Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
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01 Feb 24. Lone Star Analysis Launches Groundbreaking New Technology with TruNavigator MAX™. New Analytics Platform Offers Generative AI, Real-Time Asset Analytics, Operational Optimization and More in One Unified Platform. Lone Star Analysis, a trusted provider of leading-edge predictive and prescriptive analytics and Evolved AI® (EAI™), announced general availability of TruNavigator MAX™ to the market. TruNavigator MAX™ unifies numerous robust capabilities in one powerful platform. Solutions created with the platform can be deployed in any cloud environment at any level of security, or can operate hosted on nearly any server, or at the edge in lightweight processors.
The all-in-one platform seamlessly integrates earlier versions of TruNavigator®, and Analytics OS®. Applications supported by TruNavigator MAX include a wide range of solutions for sustainment, readiness and other applications, including the MaxUp® suite of solutions. The platform integration roadmap for 2024 will continue to add additional capabilities, including TruProcess®, with Evolved AI. TruNavigator MAX adds tremendous new functionality for customers using our award-winning MaxUp Readiness™ solutions, injecting fully generative AI and real-time asset analytics capabilities.
Adding Evolved AI’s generative artificial intelligence capability has already led to breakthroughs and novel solutions for Lone Star. One example is Lone Star’s First Order AI Designer (FAID™). FAID deploys generative AI to create a digital twin of an aeronautical system, such as a drone or hypersonic missile. FAID can also generate new designs or generate valuable threat assessments of observed threat systems. FAID is capable of estimating vehicle system performance even with limited “known” data. Whether generating a new design or evaluating a threat design, FAID generates results ready for human collaboration.
“This is an important milestone for Lone Star,” said Steve Roemerman, CEO and chairman of the board. “While we already have several patented solutions, TruNavigator MAX is a technological leap. Our MaxUp® solutions and other solutions authored on older versions of TruNavigator® will have generative AI capability. Additionally, integration of our real-time AOS® platform features allows wider functionality, and more deployment options at the edge, on-prem or in the cloud. This makes TruNavigator MAX much more advanced than any analytics software or platform available today.”
“Most people think about generative AI in terms of large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT,” said Dr. Eric Haney, CTO of Lone Star. “Those platforms excel at narrow use cases like customer service, text summarization and coding templates. But with TruNavigator MAX, we can create generative AI systems with rich capabilities in math and engineering – something LLMs lack. And, FAID is just one example.”
To learn more about Lone Star Analysis, visit www.Lone-Star.com
About Lone Star Analysis
Lone Star Analysis® provides applied decision intelligence and engineering solutions. We harness predictive and prescriptive analytics, Evolved AI®, and inherent knowledge to enhance innovation, create economic strength, and make the world safer. Lone Star delivers actionable answers to complex problems in the Aerospace & Defense Industry, Military Services, the Intelligence Community, and for our International Allies. Lone Star’s inventors have been awarded more than five dozen patents, with many more pending. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
01 Feb 24. Pentagon looks to AI to predict prices of critical minerals for weapons. The Pentagon’s latest AI program will monitor critical minerals’ availability for arms manufacturing and the energy transition.
Critical minerals have become a fervent topic of discussion in the context of the green energy transition.
From lithium to graphite, beryllium to cobalt, these minerals are all critical for electric car batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and other clean energy technologies.
But it often goes under the radar that these same minerals are also pivotal for weapons production, whether it be silver for Apache helicopters, copper and nickel for body armour, or molybdenum for missiles.
Amid global supply chain risks and China’s growing control over critical mineral refinement and production, the US Department of Defense (DoD) is fast making these minerals a priority.
The Pentagon has unveiled plans to develop a new AI-driven program, known as the ‘Open Price Exploration for National Security’ (OPEN) project, to estimate prices and availability of critical minerals.
See Also:
- EDGE and Baykar raise drone warfare capabilities with smart weapon integration
By pre-empting the market effect of disruptive factors such as labour strikes or foreign sanctions, OPEN aims to minimise the risk posed to critical mineral supply chains, and, by proxy, US national security.
