Nouvelles

La rédaction A l'occasion du salon Euronaval On Line, MBDA annonce l'intégration du missile antiaérien Mica NG à son système de défense VL Mica. Version NG du missile MBDA Mica MBDA vient d'élargir son système de défense aérienne VL Mica à la version "Nouvelle Génération" (NG) du missile et qui sera disponible en série à partir de 2026. L'intégration du Mica NG est rendue possible par des dimensions externes inchangées malgré un "design entièrement nouveau". Les systèmes actuels pourront être portés au standard VL Mica NG "par de simples mises à jour logicielles". Il intègre par contre "un nouvel autodirecteur infrarouge à base de capteur matriciel offrant une sensibilité accrue et un nouvel autodirecteur électromagnétique avec antenne à émetteurs modulaires actifs (AESA - Active Electronically Scanned Antenna) permettra des stratégies intelligentes de détection", précise MBDA. Plus de portée Et de poursuivre : "du fait de la réduction de volume de la partie électronique, le MICA NG emportera une quantité de propergol plus importante permettant d'augmenter significativement la portée du missile : un nouveau propulseur à double impulsion permettra ainsi de redonner de l'énergie au missile en fin de vol afin d'augmenter sa manœuvrabilité et sa capacité d'interception de cibles situées à grande distance. En tir depuis la surface, le MICA NG sera capable d'intercepter des cibles au-delà de 40 km. Enfin, la maintenance et les coûts de possession de l'arme seront significativement réduits grâce à des capteurs internes qui permettront de suivre l'état de santé de la munition tout au long de sa vie". Aussi capable de traiter des cibles atypiques Grâce aux innovations technologiques qu'il intègre, le nouveau système VL MICA NG offre des capacités améliorées pour traiter les cibles atypiques (drones, petits aéronefs), ainsi que pour traiter les menaces futures, caractérisées par des signatures infrarouge et électromagnétique toujours plus réduites. Par ailleurs, les cibles « classiques » (avions, hélicoptères, missiles de croisière et antinavire) déjà traitées par le VL MICA actuel, pourront être interceptées à plus longue distance. "La totale compatibilité entre les deux générations de missiles permettra aux forces armées de les panacher sur leurs systèmes existants et de maximiser ainsi les retombées de leurs investissements", conclut Eric Béranger, président de MBDA. https://www.air-cosmos.com/article/mbda-lance-un-nouveau-systme-de-dfense-arienne-23762

Already fielded in Sweden — and mounted on a Volvo truck — BAE's 155 mm Archer will compete in a US Army “shoot off” early next year. SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. WASHINGTON: The Army is seeking a self-propelled replacement for its venerable towed artillery pieces. The old ones can't keep up with mechanized Stryker units and lack armor protection. BAE Systems says its Archer armored howitzer is the quickest cannon on the draw — a life-or-death factor in fast-moving future combats. The US is experimenting intensely in how to speed the process from detecting a potential target to sending accurate target coordinates to a specific gun. Once Archer receives such target coordinates, it can come to a stop and open fire within 20 seconds, said Henrik Knape, a BAE exec based in Sweden, where the gun is already in service. Within two minutes from that first shot, Knape went on, the truck-mounted 155mm howitzer can fire another five to seven rounds, get back underway, and put 500 meters (a third of a mile) between itself and the location it fired from. That's a long enough distance in a short enough time that retaliatory fire from the enemy's artillery is probably going to miss. Even for an advanced adversary (pronounce that “Russia”), which uses specialized counter-battery radars to track the trajectory of incoming rounds and calculate the precise position of the unit firing them, it will take multiple minutes to bring its own guns or drones to bear. In US operations, the time from detecting a target to firing on it is typically “tens of minutes.” Experimental artificial-intelligence systems can cut that to tens of seconds, but those are years from being battle ready. Archer has other advantages as well, Knape and his US-based colleague Chris King told a small group of reporters: It's been in Swedish service since 2016, with the Defense Ministry asking Parliament to fund another 24 guns, so it's already extensively field-tested. It's armored against shrapnel and small arms, in case the enemy does get close. Its long barrel – 52 calibers, a third longer than the standard US howitzer – gives it extended range, comparable to the tracked ERCA howitzer entering service with US armored units in 2023. That gun is already qualified in US testing to fire precision-guided projectiles like Raytheon's Excalibur and BAE's own BONUS. And it's mounted on a six-wheel-drive, articulated Volvo chassis with enough cross-country mobility to keep up with the Army's 8×8 Strykers, which currently have only towed guns to accompany them.There are smaller wheeled artillery vehicles on the market than Archer, which doesn't fit on the standard C-130 turboprop transport, Knape and King acknowledged. (We check out a Humvee-mounted 105 mm cannon here).But none of them, they argue, has Archer's combination of firepower, protection, and quickness. The secret to that speed is automation, BAE says. While the US Army's current systems – both towed howitzers and the armored M109 Paladin – still rely largely on human muscle to manhandle heavy shells into the gun, Archer has a built-in autoloader. While well-trained human crews can actually fire faster than autoloaders for brief periods, the mechanical systems don't get tired or injured, and they allow for a much smaller gun crew. Archer can theoretically operate with a single soldier aboard, although it's designed for a crew of three – all of whom can stay inside the armored cabin while the weapon fires and reloads.https://breakingdefense.com/2020/10/bae-offers-truck-mounted-howitzer-for-army-stryker-units/

