5 juin 2024 | International, Sécurité
14 mai 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval
What do Marines want in their next drone? Everything
By: Mark Pomerleau
The Marine Corps has revamped its requirements for a large unmanned aerial system after industry leaders said an early version of the drone could cost as much as $100 million.
Now, Marine leaders are following a tiered approach to the requirements as a way to manage costs and work closely with industry.
The Marines are charting ahead with the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Unmanned Expeditionary, or MUX, group 5 UAS. The Marines have long expressed a desire for an organic drone in the Group 5 category, the largest category of military drones.
The initial desired capability set for the MUX was extremely broad, mirroring a Swiss Army knife of mission sets. When first presented to industry, leaders derided the expansive mission set as too costly.
“They came back and said you're talking about something that's going to be $100 million, as big as a V-22. Are you sure that's what you want?,” Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command and Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration, told a small group of reporters following his appearance at the Modular Open Systems Summit in Washington May 1.
“We said ‘No, that's not what we want, not something that big. We want something to fly off a ship, off an expeditionary site. What that allowed us to do through the industry involvement then was to neck down, if you look at the [request for information] we sent out for the industry day, it tiered the requirements.”
The initial RFI was released March 8.
With the tiered requirements approach, Walsh explained that the Marines listed four capabilities they wanted most, while others could be nice to haves or even be handled by other assets.
Tier 1 capabilities include airborne early warning – which Walsh said industry wasn't heavily considering but is a capability the Marines absolutely need coming off a ship – command and control communications, digitally passing information, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and electronic warfare.
Additional capabilities include potential weapons armament if the drone will escort V-22s and logistics.
“Amazon, FedEx, somebody else will help us with that and we'll probably buy what they're developing,” Walsh said of the logistics portion.
Similarly, Col. James Frey, the director of the Marine Corps' Aviation Expeditionary Enablers branch, told USNI News that the Future Vertical Lift program might fill this void, adding that whatever is not covered by the program could be done with the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter.
Ultimately, Walsh noted that bringing industry in early will help the service refine its requirements before setting them in stone, leading to a better capability.
The industry day, slated for June 6 and 7, will “bring everybody together and help us with this and have like a workshop approach to that. Both primes and small subs,” he said. “I find this is a way that will allow us to go fast.”
https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2018/05/02/what-do-marines-want-in-their-next-drone-everything/
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South Korea’s KAI looks to enter military transport market
By: Brian Kim SEOUL — Korea Aerospace Industries is considering adding military transport planes to its product line with the goal of partnering with foreign aircraft manufacturers, Defense News has learned. This would be an “unexplored business field” for the South Korean company, according to a source with KAI, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “For KAI, the transport aircraft market is an unexplored field, which has high potential for localization,” the source said. “The technology intensity of transport aircraft is lower than that of fighter jets, while the market of maintenance, repair and overhaul of transport planes remains profitable.” Founded in 1999, KAI has developed a successful portfolio of indigenous aerospace products including trainer jets, helicopters, fighter aircraft and satellites. The development of an indigenous fighter aircraft, codenamed KF-X, is underway with a goal of unveiling a prototype in the first half of 2021. KAI's internal analysis of the domestic transport aircraft market suggested about 100 transport aircraft would be in demand over the next three decades given the life span of aircraft flown by the military, the source told Defense News. In addition, the company believes there will be a chance to sell about 100 airlift planes overseas, the source explained. “To keep up with the demand for addressing increasing nonmilitary threats, such as national disaster, infectious disease and humanitarian aid, the needs for military transport airplanes are likely to grow,” the source added. The South Korean military operates about 60 transport aircraft built by foreign firms. The Air Force operates C-130s and CN-235s, mainly for airlift operations, while the Navy has P-3Cs and P-8As for maritime patrol missions. The oldest planes among the P-3C fleet were adopted 25 years ago. In line with efforts to take back wartime control of its forces from the U.S. military, South Korean military authorities want to acquire more aerial assets for independent intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions. KAI expects it will be able to build its own transport aircraft in seven years with an investment of about $2.7 billion, according to the source. Following the development of a military version, the company envisages it could modify it into a commercial plane with a seat capacity of 100. To that end, KAI is eyeing international partnerships, the source said, specifically European company Airbus Defence and Space, Ukraine's Antonov, and Brazil's Embraer. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/11/12/south-koreas-kai-looks-to-enter-military-transport-market/