14 février 2019 | International, Aérospatial
A consortium of South Korean aerospace companies has been selected by the US government to provide maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services for Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has announced.
DAPA said in a statement on 13 February that the consortium - termed by DAPA as 'Team ROK' - includes Hanwha Systems, Hanwha Aerospace, Korean Air Aerospace Division, LIG Nex1, and logistics specialist Hyundai Glovis.
DAPA said it was notified of the decision by the US Department of Defense (DoD). It added that the selection of Team ROK followed a review undertaken by the DoD of proposals to expand MRO involvement in the F-35 programme by countries involved in developing the aircraft and by countries committed to procuring the platform.
DAPA said that Team ROK has been allocated responsibility to provide MRO services in support of components and systems across three areas: avionics, "machinery and electronics", and in-flight egress systems, adding that the decision supports local industry's efforts to gain access to the F-35 global supply chain and, at a wider level, to boost the country's defence exports.
"DAPA is promoting innovation to transform domestic defence companies into a competitive export-oriented industry," it said. "The selection of [Team ROK] is a success story that shows the way for the defence industry to move forward."
https://www.janes.com/article/86336/south-korean-consortium-selected-for-f-35-mro
12 juin 2023 | International, Autre défense
During a surprise visit to Kyiv, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $500 million more in Canadian military aid Saturday and met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Ukraine has stepped up its counteroffensive to drive the Russian army out of occupied eastern and southern regions of his country.
6 mai 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité, Autre défense
Military systems are increasingly using software to support functionality, new capabilities, and beyond. Before a new piece of software can be deployed within a system however, its functional safety and compliance with certain standards must be verified and ultimately receive certification. As the rapid rate of software usage continues to grow, it is becoming exceedingly difficult to assure that all software considered for military use is coded correctly and then tested, verified, and documented appropriately. “Software requires a certain level of certification – or approval that it will work as intended with minimal risks – before receiving approval for use within military systems and platforms,” said Dr. Ray Richards, a program manager in DARPA's Information Innovation Office (I2O). “However, the effort required to certify software is an impediment to expeditiously developing and fielding new capabilities within the defense community.” Today, the software certification process is largely manual and relies on human evaluators combing through piles of documentation, or assurance evidence, to determine whether the software meets certain certification criteria. The process is time consuming, costly, and can result in superficial or incomplete evaluations as reviewers bring their own sets of expertise, experiences, and biases to the process. A lack of a principled means of decomposing evaluations makes it difficult to create a balanced and trustworthy process that applies equally to all software. Further, each subsystem and component must be evaluated independently and re-evaluated before it can be used in a new system. “Just because a subsystem is certified for one system or platform does not mean it is unilaterally certified for all,” noted Richards. This creates additional time delays and review cycles. To help accelerate and scale the software certification process, DARPA developed the Automated Rapid Certification Of Software (ARCOS) program. The goal of ARCOS is to create tools and a process that would allow for the automated assessment of software evidence and provide justification for a software's level of assurance that is understandable. Taking advantage of recent advances in model-based design technology, “Big Code” analytics, mathematically rigorous analysis and verification, as well as assurance case languages, ARCOS seeks to develop a capability to automatically evaluate software assurance evidence to enable certifiers to rapidly determine that system risk is acceptable. “This approach to reengineering the software certification process is well timed as it aligns with the DoD Digital Engineering Strategy, which details how the department is looking to move away from document-based engineering processes and towards design models that are to be the authoritative source of truth for systems,” said Richards. To create this automated capability, ARCOS will explore techniques for automating the evidence generation process for new and legacy software; create a means of curating evidence while maintaining its provenance; and develop technologies for the automated construction of assurance cases, as well as technologies that can validate and assess the confidence of an assurance case argument. The evidence