US Armed Forces

[Khafee]

Missile shootdown marks programme milestone for AFRL’s SHiELD.
Robin Hughes, London
07 May 2019

The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) disclosed on 3 May that its Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) Advanced Technology Demonstrator (ATD) programme achieved a major milestone with the shootdown of multiple missiles in flight.

During a series of tests conducted on 23 April at the High Energy Laser System Test Facility at White Sands Missile Range, the AFRL’s ground-based Demonstrator Laser Weapon System (DLWS), acting as a test surrogate for the SHiELD system, successfully engaged multiple air-launched missiles in flight.

During a series of tests at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on 23 April, the AFRL's DLWS (pictured), acting as a ground-based surrogate for the SHiELD system, engaged and shot down several air-launched missiles. (USAF)

According to the US Air Force (USAF), “The demonstration is an important step of the SHiELD system development, validating laser effectiveness against the target missiles. The final SHiELD system, however, will be much smaller and lighter, as well as ruggedized for an airborne environment.”

Launched in 2017, and one of two high-energy laser weapon system (LWS) programmes being run by the AFRL, SHiELD is a two-phased effort intended to illustrate the ability of a podded laser system. The SHiELD programme will eventually develop and integrate a more compact, medium-power LWS onto a fighter-compatible pod to demonstrate the effectiveness of a LWS in a relevant flight environment for self-defence against ground-to-air and air-to-air weapons. Initial flight tests of a podded SHiELD system are expected in the fiscal year (FY) 2020 timeframe.

According to the AFRL, “The purpose of the SHiELD ATD is to reduce and retire the risk of an airborne LWS in a calculated and precise fashion, meeting and resolving the aforementioned technical challenges of power-scaling, beam quality, thermal management, and packaging.

“In its first phase, the flight demonstration is expected to prove that targets can be tracked at sufficient range and speed to subsequently engage with a laser. In the next phase, a moderate-power laser will be incorporated to assess the performance of the LWS in an operationally relevant environment.”

Janes | Latest defence and security news

Janes | The latest defence and security news from Janes - the trusted source for defence intelligence

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[Khafee]

Navy League 2019: Lockheed Martin anticipates HELIOS CDR in early 2020
Michael Fabey, National Harbor, Maryland -

07 May 2019

The critical design review (CDR) for the Lockheed Martin High-Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance (HELIOS) system is planned for the first quarter of 2020, the company confirmed on 1 May during a press briefing in advance of the Navy League Sea-Air-Space conference between 6 and 8 May.

HELIOS is to provide US Navy (USN) surface warships and other platforms laser weapon and other directed energy capability.

The USN in March awarded the company a USD150 million contract - with options worth up to USD942.8 million - for the development, manufacture, and delivery of two high-power laser weapon systems, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and counter-UAS capabilities, by fiscal year 2020

Janes | Latest defence and security news

Janes | The latest defence and security news from Janes - the trusted source for defence intelligence

www.janes.com

 

[Khafee]

Navy to deploy hospital ship USNS Comfort in response to crises in Venezuela
By Ed Adamczyk
MAY 8, 2019

The USNS Comfort, pictured anchored off the coast of Honduras in December, has been deployed to the Caribbean, Central America and South America to offer humanitarian medical assistance in regions affected by the crises in Venezuela. Photo by Mass Communications Specialist 1st Class Scott Bigley/U.S. Navy


May 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy will send a hospital ship to help Venezuelan refugees, Vice President Mike Pence announced.
"At the President's direction, the United States Navy will deploy the USNS Comfort to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America this June," Pence said at the State Department's annual Washington Conference on the Americas on Tuesday. "The Comfort will embark on a five-month humanitarian mission to address the Venezuelan crisis."

The ship is a non-combatant hospital vessel staffed by officers of the Navy's Medical Corps, Dental Corps, Medical Service Corps, Nurse Corps and Chaplain Corps, and enlisted Hospital Corpsman personnel. It will primarily visit areas hosting Venezuelan refugees who have fled their country's economic and political hardships. Pence, in his speech, said that at least three million people have left Venezuela and the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

"The USNS Comfort represents our enduring promise to our partners in the Western Hemisphere, our shared neighborhood," Navy Adm. Craig S. Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said in a statement. "U.S. Southern Command is committed to the region in support of our Caribbean and Latin American partners, as well as displaced Venezuelans who continue to flee the brutal oppression of the former Maduro regime and its interlocking, man-made political, economic and humanitarian crises."

