powerful and smarter, which makes them more and more attractive for legitimate use, but also for hostile acts. The advancements in drone technology has far outrun the pace at which government leaders can regulate and oversee the market. As a result, the public has access to inexpensive, powerful technology to support enterprises such as aerial mapping, video production, and product delivery, but also for nefarious purposes, such as spying, distributing contraband, and damaging property. “Drones are here to stay, and preventable incursions, such as those at airports, correctional facilities and stadiums, will only increase and escalate in impact,” shares Joerg Lamprecht, CEO and co-founder of counterdrone technology company Dedrone. “Dedrone is the global leader in airspace security and helps organisations protect both public and private assets from drone threats. It's critical to heed this call to action from EU leaders to measure drone activity in critical airspace, and apply this information to protect civilians from all drone threats.” Dedrone's platform is deployed across the UK and enables security teams to build procedures to defend against the escalating drone threat. In response to the Gatwick and Heathrow drone incursions, Dedrone published the UK Airport Airspace Security Study, which revealed drone activity data collected across multiple UK airports, and the steps taken to prevent interruptions. Worldwide, Dedrone also protects open-air events, such as the RBC Canadian Open, and works directly with US and European armed forces, including the US Department of Defense. About Dedrone Dedrone is the market and technology leader in airspace security. The Dedrone counter-drone platform combines hardware sensors and machine-learning software, providing early warning, classification of, and mitigation against all drone threats. Based in San Francisco, Dedrone was founded in 2014 and is backed by investors including Felicis Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and John Chambers, Chairman Emeritus of Cisco Systems and founder of JC2 Ventures. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190805005717/en

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  9 octobre 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Space Development Agency wants someone to launch its first 28 satellites

  Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — Now that the Space Development Agency has selected four contractors to build its first 28 satellites, the organization is looking for a launch provider to ferry them into orbit. According to a solicitation posted Oct. 6, the agency plans to select one company to provide launch services for all 28 satellites, with the first launch taking place in September 2022. Those 28 satellites will comprise tranche 0 of SDA's National Defense Space Architecture, a new proliferated constellation providing a whole host of services primarily from low Earth orbit. Among other things, the NDSA is anticipated to provide beyond-line-of-site targeting, hypersonic missile warning and tracking, and a space-based mesh network that will connect all of the services as part of the Pentagon's new Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) approach. The constellation will ultimately include hundreds of satellites, but SDA isn't putting them all up at once. Rather, the agency has adopted a spiral development approach, where the most mature and ready technology is added to the constellation in two year tranches. This launch solicitation covers the first tranche, otherwise known as tranche 0. Slated to go into orbit in fall 2022, tranche 0 is what SDA calls its “war fighter immersion tranche.” “Its goal is to provide the data in a format that the war fighters are used to seeing on tactical timelines that they can be expected to see once we actually become operational,” SDA Director Derek Tournear told C4ISRNET. “The whole purpose of tranche 0 is to allow the war fighters to start to train and develop tactics, techniques and procedures so that they can create operational plans for a battle where they would actually incorporate these data.” With just 28 satellites, tranche 0 will not provide global, persistent coverage. Instead, it will provide periodic, regional capabilities. Tranche 0 will feature the inaugural satellites in the transport and tracking layers. The 20 transport layer satellites will form the base of a space-based mesh network, passing data from satellites to weapon systems along a high-speed, on-orbit corridor. Tournear has previously stated that the transport layer will serve as the space component of CJADC2, the Pentagon's effort to connect sensors to shooters across domains and services. The inaugural tracking layer will be made up of eight satellites. The tracking layer will be used to detect and track hypersonic threats, working with the transport layer to pass tracking data and custody from satellite to satellite—collaborating to keep an eye on globe-traversing missiles that can evade current missile warning capabilities. SDA has selected Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems to each build 10 of the transport layer satellites, while SpaceX and L3 Harris will split the eight tracking layer satellites. Because the SDA has given vendors flexibility in the designs of their satellites, there is some variety to the weight of the space vehicles being launched into orbit. While all 20 transport layer satellites will weigh approximately 200 kilograms, give or take 20 kilograms, there is a significant difference in the size of the eight tracking layer satellites. One vendor—either SpaceX or L3 Harris—will be contributing four tracking layer space vehicles weighing approximately 1,068 kg each. The other vendor's space vehicles will be significantly lighter at just 249 kg. In total, SDA is looking to put as much as 10,164 kg of hardware into orbit. The agency wants all 28 satellites delivered to two circular, 950 km near-polar orbits, with the tranche divided evenly into two planes of 14 satellites. The launch provider has until March 31, 2023, to put all payloads on orbit and has discretion as to how many launches it will use to do that. The goal is to have as many satellites up as close to September 2022 as possible. Proposals are due by Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. EST. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/10/08/space-development-agency-wants-someone-to-launch-their-first-28-satellites/

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  14 janvier 2021 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR

  Army issues $17 million in contracts for TITAN development

  Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — The Army has issued agreements to Palantir Technologies and Raytheon Technologies in support of the design and software maturation of a new next-generation ground station. The Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) is intended to be a key piece in the sensor-to-shooter chain, connecting sensors from all domains to war fighters and systems in the field to enable beyond-line-of-sight targeting. The system will be capable of downlinking data from multiple domains, processing it with artificial intelligence to create targeting data, and then delivering those solutions directly to the Fires networks, which can then determine the best available shooter to respond with. Palantir and Raytheon will each receive an $8.5 million other transaction authority (OTA) agreements for 12 months of work in the project's first phase. That early stage will include a series of design reviews, software demonstrations and soldier touchpoints as the vendors mature the TITAN software and work on system-level design. The Army will eventually move to a single vendor for complete system prototyping for phase 2. The next stage will cover refinement of prototype capabilities, and the fourth and final phase will prepare a prototype that is ready to integrate future sensors and technology advancements. The Army has been practicing with TITAN surrogates, most notably during its Project Convergence learning campaign last year. During that event, the Army was able to take overhead tactical satellite imagery and downlink it to a TITAN surrogate located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. The TITAN surrogate then used the Prometheus artificial intelligence program to create targeting solutions from that data. Next, those solutions were transported to the main demonstration area at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, where another AI program determined the best shooter to receive that targeting solution. “We found the threat rapidly. We were able to identify it as the real threat. We were able to put hit-grade coordinates on it in very near real time and then digitally send that from the TITAN surrogate unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, down to the firing units that were located down at Yuma via tactical satellite communications. And all of that happened within seconds,” Willie Nelson, director of Army Futures Command's Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing Cross-Functional Team, told C4ISRNET following the exercise. Northrop Grumman has been tapped to build two TITAN prototypes. Those are expected to be delivered in 2022. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2021/01/13/army-issues-17-million-in-contracts-for-titan-development/