Nouvelles

Signaling a major leap forward for national defense in the digital age, the Air Force flew with artificial intelligence as a working aircrew member onboard a military aircraft for the first time Dec. 15. The AI algorithm, known as ARTUµ, flew with the pilot, U.S. Air Force Maj. “Vudu”, on a U-2 Dragon Lady assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base. Air Combat Command's U-2 Federal Laboratory researchers developed ARTUµ and trained it to execute specific in-flight tasks that otherwise would be done by the pilot. The test flight was the result of years of concerted effort within the Air Force to apply cutting-edge technology to military operations as it competes with other world powers in the digital age. “ARTUµ's groundbreaking flight culminates our three-year journey to becoming a digital force,” said Dr. William Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. “Putting AI safely in command of a U.S. military system for the first time ushers in a new age of human-machine teaming and algorithmic competition. Failing to realize AI's full potential will mean ceding decision advantage to our adversaries.” During this flight, ARTUµ was responsible for sensor employment and tactical navigation, while the pilot flew the aircraft and coordinated with the AI on sensor operation. Together, they flew a reconnaissance mission during a simulated missile strike. ARTUµ's primary responsibility was finding enemy launchers while the pilot was on the lookout for threatening aircraft, both sharing the U-2's radar. The flight was part of a precisely constructed scenario which pitted the AI against another dynamic computer algorithm in order to prove the new technology. “We know that in order to fight and win in a future conflict with a peer adversary, we must have a decisive digital advantage,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. “AI will play a critical role in achieving that edge, so I'm incredibly proud of what the team accomplished. We must accelerate change and that only happens when our Airmen push the limits of what we thought was possible.” After takeoff, the sensor control was positively handed-off to ARTUµ who then manipulated the sensor, based on insight previously learned from over a half-million computer simulated training iterations. The pilot and AI successfully teamed to share the sensor and achieve the mission objectives. The U-2 Federal Laboratory designed this AI technology to be easily transferable to other systems and plan to further refine the technology. Today's flight provided invaluable data for not only the team to learn from, but also ARTUµ. “Blending expertise of a pilot with capabilities of machine learning, this historic flight directly answers the National Defense Strategy's call to invest in autonomous systems,” said Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett. “Innovations in artificial intelligence will transform both the air and space domains.” The U-2 Federal Laboratory is a 15 U.S.C. compliant organization established to bring together a “confluence of warfighter, developer, and acquirer” vertically-integrated under the same operational roof. The lab has developed and been approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish the 20th Laboratory Accreditation Program in the federal government. It promotes “edge development” – a concept to develop new software integration on operational systems in a bounded, safe environment. The historic flight with AI comes just two months after the U-2 Federal Laboratory team updated inflight software for the first time during a U-2 training mission. The team leveraged the open-source container-orchestration software Kubernetes, another military first.ieve. We want to give the UK the tools it needs to defeat coronavirus and get back on its feet as soon as possible." https://www.asdnews.com/news/defense/2020/12/16/ai-copilot-air-force-achieves-first-military-flight-with-artificial-intelligence

By: Valerie Insinna and Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — As part of a broader move to boost the 5G industry in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 8 began auctioning a portion of C-band electromagnetic spectrum, a move the committee's chairman, Ajit Pai, celebrated as “a big day for American consumers and U.S. leadership in 5G.” But, in the weeks leading up to the auction, more than a dozen commercial aviation groups warned the sale could, as one study put it, lead to “catastrophic failures” with the potential for “multiple fatalities.” At the core of the concerns are radar altimeters, a critical piece of aviation technology used by military, commercial and civil aircraft of all types — including helicopters and unmanned aerial systems — to measure the distance between an aircraft and the ground. The aviation groups worry that 5G operations on the spectrum sold by the FCC could cause interference that would provide inaccurate readings on altimeters or cause their failure outright, in essence leaving pilots unaware of how far they are from the ground and potentially leading to crashes over the United States. According to a memo obtained by Defense News, those concerns are shared by the head of the Federal Aviation Administration and the number two at the Department of Transportation, who are calling on the FCC to pause the sale so the safety issue can be studied more closely. The FCC, in turn, has said its own technical studies show little to no risk involved and it intends to continue moving forward. Now, with the auction underway, the Defense Department is scrambling to catch up. The Pentagon has yet to determine the effect on military aircraft and has not established a formal position on the sale, with officials rushing behind the scenes to set up meetings and understand the potential long-term impacts. A Pentagon official, in response to questions from Defense News, would only say the department's policy board on federal aviation and aviation cyber initiative task force — an interagency organization led by the FAA — are reviewing reports by industry groups about the risk of 5G interference. Senior leaders from the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the aviation cyber initiative plan to meet Dec. 21 “to discuss findings and to establish an interagency way ahead to validate and respond to these reports,” the official stated. Among those expected to attend are Brig. Gen. Robert Barrie Jr., the official who manages Army aviation assets; Brig. Gen. Eric DeLange, director of the Air Force cyberspace operations and warfighter communications office; and several cyber experts from the FAA and DHS. Perhaps most notably, Honeywell Industries, a key producer of radar altimeters, has also been invited to discuss possible alternatives to current systems — a sign that the defense industry is taking the issue seriously. Honeywell declined to comment. If the spectrum sale continues, some experts are warning a best case scenario may be that the department has to spend millions of dollars and thousands of man hours to design, procure and install new radar altimeters across the military's fleet of airborne systems. The worst case? As one senior government official with experience in aviation said, “There will be accidents, property's going to be destroyed and people are going to die.” The ongoing dispute Under the Trump administration, the FCC has focused on the sale of spectrum in order to goose the nascent 5G industry, which administration officials see as a driver for American economic growth. Branded as the 5G FAST Plan, the commission has moved quickly to sell C-band spectrum. This particular auction involves spectrum in the 3.7–3.98 GHz frequency, with the hope of selling more than 5,000 new flexible-use overlay licenses. Satellite operators using the C-Band have agreed to repack their operations out of the band's lower 300 megahertz (3.7-4.0 GHz) into the upper 200 megahertz (4.0-4.2 GHz), in two stages. They expect to complete the move in December 2023. As of Dec. 17, more than 50 bidders had reportedly put forth over $15 billion in offers for the spectrum rights. Currently, the 3.7–3.98 