The U.S. has provided more than $256 million to the region in humanitarian and development assistance, Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahansaid on Tuesday, adding that more will be needed as the country suffers through violence, economic insecurity, hyperinflation, and shortages of food, medicines and essential services.

The ship's deployment will be its seventh in the region since 2007, and its second in the Western Hemisphere in the past six months. A Chinese Navy hospital ship, the Peace Ark, visited Venezuela in September 2018 as part of an 11-country tour.

Raytheon tests motor for DARPA's MAD-FIRES self-defense interceptor - UPI.com

Raytheon Company successfully tested a hot fire rocket motor for DARPA's Multi-Azimuth Defense Fast Intercept Round Engagement System, or MAD-FIRES.

www.upi.com

 

[Khafee]

Raytheon to provide U.S. Marines with Naval Strike Force Missile
By Ed Adamczyk
MAY 8, 2019

Raytheon Co. announced a $47.6 million contract with the Defense Department to integrate Naval Strike Force Missiles into the U.S. Marine Corps' modernization efforts. Photo courtesy of Kongsburg SA

May 8 (UPI) -- Raytheon Co. announced on Tuesday it was chosen to integrate the Naval Strike Force Missile into the U.S. Marine Corps' existing structure.

The missile, which can be launched from land or sea, is a precision-strike armament which can fly at very low altitudes, and detect and destroy targets at long distances.

The Navy uses the missile on littoral combat ships as an anti-ship weapon, and its selection by the Marine Corps improves interoperability and reduces costs and logistical problems.

The $47.6 million contract comes under an agreement through the Marine Corps' Other Transaction Authority, a term used to refer to the authority of the Department of Defense to carry out certain prototype, research and production projects.

The Other Transaction category was created to give the Defense Department the flexibility necessary to adopt and incorporate business practices that reflect commercial industry standards and best practices into its award instruments.

"This fifth-generation missile adds another dimension for sea control operations and for protection from adversary warships," Kim Ernzen, vice president of Raytheon Air Warfare Systems, said in a statement.

The Naval Strike Force Missile was developed by Raytheon and its partner, Norway-based Kongsburg.

"We are very pleased to expand the user community. The NSM is now selected by the US Navy and Marine Corps, Norwegian, Polish and Malaysian Navies from both ships and land-based coastal defense. It is an off-the-shelf and non-developmental 5th generation strike missile system that can be rapidly deployed for operational use," Eirik Lie, President of Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace AS, said in a company statement.

Raytheon to provide U.S. Marines with Naval Strike Force Missile - UPI.com

Raytheon Co. announced on Tuesday it was chosen to integrate the Naval Strike Force Missile into the U.S. Marine Corps' existing structure.

www.upi.com

 

[Khafee]

Why Russia Feared the U.S. Army's M270 Super Rocket Launcher
The ultimate Cold War weapon?
March 18, 2017
by Kyle Mizokami

Rockets have been a staple of land warfare for centuries, but it wasn’t until the latter half of the twentieth century that they became a permanent addition to the U.S. Army’s arsenal. Ironically, the Army’s program to develop multiple battlefield rocket artillery to fight the Soviet Army drew inspiration for its rockets from Moscow’s wartime “Katyusha” multi-tube rocket launchers.

Battlefield rocket use dates back to thirteenth-century China. Although China is lauded for inventing gunpowder and derided for promptly using it for fireworks the reality is more complicated: China did use them for war, and even invented multiple-tube rocket launchers capable of launching up to one hundred projectiles. Rocket artillery fell out of favor for hundreds of years, but by the mid-1930s the Soviet Army had started to field the first modern rocket artillery units.

Unlike traditional gun artillery, which used a powder charge to propel a shell through a gun tube, an artillery rocket uses a continuously burning rocket motor to travel to target. The upside is that instead of a single gun tube, several tubes can be clustered together and ripple-fired mere seconds apart. As a result, rocket artillery has a faster rate of fire than tube artillery, although reloading takes longer.

The downside to rocket artillery is that rockets are less accurate. Unlike shells, whose impact point can be precisely computed by knowing the power of the powder charge, weight of the projectile and the length of the gun tube, a rocket flies free after exiting the tube, motor still burning. This makes rockets inherently less accurate and more suited to saturation attacks against area targets instead of point targets.

The Soviet Union relied on rocket artillery extensively during World War II, massing large numbers of truck-mounted multiple-rocket launchers such as the BM-13 and BM-8 to provide massed fires. Rocket artillery was extremely easy to manufacture, a critical issue when Soviet manufacturing was struggling to keep up with the war. A BM-13-16 was simply a collection of bracketed steel tubes mounted on a truck, often a Lend-Lease Studebaker, and the resulting vehicle could hurl sixteen eleven-pound high-explosive warheads a distance of 7.3 miles. What Soviet rocket units lacked in accuracy they made up with in the ability to saturate a target area, and the scream of a BM-13 launcher releasing a salvo of rockets was unearthly.

