China’s new stealth drone “Feilong 2′ already ahead of US’ B-21 stealth bomber — Chinese Experts. (The EurAsian Times) “… the Xian-based drone maker’s multirole high-subsonic UAV could be used for precision strikes on key assets such as enemy command centers, military airstrips, and aircraft carriers. The Feilong-2 or Flying Dragon 2 could also be used with a swarm of drones to carry out reconnaissance and surveillance, a saturation attack, or damage assessment, it added… With an operating range of 7,000 km and an internal payload capacity of 6 tons, the Feilong-2 has a top speed of 780 km/hour and can fly at an altitude of 49,000 feet… However, compared to the American aircraft, the Chinese stealth drone is much cheaper to produce with a longer life expectancy.”
Chinese soldiers are using virtual reality to do cheaper, more frequent training with missile systems. (South China Morning Post) “You can practise launching without an actual installation, and you can practise tactics without leaving the base,”… A standard missile launch exercise involves thousands of personnel, and large pieces of equipment need to be transported to a training environment, so the frequency is limited, the report said. But the “virtual training ground” means this can all be simulated so that soldiers can use it to train much more often.”
Army finalizing new plan for ‘unified network’ (FedScoop) ““We are finalizing what we are calling the Army Network Plan,”… The whole point of unifying the network is to allow data to transfer more smoothly between systems and machines and not require humans in the loop to make connections that could easily be automated. But with more places for data to go, and presumably more endpoints using that data, opportunities ripen for hackers.”
Free the Data: Vice Chiefs launch an acquisition crusade. (Defense One) “Hyten and the JROC will try to push the Pentagon away from so many hard requirements and toward something more of a framework. They want the services to have more leeway to build things and test as they go, as software companies do, rather than setting hard goals that cannot be changed if they become obsolete. By mandating a framework, a few core things, rather than a lot of little requirements, Hyten hopes to shave months or years off the process of getting new programs approved.”
Services choose independent paths for JADC2. (AFCEA) “Yet all these independent efforts bring up the need for the overall JADC2 strategy. “We don’t have a particular leader that appears more valuable than anyone else,” he states. “But while all of these on the front edge are exciting and welcome, you might imagine without discipline or direction we could find ourselves a year or two from now in some very different kits that no longer would I view contributing to a common approach.”
Space Force pushing procurement reforms but culture change is a slow go. (Space News) “But changing from the traditional business model of acquiring hardware to buying commercially provided space services is going to take time and will require a cultural shift, Thompson said.”
Space Force selects Boeing, Northrop Grumman to develop jam-resistant communications satellites. (Space News) “The PTS [protected tactical satellite] prototypes will be evaluated by the Space Force as possible solutions for its next-generation secure communications satellites that over the next decade could supplement or replace existing systems like the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites that are used for classified-level communications.”
Fleet exercise includes live missile shoot as Navy pairs crews with unmanned systems. (USNI News) “Several unmanned or autonomous systems are participating in the exercise, according to 3rd Fleet: The medium displacement unmanned surface vessels Sea Hunter (SH1) and Seahawk (SH2); the ultra-long flight endurance, unmanned aerial vehicle called Vanilla; MQ-8B Fire Scout and MQ-9 Sea Guardian UAVs; Ocean Aero Triton-Class dual-modality underwater and surface autonomous vehicle; and an Office of Naval Research “super swarm project.””
Sustainment becoming most profitable part of F-35 for Lockheed Martin. (Air Force Magazine) “Sustainment will eclipse both F-35 production and development profitability, though he said that development of advanced versions of the fighter is proving a “pleasant surprise for us,” along with the need to retrofit earlier versions of the aircraft.” [An unpleasant surprise for DoD?] “He also said the government will have to change the “sequential design/test paradigm” it’s used to using… On hypersonics projects, he said, “We’re already using it. We look for 80/20 percent kind of splits on success in test points and metrics, and [then] we move on to the next test. We don’t strive for 99 percent to 100”
Submarine industrial base under strain as Virginia-class parts weapon out early; implications for Columbia-class. (USNI News) “The Navy has found that engineering analysis from 20 years ago isn’t holding up compared to actual attack boat performance in the fleet… because the industrial base in some areas is already strained to keep up with demand for new construction for SSNs and now SSBNs, the source said conversations have happened about whether certain components need to be redirected to an in-service boat that needs the parts to complete repairs and get back out to the fleet, versus if the components need to go to a new-construction submarine that cannot afford any further schedule slips… “we’ve got to make sure that those electronic systems are well-stocked” so that component failures don’t cause maintenance and operational disruptions.”
Air Force moves past drawing board on avionics, computers, and other technologies for 6th-gen fighter. (Military & Aerospace Electronics). “It had been largely conceptual for years, but Air Force officials now say current prototyping and demonstrations are informing which avionics and other technologies the service will invest in for the future. Senior Air Force officials have said that an analysis of alternatives has been completed and that work on requirements is in progress. Work includes various modeling and efforts to explore crucial hardware and software for onboard computers.”
A cyber tool that started at DARPA moves to Cyber Command. (C4ISRNET) “Project Ike… will be used to map networks, assess the readiness of cyber teams and command forces in cyberspace… With Ike is serving as the baseline architecture for JCC2, Karrels said Two Six Labs envisions JCC2 as an app-based model orchestration platform in which a user can access all types of information and data feeds from a single dashboard to provide better situational awareness and decision aids for commanders. That same information would require multiple systems today.”
NIWC Atlantic advances new technologies at NICE ANTX. (DVIDS) “the 10-day Naval Integration in Contested Environments (NICE) Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX), one of the Navy’s largest participations in an ANTX to date… Naval leaders selected roughly 65 technologies, the majority of them from private industry. Assessors gauged each capability while observers envisioned relevant EABO/DMO [expeditionary advanced base operations/distributed maritime operations] scenarios in which each product could be used.”
HII awarded advance procurement contract for amphibious assault ship LHA 9. (Naval News) “$107 million to provide long-lead-time material and advance procurement activities for amphibious assault ship LHA 9. This modification brings the total advance funding for LHA 9 to $457 million.”
New bottleneck emerges in DOD’s contractor cybersecurity program, concerning assessors. (FedScoop) “Companies in line to become certified assessors for the Department of Defense‘s supply chain cybersecurity program are facing a new roadblock: Getting and passing an assessment of their own… Four people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named said they also were told initial audits were difficult and taking longer than expected… ””
We talk F-15EX’s new radar with the woman who runs the program behind it. (The Drive) “the APG-82 provides a number of tactical advantages that include increased standoff from air-to-air and surface-to-air threats. It also brings greater search coverage, speed of processing targets, and then reduced aircrew workload. Additionally, compared to the APG-70, the APG-82 also provides increased reliability and supportability, which directly correlates to aircraft availability.”
Project FoX brings computer tablets to F-35 stealth fighter cockpits. (The Drive) “Until now, although F-35 pilots regularly fly with a tablet on their knee, these haven’t been fully integrated with the cockpit and were not able to be physically plugged into the jet and receive real-time data from its own mission computers and its hugely powerful sensor suite.”
Putin’s A-10: Why Russia is doubling down on its SU-25 Frogfoot. (National Interest) “… in the fall of 2015, Russia deployed a dozen modernized Su-25SMs in support of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. Many observers noted that of the aircraft involved in the mission, the Su-25s were the best adapted for the close air-support role… the significant losses suffered by Su-25s demonstrate that without effective air-defense suppression and electronic counter-measures, low-and-slow ground support planes are poised to take heavy losses.”
Leave a Reply