GHz frequency portion of the C-Band is relatively quiet, occupied predominantly by low-powered satellites. For decades, this made the neighboring 4.2-4.4 GHz frequency a perfect place for the operation of radar altimeters, which are also called radio altimeters. But that frequency may not stay quiet for long. Once 5G telecommunications are introduced in the 3.7-3.98 portion of the band, there is a “major risk” that those systems will create “harmful interference” to radar altimeters, according to an October study from the RTCA, a trade organization that works with the FAA to develop safety standards. “The results of the study performed clearly indicate that this risk is widespread and has the potential for broad impacts to aviation operations in the United States, including the possibility of catastrophic failures leading to multiple fatalities, in the absence of appropriate mitigations,” the RTCA stated in its report. Research for the report was conducted by the Aerospace Vehicle Systems Institute, a cooperative research organization based out of Texas A&M University. Radio altimeters are critical during landings, once an aircraft moves below 2,500 feet from the ground. At that point, no other instruments provide an accurate measurement of a plane's distance from the ground. “It's so important to have an accurate reading, because if it's a bad reading it could lead to the airplane doing something you don't want it to do.” explained Terry McVenes, the RTCA president and chief executive. McVenes is a former Boeing safety executive with 30 years' experience in the commercial aviation industry. “If your airplane thought it was 1,000 feet above the ground but was only 50 feet above the ground, well... you could have a problem,” he said. The trade group filed the report with the FCC in early October, and shortly afterward met with an FCC engineering team. But since then, “We've heard nothing back from the FCC, had no other direct interactions with them” outside the official filling process, he said. The release of the study triggered a last-minute request by 12 trade groups, including the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents military aviation companies, to consider mitigation efforts based on the report. The groups called the findings “the most comprehensive analysis and assessment to date on this subject, based on the best assumptions, parameters, and data... It has been peer reviewed for accuracy and validity and should not be dismissed by the Commission.” The report has also gained the attention of Steven Bradbury, the acting deputy secretary for transportation, and Steve Dickson, the FAA administrator, who in a Dec. 1 letter obtained by Defense News warned that the spectrum sale could specifically damage both the Terrain Awareness Warning System, a major safety function for aircraft, and Autoland features relied on for pilots when landing a plane. “Given the scope of the safety risk, and based upon our current knowledge, it is unclear what measures will be necessary to ensure safe operations in the [National Aerospace System], or how long it will take to implement such measures,” the two leaders wrote. “Depending upon the results of further analysis, it may be appropriate to place restrictions on certain types of operations, which would reduce access to core airports in the U.S. and, thus, reduce the capacity and efficiency” of commercial aviation. That letter, sent to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, was requested to be added to the FCC's public docket. However, the letter has not been posted to the FCC's public docket as of press time. The FCC and supporters of expanding 5G argue that the concerns are overblown. “In the C-Band Order, the Commission concluded that our rules would protect radio altimeters used by aircraft, and we continue to have no reason to believe that 5G operations in the C-Band will cause harmful interference to radio altimeters,” Will Wiquist, a spokesman for the FCC, said in a statement. “Among other things, these altimeters operate with more than 200 megahertz of separation from the C-band spectrum to be auctioned, more protection than is afforded in some other countries. “Moreover, the RTCA report was prepared outside of the joint aviation/wireless industry group that was set up at the Commission's request and is not a consensus position of that group. Indeed, at least one other member of that multi-stakeholder group has expressed significant concerns with the study and several of its assumptions, and the Commission's experts have concerns with this study as well.” The member group that expressed concerns about the study is the wireless trade association CTIA, which in December filled with the FCC a document that called the findings “lacking and unreliable” and “unsound and unsupported.” Among the specific concerns raised by CTIA were that altimeter requirements used in the report were overly stringent, that it did not break down results by altimeter brand and model, and that the report relied on “unrealistic” scenarios during testing. McVenes said RTCA is open to conducting the research again if presented with new data to work with, but has yet to see that information from CTIA or the FCC. Risks to military aviation Although the RTCA study looked exclusively at civil and commercial aircraft, almost all military aircraft are equipped with radar altimeters that are very similar to their commercial counterparts, said the senior government official. Defense News granted anonymity for this official to speak candidly about the risks to pilot safety. While radar altimeters made for military aircraft are sometimes built to slightly more stringent requirements — having the ability to function in extremely cold or hot environments, for instance, or to withstand higher gravitational forces — they still reside on the same portion of the spectrum as commercial ones and are vulnerable to the same interference, the senior government official said. The cargo planes and aerial refueling tankers operated by the Air Force's Air Mobility Command would be most hindered by the interference produced by 5G due to their similarities to commercial aircraft, said Mike Holmes, a retired Air Force four-star general and former head of Air Combat Command. Holmes reviewed the RTCA report at Defense News' request. Many of the Air Force's mobility assets are either based on commercial passenger jets, such as the Boeing 767-derived KC-46 tanker, or are equipped with commercial off-the-shelf avionics. As such, certain mobility aircraft are approved to conduct landings in bad weather conditions when the pilot has to rely on the aircraft's instruments — such as the radar altimeter — instead of visual cues. “You wouldn't be able to fly that approach if your radar altimeter was being interfered with and you couldn't get a good signal,” Holmes said. “For the military...you'd probably divert someplace else.” For tactical aircraft, the bigger concern would be low-level flights over terrain such as mountains. Fighter pilots use their radar altimeters when flying close to the ground to evade enemy radar or surface-to-air threats. However, Holmes noted that not all fighter jets — such as the 1970s era F-15C — have radar altimeters, and that pilots would still be able to rely on visual cues. Still, he said, if a radar altimeter is offering faulty information due to interference, that could lull pilots into a false sense of security about how far they are from the ground. “Part of [the problem] is going to be trying to know whether you're getting interference or not,” he said. The senior government official noted that the special operations community could be particularly hurt by 5G interference. Certain aircrews of platforms, such as the C-130 or C-17, receive specific training to fly special operations low level missions, which involve flying close to the ground and inserting or extracting special operators, and those training missions may become more difficult to execute if 5G interference is a problem. This training “is often executed under the cover of darkness. Depth and obstacle perception can be hindered in darkness