Sponsored by Meggitt Training Systems
https://meggitttrainingsystems.com/
————————————————————————-
19 Sep 19. Meggitt Training Systems Wins Additional $15.8m in US Army Targeting Equipment Orders. Meggitt Training Systems, the leading provider of integrated live-fire and virtual weapons training products and services for armed forces and law enforcement, announced additional orders that form part of a vital US Army combat skills training program for American and allied warfighters.
The $15.8m in orders, awarded by Tank-automotive & Armaments Command since May and being installed in the coming four months, are part of the Army Targetry Systems III indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, five-year contract. The 10 orders are for the following facilities:
- Camp Ethan Allen: A Multipurpose Training Range equipped with Stationary Infantry Targets (SITs), Stationary Armor Targets (SATs), Moving Infantry Targets (MITs) and Moving Armor Targets (MATs), plus two Combat Pistol Qualification Courses equipped with SITs.
- Orchard Combat Training Center: Portable SITs and SATs.
- Fort Bragg: A Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise range equipped with SITs, SATs, MITs and MATs, and an Automated Record Fire range equipped with SITs.
- Ft. Carson: Tank Range equipped with SATs and MATs.
- Fort Pickett: A Multipurpose Range Complex equipped with SITs, SATs, MITs, and MATs.
- Grafenwoehr Training Area: Combat Pistol Qualification Course equipped with SITs.
- Camp Grayling: Portable SITs and SATs.
- Fort Bliss: An Infantry Squad Battle Course and an Infantry Platoon Battle Course, both equipped with SITs, SATs, MITs and MATs.
- Camp Shelby: A Multipurpose Range Complex equipped with SITs, SATs, MITs, and MATs.
- Camp Navajo: A modified Qualification Training Range (QTR) Range equipped with SITs.
“These orders, on top of more than $4 million announced earlier this year, have helped Meggitt Training Systems continue our unequaled winning streak on all three Army Targetry Systems’ contracts since 2002,” said Shannon Medina, program manager at Meggitt. “Warfighters training at more than 120 military bases around the world have benefitted from our experience fielding more than 75,000 target systems to enhance readiness.”
Meggitt products are proven to be reliable and flexible to support both skills qualifications events and more complex unit-collective training. The company’s offerings include a variety of multi-function and stationary infantry targets, as well as moving infantry and armor targets, to provide maximum realism during training.
For example, Meggitt Training Systems’ Moving Infantry Target that travels at three speeds to replicate an individual walking (4-6 kph), jogging (8-10 kph), and running (12-14 kph) on flat terrain. All standard target commands – such as expose, conceal, hit fall, hit hold, hit bob, and selectable number of hits to kill – are performed by the MIT. The target actuator is equipped with a highly accurate sensor that detects, responds to and reports hits. The elevated two-rail track system – available in 50-foot, 80-foot, and 100-foot lengths – is easily assembled with hand tools, making it ideal for deployment. Extremely reliable and rugged, Meggitt Training Systems’ infantry field range targets perform in the harshest climates and do not contain hydraulic fluids, contaminants or hazardous toxins capable of being released into the environment.(Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
19 Sep 19. NATO allies unleash their drones in the waters off Portugal. Off the Atlantic coast of Portugal’s Sesimbra and Troia peninsulas, NATO is hosting a gathering of its robot ships and aircraft that the partner nations hope will soon pepper the ocean with sensors for hunting submarines, mines and ships, fused together in a surveillance network unrivaled in maritime history.
Several nations along with the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation have gathered “dozens of unmanned underwater, surface and air vehicles” for Exercise REP (MUS) 19, held Sept. 11-19, according to a NATO news release.
About 800 service members and civilians from the Portuguese Navy, as well as Belgium, Italy, Turkey, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, are participating in the exercise.
The exercise follows up on a July 2018 agreement between the allies to work together to develop unmanned maritime systems, a goal that experts say is primarily aimed at increasing pressure on Russian submarines operating in the region.
“NATO members are alarmed by the growing threat from Russian submarines, and are investing more resources to deal with it,” Jorge Benitez, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said during an interview. “Under [President Vladimir] Putin, Russia has deployed new, stealthier submarines in the north Atlantic that are much harder for NATO navies to track.”
Benitez previously served as the lead on NATO issues for the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
“This new multinational cooperation in undersea drones is the most recent example that NATO is taking the Russian threat in the north Atlantic much more seriously than it has in the past quarter century,” he added.