During the early 1970s, the U.S. Army refocused from Vietnam to a land war in Europe. As a result it looked to revamp its artillery capabilities with an emphasis on striking deep behind enemy lines.

The result was the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS. The M270 packs twelve 227-millimeter rockets into the a box launcher and can fire all twelve rounds in less than forty seconds. The M270 is based on the chassis of the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. Tracked and highly mobile, it is designed to move into position, fire, and be ready to move to a new firing position in five minutes or less. This “shoot and scoot” tactic minimizes exposure to enemy counterbattery fire, a tactic that uses radar and other techniques to track back enemy rockets and shells in midair, determine the location of the enemy artillery units, and destroy them before they can displace to a new firing position.

Unlike other artillery units the M270 isn’t designed for direct support of ground troops. Rather, MLRS units concentrate on medium- to long-distance threats. Instead of attacking an enemy mechanized regiment on the move, MLRS units engage targets far behind enemy lines such as unit assembly areas, fuel and ammunition depots, and headquarters units. MLRS rocket fire is also ideal for friendly counterbattery fire missions.

Instead of trying to make the M270 more accurate, developer Vought decided to embrace the rocket’s lack of accuracy and maximize its ability to saturate an entire area. Each of the original M26 rockets carried 644 Dual Purpose Improved Conventional munitions (DPICM). The size of a hand grenade, DPICM rounds were ejected from the rocket while in flight, raining hundreds of the bomblets down on the enemy. The rounds were devastatingly effective against not only exposed infantry and soft-skinned targets such as fuel depots, ammunition depots and headquarters units, but were also capable of inflicting damage on tanks and armored vehicles, destroying them or putting them out of action.

The first use of the M270 was in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when the rocket launchers earned the name “grid killers” for the ability of a single M270 to saturate a one-kilometer-by-one-kilometer box grid on a military map. A MLRS battalion has a total of twenty-seven M270s, giving U.S. Army divisions and artillery brigades incredible amounts of firepower.

An alternate munition used by the M270 is ATACMs, or the Army Tactical Missile System. A large, plump rocket, ATACMs takes the place of six rockets in an M270, meaning each vehicle can carry up to two. ATACMs was designed to attack targets even farther behind enemy lines, carrying up to 950 antitank and antipersonnel submunitions up to eighty miles. Later versions had a range of up to 186 miles.

The tendency for unexpended cluster munitions to linger on the battlefield and cause harm to civilians resulted in the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. The convention bans their use and, although the United States is not a signatory, the Pentagon generally holds to the ban. As a result, MLRS and ATACMs rockets that carried DPICM have been retired or are being updated to a single “unitary” high-explosive warhead.

The M270 was so effective that a lighter, more mobile version, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) was created. HIMARS packs six rockets or a single ATACMs on a five-ton truck. HIMARS has seen action in Afghanistan against the Taliban and Iraq against the Islamic State. The system’s usefulness against high-end threats has also seen it deployed to the Philippines opposite China, and eastern Europe opposite Russia.

The shift back to big-power warfare once again puts the focus on rocket artillery. As the U.S. Army reorients back towards fighting conventional armies again, massed fires will be back in vogue. ATACMs rockets are even getting the ability to engage moving ships at sea. New, improved rockets with GPS guidance can now destroy point targets. While rocket artillery likely won’t replace gun artillery any time soon, the versatility—and now accuracy—that rockets offer will make them critical capabilities for decades to come.

Why Russia Feared the U.S. Army's M270 Super Rocket Launcher

The ultimate Cold War weapon?

nationalinterest.org

 

[Khafee]

Marine Corps Gets Long-Range Missile to Take Out Enemy Ships
9 May 2019
Military.com | By Hope Hodge Seck

The Army fires a Naval Strike Missile from a Palletized Load System truck, hitting a decommissioned ship at sea, 63 miles north of Kauai, in July 2018 as part of the monthlong Rim of the Pacific Exercise. David Hogan/AMRDEC WDI

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland -- The Marine Corps is dropping nearly $48 million on Raytheon's Naval Strike Missile (NSM) as it moves toward a series of experiments involving striking enemy ships and maritime targets from land.

Raytheon announced this week during the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space conference outside Washington, D.C., that it will provide the NSM to the Marine Corps under a $47.59 million Other Transaction Authority agreement, a Pentagon spending category for experimentation and prototyping.