due to the human eye's cell structure,” the official said. “Night vision goggles provide compensation but still limit the pilot's situational awareness.” If the sales go through, the military will likely have to modify or replace its altimeters to meet whatever new safety standards the FAA eventually approves to mitigate the risks of 5G interference, Holmes said. “If you go ahead and give up this part of the spectrum, the interference will drive changes that have to be made either to modify the equipment that is being used for 5G, to modify the equipment that are on airplanes, or to modify the procedures that determine how you use that equipment,” Holmes said. Replacing or modifying altimeters will take time and funding — two commodities defense experts predict will be in short supply over the coming years — as defense budgets flatten. In the near term, Holmes projects the services will change their training practices to eliminate any added risk to pilots caused by altimeter interference, such as restricting pilots of certain aircraft from landing in bad weather or ensuring that pilots of fighter aircraft take off with enough fuel so that they can divert to another airport if their radar altimeter no longer works. In short, the military will have to give up money, time and effectiveness to fix the problem. “The outcome would be lack of efficiency. You wouldn't fly [certain] approaches in bad weather. So there would be times you couldn't go do what you were [planning on] doing, whether that's moving passengers or cargo in the civilian world or whether that was passengers or cargo in the military,” Holmes said. “But ultimately, I would think the impact is going to be greater on the commercial airline world than it was on the military world.” A billion dollar problem While the satellite operators who currently operate within 3.7-3.98 GHz will receive some proceeds of the sale, allowing them to move to another portion of the spectrum, no funding is set to be given to the civil, commercial and government entities that rely on radar altimeters for safe aerospace operations. As a result, it is likely that the U.S. military will have to replace “many or most” of the radar altimeters currently onboard its airplanes, helicopters and drones, the senior government official said. And because radar altimeters have all been developed to operate on the same portion of the spectrum, there is no off-the-shelf replacement already on the market for which interference wouldn't be a concern. On the commercial side, McVenes said if industry has to replace altimeters across its fleet, a price tag of “several billion dollars is probably on the low estimate.” That price tag could well jump for the military side, given the complexity of work on military systems - it is easier to swap out a part on a commercial plane than a stealth-coated fighter - and the infamous prices of defense procurement. Meanwhile, the Defense Department could need to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the engineering work necessary to develop new altimeters, procuring those systems, testing and recertifying each platform for normal operations, and finally, installing the new hardware on potentially hundreds or thousands of aircraft across the military's inventory. “It will take many years, if not decades,” the senior government official said. In the two months since the report was released, industry has jockeyed to get more time to study the issue and to put measures in place to mitigate the risks. In a Nov. 17 letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the Aerospace Industries Association and 13 other aerospace trade groups implored members of Congress to take action to protect the frequency bands used by radar altimeters. “We are concerned that without this congressional intervention to understand potential implications and ramifications, decisions will be made with a frightening lack of understanding of aviation requirements,” the groups stated. Help from Congress seemingly came Dec. 7, when Rep. Peter DeFazio, the Oregon Democrat who leads the House committee, sent a letter to FCC Chairman Pai calling for the commission to postpone the sale. “These RTCA findings are alarming; they not only align with earlier research identifying harmful effects of 5G networks to radio altimeters, but they reflect a clear need for the FCC to return to the drawing board with this premature plan,” he wrote. “There is no question that additional study is needed to understand the full extent and severity of 5G interference with radio altimeters and whether any mitigations are feasible — or even possible — to ensure flight safety. “We must never take a chance with aviation safety — and at no point should commercial interests be placed above it.” A day later, the FCC pressed forward with the auction. https://www.defensenews.com/2020/12/21/the-military-is-scrambling-to-understand-the-aviation-crash-risk-from-a-new-5g-sale

By Will Wade and Max Zimmerman Lockheed Martin Corp. agreed to acquire the defense industry supplier Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. in a deal valued at $4.4 billion. As part of the transaction, Aerojet declared a $5 per share special dividend, to be paid on March 24, to holders of record as of March 10. The payment of that special dividend will adjust the $56 per share consideration to be paid by Lockheed Martin, according to a statement Sunday. The shares surged in pre-market New York trading on Monday. At $51, Lockheed will be buying Aerojet at a 21% premium from the closing price on Friday. Chief Executive Officer Jim Taiclet, who stepped into the top job this year, has said he was keen to expand the world's largest defense contractor through acquisitions. With Aerojet, he's picking up a key U.S. supplier of propulsion systems for missiles, rockets and other space and defense applications. “Acquiring Aerojet Rocketdyne will preserve and strengthen an essential component of the domestic defense industrial base,” Taiclet said in the statement. Lockheed has been scouting for deals. In January, the company said it was flush with cash and open to deals as rival Raytheon Co. prepared to combine with United Technologies Corp. to create an aerospace-and-defense powerhouse. Lockheed has been seeking opportunities to “bring in the technologies faster into the company that we think are going to be crucial for the future,” Taiclet said during its October earnings call. “So we plan to be active, but we also plan to be very, very prudent.” The Aerojet transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2021 after getting regulatory approvals and a nod from Aerojet's shareholders. Aerojet advanced to $54.44 Monday before markets opened in New York. That's up 29% from Friday's close, which gave the El Segundo, California-based company a market value of $3.25 billion. Lockheed was little changed from its Friday close, which valued the buyer at about $100 billion. At the end of last week, Aerojet's stock was trading at 25 times expected earnings, compared with 16 times for Lockheed. Aerojet's shares have fallen 7.9% this year and Lockheed dropped 8.6%, both underperforming the S&P 500 Index, which climbed 15%. Lockheed's space division is its third-largest business, contributing 18% of its 2019 revenue. The company competes with Elon Musk's SpaceX for U.S. government rocket launches through the United Launch Alliance, its joint venture with Boeing Co. Lockheed was advised by Goldman Sachs, Ardea Partners and Hogan Lovells, while Citigroup and Evercore, as well as Jenner & Block and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher represented Aerojet. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-21/lockheed-martin-to-buy-defense-supplier-aerojet-for-4-4-billion