generation, curation, and assessment technologies will form the ARCOS tools and processes, working collectively to provide a scalable means of accelerating the pathway to certification. Throughout the program's expected three phases, evaluations and assessments will occur to gauge how the research is progressing. ARCOS researchers will tackle progressively more challenging sets of software systems and associated artifacts. The envisioned evaluation progression will move from a single software module to a set of interacting modules and finally to a realistic military software system. Interested proposers will have an opportunity to learn more during a Proposers Day on May 14, 2019, from 8:30AM to 3:30PM (EST) at the DARPA Conference Center, located at 675 N. Randolph Street, Arlington, Virginia, 22203. The purpose of the Proposers Day is to outline the ARCOS technical goals and challenges, and to promote an understanding of the BAA proposal requirements. For details about the event, including registration requirements, please visit: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=6a8f03472cf43a3558456b807877f248&tab=core&_cview=0 Additional information will be available in the forthcoming Broad Agency Announcement, which will be posted to www.fbo.gov. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-05-03
23 novembre 2018 | International, Naval
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has secured the protection of British home waters by announcing he will retain three of the Royal Navy's patrol ships. The future of the Batch 1 Offshore Patrols Vessels (OPVs), HMS Tyne, HMS Mersey and HMS Severn, which currently support the Fishery Protection Squadron, have been secured by the Defence Secretary. They will be retained for at least the next two years to bolster the UK's ability to protect our fishing fleet as well as our shores. The Royal Navy currently provide around 200 days of fishery protection a year. The Defence Secretary's announcement means that the Royal Navy will now have the capacity to deliver up to 600 days of fishery protection a year if needed. Mr Williamson has announced that each ship will forward-operate from their namesake rivers – from Newcastle, Liverpool and the Cardiff area respectively – to boost rapid responses in British waters up and down the nation. The versatile ships are also vital to the Royal Navy's anti-smuggling and counter-terrorism work, and frequently escort foreign vessels, including those from Russia, through the English Channel. Speaking on board patrol vessel HMS Tyne, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: Britain's patrol vessels are essential to protecting our waters, our fisheries and our national security. Safeguarding the future of these three ships in the Royal Navy will ensure we can respond quickly to incidents at any time, further protecting our waters as we exit the EU. By forward-operating these ships from their affiliated locations across the country, including the Tyne, it will not only allow them to react quickly, but also strengthen the bonds between the Royal Navy and local communities. Just last month, HMS Tyne monitored a Russian frigate as it passed through the English Channel, while last year, HMS Mersey returned from a 48,000 mile deployment where she played a key part in a £12million drugs bust off the coast of Nicaragua and helped combat the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.The ships also deter illegal pollution activity and provide emergency firefighting capabilities for ships in distress. HMS Tyne, HMS Severn and HMS Mersey are each operationally available for 320 days a year. The ships are armed with a 20mm cannon, which can fire 700 rounds a minute at at a maximum effective range of 1300 yards, and can travel at up to 20 knots. They will also be bolstered by five new-generation Batch 2 Offshore Patrol Vessels over the next two years. The Royal Navy is expected to have all the Batch 2 OPVs, named HMS Forth, HMS Medway, HMS Trent, HMS Tamar and HMS Spey, by the end of 2020. They will be able to enhance UK efforts to counter terrorism, combat people and drug smuggling and promote the interests of Global Britain around the world. The announcement came during the Defence Secretary's visit to Newcastle, where he also revealed the name of the sixth frigate in Britain's Type 26 class of anti-submarine warships as HMS Newcastle. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: I am also delighted to be able to continue to strengthen the bond to Tyneside today, by announcing one of Britain's future world-beating Type 26 warships will be called HMS Newcastle. HMS Newcastle, which will be built on the Clyde, is set to provide advanced protection for the UK's nuclear deterrent and Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, and offer an unrivalled anti-submarine warfare capability across the globe. HMS Newcastle will also be joined by her sister ship HMS Sheffield, which was also named by Defence Minister Stuart Andrew in the city this afternoon. The first Type 26 warship, HMS Glasgow, is expected in service in the mid-2020s. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defence-secretary-secures-ships-to-protect-home-waters