19 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial

US Army taps industry for autonomous drones to resupply troops

By:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is tapping industry for drones that can deliver supplies to infantry brigade combat teams in the field, according to a request for information posted to the federal contracting website Beta.Sam.Gov on Jan. 13.

Army Futures Command's Sustainment Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate as well as the Marine Corps' Capabilities Development and Integration office began looking in earnest at a concept called the “Joint Tactical Autonomous Aerial Resupply System,” about two years ago with the hope of getting a capabilities development document signed in three years.

But the concept has been alive for much longer. In 2018, the JTAARS concept was on an evaluation list for the Joint Warfighting Assessment in Grafenwoehr, Germany.

The services plan to field the system by 2026.

The drone should already be technologically mature to demonstrate capability, weigh less than a Group 3 drone — or less than approximately 1,300 pounds — and be able to haul up to 800 pounds of supplies to the field to provide an organic sustainment capability for infantry brigade combat teams in a multidomain operational environment, according to the request for information.

The drone should also be able to operate in a 110-mile radius at day or night, and in bad weather conditions, as well as plug into current and future tactical command-and-control systems, the RFI read.

Setup time to launch a package should take 15 minutes, and two to four soldiers should be able to lift it out of a transport container, the RFI said. This means the system should be lightweight and easy to use, the document explained.

The drone must automatically launch, navigate in GPS-denied environments, drop cargo, land and return to its point of origin, the document added. The system should also be able to avoid obstacles and pick optimal flight paths and landing sites on its own, the RFI explained.

Turnaround time between missions should be minimal, according to the RFI, and the system should be modular and open in order to integrate a variety of payloads and software needed, but it also must be secure from cyberattacks.

The Army and Marine Corps have worked on autonomous resupply concepts for over a decade. Perhaps most well-known is the evaluation of Lockheed Martin's K-MAX unmanned helicopter, which had the capability to sling-load cargo. Two of the aircraft were evaluated for several years in Afghanistan beginning in late 2011; one aircraft crashed.

The services completed the operational assessment but did not pursue the capability beyond that.

While the Army has focused on robotic ground convoys for resupply — including developing leader-follower capability — it's expected that autonomous resupply will happen in the air before ground systems provide sustainment due to the increased complication of navigating unpredictable terrain and obstacles on land.

And as the commercial sector — such as Amazon and Google — continues to invest in the drone delivery market, systems designed for the task will become more reliable, more capable and less expensive, likely benefiting the U.S. military. That market is projected to be worth almost $29 billion by the late 2020s.

Responses from industry are due Feb. 12.

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2021/01/15/us-army-taps-industry-for-autonomous-drones-to-resupply-troops

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  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - March 5, 2019

