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18 Oct 18. India’s HAL overruns aircraft building and upgrade deadlines. India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has expressed “serious concern” over enduring delays by state-owned aeronautics and defence company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in supplying fighters, helicopters, and transport aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF). A recent internal MoD report revealed that HAL has also only licence-built 197 of the 222 Sukhoi Su-30MKI multi-role fighters it was contracted to deliver to the IAF by 2017, officials told Jane’s on condition of anonymity. The 25 remaining platforms are only expected to be handed over by 2020-21, they added. The report also pointed to a five-year delay in the series-production of the indigenously developed Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), 20 units of which were initially scheduled to have entered service by early 2017. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
17 Oct 18. DAC and SAIC to offer technical support to HQ USAF A2 ISR CIO. US-based engineering company Decisive Analytics Corporation (DAC) will work with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) on a technical support contract secured with the US Air Force (USAF). The $3.3m contract will continue for a period of five years and will involve the delivery of technical support to the Headquarters (HQ) USAF A2 Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Chief Information Officer (CIO). Under the agreement, DAC will cooperate with partner SAIC to provide support to the underlying information technology (IT) systems that are used to process and store ISR data. In addition, the DAC team will help support the airforce ISR community needs for an agile, resilient and secure ISR Information Enterprise (IE) to enable fusion warfare and improve existing partnerships to deal with evolving threats.
In order to support the airforce ISR CIO’s mission and goals, the team intends to apply new and advanced data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions.
Employee-owned DAC is focused on bringing motivated individuals together to develop an organisation that will be capable of offering new advanced technical contributions to its clients. In August, DAC was selected by the US Army for the deployment of advanced capabilities to non-kinetic electronic warfare environments. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
16 Oct 18. MRO software providers MRX Systems, Rusada, Ramco and Traxxall team up with Airbus Helicopters to exchange maintenance data digitally. MRX Systems, Rusada, Ramco and Traxxall have signed agreements with Airbus Helicopters enabling their maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) databases to be connected with Airbus systems. “Through these agreements, we’re paving a two-way digital street between Airbus Helicopters and the companies that manage maintenance data for helicopter operators, facilitating the automatic sharing of data and avoiding human-error-prone and time-consuming manual transfers,” said Matthieu Louvot, Executive Vice President of Customer Support & Services for Airbus Helicopters. “This capability takes us one step closer to creating a complete digital ecosystem, while simultaneously helping our customers along their own digitalisation journeys.”
By partnering with Airbus Helicopters to create these digital pathways, MRO software specialists are guaranteed easier and faster access to Airbus’ rotorcraft data and technical documentation – especially when a new aircraft is put into operation – which feeds their maintenance information systems (MIS) and informs a customer’s maintenance planning.
Helicopter operators as a result benefit from knowing that their maintenance software contains the most up-to-date information about their aircraft. They can also automatically transfer in-service data to Airbus applications like Fleet Keeper™ and FlyScan predictive maintenance (part of HCare Connected Services), avoiding manual transfers. These data transfers in turn enrich the analytics capabilities of HCare applications by feeding more maintenance data into Airbus Helicopters’ database.
“Information related to helicopter maintenance – like part numbers, hours in service, and modifications or overhaul activities performed – is an important data set that helps paint a complete picture of an aircraft’s history and experiences,” said Stephanie Bonnefoy-Fourie, Head of Connected Services at Airbus Helicopters. “By benchmarking my maintenance activities against other operators, I might see that similar operators replaced a certain part every 2000 hours, whereas I replaced the same part every 1000 hours. This indicates that maybe I am doing something wrong, or maybe I could be doing something differently to save time and money.”
Today, nearly 550 helicopters are sharing data with Airbus Helicopters. They represent just about every helicopter type in Airbus’ range – H125s, H130s, H145s, H155s, H175s, H215s, and H225s, among others – performing a wide variety of missions including emergency medical services (EMS), public services, tourism, training, private and business aviation, oil & gas and search and rescue.
11 Oct 18. The answer to battlefield logistics problems could be IoT. A world of interconnected everything is just around the corner, and the military wants a piece of the action. Global investment in the Internet of Things, or IoT, will top $15trn by 2025, according to analysts at Business Insider. The Defense Logistics Agency estimates more than 20 billion IoT devices will be in use by 2020 in homes, businesses and government, and the agency sees a military opportunity in this coming wave of connected devices.
