Nouvelles

“You can have the greatest brigade combat team in the world," Rep. Wittman said, "but if they can't get to the fight because we don't have a robust ready reserve fleet, that's pretty shortsighted.” By PAUL MCLEARY ]WASHINGTON: A prominent lawmaker waded into the inter-service money wars today by calling for the Navy receiving a larger share of the budget than the other branches of the armed forces. The Army, Rep. Rob Wittman emphasized, can't even deploy abroad without the Navy's help. “We need to look at the one-third, one-third, one-third allocation of defense dollars to all the different service branches,” said Wittman, the top Republican on the Democratic-controlled House Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee. (The actual allocation is a bit trickier than that, but it's close). “No offense in any way, shape, or form to the other service branches, but we're going to need capability in certain areas and we're going to need those at a faster pace than in other areas.” Wittman represents the shipbuilding powerhouse of Virginia — home to massive naval bases and Newport News Shipbuilding, which makes all the nation's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and half its nuclear submarines. He appeared at the Hudson Institute today alongside Rep. Joe Courtney, who chairs the subcommittee and who represents Connecticut, where the other half of the nation's nuclear subs are built at Electric Boat. But it wasn't any of these high-tech, high-cost warships that Wittman singled out today. Instead, the congressman was referring to the major shortfalls in allocating money to modernize the nation's sealift fleet, humble but essential transports. A recent exercise showed the sealift fleet would be unable to haul military equipment overseas quickly in the event of a national security emergency. The snap drill found that of the 33 ships activated, only 22 were ready enough to leave port, according to a December paper from US Transportation Command. Shifting more money to the Navy would be a tough sell in Congress, with its hundreds of parochial interests, but Courtney added that his committee might take up the sealift shortage in its markup of the 2021 budget request in a few weeks, a move that could have wide-ranging implications for the Navy's budget. Wittman didn't lay out plans for shifting money to the Navy, but said “a great example” of why sealift needs to be a priority is “you can have the greatest brigade combat team in the world, you can have the greatest Stryker brigade in the world, but if they can't get to the fight because we don't have a robust ready reserve fleet, that's pretty shortsighted.” Splitting the budget roughly in thirds between the services “is not letting the strategy drive the budget, it's letting the budget drive the strategy,” added, which “creates a strategic vulnerability.” Wittman's comments come in the wake of a earlier dust-up between the services over their share of the budget, after Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday told a navy conference in January “we need more money,” in order to modernize. Budgeting as usual, he said, which means “a one-third, one-third, one-third cut, does not reflect the strategy,” laid in in 2019's National Defense Strategy, Gilday said. “It isn't necessarily aligned with where we need to go against the pacing threat that we face.” The Navy is in many ways faced with the trickiest path to modernizing among all the branches of the military. Even as the service continues to struggle to get ships out of repair availabilities on time, it has also committed to building a new class of aircraft carriers, and has to overhaul its Virginia-class submarines. On top of all that comes the biggest-ticket item — a new class of nuclear-powered submarines about to begin construction, which will eat up over 30 percent of Gilday's budget in a few years. The first of the 12 Columbia subs is scheduled to begin construction in 2021 and enter service in 2031. Once completed they'll carry a staggering 70 percent of the country's nuclear arsenal. To clear space, and the chart a path toward a planned 355-ship fleet, the Navy is scrambling. Last week, plans leaked of Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly's intent to stand up a Future Carrier 2030 Task Force, which will take six months to study how carriers stack up against new generations of stealthy submarines and long-range precision weapons being fielded by China and Russia. The study likely won't be ready until after Defense Secretary Mark Esper wraps up his assessment of the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan and its new force structure assessment, however. Esper took control over both studies last month. The Navy is also looking to speed up the acquisition of a new class of 20 frigates, which would be a relative bargain of about $900 each if the service can stick to its plans and things work out the way they envision. In an attempt to clear some budgetary space for all of this, Modly has kicked off a new ‘Stem to Stern' review of back office functions to try and wrong more money out of existing accounts, which he's hoping to find about $8 billion a year in savings. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/navy-needs-bigger-budget-than-other-services-rep-wittman/