    6 mars 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité, Autre défense

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - March 5, 2019

    ARMY 22nd Century Technologies Inc.,* Somerset, New Jersey (W15P7T-19-D-0202); Agile Defense Inc.,* Reston, Virginia (W15P7T-19-D-0203); Allied Associates International Inc.,* Gainesville, Virginia (W15P7T-19-D-0204); Beshenich Muir & Associates LLC,* Leavenworth, Kansas (W15P7T-19-D-0205); Envision Innovative Solutions Inc.,* Manasquan, New Jersey (W15P7T-19-D-0206); Interactive Process Technology LLC,* Billerica, Massachusetts (W15P7T-19-D-0207); and Technology Service Corp.,* Arlington, Virginia (W15P7T-19-D-0210), will compete for each order of the $37,400,000,000 hybrid (cost, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee, and firm-fixed-price) contract for knowledge based professional engineering support services for programs with command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance related requirements. Bids were solicited via the internet with 388 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of May 14, 2027. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Oshkosh Defense LLC, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was awarded a $23,577,120 fixed-price-incentive contract for recapitalized Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2019 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $23,577,120 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-19-F-0285). Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp., Overland Park, Kansas, was awarded a $20,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect-engineer general design services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 36 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 4, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah, Georgia, is the contracting activity (W912HN-19-D-2003). Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida, was awarded an $8,821,316 modification (P00061) to contract W31P4Q-15-C-0102 for the procurement of Honeywell Inertial Measurement Units. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2017 and 2018 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $8,821,316 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. NAVY Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, California, was awarded a $92,839,119 modification to increase the total ceiling to the previously awarded Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) cost-plus-award fee contract (N00039-04-C-2009) for engineering services, interim logistics services, spares and associated material. MUOS is a narrowband military satellite communication system that supports a worldwide, multiservice population of users, providing modern netcentric communications capabilities while supporting legacy terminals. Work will be performed in Scottsdale, Arizona (90 percent); and Sunnyvale, California (10 percent), and is expected to be completed by October 2020. Fiscal 2019/2020 weapons procurement (Navy); fiscal 2019/2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); and fiscal 2019/2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding will be applied incrementally to the contract after award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured because it is a sole source acquisition pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) - Only One Responsible Source (Federal Acquisition Regulation subpart 6.302-1). The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N00039-04-C-2009). (Awarded March 4, 2019) Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $32,721,119 modification P00015 to a cost-plus-fixed-price delivery order (N0001918F2476) previously issued against basic ordering agreement N00019-14-G-0020 in support of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Aircraft for the Navy, Air Force; Marine Corps, non-U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) participants and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. The modification provides for the procurement of modification kits and special tooling required for modification and retrofit activities for delivered air systems. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in August 2027. Fiscal 2017 and 2018 aircraft procurement (Marine Corps); fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force); non-DoD U.S. participant and foreign military sales funds in the amount of $32,721,119 will be obligated at time of award, $2,136,568 of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This modification combines purchases for the Air Force ($9,702,671; 30 percent); Navy ($9,212,841; 28 percent); Marine Corps ($7,844,070; 24 percent); non-U.S. DoD participant ($5,379,058; 16 percent); and FMS customers ($582,479; 2 percent). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. DRS Systems Inc., Melbourne, Florida, is awarded a $29,556,100 modification to previously awarded firm-fixed-price material contract N65236-15-C-1007 with performance based cost-plus-fixed-fee provisions for design and system engineering support services. This modification extends the contract period of performance, increases the contract estimated ceiling by $29,556,100, and changes the cumulative estimated value of the contract from $54,094,742 to $83,651,029. This contract is for interior communication systems material support to U.S. naval vessels. Work will be performed in Melbourne, Florida, and is expected to be completed by February 2022. This contract was previously procured competitively by full and open competition via the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command e-commerce Central website and the Federal Business Opportunities website. The Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, Charleston, South Carolina, is the contracting activity. Northrop Grumman Systems, Melbourne, Florida, is awarded a $23,300,000 long-term contract for repair coverage of eight items that are part of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye System. The contract is a three-year contract with no option periods. Work will be performed in Woodland Hills, California (50 percent); and Syracuse, New York (50 percent), and work is expected to be completed by December 2020. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Annual working capital funds (Navy) will be obligated as individual task orders are issued and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was a sole-source, non-competitive requirement pursuant to the authority set forth in 10 U.S. Code 2304(C)(1) and Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1, with one offer received. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00383-19-D-UL01). Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded $9,963,210 for modification P00001 to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-19-D-0015). This modification increases the ceiling of the contract to procure additional production ancillary mission equipment in support of F-35 non-U.S. Department of Defense participant operational aircraft. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in May 2023. No funds are being obligated at time of award, funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. NOREAS Environmental Services LLC.,* Irvine, California, was awarded an $8,006,844 modification under previously awarded fixed-price contract N62473-17-C-0001 to exercise Option Two for environmental services for the management of hazardous material/hazardous waste and industrial and oily wastewater treatment plants and collection systems. The work to be performed provides for the contractor to furnish all labor, supervision, management, tools, materials, equipment, facilities, transportation, incidental engineering, and other items necessary to provide the services for industrial waste/oily waste treatment Services; hazardous material/hazardous waste management; oil and hazardous substance spill response and cleanup, ashore. After award of this option, the cumulative contract value is $23,255,028. Work will be performed at various installations in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed by March 2020. Working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $8,006,844 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-17-C-0001). (Awarded Feb. 28, 2019) DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY NextGen Federal Systems LLC, Morgantown, West Virginia, was awarded a competitive, hybrid (firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee) contract with four one-year options on task order HC1047‐19-C-0004 for independent verification and validation of software in support of the Defense Information Systems Agency Command and Control Portfolio. The face value of this action is $7,142,540 funded by fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $52,574,624. Performance will take place primarily at the government's facility located at Fort George G. Meade Defense Information Systems Agency Headquarters. Proposals were solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website, and five proposals were received. The base period of performance is March 6, 2019, through March 5, 2020. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization ‐ National Capital Region is the contracting activity. *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1776351/source/GovDelivery/

  • Epirus, a venture-backed startup, inks deal with Northrop for counter-drone tech

