Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
————————————————————————
28 Apr 22. Future NGAD fighter jets could cost ‘hundreds of millions’ apiece.
The U.S. Air Force’s secretive Next Generation Air Dominance future fighter program could be the most expensive aircraft program in history, with each piloted, sixth-generation aircraft expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
When asked about the price tag for NGAD during a Wednesday appearance before the House Armed Services Committee, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall did not specify exactly how much an individual aircraft could cost, but said the service was talking about “multiple” hundreds of millions.
“This is a number that’s going to get your attention,” Kendall said. “It’s going to be an expensive airplane.”
That would be more than twice the F-35′s price tag of at least $80m apiece.
Kendall said NGAD will be “incredibly effective,” but that it will have to be accompanied by less expensive platforms to extend its reach in combat, which he envisions as teams of autonomous drone wingmen.
The Air Force doesn’t have an estimate on how much the NGAD’s autonomous wingmen could cost. But in his keynote speech to the Air Force Association’s March conference in Orlando, Florida, Kendall said the service wants those combat drones to cost no more than half as much as their manned counterparts.
But if NGAD’s manned component will cost several hundred millon dollars apiece, that suggests the wingmen may cost as much or more than an F-35.
The NGAD program is so far taking the proper steps in its development phase to hold sustainment costs down in the long term, Kendall said. This is being done by using modular designs and interfaces the government controls to ensure aircraft can easily receive upgrades and maintenance.
Kendall said this strategy will also lead to competition, which will further drive down costs.
“It’s worth the time and the effort in the earlier phases of a program like NGAD to get those things right because you’re going to pay for what you did much later in sustainment, with much bigger dollars,” Kendall said. “And from what I’ve seen of the NGAD program so far, that approach has been taken.”
In response to concerns raised by Rep. Donald Norcross, D-N.J., that the NGAD’s schedule may be “sliding to the right,” Kendall said the Air Force is looking to field the NGAD in the early 2030s. The service plans to keep flying upgraded F-22 jets until then.
(Source: Defense News)
27 Apr 22. US Army Extreme Battery Group Increases Ion Storage Contract. Ion Storage Systems (ION) today announced $1.4m in additional funding of its existing contract with the Center for Research in Extreme Batteries (CREB) for a contract total of almost $2m. The consortium grant from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, now known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is intended to expedite the development of safer, lighter, and higher power batteries. This award furthers the commitment from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) which has the goal of producing a solid state Conformal Wearable Battery (CWB) that will significantly increase the operating time of equipment and weapons systems, while eliminating the risk of battery fire or explosions.
“The continued support from CREB underscores the amazing progress we have made this past year, and our ongoing commitment to delivering the most advanced and capable solid-state battery to our fighting men and women,” said Ricky Hanna, ION’s CEO. Our team continues to work hard to meet and exceed our partners expectations.”
“Ion Storage Systems is working to develop a radically different design for advanced lithium batteries,” said Dr. Wesley Henderson, ARL’s lead for CREB. “Tying both high safety and exceptional energy density together for next-generation batteries will be a key enabler for Warfighters as they face exceptional challenges in future conflicts.”
CREB aims to foster and accelerate collaborative research in advanced battery materials and technologies and characterization techniques. CREB’s focus is on batteries for extreme performance, environments and applications, such as those that may be used for defense, space or biomedical applications. ION has been a member of CREB for over 2.5 years and is proud to contribute extensively to its core mission.
About Ion Storage Systems
ION, from its new state of the art HQ and factory, creates high energy density solid state lithium metal batteries that are safer, lighter and enable form factors with tighter packing density that enhance system performance. ION’s nonflammable technology offers safe operation, greater abuse tolerance, and both volume and weight reduction. These advances empower the world’s innovators to redefine what is possible and begin building the products-of-tomorrow today. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
28 Apr 22. BAE Systems chooses Wind River to support RAF’s Tempest programme. BAE Systems has selected Wind River to support the technology demonstration work under the UK Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Tempest future combat air system programme. The programme is a UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) initiative and supported by a team of industry partners and the UK Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO).
Also known as Team Tempest, the team includes industry partners such as BAE Systems, Leonardo UK, Rolls Royce and MBDA UK.
The initiative aims to combine advanced technical capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI) to create opportunities, including the ability to use uncrewed aircraft and swarming technology for controlling drones.