(Source: airforce-technology.com)
30 Jan 24. RTX EPACS F-35 Power and Thermal Management System Demos 80 KW Cooling Capacity.
- New system would more than double F-35’s current cooling capability to support future upgrades and warfighters’ urgent operational needs
RTX (NYSE: RTX) today announced its Collins Aerospace business has demonstrated 80 kilowatts of cooling capacity across a range of operating conditions for its Enhanced Power and Cooling System (EPACS). Targeted as a replacement to the current F-35 power and thermal management system (PTMS), EPACS is positioned to support F-35 modernization and future upgrades that will help warfighters meet their urgent mission requirements.
Collins’ Enhanced Power and Cooling System (EPACS) would more than double the F-35’s current cooling capability to support future upgrades and warfighters’ urgent operational needs.
“The F-35 is a mainstay of allied forces around the world,” said Henry Brooks, president, Power & Controls for Collins Aerospace. “In order to modernize the platform with advanced systems to counter emerging threats, a significantly enhanced cooling capability is required. Through its more efficient thermodynamic cycle, EPACS can deliver the increased cooling the F-35 needs and help extend the life of the aircraft for decades to come.”
According to the Government Accountability Office, the F-35’s existing PTMS, used to cool aircraft subsystems that generate heat, is overtasked, requiring the engine to operate beyond design parameters. The added wear on the engine has already added substantial costs to the program’s lifecycle cost estimate.
“Our service members urgently need an upgraded cooling and management system on the F-35 to keep pace with continuous modernization of the aircraft’s capabilities,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02). “The EPACS 80 kW cooling capacity achievement demonstrates a critical milestone that will rapidly enable vital F-35 warfighting capabilities while resulting in substantial cost savings to the taxpayer.”
The cooling demand is set to increase beyond current capabilities as additional mission systems are added to the platform as part of planned upgrades. Recently, the F-35 Joint Program Office posted an RFI with a significantly expanded PTMS cooling capacity objective of 80 kilowatts. By delivering 80 kilowatts of cooling, more than double the platform’s current capacity, EPACS would provide enough cooling to support planned F-35 upgrades with additional margin for the life of the aircraft.
With ms of hours of in-flight experience for the cooling and power generation systems it supplies across multiple commercial and military aircraft, Collins has leveraged proven technologies to design EPACS as a mature, low-risk solution. To minimize integration and operational risk while maximizing the value of existing F-35 assets in the field, EPACS is also intended to be compatible with all three platform variants.
(Source: ASD Network)
30 Jan 24. Hicks Makes Case That Effective Defense Innovation Is Moving Forward. Innovation is key to continuing U.S. military might, and the Defense Department is working to make the institution more agile and a good partner for private capital, said Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks at the American Dynamism Summit in Washington today.
The United States has a history of innovation that must be nurtured and stoked as the nation faces competition from competitors who want to fundamentally change the rules-based international order that has maintained great power peace since the end of World War II.
China is the competitor with the means and will to “overmatch” the United States, she said. The Chinese government uses “predatory investment strategies, crackdowns on due-diligence companies and business intelligence providers that need to make smart bets, overtly forcing tech to comply with political ideologies use of forced labor, repression and exploitation of religious minorities,” Hicks said.
But Hicks said there’s one advantage the Chinese cannot outmatch, steal or copy — because it’s part of America’s DNA. That is “American ingenuity: our ability to think freely, innovate, change the game, and in the military sphere, to imagine, create, and master the future character of warfare,” she said.
The Defense Department has not always been the easiest customer for new ideas, the deputy secretary said, but officials are working to encourage adoption of these ideas, technologies and procedures. “Our starting position is stronger as a free and open society of blue-sky inventors, doers and problem-solvers,” she said. “We don’t seek to control innovation or make it toe the party line.”
That means outreach to the private sector, Hicks said. DOD was once at the forefront of innovation, investing in technologies that birthed the global positioning system, the internet, new materials and more.
Through the 1970s, DOD was the largest tech investor, but now private sector entrepreneurs are in the lead. “We aim to seed, spark and stoke the flames of innovation,” she said. “And with so much happening outside of DOD, that requires better adopting innovations wherever they add the most military value.”
DOD must keep pace with “a dynamic U.S. private sector that continues to out-innovate the world,” she said.
Still, DOD does invest a lot in innovation. She said DOD’s research and development budget request in 2024 is $145 bn. The procurement request is $170 bn.