"Our fully networked C3 [Command, Control, & Communications] will look completely different" from current satellites and terminals, said OSD's Doug Schroeder. By THERESA HITCHENS SATELLITE 2020: The Pentagon wants industry ideas on how to craft a “fundamentally new architecture” for command, control and communications (C3) that will allow “any user using any terminal to connect to any other user using any other terminal,” says Doug Schroeder, who oversees the effort under the Office of Research and Engineering (R&E). This kind of omnipresent, all-service connectivity across land, sea, air, and space is essential for the Pentagon's rapidly evolving of future war, known as Joint-All Domain Operations. “Our Fully Networked C3 communications will look completely different. We have a new vision. We're crafting it with the help of industry,” he said. “We're relying on very heavily on industry, starting with this Broad Agency Announcement dated March 6,” which asks for companies to submit white papers in short order. According to Schroeder, the Space Development Agency (SDA) will be the funding authority. Vendors whose short, 10 to 15 page white papers are chosen will be invited at the end of April to a Pitch Day. Winners then will be given three months to develop a proposal; contracts for prototypes will be granted 24 months later. Speaking to a relatively sparse audience here at the annual commercial satellite industry conference, Satellite 2020 — which is underway despite the threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus — Schroeder stressed: “We are going to take our new direction from you.” The new strategy, called Fully Networked C3 (FNC3), is being spearheaded by R&E director Mike Griffin and his assistant director for FNC3, Michael Zatman. According to the BAA, the first issued under the effort, the new strategy is being designed to “enable the DoD to reliably communicate with all its tactical and strategic assets.” C3 is one of Griffin's Top Ten areas of technology innovation for which DoD is developing an agency-wide development strategy. Specifically, DoD now is looking for “Beyond-Line-Of-Site (BLOS) communications systems for airborne, surface, and subsurface systems that is [sic] compatible with both FNC3 enabled systems and legacy systems,” the BAA states. The BAA calls for White Papers to be submitted by March 30 for three different types of BLOS technologies: 1. Protected Radio Frequency (RF) BLOS Communications. 2. Multi-User/Multi-Point High-Data-Rate Laser Communications. 3. Communications with submerged assets. R&E intends to “develop, prototype, and demonstrate each innovative communications capability with the goal of transitioning the technologies into programs of record,” the BAA said. To ensure speedy results, DoD will use Other Transaction Authority (OTA) for prototyping (found under 10 U.S. Code § 2371b.) Much of the detail about the effort is contained in classified annexes. What we do know: Beyond-Line-Of-Sight communications relayed through satellites generally require equipping platforms — such as aircraft, ships, and ground vehicles — with high-throughput voice and data links, capabilities all of the services have expressed interest in. In particular, after years of little progress, Griffin has reinvigorated DoD interest in optical communications via laser links, in large part due to fears about Russian and Chinese RF jamming. Commercial industry has been rushing to develop optical links to enable satellite-to-satellite data transmission, and the Space Development Agency is interested in that capability for its so-called transport layer of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit. Radio-frequency communications with submarines when underwater are generally limited to terse text messages, transmitted at very low frequencies (three to 30 kilohertz) and extremely low frequencies (three to 300 hertz) and requiring very large antennas to receie them. Research work is ongoing at MIT on how to link traditional underwater sonar to airborne RF receivers, a methodology called Translational Acoustic-RF) communication. Research also is ongoing, including at MIT's Lincoln Lab, on using narrow-beam lasers to allow one underwater vehicle to communicate with another. BLOS communications can also be accomplished without using satellites. Alternative method include tropospheric scatter using microwave radiation, high frequency (HF) wireless, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relays, and passive reflector systems. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/pentagon-seeks-new-satcom-tech-for-fully-networked-c3

By: Joe Gould and Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON ― The U.S. aerospace and defense sector is feeling the impact of the coronavirus, with companies limiting travel, defense trade events scuttled and contingency planning underway. As stocks fell sharply Monday on a combination of coronavirus fears and plunging oil prices, defense firms were girding for the worst and looking to the White House for guidance. The comments came days after spread of the coronavirus forced the weeklong closure of two F-35 related facilities in Italy and Japan―a sign the outbreak had begun to impact operations within the American defense industrial base. “The normal ways of doing business are definitely going to change,” said Aerospace Industries Association CEO Eric Fanning. “We're trying to get to the place where we're not reacting on a day-to-day basis to what's happening and getting in front of some of these things and maybe making some proactive decisions. But everyone is kind of looking to everyone else to take the lead on how to address this.” Lockheed, Raytheon and Honeywell were among dozens of companies that pulled out of last month's