Currently under the assessment phase, the programme is expected to achieve initial operating capability (IOC) by 2035.
As part of the technology demonstration work, BAE Systems will be using Wind River Studio’s VxWorks 653 platform and DO-178C DAL B safety certification evidence packages.
Wind River Studio will also provide the AdaCore GNAT Pro Assurance software for the programme.
Wind River chief product officer Avijit Sinha said: “The selection of our industry-leading technology demonstrates continuing Wind River leadership in safety-critical real-time software solutions for avionics.”
VxWorks 653 is an integrated modular avionics (IMA) platform, which combines the workload of less-critical and safety-critical applications using a common computing platform.
It is a cost-effective solution for technology suppliers in order to meet the stringent safety certification requirements, including EN 50128, IEC 61508, ISO 26262, DO-178C, and ED-12C. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
28 Apr 22. Opposition proposes formation of Australian DARPA equivalent.
The Labor opposition has pledged to launch a new defence research agency to drive the development of advanced capabilities, with the agency expected to absorb the Defence Innovation Hub.
Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese, shadow minister for defence Brendan O’Connor and shadow minister for defence industry Matt Keogh have jointly announced plans to establish the Advanced Strategic Research Projects Agency (ASRA) if elected to government.
The proposed research and development (R&D) body — an Australian equivalent of the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) — would be established within the Department of Defence, responsible for funding research into breakthrough technologies.
ASRA would also be tasked with facilitating technology sharing and collaboration between Australia and its AUKUS partners (the United Kingdom and the United States) by linking local industry and academia with DARPA and the UK’s newly established Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).
According to a statement from the opposition, the Defence Innovation Hub would be amalgamated into the ASRA.
The agency is expected to leverage both public and private investment.
“[There] has been a lack of strategic defence and national security-focused sovereign research, funding and projects,” the trio said in a joint statement.,
“This is leaving Australia vulnerable to strategic technological surprises.”
“…ASRA would ensure cutting-edge research from public sources, such as universities and industry, and classified research from industry and other government agencies (such as CSIRO), are supported and co-ordinated.”
The statement cites recent DARPA research into unmanned anti-submarine vessels, sixth generation fighter jet capabilities and hypersonics to evidence the benefits of the proposed ASRA on Australian defence industry.
Labor’s proposal comes despite some defence stakeholders questioning the need for an Australian DARPA equivalent.
Richard Williamson, an Australian Defence Force veteran and a senior project officer at the Defence Science Centre, has recommended decisionmakers to leverage the existing opportunities in the defence capability life cycle, particularly by facilitating access to new technology for ADF personnel.
“We don’t need to dilute our relatively low defence spending and create our own DARPA,” he writes.
“Instead, capability managers must drive innovation in CASG and the Defence Science and Technology Group by moving early-stage technology out of the lab and into the hands of the warfighter as an acquired, sustained capability.”
This latest announcement from the federal opposition follows its launch of a new plan to bolster Australia’s influence in the Pacific amid concern over China’s growing presence in the region, particularly off the back of its security agreement with the Solomon Islands.
Labor has pledged to establish a new Australia-Pacific Defence School, set up to provide training for members of defence and security forces from Pacific Island nations.
The school, which would be funded by a $6.5 m investment over the next four years, aims to ramp-up Australia’s defence engagement in the region through the development of deeper institutional links between the Australian Defence Force and Pacific counterparts. (Source: Defence Connect)
26 Apr 22. AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, today announced the successful maritime demonstration of Interoperability to Interchangeability (I2I) operations by the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy using AeroVironment’s Puma™ 3 AE small unmanned aircraft systems. The demonstration was part of a combined event – International Maritime Exercise 2022/Cutlass Express 2022 (IMX/CE 22) – that took place from Feb. 6-17, 2022.
IMX/CE 22 is the largest maritime exercise in the Middle East with more than 60 partner nations and organizations participating with 9,000 personnel and 50 ships. IMX/CE 22 was also the largest maritime unmanned systems exercise to date with more than 80 unmanned systems, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs).
The I2I capability demonstration was supported by AeroVironment as part of the U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59 team, denoted as Task Force X (TF-X), participating in IMX/CE 22. TF-X was comprised of various multinational government and industry partners working together to integrate and demonstrate new unmanned systems capabilities for U.S. and coalition naval forces in a series of pre-planned serials.
