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14 Sep 22. Philippines releases initial funds for maritime patrol aircraft procurement. The Philippine government has released the initial funding needed for the country to finance its long-awaited Long Range Patrol Aircraft (LRPA) programme.
The funds, which will likely be deployed as a down payment once a supplier is appointed, were released under a scheme known as the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) by the Philippine Department of Budget and Management in August 2022.
It is worth PHP896.4 m (USD 15 m) and will cover the initial funding requirements of the Philippine Air Force’s (PAF’s) LRPA requirements, the department said in its register of national programmes, for which a SARO has been allocated.
The LRPA is a programme that seeks to enhance the PAF’s maritime patrol capabilities by acquiring a fleet of two anti-submarine warfare (ASW)-capable airframes. It is a Horizon 1 project under the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Act. (Source: Janes)
13 Sep 22. Thales Showcases the Safe and Efficient Management of Drones in Taiwanese Airspace.
- Thales demonstrated its integrated UAV Traffic Management (UTM) and drone Remote Identification solutions for the first time in Taiwan, witnessed by Mr. Wang, Kwo-Tsai, Minister of Transportation and Communications, and key delegations from Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA).
- The successful drone flight took place in Hsinchu, Jianshi Township, as part of a project commissioned by Chunghwa Post and the Coretronic Intelligent Robotics Corporation (CIRC) on the study of logistics with remote UAVs.
- Thales has supported the safety of Taiwan’s civil airspace, supplying air traffic management systems and radars to CAA and ANWS for more than two decades. By combining its expertise in drones and UTM, Thales is ideally placed to support Taiwan’s stakeholders as they manage UAVs in an increasingly complex airspace.
On 29 August 2022, Thales performed a real-time autonomous drone flight monitoring trial in Hsinchu, Jianshi Township, in the presence of Mr. Wang, Kwo-Tsai, Minister of Transportation and Communications, and key delegations from Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). The trial showcased the Thales ScaleFlyt Remote Identification tracker affixed to a drone, under the management and monitoring of the Thales TopSky – UAS Traffic Management (UTM) solution.
The use of drones in Taiwan enables a wide range of use-cases and creates tremendous opportunities – from efficient goods distribution to maintenance, monitoring and labour management– but also brings the challenges of managing an increasingly complex urban airspace. UTM involves the safe and efficient integration of UAVs into civilian airspace. With the help of IoT technology, drone operators and civil aerospace authorities can precisely monitor unmanned air traffic in urban and rural areas securely and in real-time, while ensuring the safety and security of its citizens.
As part of a project from Chunghwa Post and the Coretronic Intelligent Robotics Corporation (CIRC) to establish a “Logistics Supply Mechanism for Remote UAVs” in Jianshi Township, Thales demonstrated its integrated UTM and Remote Identification technology for the first time in Taiwan. During this trial witnessed by key delegations from the Ministry of Transport and CAA, two drones from Coretronic equipped with the Thales ScaleFlyt Remote Identification tracker performed a flight taking off from the Jianshi Post Office in Hsinchu to a village 8.5km away from Jianshi township.
The demonstration showcased various real-life and stress-test flight scenarios, including geofencing and mission deviations and was monitored in real-time using Thales’ TopSky – UAS Airspace Manager UTM solution. TopSky enables safe Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) autonomous drone operations and guarantees that drones comply to regulations in force and to stipulated flight plans, thereby giving operators access to a safe and secure low altitude airspace.
The drones were identified and their positions monitored in real-time with the Thales ScaleFlyt Remote Identification tracker. Weighing less than 70 grams and featuring the Network remote ID function through LTE-M / 2G, the RemoteID acts as a beacon, allowing authorities to identify, monitor and track the drones in operation, in real time. Fitted to a drone, the tracker is the most visible asset of a complete IoT ecosystem featuring a cloud-based web server access and a mobile application so drone operators can register their drones and also track their own fleet of UAS in real time. All communications are end-to-end cyber-secured, guaranteeing privacy.