Singapore Air Show, which is typically the largest defense trade show in Asia―and SXSW, a show AIA participates in, was cancelled. The two offer a glimpse into how fears of corona virus could impact other defense trade shows and conferences. “It felt like a ghost town. It definitely was a strange experience,” Fanning said about the Singapore conference. While it's easy to overstate the importance of trade shows in cementing major deals, the deals announced at the shows are often worked out in advance, Fanning said. Still, the shows are still valuable for face-to-face networking between international defense officials and industry. As of Monday, the National Defense Industrial Association still planned to hold its Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Fla., this May. Its 2020 Pacific Operational Science and Technology Conference in Honolulu was ongoing this week, with more than 700 attendees, a spokeswoman said. At least one major defense firm, Boeing, has limited its employees to “business-essential” travel, and it has been rescheduling some events, reducing face-to-face meetings in favor of virtual meetings, enabling telecommuting when possible. “These measures are temporary and aimed to prevent the spread of the virus, shorten its impact and ensure the health and safety of our employees as well as the general public," a Boeing spokesman said. The virus has infected more than 110,000 people worldwide, and Italy on Sunday followed China's lead in quarantining a big swath of its country in hopes of corralling the spread. That sparked more fears in the financial markets that quarantines would snarl supply chains for companies even more than they already have. While COVID-19's long term impacts on the defense aerospace industry may take time to manifest, they could be complicated by the uncertainty of the financial market and ongoing trade wars with China, according to Fanning and others. “Supply chains are global, they're inter-related, they're incredibly complex. Having real good situational awareness into them is difficult to begin with, then you add any instability on top of it, it gets harder. And this definitely is added to that,” Fanning said. The new coronavirus is now spreading on every continent except Antarctica and hurting consumer spending, industrial production, and travel. As COVID-19 spreads around the world, many investors feel helpless in trying to estimate how much it will hurt the economy and corporate profits, and the easiest response to such uncertainty may be to get out. After initially taking an optimistic view on the virus — hoping that it would remain mostly in China and cause just a short-term disruption — investors are realizing they likely woefully underestimated it. On Monday, the Dow Jones U.S. Aerospace & Defense Index was down 26 percent over the last month, lagging the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was down 18 percent. “Defense should do relatively better [than consumer sectors], but it's not gonna be immune,” said Byron Callan, a policy research expert at Capital Alpha Partners. “It's gonna catch a mild fever where, you know, there are gonna be other parts of the U.S. economy that are gonna be in a critical situation." “Buy-America” regulations and other controls mean the U.S. defense industry's supply chains may be less susceptible to disruption than some consumer sectors, where reliance on China-made components is more widespread―and few, if any supply chains are as globally linked as the F-35's, said U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Defense and Aerospace Export Council's president, Keith Webster. “I would say in the U.S. defense sector's supply chain is less vulnerable than maybe a product in the commercial sector, but we'll have to see,” Webster said. “If this continues across the F-35 partner nations, with their industrial sharing, one could see an impact.” On the flip side, China's weeks-long factory closures could eventually see parallels in the U.S., if the virus is not quickly contained. White collar employees may be able to telecommute, but if skilled laborers are forced to stay home, that could mean problems for the primes and their lower-tier suppliers. “Are there parallels to China in the U.S.? We don't know,” Webster said. “The first step is containment, and the next step is mitigation. China went into mitigation very quickly, which is keeping everybody home. We're just beginning to see that thought process here.” Short of factory closings, factory workers staying home for school closures or to care for sick relatives could trigger work slow downs, particularly at the lower tiers of the supply chain, especially the ones that rely on smaller pools of workers. Those companies could suffer too if they rely on the commercial side of the aerospace sector, which is expected to be harder hit, Callan said. “You can see the ramifications on the pace of work, but it's not like the airline industry or the cruise ship industry where all of a sudden none of your customers show up,” Callan said, adding: “There could be a cascading effect from some commercial aerospace. Again, it's at very, very small level, but it's still a factor.” The Associated Press and Aaron Mehta contributed to this report. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/03/09/coronavirus-shaking-up-americas-defense-industry/