During the exercise, AeroVironment’s Blue Hotel computer vision and analytics solution demonstrated the visual identification of maritime targets simultaneously from multiple UAV and USV video feeds in real-time during all of the TF-X serials. It was also used by the U.S. Navy as the primary video repository and distribution hub for TF-X, providing all coalition partners with access to real-time video feeds and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) analytic results for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). The advanced AI/ML software enabled the warfighters to quickly sift through the large amounts of video data, pinpointing individual vessels of interest, and providing real time information on their activities throughout the exercise.
“Built upon past demonstrations, such as REP(MUS) 21 and 2018 U.S. Navy Coastal Riverine Craft maritime S2S exercises, these successful I2I operations coupled with Blue Hotel’s automated target recognition and MDA capabilities offer a glimpse at the maritime and autonomy product capability expansions AeroVironment’s MacCready Works Advanced Solutions team is spearheading,” said Jeff Rodrian, AeroVironment vice president of AV Ventures.
26 Apr 22. Pentagon wants at least $377m over five years for new rapid experimentation fund. The Pentagon is seeking $377m over five years to fund high-profile rapid experimentation projects, including initial efforts to close capability gaps in support of the Joint Warfighting Concept and improve Joint All Domain Operations in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, budget details released Tuesday show.
The defense-wide request includes $70m for the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve in fiscal 2023, $48.5m of which would support JWC experiments in the areas of command and control, information advantage, contested logistics and advanced fires.
“This will provide funding for certain individual capability experiments and experimentation series that support capabilities to enable the JWC supporting concepts, also known as the ‘functional battles,’” according to the budget documents.
Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, has hyped RDER as a mechanism for addressing critical capability gaps across the Department of Defense, though she’s offered few details about what projects RDER will fund. Last year, her team received more than 200 proposals from the military services and selected 32 to execute as part of its initial sprint.
Speaking during an April 20 National Defense Industrial Association webinar, Shyu said the department is working to identify its second slate of RDER projects, noting that the process is open to industry as well as federally funded research and development centers.
Shyu’s office released its detailed budget request for defense-wide research and development programs April 26, offering more insight on early RDER efforts. Along with the defense-wide request, RDER projects are embedded within the services’ funding plans. It’s not immediately clear how much funding each service has received through RDER, but it’s likely the overall number is significantly higher than what is laid out in the defense-wide request.
The documents don’t say how many JWC experiments will occur in fiscal 2023. The Air Force’s budget includes $64m for four RDER projects tied to the JWC experimentation sprint. Three of the projects will mature sensing and electromagnetic spectrum prototypes, commercial space integration software and advanced satellite communication terminals. The fourth effort is classified.
Of the remaining funding request, $2.5 m would fund one or more experimentation sprints in INDOPACOM. According to Army budget documents, the funding is linked to an effort the service proposed for RDER called Olympus, which would mature capabilities for Joint All Domain Operations, including advanced sensing, target identification and command and control. The service’s budget request includes $86 m for the Olympus project.
“The Olympus portfolio will initiate prototyping, integration and risk-reduction activities to facilitate integrated and interoperable capabilities that leverage layered [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] and autonomy with advanced communication and architectures to enable AI-infused analytics and layered effects,” the Army’s documents state.
The request also includes $10m to establish a RDER coordination and execution cell. The cell will include planners embedded within the combatant commands to report on results and lessons learned and work with the military services to transition capabilities into programs of record.
Another $9m would provide intelligence and end-to-end analysis support to ensure that RDER capabilities explored during experimentation sprints are informed by near-peer threats and are aligned with the Joint Warfighting Concept.
Beyond fiscal 2023, RDER’s proposed defense-wide funding profile shows a slow-but-steady increase, rising to $71m in fiscal 2024, $75m in fiscal 2025, $79m in fiscal 2026 and $82m in fiscal 2027. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
26 Apr 22. TE Connectivity launches fast and easy tool-less mounting solution with 369 series sealed panel mount connector. New connector offers attractive features for aerospace applications. TE Connectivity (TE), a world leader in connectivity and sensors, is once again expanding its 369 family of connectors with the release of the compact, lightweight and durable 369 series sealed panel mount connector. The new 369 series connector is ideal for harsh and confined environments found in aerospace and aviation applications.
