31 mars 2021 | International, Naval
Naval Group trumpets its Australian industry focus in submarine deal
The French shipbuilder has committed to spending 60 percent of the Attack-class submarine program's value in Australia.
5 juillet 2019 | International, Autre défense
Top Army Official Tests Out Futuristic Smart Combat Glasses
By Matthew Cox
The U.S. Army's new boss recently got a chance do shoot-house training with the latest Microsoft-based, smart soldier glasses.
Ryan McCarthy, who is now serving as acting secretary of the Army, and incoming Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville traveled to Fort Pickett, Virginia earlier this spring to try out early prototypes of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS.
The Army awarded a $480 million contract to Microsoft in November to develop IVAS -- a high-tech device that relies on augmented reality to create a synthetic training environment for soldiers. The experience is reportedly similar to first-person shooter video games. The system is being designed to also be worn in combat, projecting the operator's weapon sight reticle into the glasses.
"He and I literally put them on, and we went through a shoot house together," McCarthy told Military.com on a flight to Fort Knox, Kentucky.
"Here's the thing -- they are empty rooms, because we had the synthetic feed."
McCarthy then described how the IVAS device presented targets that resembled enemy fighters from terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
"I literally came in a room ... and they looked like Taliban targets and ISIS guys with black turbans," he said. "They had one where they had a guy holding a civilian. It looked like a very good video game."
IVAS is part of the Army's effort to create a synthetic training world so soldiers can run through many repetitions of combat scenarios, such as clearing urban areas and engaging enemy forces, without having to leave home station and travel to training facilities.
Leaders can view the data compiled by IVAS during the training to show soldiers where they need improvement.
McCarthy and McConville were joined by Army and Marine Corps sergeants who also took a turn with IVAS.
"We had a bunch of NCOs from the 75th Ranger Regiment and the 1st Marine Division, and they did the shoot house and reminded me that I have been out for a while," McCarthy chuckled, referring to the days when he served in the Ranger Regiment. McCarthy served in the Army from 1997-2002.
McCarthy acknowledged that these were early prototypes of IVAS that need further development.
"You would do it for a little bit, and they would go out and [engineers] had to make a tweak and they would get the screen back up," McCarthy said.
Rangers and Marines liked the technology, he said.
"The one thing that they all really liked about it was the greater depth perception," he said.
"It was like a pair of glasses ... and literally when you are walking through a room and seeing the target, I had depth perception to my left and right, so I could see down the hallway."
IVAS replaces the service's Heads-Up Display 3.0 effort to develop a sophisticated situational awareness tool soldiers can use to view key tactical information before their eyes.
Officials hope to complete the prototyping phase on IVAS by 2020; when the system might be fielded to soldiers is still unclear.
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8 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité, Autre défense
Contract Awards by US Department of Defense – October 07, 2020
AIR FORCE Hydraulics International Inc., Chatsworth, California, has been awarded a $377,357,493 firm-fixed-price, requirements-type, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for multiple pieces of hydraulic equipment and hydraulic fluid purification systems to be used on multiple aviation platforms. Work will be performed in Chatsworth, California, and is expected to be completed Oct. 7, 2029. This award is a result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement; and future fiscal aircraft procurement funds will be obligated upon availability for task orders. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8532-21-D-0001). PKL Services Inc., Poway, California, has been awarded a $13,757,191 firm-fixed-price modification (P00008) to contract FA4897-18-C-2002 to continue providing military aircraft F15 SG maintenance and operations training. This contract provides for the Republic of Singapore Air Force training on F15 aircraft, and includes both maintenance and operations on the F15 aircraft. Work will be performed at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, and is expected to be completed Sept. 30, 2022. Foreign Military Sales funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. The 366th Financial Acquisition Squadron, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, is the contracting activity. Honeywell International Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been awarded an $11,638,078 modification (P00006) to contract FA9453-19-C-0010 to exercise Option Two for critical design review, providing research options for Space Enterprise Technologies. The contractor shall conduct experiments, evaluate, and perform process development back-end pillar fabrication process. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is expected to be completed April 14, 2022, per Option Two: Critical Design Review contract line item number 2001 and a Military interdepartmental purchase request from HQ0157 Office of the Under Secretary of the Air Force – Acquisition, Technology and Logistics will be obligated to incrementally fund the option at time of modification. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $17,361,381. Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, is the contracting activity. CORRECTION: The dollar amounts awarded and obligated on Oct. 1, 2020, to Gryphon Technologies L.C., Washington, D.C. (FA7022-21-D-0001), for the processing, analysis and quantitative evaluation of environmental samples and other associated services in support of the Air Force Technical Applications Center's mission were announced inaccurately. The contract amount is actually $49,503,924, and the obligated amount is $4,160,824. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Senn Brothers Inc.,* West Columbia, South Carolina, has been awarded a maximum $225,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for fresh fruit and vegetables. This was a competitive acquisition with two responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is South Carolina, with an Oct. 3, 2025, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Department of Agriculture schools. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-21-D-P365). The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a maximum $149,528,875 firm-fixed-price delivery order (SPRPA1-21-D-9001) against five-year basic ordering agreement SPRPA1-14-D-002U for KC-46 Commercial Common Program consumable parts. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a three-year base contract with two one-year option periods. Location of performance is Missouri, with an Oct. 7, 2023, performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2023 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. L1 Enterprises Inc., Frederick, Maryland, has been awarded a maximum $45,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for medical equipment and accessories for the Defense Logistics Agency electronic catalog. This was a competitive acquisition with 131 responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Maryland, with an Oct. 6, 2025, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DH-21-D-0050). * Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2375598/source/GovDelivery/
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7 septembre 2018 | International, C4ISR
Fully autonomous ‘mobile intelligent entities’ coming to the battlefields of the future
By: Kelsey Atherton WASHINGTON — A killer robot by any other name is far more palatable to the general public. That may be part of the logic behind the Army Research Laboratory Chief Scientist Alexander Kott's decision to refer to thinking and moving machines on the battlefield as “mobile intelligent entities.” Kott pitched the term, along with the new ARL concept of fully autonomous maneuver, at the 2nd Annual Defense News Conference yesterday, in an panel on artificial intelligence that kept circling back to underlying questions of great power competition. “Fully autonomous maneuver is an ambitious, heretical terminology,” Kott said. “Fully autonomous is more than just mobility, it's about decision making.” If there is a canon against which this autonomy seems heretical, it is likely the international community's recent conference and negotiations over how, exactly, to permit or restrict lethal autonomous weapon systems. The most recent meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems took place last week in Geneva, Switzerland and concluded with a draft of recommendations on Aug. 31st. This diplomatic process, and the potential verdict of international law, could check or halt the development of AI-enabled weapons, especially ones where machines select and attack targets without human interventions. That's the principle objection raised by humanitarian groups like the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, as well as the nations that called for a preemptive ban on such autonomous weapons. Kott understands the ethical concern, drawing an analogy to the moral concerns and tradeoffs in developing self driving cars. “All know about self driving cars, all the angst, the issue of mobility... take all this concern and multiply it by orders of magnitude and now you have the issues of mobility on the battlefield,” said Kott. “Mobile intelligent entities on the battlefield have to deal with a much more unstructured, much less orderly environment than what self-driving cars have to do. This is a dramatically different world of urban rubble and broken vehicles, and all kind of dangers, in which we are putting a lot of effort.” Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/06/fully-autonomous-maneuver-coming-to-the-battlefields-of-the-future