In Taiwan, Thales will also establish a drone control centre in Thales’ office in Neihu, which will simulate the environment and functionality of a UTM Centre.
Thales is a leading expert in drones’ management, having demonstrated and implemented UTM solutions in various countries such as Australia, France and the United States. (Source: ASD Network)
13 Sep 22. L3Harris, Raytheon win phase 2 contracts for next-gen ISR aerial sensors. The sensors under development will integrate onto the Army’s well-known HADES aerial ISR program, designed to conduct “deep” intelligence gathering and target tracking. The US Army has awarded phase two contracts to defense firms Raytheon and L3Harris for the development of prototype sensors that will support the service’s next-gen airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance program dubbed HADES.
Under the second phase of the other transaction agreement (OTA), Raytheon and L3Harris will “enhance designs” and build prototype electronic intelligence and communications intelligence sensors. The pair will split $18 m, according to a news release from Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (PEO IEW&S).
The OTA is part of the Army’s Multi-Domain Sensing System program, a family of systems that will modernize the Army’s aerial ISR capabilities. As the Army pivots to Multi-Domain Operations as its warfighting doctrine, service leaders are looking for a suite of sensors to provide soldiers in commanders with battlefield data, from the forward edge of the battlefield to theater headquarters.
HADES, for which the new ELINT and COMINT sensors are being developed, stands for High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System and is a prototype airborne ISR system. The HADES platform will integrate multiple intelligence sensors onto a fixed wing, business class jet, replacing the RC-12 Guardrail.
Under phase two, Raytheon and L3Harris will make prototypes that are not only more sensitive than before, but will also need to be faster “to meet specifications, exploit near-peer threats, and integrate into an open system architecture over a 24-month period,” the release states.
“The goal is to provide deep-sensing intelligence collection of indicators and warnings, electronic order of battle, and patterns of life for target development. This will allow standoff operations to detect, locate, identify, and track critical targets for the ground commander,” Dennis Teefy, project director for sensors-aerial intelligence at PEO IEW&S, said in a statement.
The OTA has three phases and is worth a total of $49m. Following phase two, “up to” two vendors will be selected for phase three, in which they will integrate their prototypes onto contractor-owned, contractor-operated aircraft for a year of flight testing.
Currently, Leidos and L3Harris are operating business jets equipped with ISR assets to inform requirements for HADES. L3Harris has flown its aircraft, called ARES, in the Pacific, while Leidos’ ARTEMIS is flying in Europe right now, including along the Ukrainian border.
“The sensors resulting from the MDSS Sensor Evaluation Program will first be used on the MDSS HADES. The MDSS HADES will be globally deployable and provide a multi-faceted sensing capability at higher altitudes and longer ranges, and with longer endurance than is currently available from the Army’s enduring fleet,” Teefy’s statement said.
At a media day last month, Ronald Rizzo, deputy project director for sensors aerial intelligence, told reporters that the HADES program allowed for an entirely different ISR concept of operations because of the speed and range of business class jets over the Guardrail.
With ARES and ARTEMIS, “we’re able to launch from one area and very quickly get to another area that is much further away in distance. So it opens up the aperture from a mission perspective,” Rizzo said. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Breaking Defense)
12 Sep 22. Tomorrow.io Delivers First Radar for Weather Satellite Constellation Backed by U.S. Air Force. The Tomorrow Companies Inc. (“Tomorrow.io”), developer of a leading platform for global weather and climate security, has completed assembly and testing of its first precipitation radar and delivered the payload to Astro Digital for satellite integration. Tomorrow.io was awarded a multi-year $19.3 m contract last year from the U.S. Air Force, funded through the Air Force’s Commercial Weather Data Pilot Program, to support deployment of the company’s first four satellites.