The deal follows a 2018 Navy contract with Raytheon to manufacture and deliver the NSM as the over-the-horizon missile system for the service's littoral combat ships and the frigates that will succeed them.

"The Marine Corps' selection of the Navy's anti-ship missile enhances joint interoperability and reduces costs and logistical burdens," Raytheon said in a statement.

Developed by Norway's Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, the NSM features a 275-pound, high-explosive warhead and has an operational range of more than 100 nautical miles. In a high-profile experiment during the 2018 Rim of the Pacific Exercise, U.S. Army Pacific fired an NSM from a Palletized Load System truck to hit a decommissioned ship off the coast of Hawaii.

A spokesman for Marine Corps Systems Command, Manny Pacheco, said the service plans to integrate the missile onto land-based vehicles over the next few years.

"What the [Other Transaction Authority] is going to allow us to do is take that capability, put it on certain vehicle platforms to see what it can do," Pacheco said. "[The Marine Corps wants] to do a variety of test demonstrations on the capability."


Breaking Defense reported in January that the Marine Corps was moving forward fast with plans to develop a land-based, ship-sinking missile capability, as part of an effort called Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMSIS. The outlet reported at the time that the Corps was considering NSM, Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile and Boeing's Harpoon for the development program. It added that the service is considering three different vehicles as a missile launch platform, including the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System; the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement, or 7-ton, truck; and the Logistic Vehicle System Replacement.

Pacheco indicated that a vehicle platform had not yet been selected, and specifics of timeline and experimentation moving forward would hinge, to some extent, on that decision.

Under Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, the Corps has become more aggressive in experimentation and pursuit of capabilities that can be integrated into existing platforms.

In 2017, Marine Maj. Gen. David Coffman, the Navy's director of Expeditionary Warfare, told Military.com that the Corps wanted a truck-mounted rocket system compact enough to fit in an MV-22 Osprey. The same year, the Marines fired HIMARS from the back of an amphibious ship, obliterating a land target 43 miles away.

In February, Neller told USNI News the Marine Corps wanted a long-range anti-ship missile as fast as possible to support the Navy from the land in sea-control efforts.

"There's a ground component to the maritime fight. We're a naval force in a naval campaign; you have to help the ships control sea space. And you can do that from the land," he told the outlet.

Randy Kempton, Raytheon's NSM program director, told Military.com at Sea-Air-Space that the Marine Corps' selection of NSM is a big deal for the company.

"A year ago, we were at this show and we weren't quite sure where the Navy was going with NSM. We didn't have a big contract," he said. "Fast-forward a year, and the Navy's got us under contract for a program of record, and in about a year's timeframe, we're already integrating into another service. So from our perspective, it's a big deal. It's gaining momentum."

Marine Corps Gets Long-Range Missile to Take Out Enemy Ships

The Naval Strike Missile will be fired from a truck in upcoming experiments.

www.military.com

 

[Khafee]

Navy awards $22.7M to BAE for three 57mm MK 110 gun mounts
15 May 2019
By Ed Adamczyk

BAE Systems Land & Armaments LLP received a $22.7 million contract, announced on Tuesday, to build three MK 110 gun mounts for the U.S. Navy. Photo courtesy of BAE Systems

May 15 (UPI) -- BAE Systems Land & Armaments received a $22.7 million U.S. Navy contract to build gun mounts, the Defense Department announced.

Three MK 110 Mod 0 gun mounts and related hardware will be built at the company's Louisville, Ky., facility, with work expected to be completed by January 2022, the Pentagon said in a contract announcement on Monday.

The MK 110 gun mount includes a 57mm multi-purpose, medium caliber gun, ammunition hoist, power distribution panel, muzzle velocity radar, barrel-mounted television camera and a laptop computer gun control panel.

Fitted onto the decks of United States Coast Guard cutters and Littoral Combat Ships, it can fire salvos at up to 220 rounds per minutes, with a range of nine miles. The gun mount includes a 120 round automatic loader drum

Its primary mission is to provide engagement of known surface threats during combat operations in a theater area of operation, the Navy said in a statement, and can deliver high rates of fire with extreme accuracy against surface, airborne and shore-based threats.

The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C., is the contracting agent.

