Sponsored by Blighter Surveillance Systems
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01 Aug 18. US Army increases investment on counter-drone program. Leonardo DRS has received an additional $13m to continue engineering and testing a vehicle-mounted system that the U.S. Army hopes will protect soldiers from small drones, according to a July 31 Defense Department statement. Leonardo was awarded an initial $16m contract by the Army in July 2017 to develop a counter-UAV capability dubbed the Mobile Low, Slow Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Integrated Defense System, or MLIDS, with hopes of deploying “numerous production systems in early summer 2018.” At the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference in October, the company announced it had received a $42m production contract for an undisclosed number of MLIDS to fit the Army’s requirement to defeat small, inexpensive unmanned systems such as quadcopters and fixed-wing aircraft that operate as airborne improvised explosive devices.
“Drones are becoming an increasingly dangerous threat against our forward-deployed soldiers, and we are proud to support this urgent requirement to protect them from potentially lethal small unmanned aerial vehicles,” Aaron Hankins, vice president and general manager for DRS Land Systems, said in October 2017. “We are working hard to deliver the best capability to our soldiers as quickly as possible.”
MLIDS is a combination of various sensors and shooters mounted on two mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicles, or M-ATV. One M-ATV carriers the electro-optical and infrared sensors; in this case DRS’ elevated mast-mounted Surveillance and Battlefield Reconnaissance Equipment. This system is used to cue and track potential targets, as well as engage in electronic warfare by jamming signals controlling the unmanned vehicle. For another M-ATV, Leonardo has partnered with Moog to offer the Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform. Although the RIwP can be transformed into more than 100 configurations, for this system the turret is expected to fire a 30mm proximity round designed to defeat a small group of one or two UAVs. But DRS also plans to integrate other kinetic weapons onto the platform, specifically a small UAV that can be deployed from the M-ATV to engage the enemy unit. The RIwP was selected for the requirement over the Common Remotely Operated Weapon System, developed by Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace. CROWS has previously deployed on the Army’s Stryker vehicles and M1 Abrams main battle tank. (Source: Defense News)
01 Aug 18. USAF may replace 3 types of aircraft with a single platform. The U.S. Air Force is looking to replace three aircraft — the E-4B command post, the C-32A executive airlifter and the Navy’s E-6B command post — under the purview of a single program known as NEAT. Air Force Materiel Command posted the request for information Tuesday for NEAT — otherwise known as National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC), Executive Airlift, Airborne Command Post (ABNCP), Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO). The RFI comes after an April Senate hearing where Gen. Robin Rand, the commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said it was time to get “very serious” about replacing the E-4B and E-6B. While the RFI provides little information into what is specifically sought, it does ask for companies’ experience in commercial derivative military aircraft and joint work with other businesses. It also asks companies to propose a “recommended technical solution” for the NEAT program. According to the RFI, the Pentagon is conducting an analysis of alternatives “that will examine potential synergies in acquiring common platforms that do not sacrifice operational effectiveness or increase the overall cost.” The RFI also says the Pentagon is looking for “innovative industry solutions to accomplish the missions performed by the E-4B, E-6B, and C-32A in a more effective and efficient fashion.” The AoA process can often take more than a year to complete, and is used to provide information for a possible proposed acquisition strategy. The E-4B National Airborne Operations Center is based on a Boeing 747 and is used to command U.S. forces worldwide, particularly nuclear forces in the case of an emergency; it has sometimes been referred to as the “Doomsday Plane.” It’s also used to transport the secretary of defense and his staff. The aircraft is known for its almost all-white paint scheme and the communications node on top. It is operated by Air Force Global Strike Command from Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, and entered service in 1974. The Air Force has four, although two were damaged during heavy weather in the summer of 2017. The Boeing 757-derived C-32A is often seen transporting the vice president or first lady, and, as a result, has been called “Air Force Two.” Four are based at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. The aircraft are relatively new, having entered service in 1998. The Boeing 707-derived E-6B Mercury, or the Take Charge And Move Out, belongs to the U.S. Navy, and