Tomorrow.io selected Astro Digital’s Corvus-XL satellite platform for the first two satellites of its constellation. Delivery of the radar payload, after Tomorrow.io and the Air Force conducted a successful critical design review earlier this year, puts Tomorrow.io on track to launch its first satellite in early 2023, with a full constellation expected in orbit during 2025.
Tomorrow.io will offer operational satellite data-as-a-service to the U.S. Department of Defense and governmental agencies worldwide, while also ingesting the data into its proprietary modeling suite that powers its Weather and Climate Security Platform, which is used by hundreds of organizations to proactively manage weather-related challenges.
Precipitation measurements are critical to weather forecasting and are ranked the top priority out of 152 Earth observations by the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations. Radar provides detailed observations of precipitation that no other sensor can see, yet much of the world lacks reliable ground-based radar coverage, including many areas of interest to the Department of Defense.
Tomorrow.io plans to launch a constellation of approximately 30 small satellites to provide high-resolution global coverage of 3-D precipitation and other key parameters—revisiting each point on the globe every hour on average, compared to the 2- to 3-day revisit rate of existing spaceborne radar missions.
“Global environmental data is essential to effective mission planning and execution of air and ground operations,” said John Dreher, materiel leader, Weather Systems Branch, in an Air Force news release. “This satellite constellation partnership with Tomorrow.io will give Air Force weather operators a vastly improved awareness of current and forecasted weather conditions.”
The constellation will enhance the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) mission to provide authoritative and accurate 24/7 global weather intelligence to the warfighter. Capabilities delivered under this contract are expected to further the Department of Defense’s ability to address the Joint Requirements Oversight Council Meteorological and Oceanographic Collection Requirements and bolster weather observations around the globe.
Tomorrow.io announced earlier this year the addition of microwave sounders to its planned satellite constellation, which would create the first multi-sensor weather satellite system owned and operated by a private company. The combined sensing capabilities from radars and sounders will allow Tomorrow.io to acquire multiple types of near real-time, global atmospheric data critical to improving operational weather forecasts.
About Tomorrow.io
Tomorrow.io is the world’s leading Weather and Climate Security Platform, helping countries, businesses, and individuals manage their weather and climate security challenges. The platform is fully customizable to any industry impacted by the weather. Customers around the world, including Uber, Delta, Ford, National Grid, and more use Tomorrow.io to dramatically improve operational efficiency. Tomorrow.io was built from the ground up to help teams prepare for the business impact of weather by automating decision-making and enabling climate adaptation at scale. To learn more, please go to: www.tomorrow.io (Source: PR Newswire)
12 Sep 22. BlackKite-I Infrared, Wide-Area Sensor Flown for NATO, Other Officials at ArcticX22 Exercise.
- ArcticX22 aims at developing multi-layered regional surveillance for Arctic region
- Insitu offers Logos Technologies BlackKite-I as product to Integrator UAS clients
Logos Technologies, a leader in wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) systems, announced today that it successfully demonstrated its infrared BlackKite-I WAMI system for NATO and other officials attending the ArcticX 2022 exercise, held last week in Denmark.
Designed for the payload bay of the Integrator UAS, a tactical unmanned aircraft produced by Boeing Insitu, the lightweight BlackKite-I sensor was used to image a target area during ArcticX22.
An Insitu Integrator carrying the BlackKite-I WAMI system was flown over a local island,” said Alan Murdoch, VP of International Programs for Logos Technologies, “and the wide-area imagery we collected over that area was clear and stable for the entire time we were on station.
Typically operating at an altitude of 5,000-12,000 feet, BlackKite-I can image a city-sized area in real time, day and night. The system’s Multi-Modal Edge Processor then converts gigabytes of collected data into geo-tagged imagery that can be stored locally and/or immediately streamed to users on the ground.
In being so small, yet so powerful, BlackKite-I brings an organic, force-multiplying WAMI capability to the tactical commander,” said Murdoch, “which is why there has been such strong interest in it.