BAE and General Dynamics are vying to build 504 Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles to support light infantry units, especially in places the massive M1 Abrams cannot go. SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. WASHINGTON: After 24 years without a light tank in Army service, soldiers will climb aboard brand-new Mobile Protected Firepower prototypes this January. “It's not just PowerPoint” anymore, Maj. Gen. Bryan Cummings, the Army's Program Executive Officer for Ground Combat Systems (PEO-GCS), told me in an interview. “On Jan. 4th, we will have ... vehicles arriving at Fort Bragg.” Army experts have already started safety testing on prototype MPF vehicles, officials told me. Actual combat soldiers will start training on two platoons of prototypes in January – four MPFs from BAE, four from rival General Dynamics – with field tests scheduled to begin in April. A formal Limited User Test will start in August or September, with the Army choosing the winning design in 2022 and the first operational unit of MPF entering active service in 2025. A General Dynamics spokesperson told me they've already delivered five MPF prototypes to the Army, with two more in final checkouts and another five being built for delivery by the end of the year. BAE Systems is also building 12 prototypes, but they declined to say whether they'd delivered vehicles yet or not. While the Army can't comment on either contractor while the competition is ongoing, Cummings said, “both are on track to meet the major milestones” – despite the disruptions of COVID-19. After three months of training, the troops will start what's being called the Soldier Vehicle Assessment (SVA): four to five months of intensive field testing, including force-on-force wargames. It's all part of the Army's new emphasis on getting real soldiers' feedback on new weapons early and often. “The soldiers actually get to drive the vehicles around, shoot them, train with them,” BAE business developer James Miller told me. “Their feedback [is] likely to be the most critical factor ... in the decision the Army's going to make about who wins this contract.” The soldier assessment isn't just testing out the vehicles, however, Cummings told me: It's also a test of the Army. Specifically, how can light infantry brigades, which today have few vehicles or mechanics, sustain and operate a 20-plus-ton tank? The crucial distinction: MPF is not going to the Army's heavy brigades, which have lots of support troops and specialized equipment to take care of tracked armored vehicles. Instead, 14 MPFs per brigade will go to airborne and other light infantry units, which haven't had tracked armor since the M551 Sheridan was retired and its replacement cancelled in 1990s. Now, MPF won't be as fuel-hungry or maintenance-intensive as the massive M1 Abrams, America's mainstay main battle tank. Even with add-on armor kits for high-threat deployments, it'll be less than half as heavy as the M1. That's because MPF isn't meant to take on enemy tanks, at least not modern ones. Instead, it's designed to be light enough to deploy rapidly by air, simple enough to sustain at the end of a long and tenuous supply line, but potent enough to take on enemy light armored vehicles, bunkers, dug-in machineguns, and the like. That's a tricky balance to strike. In fact, the Army has never found a light tank it really liked despite decades of trying. Only six M22 Locusts actually fought in World War II, the M41 Walker Bulldog was too heavy for airborne units, the M551 Sheridan was plagued by technical problems throughout its service from Vietnam to Panama, the M8 Armored Gun System and the Future Combat System were both cancelled. So how do BAE and General Dynamics plan to square this circle? General Dynamics emphasized lethality in their interview with me. Their Lima tank plant builds the M1 Abrams, and while the MPF is smaller – though the company didn't divulge details, GD's version reportedly has a 105mm cannon, compared to the Abrams' 120mm – it will have the same fire controls and electronics as the latest model of its big brother. “If you sat in a Mobile Protected Firepower turret, you would think you were sitting in a [M1] SEPV3 turret,” a GD spokesperson told me. “It's all the same displays, architectures, power distribution, etc.” GD's design evolved from their Griffin demonstrators, prominently displayed for several years at AUSA annual meetings. It's got automotive components derived from the ASCOD/Ajax family widely used in Europe and an 800 horsepower engine. GD didn't tell me how much their vehicle weighed, but, depending on the armor package installed, the demonstrators ranged from 28 tons to 50 tons. Those figures would give horsepower/weight ratios ranging from 28 hp/ton, better than any model of the Abrams, to 16, which would make MPF much more sluggish. BAE, by contrast, emphasized their design's compactness and ease of maintenance – considerations as critical as firepower for a light infantry unit. BAE actually built the M8 AGS cancelled in the '90s drawdown, and while they've thoroughly overhauled that design for MPS with a new engine, new electronics, and underbody blast-proofing against roadside bombs, they've tried to preserve its airborne-friendly qualities. “The old M8 fit inside a C-130; in fact, it was air droppable,” Miller told me. “There's no requirement for that in the current MPF program, but we decided to stick with that as a design constraint: [Our MPF can] fit inside a C-130; we can do three on a C-17.” BAE's engine is less potent than GD's, with only 550 horsepower. With the base configuration coming in at under 30 tons, that equates to over 18 hp/ton, with heavier armor packages reducing performance from there. But the big selling point of the engine is ease of access, Miller argued. Engine maintenance on a tank requires a crane and partially disassembling the armor, but a mechanic can slide the BAE MPF's engine in and out of the chassis with a hand crank. If the MPF breaks down or gets stuck, it can be towed away by a truck, without requiring a special heavy recovery vehicle as an M1 does. “The infantry brigades are light. They don't have long logistics tails. They don't have a ton of mechanics and recovery vehicles,” Miller emphasized. “The vehicle has to be as mobile as them and fit inside their organization.” The Army estimates the life-cycle cost of MPF, from development to procurement to maintenance and retirement, at $16 billion. Whichever vehicle wins the Army contract will have an edge in sales worldwide – including, potentially, to the Marine Corps, which is retiring its M1s as too heavy for modern amphibious warfare. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/10/mpf-light-tank-competitors-bae-gd-head-for-soldier-tests/

