19 septembre 2022 | International, Aérospatial
Boeing demonstrates MQ-25'²s utility as surveillance drone
Though the MQ-25 will first deploy as a tanker, Boeing is working to mature a second mission set for the long-endurance carrier-based drone.
3 septembre 2019 | International, Naval
These Tactical Glasses Could Give Marine Grunts an F-35 Pilot's View of the Battlefield
By Matthew Cox
Marine infantrymen may soon be able to see through the floor of an MV-22 Osprey and track terrain features as they approach their attack objective.
It sounds like science fiction, but Marine Lt. Col. Rory Quinn of the Pentagon's Close Combat Lethality Task Force says it could become reality if the Marine Corps decides to field the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), a sophisticated Microsoft technology that the Army is developing to give soldiers a new level of situational awareness in combat.
In October, the Army will hold its second round of soldier evaluations, known as Soldier Touch Points, on what will eventually consist of a special set of tactical glasses that will display a soldier's weapon sight reticle and other key tactical information they will take into battle.
Army officials say IVAS will be ready for initial fielding in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.
Quinn said he sees IVAS as key to transforming Marine and Army infantry into a fifth-generation fighting force similar to the way fighter aircraft such as the F-35 Lighting II have evolved into fifth-gen technology.
"Effectively, we have a third-generation infantry," Quinn told an audience Tuesday at the iFest 2019 symposium, put on by the National Defense Industrial Association.
The lethality task force was stood up in 2018 by then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis with the goal of resourcing the U.S. military's close-combat forces to become far more deadly than they are today.
"In the MV-22, the windows are [not that big] so if I am lucky, I am next to one and ... I can see ... the river path and I can see that we went on this side of the river, so that confirmed that we went in the right direction," Quinn said. "But the F-35 pilot has cameras on the outside of the airplane and looks through the floor of the airplane. ... He can look through the wing and see someone who is down low at six o'clock on his right flank.
"IVAS is coming, and it's going to create an F-35 [technology] for grunts, so I will simply look through the skin of the aircraft and see that I have turned 180 degrees out. I otherwise wouldn't be able to see that, and it creates chaos," he added.
The Marine Corps has not committed to IVAS, but officials at Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Combat Development and Integration, "are watching the [Soldier Touch Points] and watching to see how the results occur versus what the metrics had to be" on the system, Quinn said.
Roughly 50 Marines participated in the first Soldier Touch Point and the same number of Marines will likely be involved with the second evaluation in October, he said.
"The Marines often follow and trace the Army -- let the Army do the research and development," Quinn said.
The Army awarded a $480 million contract to Microsoft in late 2018 to develop its HoloLens technology into IVAS. The system is also being designed to provide soldiers with a synthetic training environment that will feature enemy avatars capable of learning soldier tactics so training scenarios are never the same, Army officials say.
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20 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
U.S. Buy American demand gone from NAFTA: sources
By Canadian Press OTTAWA — The Canadian Press has learned the United States has backed down from its contentious Buy American demands for lucrative procurement projects in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico and Canada are each taking credit for standing firm against the controversial U.S. position that would have effectively limited their respective countries' ability to bid on valuable American government infrastructure projects. Multiple sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, cited the competing claims as one example of the animosity between Canada and Mexico that has arisen since Mexico reached its own NAFTA deal with the Trump administration last month. Canada and the United States are trying to renegotiate their portion of the three-country trade pact, but major sticking points such as dairy, dispute resolution and culture remain. Canada has credited Mexico with making significant concessions in its deal with the U.S. on automobiles and for permitting large wage increases for Mexican auto workers. But sources say Mexico has done much of the “heavy lifting” on getting the Americans to back down on its demand to limit the ability of Canadian and Mexican firms to bid on U.S. infrastructure projects, while seeking greater access for American firms to Mexican and Canadian government projects. https://ipolitics.ca/2018/09/19/u-s-buy-american-demand-gone-from-nafta-sources/
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24 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial
UK reveals Puma replacement plan
The United Kingdom is set to replace its Westland-Aerospatiale SA 330E Puma HC2 rotorcraft with a new aircraft type via its New Medium Helicopter (NMH) requirement. While the Puma's put of service date of 2025 has long been known, the UK had...