A release announcing the exercise acknowledged as much, saying that submarines armed with more powerful weapons, such as Russia’s Kalibr cruise missile, pose a significant threat.
“New maritime unmanned systems technologies can be a game-changer in countering multiple threats in the maritime domain,” the release said. “Using Maritime Unmanned Vehicles can help effectively counter new submarines armed with more powerful weapons. They can also prevent military personnel from moving into risky situations in countering threats like sea mines.”
The U.S. military believes that since surface combatants and submarines armed with expensive sonar arrays are too few and far between to monitor all the world’s chokepoints, it is developing cheaper systems it can deploy to increase numbers and cast a wider net.
That’s the idea behind Sea Hunter. Developed by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel, or ACTUV, was designed to track enemy subs while avoiding collisions and abiding by the rules of the road. The first Sea Hunter was christened in 2016, and in January the project transitioned to the Office of Naval Research for further development.
“ACTUV represents a new vision of naval surface warfare that trades small numbers of very capable, high-value assets for large numbers of commoditized, simpler platforms that are more capable in the aggregate,” Fred Kennedy, head of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, said in a January news release.
“The U.S. military has talked about the strategic importance of replacing ‘king’ and ‘queen’ pieces on the maritime chessboard with lots of ‘pawns,’ and ACTUV is a first step toward doing exactly that.” (Source: Defense News)
19 Sep 19. Singapore, India and Thailand begin trilateral naval exercise. Singapore, India and Thailand have commenced a trilateral naval exercise at Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Singapore-India-Thailand Maritime Exercise (SITMEX) is the maiden trilateral exercise involving the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), Indian Navy and the Royal Thai Navy. Hosted by India, the five-day exercise will run until 20 September and will help improve maritime relationships and interoperability between the three Asian nations. The exercise will also enhance maritime security in the region. SITMEX will involve a shore phase at Port Blair, followed by a sea phase in the Andaman Sea.
Around five ships and 500 personnel will take part in the exercise. Participating assets include His Majesty’s Thailand Ship (HTMS) Kraburi frigate and the RSN’s Formidable-class guided missile stealth frigate RSS Tenacious.
The Indian Navy will be represented by guided-missile destroyer INS Ranvir, missile corvette Kora, and offshore patrol vessel Sukanya. The country will also employ a P8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft in the exercise.
The shore phase will focus on exercise planning and professional exchanges. The subsequent sea phase will involve surface and air operations involving gunnery, force protection measures, communication, manoeuvring, and navigation drills.
RSS Tenacious commanding officer lieutenant colonel Michael Chan said: “The exercise underscores the shared responsibility of countries to work together to keep sea lines of communication open, and strengthens interoperability between the three navies.”
India expects more countries to take part in the naval exercise next year.
Citing an unidentified official, Hindustan Times reported earlier this month that the exercise is intended to ensure freedom of navigation through the Malacca Straits. (Source: naval-technology.com)
18 Sep 19. Singapore, India and Thailand begin trilateral naval exercise. Singapore, India and Thailand have commenced a trilateral naval exercise at Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Singapore-India-Thailand Maritime Exercise (SITMEX) is the maiden trilateral exercise involving the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), Indian Navy and the Royal Thai Navy. Hosted by India, the five-day exercise will run until 20 September and will help improve maritime relationships and interoperability between the three Asian nations.
The exercise will also enhance maritime security in the region.
SITMEX will involve a shore phase at Port Blair, followed by a sea phase in the Andaman Sea.
Around five ships and 500 personnel will take part in the exercise. Participating assets include His Majesty’s Thailand Ship (HTMS) Kraburi frigate and the RSN’s Formidable-class guided missile stealth frigate RSS Tenacious.
The Indian Navy will be represented by guided-missile destroyer INS Ranvir, missile corvette Kora, and offshore patrol vessel Sukanya. The country will also employ a P8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft in the exercise.
The shore phase will focus on exercise planning and professional exchanges. The subsequent sea phase will involve surface and air operations involving gunnery, force protection measures, communication, manoeuvring, and navigation drills.
RSS Tenacious commanding officer lieutenant colonel Michael Chan said: “The exercise underscores the shared responsibility of countries to work together to keep sea lines of communication open, and strengthens interoperability between the three navies.”
India expects more countries to take part in the naval exercise next year.