Lockheed Martin has developed a four-round launcher for its new AGM-179A Joint Air-to-Ground Missile, or JAGM, that is designed to be readily installed on warships, including relatively small patrol boats, as well as ground vehicles. This opens up entirely new possibilities for JAGM, which was initially developed primarily as an air-launched anti-tank weapon, in the surface-to-surface role. The JAGM Quad Launcher (JQL) leverages technology from Lockheed Martin's existing Vertical Launch System (VLS) designs, which include the popular Mk 41 VLS found on numerous warships in the U.S. Navy and other navies around the world. It also uses the same Launcher Electronics Assembly (LEA) from the M299 launcher, a four-rail design for helicopters most commonly associated with the AH-64 Apache. All of this combined with an open-architecture Launcher Management Assembly (LMA) designed to help speed up the integration of updated hardware and software as time goes on to improve the JQL's capabilities and add new functionality. The JQL comes in two basic configurations, both of which are seen in the rendering above, one designed for installation on ships below deck like a traditional VLS and another one intended to be fitted on top of the decks of ships or on ground vehicles. "JQL's LEA/LMA launch control system can be integrated with local and remote weapon control systems using wired and wireless interfaces," a product brochure from Lockheed Martin's says. Both designs have what might appear at first glance to be a fifth launch tube, but which is actually an exhaust that diverts the blast of the missiles firing upward, keeping the overall height of the launcher to a minimum. The below deck design features a hatch-type lid to help keep water out of the launcher. The other version simply has covers over each launch tube and the exhaust that break away when the missiles are launched. The exact physical space and power requirements needed for JQL installation are not clear, but Lockheed Martin's promotional literature shows a rendering of two of the launchers on the back of a 4x4 Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) truck. Renderings of two other example installations are shown, as well. One of these depicts four JQLs mounted on top of the pilothouse of one of the Navy's new Mk VI patrol boats, while the other is has three of the below deck launchers fitted next to an eight-cell Mk 41 VLS array on the bow of a Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC), between the forecastle and its main gun. The MMSC is an enlarged derivative of the Freedom class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) that Lockheed Martin designed for the Navy, the first customer for which is Saudi Arabia. If the JQL is as relatively easy to add to various platforms as it appears from these configurations, it could offer a significant boost in firepower for relatively small ships and vehicles when combined with the capabilities of the JAGM. This missile takes the rear portions of an AGM-114R Hellfire II missile and adds in a new, multi-mode seeker. Most existing Hellfire II missiles use semi-active laser homing to zero in on their targets. This is where an operator in the air, at sea, or on the ground must 'lase' a target with a laser in order for the missile to strike it. There is also the AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire variant that uses a millimeter-wave radar seeker. JAGM's seeker can use both or either method depending on what the crew of the platform firing it feels is best for engaging the target at hand, which may be in motion. The missile can also use both modes at once, finding the target via laser designation and then homing in on it using the millimeter-wave radar, as well. This is especially useful if the laser beam were momentarily obscured by atmospheric conditions or were to otherwise break off during the terminal portion of an attack. Using the MMW seeker, the missile can in most cases still hit its target. Having both options available also gives the weapon an all-weather capability, as clouds, as well as smoke and other obsurants, can make lasing a target impossible. The millimeter-wave radar seeker allows the weapon to be cued to the general target area and use a lock-on-after-launch capability to find it and home in on it. For larger ships, arrays of JQLs could provide an additional layer of close-in defense against swarms of small watercraft or unmanned, explosive-laden suicide boats. The U.S. Navy has been working on integrating the AGM-114L onto some of its LCSs using a vertical launch system for exactly this purpose, an effort that would seem to be somewhat out of date now given the arrival of the more capable JAGM missile. The availability of a JQL variant that can be readily installed above deck means that this kind of protection could be rapidly added to a wide array of naval vessels, including support types that generally have very limited, if any armament, such as fleet oilers and roll-on/roll-off cargo ships. Naval vessels, including smaller patrol boats, such as the Mk VI example in Lockheed Martin's brochure, could also make good use of these missiles against other small watercraft, amphibious landing craft, and other similarly sized threats. The exact range of the JAGM in a surface-launched configuration is unknown, but if it is anywhere near the missile's reported maximum range of around five miles when air-launched, it is possible that naval vessels could engage targets on land close to shore, as well. At the same time, it's interesting to note that the small AGM-176 Griffin missile, which the U.S. Navy's Cyclone class patrol craft are presently armed with, also has a reported range of five miles when launched from the surface, though they pack a smaller warhead then JAGM. In a ground-launched configuration, JQLs could give lighter units on land an important weapon for engaging heavily armored vehicles, strong points, and other better-protected targets. Like Hellfire, JAGM also has a pop-up flight profile, meaning that it could be used against softer targets hiding behind hard cover, such as high walls or rocky outcroppings, as well. This capability could be particularly valuable during operations in dense urban areas, an environment the U.S. military, among others, sees itself increasingly likely to be fighting in as time goes on. If a single JLTV can carry eight JAGMs loaded in two JQLs. That is a lot of instantly on-demand firepower. Having multiple vehicles in this configuration would give troops the ability to rapidly engage a large number of targets at once. This could make it especially attractive to the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, both of which operate JLTVs and are acquiring JAGMs already for their helicopters and other aerial platforms. If the launcher is capable of being install on this light tactical vehicle, one would imagine that a larger array of JQLs could fit on the back of standard two-and-a-half-ton and five-ton cargo trucks for even more firepower. In both sea and ground-based applications for the JQL, there is a question of targeting. Larger ships would likely have the organic sensors, such as a radar, to spot and track targets at appreciable ranges, as well as potentially designate them with a laser, when it makes sense, to make the most use of the JAGM's dual-mode seeker. However, smaller boats and ground vehicles would likely need to be networked together with other assets to provide critical targeting information, such as drones, helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft, or deploy an elevated sensor themselves. Otherwise, they would be limited to laser-designating targets one at a time, and all within line of sight. There is also the possibility that Lockheed Martin could develop a variant of the JAGM, or an entirely new missile of similar dimensions, that acts more as a kind of loitering munition, with man-in-the-loop targeting capability, such as that found on the Spike Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) missile from Israel's Rafael. That weapon has the ability to fired at a specific area and then be manually steered onto the target by an operator who is seeing what the missile sees via a feed from an infrared camera in its nose. These weapons can be used to reconnoiter their targets before striking them, as well. Azerbaijan used Spike NLOS in this way to great effect during its recent conflict with Armenia, as seen in the video below. It is worth noting that Lockheed Martin