26 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial
The US Air Force's (USAF) initiative Agility Prime has demonstrated the developments in the electric vertical take-off and landing flight (eVTOL).
Conducted at Camp Mabry in Texas, US, the first Agility Prime ORB flight demonstration was witnessed by Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, Air Force chief of staff general Charles Brown Jr, and Air Force chief master sergeant JoAnne Bass.
The leaders were joined by Texas National Guard hosts and AFWERX personnel.
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract recipient LIFT Aircraft demonstrated the flight.
The company is one of the first small companies selected as participants for the Agility Prime ‘Air Race to Certification'.
LIFT Aircraft has developed Hexa eVTOL to offer a fully autonomous people transport.
Under the Agile programme, it will refine and accelerate the progress of Hexa by expanding its flight envelope.
During the demonstration, LIFT CEO Matthew Chasen navigated Hexa over the Camp Mabry parade ground.
Agility Prime lead and AFWERX director colonel Nathan Diller said: “We now have over fifteen of the leading aircraft manufacturers in the world applying to partner with Agility Prime, with many of them already on contract.
“This flight today marks the first of many demonstrations and near-term flight tests designed to reduce the technical risk and prepare for Agility Prime fielding in 2023.”
Agility Prime is a non-traditional programme seeking to speed-up the potential commercial market for advanced air mobility vehicles.
These vehicles, or ORBs, could be used for specific operations such as medical evacuation, firefighting, civil and military disaster relief, search and rescue, and humanitarian relief.
During the launch of the programme in April, Barrett said: “Agility Prime is a programme with a vision of world impact.
“The thought of an electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle, a flying car, might seem straight out of a Hollywood movie, but by partnering today with stakeholders across industries and agencies, we can set up the US for this aerospace phenomenon.”
Last month, AFWERX innovation programme prepared to host the first virtual TeamUp event with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/usaf-initiative-agility-prime-demonstrates-evtol-advances/
21 septembre 2023 | International, Terrestre, Sécurité
The Pentagon is at an important juncture as it thinks creatively and ambitiously on how to leverage this critical new technology.
25 novembre 2020 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — A production decision for the U.S. Army's critical battle command system has been delayed, the service confirmed to Defense News. An Office of the Secretary of Defense-level Defense Acquisition Board review was scheduled for Nov. 17, but due to some administrative issues, the board was unable to make a decision on the way forward for a program that has already experienced years of delays and setbacks. The Northrop Grumman-developed battle command system was originally meant to serve as the command-and-control system for the Army's future Integrated Air and Missile Defense System against regional ballistic missile threats, but the service has since expanded its planned role to tie together a much broader array of sensors and shooters capable of defeating other complex threats like cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft. To date, the Army has spent $2.7 billion to develop the system. “A small number of statutory and regulatory documents supporting the Milestone C [production] decision are in the final stages of approval, but not yet fully approved,” an Army spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement. “The program office and OSD directorates will hold technical briefings to obtain final approval signatures on some of the open documents. Document completion is largely administrative.” Specifically, final approval is needed for the program protection plan, the life-cycle sustainment plan and an update to the Capabilities Development Document, the spokesperson said. The principal members of the Defense Acquisition Board “concurred with the program's achievement of all Engineering & Manufacturing Development Phase exit criteria,” the statement noted. Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, directed a follow-on meeting within 30 days to review document completion status. That review is anticipated to take place in mid-December. The delay in reaching a production decision is not expected to affect the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System program schedule — at least in terms of operational testing and other major milestones ahead. The program struggled in 2016 during a limited-user test, but following several soldier checkouts and other test events over the past few years as well as a successful limited-user test this summer, it is expected the battle command system will be approved for production. Once approved for production, it will move into an initial operational test and evaluation phase in 2021. The Army plans to equip its first unit with the system in the third or fourth quarter of fiscal 2022. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/11/24/production-decision-for-armys-critical-battle-command-system-delayed/
28 février 2020 | International, C4ISR
February 25, 2020 - Thales has been selected for the French Ministry for the Armed Forces “Defence Platform” project. This project, which serves all of the Ministry's users (military, civilian defense and affiliated personnel), enables the design, development in “agile mode” and the immediate production release of data-driven applications for new use cases, as well as their secure storage and exchange. Since 2018, the Ministry for the Armed Forces has been engaged in a digital transformation aimed at making routine tasks simpler for users, by offering them new online services accessible from desktop computers and mobile devices: equipment orders, tracking of benefits, annual leave and transfer requests, administrative forms, etc. In this context, the mission of the "Defence Platform" project of the General Directorate for Digital and Information Systems (DGNUM) is to support the Ministry's departments in defining the needs of its users, and in identifying, developing and pooling new technical resources to enable the implementation of new digital services, in a shared and controlled manner. This project will also support the development of the Socle Numérique de Défense (Digital Defence Base), whose piloting has been entrusted to the French Armament General Directorate (DGA) and the DIRISI. Following the "Defence Platform" call for tenders issued by the Joint Department of Infrastructure Networks and Information Systems (DIRISI), Thales was chosen to support the modernisation of the software development platforms. Under the agreement, Thales will deploy its “Athena software factory”, which is entirely based on open-source components from the software development environments set up by the Group's engineering department for its own in-house needs. The solution applies DevSecOps methods to support design and continuous integration for fast and secure software development. Thales will also provide its expertise in cloud environments, data protection technologies and secure communications. Finally, the Ministry for the Armed Forces will benefit from Thales's experience in agile project management, with Thales software developers working as part of integrated Ministry teams when appropriate. This project will thus support the design and rapid production release of new cloud-ready digital services, capable of running in the Ministry's future cloud environments, with guaranteed levels of security and trust for the Ministry and its users. View source version on Thales : https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/market-specific/critical-information-systems-and-cybersecurity/news/french-defence-ministry-chooses