13 juin 2019 | International, Autre défense
As the U.S. military shifts its focus back to fighting more traditional, near-peer adversaries like Russian or Chinese troops, the services are building out plans to revamp their gear to deal with better-equipped forces backed by money and technology from world powers.
That extends all the way down to the clothing and equipment each of these adversaries could be wearing into battle, including sophisticated body armor.
That's why SOCOM is reportedly looking at replacing its decades-old armor piercing small arms round.
“Snipers in USSOCOM units have a capability gap in their ability to penetrate enemy body armor, small boat engines and concrete barriers,” Crane researchers said in a slide presentation at this year's National Defense Industries Association Armaments Symposium.
The current round uses a discarding sabot the shields a sharpened tungsten penetrator that'll beat most armor and hard targets.
But that round is expensive at more than $10 per cartridge, can damage modern small arms accessories like suppressors and muzzle brakes and doesn't hold zero when switching from a traditional jacketed round to the AP round. That makes it difficult for snipers to go from one round to another and hit their target in the heat of battle.
So researchers at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana, are looking at a new way to make the rounds cheaper, easier on snipers' guns and more ballistically consistent with common, jacketed bullets.
Dubbed “aeroshell” projectiles, the Crane engineers want to build and test bullets with a tungsten penetrator jacketed in a polymer shell. Federal Ammunition, a civilian ammo company, makes rounds with similar characteristics dubbed “Syntech."
These rounds are typically used by competitive shooters who shoot many rounds in practice and at matches and want to preserve barrel life and diminish spawl from hitting steel targets.
Crane researchers want to take the same thought process and apply it to a new AP round. The actual penetrator could have a slightly different shape than the current rounds, with more of a traditional bullet profile than today's needle-like AP round penetrator.
Researchers plan to create about 150 rounds of this new aeroshell AP round in .338 Norma Mag, 300 Norma Mag and 6.5 Creedmoor. They plan to test the rounds against representative body armor at 100, 400, 800 and 1,000 meters.
7 novembre 2023 | International, Naval
The commander of Naval Submarine Forces believes he can get submarine maintenance back on track and readiness rates up to the 80% goal by late FY27.
28 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
ARMY Vectrus Systems Corp., Colorado Springs, Colorado, was awarded a $529,058,476 modification (P00202) to contract W52P1J-10-C-0062 for Kuwait base operations and security support services. Work will be performed in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 28, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $248,000,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Leidos Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $58,487,824 firm-fixed-price contract to ensure suitable time and ceiling are available to meet the requirements of the Automated Installation Entry system. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 27, 2022. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QY-15-D-0047). SCD.USA Infrared LLC, Melbourne, Florida, was awarded a $17,425,550 firm-fixed-price contract for sustainment support services for the AN/VSQ-6B Vehicle Optics Sensor system. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 27, 2030. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W56JSR-20-D-0016). Carahsoft Technology Corp., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $16,043,475 firm-fixed-price contract for contractor staff augmentation services to migrate the Army Enterprise Systems Integration Program components and Global Combat Support System-Army system. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of July 26, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $16,043,475 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-20-F-0432). Owyhee Group Co.,* Boise, Idaho, was awarded a $9,209,263 firm-fixed-price contract for the Army cold weather combat boot. Bids were solicited via the internet with five received. Work will be performed in Boise, Idaho, with an estimated completion date of July 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $9,209,263 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QY-20-F-0360). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Dynalec Corp. Inc., Sodus, New York, has been awarded an estimated $17,685,523 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract for electronic and communication components. 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 five-year base contract with three one-year option periods. Location of performance is New York, with a July 24, 2025, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio (SPE7LX20D016). (Awarded July 24, 2020) NAVY CBGG JV LLC,* Silver Spring, Maryland, is awarded a $12,982,363 firm-fixed-price contract for trailer procurement Phase II at Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point, North Carolina. Work will be performed in Jacksonville and Havelock, North Carolina. The work to be performed provides for the procurement, delivery and set-up of 75 interim relocatable facilities, with 62 to be located at MCB Camp Lejeune and 13 to be located at MCAS Cherry Point. The new facilities will include administrative, classroom trailers, post office, medical aid station, computer lab, chapel and fire station. Work is expected to be completed by November 2020. Fiscal 2020 procurement (Marine Corps) contract funds in the amount of $12,982,363 are obligated on this award, of which $11,200,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.SAM.gov website and 13 proposals were received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N62470-20-C-0008). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2289819/source/GovDelivery/
16 décembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By Brian Garrett-Glaser ARLINGTON, Texas — Bell's offering for the Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) contest, the 360 Invictus, is intended to offer the Army an insurance policy by presenting a lower-risk path to the capabilities it hopes to acquire as a “knife fighter” light attack helicopter to replace the retired OH-58 Kiowa Warriors. The Invictus, with its low-drag tandem cockpit design, draws from a lot of the development Bell has put into the 525 Relentless, a super-medium utility aircraft it hopes will be the first fly-by-wire rotorcraft certified for the civil market. Though Bell's FARA program is newer than some of its competitors, such as Sikorsky's S-97 Raider — Bell officials said the program had just three employees at this time last year and now comprises over 200 — the company believes its reliance on systems which it already has at a high technology readiness level due to work on the 525 will provide the Army with a compelling aircraft inside of its cost and timeline objectives. “It's still a very advanced aircraft. But by using technologies that we already had high TRLs in, or high manufacturing readiness levels in, we are ahead on that timeline piece,” Frank Lazzara, director of advanced vertical lift systems, told Avionics International during a press visit to the company's Flight Research Center here. The Invictus design meets or exceeds Army requirements in every area, according to Lazzara, due in part to the clean-sheet engineering that went into the Bell 525, including in the main and tail rotor systems. That aircraft has flown in excess of 200 knots without issue, despite being designed for 160 knots cruise speed. Bell intends the Invictus to cruise efficiently at 180 knots. “We flew [the 525] until we said we're done, but that rotor wasn't done,” said Josh O'Neill, senior manager for technology and evaluation on the Bell 525 program. “So we went not just 201 knots. It was a good bit more than that.” The 525 Relentless was the first aircraft Bell designed “totally in the 3D space,” O'Neill said, and the Invictus is similarly using a digital thread, enabling things like virtual reality maintaining exercises to provide design feedback without a physical product. “You have a digital thread, the same part that's used when you design your aircraft is used in the maintenance training, used throughout the product,” said O'Neill. “You design the aircraft in 3D, lay out all the systems and you're able to go in there with an actual maintainer. So we pulled [a line maintainer] and had him put the gloves on and go maintain the aircraft. And you can see in the 3D space, I need to reach around this piece, I need to turn my hand in a way that the human hand doesn't like to be turned. So we need to move that item.” As a fly-by-wire aircraft designed with a modular open systems architecture (MOSA) approach, Bell believes Invictus will provide the Army with an path to autonomy — or enable a single person in the aircraft to focus on mission functionality — similar to Bell's approach with the V-280 Valor, its offering for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition. Bell officials said they are currently introducing autonomous flight software and performing software regression tests for that aircraft and intend to begin autonomous flight tests within the next few months. In March 2020, when the Army narrows the FARA competition from five companies to two, Bell's team will be nine months into design. After that, two of the five designs — selected from Sikorsky, Bell, Karem Aircraft, AVX/L3Harris, and Boeing — will be selected to participate in a fly-off slated for the second half of 2022. The Army hopes to field the first FARA aircraft in 2028. https://www.aviationtoday.com/2019/12/15/bell-invictus-offer-army-lower-risk-path-fara-capabilities/