did also demonstrate an imaging infrared seeker capability for JAGM during testing, though the initial AGM-179A variant does not feature that capability. There have also been plans in the past for follow-on versions of the missile with a tri-mode seeker, as well as extended range and other improved capabilities. It's also interesting to point out that the U.S. Army had actually previously planned to acquire a somewhat similar capability, in the form of the XM501 Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS), as part of the abortive Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, which was canceled in 2009. In tests, the XM501, which was made up of Container Launch Units (CLU), each designed to hold 15 small missiles, together with a fire control system, was installed on a 6x6 Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) cargo truck. There were also plans to add the XM501 to the Navy's LCSs, which has now been superseded by the aforementioned AGM-114L launch system. It is important to note that the missiles intended to go into the NLOS-LS had much greater range than Hellfire or JAGM and included a type capable of operating as a loitering munition similar to Spike-NLOS. The JQL concept is also similar in some ways to work that European missile consortium MBDA is doing to develop a variety of ground, as well as sea-based, launcher options for its Brimstone missile. Brimstone looks very much like Hellfire and JAGM, visually, and also has a dual-mode laser and millimeter-wave radar seeker. All told the JQL seems to make incredible sense as a way to quickly add the JAGM missile to a wide array of new launch platforms at sea and on the ground. As the battlespace becomes increasingly networked, deploying these systems would give even diminutive vehicles brutally destructive capabilities with minimal modifications. Add a loitering munition option, and these mini-VLS modules could really increase lethality of even the lightest mechanized units on the modern battlefield. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/38259/this-mini-vertical-launch-system-can-give-small-ships-and-trucks-huge-firepower

ARMY General Dynamics Land Systems Inc., Sterling Heights, Michigan, was awarded a $4,620,000,000 fixed-price-incentive contract to produce Abrams M1A2 SEPv3 tanks. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of June 17, 2028. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-21-D-0001). STS International Inc., Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, was awarded a $49,500,000 firm-fixed-price contract for combat field service equipment team services. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 17, 2025. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QY-21-D-0001). Canadian Commercial Corp., Ottawa, Ontario, was awarded a $30,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the removal of existing excitation equipment and replacement of solid-state excitation equipment/systems. Bids were solicited via the internet with seven received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 17, 2030. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville, Tennessee, is the contracting activity (W912P5-21-D-0002). NAVY Koa Lani JV LLC,* Orlando, Florida, is awarded an $854,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with firm-fixed price, cost-plus incentive fee and cost-reimbursement contract line items for range operations support and base operations support services. This contract includes a 60-month base period with one 60-month option period. Work will be performed at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Island of Kauai, Hawaii. Work is expected to be completed by December 2025; if the option is exercised, work will be completed by December 2030. Subject to the availability of funds, fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds (Navy) in the amount of $20,000,000 will be obligated at the time of award to fund the contract's minimum amount and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The requirement was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website and the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website as a 100% 8(a) set-aside requirement, with three offers received. The Naval Supply Systems Command, Fleet Logistics Center, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N00604-21-D-4000). L3 Technologies Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, is awarded a $495,530,542 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract. This contract provides for the production and delivery of 10 pod simulators, eight operational prototype pods, four jettison mass model pods, two captive mass models, two mission system prototypes and two technique development systems in support of engineering and manufacturing development for the Next Generation Jammer Low Band program. Work will be performed in Salt Lake City, Utah (66%); Boulder, Colorado (10%); Carlsbad, California (9%); Stuart, Florida (7%); Indianapolis, Indiana (4%); St. George, Utah (2%); and Guthrie, Oklahoma (2%), and is expected to be completed in September 2025. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $20,377,862 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; two offers were received. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-21-C-0021). Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona, is awarded a $145,101,510 modification (P00003) to previously issued fixed-price-incentive-firm-target, firm-fixed-price contract N00019-20-C-0030. This modification exercises an option for the production and delivery of 90 full rate production Lot 17 Block V Tactical Tomahawk (TACTOM) All Up Round (AUR) Vertical Launch System missiles, including related hardware and services for the Navy. Additionally, this modification procures TACTOM AUR recertification AGR-4 spares. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona (40.6%); Walled Lake, Michigan (11.4%); Gainesville, Virginia (9.7%); El Segundo, California (5.1%); Clearwater, Florida (3.3%); Glenrothes, Scotland (3.1%); Spanish Fork, Utah (3%); Middletown, Connecticut (2.7%); Berryville, Arkansas (2.5%); Midland, Ontario, Canada (2.4%); Ontario, California (2%); Camden, Arkansas (1.8%); Vergennes, Vermont (1.7%); Anniston, Alabama (1.2%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (9.5%), and is expected to be completed in December 2023. Fiscal 2021 weapons procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $140,686,082; and fiscal 2020 weapons procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $4,415,428 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Progeny Systems Corp.,* Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $41,716,025 fixed-price-incentive (firm target), cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-18-C-6410 to exercise options for the production of MK54 MOD 1 lightweight torpedo kits, associated production support material, spares and engineering and hardware support services. This modification is in support of the MK54 MOD 1 Lightweight and MK48 Heavyweight torpedo programs. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (99%); and the governments of Australia, Canada, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium (1% combined), under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Charleroi, Pennsylvania (70%); Salt Lake City, Utah (26%); and Manassas, Virginia (4%), and is expected to be completed by December 2023. Fiscal 2021 weapons procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $41,210,110 (99%); and FMS funds in the amount of $505,915 (1%) will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. CFM International Inc., West Chester, Ohio, is awarded a $28,529,246 modification (P00006) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N00019-18-C-1071. This modification adds scope to procure two P-8A Poseidon CFM56-7B27AE engines for the governments of Australia and New Zealand. Work will be performed in Villaroche, France (53%); Durham, North Carolina (43%); Singapore (3%); and Bromont, Canada (1%), and is expected to be completed in November 2021. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $14,264,623; and foreign cooperative project funds in the amount of $14,264,623 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, is awarded a $23,852,562 cost-plus-award-fee and cost modification to previously awarded contract N00024-19-C-2322 to exercise options for the accomplishment of planning yard efforts such as engineering, technical, planning, ship configuration, data and logistics efforts for DDG-1000 class destroyers post-delivery and in-service life-cycle support. Work will be performed in Bath, Maine (95%); and San Diego, California (5%), and is expected to be completed by December 2021. Fiscal 2021 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) $1,659,554 funding will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-19-C-2322). Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, California, is awarded a $22,320,161 modification (P00006) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00019-20-C-0025. This modification exercises options to procure software and engineering sustainment services, software support, logistics, cyber security and program related engineering in support of MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned air systems. Work will be performed in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed in December 2021. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,452,295; fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) in the amount of $3,982,259; and fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $139,877 will be obligated at time of award, of which $3,982,259 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. BAE Systems Platforms & Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is awarded an $18,000,057 fixed-price contract action for Virginia class submarine propulsors. The services under this contract include the engineering and support for the construction of fixed assemblies for the Virginia class propulsor. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $98,152,185. Work will be performed in Louisville, Kentucky (90%); and Minneapolis, Minnesota (10%), and is expected to be completed by February 2027. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) $18,000,057 funding will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-21-C-4106). Daniels & Daniels Construction Co., Inc., Goldsboro, North Carolina, is awarded a $13,437,820 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of the Marine Raider Regiment Headquarters, Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The work to be performed constructs a headquarters facilities and includes miscellaneous supporting structures, utilities, parking, roadways, sidewalks, running trails and site work. The structures will be single-story steel frame buildings with brick veneer over metal studs, standing seam metal roofs, metal soffits and translucent wall panels. Work will be performed at Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and is expected to be completed by December 2022. Fiscal 2020 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $13,437,820 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.SAM.gov website with five proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N40085-19-R-9148). DRS Systems Inc., Melbourne, Florida, is awarded a $10,121,768 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable delivery order (N00019-21-F-0238) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-19-G-0030. This order provides non-recurring engineering for the design, development and integration of the AN/AAQ-45 Distributed Aperture Infrared Countermeasure system, including associated weapons replaceable assemblies in support of the HH-60W aircraft for the Air Force. Work will be performed in Dallas, Texas (80%); San Diego, California (11%); Fort Walton Beach, Florida (8%); and Melbourne, Florida (1%), and is expected to be completed in January 2023. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Air Force) funds in the amount of $10,121,768 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. The Lockheed Martin Corp., Rotary and Mission Systems, Mitchel Field, New York, is awarded a $9,273,205 cost-plus-incentive fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification (P00012) to previously awarded and announced contract N00030-20-C-0045 for the U.S. and United Kingdom (U.K.) to provide strategic weapon system Trident fleet support, Trident II SSP Shipboard Integration (SSI) Increment 8, SSI Increment 16, Columbia class and U.K. Dreadnought class navigation subsystem development efforts. Work will be performed in Mitchel Field, New York (47%); Huntington Beach, California (36%); Clearwater, Florida (9%); Cambridge, Massachusetts (6%); and Hingham, Massachusetts (2%), with an expected completion date of Nov. 30, 2023. Fiscal 2021 other procurement Navy funds in the amount of $9,273,205 will be obligated. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was a sole-source acquisition in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) and (4). The Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Raytheon Co., McKinney, Texas, is awarded an $8,400,868 firm-fixed-price order (N68335-21-F-0102) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N68335-20-G-1043. This order provides non-recurring engineering for the Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS) software deficiency corrections, design and integration of four turret unit sensors and two electronics unit circuit card assemblies to address system obsolescence and provide a standard definition compatible system to multiple systems on various aircraft that utilize the MTS for the governments of India and Australia. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas (85%); Patuxent River, Maryland (10%); and Owego, New York (5%), and is expected to be completed in September 2022. Foreign cooperative project funds in the amount of $6,853,795; and Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $1,547,073 will be obligated at time of award; none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity. Edison Chouest Offshore, Cut Off, Louisiana, is awarded a $7,740,555 modification (P00021) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N32205-17-C-3513 to exercise a third 12-month option with reimbursable elements for one maritime support vessel MV Carolyn Chouest. This vessel will be utilized to launch, recover, refuel and resupply of various size crafts in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command's (USINDOPACOM) area of responsibility (AOR). This contract includes a 12-month base period, three 12-month option periods and one 11-month option period. Work will be performed in the USINDOPACOM AOR, and is expected to be completed, if all options are exercised by Nov. 21, 2022. The option will be funded by fiscal 2021 (Navy) working capital funds in the amount of $6,001,581 that will expire at the end of the fiscal year; and fiscal 2022 (Navy) working capital funds in the amount of $1,738,974 that will expire at the end of fiscal 2022. The Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE The Boeing Co., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has been awarded a $400,000,000 modification (P00014) to contract FA8107-19-D-0001 for B-1 and B-52 bomber engineering services. This modification is for recurring and non-recurring engineering services to B-1 and B-52 aircraft. Work will be performed at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Edwards AFB, California; Barksdale AFB, Louisiana; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is expected to be completed Dec. 31, 2022. The total cumulative value of the contract is $1,200,000,000. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $33,903,201 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8107-19-D-0001). Kegman Inc., Melbourne, Florida, has been awarded a $98,700,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with cost-reimbursable line items for travel and material purchases as needed and approved by the government. This contract provides non-personal advisory and assistance services in support of the Air Force Technical Applications Center's (AFTAC) mission that will include, but not be limited, to technical, programmatic, acquisition, expert panel, analyses, engineering, logistical and consultation support on a task order basis. Work will be performed on Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, and is expected to be completed Dec. 31, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and one offer was received. Subject to the availability of funding, fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,267,485; fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $3,194,720; and fiscal 2021 other procurement funds in the amount of $256,955 are being obligated at the time of award. Headquarters Air Combat Command, Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA7022-21-D-0002). Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida, has been awarded a $48,634,855 855 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00017) to contract FA8682-18-C-0009 for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Group One development. This contract modification provides risk reduction testing, cyber testing and coatings to support the Group One development effort. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed June 28, 2024. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and funds in the amount of $5,338,074; and fiscal 2019 other procurement funds in the amount of $3,100,060 are being obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $258,029,572. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, has been awarded a $36,246,974 modification (P00009) to contract FA8620-20-C-2009 for France contractor logistics support MQ-9 Block Five and Block One aircraft. The contractor will provide an additional period of contractor logistics support for the French Air Force. Work will be performed in Poway, California, and is expected to be completed Dec. 31, 2021. This contract involves 100% Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to France. FMS funds in the amount in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $73,305,690. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8620-20-C-2009). DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $14,761,791 firm-fixed-price modification (P000012) to contract FA2860-19-C-0005 for rotary wing maintenance. This contract provides helicopter maintenance of aircraft assigned to the 316th Wing at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. This modification exercises Option Period Two and is expected to be completed Dec. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $75,020,715. The 316th Contracting Squadron, Services Flight, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, is the contracting activity. The Raytheon Co., El Segundo, California, has been awarded a $10,873,024 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the sustainment of the Enhanced Integrator Sensor Suite (EISS) for the RQ-4 Global Hawk program. This contract provides for contractor logistics support and sustainment of the EISS on the RQ-4 Global Hawk aircraft. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be completed Dec. 31, 2025. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $923,333 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8577-21-C-0002). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY SupplyCore, Inc.,* Rockford, Illinois, has been awarded a maximum $80,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for facilities maintenance, repair and operations supplies. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a one-year bridge contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Nebraska, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota, with a Dec. 18, 2021, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE8E3-21-D-0004). FreshPack Produce Inc., Denver, Colorado, has been awarded a maximum $41,500,000 firm-fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for fresh fruits and vegetables. This was a competitive acquisition with one response received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Colorado, with a Feb. 28, 2026, ordering period end date. Using customers are Department of Agriculture schools and reservations. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-21-D-S748). TMG OpCon LLLP, Ellijay, Georgia, has been awarded a maximum $27,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for medical equipment and accessories for the Defense Logistics Agency electronic catalog. This was a competitive acquisition with 135 responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Georgia, with a Dec. 17, 2025, performance completion date. - Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DH-21-D-0054). Crown Clothing Co.,* Vineland, New Jersey, has been awarded a maximum $8,541,763 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for men's coats, belts and keepers. This was a competitive acquisition with four responses received. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Location of performance is New Jersey, with a Dec. 17, 2021, ordering period end date. Using military service is Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-21-D1432). *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2452534/source/GovDelivery/

Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Earlier this month, the U.S. Air Force embarked on a hotly anticipated test: Could it use a semiautonomous drone, in this case a Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie equipped with a special payload, to stealthily translate and send data between F-35 and F-22 fighter jets? Air Force leaders still think the answer is “yes,” but because of technical issues encountered during the test, proof that the concept works is still months away. During the Dec. 9 demonstration at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the Valkyrie was outfitted with gatewayONE, a system capable of translating information from the F-35′s Multifunctional Advanced Data Link and the F-22′s Intra-Flight Data Link into a format that can be understood by other aircraft, all while maintaining a low probability of enemy forces intercepting that data. But “shortly after takeoff, the communications payloads lost connectivity,” leaving nine out of 18 test objectives incomplete, the Air Force said in a news release. Early feedback from the test team indicates that, during the rocket-assisted takeoff of the Valkyrie, some of the gatewayONE hardware came loose from where it was mated to the drone, said Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper. “We think we had a connector that came loose during it because the gateway itself was fine when the Valkyrie landed. So [it's] a thing we've learned from and we'll fix next time,” he told reporters Dec. 18 during a Defense Writers Group roundtable. “Next time we get out, flying in the next on-ramp, we'll probably check those soldering points more than one time.” Despite the setbacks, the Air Force still clocked in a number of wins during the exercise. Because the service had a second, land-based version of gatewayONE, it was able to use that system to pass targeting cues from an F-35 to an F-22 and exchange other data between the two aircraft. GatewayONE also pushed data that usually is confined to operations centers on the ground to the F-35 and F-22, while allowing those aircraft to send precise location data back through the translating system to the operations center. Although the Valkyrie couldn't transmit data between the F-22 and F-35, it still safety demonstrated that it could fly semiautonomously in operations with the two stealth jets for the first time ever. Aside from the inclusion of the XQ-58A, it's unclear how the Dec. 9 demonstration differs from ground tests of a similar system during the first Advanced Battle Management System on-ramp exercise in 2019. During that demo, the Air Force rigged together a number of radio systems built by F-35 and F-22 prime contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman with antennas from Honeywell, and the aircraft flew over the test stand, exchanging data, officials said. As early as 