US Navy solicits input for computer infrastructure-as-a-service initiative

Sur le même sujet

• 

  17 juillet 2018 | International, Aérospatial

  The military is building a space plane. Now it looks to have an engine up to the task

  By SAMANTHA MASUNAGA A decade after the U.S. Air Force commissioned the next generation of GPS satellites, the first of these spacecraft is finally set to launch into orbit later this year. As with other national security missions, a roughly 200-foot-tall rocket will blast the massive satellite to space, fulfilling a contract worth more than $80 million. But as nations develop technology to disable or shoot down satellites — as China did to one of its own satellites with a ground-based ballistic missile in 2007 — the U.S. military has started to look at options for rapidly and cheaply launching smaller crafts into space. An experimental program spearheaded by a Pentagon research agency could eventually be part of that solution. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, along with aerospace giant Boeing Co., is developing a reusable spaceplane expected to launch small satellites 10 times in 10 days. The vehicle's first test flight is set for 2021, which hints at the Defense Department's growing interest in reusable rocket technology, particularly its potential to drive down launch costs and speed up turnaround time. In recent weeks, the spaceplane's rocket engine, known as the AR-22, completed 10 test fires in 240 hours without need for refurbishments or major repairs, said Jeff Haynes, program manager at Aerojet Rocketdyne. The test firing took place at NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi from June 26 to July 6. The engine test is “really good progress,” said Claire Leon, director of Loyola Marymount University's graduate program in systems engineering and former director of the launch enterprise directorate at the U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center. “SpaceX has had its success,” she said. “I think this engine test also demonstrates that other companies are doing the technology development and having success that will enable reusability.” The title of first reusable system belongs to NASA's Space Shuttle, though more recently, several commercial space firms, including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Stratolaunch and British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit, have developed systems that would reuse aircraft to launch satellites from the belly of a plane. https://www.stripes.com/news/the-military-is-building-a-space-plane-now-it-looks-to-have-an-engine-up-to-the-task-1.538009

• 

  14 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial

  New defense budget bill foresees US-Israel counter-drone cooperation

  By: Seth J. Frantzman JERUSALEM — For the first time, the National Defense Authorization Act includes a section on U.S.-Israel cooperation in countering unmanned aerial systems, in the fiscal 2019 version. The cooperation will identify “capability gaps” of the U.S. and Israel in countering UAVs and seek out projects to address those gaps to strengthen U.S. and Israeli security. The new cooperation envisions funding for research and development efforts and identifying costs that foresee close cooperation modeled on previous successful programs that Israel and the U.S. have collaborated on, including missile defense and anti-tunneling initiatives. Israel and the U.S. have been at the forefront of air defense cooperation for decades. U.S. Reps. Charlie Crist and Mike Johnson introduced in February a bill titled “United States-Israel Joint Drone Detection Cooperation Act.” Parts of the bill were included in the NDAA passed in both houses of Congress in July. “I am honored to have our bill included in the NDAA and to see it signed into law by President [Donald] Trump. This is an important step not only for our strongest ally in the Middle East but for the United States as well,” Johnson said in July. The president signed the NDAA into law on the afternoon of Aug. 13. The initiative foresees “joint research and development to counter unmanned aerial vehicles [which] will serve the national security interests of the United States and Israel.” Included as Section 1272 of the final NDAA presented to the president on Aug. 3, the cooperation contains five parts, including identification of the capability gaps that exist, identifying cooperative projects that would address the gaps, assessing the costs of the research and development, and assessing the costs of procuring and fielding the capabilities developed. Reports on the cooperation will be submitted to the congressional defense committees, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The threat of drones has increased in recent years. On Feb. 10 an Iranian-made drone entered Israeli airspace near the northern town of Beit Shean. It had flown from the T4 air base in Syria. Israel identified and tracked the drone from Syria and sent an Apache helicopter to shoot it down. The drone was revealed to be armed with explosives. Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom said in an interview in April that the drone was sophisticated and “an exact replica of the U.S. drone that fell in their territory,” referring to the American RQ-170 Sentinel, which was downed in Iran in 2011. Iran developed two drones based on the Sentinel, one called Shahed 171 and an armed version dubbed Saeqeh, which debuted in 2016. In 2012, Hezbollah used a drone to try to carry out surveillance of the Dimona nuclear reactor in southern Israel. “It's not the first time and it will not be the last,” warned Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Conflict Armament Research reported in March 2017 that kamikaze drones using Iranian technology were being used by Houthi rebels in Yemen against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE has sought to bring attention to this threat during the conflict in Yemen, in which a Riyadh-led coalition is fighting the Houthis. Drones were also used by the Islamic State group to attack U.S.-led coalition forces in Syria and Iraq. And Afghan officials reported an Iranian drone entered their airspace in August 2017. In September 2017, Israel used a Patriot missile to down a Hezbollah drone. Israel used Patriotmissiles twice to down Syrian UAVs near the Golan Heights demilitarized zone in July 2018. The U.S. reportedly used an F-15E Eagle to shoot down an Iranian-made Shahed 129 drone in June 2017 in Syria. The drone was heading for the U.S. base at Tanf, which is located in Syria near the Jordanian border. A systematic examination of the emerging drone threat is in the works. The U.S. Defense Department has been allocating resources to counter UAVs, with U.S. Central Command requesting up to $332 million over the next five years for efforts to counter drones. The U.S. Army has been looking for new missiles to defend against a variety of threats, including drones. This will include the Expanded Mission Area Missile and may include other Israel missiles such as the Tamir interceptor for use with a multimission launcher. https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2018/08/13/new-defense-budget-bill-foresees-us-israel-counter-drone-cooperation/

• 

  30 mars 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Raytheon-UTC merger wins approval, pending divestitures

  By: Jill Aitoro WASHINGTON — The merger between two defense giants got the green light from the U.S. Department of Justice, under the condition that divestitures already in the works move forward and another piece of business is shed. According to a March 26 announcement from the DOJ, United Technologies Corp. and Raytheon will need to divest Raytheon's military airborne radios business as well as UTC's military global positioning systems and large space-based optical systems businesses in order to proceed with the proposed merger. The divestitures would satisfy a proposed settlement from the department's Antitrust Division of a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the proposed Raytheon-UTC merger. BAE Systems agreed in January to buy Collins Aerospace's military global positioning system business — which is owned by parent firm UTC — for $1.93 billion and Raytheon's airborne tactical radios business for $275 million. “Today's settlement protects the American taxpayer by preserving competition that leads to lower costs and higher innovation in critical military and defense products,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Antitrust Division. “The merger, as originally proposed, would have eliminated competition in the supply of military airborne radios and military GPS systems, and would have positioned the merged firm to harm rivals capable of making key components for reconnaissance satellites. These horizontal and vertical concerns are resolved by the Division's structural remedy, which includes the divestiture of three separate business units.” Under the terms of the proposed settlement, the companies need to divest Raytheon's military airborne radios business, including facilities in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Largo, Florida; as well as UTC's military GPS business to BAE Systems or another approved acquirer. The proposed settlement would also require the divestiture of UTC's optical systems business, including a facility in Danbury, Connecticut, to an approved acquirer. Raytheon and UTC announced in June 2019 plans to officially merge into a new entity called Raytheon Technologies Corporation, with the deal at the time expected to close during the first half of 2020. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/03/27/raytheon-utc-look-to-shed-segments-to-win-merger-approval