Navy awards $22.7M to BAE for three 57mm MK 110 gun mounts - UPI.com

BAE Systems received a $22.7 million contract to build three 57mm MK 110 Mod 0 gun mounts, which are used on U.S. Coast Guard cutters and the Navy's Littoral Combat Ships and can fire up to 220 rounds per minute with a range of nine miles.

www.upi.com

 

[Khafee]

Sikorsky HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter Achieves First Flight
May, 17, 2019
Helicopter offers the U.S. Air Force improved reliability, survivability and range

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., The Sikorsky HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter achieved first flight today at Sikorsky's West Palm Beach, Florida site, an important step toward bringing this all-new aircraft to service members to perform critical search and rescue operations. The aircraft, developed by Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company (NYSE: LMT) and based on the proven UH-60M Black Hawk, is customized for the U.S. Air Force 's rescue mission and will ensure the Air Force fulfills its mission to leave no one behind.

Lockheed Martin SikorskyCRH First Flight

Total flight time was approximately 1.2 hours and included hover control checks, low speed flight, and a pass of the airfield.

"This achievement is yet another vital step toward a low rate initial production decision and getting this much-needed aircraft and its advanced capabilities to the warfighter," said Dana Fiatarone, vice president, Sikorsky Army & Air Force Systems. "We are very pleased with the results of
today's flight and look forward to a productive and informative flight test program."

Today's flight paves the way for a Milestone C production decision in September 2019, per the original baseline schedule, to which both Sikorsky and the Air Force are committed. A second HH-60W helicopter is expected to enter flight test next week, with a third and fourth aircraft entering flight test this summer. These aircraft will provide critical data over the course of the program which will enable the Air Force to make an informed production decision.

"The HH-60W's first flight is the culmination of significant development and design advances. We are excited to now move forward to begin full aircraft system qualification via the flight test program," said Greg Hames, director of the Combat Rescue Helicopter program. "Together with the Air Force, our team is motivated and committed to advancing this program and delivering this superior aircraft to our airmen and women."

The HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter is significantly more capable and reliable than its predecessor, the HH-60G Pave Hawk. The aircraft hosts a new fuel system that nearly doubles the capacity of the internal tank on a UH-60M Black Hawk, giving the Air Force crew extended range and more capability to rescue those injured in the battle space. The HH-60W specification drives more capable defensive systems, vulnerability reduction, weapons, cyber-security, environmental, and net-centric requirements than currently held by the HH-60G.

"With the Combat Rescue Helicopter's successful first flight now behind us, we look forward to completion of Sikorsky's flight test program, operational testing and production of this aircraft to support the Air Force's critical rescue mission," said Edward Stanhouse, Chief, U.S. Air Force Helicopter Program Office. "Increased survivability is key and we greatly anticipate the added capabilities this aircraft will provide."

The U.S. Air Force program of record calls for 113 helicopters to replace the Pave Hawks, which perform critical combat search and rescue and personnel recovery operations for all U.S. military services. A total of nine aircraft will be built at Sikorsky's Stratford, Connecticut, facility during the Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the program ― four EMD aircraft and five System Demonstration Test Articles (SDTA).

For more information, visit www.lockheedmartin.com/crh.

Sikorsky HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter Achieves First Flight

The Sikorsky HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter achieved first flight today at Sikorsky's West Palm Beach, Florida site, an important step toward bringing this all-new aircraft to service members to...

news.lockheedmartin.com

 

[Khafee]

Sikorsky HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter

• Proven Design. Long Range, Survivable And Lethal.
• A New H-60 For The Most
• Demanding Missions.
• All U.S. Air Force Requirements

Building on the state-of-the-art UH-60M Black Hawk, the HH-60W “Whiskey” adds capability advancements to better support the full range of combat rescue and other special missions. Designed to meet long-range and high threat requirements for the U.S. Air Force, the Whiskey will expand upon the legendary Black Hawk’s versatility by doubling the internal fuel capacity without the use of space hungry auxiliary fuel tanks, provides a robust weapons suite, and integrates defensive systems and sensors to provide an unprecedented combination of range and survivability.

Additionally, by retaining 100% commonality with all UH-60M engine and dynamic systems, the aircraft provides the most sophisticated rotorcraft in the world at an extremely affordable price and total ownership cost over the entire life cycle.

The U.S. Air Force program of record calls for 113 helicopters to replace the Air Force’s aging HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, which perform critical combat search and rescue and personnel recovery operations for all U.S. military services and allies.