is likely included on the RFI because of its capability. The aircraft can relay orders to both Navy ballistic missile submarines and Air Force intercontinental ballistic missiles across the American west. The E-6B was originally designed to only communicate with submarines, but it inherited the Air Force mission after the service retired aging EC-135s. This isn’t the first move to develop new capabilities to relay commands to Air Force ICBMs. In October 2017, the Air Force awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin and Rockwell Collins to develop the Airborne Launch Control System Replacement, or ALCS-R. At the time, an Air Force official with knowledge of the ALCS-R program told Defense News that the service was looking to replace the airborne mission equipment on the Navy’s 16 E-6Bs and in 450 launch control centers, which hadn’t been updated since the 1960s. (Source: Defense News)
01 Aug 18. USAF future ISR architecture could feature drone swarms and hypersonics — with AI underpinning it all. The Air Force’s ambitious new ISR strategy calls for a sensing grid that fuses together data from legacy platforms like the RQ-4 Global Hawk, emerging technologies like swarming drones, other services’ platforms and publicly available information. And deciphering all of that data will be artificial intelligence. Such a system may sound like something out of a sci-fi book, but the service believes it could be in service by 2028. In a July 31 interview, Lt. Gen. VeraLinn “Dash” Jamieson, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for ISR, explained the Air Force’s new “Next Generation ISR Dominance Flight Plan,” which lays out the service’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance goals for the next 10 years.
In the past, “when we fielded a sensor, we fielded a sensor to answer a question,” Jamieson said. What the ISR flight plan tries to accomplish is far more extensive: “How do I get the data so I can fuse it, look at it and then ask the right questions from the data to reveal what trends are out there?”
“We have to do all of that at the speed of relevance — meaning at warfighting speed — so that our decision cycle has shrunk,” she added. “We get our effects in and out, and we create chaos and confusion in the adversary. Once he gets behind, it is extremely difficult to actually catch up.”
The flight plan itself is classified, as are most of the specifics regarding what the Air Force will develop, test, field and when, but Jamieson said the service is working under a “very aggressive framework” with milestones and deliverables to match.
“The Russians and the Chinese — the Chinese especially — have just stolen our intellectual property, and that’s a part of why we’re in this great power competition that we’re in. I don’t want to give them anything that’s going to tip off what we’re doing,” she explained. “We’ve already fielded capability in 2018. So I want them to be continuously off kilter with, ‘Where are they, and where are they going?’”
The flight plan includes 10 annexes in areas such as machine intelligence — a catch-all for tech like artificial intelligence, automation and human-machine teaming; software development and prototyping; high-altitude reconnaissance platforms; publicly available information; ISR for and from space; ISR for and from cyber; human capital, which examine how to develop the next-generation of ISR professionals; and partnerships with industry, other U.S. military services, academia and international partners. As part of the flight plan, the Air Force examined what types of platforms it needs in the future — much of which is classified. A “balanced portfolio” of penetrating, stand-off and persistent capabilities will be required, and everything from swarming, miniature or autonomous drones, space-based sensors, hypersonics, or even smart weapons could be part of the future ISR grid, Jamieson said. However, the service wants to keep its options open at the moment.
“You really do have to look at what technologies are real today and which technologies are really going to be there for tomorrow,” she said.
“More important than those new pieces of hardware is the data that they could provide and how it could be used in new ways, with AI reducing the workload of airmen conducting the ISR mission.” Jamieson said.
One of the first steps the Air Force took in its ISR flight plan to enable that was to create a data strategy that laid out standards around how the service will exploit, access, and secure its data.
“If you are not first in developing artificial intelligence and the means to employ — with structured data, with the infrastructure to support that, with a multi-cloud approach — you’re going to be last because catch up in this arena with disruptive technologies, it’s too hard and it’s too fast,” she said.
The Air Force envisions industry as a major enabler of its next-generation ISR infrastructure, with the service owning the data rights and tech companies partnered with it to build software and algorithms. However, even that balance could shift in the future, as a younger generation of airmen join the service with more software coding knowledge and a deeper comfort with computers.