2015, Northrop has touted its Freedom 550 radio as a translator for the F-35 and F-22, but it is unknown whether the technology is part of the gatewayONE system. The Air Force did not respond to questions from Defense News seeking more information about gatewayONE, such as a request to identify the manufacturer. During a phone call with reporters on Dec. 16, Air Force Chief Architect Preston Dunlap said the next opportunity for the service to experiment with the gatewayONE payload onboard Valkyrie is during the Advanced Battle Management System experiment slated for May 2021. Using a low-cost, expendable drone like the XQ-58 to transmit data between platforms is a contrast from the Air Force's usual approach for solving communications challenges among its assets, Dunlap said. Usually, as new data links or waveforms are developed, aircraft must be retrofitted with new radios and apertures — an expensive and time-consuming process that often leaves platforms out of the loop. “It's obvious to me that it's not a winning strategy and is a real estate problem on some of these platforms, but then it's a lost opportunity because when you have diversity of pathways, you have greater assurance,” he said. By creating a small, modular payload like gatewayONE that can be carried by a number of manned and unmanned aircraft, the Air Force will have more options for getting data into the cockpits of all of its planes. “The real big win — and we heard this from the pilots themselves — is being able to push information into their cockpits so that they have access to it in a way that is operationally relevant and useful to them,” Dunlap said. “It's not all the data they would want, but it has opened a door that's amazing. So we've got to keep pushing the technology.” The Dec. 9 test was carried out by personnel from the Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and the 46th Test Squadron from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/12/18/heres-why-the-valkyrie-drone-couldnt-translate-between-an-f-35-and-f-22-during-a-recent-test/

Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — The U.S. military recently came within inches of successfully retrieving three unmanned air vehicles in flight with a C-130 aircraft, bringing the Gremlins program tantalizingly close to a significant milestone. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's emerging technology arm, wants to demonstrate the ability to launch and recover four cheap, reusable unmanned aerial vehicles — the Gremlins — within 30 minutes in flight. The program uses X-61A Gremlins Air Vehicle (GAV) developed by Dynetics, a Leidos subsidiary. The GAVs are built to dock with a C-130 aircraft via an extension, similar to an airborne refueling operation. Dynetics secured a 21-month, $38.6 million award for the third phase of the Gremlins effort in 2018. While GAVs are relatively small, they have a range of more than 600 miles and can be equipped with a variety of sensors and technologies for different missions. The ability to distribute and collect GAVs from the air could keep them beyond the range of adversary defenses, according to DARPA, expanding the potential impact of unmanned aerial vehicles on the battlefield. Once recovered, GAVs are expected to be mission ready within 24 hours. In the latest demonstration Oct. 28, DARPA made nine attempts to collect the GAVs with a docking mechanism extended from the C-130 aircraft. While none of the attempts was successful, with each GAV eventually parachuting to the ground, DARPA insisted the effort validated all autonomous formation flying positions and safety features. “All of our systems looked good during the ground tests, but the flight test is where you truly find how things work,” said Scott Wierzbanowski, program manager for DARPA's Gremlins effort, in a Dec. 10 statement. “We came within inches of connection on each attempt but, ultimately, it just wasn't close enough to engage the recovery system.” Given the GAVs' performance and the data collected over the nine attempts, Wierzbanowski said success is imminent. “We made great strides in learning and responding to technological challenges between each of the three test flight deployments to date,” he said. “We were so close this time that I am confident that multiple airborne recoveries will be made in the next deployment. However, as with all flight testing, there are always real-world uncertainties and challenges that have to be overcome.” The next attempt will take place in spring 2021. While the Gremlins effort is ongoing, the U.S. Army has made strides in its own effort to retrieve small drones midair. During a recent demonstration, the Army was able to snag air-launched effects (ALE) — effectively small drones — from the air using the flying launch and recovery system (FLAReS). FLAReS uses a hook to catch the ALEs by the wing in flight, saving them from the wear and tear of a belly landing on the ground. https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2020/12/18/the-military-is-this-close-to-nabbing-gremlins-from-mid-air/

By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― Epirus, a venture-backed startup offering a counter-drone capability, announced Thursday it raised $70 million to speed its technology to market. The round was led by San Francisco, California-based Bedrock Capital, and brings the 2-year-old company's total capital raised to roughly $80 million. The news comes six months after Epirus inked a strategic supplier agreement with Northrop Grumman to provide exclusive access to Epirus' software-defined electromagnetic pulse system Leonidas. Since then, the firm has doubled in size and plans to add 100 jobs in 2021. “We're aggressively hiring and expanding our footprint on the East and West coasts,” Epirus CEO Leigh Madden told Defense News. He added that the firm is shifting its headquarters from the Hawthorne, California, office to its newer offices in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Alongside Bedrock and several other investment firms, L3Harris Technologies is investing in Epirus. Epirus developed a SmartPower power-management technology that underpins its counter-unmanned aircraft system, and the company plans to partner with L3Harris to create greater power efficiencies within some of its existing systems. The technology, which allows the system to deliver a high-power output with a relatively low-power input, has a range of applications across other radio frequency systems, Madden said. (The company's systems involve a combination of high-power microwave technology and, for enhanced targeting, artificial intelligence.) The new funding, “enables us to rapidly build out our counter-UAS system,” Madden said. “We'll be bringing the Leonidas system to market as well as advancing the capabilities of our SmartPower technology ― and working with government customers and partners to expand the application of that technology.” Beyond Bedrock and L3Harris, the new Series B funding came from Piedmont Capital Investments, 8VC, Fathom VC and Greenspring Associates. In 2019, Epirus closed $17 million in Series A funding, which was led by 8VC. (Series A is meant to help a company progress to the development stage, and Series B is meant to help a company market or expand its existing market footprint.) Geoff Lewis of Bedrock Capital said in a statement that investors are “confident Epirus has the capacity to integrate its technology into top tier counter-UAS systems and lead the way in developing new and compelling directed energy applications.” “Epirus counters the weak assumption baked into standard VC models that the economic and cultural gaps of defense-focused investments are too wide to overcome,” Lewis said. https://www.defensenews.com/2020/12/17/counter-drone-startup-epirus-raises-70m-plans-to-hire-100-people/

By Craig Hoyle17 December 2020 One certainty for 2021 is that Europe's parallel efforts to develop the region's next-generation Future Combat Air System will not see a convergence. https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/why-europes-fcas-projects-wont-join-formation-in-2021/141340.article?referrer=RSS