Citing an unidentified official, Hindustan Times reported earlier this month that the exercise is intended to ensure freedom of navigation through the Malacca Straits. (Source: naval-technology.com)
18 Sep 19. US Navy awards ship simulator contract for NS Mayport hangar. The US Navy has awarded a task order to The Korte Company to install ship simulators at hangar 1338 of the Naval Station (NS) in Mayport, Florida.
The $10.47m task order for the renovation of the hangar was awarded by Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast under a previous multiple award construction contract. NAVFAC received three bids for the task order.
As part of the design-build construction project, The Korte Company will undertake the installation of Navigation, Seamanship and Shiphandling Trainer (NSST) training modules NSST 4.0 and NSST 5.0.
NS Mayport executive officer commander Patricia Tyler said: “The NSST is a vital tool for training our sailors in simulated real-world situations they may encounter while underway.
“The simulators allow bridge teams to effectively train in a safe and controlled environment, providing immediate feedback and lessons learned to our warfighters.”
The NSST is a computerised bridge simulator that enables bridge teams to practise realistic navigation and ship handling skills in a virtual environment.
The trainer system consists of two full-mission bridge simulators that allow sailors to prepare to operate as a team when deployed.
The simulators can project computer-generated video onto curved screens to assist in training. Sailors can use the system to practise manoeuvres such as mooring, anchoring, and underway replenishment. The existing hangar facility is spread over an area of around 14,000ft². Through the renovation project, the navy intends to create the required multi-level trainer spaces. The facility will include video projectors, curved screens, video displays, consoles, server rooms and briefing rooms. Other tasks include the replacement of existing mechanical and electrical systems at the hangar facility. The company is expected to complete the work under the renovation contract by March 2021. Work is to be undertaken in Jacksonville, Florida. (Source: naval-technology.com)
18 Sep 19. This morning Operation BEYOND THE HORIZON commences at a secret location in Central Spain. At the rural location, well away from prying eyes, under realistic operational conditions Inmarsat and Satlink plus five other technology partners intend to demonstrate five different scenarios involving mobile SatCom solutions for Special Forces, Special Operations Forces and other Government Security Agencies.
The demo is taking place hundreds of km from the sea over poor terrain for radio comms
Today a simulated Tactical Headquarters and a simulated Forward Operating Base were set up in rural locations, out of Direct Line Of Sight of each other, and lightweight satellite communications were brought forward to allow personnel on foot, in vehicles, offshore and in a distant country to communicate both with each other and HQ, as well as to securely receive and retransmit real-time intelligence from both small drones and larger unmanned vehicles in addition to monitoring ground sensors protecting the FOB. Naturally much of today’s programme is quite sensitive, as are many of the visitors to Op BEYOND THE HORIZON – Iberia, but once we have obtained the necessary clearances we hope to be able to brief JOINT-FORCES readers on at least some of the day’s activities when the dust dies down. (Source: Joint Forces)
17 Sep 19. Virtual reality training — for pilots, maintainers and more — expands in 2020. One of the top priorities of Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, the newly minted head of Air Education and Training Command, will be expanding the Air Force’s experiment with virtual reality training.
So far, the Air Force has had success with Pilot Training Next, which uses VR, biometrics and artificial intelligence to better teach aspiring pilots how to fly.
Webb is eyeing similar technologies, under the name Learning Next, to improve other forms of technical training. This could include teaching airmen how to maintain aircraft, fly remotely piloted aircraft or perform other technical tasks.
These programs allow students’ education to proceed more at their own pace, since they are based on competency and are not tied to a timetable, Wright said. A student who already has the fundamentals down can skip the basics and go right to what he or she needs to learn.
AETC is now in the process of broadening Pilot Training Next, which has been a demonstration, to the next phase of wider experimentation, Webb said. He and Maj. Gen. Craig Wills, commander of the 19th Air Force, are working on plans to expand Pilot Training Next.
By next summer, Webb wants to have set up Pilot Training Next elements at several squadrons, though it wouldn’t be across all undergraduate pilot training bases. A few classes after that, Webb expects, Pilot Training Next will be expanded to all UPT bases.
The Pilot Training Next expansion will likely be done methodically, at one base first, Webb said, though he would not say which base AETC is looking at. “What has happened in our last couple of years with Pilot Training Next has been an explosion, out of the box, of innovation,” Webb said.
“Make no mistake, the Air Force wants this inculcated as fast as we can go,” he said.
