Singapore Airshow 2020: IAI takes aim at Singapore's next-gen UAV requirement with Heron MKII

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  15 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 14, 2020

  AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $32,860,395 hybrid cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price modification (P00068) to previously-awarded contract FA8615-12-C-6016 for contractor logistics support to the Taiwan F-16 Peace Phoenix Rising program. This modification provides for contractor logistics support, repair and return and diminishing manufacturing source management services for Taiwan F-16s Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas; and Taiwan, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, 2025. This modification involves 100% foreign military sales to Taiwan. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $25,001,279 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. NAVY Noble Sales Co. Inc., Rockland, Massachusetts, is awarded a $30,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, fixed-price contract that includes provisions for economic price adjustment to acquire supplies and provide related store operation services required by Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center, Norfolk, for two commercial retail stores on the Naval Support Activity, Crane, Indiana, for materials needed by the Naval Facilities Command Public Works Department. The contract includes a five-year base ordering period with an option to extend services for a six-month ordering period pursuant to the Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.217-8. All work will be performed in Crane, Indiana. The ordering period is expected to be completed by January 2025; if the option is exercised, work will be completed by July 2025. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds (Navy) in the amount of $100,000 will be obligated to fund the contract's minimum amount, and funds will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with the solicitation posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website with five offers received. Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center, Norfolk, Contracting Department, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00189-20-D-0009). ARMY CEMS-RS&H ABQ JV,* San Antonio, Texas, was awarded a $9,500,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect and engineer services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 22 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 9, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the contracting activity (W912PP-19-D-0017). Goodwill Industries of San Antonio Contract Services, San Antonio, Texas, was awarded a $7,858,420 modification (P00006) to contract W81K04-18-C-0002 for record processing services, inventory, track and store service treatment records for Army service members who have separated or retired from the Total Force. Work will be performed in San Antonio, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 25, 2021. Fiscal 2020 and 2021 Defense Health Program, defense funds in the amount of $7,858,420 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Health Contracting Activity, San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Alamo Strategic Manufacturing,** San Antonio, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $8,625,000 modification (P00005) exercising the first one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SPE1C1-19-D-1122) with two one-year option periods for knee and elbow pads. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract. Locations of performance are Texas, Puerto Rico and Massachusetts, with a Jan. 30, 2021, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. *Small Business **Small Disadvantaged Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2057245/source/GovDelivery/

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  11 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval

  General Atomics SeaGuardian UAV To Conduct Validation Flights For Japan Coast Guard

  General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) will partner with Asia Air Survey (AAS) to hold a series of validation flights for the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) featuring GA-ASI's SeaGuardian® beginning in mid-September. Xavier Vavasseur The purpose of the flights is to validate the wide-area maritime surveillance capabilities of RPAS for carrying out JCG's missions, including search and rescue, disaster response, and maritime law enforcement. The flights are expected to run for approximately two months and will include support from the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) at its Hachinohe base in Aomori Prefecture. According to the JCG, the flight validation will be conducted in accordance with “The Policy on Strengthening the Maritime Security Systems,” using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to perform maritime wide-area surveillance using new technology. “We're pleased to support the JCG's goals of validating SeaGuardian's maritime surveillance performance,” said Linden Blue, CEO, GA-ASI. “We know there is a need in Japan and worldwide for affordable, long-endurance airborne surveillance in the maritime domain.” The SeaGuardian system will feature a multi-mode maritime surface-search radar with Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) imaging mode, an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver, and High-Definition – Full-Motion Video sensor equipped with optical and infrared cameras. This sensor suite enables real-time detection and identification of surface vessels over thousands of square nautical miles. The featured Raytheon SeaVue surface-search radar system provides automatic tracking of maritime targets and correlation of AIS transmitters with radar tracks. SkyGuardian® and SeaGuardian are revolutionizing the long-endurance RPAS market by providing true all-weather capability and is built to achieve Type Certification based on STANAG (NATO standard) airworthiness compliance. This feature, along with its operationally-proven, collision-avoidance radar, enables flexible operations in civil airspace. https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2020/08/general-atomics-seaguardian-uav-to-conduct-validation-flights-for-japan-coast-guard/

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  6 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval

  NATO’s ‘startup’ charts a bold future in maritime unmanned systems

  By: Michael D. Brasseur , Rob Murray , and Sean Trevethan Last December, at their meeting in London, NATO leaders declared: “To stay secure, we must look to the future together. We are addressing the breadth and scale of new technologies to maintain our technological edge, while preserving our values and norms.” These two sentences were, in part, a nod to a significant piece of work the alliance is undertaking within the broader mandate of alliance innovation — NATO's Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative. Granted, on its own this sounds both technical and narrow within the context of emerging technology, a context that includes: artificial intelligence, data, space, hypersonic weapons, bio technologies, quantum research, autonomy and more. So why are maritime unmanned systems relevant now? Simply put, developing the numbers of manned submarines, aircraft and ships required to keep pace with potential adversaries is simply not economically viable (almost $3 billion per Virginia-class U.S. submarine). Not since the Cold War has NATO needed the volume of maritime forces to protect our seas and oceans from would-be foes. NATO's areas of interest are expanding. As climate change affects the Arctic, new maritime routes are being created, which Russia in particular is exploiting with its submarines and ships. This matters because it exposes a new flank on NATO's high-north periphery, and if left unchecked is a potential vulnerability whilst also being a potential opportunity; this, coupled with an increasing need to protect our undersea data infrastructure means NATO's geostrategic responsibilities continue to grow. Therefore, if allies are to reinforce NATO's maritime posture, deter Russian aggression, guard against Chinese activity, and protect both critical national infrastructure and our sea lines of communication, NATO must do things differently and at the speed of relevance. NATO's Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative was agreed by 13 defense ministers in October 2018. Since then, the initiative's success has attracted the participation of three more allies and garnered significant interest from all of NATO's maritime nations. The political agreement struck in 2018 provided the mandate for NATO to bring together disparate strands of common work ongoing within nations. NATO, acting as a network, enabled allies to become greater than the sum of their parts. The focus is threefold: utilize world-leading research to increase allied interoperability between conventional forces and unmanned drones; establish new tactics for our sailors to truly leverage these technologies; and develop secure digital communications for military drones across all domains (air, sea and land). Addressing these priorities together will enable this effort to be scaled across the alliance, at pace. To date, the speed of this effort has been breathtaking. So much so that even the United States and the United Kingdom — two allies who have invested the most in this area — are using the NATO initiative as a catalyst for their own national efforts. The last 12-plus months has seen the creation of a NATO project office, a governance body, as well as the planning and successful execution of the world's largest and most complex maritime unmanned systems exercise off the Portuguese coast in September 2019. This event brought together the very best from our navies, industry, scientific institutes and academia. The results were hugely impressive, with many “world firsts” including maritime unmanned systems augmenting conventional forces through multiple scenarios. We now have vast swaths of insight and information to start achieving those three goals of improving interoperability, enhancing our tactics and developing secure communications. The goal of improving allied interoperability is actually about enhancing standards. A topic often overlooked at the policy level but critical to the DNA of the NATO alliance. Standards drive interoperability, which in turn drives readiness, which ultimately aids deterrence. As NATO leads the development of new technologies, so too must come new standards that our industries and military can implement. Open architectures will be key, but allies and industry need to realize that we need to solve problems — not address requirements. No perfect solution will ever be delivered on the first attempt. The alliance will need to both innovate and iterate on operations in order to maintain advantage. This may be a cultural shift to some acquisition purists who are used to developing complex warships over 20-plus-year time frames. However, the challenge remains our ability to scale. With this project we have an agile global team functioning across multiple national and allied bureaucracies, each with their own culture and ways of working. Through engagement and investment, this team is yielding disproportionate results. Indeed, 2019 demonstrated what can be done with some imagination, effort and focus. But continual growth at speed will require faith by allies to maintain the course. Such is the nature of true change and innovation. There is a lot to do, and the stakes are high. Near-peer competitors are once again very real. Despite the global lockdown caused by the new coronavirus, COVID-19, the initiative continues to progress through synthetic networks and simulation, driven by passion and intent. Our economy, our data and its infrastructure still need protecting, now more than ever. This effort strives to accelerate maritime unmanned systems into NATO's arsenal to patrol the vast swaths of ocean and offset evolving threats. Success will be seen because it is being built on allied nations' shared values and norms, the same values and norms that NATO leaders recognized in London last year. Michael D. Brasseur is the director of naval armaments cooperation for the U.S. mission to NATO. He is also the first director of NATO's “startup,” the Maritime Unmanned Systems Innovation and Coordination Cell. Rob Murray is the head of innovation at NATO Headquarters. Sean Trevethan is the fleet robotics officer of the British Royal Navy, working in the future capability division at Navy Command Headquarters in Portsmouth, England. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/04/20/natos-start-up-charts-a-bold-future-in-maritime-unmanned-systems