• 195 Nautical Mile / 361km Combat Radius
• Hot and High Hover of 4000’ PA at 95°F
• Best-in-class Survivability and Lethality
• Unprecedented Net-centric Capability

HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter

Embark on the next generation of combat rescue operations with the HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter, a cutting-edge rotorcraft designed to save lives.

www.lockheedmartin.com

 

[Khafee]

Air Force looks to Intelligent Automation for tactical beamforming antennas in future swarming drones
Intelligent Automation is providing antennas for distributed tactical beamforming capabilities in future generations of swarming autonomous aircraft.
Author
by John Keller
May 21st, 2019

ROME, N.Y. – U.S. Air Force researchers needed distributed airborne tactical beamforming capabilities to enable future generations of aerial swarming drones. They found their solution from Intelligent Automation Inc. in Rockville, Md.

Officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate in Rome, N.Y., announced a $1.4 million contract to Intelligent Automation on Monday for the distributed phased array antenna system for elastic network of autonomous SWARM (DPAA-SEA) project.

The Air Force is asking Intelligent Automation engineers to design and build low-cost distributed beamforming capabilities with swarms of omni-directional antennas to enable swarming behavior and cooperation among formations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Intelligent Automation will use omnidirectional radio systems to cooperate and form a pseudo phased array with distributed elements in which omnidirectional antennas can steer their signals at extended ranges.

This work is part of the Air Force Research Lab's Elastic Tactical Networking for Autonomous Swarms project, launched in late 2017 to develop affordable technologies to network future autonomous swarm applications with tactical beamforming, which will differ drastically from information exchange requirements for current applications.

For example, the project seeks new communications capabilities to enable intra-agent collaboration in severely contested environments, something which existing military and commercial networking protocols are unable to achieve, Air Force researchers say.

The project seeks new networking paradigms for future swarm-based autonomous UAV missions, and new techniques to enable existing point-to-point data links for UAV swarm networking, which includes distributed beamforming techniques.

This is where Intelligent Automation comes in. The company will address several considerations to enable swarming UAVs to perform cooperative distributed beamforming as they communicate. These include:
-- precise carrier and timing synchronization throughout the swarm despite relative Doppler effects and the unavailability of GPS satellite navigation signals;
-- efficient and scalable ways to assign transmission weights dynamically to nodes placed arbitrarily for strong beam pattern properties, such as minimum sidelobe leakage, and narrow beam width;
-- efficient dissemination of data and control messages to UAVs participating in the swarm; and
-- pulse shaping, participation control, or other techniques to account for timing delays as nodes separate many wavelengths apart.

Intelligent Automation researchers will account for self-aware motion from onboard sensors and neighbor messaging in signal processing using adaptive interpolation, instantaneous frequency estimation, admissible trajectory identification, and control for sense and avoid.

Company engineers also will account for situation-aware inference like predicted motion of neighbors based on swarming protocol, and will incorporate information from onboard optical sensors, inertial measurement units (IMUs), and radar.

Intelligent Automation experts also will demonstrate their swarm networking technology using low-cost class I and II UAVs to show the advantages of distributed beamforming technology with swarming aerial assets in tactical environments.

UAV flight line testing will be at the Stockbridge Controllable Contested Environment test range near Rome, N.Y. For more information contact Intelligent Automation online at www.i-a-i.com, or the Air Force Research Lab Information Directorate at www.wpafb.af.mil/afrl/ri.

Air Force looks to Intelligent Automation for tactical beamforming antennas in future swarming drones

Intelligent Automation is providing antennas for distributed tactical beamforming capabilities in future generations of swarming autonomous aircraft.

www.militaryaerospace.com

 

[Khafee]

Air Force deploys B-52 missiles that could disable enemy military electronics with high-power microwaves
Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) missiles were built by the Boeing Phantom Works for Air Force researchers.

May 17th, 2019

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio – The U.S. Air Force has deployed at least 20 missiles that could zap the military electronics of North Korea or Iran with high-power microwaves, rendering their military capabilities virtually useless without causing any fatalities. The Daily Mail reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
17 May 2019 -- The U.S. Air Force has deployed at least 20 missiles that could zap the military electronics of North Korea or Iran with high-power microwaves, rendering their military capabilities virtually useless without causing any fatalities.

Known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), the missiles were built by Boeing's Phantom Works for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and tested successfully in 2012. They have not been operation until now.

The microwave weapons are fitted into an air-launched cruise missile and delivered from B-52 bombers. With a range of 700 miles, they can fly into enemy airspace at low altitude and emit sharp pulses of high power microwave (HPM) energy that fry computer chips to disable any electronic devices targeted by the missiles with causing any collateral damage.

