US Army pursues alternatives for a Stryker-based active protection system

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  19 juillet 2019 | International, Autre défense

  Army Reveals Timeline for Fielding New Infantry Weapons

  By Matthew Cox The Army general in charge of modernizing soldier lethality said recently he is confident that the service will begin replacing both M249 squad automatic weapons and the M4 carbines in infantry brigades in 2023. Army testers are currently shooting the first 6.8mm rounds through a variety of rifle and automatic rifle prototypes of the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, Brig. Gen. David Hodne told Military.com at a June 16 Army Futures Command media event. The service's goal is to select a final design for both weapons from a single provider in the first quarter of 2022 and begin replacing M4s and M249s in an infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) in the first quarter of 2023, said Hodne, director of the Army's Soldier Lethality Cross Functional Team. "We are going to do both," he said, explaining the Army won't be sure how long it will take to equip that first IBCT until it can evaluate the winner's production capability. "The first unit equipped spans a period of months, and that first unit equipped will include both [weapons]," Hodne said. The NGSW effort is part of the modernization strategy being orchestrated by Army Futures Command (AFC). Based in Austin, Texas, the command will reach full operating capability as of July 31, AFC Commander Gen. Mike Murray told reporters at the event. Both the NGSW carbine and automatic rifle are being designed to fire a special, government-designed 6.8mm projectile that Army leaders say will penetrate modern enemy body armor at greater distances than the current M855A1 5.56mm Enhanced Performance Round. The Army intends to conduct live-fire tests on NGSW prototypes from several gun makers until August, when it is scheduled to select up to three vendors that will move to the next phase of testing, Hodne said. The August down-select will involve the companies that participated in the Army's second prototyping opportunity notice (PON), released in January, that directed gun makers to develop prototypes of both the rifle and auto rifle versions of the NGSW to ensure both work with the common 6.8mm projectile. Army officials would not release the names of the companies chosen to make prototypes for the second PON effort. Last July, the service awarded contracts for the first PON effort to several companies, but that effort involved only prototypes for the automatic rifle version of the NGSW. "We learned a lot in this process. ... Industry took a very hard problem, and they have developed some very innovative solutions," Hodne said. "The first prototyping opportunity notice was centered around an automatic rifle. What we learned was -- to get the best rifle and the best automatic rifle -- we realized the approach had to be centered around a common cartridge that was supportable by both systems." The Army left it up to vendors to design the type of 6.8mm cartridge they wanted to use in their prototypes, Hodne said, adding that some gun makers went with "traditional bottleneck" brass cartridges while others used newer, case-telescoped cartridges. Another part of the NGSW effort is the advanced fire control system, which is being designed to calculate range to target, atmospheric conditions, and the ballistics of both weapon and ammunition, according to the May 30 prototype opportunity notice. The Army expects to receive fire-control prototypes sometime in October, according to Brig. Gen. Anthony Potts, commander of Program Executive Office Soldier. "People as, 'Is the technology going to be there?' " Potts said. "The answer is yes. ... I am very enthused about next generation squad weapon ... it's not just an evolution in capability. It's a revolution in capability. It really will change the lethality of our squads." https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/07/17/army-reveals-timeline-fielding-new-infantry-weapons.html

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  12 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Senate panel OKs $6 billion military fund to confront China

