US Army endorses tactical drone contest to replace Shadow

Sur le même sujet

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  31 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval

  US Navy selects builder for new MQ-25 Stingray aerial refueling drone

  By: Valerie Insinna and David B. Larter WASHINGTON — Boeing has seized the Navy's MQ-25 tanker drone contract, a major victory for a company that has in recent years struggled to win combat aircraft awards, marking a major step toward a new kind of carrier air wing. The $805 million contract covers the design, development, fabrication, test and delivery of four Stingray aircraft, a program the service expects will cost about $13 billion overall for 72 aircraft, said Navy acquisition boss James Geurts. The award to Boeing kicks off what the Navy would is aiming to be a six-year development effort moving toward a 2024 declaration of initial operational capability. At the end, it will mark a historic integration of drones into the Navy's carrier air wing. The Navy has traversed a long and complicated road in trying to develop a UAS that would fly on and off its aircraft carriers. It first envisioned UCLASS as a surveillance and strike asset, but the program was cancelled in 2016 after stakeholders including the Navy, the office of the secretary of defense and Congress publicly butted heads over the requirements. Instead, the effort to field a carrier drone was reborn that year as an unmanned tanker that could double the range of the carrier air wing. “I think we'll look back on this day and recognize it as a pretty historic event,” said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson. “From an operational standpoint we are putting our feet in the water in a big way of integrating unmanned with manned into the air wing,” adding that getting the Stingray into the fleet will free up the Hornets now dedicated to the tanking mission While the MQ-25 contract would have been a massive win for any of the competitors, which also included Lockheed Martin and General Atomics, it holds special meaning for Boeing. Boeing has a long history in both naval aviation and the tanking mission, but its Phantom Works advanced technology wing has failed in recent decades to win high-stakes awards like the joint strike fighter and long-range strike bomber contracts. Today's win is a big step in toward reversing the trend. Boeing and General Atomics were widely seen as the favorites for the MQ-25 contest, with each firm offering wing-body-tail designs that were heavily influenced by the company's work in the precursor to the program, the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike effort. Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/08/30/us-navy-selects-builder-for-new-mq-25-stingray-aerial-refueling-drone

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  10 juillet 2024 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Quieting Discord: A new frontier in military leaks and extremism

  From secret Pentagon leaks to radicalization in the military community, Discord is continuing to grapple with keeping bad actors off the popular platform.

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  10 février 2020 | International, Naval

  Spain seen joining Greece, France, Italy on European Patrol Corvette program

  By: Tom Kington ROME – Plans by Italy and France to win European Union funding for the construction of a new corvette have been boosted as Spain looks set to follow Greece and sign up to the program. The planning for a new 3,000 ton corvette is a cornerstone of the new naval joint venture between Italy's Fincantieri and France's Naval Group which was launched last year and named Naviris. The two firms are hoping to match Italian and French navy requirements with a jointly built, modular vessel that can handle patrol and surveillance missions as well as taking second-tier roles in anti-submarine and anti-surface missions. The program, dubbed the European Patrol Corvette, has also been inserted in the EU's so-called Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO, list of recommended pan-European defense programs, which according the EU offers members “options on how to plan and bridge capability gaps in a collaborative manner.” The PESCO corvette project is coordinated by Italy, with France as partner, but in recent weeks, Greece has also joined as a partner, following discussions between the countries' navies. And now Spain is likely to follow, an industrial source told Defense News. “Naviris presented the program to Spain's Navantia which is interested and it is likely Spain will sign up,” said the source. On its PESCO listing for the corvette, the EU states “the objective is to design and develop a prototype for a new class of military ship, named “European Patrol Corvette” (EPC), which can host several systems and payloads, in order to accomplish, with a modular and flexible approach, a large number of tasks and missions.” Adding new partners to the roster of Italy and France is key to winning EU funding. PESCO programs are possible candidates for cash from the European Defence Fund, but only if they have more than two partners on board. “The corvette is the only naval program on the PESCO list and it should be a priority,” said the source. Naviris expects the EU fund to issue a Request for Proposal for projects this year, with proposals to then be submitted by industry in 2021, and for decisions on fund allocation to be made the same year. The source said that if the corvette program gets EU part-funding, it would help sustain the development of the ship's modularity, allowing it to serve different functions for different navies. “It would have a very open architecture, as well as having a basic and enhanced version,” he said. Apart from the boost given the program by potential EU funding, the corvette remains a requirement for Italy and France. Rome needs to replace Cassiopea- and Minerva-class vessels being phased out as well as aging Commandante-class vessels. France is looking to substitute its Floréal-class vessels. “Italy might need eight corvettes and France is looking to substitute six ships. They both have a need, so the EU funding would be an added opportunity that could create a bandwagon effect with other navies,” said the source. As Naviris picks up steam, Naval Group CEO Hervé Guillou has said the industrial alliance is open to new partners joining, but so far Germany seems to be uninterested. Addressing the economic affairs committee of the French Senate on Jan. 28, Guillou said he had visited Berlin the week before to sound out German interest but got little response. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/02/07/spain-seen-joining-greece-france-italy-on-european-patrol-corvette-program