AETC is already in the “nascent stages” of testing VR and other technology-enhanced training for maintenance and other technical training as part of Learning Next, Webb said. Maintenance Next is a particular priority and is happening on an experimental basis at Kelly Field at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, he said, and using VR for RPA training is also proceeding.
As the VR pilot training shows, such programs can accelerate in a hurry, he said.
Ethics
Webb also wants to cultivate an “environment of excellence, professionalism, ethics and character development” during his time at AETC.
Webb, who was previously commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, pointed to the ethical clouds that have fallen over parts of the special operations community in recent years. For example, the Navy relieved the entire senior leadership team of SEAL Team 7 earlier this month over what it described as leadership failures that resulted in a breakdown of good order and discipline while deployed.
AFSOC took a hard look at itself, Webb said, to make sure it doesn’t allow similar lapses to fester.
“For a leader, you can never … talk about core values enough,” Webb said. “If I had to look myself in the mirror from my last command, I can tell you my team knew our mission and vision of priorities backwards and forwards.”
But while airmen at AFSOC understood Air Force core values, he acknowledged he didn’t always articulate those values in his everyday “walk-around, talk-around” encounters. That can create problems if leaders assume airmen already know about the core values, he said.
When a unit starts to feel the pressure from high operations tempos and a lack of resources, Webb said, that “get-’er-done” mentality can lead to bad decisions if airmen don’t have a firm foundation of the Air Force core values.
“If you don’t have a firm foundation, you can go to a dark place with that … ‘find a way to yes’ mentality,” Webb said. “We’ve got to always talk about professionalism and ethics, and also always talk about our core values. That will be a capstone” of his time at AETC.
Webb said he plans to continue with AETC’s recent improvements in how special warfare airmen are recruited and trained, which included standing up the new Special Warfare Training Wing and the special warfare-focused 330th Recruiting Squadron. More work needs to be done to “normalize” and fine-tune those units, and more firmly fold them into AETC’s everyday culture, he said. (Source: Defense News)
17 Sep 19. Generation six: training for future fighter aircraft. While fifth-generation fighters such as the F-35 are still in their infancy, the aerospace community is already looking ahead to the sixth generation. With aircraft such as the UK’s Tempest on the horizon, Grant Turnbull finds out how future generations of pilots will be trained to use these increasingly complex platforms. Several nations are now in the early phases of funding sixth-generation fighter concepts, with the last 12 months seeing a flurry of activity, particularly in Europe. Just a few months ago, a mock-up of the sleek New Generation Fighter (NGF) was unveiled at the Paris Air Show by the leaders of France, Germany and Spain. The NGF is a pan-European government and industry effort to develop a strategic “systems of systems” as part of what is known as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
A cornerstone of the FCAS project is the ability for manned platforms to link up with unmanned “wingmen”, also known as remote carriers, and the introduction of advanced networking technologies that effectively creates an “air combat cloud”. This secure cloud will allow legacy assets to be fully integrated into the sixth-generation battle environment and enhance collaboration with other emerging domains including cyber and space, as well as boost interoperability with allied forces using fifth-gen jets such as the F-35.
Meanwhile, the UK has also unveiled its own efforts to develop a sixth-generation fighter, which is likely to be introduced in the 2030s as a successor to the Eurofighter Typhoon and will operate alongside the F-35 into the late 21st Century. The programme, kown as Tempest, which was first unveiled at the Farnborough Air Show in 2018 as part of the RAF’s Combat Air Strategy, and has since grown, with Sweden signing up in July to cooperate with the UK.
Much like the European FCAS programme, the UK industry team made up of BAE Systems, Leonardo, MBDA and Rolls-Royce is looking at revolutionary technologies to include on the platform that will ensure it retains an advantage on the future battlefield.
While these projects are in the early stages, it is certain that these sixth-gen platforms will integrate an increasing number of electronic sensors that generate huge amounts of fused data for both the pilot as well as offboard systems in other domains. As well as generating its own data, these aircraft will also be able to receive data from other battlefield nodes in the networked battlespace.
Preparing pilots for data overload
The increasing amount of data available for pilots will require new technologies to aid them in achieving mission objectives. This includes areas such as augmented human performance, artificial intelligence, cyber and space technologies, and advanced analytics and computing.
“As military domains become more contested, technologies become more complex, and sources of data multiply, it is crucial that pilots are able to quickly access, assess and act on critical information,” noted aerospace giant BAE Systems, which is taking a leading role in the Tempest aircraft design.