“IoT is not just hardware for the sake of hardware, It’s a way to capture more data, and we can have an enormous number of potential uses for that,” said Air Force Maj Ricky Dickens, deputy program manager for the Distribution Modernization Program (DMP) at the Defense Logistics Agency. The modernization program is looking to leverage IoT in support of warfighter needs.
Tagging everything
From a logistics perspective, IoT offers the possibility of giving planners deeper, more consistent insight into the location of needed equipment and supplies. It starts with an effort to deploy electronic tags to make materials on the move more readily visible to automated tracking.
“We are look at passive RFID tags and bluetooth tags, different technologies that can give us better visibility on our material as they make their way through our facilities and our processes,” Dickens said.
Such a capability speaks directly to issues of force readiness.
“We are looking to tag commonly used equipment like forklifts. If management could see that they had four forklifts in the building, they could bring two back over here in order to better manage their resources,” Dickens said.
IoT-based tracking could help the military to better manage the flow of the tens of thousands of items – from guns to tanks to uniforms – that are in transit daily among forces positioned around the globe.
“As material goes through our facilities we want to see where things are bottling up, where there are process chokepoints and inefficiencies that can eliminate,” Dickens said. “You can see where your faster-moving items are and where your slower-moving items are. You can do efficiency studies to see time for moving material based on where it is located in the warehouse and then you can make better decisions about how things are distributed in your facilities.”
Watching industry
As DLA looks to IoT to enhance logistics, the military is takings its cues from the private sector.
Analysts at Market Research Engine expect the market for logistics-related IoT to be worth $10bn by 2022. Ahead of retail, automotive and healthcare, the analysts identify aerospace and defense as the top emerging end-user of these capabilities.
“What’s exciting in industry is that they already have this base of IoT and equipment providing more data. The analysis they can do is astounding,” Dickens said. “Some industries are using artificial intelligence to network with this data to see underlying information that isn’t readily available, and some of the outcomes have been game-changers for industry.”
DLA’s own early implementations include pilot projects slated to deploy soon at Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, Texas and at Anniston Army Depot in Bynum, Alabama. “We are going to roll out a real-time location system to be able to provide more visibility into the materials stored at those locations,” Dickens said.
At Anniston the system will be used to track a vast inventory of small arms, while at Red River the system will be used to help manage outdoor vehicle storage. “There are tens of thousands of vehicles there over multiple square miles,” Dickens said. As DLA implements an IoT approach over the coming months, facility operators should gain a much finer-grain view of that operation.
In the long term, DLA officials say they would like to incorporate some 12,000 commercial suppliers into their IoT-based approach, covering everything “from windows to bolts to air compressors,” Dickens said. Whether, or when, that will happen depends largely on the shifting price of these emerging technologies.
“We need to see the pricing curve come down. There is a lot of technology out there but right now it can be very expensive, especially when you consider the scale of DoD operations: We manage 6 million line-items,” Dickens said. “There will have to be a business-case analysis so we are not putting $10 sensors on 5 cent bolts.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
11 Oct 18. To up fighter readiness levels, Pentagon looks to retire older planes and fix supply chains. With Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis issuing new guidance demanding readiness for tactical air assets increase in just one year, the Pentagon is openly acknowledging that older planes will have to be retired and cannibalized for parts to make it happen. The department will also look to overhaul how it handles its supply chain, according to the department’s No. 2 official.
In a September memo, first reported by Defense News, Mattis ordered the Air Force, Navy and Marines to get the Pentagon’s fleets of F-16, F-18, F-22 and F-35 fighters to a minimum of 80 percent mission ready. That would represent a major jump in readiness over a short period of time, raising skepticism amongst analysts.
From a pure numbers-on-paper standpoint, the easiest way for getting readiness rates up on the fleet would involve retiring older, less ready aircraft — essentially increasing the percentage of good-to-go planes by reducing the overall size of the fleets.
Such a move may not be popular on the Hill, which routinely complains about the size of the military compared with previous eras. But it’s a logical step being endorsed by both Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan and Gen. Robert Neller, the Marine Corps chief of staff.
“You gotta get rid of airplanes. At some point, you gotta get rid of the old ones,” Neller told reporters Wednesday at a Defense Writer’s Group event, when asked how he would hit that 80 percent mark.
Neller added that such a move has to be part of a broader spectrum of moves, including better quality parts from vendors, being more efficient with maintainers, and adjusting the flying hours for pilots to make sure the wings aren’t being worn off on jets.
“It’s not going to be a single thing, so we’ve got to do our part,” he added.
