10 décembre 2019 | International, C4ISR
By: Nathan Strout
Kratos will provide 24/7 bandwidth monitoring for the Combined Space Operations Center under a potentially five-year $39 million contract, the company announced Dec. 6.
Formerly known as the Joint Space Operations Center, CSpOC provides command-and-control operations to ensure US Strategic Command has the space capabilities needed to support joint military operations. CSpOC is the lead integrator for space-related services ranging from space situational awareness to satellite communications to position, navigation and timing.
Under the sole-source contract, which was issued Nov. 22, Kratos will provide CSpOC 24/7 electromagnetic interference resolution services for bandwidth used by the military. Using its global network of antennas and sensors, the Colorado Springs-based company will monitor bandwidth leased from commercial satellites and bandwidth provided through military-owned satellites for electromagnetic interference. If interference is detected, Kratos will identify, isolate and geolocate interfering signals to help resolve the issue.
“Kratos' commercially owned and operated global RF space domain awareness network uses proprietary sensors and software to collect and deliver persistent, day or night real-time data. The global network augments U.S. government satellite communication with detection services for anomalies, maneuvers and interference,” said Matt Langenbahn, vice president of RF sensing systems for Kratos in a statement.
The initial $7.7 million base year began Dec. 1 with work expected to be completed Nov. 30, 2020. If the government chooses to exercise its four option years following the base year, the total value of the contract would rise to $39 million.
27 juin 2023 | International, C4ISR
Des entreprises proposent d’ajouter des logiciels d’IA sur des équipements déjà opérationnels, afin de gagner en efficacité et de mobiliser moins de ressources.
6 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — When Congress delivered a $716 billion defense budget to the Pentagon, defense leaders made it clear it was a welcome boost — but some questioned if the number would be enough to do everything the department foresees as necessary. Now the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee — who is poised to take over the HASC should November elections go blue — is warning that tightened belts are on the horizon. Asked specifically if $716 billion is the right number for defense and whether future budgets will stay at that level, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash, said flatly: “No and no.” “I think the number's too high, and its certainly not going to be there in the future,” Smith said at the second annual Defense News Conference. The congressman argued that the debt and deficit situation facing the country requires balancing out how the government is spending, particularly after the Trump administration's tax cuts made it “even more difficult to get our budget under control.” But drawing down the defense budget has to be part of a broader look at U.S. strategy, something that Smith said requires a realistic look at America's military strategy. He pointed to the idea that 355 ships are vital for the Navy as an example of flawed logic, because “capability matters.” “We can do this,” Smith said of the U.S. remaining the key world power. “I'm not even remotely worried about it. It is a more complicated and different world in some ways, but the Cold War was no walk in the park either. World War II certainly wasn't. We will always face challenges. The question is about being smart. “We just have to be smart instead of trying to force our way back into a world that is never going to be again." “We are going to be a major, major player, probably the major player, on the global stage” for a long time to come, Smith added. “But we are not going to be utterly and completely dominant.” https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/05/adam-smith-expects-future-defense-budgets-to-dip-below-716-billion
29 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Humble airlift planes like the C-130J Super Hercules and C-17 Globemaster III could become heavily-armed weapons trucks capable of airdropping large bundles of munitions that deliver a massive blast. So far, the Air Force has conducted two successful tests of “palletized munitions” from the C-130 and C-17, said Maj. Gen. Clint Hinote, the deputy director of the service's Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability cell. “We are in discussions right now about how do we proceed to prototyping and fielding,” he said during a May 27 event held by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Like the name suggests, palletized munitions are a collection of weapons strapped together onto a smart pallet, which would feed the munitions tracking and targeting information as they are dropped from an airlift platform. A request for information released in February characterized the technology as “a bomb bay in a box” that could allow mobility aircraft to stay out of a threat zone and launch a mass of standoff weapons. “It's all about capacity,” Hinote explained. “You've got to create enough capacity so that a long-range punch is really a punch. What we see is that no matter how big our bomber force is, the capacity that the joint force needs is always more and more. And so this is why we think that there is a real possibility here for using cargo platforms to be able to increase the capacity of fires.” Air Force Special Operations Command conducted one demonstration of the technology on Jan. 28, when a MC-130J performed three airdrops of simulated palletized munitions at at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. “In this case, munitions stacked upon wooden pallets, or Combat Expendable Platforms (CEPs), deployed via a roller system,” the Air Force Research Laboratory said in a May 27 release. “AFSOC aircrew released five CEPs rigged with six simulated munitions, the same mass as the actual weapons, including four Cargo Launch Expendable Air Vehicles with Extended Range (CLEAVERs) across a spectrum of low and high altitude airdrops." In response to questions from Defense News, AFRL clarified that simulated long-range cruise missiles were deployed from an off-the-shelf pallet system as well as an Air Force designed crate system. CLEAVER is a new weapon under development by the lab as part of a separate effort, though it may be used in palletized munitions in the future. On Feb. 27, Air Mobility Command conducted a similar demonstration with a C-17, which conducted two airdrops of simulated palletized munitions, AFRL said. In future demonstrations, AFSOC plans to release more advanced forms of simulated munitions as well as full-up weapons vehicles that can be configured with a warhead and terminal guidance system. However, the Air Force is looking for other technological options. Through its request for information, which closed in April, the service sought data about new or existing palletized munitions concepts. The service hopes to use that information to inform future experimentation efforts, operational assessments or the acquisition palletized munitions systems. Five companies responded to the RFI, AFRL said. If the effort moves forward, one big question will be figuring out which entities in the Air Force have command over a mobility asset that is playing a combat role more similar to a fighter jet or bomber. “Some kind of extremely streamlined command and control is going to be necessary, or else you must have an integrator somewhere,” said Hinote, who added that cultural barriers inside the Air Force could be harder to overcome than the technological challenges of creating palletized munitions. Hinote also acknowledged that it currently may be hard to find the funding to move forward with a new program. “We're in the last year of an administration. We've had to turn in the budget early with not too many changes, and we're looking at the possibility of a continuing resolution where new starts are going to be difficult to do,” he said. However, “that is all temporary,” he said. Updated 5/28/20 to add more information from AFRL about past palletized munitions experiments. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/05/27/air-force-looking-to-up-gun-its-airlift-planes/