Defense is not a small market, and that is just one reason why investors should look at the sector. Another reason is it is the right thing to do, she said. “From day one, Secretary Austin and I have focused on the urgency to innovate,” Hicks said. “We do so with our warfighters foremost in mind, as they stand the watch around the world. Just this weekend, three American soldiers were killed by Iranian-backed militias in Jordan. They made the ultimate sacrifice, and we join their families and loved ones in mourning the loss.
“Because we owe them and every U.S. service member our very best, for three years now we have taken a comprehensive, iterative, warfighter-centric approach to innovation — recognizing we face an accumulation of challenges and barriers, and there is no silver bullet that will lower them all,” she continued. “Along the way, we’ve never wavered from our ultimate objective: delivering safe and reliable, combat-credible capabilities at speed and scale to America’s warfighters — so they can deter aggression and win if called to fight.”
DOD looks to develop a fast-moving cycle that identifies key capabilities and moves them to effective solutions. She called it “a warfighter-defined investment funnel … comprising novel operational concepts, prototyping and experimentation; expeditious acquisition pathways; open doors for newcomers to enter; and a more level playing field.”
The department has in place novel operational concepts for joint warfighting and new processes to incentivize and accelerate promising joint capabilities and experiments, she said. This has sped up the fielding of capabilities by as much as two years.
“To bridge the lab-to-prototype and prototype-to-scale valleys of death, we’re using more flexible acquisition pathways for rapid prototyping, rapid fielding and software development,” she said.
The department has spent more than $35 bn on nearly 200 programs. “They’ve shaved up to six years off transition and delivery timelines for warfighter priorities,” Hicks said.
DOD is easing contracting and reaching out to nontraditional firms, she said. “We also sped how we transition the most promising capabilities to scale by overcoming bureaucratic and cultural barriers that slow us down,” she said.
The department has also stressed ethical artificial intelligence principles and updated DOD policies on the responsible use of autonomous weapon systems, Hicks said.
“Our efforts are fundamentally resetting behavior for defense innovators, program managers, resource leaders and decision-makers,” she said. “And even though it’s collaborative, that kind of disruption can still be uncomfortable.”
Hicks said, “Replicator’s goal is to field thousands of attritable autonomous systems in multiple domains within 18 to 24 months and prove ways to burn down risk and rapidly and safely overcome barriers to scaling. “It’s about showing ourselves — and our adversaries — that DOD can move fast to shape the battlespace and equip our warfighters with what they need.
“We’ve put our heads down, worked with Congress, with the commercial sector and across DOD to deliver,” she continued. “And, today, we are on track to meet Replicator’s goals.”
The key to it is the speed. In the old system, this would have taken the better part of a decade to get the capability in the hands of service members. “To go from start — to fielding inside that two-year cycle is not normal: It’s disruptive,” she said. “But we plan to make it more normal because more speed is essential. This is not the Cold War nor the post-Cold War era. With , we are in a persistent, generational competition for advantage, and we have to double down with urgency and confidence.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
31 Jan 24. DOD Harnesses Science, Technology to Counter Adversaries.
China is attempting to offer an alternative to the international world order, increasing its capacity to reshape international borders and rapidly developing capabilities in artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons, shipbuilding and space capabilities, said Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.
Addressing these long-term challenges requires a robust and accelerated science, technology and development response by the Defense Department, with fewer bureaucratic processes that impede that goal, Shyu told attendees of the 10th Annual Defense R&D Summit in Alexandria, Virginia.
“Unfortunately, there’s no monolithic solution to accelerate the department’s effort in development and acquisition of leading-edge technologies,” she said.
Shyu said one of the many ways the department is approaching the effort is the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve program, established two years ago.
She said the program aims to deliver the best technology and address common problems that are faced by companies through experimentation and exercises that accelerate technology from prototype to validated military capabilities, she said. Shyu noted that industry works directly with the services, combatant commanders and the joint staff.
The program focuses on areas crucial to joint warfare in highly contested environments, including command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; unmanned systems; contested logistics; joint fires; information; and command and control, she said.
The department is also assisting private-sector investment in critical technologies. The Office of Strategic Capital was stood up a year ago, as authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act, to allow the department to provide loans to small companies, she said.
The Office of Strategic Capital will help secure the department’s supply chain and facilitate onshore production of cutting-edge technologies, including microchips and quantum, she said.
“I’m absolutely confident that our nation’s R&D enterprise will continue to deliver the most advanced military capability to the warfighters,” she said, referring to industry research and development professionals. (Source: U.S. DoD)
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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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