Sponsored By Oxley Developments
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21 Dec 22. UK Ministry of Defence awards Palantir £75 million Enterprise Agreement. Palantir Technologies UK, LTD. today announced a landmark Enterprise Agreement (EA) with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD). Worth £75m over three years, the partnership will support the MOD’s digital transformation as it becomes a world-leading agile force of the future. Spearheaded by Defence Digital and powered by Palantir, the digital transformation will see the MOD treat data as a strategic asset, harnessing its power to deliver superior military advantage and greater efficiency across the enterprise, from headquarters to the front lines. This partnership aims to accelerate Defence Digital’s ambitious vision of where the UK needs to be by 2030, providing secure access to its data across all operational domains, Top Level Budgets and UK Armed Forces bases.
Working in close collaboration with Defence Digital, Palantir software will enable the MOD to exploit data at scale and speed to make faster, better decisions across Defence. Building on more than a decade of partnership, the agreement will enable any part of UK Defence to gain access to Palantir software across multiple classifications, wherever and however it can help – turning the MOD’s digital vision into reality at pace.
Palantir builds leading digital platforms for data-driven operations and decision-making. By helping develop a data-backed representation of Defence assets, personnel and workstreams, Palantir software brings all the data that matters into a single view through a modeling concept known as an ‘ontology.’
As disparate data sources are integrated into Palantir software, it digests the information, cleaning and harmonising the data and mapping it to an ontology. The ontology allows users to see data not as rows and columns but as objects, properties, and the relationships between them.
With this sophisticated, intuitive data model in place, MOD personnel can perform advance scenario planning, testing hypotheses and modelling how they would play out in real-time. Whether for front-line operations, budget decisions or maintenance planning with industry partners, Palantir’s software gives the MOD the ability to understand outcomes before making decisions.
Director Chief Data at Defence Digital Caroline Bellamy said: “As a strategic partner in a complex Defence Data eco-system, Palantir products and services are helping Defence to become a truly integrated digital enterprise, with data exploitation at the heart of a faster, better, and more integrated Defence. A Defence where real-time, interconnected data better informs decision making, our people are digitally connected and empowered, and step changes in digital capability have been made for our war fighters and across our business operations.”
Guy Williams, Head of UK Defence & National Security, Palantir Technologies UK, Ltd. said: “Palantir’s Enterprise Agreement with the MOD will accelerate the UK Armed Forces’ journey to become a truly integrated force. We’re proud to expand our long-standing relationship with the MOD through our partnership with Defence Digital, and look forward to delivering world-leading software capabilities to enable greater operational outcomes.”
Rear Admiral Jim Higham said: “Palantir Foundry is critical to the Royal Navy’s transformation driving radically improved availability of its ships and submarines.”
Across UK Defence, all Palantir users can adapt the platforms to suit their needs using Palantir’s suite of no-code/low-code application builders, democratising access to data and levelling up MOD users. Palantir’s UK office is one of the largest globally and is home to the company’s Research & Development hub. (Source: PR Newswire)
20 Dec 22. As the Artemis I uncrewed moon-orbiting mission comes to a successful end today, LDRA – the project’s software vertification, source code analysis, and testing partner – reiterated its ongoing support in the development of the mission software. An essential component in the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) mission software, the LDRA tool suite supported many verification and validation (V&V) activities, including requirements management, standards compliance, and target testing for multiple subsystems and software vendors.
“We congratulate the entire Artemis team on the success of this historic mission,” said Ian Hennell, Operations Director, LDRA. “Our initial selection as the Orion software verification tool suite in 2008 exemplifies how our experience is primed to handle the rigors of aerospace development. Since then, LDRA’s use in many space applications, including the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, and our continued involvement on Artemis demonstrates how the LDRA tool suite is a perfect fit for multi-vendor, long-duration mission software for both government and non-government projects.”
Designed, developed, and maintained by LDRA, the LDRA tool suite enforces compliance with industry coding standards, such as NPR-7150.2D “NASA Software Engineering Requirements”, and custom rules across large-scale, heterogenous code bases. On the Orion project, the LDRA tool suite provides clear visibility into coding flaws and compliance gaps for software subsystems, including booster, engine controller, launch abort, and flight software.
“The LDRA tool suite helps software teams and mission specialists sleep better at night, knowing that their code has passed a gauntlet of safety, quality, and reliability checks,” Hennell added. “This partnership between the Orion MPCV and LDRA teams will continue to deliver robust and comprehensive V&V activities for the duration of the Artemis mission.”
The Orion spacecraft serves as the exploration vehicle that will carry the Artemis crew on their mission to explore deep space, including the Moon and Mars. On the Artemis I mission, an uncrewed Orion flew thousands of miles beyond the Moon over six weeks, setting the stage for the first flight with astronauts beginning with Artemis II.
20 Dec 22. Doosan Gets Safety Certification on Hydrogen Batteries for Drones. Doosan Mobility Innovation (DMI) has announced that its hydrogen fuel cell power pack DP30M2S product, which is mounted on hydrogen-fueled drones, has received a KGS certification from Korea Gas Safety Corporation for the first time in Korea.
The world’s first commercially available hydrogen fuel cell for drones, Power Pack DP30M2S can fly for more than 2 hours, can be customized for various drone models, and offers a high degree of safety with a hybrid system configuration with a battery.