Kicked off last year, the ArcticX exercise is an initiative of the IRSA Development Group (IDG), a consortium of multinational companies, including Boeing, developing a subscription-based persistent monitoring system incorporating sensors, satellites, aircraft, ground stations and command-and-control networks.
It’s a mainly sea-focused architecture (for the Arctic, and ultimately elsewhere) and Dave “Funky” Funkhouser, Insitu’s Director of International Business Development, said,
We definitely see BlackKite-I playing supporting roles in the surveillance of littoral areas, islands, ports, fishing villages, oil rigs, and offshore wind farms.
Following the success of ArcticX 2022, Murdoch said that Logos Technologies has received a number of serious inquiries from NATO and other partner nation attendees. (Source: ASD Network)
13 Sep 22. Iraq inaugurates first GM403 radar. The Iraqi Air Defence Command (IADC) had held an inauguration ceremony for its first Thales Ground Master 403 (GM403) long-range air surveillance radar, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 11 September.
The event was attended by Iraqi Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah and the French ambassador to Iraq, Éric Chevallier.
The MoD said the recently arrived GM403 was switched on during the event so it could begin to detect air targets over the western region, marking a new era in the country’s ability to control its airspace.
The MoD confirmed it had ordered radars from Thales on 24 July, when it announced that construction of a new air-defence operations centre had begun, saying they would be operated in conjunction with Iraq’s US-made TPS-77 long-range air surveillance radars.
At the time, it was reported that both the GM403 and the smaller GM200 radars have been ordered. However, there has been no indication as to the numbers that will be delivered. (Source: Janes)
09 Sep 22. US Army receiving early IVAS units, will roll out software upgrades. The US Army has begun accepting 5,000 Microsoft Integrated Augmentation System (IVAS) units and is finalising plans to field them. However, it is not yet clear how soldiers will use these early versions of the capability that will require software upgrades.
In March 2021, service leaders signed a contract valued up to USD21.88 bn for more than 10 years for the militarised HoloLens 2 head-up display. Several weeks later, during Soldier Touchpoint 4, the army grew concerned about hardware and software deficiencies and decided to delay the initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) event and fielding of the device.
IVAS project manager Colonel Troy Denomy told Janes in October 2021 that Microsoft would be delivering additional prototypes for testing, but the service would not be accepting any head-up displays to field to troops. Instead, the duo set out to correct IVAS problems to include reducing the field-of-view from 80°back down to 70°, fixing a humidity problem with a single component inside the display, and addressing the software’s ‘reliability and stability’. (Source: Janes)
09 Sep 22. RAF training Wedgetail crews on RAAF jets. The UK is furthering preparations for the introduction into service of the Boeing E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, with the announcement on 5 September that Royal Air Force (RAF) crews are supporting the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in its latest exercises.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that RAF ‘seedcorn’ crews were flying aboard a RAAF E-7A aircraft participating in the multinational Exercise ‘Pitch Black 2022′ taking place across northern Australia.
“Ahead of the delivery of the first RAF Wedgetail, [the] seedcorn programme has been established with the Royal Australian Air Force, which sees RAF maintainers, technicians, and aircrew embedding within [the RAAF’s] 2 Squadron,” the MoD said. “The symbiotic relationship assists the RAAF with the delivery of E-7 capability and will provide a core of experienced personnel to operate UK Wedgetail at RAF Lossiemouth.” (Source: Janes)
12 Sep 22. Saudi Arabia acquires solar-powered surveillance solution. MARSS Group, a company that develops surveillance systems, will deliver its RADiRguard solar-powered artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance solution to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
According to a company announcement on 7 September, the KSA signed a multim Euro contract for 50 RADiRguard units.
The RADiRguard is a multisensor perimeter surveillance capability, which combines a short-range tri-directional radar, CCTV, infrared (IR), and a radio frequency monitoring system, a MARSS Group spokesperson told Janes . The system has a lifespan that should exceed five years, the spokesperson added.