BAE Systems employs a specialist team of human factors engineers who work closely with pilots to gain greater insights into their needs for this increasingly challenging environment. The company has revealed some of the work it is doing in this space, including what it calls a ‘wearable cockpit’ concept, which removes much of the physical elements of the cockpit and replaces it with data projected directly into the pilot’s helmet-mounted display.
This ‘software-only’ cockpit would leverage technologies such as eye-tracking and haptic feedback, allowing the pilot to look at options and use gestures rather than physically press a button.
Training for sixth-generation platforms
The challenges of flying a sixth-gen platform will also require a new and advanced training approach to address not only the challenges of becoming a combat pilot, but also managing the complex technologies and sub-systems that will be on board. To understand this training complexity, we can look at how today’s pilots are trained on the F-35, which is still the world’s only full fifth-generation fighter aircraft.
According to Lockheed Martin, the F-35’s advanced capabilities means that it is “not possible to adequately challenge pilots in the live environment alone” therefore simulation plays a more prominent role in the training process compared with previous generation platforms.
Pilots train for a broad range of missions in the simulator including air-to-air, air-to-ground and electronic warfare sorties, with the fidelity of the full mission simulators allowing up to 55% of initial training flights to be conducted virtually. This is a marked increased from aircraft such as the fourth-generation F-16, with initial pilot qualification requiring 40% simulator time.
With sixth-generation aircraft, this virtual-live mix for pilot training could be even more heavily dependent on simulator time in the future, explained Tim Davies, a former senior flying instructor on the RAF’s Hawk T2 platform. “I think the balance will be probably 70-30,” he said.
Davies is now the strategy director for the UK-based aerospace project Aeralis, which is developing a new training aircraft and formulating an innovative training ecosystem for future sixth-generation aircraft pilots.
Expanding the virtual world
The end-to-end training and simulator course being developed by Aeralis is data-driven, allowing air forces to monitor whether the mix of live and virtual training is working for their students, and whether amendments need to be made.
The company is seeking investment to build an affordable jet aircraft for this purpose – available in both a basic single engine and advanced twin engine configuration, both of which share 85% commonality – which customers could lease as a complete training solution, along with instructors that understand the technical, physiological and psychological stresses that flying next-generation fighter aircraft brings.
The Aeralis training aircraft will feature re-configurable cockpits with advanced wide-area displays – a common feature of new fighter aircraft – and virtual systems that can simulate sixth-generation capabilities.
“You can represent all the sixth-generation systems you need synthetically on board the aircraft, you don’t actually need to build the systems,” Davies explained. This, along with the common architecture in both variants, will reduce pilot training times and keep costs low, with Aeralis noting that lifecycle costs could be 30% less than competitor systems.
Davies also noted that the sixth-generation training syllabus will introduce increasing levels of “gamification”, allowing students to learn by themselves and not to feel “force fed”.
Challenges persist however, especially when it comes to educating governments and air forces that are not geared towards innovation and change. “I’m trying to get this across to some militaries and it is really hard and it’s because they haven’t done it before,” said Davies. “It’s not their fault, it’s just hard for them to understand.” (Source: airforce-technology.com)
16 Sep 19. This is the name of the Air Force’s new training jet. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s the T-7A Red Hawk and it’s the name of the Air Force’s next-generation training jet, the Air Force’s top civilian announced Monday. The name pays tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black military aviators who flew during World War II as part of the Army Air Corps, the precursor to the U.S. Air Force. The Tuskegee Airmen were known as Red Tails” due to the red paint applied to the tails of their aircraft.
Acting Air Force Secretary Matt Donovan announced the new designation during a keynote speech at the Air Force Association’s annual conference, accompanied by retired Col. Charles McGee, a P-51 Mustang pilot and one of the members of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew more than 400 combat missions during World War II.
After unveiling a red-tailed mockup of the T-7A, Donovan noted that the Red Hawk would be a “staple of a new generation of aircraft” for the Air Force.
In addition to the Tuskegee Airmen, “the name is also a tribute to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, an American fighter aircraft that first flew in 1938 and was flown by the 99th Fighter Squadron, the U.S. Army Air Force’s first African American fighter squadron,” he said.
Last year, Boeing won the $9.2m contract for the T-7 program — formerly known as T-X — after submitting a bid that shaved about $10bn off the Air Force’s initial estimates.
