UN SUCCESSEUR DE NOUVELLE GÉNÉRATION POUR LE GRIPEN

Sur le même sujet

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  10 octobre 2018 | International, Terrestre

  Decision coming soon on who will build prototypes for a new Army light tank

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army is expected to make a decision by the end of the year on which companies will build prototype vehicles as part of its light tank competition. The requirement for a Mobile Protected Firepower vehicle to provide infantry brigade combat teams a protected, long-range, cyber-resilient, precision, direct-fire capability for early or forcible entry operations was first laid out in the Army's combat vehicle modernization strategy released in October 2015. The Army is looking to rapidly procure this capability by turning to commercial off-the-shelf technology rather than spend years developing it. Several competitors submitted offerings to the competition in late February in the hopes that they are selected to build 12 prototypes that will be demonstrated and evaluated — and that will ultimately lead to the service selecting a winner to go into production. The low-rate initial production plans are for roughly 54 vehicles — 26 to start, with an option to build 28 more, as well as retrofitting eight of the prototype vehicles. The first unit equipped is planned for 2025. If selected, the contractors have 14 months to deliver MPF prototypes to the Army. A final request for proposals will likely come out in late October or November, and the service will make a decision shortly thereafter. SAIC partnered with Singapore's ST Kinetics and Belgium-based CMI Defense; BAE Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems all submitted written proposals, vehicles and armor coupons for testing. The SAIC team integrated CMI's Cockeril 3105 turret on an ST Kinetics next-generation armored fighting vehicle chassis as its offering. BAE Systems is offering an M8 Buford Armored Gun System with new capabilities and modernized components. GD submitted an offering that combines a version of its latest Abrams turret with a chassis that leverages experience from the United Kingdom's AJAX program. “We have additional new and proven technologies to meet MPF specific requirements,” a GD spokesperson said. The Army has already moved through its testing and evaluation ahead of a decision later this year. Vehicle bid samples were tested to evaluate mobility and firepower performance, and the armor coupons were tested to evaluate protection performance. According to Jim Scanlon, senior vice president and general manager of SAIC's defense systems group, the company did both pre-validation and follow-on testing of its vehicle offering before and after the Army's own evaluation period. The company has brought the vehicle to the Association of the United States Army's annual conference. If selected, SAIC plans to perform final integration work in its Charleston, South Carolina, facility, with the other companies in the team building their contributions in their own facilities. However, Scanlon said, the company is working to come up with ways to do more and more of the production work in the United States, and both companies involved are on board and see moving some work into the country as a necessary investment as big combat vehicle programs gain traction. All options are being considered, Scanlon said. BAE plans to build its EMD prototypes within its manufacturing network including York, Pennsylvania, Aiken, South Carolina, Anniston, Alabama and Sterling Heights, Michigan, according to the company's MPF capture lead Greg Mole. GD said it would not release build locations for the vehicles at this time. The MPF program now falls under the Army's Next-Generation Combat Vehicle cross-functional team's purview, which lies under the new Army Futures Command, charged with modernizing the force more rapidly to maintain overmatch against peer adversaries. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2018/10/10/decision-coming-soon-on-who-will-build-prototypes-for-a-new-army-light-tank

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  9 juillet 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  No title found

  Germany's Purchase of Boeing P-8A Poseidon Casts Doubts over Franco-German MPA Program

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  15 juillet 2019 | International, Autre défense

  With Squad X, Dismounted Units Partner with AI to Dominate Battlespace

  DARPA's Squad X Experimentation program aims to demonstrate a warfighting force with artificial intelligence as a true partner. In a recent field test, the program worked with U.S. Marines at the Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, to track progress on two complementary systems that allow infantry squads to collaborate with AI and autonomous systems to make better decisions in complex, time-critical combat situations. “We are in a race with potential adversaries to operationalize autonomy, and we have the opportunity to demonstrate autonomy in a way that we don't believe any nation in the world has demonstrated to date,” said Lt. Col. Phil Root (USA), the Squad X program manager in DARPA's Tactical Technology Office. “Developing hardware and tactics that allow us to operate seamlessly within a close combat ground environment is extremely challenging, but provides incredible value.” The exercises in early 2019 in Twentynine Palms followed experiments in 2018 with CACI's BITS Electronic Attack Module (BEAM) Squad System (BSS) and Lockheed Martin's Augmented Spectral Situational Awareness and Unaided Localization for Transformative Squads (ASSAULTS) system. The two systems, though discrete, focus on manned-unmanned teaming to enhance capabilities for ground units, giving small squads battalion-level insights and intelligence. In the most recent experiment, squads testing the Lockheed Martin system wore vests fitted with sensors and a distributed common world model moved through scenarios transiting between natural desert and mock city blocks. Autonomous ground and aerial systems equipped with combinations of live and simulated electronic surveillance tools, ground radar, and camera-based sensing provided reconnaissance of areas ahead of the unit as well as flank security, surveying the perimeter and reporting to squad members' handheld Android Tactical Assault Kits (ATAKs). Within a few screen taps, squad members accessed options to act on the systems' findings or adjust the search areas. Between Lockheed Martin's two experiments to date, Root says the program-performer team identified a “steady evolution of tactics” made possible with the addition of an autonomous squad member. They also are focused on ensuring the ground, air, and cyber assets are always exploring and making the most of the current situation, exhibiting the same bias toward action required of the people they are supporting in the field. CACI's BEAM-based BSS comprises a network of warfighter and unmanned nodes. In the team's third experiment, the Super Node, a sensor-laden optionally-manned, lightweight tactical all-terrain vehicle known as the powerhouse of the BEAM system, communicated with backpack nodes distributed around the experiment battlespace – mimicking the placement of dismounted squad members – along with an airborne BEAM on a Puma unmanned aerial system (UAS). The BSS provides situational awareness, detects of electronic emissions, and collaborates to geolocate signals of interest. AI synthesizes the information, eliminating the noise before providing the optimized information to the squad members via the handheld ATAK. “A human would be involved in any lethal action,” Root said. “But we're establishing superior situational awareness through sufficient input and AI, and then the ability to do something about it at fast time scales.” The Squad X program has moved quickly through development and is already well along the transition path, due in large part to the program's focus on partnering with the services to ensure real-world efficacy. For the CACI system, that included an opportunity to test the technology downrange to get real-world information, not simulation. At the most recent experiment with the BSS, service representatives used the system to locate and identify objectives in real time. For both systems, feedback has included a desire for a user interface so intuitive that training takes an hour or less and any available action is accessible in two screen taps. Staff Sergeant Andrew Hall with the Marine Corps Tactics and Operations Group (MCTOG), an advisory teammate to DARPA's Squad X Experimentation program, says the ability to provide early input will guard against developing a product that either isn't used or is used improperly. “The feedback process, in conjunction with the actual experimentation, gives the Marines the ability to use the technology and start seeing what it can do and, more specifically, what it can't do,” Hall said. With the conclusion of third experiment, the CACI system is moving into Phase 2, which includes an updated system that can remain continuously operational for five or more hours. Lockheed Martin will conduct its next experiment in the fall of 2019. CACI's BEAM system is already operational, and the Army has committed to continue its development at the completion of Squad X Phase 2. The Army is set to begin concurrent development of the Lockheed Martin ASSAULTS system in fiscal years 2019 and 2020, and then, independent of DARPA, in fiscal year 2021. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-07-12