Top Aces Announces FAA Certification of F-16 Fighter Aircraft

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  4 septembre 2018 | International, Naval

  Lockheed Martin Secures Automated Test Equipment Contract

  ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) a seven-year contract worth up to more than $500 million to build and deliver more than 200+ electronic Consolidated Automated Support Systems (eCASS) to maximize aircraft readiness. The previous Navy CASS contract awarded in 2000 to Lockheed Martin was worth $287 million. According to Navy Naval Air Systems Command, eCASS saves the Navy money by averting the repair of avionics at the next level of maintenance or sending the parts back to the original equipment manufacturer. Sailors use eCASS to troubleshoot and repair aircraft electronics ashore and at sea, allowing them to return aircraft such as the F/A-18 and E-2D to operational status quickly and efficiently. "Lockheed Martin's partnership with the Navy on Automated Test Equipment began more than 30 years ago with the production and sustainment of the legacy CASS family of products," said Amy Gowder, general manager and vice president, Lockheed Martin Training and Logistics Solutions. "Our technology is always evolving and now can support F-35 advanced avionics and other fifth-generation platforms. Our goal remains the same – keep aircraft mission ready at the most affordable lifecycle cost now and for the future." Since 2010, Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 80 eCASS stations to the Navy, as part of its transition from the legacy CASS testing stations to the smaller, faster and more reliable eCASS. For additional information, visit www.lockheedmartin.com/eCASS. About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. This year the company received three Edison Awards for ground-breaking innovations in autonomy, satellite technology and directed energy. SOURCE Lockheed Martin https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2018-09-04-Lockheed-Martin-Secures-Automated-Test-Equipment-Contract

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  3 juin 2019 | International, C4ISR, Autre défense

  DARPA Announces ERI Summit 2019 Workshops

  For the second year in a row, DARPA is convening the electronics community to discuss the ambitions and achievements of its five-year, upwards of $1.5 billion investment in U.S. microelectronics advancement. Attendees at the second annual Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) Summit – being held July 15-17 in Detroit, Michigan – will hear from commercial and defense leaders as they share their insights on the domestic semiconductor industry and the applications driving next-generation electronics. The Summit will close on July 17 with 11 public workshops designed to demonstrate program accomplishments, shape future areas of research, and provide insights into working with DARPA as well as transitioning technologies to use. “Continued collaboration across industry, defense, and academia is critical to creating the next wave of microelectronics innovation,” said Dr. Mark Rosker, director of DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). “Last year's Summit allowed these groups to come together and collectively work towards creating a more specialized, secure, heavily automated, and DoD-available electronics industry. This collaboration contributed to the formation of six new DARPA programs. With this year's expanded roster of workshops, we are again asking the community to share their perspectives, provide guidance, and foster the connections that will help define the future of an innovative and competitive domestic electronics enterprise.” In areas ranging from security and privacy to rapid circuit design, ERI's programs are already working to address both commercial and manufacturing realities as well as the needs of the defense enterprise. Several “Ongoing Efforts” workshops will provide updates on these active research efforts, including presentations on secure hardware and software architectures for high-risk transactions; trusted-by-design components and their impact on supply chain security; and novel atomic clock architectures. Attendees will also experience live demonstrations of autonomous chip design tools as well as open source IP and verification technology in development on two ERI programs – IDEA and POSH. Both programs are addressing the complexity and cost barriers that have limited the competitive field for circuit design by exploring novel approaches to automated circuit design and IP sharing. Shaping the future of microelectronics innovation requires research and development across a vast number of technical areas and applications. Several “Emerging Concepts” workshops will explore potential future areas of investment, and will seek input from the community to help define the most critical challenges to address. These workshops will focus on enhanced security for commercial hardware; energy-efficient computing for distributed machine intelligence; and novel approaches to designing and verifying distributed systems. A four-hour workshop will also focus on the challenges facing heterogeneous integration – a critical area of exploration for an emerging wave of alternatives to traditional transistor scaling. The workshop will cover problems associated with dense digital integration and mixing silicon with compound semiconductors, as well as potential solutions and paths forward. Finally, two “Enhancing Collaboration” workshops will provide guidance to attendees who are new to working with DARPA or are interested in transitioning DARPA-funded inventions out of the lab and into the commercial world. During the “DARPA/MTO Collaboration 101” workshop, Rosker will provide both a history of the agency and information about how to work with DARPA in the future. The deadline to register for the ERI Summit is Monday, June 24, 2019 at 11:59 PM EST. Registration information as well as a full agenda and workshop descriptions are available at www.eri-summit.com. All attendees must register in advance. Workshop headcount limits will be pre-determined based on attendee interest. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-05-31