Speaking to reporters at the AUSA conference the same day, Shanahan seemed to zero in on the oldest Navy jets as ones that could be retired.
“Well, when you look at the size of the fleet of the F-18s, you got [F-18A models] out there, then you look at what it would take to restore them to a certain level of readiness, you might say it’s much easier just to retire those,” he said. “So, I mean, there’s a mix of answers.”
“It probably doesn’t make sense to generate a lot of activity to make something that is older more reliable, but when you think about the joint strike fighter and the hundreds of those that we’re going to take, 80 percent should be the minimum, OK? It shouldn’t be some aspirational goal, it should be the minimum.”
However, he pushed back at the idea that anyone will “game the system” to get those readiness percentages up.
Commercial practices
In the memo, Mattis specifically notes the commercial aviation industry is able to maintain higher readiness rates and directs the service to look that way for inspiration.
“I am confident in our department’s ability to generate additional capacity from our current aircraft inventory, alongside the commercial aviation industry’s sustainment of high availability rates,” Mattis wrote. “As we seek to achieve our goals, we can learn from industry’s benchmarks for measuring speed, cost and mission capability, as well as its best practices for implementing a sustainable, Department-wide system.”
Shanahan, who will be the overall leader of the readiness rate improvement efforts, is a longtime Boeing executive who worked directly on a number of commercial jet production programs. And to him, there are absolutely lessons that can be drawn from passenger aviation.
“A jet engine is a jet engine; no one will convince me otherwise,” he said. “I’ve lived in both worlds, I’ve been on more airplanes than anybody in the United States, I know these things, OK?”
The deputy said his focus was on helping the service develop “methods, systems and practices” that will lead to systemic changes in how maintenance is done and provide dividends for years to come.
“When you look at the F-18s, this is the same size of fleet as Southwest has. It’s not a super-large fleet, they’re all basically the same,” Shanahan noted. “So how do we put in place, you know, the support practices and the parts so that people aren’t working as hard?”
The need to keep part quality and quantity up were on display just a day after Shanahan and Neller’s comments. On Thursday, the Pentagon ordered a temporary stop to flying the F-35 as it investigated a fuel tube inside the engines of the fleet. That same day, an F-22 crashed on its side following a landing gear malfunction.
During his talk with reporters, the Navy was singled out as already having committed to improving their methodologies. And he called out the need to “restructure” how both the Navy and Air Force handle their supply chains — something he said will ultimately bleed over into maintenance beyond the four selected jet fleets.
“The real end game to me is as a department, how do we end up with a single sustainment system? And what was good about this is that once you get the F-18 right, it spills over into the P-8, because they’re side-by-side, so [the P-8 maintainers] going to be like, ‘Those guys, they’re working a lot less hard than we are and they’re getting much better results, why don’t we just do it that way?’
“And then as people see the methods they apply to shipbuilding or ship maintenance,” he added. (Source: Defense News)
15 Oct 18. US NAVSEA assumes maintenance functions for Western Pacific ship maintenance and repairs. US Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has formally assumed responsibility for ship maintenance availabilities at the US Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center (SRF-JRMC) from Commander, US Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT). NAVSEA’s responsibilities include the oversight of all ship maintenance and repair operations, industrial processes and procedures, and repair-related programmes. USPACFLT will retain administrative control and budget authority for SRF-JRMC, as of 1 October. The shift is part of the US Navy (USN) effort to harmonise its repair and maintenance procedures and facilities, particularly in the Western Pacific, in the wake of the surface-ship collisions in the region. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/IHS Jane’s)
15 Oct 18. How the Office of Naval Research hopes to revolutionize manufacturing. The Office of Naval Research awarded Lockheed Martin Oct. 1 a two-year, $5.8m contract to explore how machine learning and artificial intelligence can make complex 3-D printing more reliable and save hours of tedious post-production inspections.
In today’s factories, 3-D printing parts requires persistent monitoring by specialists to ensure intricate parts are produced without impurities and imperfections that can compromise the integrity of the part overall. To improve this laborious process, the Navy is tasking Lockheed Martin with developing multi-axis robots that use lasers to deposit material and oversee the printing of parts.
