15 juin 2023 | International, Aérospatial

Wittman proposes way to keep Next-Generation Air Dominance on track

Congress wants annual updates on the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter program and affiliated efforts, to ensure the Air Force and Navy stay on track.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/congress/budget/2023/06/15/wittman-proposes-way-to-keep-next-generation-air-dominance-on-track/

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  • U.S. Military Turns To Remote Pilot Training

    15 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    U.S. Military Turns To Remote Pilot Training

    Lee Hudson June 11, 2020 Once the global coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S., the military moved to ramp up remote pilot training options. But it is unclear if the trend will continue after the contagion passes. Before COVID-19, the Air Force was developing immersive training devices that would help instruct students remotely as part of Air Education and Training Command's Pilot Training Next program, says Lt. Col. Ryan Riley, commander of Detachment 24. Instead of the pupil coming into the office, receiving an in-person brief, locating a training device and executing a mission, Riley's team was looking at how to conduct those events with both the student and instructor at separate locations. Army pauses to assess training options Air Force and Navy immediately pivot to remote instruction “What we wanted to see, prior to COVID-19, was how far [we could] push the bounds of remote instruction,” Riley says. The pandemic turned that desire into a need to provide students the same level of instruction remotely as they would in person. The Air Force and training companies were already working to develop virtual training systems when COVID-19 struck, and the pandemic seems to have accelerated adoption. “There are only so many places to train,” says Todd Probert, defense and security group president at CAE. Though the military was once reluctant to fully tap into distance training, the question has become: “Is there a way to centralize that instruction?” he says. Pilots more than 100 mi. from a training base would be required to quarantine for two weeks once they arrived. The technology, however, was “very glitchy,” Riley says. The main problem was latency. So the team got to work, disassembling hardware and issuing the newest equipment to students and some of the instructor corps. Another issue was the fact that the detachment's home-use devices were running off a laptop. The team discovered that various software programs such as remote screen-sharing were taxing the central processing unit (CPU) heavily, overwhelming laptops, says Lt. Col. Robert Knapp, Detachment 24 operations officer. “No matter how good a laptop you buy, they're just never going to run at the same speed as a desktop computer,” Knapp says. “We took some of our older desktop computers that were in the building and sent those home with students to replace the laptops, which opened up a lot more CPU bandwidth.” The students also were asked to plug their devices into their routers instead of using wireless home internet, which reduced latency and resulted in a more streamlined, less glitchy process. Meanwhile, the Army was tackling similar challenges at Fort Rucker in Dale County, Alabama, where the service produces pilots to fly the Boeing AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. In addition to training its own pilots at Fort Rucker, the service also assists with the training of foreign military aviators from as many as 47 countries annually at the base. The Army established a virtual instructor's course so that the instructor pilots could learn how to teach using a digital platform, says Maj. Gen. David Francis, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker commanding general. “COVID-19 has enabled us to really take a look at ourselves and how we're delivering training,” he says. Francis envisions a blend of in-person and virtual training once the crisis passes. As the pandemic took hold, the Navy, too, set up remote instruction with unprecedented speed. With 45 students per class, the service would not have been able to comply with social distancing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Lt. Tim Benoit, aviation preflight indoctrination instructor at Naval Aviation Schools Command located in Pensacola, Florida. So in just five days, the Navy created a digital classroom and launched classes for its student Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy pilots. Benoit had selected flight instructors to test the new digital system, and the next day he prepared a presentation to train the rest of the instructors. “We were able to adapt to this without missing any productivity targets,” Benoit says. The Navy does not plan to employ remote instruction after the COVID-19 crisis but views the technology as an alternative when a natural disaster such as a hurricane hits. The service is recognizing the advantages of remote learning, however, which include saving time and money. Students have access to each session's recording and associated course materials, and the technology would allow students not in Pensacola to take the courses. “It can also be used in conjunction with in-person training to prep students . . . and it's been used to enable guest speakers” in another city, Benoit says. “Those are some things that I think may persist beyond the pandemic.” https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/budget-policy-operations/us-military-turns-remote-pilot-training

