With the evolution of modern satellite-based navigation, miniaturized inertial measurement systems, advanced electro-optical and laser sensors and powerful yet compact computing and advanced data links, robots are becoming smart enough to carry out autonomous missions as efficiently, or better than, their human counterparts.
Combining assets to defeat the rocket, artillery and mortar (RAM) threat has proven successful, but other traditional threats (aircraft/cruise missile) and emerging asymmetric ones (unmanned air systems) still have been treated separately. The RAM experience suggested an integrated approach to defeating these threats and to the acquisition process. This approach unites sensor, weapons and mission-command components with a standard set of interfaces using a standardized set of networks to communicate—a meta-system for air defense.
While the U.S. Special Operations Command has seen its force size and budget grow despite the current fiscal austerity sweeping Washington, it is looking not for new platforms but for ways of obtaining more data from its existing unmanned air systems, especially small ones such as AeroVironment’s man-portable, hand-launched RQ-11 Raven.
Over the past decade, Pentagon plans to replace the AGM-114 Hellfire have been scaled back from joint-service development of an all-new tri-mode missile for launch from rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft, fast and slow, to a dual-mode guidance section upgrade for the AGM-114R now carried by U.S. Army and Marine Corps attack helicopters. Delayed and descoped, the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) finally looks set to move into full development.
Momentum is solidly behind fielding manned-unmanned teaming technologies for Army aviation assets. Combining video feeds and weapons of manned and unmanned platforms provides significantly better situational awareness to troops on the ground and dramatically improved efficiency in focusing weapons to support ground elements.
Royal Air Force (RAF) commanders may be revisiting their strategy on the rapid removal from service of the Panavia Tornado GR4. Less than six months before the disbandment of a third squadron of the aircraft in the past year, officials have decided to postpone their plans so that Tornados and crews are available to fly missions to counter Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria.
The RQ-7Bv2 incorporates several improvements, including extended endurance, encrypted data link and reliability upgrades. The U.S. Army plans to upgrade all of its 102 Shadow systems, each with four aircraft, to the new configuration. The biggest capability change is introduction of the Ku-band tactical common data link, already carried by the Army’s larger General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAS.
While the Air Force and Navy programs will share elements and technologies, the two services have distinct requirements that likely cannot be reconciled into a single program. Still, the two services continue to pursue a joint analysis of alternatives to fully vet the need for separate programs.
Raytheon’s win of USAF’s Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar competition has larger ramifications for rivals Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman
The U.S. Army is refining strategies for pairing manned/unmanned air platforms, such as its new General Atomics Gray Eagle UAS and Boeing AH-64E "Echo" Apache attack helicopter, to eventually include remote weapons release.
The U.S. Air Force is reviewing industry studies of fitting its 50-year-old Boeing B-52 bombers with new commercial-derivative engines, according to Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, commander of the service’s Global Strike Command. So far, Wilson said Oct. 9 at a Washington meeting, the Air Force assesses that the change would result in a net cost savings over the remaining life of the B-52s, which are expected to fly until 2040.
The manufacturer wants to redefine rotorcraft with a configuration that offers higher speed, maneuverability and hover performance, but retains the helicopter’s defining low-speed agility while enabling unique flight characteristics.
International defense companies visiting last month’s MSPO defense exhibition in Poland are responding to the call for munitions that can strike ballistic missile launchers, long-range air defense and command-and-control centers deep in enemy territory.
A significant number of attempts to fly at hypersonic speed have failed—not due to the advanced airframe or propulsion technology being tested, but because of the rocket booster needed to reach that speed.
The announcement by Airbus Group that it was putting €2 billion in defense and space businesses up for sale is an important milestone not only for Airbus but also for European A&D.
