14 décembre 2024 | International, C4ISR
DoJ Indicts 14 North Koreans for $88M IT Worker Fraud Scheme Over Six Years
DoJ indicts 14 North Koreans for $88M IT fraud; $2.26M seized, $5M reward offered.
3 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial
These 4 technologies are big problems for US military space
By: Nathan Strout
A recent report highlights the fact that the commercial space sector is an increasingly important part of the military's efforts in space, but there are places where industry falls short.
The national security space arena is a niche market, characterized by low production runs paired with a need for high-quality products. That combination makes it a difficult area for the commercial sector. While national security space increasingly relies on industry to provide components for space vehicles, the fact remains that in some key areas there are no domestic suppliers for critical technologies, leaving the United States dependent on foreign suppliers.
Here are four such technologies singled out in a recent report on the United States military's industrial base:
Solar cells
According to the report, the commercial sector is not investing in the research and development needed to improve solar cells, which are used to power satellites. Businesses have maxed out the capacity for triple-junction solar cells, but do not appear capable of pushing forward to four- or five-junction solar cell technology. The Pentagon also wants solar cells that are able to withstand more radiation for longer than current products on the market.
Improving solar cells to get the same or more power out of even slightly smaller panels could have a major impact when it comes to launching a satellite into space, meaning that reducing solar panel size is highly valuable.
Tube amplifiers
Starting in the 1990s, the domestic supplier market share for traveling-wave tube amplifiers — electronic devices used to amplify radio frequency signals to high power — dropped from 50 percent to just 12 percent. While that market has shown a slight recovery, the presence of heavily subsidized companies like Thales in France make it difficult for American companies to compete.
Gyroscopes
Precision gyroscopes are used in spacecraft to determine altitude and are essential to providing inertial navigation systems. According to the Department of Defense, there is only one domestic supplier of hemispherical resonating gyroscopes, resulting in long lead times — the report claims that the company can only produce one to two units per month. Fiber optic gyroscopes fair better with three domestic suppliers currently manufacturing them, but those companies are themselves vulnerable to overseas supply issues with their subcomponents.
Infrared detectors
Just one foreign manufacturer produces the substrates necessary for space infrared detectors, and the Pentagon warns that a disruption of any more than a few months of production of the substrates could negatively impact the quality and completion of American satellites.
Because of this, the U.S. government has used a Defense Production Act of 1950 provision that allows it to offer economic incentives to either develop, sustain or expand domestic production of technology critical to national defense, and an Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program is in the works to support the remaining two American foundries for one type of substrate.
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21 juin 2019 | International, Terrestre
Following protest, US Army awards 6th contract for upgunned Stryker design
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has awarded a sixth contract to EOS Defense Systems USA, Inc. to develop a design to integrate a new weapon system on a Stryker combat vehicle. The service originally announced it was awarding contracts to five companies, but following a protest filed by EOS, it reevaluated the company's proposal and determined it too should receive a contract, according to the Stryker project manager, Col. Glenn Dean, who spoke to Defense News in an interview this month. The company protested the Army's original decision through Army Contracting Command; upon review, Dean said, it was learned the proposal had not been “accurately assessed.” The sixth award was made June 5 and posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website. The Army made no follow-up announcement regarding the contract. EOS is an Australian-owned company focused on precise, remote weapon systems. The Army awarded $150,000 contracts to five companies on May 23 under its Stryker Medium Caliber Weapons System (MCWS) lethality program: General Dynamics Land Systems Kollsman, Inc. Leonardo DRS Raytheon Pratt & Miller Engineering and Fabrication, Inc. Defense News first reported in May that the Army had decided — after upgunning some of its Stryker vehicles with a 30mm cannon — that it would proceed to outfit at least three of its six brigades of double V-hull A1 Stryker infantry carrier vehicles with the more powerful guns and would hold a competition to acquire that weapon system. The companies have to come up with integration designs using a government-furnished XM813 gun on a government-furnished Stryker DVH A1 hull. The Army was prepared to award six contracts and had the money to bring EOS into the effort, Dean said. Despite the late award, EOS was able to jump into the effort and participated in contractor training on the Stryker and the 30mm cannon, which took place earlier this month, so the companies could take possession of the government-furnished equipment. The MCWS program will be carried out in two phases, which will culminate in equipping a Stryker DVH A1 brigade in fiscal 2022, according to the Army. As part of the design study, competitors will build a production-representative vehicle. The second phase will be a full and open competition to award a production contract. Draft requests for proposals will be released to industry beginning in fall 2019. The two phases, as well as fielding, are expected to take 39 months total — a short timeline. While the Army plans to initially procure three brigade sets of the Stryker MCWS DVH A1 — a total of 83 vehicles per brigade — the service could procure systems for additional brigades at future decision points, the Army said. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/06/20/following-protest-army-awards-6th-contract-for-upgunned-stryker-design/
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21 novembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Can data be shared among US, Chinese and Russian aircraft? Sudan did it.
By: Agnes Helou BEIRUT — Sudan has been flying military aircraft of Russian and Chinese origin alongside American fighter jets — and sharing data among them, according to the chief of staff of the Sudanese Air Force. “Sudanese engineers have been able to make an adaptation between Eastern and Western platforms," Lt. Gen. Pilot Salah Eldin Abdelkhaliq Saeed said at the second Manama Airpower Symposium this month. "They have even entered American, Russian and Chinese radars in one command-and-control center. We have provided all our platforms with a unified Sudanese surveillance system and Sudanese communication devices.” Russian fighters operating in Sudan include the Mig-29, Mig-23, Su-24 and Su-25, as well as the AN-26, AN-30, AN-32, AN-12 and Ilyushin Il-76 Russian military transport aircraft. Sudan is also operating the Chinese A-5, PT-6, FTC-2000 and K-8 aircraft, in addition to American C-130s, French Puma helicopters and German Bo 105 helicopters. Saeed noted that many of the European and American military aircraft cannot be operated by the Sudanese Air Force because there are no spare parts for the platforms, and Sudan lacks the maintenance capabilities to update them. This is especially caused by U.S. sanctions on Sudan that prevent the African country from cooperating with some American and European companies. The U.S. lifted some sanctions on Sudan in October 2017, but Sudan remains on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. The restrictions on that list “include restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance" and "a ban on defense exports and sales,” according to the U.S. State Department. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2018/11/20/can-data-be-shared-among-us-chinese-and-russian-aircraft-sudan-did-it