The company spokesperson was unable to provide further details regarding the contract.
With an inbuilt AI and machine learning algorithm – known as NiDAR – RADiRguard can detect, verify, alert, and respond to objects of interest. Up to four optical cameras can be integrated into the pod, with a 90° field-of-view. The pod also contains a solid-state radar capable of 15 scans per second, the company said.
RADiRguard is suited for off-grid installations or for fixed-site infrastructure, and is capable of covering 25,000 m 2. (Source: Janes)
06 Sep 22. US Joint C-sUAS Office awards SAIC and Liteye USD4.5m multi-year contract to further develop HEL prototype. Together with SAIC, Liteye Systems has been awarded a USD4,500,000, multiple-year contract to further develop and integrate its Liteye SHIELD C-sUAS payload in the US Army (RCCTO) High Energy Laser (HEL) prototype effort. This second contract continues the work of last year’s award from RCCTO and furthers the SHIELD platform advancements, says a company press release.
The Army, acting as the Executive Agent for Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-sUAS) remains focused on the elimination of UAS threats. In a May 2021 Senate Armed Services Hearing, SECARMY, Christine Wormuth, said “The Army needs to be very attentive to challenges like counter UAS for example.…those are absolutely areas that we need to be working on in terms of developing our capabilities and obviously being able to test our capabilities.”
The objective of C-sUAS HEL prototype effort is to develop, integrate, manufacture, and ultimately test a prototype HEL System(s) in an operationally relevant environment. This contract enables the rapid prototyping of a near-production representative, cost-effective HEL System(s), which will be integrated with current military battle management systems. Liteye’s SHIELD payload will provide the detection, tracking, and identification of Group 1 & 2 UAS in a range of combat environments which will utilize the new 3D SPYGLASS radar developed in Colorado. The HEL “hard kill” capability will be provided by a partner company and integrated with Liteye’s SHEILD payload to be tested and demonstrated during operational test and evaluation.
In November 2019, the Secretary of Defense designated the Army as the executive agent for Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-sUAS) and in turn, the Secretary of the Army stood up the Joint C-sUAS Office (JCO) under a 2-Star Director within Army G-3/5/7 to address UAS threats while eliminating duplication and redundancies across the DoD. For more information visit: www.liteye.com (Source: www.unmannedairspace.info)
05 Sep 22. Russia “has developed autonomous C-UAS networked capability integrated with UGV” – press reports. Russia’s Android Technology company has integrated a range of counter-UAS systems (C-UAS) on to its recently developed Marker military uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) and networked them within an autonomous detect-and-mitigate C-UAS capability, according to Russian press reports.
According to Samuel Bendett from the Center for Naval Analysis in a Linkedin post: “According to Russia’s Android Technology company, its Marker ground robotic testing platform will be able to carry up to 16 “kamikaze” quadrocopters to counter aerial drones, as well as a C-UAS laser system.” Earlier press reports, however, contradicted this description of C-UAS technology employed on the UGV and said the C-UAS capabilities were developed around a radar and integrated grenade launcher.
Work on developing the UGC platform was completed in January this year, according to a RIA Novosti post. The news organisation quoted Yevgeny Dudorov, executive director of the NGO Android Technology: “We have conducted a number of tests related to countering UAVs, when drones are flying, the platform detects them automatically and hits them with the help of those means that are on the combat shooting module. This is a “near-hand” air defence system for hitting drones at short distances,” Dudorov said.
Said RIA Novosti: “To combat swarms of drones, Marker was equipped with a radar capable of recognizing aerial targets with a small scattering area and transmitting their coordinates to a rifle-grenade launcher module. Then the robot monitors the target with optics and hits from a regular machine gun…. Android Technology has developed algorithms for effective destruction of air targets specifically for Marker….the robot’s shooting range in the short-range air defence variant can rotate at speeds of 350 degrees per second.