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  8 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Autre défense

  USAF: New Raytheon Bomb Ready for Real-World Vetting

  RACHEL S. COHEN The Air Force's top weapons development official says Raytheon's Small Diameter Bomb II, or “StormBreaker,” is ready for primetime despite needing to work out some lingering issues. “Getting them out into the field, right now I think that's the best way for us to wring this out,” Air Force Weapons Program Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Anthony Genatempo said at a recent Air Force Life Cycle Management Center conference. “Get it into the hands of the people using it, figure out what they can do with it that we did not think of, figure out what things are happening in the operational environment that we were not able to replicate and test, and then feed that back into successive upgrades.” The Pentagon plans to buy 17,000 SDB IIs, split between 12,000 for the Air Force and 5,000 for the Navy, and will fly them on all current Air Force fighter and bomber aircraft as well as the A-10, AC-130J, and MQ-9. StormBreaker was designed as a precision munition that can communicate with nearby aircraft to attack moving and stationary targets in bad weather and notch “multiple kills per pass,” according to the Air Force. “The StormBreaker tri-mode seeker uses imaging infrared and millimeter wave radar in its normal mode to give pilots the ability to destroy moving targets, even in adverse weather, from standoff ranges,” Raytheon said in a press release. “Additionally, the weapon can use its semi-active laser guidance to hit targets.” As of October 2018, the service planned to spend $1.9 billion on development and $2.6 billion on procurement, the Government Accountability Office reported in May. StormBreaker's ability to communicate with its host aircraft needs more vetting, Genatempo said, and other fixes are already being added into the current production batch, Lot 4. Its radio may not be fixed until Lot 6 or 7, and the service plans to address parts that will be outdated in Lot 8. “Whether or not that is an issue that will prevent fielding, I don't think I can say that. I don't even think Air Combat Command can say that right now,” Genatempo said. “They very well may choose to take an initial delivery of these weapons at the capability they're at, knowing that one caveat. ... It certainly doesn't affect the entire envelope of operation of the weapon. It's a miniature part of one or two different scenarios.” The weapon is moving closer to being declared ready for initial operations afterfinishing operational tests in June and an overall test program that uncovered a range of performance issues that Raytheon and government officials say are routine in the course of vetting. When airmen are ready to receive the new bomb is ultimately up to Air Combat Command. “It's a very good conversation and dialogue with Air Combat Command about what they would like, when they would like it, what they're willing to take and employ,” Genatempo said. “I very much think that this weapon is ready to go out [to] operational use.” The Air Force now expects to reach its “required assets available” milestone, which has changed multiple times, from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 through the end of 2020. It was most recently slated for January 2019. To meet RAA, the service must arm 12 Boeing F-15Es with 144 weapons and own spare parts, support equipment, and more. The milestone was originally scheduled for July 2017. Genatempo said RAA was pushed back again to avoid punishing the program for having to wait its turn for testing ranges, as range availability is scarce thanks to several weapons programs simultaneously in testing. Delaying the milestone to later this year was “predominantly a paperwork exercise to make sure we didn't breach our [acquisition program baseline],” he said. http://airforcemag.com/Features/Pages/2019/July%202019/USAF-New-Raytheon-Bomb-Ready-for-Real-World-Vetting.aspx