Program to fund deployment and evaluation of PATSCAN Platform, including its video fight detection module TORONTO, ON (March 9, 2020) – Patriot One Technologies Inc. (TSX: PAT) (OTCQX: PTOTF) (FRANKFURT: 0PL) (“Patriot One” or the “Company”), is pleased to announce it has been awarded a contract for the PATSCAN Multi-Sensor Covert Threat Detection Platform (the “PATSCAN Platform”) by Innovation Solutions Canada (ISC) for Correctional Service Canada (CSC). The contract will include the purchase, deployment and evaluation of the PATSCAN Platform, including the video fight and disturbance detection module. Deployment of the PATSCAN Platform will begin with Correctional Service Canada (CSC) in March 2020 at an undisclosed location. The contract from Innovative Solution Canada (ISC), was awarded to Patriot One for its PATSCAN Platform, with specific interest around the Video Object Recognition Software (VRS) solution for the detection of visible make-shift knives, cellphones, as well as disturbances and fights, all of which have been issues with correction facilities and their management teams. The Platform was evaluated and pre-qualified under the ISC's Testing Stream, formerly named the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP). The Testing Stream helps connect Canadian innovators with federal government departments that are willing to test their innovation and provide innovators with valuable testing feedback. “We've been working with Innovative Solutions Canada Program, formerly BCIP, on this project, prior to being acquired by Patriot One in December 2018,” shared Dr. James Stewart, SVP Video Analytics at Patriot One. “We are excited to be part of the program to demonstrate our capabilities to not only detect concealed and visible threat objects with our PATSCAN Platform, but also help correctional facility management and guards quickly detect fights and disturbances that at times breakout between inmates.” Patriot One's business development and engineering teams have begun work with teams at ISC and Correctional Service Canada (CSC) on the production of the PATSCAN Platform, which will be delivered for installation and deployment at an undisclosed facility beginning March 2020. Following onsite testing and evaluation, Patriot One, and CSC will discuss the possibility of expanding the Platform deployment across Canada. Respectfully “Martin Cronin” Martin Cronin, CEO About Patriot One Technologies Inc. Patriot Ones' mission is to deliver innovative threat detection and counter-terrorism solutions for safer communities. Our PATSCAN™ Multi-Sensor Covert Threat Detection Platform provides a network of advanced sensor technologies with powerful next generation AI/machine learning software. The network can be covertly deployed from far perimeter to interiors across multiple weapons-restricted facilities. The PATSCAN™ platform identifies and reports threats wherever required; car park, building approach, employee & public entryways and inside the facilities. Each solution in the platform identifies weapons, related threats or disturbances for immediate security response. Our motto Deter, Detect and Defend is based on the belief that widespread use of the PATSCAN™ platform will act as an effective deterrent to diminish the epidemic of active threats around the globe. For more information, visit: www.patriot1tech.comor follow us on Twitter and Facebook. About Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) Innovative Solutions Canada helps Canadian innovators by funding R&D and testing prototypes in real-life settings. The program operates two streams with a combined funding of over $140 million dedicated to Canadian innovators who want to start, grow, and get to market. For further information, please contact: Patriot One Technologies Inquiries info@patriot1tech.com www.patriot1tech.com Investor Relations John Martin, Patriot One Technologies +1 (888) 728-1332 johnm@patriot1tech.com Media Contacts: Scott Ledingham, Patriot One Technologies +1-613-806-7135 scott@prmedianow.com Innovation Solutions Canada (ISED) Ottawa Headquarters Telephone: 343-291-1777 Business hours: 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m media relations team. CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT: No securities exchange has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to system sales, product development, licensing, commercialization and regulatory compliance issues and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as “will”, “may”, “should”, “anticipate”, “expects”,” believes”, and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include counterparty default and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements only as expressly required by applicable law. Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. https://patriot1tech.com/corporate-news/patriot-one-secures-contract-for-correctional-service-canada-from-innovative-solutions-canada/