    21 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

    Epirus, a venture-backed startup, inks deal with Northrop for counter-drone tech

    By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― Epirus, a venture-backed startup offering a counter-drone capability, launched quietly enough two years ago, but it's making noise by bringing together key veterans of Microsoft, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon ― and by landing its first deal with a name-brand defense prime contractor. Epirus chief executive Leigh Madden was general manager for Microsoft's national security business before he joined the Hawthorne, Calif.,-based firm two months ago, and its chief financial officer, Ken Bedingfield, is a former chief financial officer at Northrop. The former chairman of Epirus is Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of the Silicon Valley data-analytics company Palantir Technologies. Epirus, this week, is expected to announce a previously undisclosed strategic supplier agreement with Northrop to provide exclusive access to Epirus' software-defined electromagnetic pulse system, called Leonidas. The dollar value of the deal isn't being disclosed. Northrop said Leonidas would augment its own kinetic and non-kinetic solutions to counter small drones. The Army recently selected Northrop's Forward Area Air Defense Command and Control software, or FAAD-C2, as the interim C2 system to counter small drones. (DoD's FY21 budget request included $18.7 million for counter-drone enhancements for the system.) “UAS threats are proliferating across the modern battlespace,” said Kenn Todorov, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Combat Systems and Mission Readiness division. “By integrating the Epirus EMP weapon system into our C-UAS portfolio, we continue maturing our robust, integrated, layered approach to addressing and defeating these evolving threats.” Many companies have jumped into the $2 billion counter-UAS market, anticipating a boom as commercial drones have grown cheaper and more commonplace, posing an asymmetric threat on the battlefield as well as a threat to airports, sports stadiums, government buildings and urban areas. So many companies are in the field the Pentagon has been working to streamline the number of systems available across the department. Epirus executives said the company's technology is unique because its use of solid-state commercial semiconductor technology makes it lighter and smaller ― and because it can have narrow effects or be “adjusted to sanitize a volume of terrain or sky, creating a forcefield effect.” The company's systems involve a combination of high-power microwave technology and, for enhanced targeting, artificial intelligence. Epirus Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Bo Marr was a radio frequency engineer and technical lead on Raytheon's next-generation jammer program, under development by the U.S. Navy. Madden, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who spent eight years at Microsoft, and Bedingfield, who spent five years as Northrop's CFO, both said they joined Epirus because they were impressed by the technology and its potential. “Northrop and Microsoft are both multibillion-dollar defense businesses, and I think we bring a knowledge of how to operate around some of the larger opportunities and to make outsized impacts in the market,” Madden said. “We're taking that experience to a smaller, innovative company. I think that will allow us to really accelerate the pace of growth and have a more rapid and greater impact for our customers.” The Pentagon has attempted to shift toward working with smaller, more innovative companies to supplement its work with larger firms, which continue to dominate the marketplace. Flexible, non-traditional contact vehicles called “other transaction authorities” have grown more popular as the Pentagon has turned to Silicon Valley for cutting edge technologies. “One of the things that attracted me to come to Epirus is the ability to work in an agile enterprise that is trying to take some of the approaches of Silicon Valley and apply them to the defense world―to iterate quicker and to field faster, and to be able to respond to the urgent needs of the customer,” Bedingfield said. Bedingfield said the company is growing fast and generating revenue from working with customers on studies and technology demonstrations, but it's as yet unclear when it will begin to deliver products. The coronavirus pandemic has slowed its hiring, but the firm is looking to double in the next year, adding more than 50 employees in Hawthorne, and a planned office in Northern Virgina. Formed in 2018 and named after the magical bow of the Greek hero Theseus, Epirus was raising $17.8 million in new funding last November, according to its public filings. With Lonsdale and Marr, its co-founders include its previous CEO; current Vice Chairman John Tenet, from venture capitol firm 8VC; Chief Operating Officer Max Mednik, a Google veteran; UnitedHealthcare Chief Digital Officer Grant Verstandig is the current chairman. Palantir, which Lonsdale founded with billionaire Peter Thiel in 2005, appeared as an upstart when the Defense Department hadn't opened its arms as wide to Silicon Valley. Last year, Palantir beat Raytheon in a head-to-head competition to provide the Army a new version of its intelligence analysis system ― after a years long saga in which the Army rejected Palantir's offering and Palantir sued. In September, Epirus won a Small Business Innovation Research contract from the U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center as part of its AFWERX technology accelerator. The contract was for the company's novel architecture for using commercial off-the-shelf field programmable gate arrays, which are semiconductor devices commonly used in electronic circuits, as ultra-wideband radio frequency transceivers. While traditional systems use large vacuum tubes, Madden said Leonidas is based in microchips and software. “We believe there is no other solution on the market that allows for fully software defined precision targeting at digital speeds, enabling both precision targeting as well as large-area, counter-swarm targeting of many drones at the same time,” he said. Northrop and Epirus are expected to announce their partnership this week. “We're not just solving today's swarm threat, we're also looking to the future to understand how asymmetric threats will evolve,” Marr said in a statement. “Epirus is an agile startup, Northrop Grumman has defense prime contractor resources, and through this partnership we intend to deliver the best technology to the warfighter as fast as possible.” https://www.defensenews.com/2020/07/20/epirus-venture-backed-startup-inks-deal-with-northrop-for-counter-drone-tech

  • France’s Arquus unveils Scarabée, a hybrid armored vehicle that moves like a crab

    15 mars 2021 | International, Terrestre

    France’s Arquus unveils Scarabée, a hybrid armored vehicle that moves like a crab

    The company hopes the French forces will sign on as an initial client for the futuristic ride.

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