Rachel S. Cohen The Air Force is in the market for upgrades to its counter-drone technologies, according to an Oct. 16 request for information posted on a federal contracting website. The service is in the early stages of deploying lasers, microwaves, and other weapons more advanced than a shotgun to deal with potentially threatening drones loitering around bases. In particular, the RFI is looking for ideas to fend off the smallest unmanned aerial systems like quadcopters. “These threats may have characteristics such as small size, low radar cross-sections, low infrared or radio frequency signatures (or no RF signatures), ability to hover, and low-altitude flight capability, which may render them difficult to detect and/or defeat,” the Air Force stated. “These UAS are typically either controlled remotely from a ground control station or capable of flying pre-planned routes.” Cheap aircraft can be turned into battlefield weapons when modified to drop hand grenades, and they can spy on military installations or heavily damage jets if sucked into an engine. American military officials have warned for years that small drones pose a pervasive threat to troops in the Middle East. Over the next year, the Air Force wants to pursue updates to counter-drone command-and-control, radar, and electronic warfare systems related to directed-energy weapons. It's soliciting concepts in 12 areas from lethality to crunching weather data. Responses are due Nov. 17. For instance, the service suggests automating the process of targeting, tracking, and shooting at an incoming drone instead of relying as heavily on a human operator. “At a minimum, the ideal configuration is for [a high-energy laser] system to have its beam director/optics automate all steps between acquisition, tracking, aimpoint selection, and only requires a human to interact with it through final approval to fire from operator/battle commander,” the RFI said. The service also considers being able to compile and send reports with the details of drone threats and conflicts to other units, which could give the military a better understanding of an enemy in a particular area. Pentagon researchers are looking into several different counter-UAS system designs spanning the weapons themselves to the subsystems that point and shoot them. The Air Force is currently testing high-powered lasers and microwaves overseas while it takes less-destructive approaches—like using gun-fired nets to trap quadcopters—in the continental U.S. https://www.airforcemag.com/usaf-scoping-out-upgrades-to-counter-uas-weapons/