  • France’s Naval Group eyes Brazil as hub for its regional submarine business

    18 décembre 2018 | International, Naval

    France’s Naval Group eyes Brazil as hub for its regional submarine business

    By: Sebastian Sprenger RIO DE JANEIRO – The Brazilian navy launched its first domestically produced attack submarine on Friday, a move that French boat designer Naval Group hopes will lead to additional sales in the region. The new vessel, named the Riachuelo, is a copy of Naval Group's Scorpene-class submarine, though slightly bigger, at 1,870 tons, to enable more crew and longer range. The submarine program's objective is protecting the vast resource-rich waters all along the country's coastline, dubbed the Blue Amazon, outgoing Brazilian President Michel Temer told an audience at the launch ceremony at Itaguai naval base outside Rio de Janeiro. Defense News attended the launch and accepted airfare and accommodations from Naval Group. The Riachuelo, considered roughly 80 percent complete at this point, is the first product of the Brazilian navy's $8.9 billion Prosub program. She is scheduled to begin sea trials next summer. Three identical, diesel-propelled boats are slated to follow by 2023, based on a technology-transfer contract with the French shipbuilder. A joint venture between Naval Group and local construction conglomerate Odebrecht, named ICN, assembles the boats at the new Itaguai submarine shipyard built for the program. The real prize for the Brazilian navy, however, will only come afterwards. Beginning in the mid-2020s, the country's military wants to start building what Naval Group chief HervéGuillou calls the “ultimate ambition” – a program of nuclear-powered submarines. Design work for the first nuclear submarine is already underway, with the French shipbuilder providing “assistance,” as a company brochure puts it, and the Brazilian navy in a more prominent role. The sea service here will manage all aspects of the power plant development, for example. “Brazil is absolutely critical for Naval Group and other European players to be present here,” Guillou told reporters at Naval Group's Rio de Janeiro office. That's because European countries, even those spending two percent of GDP on defense, a NATO-wide objective, are unable to match the growth rate of South America's expected military spending, he said. The foray into Brazil and other emerging markets offers the opportunity for “critical mass” to help bridge dips in demand at home, according to Guillou. The French shipbuilder already has its eyes on another target, Poland, which the CEO said he wants to similarly develop into a submarine hub for regional navies. European rival shipyards Saab and Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems are also in the running for that country's program, however, each with local work-share ambitions of their own. Friday's launch ceremony ended with Temer and his successor, far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, jointly pressing a large red button initiating the machinery for lowering the Riachuelo into the water. “Brazil has a vocation for peace and is building its submarine not to threaten anyone or unsettle the calm of international waters,” Temer was quoted as saying in a local Reuters report. “Brazil is building submarines because a nation with more than 7,000 kilometers of coastline cannot do without tools to defend its sovereignty and it marine riches,” he said. Bolsonaro had no speaking part in the ceremony. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/12/17/frances-naval-group-eyes-brazil-as-hub-for-its-regional-submarine-business/

  • Israel Plans Anti-Missile Nano Satellite Constellation

    4 octobre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

    Israel Plans Anti-Missile Nano Satellite Constellation

    By ARIE EGOZI TEL AVIV: Israel is planning constellations of nano satellites, built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), that will allow almost continuous coverage of “areas of interest,” which are likely to include Iran, Syria, Lebanon and other countries, according to experts that are not connected in any way to the program. IAI refused to comment. The first nano satellite was developed by IAI and was launched into space in 2017 as part of a scientific experiment. The 5-kilogram satellite — approximately the size of a milk carton — is equipped with special cameras able to identify various climatic phenomena, and a monitoring system that allows the choice of areas to be imaged and researched. ”We are developing the capability to launch a constellation of Nano satellites. The large number of satellites will give us the capability for a much higher rate of revisits, and actually a continuous monitoring of areas of interest.” says Opher Doron, general manager of IAI's Space Division. The nano satellites optical payloads are smaller and the quality of their optical payloads is lower. ”But by using a temporal resolution method this problem is dealt with in a very effective way,” Doron claims. “This method is not directly related to the quality of the sensor but is based on the frequency of revisits over a site.“ The other problem with smaller satellites is color. “Resolution is, of course, very important but we also work on improving the color quality of the images, Doron said. “A good intelligence expert does not need color to extract, the needed intelligence from a satellite image, but when it comes to decision-makers, color is of great importance.” What underpins all this? It takes a ballistic missile 12 to 15 minutes to travel from Iran to Israel. The earlier a launch is detected and the earlier the trajectory of the missile can be plotted, the better the chances to intercept it far from its designated target. Today, low orbit Ofeq spy satellites visit “areas of interest” in wide intervals so their optical or radar payloads cannot keep a persistent watch. When it comes to the ballistic missile threat, this is a major problem. Israeli sources say that some 30 minutes are needed from the command to prepare a ballistic missile for launch until it is ready for launch, and this if the protection silos are well equipped. If the enemy is aware of the “visiting” time of the spy satellites over his territory this can be the perfect time to avoid detection of the preparations until the launch itself. Once launch occurs, Israel is supposed to get warnings from Lockheed Martin's Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS),the US constellation of geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellites. The U.S also deploys an X-band radar system in southern Israel to improve detection of ballistic missiles. This complements the layer supplied by the Green Pine radar, part of the Israeli Arrow missile interceptors. The first nano satellite was launched from India on the PSLV-C37 launcher with 103 other nano satellites. The plan to build and launch nano satellites first emerged a decade ago. A joint company of IAI and Rafael would undertake the mission. But that plan was deserted. Yizhak Ben Israel, chairman of the Israeli space agency, served in the Israeli air force and later was in charge of developing Israel's most advanced and classified military systems at the development directorate in the Defense Ministry. He notes that, although nanosats possess much less exquisite capabilities than SBIRS or other large satellites, “when you use a constellation of such satellites the combined capability can be very effective in missions like locating missile launchers.” The other advantage of nano satellites is their price: “You go from hundreds of million of dollars for a full size imaging satellite to some millions of dollars when it comes to a nano satellite.” Not directly related to the nano satellite program but part of Israel's space effort, IAI teamed with British start-up company Effective Space to make a fleet of special satellites weighing roughly 880 pounds that can refuel other satellites in space. IAI signed an agreement for technological and financial cooperation with the smaller company. While Effective Space is headquartered in London, its CEO, Arie Halsband, was general manager of IAI's space division before starting his own company. https://breakingdefense.com/2018/10/israel-plans-anti-missile-nano-satellite-constellation

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