Lockheed Martin has multiple partners on the contract including Carnegie Mellon University, Iowa State University, Colorado School of Mines, America Makes, GKN and Wolf Robotics and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The contract covers what Glynn Adams, a senior engineer with Lockheed Martin, describes as the pre-flight model of the program’s development. Initial work will focus on developing computer models that can predict the microstructures and mechanical properties of 3-D printed materials to generate simulation data to train with. Adams said the Carnegie Mellon team will look at variables such as, “the spot size of the laser beam, the rate of feed of the titanium wire [and]the total amount energy density input into the material while it is being manufactured.” This information helps the team predict the microstructure, or organizational structure of a material on a very small scale, that influences the physical properties of the additive manufactured part.
This data will then be shared with Iowa State, who will plug the information into a model that predicts the mechanical properties of the printed component. By taking temperature and spot size measurements, the team can also ensure they are, “accurately controlling energy density, the power of both the laser and the hot wire that goes into the process,” Adams said.
“All of that is happening before you actually try to do any kind of machine learning or artificial neural networks with the robot itself. That’s just to try to train the models to the point where we have confidence in the models,” Adams said.
Sounds easy, right?
But one key problem could come in cleaning up the data and removing excess noise from the measurements.
“Thermal measurements are pretty easy and not data intensive, but when you start looking at optical measurements you can collect just an enormous amount of data that is difficult to manage,” Adams explained. Lockheed Martin wants to learn how shrink the size of that dataset without sacrificing key parameters. The Colorado School of Mines and America Makes will tackle the problem of compressing and manipulating this data to extract the key information needed to train the algorithms.
After this work has been completed, the algorithms then will be sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where robots will begin producing 3-D titanium parts and learn how to reliably construct geometrically and structurally sound parts. This portion of the program will confront challenges from the additive manufacturing and AI components of the project.
On the additive manufacturing side, the team will work with new manufacturing process, “trying to understand exactly what the primary, secondary and tertiary interactions are between all those different process parameters,” Adams said. “If you think about it, as you are building the part depending on the geometric complexity, now those interactions change based on the path the robot has to take to manufacture that part. One of the biggest challenges is going to be to understand exactly which of those parameters are the primary, which are the tertiary and to what level of control we need to be able to manipulate or control those process parameters in order to generate the confidence in the parts that we want.”
At the same time, researchers also will tackle AI machine learning challenges. Like with other AI programs, it’s crucial the algorithm is learning the right information, the right way. The models will give the algorithms a good starting point, but Adams said this will be an iterative process that depends on the algorithm’s ability to self-correct. “At some point, there are some inaccuracies that could come into that model,” Adams explained. “So now, the system itself has to understand it may be getting into a regime that is not going to produce the mechanical properties or microstructures that you want, and be able to self-correct to make certain that instead of going into that regime it goes into a regime that produces the geometric part that you want.”
With a complete algorithm that can be trusted to produce structurally sound 3-D printed parts, time-consuming post-production inspections will become a thing of the past. Instead of nondestructive inspections and evaluations, if you “have enough control on the process, enough in situ measurements, enough models to show that that process and the robot performed exactly as you thought it would, and produced a part that you know what its capabilities are going to be, you can immediately deploy that part,” said Adams. “That’s the end game, that’s what we’re trying to get to, is to build the quality into the part instead of inspecting it in afterwards.”
Confidence in 3-D printed parts could have dramatic consequences for soldiers are across the services. As opposed to waiting for replacement parts, service members could readily search a database of components, find the part they need and have a replacement they can trust in hours rather than days or weeks. “When you can trust a robotic system to make a quality part, that opens the door to who can build usable parts and where you build them,” said Zach Loftus, Lockheed Martin Fellow for additive manufacturing. “Think about sustainment and how a maintainer can print a replacement part at sea, or a mechanic print a replacement part for a truck deep in the desert. This takes 3-D printing to the next, big step of deployment.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
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About Oshkosh Defense
Oshkosh Defense is a leading provider of tactical wheeled vehicles and life cycle sustainment services. For decades Oshkosh has been mobilizing military and security forces around the globe by offering a full portfolio of heavy, medium, light and highly protected military vehicles to support our customers’ missions. In addition, Oshkosh offers advanced technologies and vehicle components such as TAK-4® independent suspension systems, TerraMax™ unmanned ground vehicle solutions, Command Zone™ integrated control and diagnostics system, and ProPulse® diesel electric and on-board vehicle power solutions, to provide our customers with a technical edge as they fulfill their missions. Every Oshkosh vehicle is backed by a team of defense industry experts and complete range of sustainment and training services to optimize fleet readiness and performance. Oshkosh Defense, LLC is an Oshkosh Corporation company [NYSE: OSK].
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