12 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial
by Robin Hughes
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded MBDA in the United Kingdom a seven-year demonstration and manufacture contract for production of the SPEAR network-enabled stand-off air-to-surface weapon system.
Designated SPEAR3 in UK service, the effector will be the primary medium-to-long-range strike weapon of the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy (RN) F-35B Lightning variant multirole combat aircraft, enabling them to engage and defeat challenging targets such as mobile long-range air defence systems at over-the-horizon ranges in all weathers and in highly contested environments.
The placement of the demonstration and manufacture contract in late 2020 follows the successful implementation of the GBP411 million (USD536 million) four-year SPEAR Cap 3 Development Phase contract awarded to MBDA in March 2016, and the funding contract to BAE Systems from F-35 programme prime contractor Lockheed Martin in March 2019 for integration of SPEAR and MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile on the UK F-35B.
UK Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) Lightweight and Medium Attack Systems (LMAS) team leader Colonel Martin French said, “The placement of this contract marks the next major stage of the SPEAR3 weapon system's development and is a result of months of detailed negotiations between MBDA and the LMAS project team.
“Building on the successes and technology achievements of the previous four years' work with MBDA, we now enter the exciting and challenging demonstration phase where we start to prove the system against the UK's requirements and ramp up activities to integrate this highly-capable weapon system onto the F-35B aircraft.”
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/update-uk-orders-production-of-spear3-for-f-35
17 juin 2024 | International, Terrestre
"Hyper-lethality" on the battlefield has prompted fresh thinking in armor design and the resiliency of command posts, according to Gen. Pierre Schill.
10 mai 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has cleared a potential foreign military sale deal of 24 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, in a deal that could be worth up to $3 billion. The proposed sale would double Qatar's previous procurement of AH-64Es, which are used for “close air support, armed reconnaissance, and anti-tank warfare missions,” according to a notice posted on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency's website Thursday. “The helicopters will provide a long-term defensive and offensive capability to the Qatar peninsula as well as enhance the protection of key oil and gas infrastructure and platforms.” The notification is not a guarantee of a final sale. Congress can still weigh in, and once cleared by the Hill, negotiations between customer and supplier often lead to different prices or quantities. Included in the sale are the 24 helicopter bodies, 52 T700-GE-701D engines; 26 AN/ASQ-170 Modernized Target Acquisition and Designation Sight (MTADS); 26 AN/AAQ-11 Modernized Pilot Night Vision Sensors; 2,500 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles; 28 M230 30mm automatic chain guns, as well as other equipment and training. Primary work will be done at Boeing's Mesa, Ariz., facility, Lockheed Martin's Orlando, Fla,, location and General Electric's Cincinnati, OH facility, as well as other locations. There are no known industrial offsets in the deal. https://www.defensenews.com/global/mideast-africa/2019/05/09/us-clears-3-billion-apache-sale-for-qatar
10 juillet 2019 | International, C4ISR, Autre défense
By: Kelsey Reichmann The Department of Defense is pursuing a $4.7 million initiative to use machine learning to decipher radio signals. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded funding to BAE Systems, a British defense company, for its Controllable Hardware Integration for Machine-learning Enabled Real-time Adaptivity (CHIMERA) solution. The CHIMERA solution uses machine learning to interpret radio frequency signals in crowded electromagnetic spectrum environments. “CHIMERA brings the flexibility of a software solution to hardware,” said Dave Logan, vice president and general manager of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Systems at BAE Systems in a news release. “Machine-learning is on the verge of revolutionizing signals intelligence technology, just as it has in other industries.” This contract is contingent on the completion of preset milestones and works alongside the Radio Frequency Machine Learning Systems (RFMLS) program, which was previously awarded to integrate data-driven machine learning algorithms. https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2019/07/09/can-machine-learning-decipher-an-overcrowded-radio-spectrum/