With the enforcement of the Hydrogen Economy Promotion and Hydrogen Safety Management Act in February last year, all hydrogen-related products stipulated by the act must be sold after passing inspections in accordance with the statute from design to production.
“We will actively participate in and cooperate with establishing ISO global standards related to hydrogen fuel cells for drones in the future together with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Korea Gas Safety Corporation,” said a DMI official.
DMI’s hydrogen-fueled drones can search for and rescue survivors and missing persons through long flights and have the advantage of low noise and vibration, so they can also perform missions such as reconnaissance and surveillance.
For this reason, DMI has introduced various solutions such as gas pipeline monitoring, delivery of emergency relief supplies, lifesaving and environmental monitoring, and facility inspection, while recently expanding its scope of activity by participating in military-linked programs. (Source: UAS VISION/The Korea Economic Daily)
20 Dec 22. UK launches future fixed-wing aircraft study. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched an effort designed to address its future military fixed-wing aircraft needs.
Published by the MoD on 19 December, the Fixed-Wing Concepts and Technology project will be led by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), and will aim to address the requirements and technologies needed of the UK military’s future fixed-wing aircraft programmes.
“To address [the] MoD’s future challenges in the air environment, there is a need for continued research and development of fixed-wing aircraft concepts, technologies, and knowledge within the Combat Air, Air ISTAR [intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance], and Air Mobility domains,” the MoD said. (Source: Janes)
19 Dec 22. Italy completes its first Mission Data File for F-35.
The Italian forces will now upload data files to the aircraft and commence associated field tests. Italy has completed the first Mission Data File (MDF) on its own, becoming the next F-35 Partner Support Complex (PSC) partner nation to do so. This was confirmed by the US Air Force (USAF) in a media release on 16 December. The achievement has marked a significant milestone towards achieving full operational capability on Italian F-35 fleet.
Following MDF’s successful completion, the Italian forces will now upload data files to aircraft and subsequently commence field tests.
The findings/results of this test will be used by the team to make further improvements in the MDFs.
The MDF, which in this case has been provided for the Italian Air Force’s F-35 Lightning II fighter jet fleet, is crucial in providing information about potential threats in a particular area to the pilots.
It allows pilots to understand nature of threat, such as surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and radars, and how to counter them. This information is a combination of mission data and what aircraft sensors absorb while operating.
Once the aircraft lands, the pilot reviews the recorded information and accordingly provides feedback on MDF performance, which is then delivered to concerned mission data developers to enhance the future performance and operations.
F-35 PSC director Robert Kraus said: “The lab is really a hardware in loop test facility, and we have effectively all Electromagnetic Warfare equipment through the aircraft being stimulated by threat simulators and a master computer running the overall scenario.”
Activated in 2016, the F-35 PSC falls under 53rd Wing, based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. It currently houses seven international partners, that have acquired F-35s from the US and are supporting the US initiative to collect/develop MDFs. The first country to receive MDFs was Norway.
(Source: airforce-technology.com)
19 Dec 22. Belgium accepts VBS software for Spike LR anti-tank guided missile. The software package was delivered to the Belgium Directorate General Material Resources – Section Land Systems. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) has announced the handover of the Virtual Battle Space (VBS) software for the Spike LR Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM). It was delivered to the Belgium Directorate General Material Resources – Section Land Systems.
Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BIS) was awarded a contract by NSPA, on behalf of Belgium, in September 2021 to integrate the Spike LR ATGM into the VBS software.
According to NSPA, the software’s final acceptance took place in the Belgian Army Simulation Center (CSIM).
It was carried out along with the instructor and operator training provided by BIS.
NSPA Air and Land Combat Systems programme manager Robert Elvish said: “The purpose of the project was to integrate a realistic simulation of the SPIKE weapon system into the VBS software.
“This will allow the SPIKE operators to train more effectively on tactical scenarios developed by the instructors.”
The VBS software enables armed forces to conduct tactical training in a comprehensive virtual training environment.
It allows mission rehearsals for land, sea and air domains before executing them in the battlefield.
The integration of the Spike LR ATGM into the VBS will offer gunners an opportunity to use the missile’s visual representation and get familiarised with its range, flight path and firing modes in realistic scenarios.
Developed by Israel-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Spike LR ATGM is a combat-proven fire and forget missile that hits targets accurately.
In June this year, BIS won a contract to deliver its VBS4 and VBS Blue image generator (IG) for UK military training. (Source: army-technology.com)
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Oxley Group Ltd
Oxley offer a range of Military Marine NVG friendly LED lighting that includes navigation lights and controls, flight deck landing lights and interior compartment lighting. Our lighting products are used by Navies around the world including our own Royal Navy on UK Aircraft Carriers, Canadian Frigates, Swedish Submarines, Australian Surface vessels and Submarines, on board French Naval Carriers and in Naval Gun Turrets.
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The technology is extremely energy efficient and built robustly, with proven long life. The lighting is NVG friendly, dimmable and programmable to allow for operations with aircraft pilots using military night vision goggles. They offer superior design giving high reliability for the most demanding environments with high sealing and the ability to meet the most stringent EMC standards.
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Oxley are proud to say that we are working in partnership with SeaKing to enable a control panel to be offered with our LED Navigation Lighting. All of Oxley navigation lights have been specifically developed for vessels over 50 metres.
Contact Marcus Goad on 07850 917 263 for more information or to arrange samples.
Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, cockpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.
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