While analysts had predicted a Boeing win after it unveiled two production-quality T-X aircraft in 2016, at one point it had seemed unlikely that the company’s clean sheet design would prevail against Lockheed Martin and Leonardo DRS, who had offered modified versions of existing trainers.
Boeing attributed the low cost of its T-X designs to its use of digital engineering. Paul Niewald, the company’s chief engineer for the T-X program, told reporters in May that technique reduced the manual labor needed to produce and manufacture the aircraft by 80 percent. It also created such precise digital models for its trainer that the sections of the jet could be locked together without using shims to fill in the gaps, he said.
Since winning the contract, multiple senior Air Force leaders have expressed optimism about the T-7 program.
Earlier this year year, Air Combat Command head Gen. Mike Holmes said that the service is beginning to explore whether it can buy additional trainer aircraft for missions such as red air or light attack. Will Roper, the service’s acquisition executive, also sees T-7’s use of digital engineering as a model for the Air Force’s future fighter program, also known as Next Generation Air Dominance.
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract allows the Air Force to buy up to 475 aircraft and 120 simulators, although the current plan is to buy 351 T-7 aircraft, 46 simulators and associated ground equipment.
Under the initial $813m award, Boeing will deliver five T-7 aircraft and seven simulators, with the first simulators arriving at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, in 2023. Initial operating capability will follow in fiscal year 2024 when the first squadron and its associated simulators are all available for training. Full operational capability is projected for 2034. (Source: Defense News)
16 Sep 19. AERALIS trainer concept moving forwards. AERALIS is developing a modular trainer aircraft with swappable components such as outer wings and a modular turbofan engine concept, helping to reduce through-life support costs. While elementary training will still be conducted on light turbo-prop aircraft, the AERALIS concept aircraft will allow student pilots to transition from basic jet pilot training to advanced training in the same cockpit, AERALIS Chairman Brian Hibbert told Jane’s at the 2019 DSEI defence exhibition in September.
Retaining a common core fuselage, the outer wings can be interchanged between a straight or swept edge, with the engine bay also allowing for increases in power to twin engine as required by the curriculum. The engine modularity also allows for improvements to access for maintenance and support.
“One of the challenges with Hawk is that you cannot re-engine the aircraft easily as it is integral to the aircraft. That can be one of the reasons the aircraft gets to [the end of its] life as the engine cannot be replaced. If you want to upgrade the engine you have to work within the same parameters as when the aircraft was designed,” AERALIS Head of Programme Luca Leone said.
The aircraft is also being positioned as a potential future trainer to function alongside the UK’s forthcoming next-generation combat aircraft, Tempest.
The company announced on 16 September that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with US firm KBR to help further develop the system and training concepts, building on earlier agreements with Atkins to develop the engineering concepts for the platform and Thales for the aircraft’s simulator systems. Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and Frazer Nash have also contributed to the programme. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
16 Sep 19. Elbit Systems of America will supply a number of products – including cockpit displays, datalinks and embedded training capabilities – to Boeing’s T-X advanced pilot training aircraft for the United States Air Force.
“We are supremely proud to be trusted by Boeing and the U.S. Air Force to supply these mission critical products and vital training systems,” said Raanan Horowitz, president and CEO of Elbit Systems of America. “Future pilots will greatly benefit from the revolutionary flight training capabilities featured in the T-X.”
Elbit Systems of America will provide a number of key components including: large area displays, engine fuel indicators, upfront control panels, and Head Up Displays and their associated line replaceable units. In addition, the company will supply air and ground datalinks enabling the T-X’s onboard virtual avionics and the Integrated Live/Virtual/Constructive capability. This cutting edge capability simulates the advanced avionics, sensors and weapons utilized by 5th generation fighters like the F-22 and F-35, enabling T-X pilots to virtually operate those systems while flying the lower cost-to-operate T-X aircraft.
For a quarter of a century, employees of Elbit Systems of America have been entrusted with performing high-quality work for the U.S. government and industry partners. In addition to providing advanced avionics, helmet mounted displays, mission computers and electro-optical and precision targeting solutions, the company provides sustainment and support solutions for aircraft and ground vehicles; and life-saving medical instrumentation technologies.