U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND Barbaricum LLC, Washington, D.C. (H92401-21-D-0001); iGov Technologies Inc., Reston, Virginia (H92401-21-D-0002); and NexTech Solutions LLC, Orange Park, Florida (H92401-21-D-0003), were awarded three indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a maximum combined ceiling of $780,000,000 under the Targeted Requirement Execution multiple award contract for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance related equipment solutions as well as related incidental development and/or other services in the following four categories: system integration, hardware and modifications, specialized communications solutions, and networks and signal processing capabilities. Fiscal 2020 procurement funds in the amount of $2,500 are being obligated for each contract at the time of award. The majority of the work will be performed at the contractors' facilities and is expected to be completed by October 2025. The contracts were competitively awarded using Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 15 procedures. U.S. Special Operations Command, Tampa, Florida, is the contracting activity. ARMY Navistar Defense, Melrose Park, Illinois, was awarded a $44,817,631 modification (P00013) to contract W56HZV-15-D-0037 for technical support services for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected MaxxPro family of vehicles. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2023. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity is the contracting activity. NAVY BAE Systems Land & Armaments L.P., Armament Systems Division, Louisville, Kentucky, is being awarded a $33,673,319 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00174-19-C-0004 for two overhauled/upgraded MK45 Mod 4 gun mounts, and their associated components, to include Mk63 Mod 1 weather shields, Mod 4 manufacture kits, and Mod 0 gun barrels. Work will be performed in Louisville, Kentucky, and is expected to be completed by October 2025. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $33,673,319 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, Indian Head, Maryland, is the contracting activity. General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Connecticut, is awarded a $25,053,891 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-20-C-2120 for additional fiscal 2021 development studies and design efforts for Virginia-class submarines. Work will be performed in McLeansville, North Carolina, and is expected to be completed by September 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $15,000,000 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2385079/

Le 15 octobre, à Clermont-Ferrand dans les Ateliers industriels de l'aéronautique (AIA), la ministre des Armées Florence Parly a fait un point d'étape sur la modernisation du maintien en condition opérationnelle (MCO) en matière d'aéronautique, près de trois ans après son discours à Évreux en 2017 où elle a pris le dossier en main. Le ministère investit des moyens spectaculaires en crédits de paiement, dont l'enveloppe grossit depuis 2017 : 2,3 milliards d'euros en 2017, 2,7 milliards en 2020, 3 milliards en 2022 et 4,1 milliards en 2025. Près de 80% de hausse programmée en huit ans. Le ministère explique : « On met plus d'argent mais nous avons obtenu une amélioration très sensible sur la disponibilité des aéronefs sans être spectaculaire », souligne-t-on dans l'entourage de la ministre. Et d'estimer que « la tendance, qui est bonne, peut continuer à l'être » dans les prochaines années. La Tribune du 15 octobre 2020

Christina Mackenzie PARIS – Thales launched on Oct. 16 its new AirMaster C, a compact, active electronically scanned array (AESA), airborne surveillance radar for small and medium-sized platforms. Although the radar's design phase has been finalized it still needs testing airborne. Nevertheless, Stéphane Lavigne, a sales director at Thales, said that the French Armed Forces Ministry had already notified its intention to buy the equipment for the future light joint army helicopter, the Guépard, developed by Airbus Helicopters and due to enter service in 2026. Jon Bye, Thales' head of customer marketing, said that the AirMaster C would ensure customers got “that great picture, first time, every time.” The active antenna radar is based on SiGe (silicon-germanium) technology fully validated in 2019. Thales says SiGe is “much more energy efficient than other technologies used for AESA radars, and allows the radar to self-cool.” François Arpagaus, the company's airborne surveillance product line director, said that AirMaster C is easy to integrate, less complex to operate and would allow users to “see more, more of the time” thanks to “multi-polarization” which allows the radar to automatically select the optimal settings for each mission. The radar was designed for a small footprint, making it 30 percent lower in size, weight and power than other radars in its class. It is small, no bigger than two A4 pages side by side, weighs less than 20 kg (45 lbs) and uses about 1 Kw of power. “It's perfect for small and medium-sized platforms, both manned and unmanned,” Arpagaus said. Lavigne said the sensor had been designed with a lot of input from radar users. “The program is launched, we are ready to take orders,” he said, adding that typical delivery time from contract signing would happen within two years. https://www.c4isrnet.com/c4isr/2020/10/16/thales-launches-small-aesa-radar-for-small-aircraft/

Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded contracts worth $197.2 million for microelectronics, it announced Thursday, amid concerns about with much production of the technology is taking place outside the United States. The Pentagon awards are part of the department's desire to entice microelectronics manufacturing back into the United States. Microelectronics are at the core of technologies the department considers critical to national security, such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and 5G communications capabilities. “The microelectronics industry is at the root of our nation's economic strength, national security, and technological standing," said Michael Kratsios, acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. The “awards support the Department's mission to promote microelectronics supply chain security and accelerate U.S. development of the very best in circuit design, manufacturing, and packaging. It's critical for the DOD and American industry to work together in meaningful partnerships to ensure the United States leads the world in microelectronics far into the future.” As part of the awards, Microsoft and IBM are splitting an other transaction authority contract worth $24.5 million “to advance commercial leading-edge microelectronics physical ‘back-end' design methods with measurable security.” The award is a phase one deal under the DoD's Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes using Advanced Commercial Capabilities Project. Another contract, valued at $172.7 million, was awarded to both Intel Federal and Qorvo to “develop and demonstrate a novel approach towards measurably secure, heterogeneous integration and test of advanced packaging solutions.” The award was given under phase two of the State-of-the-Art Heterogeneous Integration Prototype Program. “These awards highlight how the Department is moving towards a new quantifiable assurance strategy that will help the DOD quickly and safely build and deploy leading-edge microelectronics technologies,” the Pentagon's news release said. The department is increasingly concerned about the microsystems market because much of the production process takes place overseas, particularly in or near China. The department fears this allows China to implement backdoors into critical national security systems. Because of the current market structure, "we can no longer identify the pedigree of our microelectronics,” Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Electronics Resurgence Initiative Summit in August. “Therefore we can no longer ensure that backdoors, malicious code or data exfiltration commands aren't embedded in our code. While we develop the ability to identify the technical path to ensure all components, circuits and systems are clean regardless of their manufacturing location, we need to find a path to domestic sources to provide a secure and resilient supply of legacy, state-of-the-present and state-of-the-art microelectronics.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/10/16/pentagon-inks-197-million-in-contracts-for-microelectronics/

For the second time in two years, the Army had to stop accepting Boeing's attack helicopter. The exact reason remains unknown. Marcus Weisgerber The U.S. Army has stopped accepting Apache helicopters from Boeing after the company found that an employee kept “improper” records concerning parts installed on the aircraft. It's the latest quality-control issue to bedevil America's largest planemaker, which is trying to shift its company's culture and repair its public image after two deadly airliner crashes and a production line that left tools and trash inside new tanker aircraft. “At this time the Army is still conducting a comprehensive review of a number of Boeing processes, production, and manufacturing plans for critical safety items applicable to all AH-64E aircraft production,” Lt. Col. Brandon Kelley, an Army spokesman, said in an emailed statement. When it learned of “improper record keeping” at its AH-64 Apache factor in Mesa, Arizona, Boeing “immediately notified the Army,” Steve Parker, vice president and general manager of Boeing Vertical Lift, said in a statement provided by a company spokesman. “Boeing and the government are jointly reviewing our Mesa quality management processes and procedures,” Parker said. “Flight operations and deliveries will resume when Boeing and the Army are satisfied this issue has been resolved and appropriate corrective action plans have been implemented.” Boeing no longer employs the worker who kept the improper records, according to a person with knowledge of the issue. Boeing's Mesa operation builds new Apaches and overhauls old ones with more modern equipment — a process known as remanufacturing. The company continues to build aircraft amid the delivery stoppage, an industry source said. “The Army will begin acceptance of aircraft once conditions have been satisfied to ensure production processes meet standards for safety and quality and the potential for future quality escapes has been fully mitigated,” Kelley said. “The Army will continue to work with Boeing in reviewing their quality processes and manufacturing of critical safety items and recommend changes as necessary to prevent future delivery of non-conforming product.” Kelley said that soldiers' lives were not put at risk by the issues. It's not the first time the Army has suspended Apache deliveries. From March to August 2018, the service halted acceptances after finding a flaw in a part that holds the helicopter's rotors to the aircraft. Boeing quality-control practices have been called into question by both the commercial industry and the military. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating potential manufacturing issues on 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The U.S. Air Force had to halt deliveries of KC-46 tankers on numerous occasions after military inspectors found trash, parts, and tools left inside the aircraft. In March 2019, Will Roper, the head of Air Force acquisition, blamed the company's assembly line culture for the issues. The coronavirus pandemic has only made things worse for Boeing and its suppliers as air travel evaporates and airlines cancel plane orders. Earlier this year, executives said the company's $34 billion defense business would outperform its typically lucrative commercial business for the first time in more than a decade. Coronavirus-related factory shutdowns and production slowdowns started taking a toll on Boeing's defense business in the spring. Boeing delivered 54 fewer military aircraft and satellites so far this year when to the first three quarters of 2019, a 31 percent decline, according to company data. This year, Boeing has delivered 10 KC-46 tankers, less than half of the 21 delivered through the third quarter of 2019. https://www.defenseone.com/business/2020/10/army-halts-apache-deliveries-after-boeing-finds-improper-record-keeping-helicopter-factory/169332/