Spending bill would add five ships, 12 Super Hornets to Navy acquisition plans

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  10 juin 2024 | International, Aérospatial

  Air National Guard gets service’s first combat-ready F-15EX

  The jet is the first F-15EX slated for delivery to the Air Force as it modernizes its fighter fleet.

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  14 décembre 2018 | International, Terrestre

  Need to upgrade Army vehicle software? Got 10 minutes?

  By: Adam Stone The Army is rolling out a new streamlined tool for updating critical software on thousands of vehicles that use the Joint Battle Command-Platform (JBC-P) system. Vehicles depend on the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below system to deliver communications, friendly and hostile-force tracking, maps and other key intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance functionality. But FBCB2 is out of date, and upgrades have required the pricey and time-consuming replacement of both hardware and software. “We wanted to give war fighters the option of doing a software-only upgrade,” said Dan Ghio, JBC-P deputy product manager. “We will still hit them with the full hardware upgrade eventually. This just gets us to a more common software baseline in the meantime. It's a stopgap for those who can get at least some of the upgrades done.” The upgrades started rolling out in the spring and so far over 800 vehicles have completed the process. Of the 103,000 fielded platforms, roughly 20,000 to 30,000 can be updated using the new approach, which applies to platforms such as Humvees and Mine-Resistant Ambushed-Protected vehicles. All upgrades should be completed by fiscal 2023, said Lt. Col. Shane Sims, JBC-P product manager. “We started with a unit at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, just to see if we were on track,” Sims said. “The process is pretty easy. You call our help center and our folks will send out a new hard drive with the new software loaded on it. Once you attach it to the system it's a 10-minute process to load it up.” While it would have been technically possible to upload the software via the internet, connectivity constraints made the hard drive a better option. “These are users with very limited bandwidth. It would take a very long time to fully download a new operating system,” Sims said. By sending out new hard drives, the engineers also help to position the system for future enhancements, while reducing the overall burden of system support. “We want to keep pushing more and more capabilities out into the field, but right now our support teams in the field have to support 18 different hard drives. There is a huge sustainment cost to supporting all of that,” Sims said. “We're a huge Army and the more we standardize, the better it is.” The latest software version includes a few significant functional enhancements. The user interface has been modernized and made more intuitive; engineers have hardened the security on the back end and made the system more reliable, Ghio said. By creating a “standardized, repeatable and intuitive process” for upgrades, he said, Army aims to empower war fighters to take control over their most critical technologies. “We believe solders and commanders can take on some of the [technology] mission themselves if given the right tools and the right instructions,” Sims said. “As we move to the future, we are going to have to rely on our units to modernize things on their own. That will allow us to inject new capabilities at a much faster pace.” Looking ahead, Army engineers are still looking to overcome the bandwidth limitations that presently prohibit them from pushing out upgrades online. “We are definitely looking at ways to do an over-the-air update,” Sims said. “It would be a lot of easier, just the same way you do an update to an iPhone or an Android. We could send a message to the entire force and have everyone updated at once. That would improve our security posture and would serve to keep everyone current.” At the same time, safety and security concerns factor heavily, as the Army looks to enhance systems on vehicles that are equipped for live fire. “A software malfunction on a firing system would be a catastrophic event, so we have to make sure that our software doesn't interfere with any of the safety mechanisms on these platforms,” Sims said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-networks/2018/12/13/need-to-upgrade-army-vehicle-software-got-10-minutes

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  4 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

  Northrop Grumman Awarded Recapitalization Contract to Provide Continuous Secure Communication in Polar Region

  REDONDO BEACH, Calif. – July 3, 2019 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been awarded an $82 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to facilitate military satellite communications in the Earth's north polar region through its Enhanced Polar System Recapitalization (EPS-R) Control and Planning Segment (CAPS) program. Northrop Grumman is the provider for all three major components of the EPS-R CAPS program demonstrating the company's industry-leading end-to-end capabilities. The U.S. Air Force's EPS provides secure, jam-resistant satellite communications coverage to forces in the North Polar Region (above 65 degrees north latitude) in support of national objectives. CAPS is a next-generation ground system that receives telemetry and supplies configuration commands, mission planning and cryptographic planning for the EPS and EPS-R polar-orbiting payloads. Northrop Grumman successfully developed, built and delivered the EPS CAPS for the U.S. Air Force Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate (MILSATCOM) on a previous contract. The Authority to Proceed granted by this contract award includes the development of software for the EPS-R CAPS taking the program from requirements analysis to test and delivery. The contract also addresses international host accommodations provided by Space Norway for new out of band link functions, cyber architecture, orbit planning, and the capability for controlling two additional EPS-R Payloads on a single software baseline in addition to the two existing EPS Payloads. “Northrop Grumman is committed to delivering the critical ground segment technologies that support the important mission of U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Command," said Rob Fleming, vice president, strategic force programs, Northrop Grumman. “We demonstrate through this contract and in close collaboration with Space and Missile Command that existing ground design and software can be successfully modified to support new and advancing mission requirements, an important strategic priority for our customer.” Work will be performed in Redondo Beach, California and Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is expected to be completed by September 30, 2023. Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, space, strike, and logistics and modernization to customers worldwide. https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/releases/northrop-grumman-awarded-recapitalization-contract-to-provide-continuous-secure-communication-in-polar-region