17 Sep 19. US Air Force eyes F-35 and future simulation centre for better operational testing. Key Points:
- The US Air Force will use its new Joint Simulation Environment facilities with the F-35 as it looks simulation to enhance operational testing
- Physical training environments are too limited to fully test advanced fifth generation aircraft and other advanced platforms
The US Air Force (USAF) plans to use the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) with the future Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) to improve operational testing, according to a top officer.
The overall goal of the JSE is to allow testers and engineers the capability to test multiple platforms during the development and operational testing phases of a platform. The JSE is a scalable, expandable, high-fidelity government-owned, non-proprietary modelling and simulation (M&S) environment.
It is designed to conduct testing on fifth-plus generation aircraft and systems accreditable for testing as a supplement to open-air testing, according to a service statement. The service plans to use the F-35 with JSE in the initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) phase – a critical period in a platform’s development that provides the data to allow the Pentagon to determine whether systems are operationally effective and to support decisions to proceed beyond low rate initial production (LRIP).
Major General Christopher Azzano, Air Force Test Center (AFTC) commander, told Jane’s on 16 September that the use of the JSE with the F-35 is part of a larger effort to push training efforts to the live, virtual, and constructive environment. The USAF, he said, is developing operational training infrastructure that will meet the needs of operators in the field.
It is very difficult to generate the threat density and complexity to meet fifth-generation operational test requirements solely in a physical environment. Not only are there physical airspace restrictions, there are technological issues such as GPS jamming restrictions and full system employment constraints because of security and exploitation concerns. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
16 Sep 19. ADF strengthens capabilities with regional partners as part of Exercise Hydra. Soldiers from eight nations are engaging in a military skills competition in Brisbane testing the teamwork, physical stamina and mental rigour of partners across the Indo-Pacific.
Exercise Hydra, an annual military exercise, is designed to test individual and team skills and reinforce the strong military relationships between Australia and its regional partners.
This year, Brisbane’s 7th Combat Brigade competed against teams from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, France, Tonga, Fiji, Malaysia, the Philippines and the US.
Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said the exercise helped to extend the camaraderie of soldiering across the region and further deepen Australia’s military ties.
“This international military skills competition focused on soldiers developing friendships, mutual respect and professional competition. Soldiers competed in a range of physically and mentally challenging activities including navigation, obstacle courses, marksmanship and a casualty evacuation scenario,” Minister Reynolds added.
“But the real value of the exercise is the opportunity for soldiers across the region to come together to learn from each other, strengthen relationships and build friendships through good soldiering.” (Source: Defence Connect)
16 Sep 19. AERALIS, the British company developing a new class of military and aerobatic jet trainer aircraft, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR).
One of the world’s leading providers of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program lifecycle within the defence sector, KBR will bring its expertise as a leading international training services provider to benefit the further development and sales of the AERALIS system.
Richard Eastment, AERALIS Business Development Director, commented: “We’re delighted to have signed this MoU with KBR. The fact that such a world-class organisation has expressed a desire to work with us helps to confirm our belief that we are on-track to deliver an unsurpassed fighter pilot training system whilst re-defining how to deliver this as a service in the most commercially flexible way.”
Constructed around a common fuselage, the AERALIS suite of jet trainers will be fully customisable and will be leased to customers as part of a complete training system. Delivered by instructors who have a full understanding of the technical, physiological and psychological stresses that fighter jet pilots have to deal with, the AERALIS system will prepare trainees for the upcoming demands of sixth-generation combat aircraft.
Andrew Barrie, KBR President, Government Solutions EMEA added: “This agreement is a fantastic opportunity to align our own specialist capabilities in this area with AERALIS’ innovative approach to military aircraft design and pilot training. We’re excited to take this first step in what we hope will be a bright and valued future relationship.”
————————————————————————-
Meggitt Training Systems, makers of FATS® and Caswell technologies, a division of Meggitt PLC, is the leading supplier of integrated live-fire and virtual weapons training systems. Meggitt Training Systems continues to grow its capabilities based on the legacy of these two industry leaders.
Over 13,600 Meggitt live-fire ranges and 5,100 virtual systems are fielded internationally, providing judgmental, situational awareness and marksmanship training to the armed forces, law enforcement and security organizations. Meggitt Training Systems employs more than 400 people at its headquarters in Atlanta and at facilities in Orlando, Canada, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, UAE, Australia and Singapore. It can deploy service personnel anywhere in the world for instructor training, system installation and maintenance. Learn more at https://meggitttrainingsystems.com/.
————————————————————————-