Sponsored by Bertin Exensor
www.exensor.com
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
26 Nov 24. Musk trashes F-35 aircraft as ‘obsolete, expensive master of none’ in drone age. Tesla and SpaceX business leader Elon Musk has taken aim at the United States’ F-35 fighter jet fleet, describing the manned aircraft as “obsolete” in the age of drones. Musk, who has been recently announced as co-head of the new Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, made the comments against the F-35 program on social media platform X (Twitter).
“The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people,” Musk said.
“This made it an expensive and complex Jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes.
“And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed.”
Musk has previously taken aim at the effectiveness of F-35 aircraft on social media platform X.
“Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35,” he said in relation to a video featuring Chinese drones using formation tactics.
The Australian Defence Force already fields three squadrons of F-35A Lightning II multi-role stealth fighter from RAAF Base Williamtown, RAAF Base Tindal and a training squadron at RAAF Base Williamtown. United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III, speaking at the recent Trilateral Defence Ministers’ Meeting with officials from Japan and Australia on 17 November, recommitted to F-35 usage between the three countries.
“This is the fourth time that I participated in this bilateral format as secretary of defence and over the past four years, our three democracies have accomplished a lot together,” he said.
“We’ve announced a bilateral cooperation on F-35s we’re working to integrate Japan into the US–Australia force posture cooperation in Australia, and Japan and Australia have exercised their reciprocal access agreement through deployments to each other’s countries.
“Darwin is a focal point for our expanding trilateral relationship and our bond is delivering real security, deterrence and interoperability.
“We discuss the next steps to expand our exercises and training, and Japan’s commitment to annual trilateral amphibious training in the Indo-Pacific demonstrates our momentum, including with the Marine Rotational Force Darwin here in Northern Australia.
“We’re also elevating key bilateral exercises into trilateral exercises; Australia will now participate in ground force exercises Yama Sakura and Orient Shield along with joint exercises such as Keen Edge and Keen Sword.
“And starting in 2025, we’ll increase the complexity of our trilateral exercises, including Southern Jackaroo and Talisman Sabre.
“Looking further out, Talisman Sabre 2027 will include an air and missile defence live fire event.
“Taken together, this is major progress, and it will help ensure a more stable and prosperous region. Beyond these exercise milestones today, we welcome Japan’s increased participation in US–Australia force posture activities.
“Through this work, we’re eager to deepen Japan’s cooperation with the Marine Rotational Force Darwin and we’ll continue to grow our trilateral intelligence sharing and to increase our surveillance and reconnaissance activities.” (Source: Defence Connect)
23 Nov 24. Dell and Iron Bow Agree to Pay $4.3m to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations Relating to Submitting Non-Competitive Bids to the Army. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that Dell Technologies Inc. and Dell Federal Systems L.P. (collectively Dell), located in Austin, Texas, have agreed to pay $2,300,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting and causing the submission of non-competitive bids to the Army and thereby overcharging the Army under the Army Desktop and Mobile Computing 3 (ADMC-3) contract. Iron Bow Technologies LLC (Iron Bow), located in Herndon, Virginia, also agreed to pay $2,051,000 for its role in the scheme. The settlements resolve allegations that from May 2020 to April 2024, Dell operated a deal registration program, whereby it gave advantageous pricing to Iron Bow to sell certain Dell computer hardware products to the Army in response to solicitations under the AMDC-3 contract. The United States alleged that Dell also submitted its own direct bids to the Army on the same solicitations, knowing that its prices would be higher than Iron Bow’s, thereby creating a false appearance of competition. The United States further alleged that Dell’s practice of providing higher direct bids influenced the Army’s source selection process and enabled Iron Bow to overcharge the Army for certain Dell products. The Dell settlement also resolves a lawsuit filed against Dell under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, which permits private parties to sue on behalf of the government when they believe that a defendant has submitted false claims for government funds and receive a share of any recovery. The settlement in this case provides for the whistleblower, Brent Lillard, an executive of another IT reseller, to receive a $345,000 share of the recovery from Dell. The qui tam case is captioned United States ex rel. Lillard v. Dell Technologies Inc., No. 5:20-CV-1613-HNJ (NDAL). (Source: glstrade.com)
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Founded in 1987, Exensor Technology is a world leading supplier of Networked Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) Systems providing tailored sensor solutions to customers all over the world. From our Headquarters in Lund Sweden, our centre of expertise in Network Communications at Communications Research Lab in Kalmar Sweden and our Production site outside of Basingstoke UK, we design, develop and produce latest state of the art rugged UGS solutions at the highest quality to meet the most stringent demands of our customers. Our systems are in operation and used in a wide number of Military as well as Homeland Security applications worldwide. The modular nature of the system ensures any external sensor can be integrated, providing the user with a fully meshed “silent” network capable of self-healing. Exensor Technology will continue to lead the field in UGS technology, provide our customers with excellent customer service and a bespoke package able to meet every need.
A CNIM Group Company
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–