27 janvier 2024 | International, Naval
‘Back to the ‘80s’ as French navy prepares for new threats
The French navy includes two or three days of drills under “back to the ‘80s” conditions whenever it deploys its carrier strike group.
21 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR
With artificial intelligence, every soldier is a counter-drone operator
With the addition of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the aim is to make every soldier, regardless of job specialty, capable of identifying and knocking down threatening drones.
While much of that mission used to reside mostly in the air defense community, those attacks can strike any infantry squad or tank battalion.
The goal is to reduce cognitive burden and operator stress when dealing with an array of aerial threats that now plague units of any size, in any theater.
“Everyone is counter-UAS,” said Col. Marc Pelini, division chief for capabilities and requirements at the Joint Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, or JCO.
Pelini and Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, JCO director, who spoke Thursday at the virtual Association of the U.S. Army conference, told reporters that the original focus was on smaller Tier I and II threats. But that has now extended to Tier III threats, traditionally covered by the Army's air defense community, such as Avenger and Patriot missile batteries.
Some of that work includes linking the larger threat detection to the smaller drones that now dot conflicts across the world, including the hot zone of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.
In June, the Department of Defense conducted a “down select” of existing or in-the-pipeline counter-drone systems from 40 to eight, as Military Times sister publication C4ISRNET reported at the time.
That was an effort to reduce redundancy in the flood of counter drone programs taken on in the wake of a $700 million funding push in 2017 to get after problems posed by commercially available drones being used more frequently by violent extremist organizations such as the Islamic State to harass, attack and surveil U.S. and allied forces.
Those choices, in the down select, included the following, also reported by C4ISRNET:
Fixed/Semi-Fixed Systems
* Fixed Site-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Integrated Defeat System (FS-LIDS), sponsored by the Army
* Negation of Improvised Non-State Joint Aerial-Threats (NINJA), sponsored by the Air Force
* Counter-Remote Control Model Aircraft Integrated Air Defense Network (CORIAN), sponsored by the Navy
Mounted/Mobile System
* Light-Mobile Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS), sponsored by the Marine Corps
Dismounted/Handheld Systems
* Bal Chatri, sponsored by Special Operations Command
* Dronebuster, no sponsor, commercial off-the-shelf capability
* Smart Shooter, no sponsor, commercial off-the-shelf capability
* Forward Area Air Defense Command and Control (FAAD-C2), sponsored by the Army (includes FAAD-C2 interoperable systems like the Air Force's Air Defense System Integrator (ADSI) and the Marine Corps' Multi-Environmental Domain Unmanned Systems Application Command and Control (MEDUSA C2))
The four areas evaluated to determine which systems stuck around for use or further development were effectiveness, integration, usability and sustainment, Gainey said Thursday.
A kind of virtual open house with industry is planned for Oct. 30, in which JCO will evaluate what options are out there.
Some of what they're learning is being gathered through a consortium, of sorts, that involves regular meetings between service branch representatives during monthly sessions at the two-star level, Gainey said.
That goes into a real-time, updated “common threat library” that helps those in the field identify trends and changes that can be met across forces.
They use those sessions to share what each component is seeing in theater as far as drone use and changes. But it's more than simple intelligence gathering, he said.
They also form rapid response teams.
"My operations team works with the warfighters, [the] intelligence community” and others, he said. They “triangulate” common problems with drones and send the rapid response teams to the area of operations most affected.