“In 10 years, our digital airmen are going to be the preponderance of the force,” she said. “So what are the difference skill sets that they’ll bring to bear? Our airmen right now, 24 and under, the majority of them already come in knowing how to code. For my generation, and the generation behind me, that was if you were a computer science major in college.”
“For instance, airmen at the 480th ISR Wing built a simulator from scratch after realizing that a video game popular among the wing actually incorporated a number of valuable skills — from collecting and analyzing information quickly to targeting an adversary.” she said.
“I go, ‘Holy cow, this is what I’m talking about.’ Our airmen are already thinking about this,” Jamieson said. “I shared that with industry, and said, ‘That shouldn’t scare you, that should inspire you on the quality and truly innovative nature of our young airmen today.’”
The service also sees a major opportunity to cull publicly available information on social media or news sites, which Jamieson acknowledges has not always been effectively used by the Air Force for intelligence purposes. (Source: Defense News)
31 Jul 18. USMC receives new advanced air defense system as air threats loom. The recent delivery of a new advanced air defense system on Thursday shows the Corps is getting serious about a looming air defense threat. Air defense is something the Corps hasn’t had to think much about over the past 17 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. aircraft have dominated the airspace. An advanced radar system will be pivotal to the Corps as it prepares for a potential fight with near-peer adversaries where air and ballistic missile threats are rising. On Thursday Northrop Grumman delivered the first Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR, which incorporates a new advanced high-powered antenna technology known as GaN.
“The incorporation of this advanced technology in production radars is unique to the Marine Corps and enables G/ATOR to provide additional mission capability to the warfighter at an affordable cost,” Roshan Roeder, vice president, land and avionics C4ISR division at Northrop Grumman, said in a press release.
The short and medium range radar system is capable of detecting cruise missiles, air breathing targets, rockets, mortars and artillery. An air breathing target could be any missile that requires the intake of air for combustion. The radar can also double as an air traffic control system. The highly mobile G/ATOR system will aid the Corps’ mission in the Pacific where its forces will be decentralized, operating on remote islands and floating bases. The air and missile threat to the Corps is very real, especially in the Pacific where China has been busy advancing its ballistic missile capability. The threat prompted a high-level meeting between Marine Commandant Robert B. Neller and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein in late March. It was the first meeting the two service heads have held since 2011.
“When you think about enemy air attacks, you think about jets and bombers and stuff,” Neller explained to audience members at the Atlantic Council in April. “I think the real future in enemy air attack is going to be swarming drones.”
The Corps has upped the ante on its air defense investment. The latest draft of the annual defense legislation includes nearly $225m for procurement of six new G/ATOR systems, about $86m more than in 2017. The delivery is the seventh overall low rate initial production G/ATOR system the Corps has received, and Northrop Grumman says the new technology will enhance radar sensitivity and improve overall reliability, according to a press release.
“The delivery of our first GaN system is another major milestone in getting much needed advanced capability in the hands of our Marines,” Manny Pacheco, a spokesman PEO Land Systems Marine Corps, told Marine Corps Times. “GaN based Transmit/Receive (T/R) modules operate at a significantly higher efficiency and are designed to provide significantly higher output power while generating less heat than the T/R modules they replaced which is anticipated to increase reliability.”
Northrop Grumman says that all future deliveries of the G/ATOR will incorporate the GaN advanced technology. The Corps began receiving its G/ATOR radar system in 2017 and achieved initial operational capability in February. Northrop Grumman and the Corps expect full rate production of the G/ATOR system in early 2019. (Source: Marine Corps Times)
31 Jul 18. RF Gallium Nitride (GaN) market growth continued to accelerate in 2017, with revenues growing at over 38 percent year-on-year. GaN is seeing adoption across a range of RF applications. The rollout of commercial wireless infrastructure coupled with demand from military radar, electronic warfare and communications applications will provide the primary drivers for growth. The Strategy Analytics Strategic Component Applications (SCA) group report, “RF GaN Market Update: 2017 – 2022,” forecasts that RF GaN revenues will push past the $1bn milestone by the end of the forecast timeframe.