Air Force deploys B-52 missiles that could disable enemy military electronics with high-power microwaves

Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) missiles were built by the Boeing Phantom Works for Air Force researchers.

www.militaryaerospace.com

 

[Khafee]

Navy asks Raytheon to upgrade the AN/AQS-20 helicopter- towed mine-hunting sonar in $20.7 million deal
Counter-mine experts at Raytheon will overhaul and upgrade the U.S. Navy AN/AQS-20 towed mine-hunting sonar under terms of a $20.7 million order.
AuthorJohn Keller
May 21st, 2019

The AN/AQS-20 advanced mine-hunting sonar has four separate sonars to detect and classify mine-like objects from the sea floor to the near-surface.Raytheon image


PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Counter-mine experts at the Raytheon Co. will overhaul, repair, and upgrade the U.S. Navy AN/AQS-20 towed mine-hunting sonar under terms of a $20.7 million order announced Friday.

Officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division in Panama City, Fla., are asking the Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems segment in Keyport, Wash., to provide technology upgrades and mitigate obsolescence issues in the AN/AQS-20 for the Navy's program executive office for unmanned and small combatants.

The AN/AQS-20A is a mine hunting and identification system with acoustic and identification sensors housed in an underwater towed body. The acoustic sensors detect, classify, and pinpoint bottom, close-tethered, and volume enemy mines in one pass.

Raytheon will provide AN/AQS-20 upgrades; repair; overhauls and other scheduled maintenance; hardware and software maintenance; obsolescence tracking and resolution; technology improvements; reliability and maintainability improvements; carry out change notices and engineering change proposals; test support; spare and repair parts; and hardware upgrades to improve system performance, sustainability, and reliability.

The AN/AQS-20A is an integrated acoustic and electro-optical sensor system with a hydrodynamically stable towed body sensor that operates from on Navy MH-53E and MH-60S helicopters, as well as from the AN/WLD-1 remotely operated underwater vehicle. The system can find and neutralize sea mines placed as deeply as 450 feet deep.

The system's sidescan, forward-looking, and gap-filler sonar subsystems detect and pinpoint sea mines from long ranges. Its streak-tube imaging lidar (STIL) electro-optical sensor provides high resolution 3D images at short ranges to help identify bottom and moored mines.

The STIL sensor, also called Electro-Optic Identification (EOID), is from Raytheon partner Areté Associates Optical Engineering in Tucson, Ariz. The STIL sensor fits in a space of the towed body that is 15 inches in diameter and 19 inches long.

The AQS-20 uses imaging sonars, signal processing, and computer algorithms to localize mine-like objects and alert the system operator with a visual image and a contact data list. The system is 10.5 feet long, 15.5 inches in diameter, and weighs 975 pounds.

The system sends sonar and imaging data through its fiber-optic tow cable to the operator console located either aboard the host helicopter or by wireless data links to operators aboard nearby surface vessels. The operator’s station has a high-speed data recorder to store mission information for later analysis.

On this contract Raytheon will do the work in Portsmouth, R.I.; Keyport, Wash.; and Panama City, Fla., and should be finished by May 2020. For more information contact Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems online at www.raytheon.com, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division at www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NSWC-Panama-City.

Navy asks Raytheon to upgrade the AN/AQS-20 helicopter- towed mine-hunting sonar in $20.7 million deal

Counter-mine experts at Raytheon will overhaul and upgrade the U.S. Navy AN/AQS-20 towed mine-hunting sonar under terms of a $20.7 million order.

www.militaryaerospace.com

 

[Khafee]

Stealthy USS Zumwalt land-attack destroyer to fire new missiles and laser weapons
Warship will shoot laser weapons, destroy moving targets at sea, and use upgraded interceptor missiles to track and knock-out approaching enemy fire.
May 16th, 2019

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The U.S. Navy’s stealthy new first-of-its kind destroyer surface warship will incinerate targets with lasers, fire advanced weapons to destroy moving targets at sea and use upgraded interceptor missiles to track and knock-out approaching enemy fire -- all as part of a broader strategic shift to prepare the high-tech ship for massive, “blue-water” maritime warfare on the open seas. Kris Osborn of Warrior Maven reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
16 May 2019 -- The USS Zumwalt, now going through combat and weapons activation, will receive new Maritime Tomahawk missiles able to track and destroy moving targets at sea, SM-6 IA interceptors, long-range precision guns and -- quite likely in the very near future -- laser weapons, says Capt. Kevin Smith. the Zumwalt-class destroyer program manager.

“We are no longer what is called a land attack that operates in the littorals. We are now an offensive surface strike platform for blue water. The Navy made a decision to go that way - for good reason,” Smith said, speaking at the Navy League’s Annual Sea Air Space Symposium in National Harbor, Md.