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25 février 2019 | International, Aérospatial
Lockheed unveils new F-21 fighter jet configured for India
Sanjeev Miglani NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin offered India on Wednesday a new combat jet to be made locally, the F-21, in an attempt to win a large military order worth more than $15 billion. The U.S. defense firm had previously offered its F-16 fighter used by countries around the world for the Indian air force's ongoing competition for 114 planes to be made in India. But Lockheed, unveiling the plan at an air show in the southern city of Bengaluru, said it was offering India a new plane configured for its needs. It would carry technologies from its fifth generation planes, the F-22 and the F-35, the firm said. “The F-21 is different, inside and out,” Vivek Lall, vice president of Strategy and Business Development for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, said in a statement. The company will build the plane in collaboration with India's Tata Advanced Systems, the firm said. Lockheed is competing with Boeing's F/A-18, Saab's Gripen, Dassault Aviation's Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon and a Russian aircraft for the air force order. The deal to replace the Indian Air Force's ageing fleet of Soviet-era fighter jets is one of the biggest contracts for such planes in play. India has a lengthy procurement process, and no decision is expected until well after a national election due by May. Lockheed has offered to move its F-16 production plant at Fort Worth, Texas, to India, if it wins the order in a boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make-in-India plan to build a domestic military industrial base and create jobs. It said it expected to export planes from the proposed plant in India on top of the Indian requirements for an overseas market that it estimated at $20 billion. But the Indian military has had concerns over the F-16 as an old plane and in an earlier competition it lost out to the eventual winner, the Rafale built by Dassault. But Lockheed said the F-21 could be India's pathway to the stealth F-35 fighter, which has entered U.S. service in one of the world's most expensive defense programs. “The F-21 has common components and learning from Lockheed Martin's 5th Generation F-22 and F-35 and will share a common supply chain on a variety of components,” the company said. It said production in India would create thousands of jobs for Indian industry as well as support hundreds of U.S.-based Lockheed Martin engineering, program management and customer support positions. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airshow-india-lockheed/lockheed-unveils-new-f-21-fighter-jet-configured-for-india-idUSKCN1Q90ED
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31 janvier 2019 | International, C4ISR
What do Cyber Command’s acquisition requests reveal?
By: Mark Pomerleau U.S. Cyber Command is looking to beef up its main acquisition and capabilities development arm with contractor support. In a Jan. 25 request for information released on the FedBizOpps website, Cyber Command's J9, or advanced concepts and technology directorate, is seeking feedback on a statement of work to provide front office support. The feedback will help craft the eventual requirements. Previously, the J9 was known as the Capabilities Development Group. The CDG had a three-pronged mission: planning and synchronizing capability development for the joint cyber force; developing capabilities in order to reduce risk or meet urgent operational needs; and maintaining the command's technical baseline. It was established in 2016 to coordinate, integrate and prioritize cyber tool development and delivery efforts across the services given the joint nature of cyberspace and the need to enable greater synergy across the joint cyber mission force. CDG was recently redesignated as the J9. This was done to clarify its goals and mission and to better align with Joint Staff and other unified combatant commands — all of which have J9s — a Cyber Command spokesman told Fifth Domain. Cyber Command, stood up in 2009, itself was elevated to a full unified combatant command in May 2018. As the command is looking to scale up its operations and its capabilities, it is going to need a more robust staff. Experts have noted that the CDG, now J9, has been very stressed over the past few years with a limited staff and burdened by developing tools for current operational needs — namely the fight against ISIS, called Joint Task Force-Ares. Cyber Command's top acquisition official, Stephen Schanberger, said as recently as September 2018 that the command is in its infancy from an acquisition perspective, adding that the command at the time had one contracting officer, one specialist and a couple of contractors aside from himself in the contracting shop. He did say he expected those numbers to double in the next three months at the time. Congress granted Cyber Command limited acquisition authority in 2016 following the model of Special Operations Command. It capped acquisition funds at $75 million, sunsetting in 2021. The thinking at the time, according to congressional staff, was to take a crawl, walk, run approach and see if the command could demonstrate it could properly exercises its limited authority. Schanberger said they want the command to show Congress it can use the authority in the way it's supposed to and start to stand up the backbone of a contracting organization. This includes being able to put together solicitation packages, plan contracting strategy for years ahead and be able to effectively implement and put out proposals and award them without making a mess. Schanberger added in September that the command wants a ceiling of $250 million and a sunset of 2025. In the recent request for information, Cyber Command is seeking a full range of program support, policy support and advisory and assistance services to support the needs of the J9 executive front office, which will assist in long-range planning, development of strategic communications, review of policies and procedures, recommending documentation and policy updates, consulting and reporting. A few of the specific tasks the document asks contractors to perform include: J9 strategy and policy — Contractors should help with interagency coordination, drafting policy, doctrine and concepts, provide long term planning strategy to support the growth and evolution of the command to include manpower, workforce structure, fiscal and acquisition expertise. Strategic coordination support — Contractors should work to communicate key command messages, supporting development topics to build awareness of overall cyber goals and objectives and managing logistics for events. Legislative preparation. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/cybercom/2019/01/30/what-do-cyber-commands-acquisition-requests-reveal