12 octobre 2018 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR
By: Adam Stone
A world of interconnected everything is just around the corner, and the military wants a piece of the action.
Global investment in the Internet of Things, or IoT, will top $15 trillion by 2025, according to analysts at Business Insider. The Defense Logistics Agency estimates more than 20 billion IoT devices will be in use by 2020 in homes, businesses and government, and the agency sees a military opportunity in this coming wave of connected devices.
“IoT is not just hardware for the sake of hardware, It's a way to capture more data, and we can have an enormous number of potential uses for that,” said Air Force Maj Ricky Dickens, deputy program manager for the Distribution Modernization Program (DMP) at the Defense Logistics Agency. The modernization program is looking to leverage IoT in support of warfighter needs.
Tagging everything
From a logistics perspective, IoT offers the possibility of giving planners deeper, more consistent insight into the location of needed equipment and supplies. It starts with an effort to deploy electronic tags to make materials on the move more readily visible to automated tracking.
“We are look at passive RFID tags and bluetooth tags, different technologies that can give us better visibility on our material as they make their way through our facilities and our processes,” Dickens said.
Such a capability speaks directly to issues of force readiness.
“We are looking to tag commonly used equipment like forklifts. If management could see that they had four forklifts in the building, they could bring two back over here in order to better manage their resources,” Dickens said.
IoT-based tracking could help the military to better manage the flow of the tens of thousands of items – from guns to tanks to uniforms – that are in transit daily among forces positioned around the globe.
“As material goes through our facilities we want to see where things are bottling up, where there are process chokepoints and inefficiencies that can eliminate,” Dickens said. “You can see where your faster-moving items are and where your slower-moving items are. You can do efficiency studies to see time for moving material based on where it is located in the warehouse and then you can make better decisions about how things are distributed in your facilities.”
Watching industry
As DLA looks to IoT to enhance logistics, the military is takings its cues from the private sector.
Analysts at Market Research Engine expect the market for logistics-related IoT to be worth $10 billion by 2022. Ahead of retail, automotive and healthcare, the analysts identify aerospace and defense as the top emerging end-user of these capabilities.
“What's exciting in industry is that they already have this base of IoT and equipment providing more data. The analysis they can do is astounding,” Dickens said. “Some industries are using artificial intelligence to network with this data to see underlying information that isn't readily available, and some of the outcomes have been game-changers for industry.”
DLA's own early implementations include pilot projects slated to deploy soon at Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, Texas and at Anniston Army Depot in Bynum, Alabama. “We are going to roll out a real-time location system to be able to provide more visibility into the materials stored at those locations,” Dickens said.
At Anniston the system will be used to track a vast inventory of small arms, while at Red River the system will be used to help manage outdoor vehicle storage. “There are tens of thousands of vehicles there over multiple square miles,” Dickens said. As DLA implements an IoT approach over the coming months, facility operators should gain a much finer-grain view of that operation.
In the long term, DLA officials say they would like to incorporate some 12,000 commercial suppliers into their IoT-based approach, covering everything “from windows to bolts to air compressors,” Dickens said. Whether, or when, that will happen depends largely on the shifting price of these emerging technologies.
“We need to see the pricing curve come down. There is a lot of technology out there but right now it can be very expensive, especially when you consider the scale of DoD operations: We manage 6 million line-items,” Dickens said. “There will have to be a business-case analysis so we are not putting $10 sensors on 5 cent bolts.”
23 septembre 2021 | International, Aérospatial
U.S. Air National Guard pilots are flying against officially retired F-117s as a way to practice homeland defense missiles against cruise missiles, with the stealth characteristics of the Nighthawks serving as a representation of the threat.
10 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Autre défense
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is looking to transfer $50 million within its fiscal 2019 budget to cover the cost of the design and development of a prototype mobile launcher for its Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, or LRHW. The Defense Department submitted an omnibus reprogramming requestto Capitol Hill on June 25, which congressional defense committees must approve. The department wants the additional funding for the mobile launch capability in order to reach “residual” operational capability by FY23. Developing hypersonic weapons, capable of flying five times the speed of sound, is a part of the Army's top modernization priority — Long-Range Precision Fires —because of the added capability it would bring in eliminating enemy systems in contested battlespace. There is also a need in the U.S> to develop an offensive hypersonic capability to stay ahead of similar weapon development underway by Russia and China. The mobile LRHW will bring online “a new class of ultra-fast, maneuverable, long-range missiles to neutralize enemy defensive weapons with rockets launched from trucks with Transporter Erector Launchers (TELs),” the reprogramming document states. Follow-on efforts will be funded through the Army's research, development, test and evaluation account in future budget years, the document adds. The Army is leading the Pentagon's effort — Conventional Prompt Strike — but is teamed with the Navy to develop a booster for the hypersonic missile and is building a common glide body internally with both the Navy and Air Force. The service is finishing design work for the prototypes and plans to conduct flight tests focused on range, environmental factors and contested environments. The plan is to field a battery-sized hypersonic weapon to soldiers by 2023. The service will use the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System and M870 trailers to make the system road-mobile. The Army still needs to build a transporter-erector-launcher to simultaneously accommodate two hypersonic missiles, which is where the extra $50 million comes in. The service plans to spend $1.2 billion over the next five years beginning in FY20 on its hypersonic effort. In FY20 alone, the Army has budgeted $228 million. A total of $181 million is requested in FY21 to move through the preliminary design review, which will end in the first quarter of FY22. In FY22, the Army will conduct a critical design review and then begin testing all-up rounds at the end of the fiscal year into FY23. The service has budgeted $137 million in FY22 to accomplish those tasks. The Army will then move into full-system flight tests in FY23 using a $359 million budget. The service plans to outfit the Multi-Domain Operations Task Force's strategic fires battalion with the battery to field early combat capability to the force, but to also learn how to use the equipment; to develop possible tactics, techniques and procedures that might be used in combat; and to learn how to train to use the weapons. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/07/09/to-get-hypersonic-launcher-off-ground-dod-seeks-funding-transfer/
22 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Safran Helicopter Engines et ZF Aviation Technology (Allemagne) renforcent leur partenariat en lançant le développement de l'Ardiden 3TP, turbopropulseur destiné à des applications militaires européennes, notamment pour des drones, des avions d'entraînement et de transport. L'Ardiden 3TP est un système de propulsion au design mature avec des coûts d'utilisation et de maintenance réduits. Ce moteur 100% européen sera basé sur le générateur de gaz de l'Ardiden 3 et intègrera des technologies éprouvées gr'ce à un démonstrateur technologique actuellement testé en France. ZF Aviation Technology fournira le système d'entraînement des accessoires et le réducteur de l'hélice. «Avec son architecture flexible et facile à intégrer, le turbopropulseur répond aux besoins du marché en termes de facilité d'utilisation et d'entretien», déclare Burkhard Siebert, Directeur de ZF Aviation Technology. «L'Ardiden 3TP est l'assurance de protéger les intérêts européens dans les programmes stratégiques militaires et de susciter des opportunités sur les marchés exports», souligne de son côté Florent Chauvancy, Directeur des Ventes Avionneurs chez Safran Helicopter Engines. Aerobuzz et Capital.fr du 22 juillet