21 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial

Watch the Defiant helicopter exceed 100 knots

By: Jen Judson

WASHINGTON — The Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant coaxial demonstrator flew more than 100 knots in a Jan. 13 flight test as the aircraft — built for the U.S. Army's Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program — continues to expand its flight envelope in weekly sorties.

The aircraft also maneuvered at 30-degree bank turns during the flight in a test of its agility at the Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky's Development Flight Test Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Defiant has been flying for nearly a year. Its first flight was in March 2018 after a delay to the program to challenges mostly related to the manufacturing its rotor blades.

The program seems to have picked up the pace. In October, Ken Eland, Boeing's director and manager of its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program, told reporters that the aircraft flew three times in March and April, but the company took a pause in flight operations after discovering an issue with the gearbox of the propulsion system test bed, or PSTB, which the team is using for extensive ground tests of the aircraft.

Defiant was back up in the air by Sept. 24 when it flew in every direction at speeds of 20 knots. The company said last fall that it planned to push the aircraft to 40 knots and believed it would be able to hit top speeds of 250 knots, which is more than the 230-knot requirement set by the Army.

The aircraft is one of two demonstrators flying as part of the Army's Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator, or JMR TD, program, which is meant to inform the service's Future Vertical Lift programs of record, specifically a future long-range assault aircraft the Army wants to field by 2030.

The other demonstrator is Bell's V-280 Valor tilt-rotor demonstrator, which as been flying for more than two years and recently completed autonomous test flight series in December.

While the official JMR TD phase has ended, according to the Army, both Valor and Defiant continue to fly as each team works to drive down risk related to technology development that would ultimately help a possible program of record move more quickly down the road.

Even though the two demonstrators are in different places in their flight test plans, Maj. Gen. Thomas Todd, the program executive officer for Army aviation, said earlier this month that the service wasn't planning to wait for each competitor to reach the same goal posts before proceeding. The only advantage a vendor might have in meeting timelines is that it is able to burn down risk in technology development, he added.

The Army is preparing to award an other transaction authority contract to begin a competitive demonstration and risk reduction, or CDRR, effort in March. An OTA is a type of contract that enables rapid prototyping. The CDRR will consist of two phases that last approximately one year each.

“In the CDRR, we're really trying to develop a weapons system, not the tech demonstrator,” Brig. Gen. Wally Rugen, who is in charge of the Army's aviation modernization, recently said. “So we're trying to take it to the next level.”

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/01/17/defiant-exceeds-100-knots

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12 janvier 2021 | International, Naval

Lockheed Martin delivers HELIOS laser weapon to U.S. Navy
Jan. 11 (UPI) -- A long-awaited seaborne defensive laser weapon system known as HELIOS was delivered to the U.S. Navy for testing, builder Lockheed Martin announced on Monday. The Navy is scheduled to test the 60kw High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS later this year, and will go to sea aboard an unnamed guided missile destroyer assigned to the Pacific Fleet. HELIOS, designed in a $150 million contract with Lockheed Martin, is designed to "burn the boats," or unmanned drones, with a high-energy laser beam. It follows a 2019 demonstration of laser power, although with half the wattage of the device announced on Monday, aboard the amphibious transport dock USS Ponce. The scalable laser design architecture combines multiple kilowatt fiber lasers to attain high beam quality at various power levels, according to Lockheed officials. HELIOS was designed as a weapon capable of burning small speed boats, notably of the type the Iranian military deploys in armed groups, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles. It can also merely "dazzle" a UAV's electro-optical sensors, damaging them and preventing them from performing their missions. The system can be used as an alternative to firing missiles or other projectiles at enemy craft, and can theoretically fire an unlimited number of laser blasts at targets. HELIOS is one of a number of laser weapons the Navy is currently working to develop. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2021/01/11/Lockheed-Martin-delivers-HELIOS-laser-weapon-to-US-Navy/2291610385689/
16 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre

VSE Corporation Announces Approximately $90 Million in Contract Awards
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7 septembre 2018 | International, Terrestre

Can soldiers use their own movement, marching to charge the batteries they carry? The Army’s working on it
By: Todd South Scientists with the Army's communications and electronic research group are looking to the soldier's own footsteps, and other means, to potentially increase battery life and lighten the load for increasingly tech-laden troops. Army researchers are forecasting that the battery load for a dismounted soldier could double by 2025, given the need for more sophisticated and powerful electronic systems being used by soldiers. That load currently runs from 15 to 25 pounds for a three-day mission, no small amount when every ounce counts, and soldiers will strip rations and cut a toothbrush handle to save weight. New battery and power requirements could come from augmented reality equipment and the more sophisticated Next Generation Squad Weapon program, which will add new targeting capabilities to the soldier's rifle but also need power that's not there now. Julianne Douglas, the Energy Harvest lead with the Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center said in an Army release that the “added weight means soldiers can get fatigued much more easily, are more susceptible to injury and are less able to maneuver nimbly.” Full article: https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/09/06/can-soldiers-use-their-own-movement-marching-to-charge-the-batteries-they-carry-the-armys-working-on-it

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