10 juillet 2024 | International, Terrestre
26 avril 2021 | International, Terrestre
The agreement will see experienced strategic industry partners in Lockheed Martin and Thales Australia cooperate in the design, development and production of Lockheed Martin’s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile – Surface...
6 septembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Seth J. Frantzman JERUSALEM — Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems' acquisition of local firm Aeronautics Limited combines the former's expertise in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance with the latter's ties to the UAS market. “We have a strong feeling and understanding that the world is changing and moving more operational requirements toward unmanned vehicles and specifically unmanned aerial vehicles,” said Yuval Miller, executive vice president of aerial and C4I systems divisions at Rafael. The 850 million shekel (U.S. $240 million) deal has been in the works for more than a year and received approval earlier this year. Under the agreement, announced Sept. 3, Rafael will hold a 50 percent stake in Aeronautics along with businessman Avichai Stolero. Rafael, which is known for its Iron Dome air defense system, Trophy active protection system, Litening pods and advances in artificial intelligence, sees an advantage in adding UAS to its global strategy. Aeronautics has a portfolio involving 50 countries and a spectrum of UAVs. Rafael says it has in-house capabilities such as sensors, systems and munitions that have been used on fighter jets and other platforms that can pair well with what it describes as Aeronautics' lower-tier UAVs. Rafael has historically cooperated with other local and foreign companies that make UAVs, such as Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. For instance, its RecceLite pod was integrated on General Atomics' Predator B/MQ-9s with the Italian Air Force in 2016. But Rafael noticed even more potential in the platforms made by Aeronautics, including its Orbiter UAV products, such as the Orbiter 3 lightweight drone that has a range of 150 kilometers and is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance missions. “These platforms are becoming more robust and their endurance has grown significantly,” Miller said. Indeed, the market is growing in size, to the tune of billions of more dollars in annual spending over the next decade alongside the bolstered capability and and further miniaturization of UAVs. “This has put us in a position to look for a partner, and we found that Aeronautics, which has an excellent portfolio in 50 countries around the world, and their UAV platforms on the lower tier are world leading, and binding that with Rafael's network and sensor capability looks like excellent synergy,” said Miller, who foresees a fast-growing business with the acquisition. Rafael plans to maintain Aeronautics as an independent company, which will evolve its business to Rafael's products. The two companies already partnered in acquiring Controp Precision Technologies in 2012. Controp makes electro-optical systems. Rafael envisions a productive meshing with its electro-optics for ISR missions and area surveillance. “We are talking about onboard advanced image processing and [artificial intelligence], and today that also is available in small and lightweight for lower-tier and low-cost UAVs,” Miller said. Currently, medium-altitude, long-endurance and high-altitude, long-endurance UAVs are costly, but stronger and smaller drones will evolve and combine more sensors and networks, fusing data for an overall customer gain, according to Rafael. Rafael did not discuss how it might mesh with Aeronautics' loitering munitions, such as the Orbiter 1K. The acquisition is part of a growing trend of consolidation in Israel, which saw Elbit acquire former state-owned IMI last year. In 2017 and 2018, Aeronautics was under several investigations that saw its exports restricted and stock price falter. Those hiccups now appear to be behind the firm. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2019/09/05/rafael-acquires-drone-focused-firm-is-240m-deal
3 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Sécurité
Nathan Strout The Air Force will dole out up to $950 million over the next five years to develop and enable its Joint All Domain Command and Control concept, according to a May 29 contract announcement. JADC2 is a new data architecture being pushed primarily by the Air Force for multidomain operations across the service branches. Under JADC2, the Department of Defense wants to connect any sensor to any shooters, regardless of domain. For instance, one aspect of JADC2 is ensuring that data collected by space-based sensors can be processed, transferred to a command-and-control node where it can be fused with other sensor data, and distributed to the appropriate shooter in near-real time. The Air Force has pursued this JADC2 vision by investing in the Advanced Battle Management System family of systems. ABMS seeks to bring the internet of things to the battlefield with an open architecture. The Air Force began testing ABMS last year and is set to conduct its next test in August or September. The Air Force contracts, with a ceiling of $950 million total, will provide maturation, demonstration and proliferation of JADC2-related capabilities across platforms and domains. Contractors will be expected to leverage open-system designs, modern software and algorithm developments to enable the JADC2 vision. Twenty-eight companies will compete for task orders under the new indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts. Several of the vendors selected are not traditional DoD contractors, highlighting the Air Force's desire to include novel commercial approaches to ABMS. “We want a wide variety of companies, and we definitely want fresh blood in the ABMS competition, so there is a lot that can be contributed from companies that are commercially focused, that know a lot about data, that know a lot about machine learning and [artificial intelligence] and know a lot about analytics. Those are going to be the most important parts of the Advanced Battle Management System,” Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper told reporters May 14. While the announcement didn't delineate what each of the vendors would bring to the table, multiple vendors on the contract have provided technologies that fit into the JADC2 concept as well. For example, Persistent Systems supports the Wave Relay Tactical Assault Kit program, which provides multidomain communications and situational awareness to Air Force convoys. In a news release, Silvus Technologies announced it would supply its StreamCaster Mobile Ad hoc Networking radio systems for ABMS under the contract. Silvus says its technology can provide a high-bandwidth, tactical-edge network that connects assets across domains. That technology fits into meshONE, a part of ABMS focused on battlefield networks. MeshONE was used in the December 2019 ABMS test, and the new contract will provide more equipment for future tests. No funds were issued at the time of the award. Work is expected to be completed May 26, 2025. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/06/02/air-force-to-dole-out-nearly-1-billion-for-abms-development/