“The 369 series sealed panel mount connector is fully compatible with existing 369 connectors, yet brings many enhanced features,” said Clint Schlosser, product manager for TE’s Aerospace, Defense and Marine division. “It provides both space and weight savings compared to traditional circular connectors and is incredibly versatile with features like simple push-in mounting and a positive button latching mechanism with an audible click.”
The 369 series sealed panel mount connector is made of high-performance composite materials to meet low-smoke, toxicity and flammability requirements of the aerospace industry. The electrical interfaces are fully sealed and use a cork-in-bottle and triple-wire-seal technology to withstand high-moisture environments. The rectangular shape also allows for easy stacking of the connectors to achieve space savings in applications such as cabin and galley lighting, seat wiring and actuation, passenger service units, in-flight entertainment, electronic window shutters and various other industrial uses.
The new 369 series sealed panel mount connectors also easily mount to an LRU (line-replaceable unit) panel, bracket, chassis or frame by using integrated panel latches to simply clip the connector into a rectangular cut out. This eliminates the need for additional fasteners or fixings, making removal, repair and maintenance fast and easy. In addition, the connectors have replaceable panel sealing gaskets allowing for IP67 level of protection from both moisture and dust.
“As a trusted design and engineering partner to customers, we are supporting them by offering new and efficient ways to integrate and install connectors into a variety of systems and environments. We believe this new addition to the 369 series of connectors will open doors to exciting new design opportunities for customers,” said Schlosser.
The 369 series sealed panel mount connector features an operating temperature range of -55° C to +175° C, an IP67 rating, and a durability rating of 500 matings. It is easy to install and requires no tooling to remove or repair should the need arise.
For more information on TE’s 369 series sealed panel mount connector including a complete list of product features and options, visit te.com/369-sealed-pnlmt.
25 Apr 22. Elma Expands Family of Rugged Routers & Switches for Enhanced Edge Computing in Mission-Critical Embedded Applications.
Three new NetSys models use powerful Cisco embedded series router (ESR-6300)
Technology Highlights:
- SWaP-optimized and rugged for remote and mobile environments
- Three new models provide range of switching options
- Onboard encryption modules enhance router performance
- Scalable configurations for increased capabilities
Elma Electronic Inc. has added three new models to its NetSys family of rugged, secure networking systems that facilitate edge computing in a number of mission-critical applications. Utilizing an onboard encryption module that offloads packet encryption and decryption from the routing engine, the routers provide increased data handling performance.
The basis of all three small form factor (SFF) models is Cisco’s ESR-6300 that delivers IP-based data, voice and video to mobile users with fast and secure network performance. Enterprise-grade Cisco IOS XE routing and switching security features help ensure highly secure voice, video, and data communication.
New models include:
- NetSys-5310: router with an ARM QuadCore A72 CPU
- NetSys-5311: router adds POE & POE+ support and up to 60 GB Flash storage with expansion capability
- NetSys-5312: router also adds two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports and either 7 or 23 Gigabit Ethernet ports via an ESS-3300 switch for advanced networking functionality
Mark Littlefield, senior manager embedded computing solutions at Elma Electronic Inc., noted, “The dependable architecture provided by the integrated Cisco IOS Embedded Services Routing (ESR) software provides secure connectivity for mobile and remote data applications. Combining this functionality with Elma’s expertise in ruggedized electronics means systems designers can confidently employ secure data, voice and video communications in the growing number of applications that require computing at the edge.”
To ensure data integrity, the included onboard Trust Anchor module (TAm), along with image signing, Secure Boot and runtime defenses, ensures that the code running on the ESR-6300 hardware platform is authentic, unmodified and operating as intended.
Based on Elma’s building block design concept for modular electronics, the SWaP-optimized NetSys models are extendable and configurable for cost-effective upgrades in future expansion or system redefinition.
Elma’s NetSys family brings Cisco Mobile Ready Net capabilities to mobile and fixed IP based network routing capability deployed in harsh environments encountered in drilling and mining operations, commercial air and ground transport infrastructure, energy distribution, mobile ground, shipboard and air defense equipment, homeland security and emergency services.
Elma’s other SFF modular embedded computing systems include the ComSys family for communication-based computing and JetSys series for AI-based processing.
————————————————————————-
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.
https://oxleydevelopments.cmail20.com/t/t-l-cdhkulk-yujhutkljd-r/
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.
https://oxleydevelopments.cmail20.com/t/t-l-cdhkulk-yujhutkljd-y/
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.
———————————————————————-