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25 May 17. Raytheon and Air Affairs Australia to expand EW training of ADF personnel. Raytheon Australia has partnered with Air Affairs Australia to expand the country’s electronic warfare (EW) training services for Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel. The partnership will allow ADF personnel to train in complex, high-threat electromagnetic environments, Raytheon stated.
Raytheon Australia managing director Michael Ward said: “EW will play an increasingly critical role in the battlespace of the future.
“As the demand for sophisticated EW training systems grows, Raytheon Australia and Air Affairs Australia will be ready to respond and support defence.”
Raytheon Australia currently delivers real-world simulation, testing and training services for the Royal Australian Navy and Australian Defence Force, by using two Raytheon-owned Learjets.
Under the terms of the agreement, the current fleet of special mission aircraft available for delivery of EWTS will be expanded.
The EWTS missions involve EW system training, experimentation, and evaluation trials, radar jamming and deception, communications denial and deception, and radar threat simulation.
Air Affairs Australia managing director Chris Sievers said: “Air Affairs Australia looks forward to working with Raytheon Australia and supporting Defence in its EW training services mission.
“The combination of Raytheon Australia’s EW pedigree with Air Affairs’ high-capacity special mission air operation will provide Defence the advanced capability it is seeking.”
Air Affairs Australia currently owns and operates a fleet of 13 special mission Learjet aircraft that offer specialised air training support services to ADF. (Source: army-technology.com)
24 May 17. Boeing Protests Air Force’s Jamming-Plane Decision, Alleging Conflict of Interest. Company sources said the conflict of interest stems from L3’s unique relationship with airplane manufacturer Gulfstream, maker of the G550 business jet. L3 modifies G550s for foreign air forces. U.S. Air Force officials had wanted to buy the G550 in an earlier attempt to replace the Compass Call, and Boeing alleges that in choosing L3, the Air Force is implicitly picking the G550 again. Boeing would much rather the Air Force to hold a competition in which the Chicago-based company could pitch one of its jetliner-based aircraft to hold the sophisticated Compass Call electronics.
It’s rare for Boeing to contest a government contract. Most notably, it challenged the Air Force’s 2008 selection of Northrop Grumman and Airbus to build a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers. GAO upheld the protest, leading the Air Force to open a new competition. Three years later, Boeing won. (The tanker, called the KC-46 Pegasus, is a year behind schedule and Boeing has had to eat billions of dollars to fix programs that have cropped up in the plane’s development.)
So why protest now? Because the stakes are higher. The Compass Call program is the first of an expected string of programs to replace various fleets of decades-old Air Force intelligence planes based on the 707 jetliner. Winning the EC-130 replacement job would allow Boeing to argue the merits of commonality in future contests.
An L3 spokeswoman declined to comment, citing a company policy not to discuss projects under protest. On a recent earnings call, L3 executives said they had not chosen an aircraft and would solicit information for manufacturers. The Air Force acknowledged Wednesday that it had received the protest. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense One)
24 May 17. What defense leaders (are now willing to) tell us about offensive cyber ops. The Defense Department as well as the individual services have slowly but surely provided details regarding their offensive efforts in cyberspace, most notably the fight ag