In the last election campaign the Liberals promised to create a defence procurement agency as part of its efforts to improve purchasing of equipment for the Canadian Forces. No details were released at the time. In December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in his mandate letter to Procurement Minister Anita Anand, outlined how she would lead an effort to bring “forward analyses and options for the creation of Defence Procurement Canada, to ensure that Canada's biggest and most complex National Defence and Canadian Coast Guard procurement projects are delivered on time and with greater transparency to Parliament.” Anand would do this with the support of the Minister of National Defence and the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, according to her mandate letter. At the time Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan claimed much of the work was already underway. “A lot of work has already started on (Defence Procurement Canada) and the goal of this is to make sure that we get the procurement projects done as quickly as possible to make sure the Canadian Armed Forces has what they need,” Sajjan told iPolitics the day before his mandate letter was released. Strangely, when asked about that work, Sajjan's department pointed out that he wasn't specifically referring to the DND and that Anand's Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) had the lead on the file. So, Defense Watch requested the timetable for this effort. Among the questions asked of Anand's department was when the new agency could potentially be expected to be stood up, will there be consultations done and whether there were any concepts already put forward for the agency that could be shared with the public? If this were such an important effort then of course the department would have an idea of at least a timeline on how things might unfold. Here is the answer provided by PSPC: “The Minister of Public Services and Procurement has been tasked to work with partner departments to bring forward analyses and options for the creation of Defence Procurement Canada. Public Services and Procurement Canada is leading this work with support from National Defence, Canadian Coast Guard, and Innovation Sciences and Economic Development Canada. This initiative is aimed at ensuring that Canada's biggest, most complex procurement projects are delivered on time and with greater transparency to Parliament. Work on this important initiative has just begun.” This answer provides little more than what was in the mandate letter. No details on what actual work was being contemplated or taking place was provided. There is no schedule or target date for even producing options and reporting back to government on those. In fact, this PSPC answer seems to undercut Sajjan's earlier claims that “a lot” of work had already started even before the mandate letters were released. Some in the defence industry don't expect much to come from the Liberal election promise of a single defence procurement agency. They point out their case is bolstered when the department leading the initiative doesn't know, or can't provide, even a timetable for such an initiative. The public, as well as industry, will have to wait and see whether Defence Procurement Canada ever becomes a reality. (Analysis) https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/government-doesnt-know-when-a-defence-procurement-agency-will-be-created

A new Department of National Defence report says military search-and-rescue personnel were delayed and in some cases unable to provide emergency assistance on about one in 20 of the hundreds of calls they received last year. While some of the problems related to bad weather, animals on runways and having to wait for provincial medical teams to arrive, more than half were attributed to refuelling issues and breakdowns on the military's ancient search-and-rescue aircraft. The Canadian Armed Forces says the refuelling problems and breakdowns, which afflicted a total of 20 search-and-rescue missions, did not lead to any deaths. Yet they do raise questions about the military's ability to respond quickly to potentially life-threatening emergencies given the age of its search-and-rescue aircraft, some of which entered service in 1967. The Royal Canadian Air Force officially accepted the first of 16 new search-and-rescue planes from European manufacturer Airbus in December, but the aircraft is still in Spain where it was built and has yet to make the trip to Canada. The government has also said it plans to replace the air force's aging air-to-air refuelling tankers, but the first replacement isn't expected until 2028 at the earliest. https://globalnews.ca/news/6650860/military-search-rescue-mission-problems/

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Tactical & Survival Specialties Inc.,* Harrisonburg, Virginia (SPE8EJ-20-D-0010); W.S. Darley & Co.,* Itasca, Illinois (SPE8EJ-20-D-0011); Atlantic Diving Supply Inc., doing business as ADS,* Virginia Beach, Virginia (SPE8EJ-20-D-0012); Federal Resources Supply Co.,* Stevensville, Maryland (SPE8EJ-20-D-0013); Unifire Inc.,* Spokane, Washington (SPE8EJ-20-D-0014); and Quantico Tactical Inc.,* Aberdeen, North Carolina (SPE8EJ-19-D-0015), are sharing a maximum $4,000,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPM8EJ-13-R-0001 for special operational equipment. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. These are 365-day bridge contracts. Locations of performance are Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, Washington, and North Carolina, with a March 6, 2021, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE8EJ-20-D-0010). General Dynamics Mission Systems Inc., Taunton, Massachusetts, has been awarded a maximum $49,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for production of spare parts in support of the Warfighter Information Network Tactical Increment 1. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulations 6.302-1. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Massachusetts, with a March 5, 2025, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland (SPRBL1-20-D-0003). Cummins Inc., Memphis, Tennessee, has been awarded a maximum $9,752,276 fixed-price contract for diesel engine repair kits. This was a competitive acquisition with one offer received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Tennessee, with a March 5, 2025, performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio (SPE7LX-20-D-0095). NAVY The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded $800,000,000 for an advanced acquisition modification (P00167) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-14-C-0067). This modification procures long lead material and activities in support of lot 11 P-8A aircraft production and delivery. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (97.04%); Huntington Beach, California (2.4%); Mesa, Arizona (.55%) and El Segundo, California (.01%). The purpose of this contract modification is to procure long-lead material and activities in support of 18 P-8A Lot 11 aircraft (8 Navy, 4 New Zealand, and 6 Republic of Korea). The mission of the P-8A MMA is to provide long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations. Work is expected to be completed by June 2020. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $800,000,000 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. AIR FORCE George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, has been awarded a $320,689,444 cost-type contract for Mobile Unmanned/Manned Distributed Lethality Airborne Network (MUDLAN) accelerated development and demonstrations software and hardware. This contract provides for the enhancement of technologies to be developed under the MUDLAN Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration program, including digital beam forming multi-beam Common Data Link apertures; directional K/Ku/eKU and W-band systems; MUDLAN multi-functional network controller (MFNC) for connecting multiple platforms while maneuvering; and using the MFNC to recognize jamming and autonomously move to other bands. Work will be performed in Fairfax, Virginia, and is expected to be complete by March 6, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, and two offers were received. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $650,000 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, New York, is the contracting activity (FA8750-20-C-0555). Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory LLC, Laurel, Maryland, has been awarded a cost-plus-fixed-fee $16,769,744 modification (P00009) to task order FA8819-19-F-1003 for deep space advanced radar concept technology demonstration. The contract modification completes the delivery of the technology demonstration project. Work will be performed in Laurel, Maryland; and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $2,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The total cumulative face value of the task order is $45,564,088. The Space and Missile System Center Directorate, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the contracting activity. ARMY Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $154,979,758 contract for Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor System (M-TADS/PNVS) systems for the Apache attack helicopter in support of the Moroccan government. 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 Aug. 31, 2023. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-20-F-0225). Raytheon Co., Andover, Massachusetts, was awarded a $108,321,679 modification (P00002) to contract W31P4Q-19-C-0055 for the procurement of hardware, facilities, equipment, and all technical, planning, management, manufacturing, and testing efforts to include all incidental services to produce the PATRIOT Digital Sidelobe Canceler and Peripheral Enhancement Assembly box production kits. Work will be performed in Andover, Massachusetts; Chatsworth, California; and Simsbury, Connecticut, with an estimated completion date of July 31, 2022. Fiscal 2020 missile procurement, Army; and 2010 Foreign Military Sales (Netherlands) funds in the amount of $108,321,679 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Oshkosh Defense LLC, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was awarded a $25,522,182 modification (P00314) to contract W56HZV-15-C-0095 to exercise available options on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle contract. Work will be performed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2020 other procurement, Army; Marine Corp procurement; and Navy procurement funds in the amount of $25,522,182 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity. Sierra Nevada Corp., Sparks, Nevada, was awarded an $8,500,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Tactical Automated Landing System components support for the RQ-7B tactical unmanned aircraft system. 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 Feb. 27, 2023. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QY-20-D-0011). General Dynamics Mission Systems, Taunton, Massachusetts, was awarded an $8,016,219 modification (P00001) to contract (W15P7T-19-F-0022) to procure warranty coverage for the configuration items for the Tactical Network Transport On the Move System. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Taunton, Massachusetts, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2025. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $8,016,219 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Bluehawk LLC, West Palm Beach, Florida, was awarded a $32,094,786 labor-hour contract (HHM402-20-C-0019) to provide technology transfer analysis and assessment services. Work will be conducted in Charlottesville, Virginia, with an expected completion date of Aug. 31, 2025. Fiscal 2020 operations and management funds in the amount of $2,935,456 are being obligated at time of award. This contract was awarded through a HUBZone set-aside and six offers were received. The Virginia Contracting Activity, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2104849/source/GovDelivery/