- https://www.strategyanalytics.com/access-services/components/advanced-semiconductors/market-data/report-detail/rf-gan-market-update-2017—2022
- https://www.strategyanalytics.com/access-services/components/defense/reports/report-detail/rf-gan-market-update-2017—2022-ADS
RF GaN demand from the military sector grew by 72 percent year-on-year in 2017, and this will grow at a CAAGR (compound annual average growth rate) of 22 percent through 2022. The military radar segment will remain the largest user of GaN devices for the defense sector. Substantial production activity in AESA radars for land-based and naval systems in particular is driving increasing demand for RF GaN, as many systems previously in development move to production.
“As well as demand from military radar, operational requirements to operate in contested and congested environments, as well as being able to counter modern agile radar and communications, will drive opportunities for RF GaN for the Electronic Warfare (EW) market,” noted Asif Anwar, Director of the Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) service. “Communicating voice, data and video simultaneously and securely over wider and higher bandwidths in an increasingly complex spectrum environment will underpin trends for military communications system design. We expect the associated component demand will also be increasingly underpinned with RF GaN.”
Wireless base stations continue to be the single largest revenue segment for RF GaN, with increasing penetration translating to year-on-year growth of more than 20%. While the big lift from Chinese LTE deployments is over, the wireless industry has done a very good job of maintaining and in some cases, compressing the 5G deployment schedule. The resulting 5G base station deployment will become a primary commercial growth driver for RF GaN.
“GaN improves high frequency, instantaneous bandwidth, linearity and environmental performance capabilities and this allows equipment manufacturers to develop higher capacity, higher power and higher performance radios,” observed Eric Higham, Service Director, Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) service. “5G deployment will drive opportunities for GaN on multiple fronts, with demand coming from both fixed and mobile applications, operating below 6 GHz, as well as in Ka-band and higher millimeter wave frequency bands. Opportunities are also growing for RF GaN devices in wireless backhaul and VSAT, and we are seeing traction in the adjacent RF Energy market also.”
Qorvo saw good growth in their defense-related GaN revenue to maintain the market leader spot, widening the gap over rivals competing in the defense sector including captive suppliers such as Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations (SEDI) continued to be the leading supplier of the overall RF GaN market in 2017, based largely on its dominant position in the base station market, with Wolfspeed, A Cree Company, maintaining second place. The future continues to look promising for RF GaN adoption, even as growth drivers remain in flux. Strategy Analytics forecasts RF GaN revenue will cross the $1bn barrier by 2022, with defense sector demand slightly greater than commercial revenue. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
31 Jul 18. Confusion continues over potential Czech purchase of Israeli radar. Uncertainty continues to surround the potential purchase by the Czech Republic of an Israeli air-defence radar over the question of its potential integration within NATO’s air-defence network. Czech officials claimed on 7 June that the NATO Air and Missile Defence Command and Control Security Accreditation Board (ASAB) had informed the Czech Ministry of Defence (MoD) that the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Elta EL/M-2084 3D mobile air-defence radar (MADR) systems it planned to procure for the Army of the Czech Republic (ACR) cannot be integrated into NATO’s air-defence architecture as the system is not manufactured by an alliance member country. NATO’s view of the matter, however, is somewhat at odds with this interpretation. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/IHS Jane’s)
27 Jul 18. L3 WESCAM Delivers First Electro-Optical and Infrared System for Canada‘s Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue Program. L3 WESCAM announced today the successful delivery of its first MX™-15 electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) system to Airbus Defence and Space in support of Canada’s Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue (FWSAR) aircraft replacement program. The on-time delivery of L3’s MX-15, the first of 20 planned deliveries, is a significant milestone as the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) begins to replace its legacy SAR aircraft, the CC-115 Buffalo and CC-130H Hercules, and the technology within.
“L3 is proud to partner with Airbus on this much-anticipated Canadian program – as it really hits close to home for WESCAM and its large base of Canadian employees,” said Matt Richi, President of L3 WESCAM. “The aircraft and the technologies that support this program have been referred to as ‘game-changers’ for Canada, and we couldn’t be happier to be a key system in the overall solution.”