  By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― Plans for a Senate-crafted version of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a new military fund to boost deterrence against China in the Pacific, is one step closer to becoming law. The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved nearly $6 billion for the fund in its version of the annual defense policy bill, the panel announced Thursday. It authorizes $1.4 billion in fiscal 2021, which would be $188.6 million above the administration's budget request, and $5.5 billion for fiscal 2022. The bill also directs the defense secretary to create a spending plan for all of the funds. “The best way to protect U.S. security and prosperity in Asia is to maintain a credible balance of military power, but, after years of underfunding, America's ability to do so is at risk,” the committee's summary stated. “The FY21 [National Defense Authorization Act] establishes the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) to send a strong signal to the Chinese Communist Party that America is deeply committed to defending our interests in the Indo-Pacific. “PDI will enhance budgetary transparency and oversight, focus resources on key military capability gaps, reassure U.S. allies and partners, and bolster the credibility of American deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.” Though not all details of the fund were immediately made public, SASC Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., previously said they would sponsor a measure to enable U.S. military operations in the region, beyond supporting new weapons platforms. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has said China is his department's top adversary, but said Congress has worked to sharpen the Pentagon's spending and focus in the region. The PDI would follow the form of the multiyear European Deterrence Initiative, which has consumed $22 billion since its inception after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Congress will have to internally negotiate the final dollar amount for PDI and what those funds would buy, but House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., and ranking member Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, have expressed support for the idea. Though the Senate's approach differs, Thornberry has also proposed spending $6 billion―all in FY21―on priorities that include air and missile defense systems as well as new military construction in partner countries; Smith hasn't released his own plan. Once approved by the full Senate, its version of the NDAA would be reconciled with the House's version, which the HASC is expected to make public late this month before it goes through markup July 1 and advances to the House floor. With an eye on China beyond the PDI, the SASC bill also encourages the Air Force to establish an operating location in the Indo-Pacific region for F-35A fighter jets and to allocate “sufficient resources and prioritize the protection of air bases that might be under attack from current or emerging cruise missiles and advanced hypersonic missiles, specifically from China." There are also a number of provisions aimed at safeguarding America's technology and industrial base from Chinese intellectual property theft and “economic aggression,” according to the summary. The bill would also require reports from the Pentagon on how to mitigate the risks from vendors like Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE when basing U.S. troops overseas. The SASC summary said its proposed PDI would: Increase lethality of the joint force in the Pacific, including by improving active and passive defense against theater cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles for bases, operating locations and other critical infrastructure. Enhance the design and posture of the joint force in the Indo-Pacific region by transitioning from large, centralized and unhardened infrastructure to smaller, dispersed, resilient and adaptive basing; increasing the number of capabilities of expeditionary airfields and ports; enhancing pre-positioning of forward stocks of fuel, munitions, equipment and materiel; and improving distributed logistics and maintenance capabilities in the region to ensure the sustainment of logistics under persistent multidomain attack. Strengthen alliances and partnerships to increase capabilities, improve interoperability and information sharing, and support information operations capabilities with a focus on countering malign influence. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/06/11/senate-panel-oks-6-billion-military-fund-to-confront-china/

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  21 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  Watch the skies in 2022 for the first B-21 bomber flight

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Sorry, aviation geeks: The first flight of the U.S. Air Force's latest stealth bomber won't be happening this year. The Air Force had once projected the first flight of the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider would occur in December 2021, but the new bomber will not be ready to roll out until early next year for a flight in mid-2022, said the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office director, Randall Walden, according to a Jan. 15 story in Air Force Magazine. The RCO manages the B-21 program on behalf of the service. Two B-21s are under construction at Northrop Grumman's production facility in Palmdale, California. The first aircraft hasn't made it to final assembly yet but is “really starting to look like a bomber,” Walden told Air Force Magazine. “The second one is really more about structures, and the overall structural capability,” Walden said. “We'll go in and bend it, we'll test it to its limits, make sure that the design and the manufacturing and the production line make sense.” Although information about the B-21 is notoriously limited, with many details of the Raider's cost, appearance and capability classified, Walden offered a couple optimistic notes about the program's progress. For one, production of the B-21 is already becoming more efficient during the build of the second aircraft, he said. Northrop Grumman is using a business jet as a test bed for new avionics and software, allowing those systems to be debugged before they are installed in the B-21 aircraft. While there have been some disruptions to the supply chain due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Walden said the program has worked with companies to mitigate changes to the production schedule. “In the last few months, we did another successful end-to-end demonstration to further mature that hardware and software, and it's working quite well,” Walden said. “We're preparing ourselves not just for first flight, but ultimately the subsystem testing that will be required during those flight test phases.” The Air Force has committed to buying at least 100 B-21s, although officials such as Gen. Timothy Ray, who leads Air Force Global Strike Command, said more will be needed to meet the service's future bomber requirements, which could be in excess of 220 aircraft. The service is expected to make a final decision this year on which bomber installations will first host the Raider. In March 2019, the Air Force picked Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota as its preferred location, with Dyess AFB in Texas as an alternate location. A virtual industry day was held Jan. 11 to provide information on contract opportunities for construction projects needed to support B-21 operations. Those facilities could include a “low-observable restoration facility, a wash rack and general maintenance hangar, and a mission operations planning facility,” according to the Air Force. The service expects to begin fielding the B-21 in the mid-2020s. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/01/19/watch-the-skies-in-2022-for-the-first-b-21-bomber-flight/