The format of the U.S. Air Force's “fireside chat” series is well-understood. A technology pioneer such as Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson or Mark Cuban appears onstage at an Air Force-affiliated event, counsels an audience of pilots and airmen about innovation and, not least, tries not to offend anyone. Elon Musk arrived at the Air Warfare Symposium on Feb. 28 with a different plan. The founder of SpaceX and Tesla, who seems to delight in publicly tweaking established competitors in the space market such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, sat on the Air Force Association's (AFA) stage and declared that the fighter aircraft—for decades the heart of the Air Force's tactical combat capability—is already irrelevant. “The fighter-jet era has passed,” Musk said, provoking audible gasps and murmurs in an audience peppered with officers clad in flight suits. Lt. Gen. John Thompson, Musk's interviewer, quickly changed the subject. Hours later, Musk clarified in a tweeted reply to Aviation Week that he meant the fighter aircraft remains relevant, just not the pilot onboard. “The competitor [to a manned fighter] should be a drone fighter plane that is remote-controlled by a human, but with its maneuvers augmented by autonomy,” Musk writes. Musk's comments on airpower should be taken with a grain of salt. Although his companies have sought to disrupt the space, automotive and mining industries, Musk has no track record in the aircraft sector. One of his symposium hosts, David Deptula, a retired lieutenant general who is now dean of the AFA's Mitchell Institute, also pointed out in a rapidly published rebuttal in Forbes that Musk's predictions about autonomy are often wrong, even when it concerns the self-driving capabilities of Tesla cars. But Musk's remarks only differed with those of senior Air Force officials at the same event in the details of timing and scope. For over a year, Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, has championed a vision of future airpower populated by numerous, small batches of autonomous aircraft augmenting manned fighters with specialized capabilities. For the first time, Gen. James Holmes, head of Air Combat Command (ACC), offered a path to introducing such aircraft into the fleet around 2025-27. In the near term, the Air Force is focused on replacing aging F-15C/Ds with a mix of Boeing F-15EXs and Lockheed Martin F-35As. The Air Force decided to add the F-15EX to its inventory last year even as the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) began experimenting with a new class of low-cost aircraft with an “attritable” value. The first such experimental aircraft, the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie, in March 2019 completed the first of four flights made to date. Next year, the Air Force plans to fly the XQ-58A or a similar aircraft with an artificial intelligence “brain,” which allows the so-called Skyborg aircraft to learn maneuvers as it flies. Such capabilities are not far from Musk's vision of future air combat, but they are too immature to replace a fleet of F-15Cs on the verge of being grounded; hence, the decision to buy the F-15EX instead. The next opportunity to introduce a new kind of aircraft comes in about 5-8 years, Holmes says. That timing dovetails, perhaps intentionally, with the schedule for maturing aircraft such as the XQ-58A and Skyborg. The Air Force will need to replace hundreds of F-16 Block 25s and Block 30s, which entered production in the mid-1980s. “There's an opportunity there if we want to cut in something new, a low-cost attritable, loyal wingman and the different things that we're looking at and experimenting with,” Holmes says. In late February, Holmes and Roper met to discuss the meaning of a “fighter aircraft” in the future with the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program in the backdrop. The program office for NGAD began operations in October, with a focus on inventing a new production process capable of affordably producing small batches of advanced aircraft every 3-5 years. But Air Force officials are still grappling with the definition of basic requirements such as range and payload, as operations in the vast Pacific Ocean dominate the calculations. “The equation and the kind of math that we use for a fighter still works pretty well in the European environment—the range and payload and distance,” Holmes says. “It's not as effective a solution in the Pacific, because of the great distances. So as you look at NGAD and you look at the following programs, I wouldn't expect it to produce things that necessarily look like a traditional fighter.” The exhibit hall at the Air Warfare Symposium offered some clues. Besides the usual displays and posters of F-35s and F-15s, some new concepts appeared. