11 février 2019 | International, C4ISR
By: Mark Pomerleau
The Army, Navy and Air Force secretaries recently signed a memorandum that would establish common standards of information in future weapon systems, a move that will allow for greater coordination on a future battlefield that will require faster decision making.
As the military is shifting its focus to so-called great powers and simultaneously each pursing its own version of multidomain operations — a concept of operating more seamlessly across the five domains of warfare — there is a recognition for the need for closer cooperation.
According to an Air Force release Feb. 8, older weapon systems were not developed with common interface standards, which made interoperability more difficult.
“This is vital to our success,” said Mark Esper, the secretary of the Army. “After reviewing the capabilities of common standards, we have collectively determined that continued implementation, and further development of modular open systems approaches are necessary to keep our competitive advantage.”
In recent years, the services have developed, demonstrated and validated common data standards through a cooperative partnership with industry and academia to allow for a modular open systems approach, the release said. When the services follow the standards, contractors can build interoperable systems. This approach can lead significantly reduce development timelines and shrink costs by as much as 70 percent, the release said.
“The ability for our systems and forces to exchange information and communicate effectively gives our war fighters the best capabilities to deliver the fight tonight,” Richard Spencer, the secretary of the Navy, said. “This reform will make us a highly integrated and more lethal fighting force.”
With new approaches, such as multidomain operations, Pentagon leaders say it is critical for systems and forces to communicate across domains as well as cyber and land systems.
"Victory in future conflict will in part be determined by our ability to rapidly share information across domains and platforms," Heather Wilson, secretary of the Air Force, said. "Sharing information from machine to machine requires common standards."
Some in industry are helping the military answer some tough problems.
“How do you take all the platforms that are out there and link them together and then be able to create decisions that happen a lot faster or get to decisions that you couldn't have gotten to if you were looking at each of the domains independently,” Rob Smith, vice president of C4ISR & UAS, Rotary and Mission Systems at Lockheed Martin, told reporters in July.
While linking systems together may sound easy, Smith said differences in planning cycles, technologies and classifications is challenging.
Going forward, the Air Force release said the joint memorandum directs service acquisition executives to publish specific implementation guidance for acquisition programs, continue to identify gaps and develop new standards when needed.
Additionally, capability requirements officers must write modular open systems into future requirements documents as to be able to communicate across domains.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/2019/02/08/the-military-wants-many-systems-to-share-one-language
28 août 2023 | International, Terrestre, Sécurité
Poland has signed offset agreements for elements of medium-range anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, under WISLA Phase II programme.
30 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Par Emmanuel Huberdeau L'US Air Force a annoncé son intention de publier fin 2018 un appel d'offre pour un avion d'attaque léger. Celui-ci pourrait être commandé en fin d'année fiscale 2019. L'US Air Force a publié le 3 août 2018 un document officiel annonçant son intention de solliciter en décembre 2018 des offres de la part de l'industrie pour l'acquisition d'un avion léger d'attaque. Il s'agira d'un avion déjà développé conçu pour les conflits irréguliers précise le document. L'US Air Force estime déjà que seul Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) et Textron Aviation sont en mesure de répondre à son besoin. SNC produit en partenariat avec Embraer l'A-29 Super Tucano et Textron propose l'AT-6 Wolverine via sa filiale Beechcraft. Ces appareils ont été testés par l'US Air Force lors de campagnes d'essais réalisés avec plusieurs types d'avions d'attaque légers. Malgré cette déclaration de l'USAF, la société Stavatti Aerospace Ltd espère pouvoir faire participer à l'appel d'offre son concept d'avion d'appui aérien rapproché le SM-27 Machete. Ce concept qui semble sortir tout droit d'une bande dessinée a été imaginé pour succéder à l'A-10. Il s'agit d'un appareil doté d'un turbo propulseur "pousseur" avec une voilure droite, des plans canards et deux dérives. Ses concepteurs annoncent une vitesse maximale de 400 noeuds. L'armement comprendrait un canon de 30 mm et 3600 kg de munitions. Le cockpit serait dérivé de celui du F-16. Stavatti annonce avoir envoyé un document de 80 pages à l'USAF le 17 août pour expliquer son offre. Pas sûr que cela suffise à convaincre l'armée de l'air américaine qui cherche un appareil disponible sur étagère. http://www.air-cosmos.com/us-air-force-un-appel-d-offre-pour-un-avion-leger-en-fin-d-annee-114427
12 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial
by Robin Hughes The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded MBDA in the United Kingdom a seven-year demonstration and manufacture contract for production of the SPEAR network-enabled stand-off air-to-surface weapon system. Designated SPEAR3 in UK service, the effector will be the primary medium-to-long-range strike weapon of the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy (RN) F-35B Lightning variant multirole combat aircraft, enabling them to engage and defeat challenging targets such as mobile long-range air defence systems at over-the-horizon ranges in all weathers and in highly contested environments. The placement of the demonstration and manufacture contract in late 2020 follows the successful implementation of the GBP411 million (USD536 million) four-year SPEAR Cap 3 Development Phase contract awarded to MBDA in March 2016, and the funding contract to BAE Systems from F-35 programme prime contractor Lockheed Martin in March 2019 for integration of SPEAR and MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile on the UK F-35B. UK Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) Lightweight and Medium Attack Systems (LMAS) team leader Colonel Martin French said, “The placement of this contract marks the next major stage of the SPEAR3 weapon system's development and is a result of months of detailed negotiations between MBDA and the LMAS project team. “Building on the successes and technology achievements of the previous four years' work with MBDA, we now enter the exciting and challenging demonstration phase where we start to prove the system against the UK's requirements and ramp up activities to integrate this highly-capable weapon system onto the F-35B aircraft.” https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/update-uk-orders-production-of-spear3-for-f-35