The Zumwalt, he said, is engineered with the space, weight, and power configurations able to accommodate a new generation of weapons. It uses an electric drive with an integrated power system engineered to propel the ship as well as generate enormous volumes of on-board electrical power for computing, maintenance, and advanced weapons like high-energy lasers.

Stealthy USS Zumwalt land-attack destroyer to fire new missiles and laser weapons

Warship will shoot laser weapons, destroy moving targets at sea, and use upgraded interceptor missiles to track and knock-out approaching enemy fire.

www.militaryaerospace.com

 

[Khafee]

Navy asks BAE Systems to upgrade guidance system of APKWS laser-guided rockets for helicopters and planes
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – The U.S. military is upgrading laser-guided rockets that enable fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack lightly armored vehicles, bunkers, field fortifications, cars, and trucks with electro-optical smart munitions.
AuthorJohn Keller
May 8th, 2019

Navy asks BAE Systems to upgrade guidance system of APKWS laser-guided rockets for helicopters and planes


Officials of the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $10.9 million order Wednesday to the BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment in Hudson, N.H., to upgrade of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS)guidance section.

APKWS is an add-on kit that turns a standard unguided 2.75-inch 70 millimeter rocket into a precision laser-guided munition to give warfighters a low-cost surgical strike capability, BAE Systems officials say. Typically the kit fits on the Hydra 70 fin-stabilized unguided air-to-ground rocket.

The order asks BAE Systems to combine separate guidance sections for the APKWS II intended for helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft into one hardware and software solution. The APKWS II uses semi-active laser-guidance for U.S. military and allied military aircraft.

APKWS uses semi-activelaser-guided technology to strike soft and lightly armored targets in confined areas, it has provided the U.S. Marine Corps with a 93 percent hit rate. It is smaller and less expensive than comparable laser-guidance missiles like the AGM-114 Hellfire.

The APKWS laser-guided precision munition can fit aboard the U.S. Marine Corps UH-1Y, AH-1W, and AH-1Z helicopters, the experimental Bell 407GT helicopter, the U.S. Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the Eurocopter Tiger, and the Navy MH-60 Seahawk helicopter.

The system also fits aboard fixed-wing aircraft such as the AV-8B Harrier II, F-16 jet fighter, and A-10 close-air-support jet.

In the future the APKWS is under consideration for the Navy MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, OH-58 helicopter, V-22 tiltrotor, AH-6 Little Bird helicopter, the A-29 Super Tucano ground-attack aircraft, and the Navy F/A-18E/F fighter-bomber.

The APKWS-equipped rocket is slightly longer than six feet, 2.75 inches in diameter, has a wingspan of 9.55 inches, and weighs 32 pounds. It uses the Hydra 70 impact-detonating, air-burst, or standoff warheads. The laser munition can hit targets as far away as three miles, and flies at speeds of 2,200 miles per hour.

On this order BAE Systems will do the work in Hudson, N.H., and Austin, Texas, and should be finished by April 2021. For more information contact BAE Systems Electronic Systems online at www.baesystems.com, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.

Navy asks BAE Systems to upgrade guidance system of APKWS laser-guided rockets for helicopters and planes

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – The U.S. military is upgrading laser-guided rockets that enable fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack lightly...

www.militaryaerospace.com

 

[Khafee]

Air Force test of SHiELD laser weapon indicates it is ready to shoot down incoming enemy missiles
May 6th, 2019

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. – U.S. Air Force officials say they were able to shoot enemy missiles out of the sky with a ground-based laser weapon that Air Force leaders plan to make small enough to fit aboard aircraft. Stars and Stripes reports.

Air Force test of SHiELD laser weapon indicates it is ready to shoot down incoming enemy missiles

6 May 2019 -- The Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator Advanced Technology Demonstration Program, or SHiELD, conducted the tests on April 23, an Air Force Research Laboratory statement said Friday.

“The successful test is a big step ahead for directed energy systems and protection against adversarial threats,” said Maj. Gen. William Cooley, AFRL commander. “The ability to shoot down missiles with speed-of-light technology will enable air operation in denied environments.”

During thelaser weapon tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the laser system engaged and shot down multiple air-launched missiles in flight. It was not immediately clear whether the laser system shot down the targets one after the other, or if they were downed individually in separate tests.

Air Force test of SHiELD laser weapon indicates it is ready to shoot down incoming enemy missiles

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. – U.S. Air Force officials say they were able to shoot enemy missiles out of the sky with a ground-based laser weapon that Air Force leaders plan...

www.militaryaerospace.com