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) showed a concept design called “Defender,” an apparent variant of the Predator C Avenger, armed with air-to-air missiles and infrared search-and-track sensors. The Defender would protect an “outside force” of enablers, such as tankers and surveillance aircraft, from aerial attack while an inside force of stealth bombers and fighters engaged targets downrange, a GA-ASI spokesman says. Kratos, meanwhile, continues working on the XQ-58. The AFRL initially funded five test flights, but despite a crash landing on the third flight, all test objectives were met after the third test, says Steve Fendley, president of Kratos' Unmanned Systems Division. The AFRL now is accelerating the “missionization” of the XQ-58, Fendley says, adding payloads and potentially weapons. The first payload integration will be demonstrated in April, when the XQ-58 serves as a communication conduit between the F-35 and the F-22. Meanwhile, Kratos has started production, with 12 XQ-58s scheduled off the assembly line by the first quarter of 2021. The fleet will be assigned to multiple demonstration programs, funded by several agencies, Fendley says. The XQ-58's performance helps define the new class of aircraft, called “loyal wingman” in the U.S. and “remote carriers” in Europe. A critical feature shared by the XQ-58 and similar aircraft such as the Boeing Airpower Teaming System (ATS) is range. Both are capable of flying 3,000 nm unrefueled, almost three times the range of the F-35. Unlike the ATS, the XQ-58 does not need a runway to land, and instead deploys a parachute. Both aircraft seem unrecognizable from the typical next-generation fighter favored by ACC, but the command is changing its approach, Holmes says. “In the past at Air Combat Command, we would have built something that we call a fighter road map . . . to figure out what our fighter force will look like for the next 30 years,” Holmes said. “What I would rather build is a capabilities road map that shows how we're going to accomplish the missions for the Air Force that we traditionally had done with fighters.” At the same time, Holmes' counterparts in the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) are also changing their approach to fighter acquisition. Last October, the AFMC established the Advanced Aircraft Program Executive Office, which is tasked with reinventing the acquisition process for the next class of fighters. A modern fighter is typically developed over a decade and then sustained for several more. For the next generation, the Air Force now prefers to produce multiple aircraft in small batches, in development cycles lasting only five years. The sustainment phase would be minimal, as the aircraft would be phased out after a brief operational career. The approach requires that the Air Force make the design phase profitable for contractors, which now lose money in design and earn profits during the sustainment phase. The approach means paying higher prices up front for the design, but theoretically less overall during the shorter lifespan of the aircraft. The Air Force is still trying to craft the contractual mechanism for such an acquisition approach, says Gen. Arnold Bunch, the head of AFMC. “Industry is going to have to rethink how they want to go do this. They're gonna have to talk to their boards in a different way,” Bunch says. “[Something] we also have to factor into that is: How do I do my cost estimates? How do I do my financial planning? How do I interact with Congress?” https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/us-air-force-plots-fleet-insertion-path-loyal-wingman

On Friday, a missile fired by a Turkish drone destroyed a Russian-made Pantsir-S1 deployed by the Syrian Army in Idlib province. This video released by Turkish media, shows an active Syrian Pantsir being destroyed by a Turkish drone. According to Turkish media, the Pantsir radar was active when it was hit, indicating that the system failed to detect the incoming missile. The Syrian Air Defense Force reportedly has more than 30 $14 million Pantsir S1 (SA-22) air defense systems. Russia has also strengthened its Syrian Khmeimim air base with Pantsir systems to prevent air strikes. The systems were deployed in Khmeimim after a series of drone attacks in 2018. Combat unmanned aerial vehicles used by the Turkish military against the Syrian army led to Syria's largest losses, according to the Turkish Ministry of Defense. After Turkey started using drones against the Syrian Armed Forces, Assad's army has lost about a hundred units of armoured vehicles and several hundred military personnel. Russian news outlet Avia.pro writes that, for unknown reasons, Turkish drones are invisible to Syrian air defense systems. According to the news outlet, Pantsir radars are possibly “blinded” by Turkish electronic warfare systems. Reportedly, Turkey has been using it Koral jamming system built by Aselsan, to degrade the effectiveness of Syrian air defense radars. The Koral, which has a range of 124 miles, has support sensors designed to detect and classify other systems in the area, and an electronic attack element designed to jam, deceive and overload enemy sensors The Turkish drones are reportedly using MAM-C and MAM-L ‘micro-munitions'—70- and 160-millimeter rockets respectively, weighing only 14 and 48.5 pounds designed to strike targets illuminated by a laser. These can carry high explosive, armour-penetrating shaped charges, or (on the MAM-L) lung-rupturing thermobaric warheads, while remaining light enough to mount on relatively small drones. The larger MAM-L can also extend range from 5 to 8.6 miles by using GPS or inertial guidance. Syrian air defenses have managed to shoot down at least three Turkish Anka-S drones in February, and Damascus claims as many as six. As these are larger and newer drones, their loss may be keenly felt, but obviously less so than manned aircraft. https://www.uasvision.com/2020/03/06/turkish-drones-destroy-russian-made-air-defense-systems/