“Marker recognizes targets with the help of a modern neural network device, which, after the necessary additional training, can do it faster and better than a person,” Dudorov said in an interview with the news agency. He added that the Marker has good accuracy indicators for destroying flying objects. “We conducted tests on bench shooting – where stand-up artists shoot at skeet. It has a diameter of about 100 millimetres and flies at a speed of about 90 kilometres per hour. Marker is confidently working on these plates with a probability of hitting about 80% from a carbine,” the executive director said.
According to the company’s website: “The robotic platform “Marker”, developed by the National Center for the Development of Technologies and Basic Elements of Robotics of the Foundation for Advanced Research and the NGO “Android Technology”, is designed to develop key robotics technologies: technical vision, communication, navigation, autonomous movement and group control. The development has the most advanced in Russia technologies of autonomous movement with object recognition based on technologies with elements of artificial intelligence.
“The autonomy of the platform is ensured by a modular multispectral vision system. The unified payload module with an optoelectronic instrument unit has six independent axes of rotation and the possibility of installing two types of payloads that can be used independently of each other.
“The rotation speed of the payload elements is hundreds of angular degrees per second, which makes it possible to significantly improve the characteristics of speed and accuracy in the performance of tasks. Under the current conditions, the demand for the domestic electric component base has increased manifold. To solve problems in the interests of enterprises of the domestic military-industrial complex and corporations related to the development of critical components, the production of which is limited or absent in Russia, the Magnitogorsk enterprise develops and launches the production of priority positions of electric motors in the profile of existing competencies.”
For more information : https://vpk.name/; https://vpk.name/en/571150_in-russia-the-work-on-the-project-of-the-robotic-platform-marker-has-been-successfully-completed.html; https://vpk.name/en/579476_developer-dudorov-the-marker-robot-was-tested-as-a-near-hand-air-defense-system.html (Source: www.unmannedairspace.info)
12 Sep 22. DroneShield expands civilian counter drone services to first civilian airport. Drone detection specialist DroneShield reports its first contract to deploy its DroneSentry counter drone system at a US international airport. This is the first permanent deployment of DroneSentry at a US airport, says the press release. The name and location of the airport is undisclosed.
The DroneSentry system configuration provides advanced detection capability, in compliance with current US legislation for civilian airports.
The deployed system includes DroneShield’s RfOne passive long-range drone detection sensors integrated with DroneSentry-C2 command-and-control enterprise software. The system provides near real-time drone detection, tracking and reporting assisting airport authorities with security and risk assessment throughout the airspace.
Jayde Wilks, DroneShield Sales Executive, commented, “As more drones take to the sky every year, it increases the risk profiles for airports. Drones can damage, or even bring down, an airliner with contact. Reports of airport disruptions due to drones continue to rise, and the safety risk and cost involved from plane diversions and flight disruptions can be significant. With this and future airport deployments, we look forward to helping address this risk.”
For more information visit: www.droneshield.com
(Source: www.unmannedairspace.info)
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Blighter Surveillance Systems is a world-leading designer and manufacturer of best-in-class electronic-scanning ground-based radars, surveillance solutions and Counter-UAS systems. Blighter’s solid-state micro-Doppler products are deployed in more than 35 countries across the globe, delivering consistent all-weather security protection and wide area surveillance along borders, coastlines, at military bases and across critical infrastructure such as airports, oil and gas facilities and palaces. Blighter radars are also used to protect manoeuvre force missions when deployed on military land vehicles and trailers, and its world-beating multi-mode radar represents a great leap in threat detection technology and affordability for use in a variety of scenarios.
The Blighter range of radar products are used for detecting a variety of threats, from individuals on foot to land vehicles, boats, drones and low-flying aircraft at ranges of up to 32 km. Blighter Surveillance Systems employs 40 people and is located near Cambridge, UK, where it designs, produces and markets its range of unique patented solid-state radars. Blighter prides itself on being an engineer-led business committed to providing cost-effective and flexible solutions across the defence, critical infrastructure and national security markets.
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