L3 WESCAM’s work with Airbus on this program is an ideal example of the Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy benefiting Canadian industry by requiring successful bidders on major defence contracts to reinvest the contract value in Canada.
Simon Jacques, head of Airbus Defence and Space Canada, said, “Thanks to the efforts of Canada’s high-performing aerospace companies like L3 WESCAM, the FWSAR program is making excellent progress. We’re delighted to be working with them and very satisfied to see this latest milestone being reached on time.”
Canada has a search area of 18 million square kilometers, making time-critical SAR operations challenging. The high-sensitivity sensors and advanced GEO and intuitive technologies within the MX-15 will provide SAR operators with exceptional day and night visual capabilities, despite atmospheric interference, and will operate with detection and identification ranges that will help to shorten search grid patterns and on-scene search times. (Source: ASD Network)
26 Jul 18. Indonesia reveals details of Chinese sensors installed onboard KCR-60M vessels. Key Points:
- Indonesia has installed Chinese-made fire-control, search radars on two of its KCR-60M fast attack craft
- Equipment provides vessels with a more potent defence against hostile aircraft and precision-guided munitions
Engineers from China and Indonesian shipbuilder PT PAL working with Indonesian Navy personnel on the Type 630 close-in weapon system onboard KRI Tombak (629) during its test firings. In line with the installation of Type 630 30 mm close-in weapon system (CIWS) turrets, the Indonesian Navy (Tentara Nasional Indonesia – Angkatan Laut: TNI-AL) has also equipped two of its KCR-60M fast attack craft with Chinese-made sensors, consoles, and combat information systems. Details of the systems, which were revealed on 22 July by a TNI-AL source at the service’s headquarters in Cilangkap, have been corroborated with Indonesian industry sources in Surabaya who are familiar with the matter. Jane’s first reported in January 2018 that the TNI-AL had removed missile launchers and installed the Type 630 CIWS on its lead KCR-60M vessel, KRI Sampari (628), as part of wider plans to reconstitute the class. The CIWS turret is now situated at stern, where a rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) used to be positioned. Since then, sister vessel KRI Tombak (629) has been modified in a similar manner. The Type 630 CIWS is a variant of the Russian-developed AK-630 that has been marketed by China Shipbuilding Trading Company (CSTC) as the “NG-18 30mm six-barrelled naval gun”. The weapon can engage low-altitude aircraft at distances of up to 2,500m, sea-skimming projectiles at up to 1,300m, and can fire between 4,500 and 5,000rds/min. It has now been confirmed that the Type 630 CIWS set-up on both Sampari and Tombak include the Type 347G ‘Rice Bowl’ short-range fire-control radar and its associated fire-control console. This sensor has been installed in the aft section of the ships’ superstructure, and can track targets at up to 6n miles away. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
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Blighter® Surveillance Systems (BSS) is a UK-based electronic-scanning radar and sensor solution provider delivering an integrated multi-sensor package to systems integrators comprising the Blighter electronic-scanning radars, cameras, thermal imagers, trackers and software solutions. Blighter radars combine patented solid-state Passive Electronic Scanning Array (PESA) technology with advanced Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) and Doppler processing to provide a robust and persistent surveillance capability. Blighter Surveillance Systems is a Plextek Group company, a leading British design house and technology innovator, and is based at Great Chesterford on the outskirts of Cambridge, England.
The Blighter electronic-scanning (e-scan) FMCW Doppler ground surveillance radar (GSR) is a unique patented product that provides robust intruder detection capabilities under the most difficult terrain and weather conditions. With no mechanical moving parts and 100% solid-state design, the Blighter radar family of products are extremely reliable and robust and require no routine maintenance for five years. The Blighter radar can operate over land and water rapidly searching for intruders as small a crawling person, kayaks and even low-flying objects. In its long-range modes the Blighter radar can rapidly scan an area in excess of 3,000 km² to ensure that intruders are detected, identified and intercepted before they reach critical areas.
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