AUSA. The Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) will hold its annual conference in Washington, D.C., Oct. 12-14. The event arrives as the Army is currently without Senate-confirmed top leadership, with both Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle and Army Vice Chief Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who is also currently the service’s acting chief, set to deliver remarks. Updates from both Army officials and companies exhibiting at the show will shed light on efforts to bolster munitions production, rapidly develop new drone and counter-UAS solutions, the Army’s plans for proliferation of autonomous systems and the latest on major modernization programs, such the XM30 combat vehicle and the MV-75 Cheyenne II Future Long Range Assault Aircraft.
Hivemind Down Under. Shield AI is collaborating with Australia’s Innovaero Technologies to integrate its Hivemind artificial intelligence pilot software on the Aussie aerospace and defense company’s One-Way Loitering (OWL) family of precision munitions, the companies said last week. Hivemind has already been integrated into the OWL-B medium-range system and undergoing simulated coordinated strike missions ahead of flight testing. “Together, we are accelerating an Australian-designed capability while preserving Australia’s control over its critical defense technologies,” Greg Tunny, Innovaero’s CEO, said in a statement.
New Group 3 UAS. Ideal Aerosmith last week introduced Troublemaker, a two-person portable Group 3 unmanned aircraft system (UAS) the North Dakota-based company said provides more than 10 hours of endurance, and can perform one-way attack, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and “loyal wingman/decoy operations.” Troublemaker is a low-cost, attritable platform, the company said.
C-UAS Unveils and News. EOS Defense Systems USA last week unveiled the next-generation of its Slinger counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) remote weapon system that is completing development and will enter production in Huntsville, Ala., beginning in 2027. EOS was short on specifics but said the improved Slinger includes “enhanced sensing and autonomous kill chain functionality built to operate at scale.”
…SwarmShot. Federal Ammunition, O.F. Mossberg & Sons, and Palladyne AI are jointly developing a reusable small drone-based system that shoots other UAS out of the sky. SwarmShot features a specialized shotshell from Federal, a lightweight firearm from Mossberg tailored for airborne use, and Palladyne’s Group 1 Gremlin-X mini-bomber UAS and the company’s IntelliSwarm system that includes avionics and collaborative autonomy software. The C-UAS solution is being developed to also be an add-on to third party drones.
…C2 Sensor Feeds. Firefly Aerospace’s SciTec unit has received a $1.5 million extension to its Cloud-Based Command and Control contract with the Air Force Portfolio Acquisition Executive Command, Control, Communications, and Battle Management to add additional C-UAS sensor feeds for the Advanced Battle Management System. The modification brings the total contract value to $31.5 million.
…Initial JIATF Order. SRC, Inc., which recently won a potential $500 million contract from the Pentagon’s counter-drone task force under the Domestic Shield initiative, said it is provide one Gryphon R1440 and two Gryphon R1540 multi-mission radars, integration and installation support, and training in the initial order valued at $10.2 million. The Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF)-401 is establishing $7 billion in counter-drone contracts for Domestic Shield (Defense Daily, Sept. 29).
…Wearable Drone Detector. MyDefence last week introduced a new radio frequency-based wearable drone detector, Wingman Edge, that uses artificial intelligence to identify and classify signals beyond those stored in a threat library. Wingman Edge weighs 2.2 pounds, 17 percent lighter than the previous generation. The company said it has received $77 million worth of Army contracts in the past 18 months for wearable drone protection.
MILCON Reform. The Army on Oct. 6 announced a new military construction (MILCON) initiative that aims to “deliver critical defense infrastructure up to 50 percent faster and at a 30 percent lower cost.” “Historically, the legacy MILCON model relied on rigid, step-by-step processes that frequently resulted in delays, cost overruns and outdated facilities. To break this cycle, the reform effort addresses longstanding challenges by cutting administrative red tape, mandating modern building practices and reorganizing how the Army builds,” the service said in a statement. “A major shift involves merging planning and design much earlier in the project lifecycle to lock down requirements, ensure site readiness, and build cost confidence before requesting construction funds.” Initiatives within the reform effort include mandating “industrialized construction” methodologies,utilizing factory-built modular parts, pre-cast panelized systems, pre-engineered metal buildings, tension fabric structures and 3D printing and “optimizing facility design lifespans from a standard 50 years to an approximately 25-year span.”
Component Production. Amca said on Oct. 8 it’s been awarded a contract to establish an “enterprise-wide partnership” with Army Materiel Command for rapid engineering and component production. The terms of the deal, which was awarded under the Army’s Advanced Manufacturing (AdvM) Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), have not yet been disclosed. “It supports the Army’s goal of addressing priority readiness drivers across major weapon systems by regenerating components out of obsolescence and establishing manufacturing capacity where sources of supply have disappeared or can no longer meet demand,” Amca said in a statement. “Initial work will focus on radar and power assemblies for an Army priority missile system. [The] goal of this work is to address long lead times, incomplete engineering data and diminished manufacturing capacity for these components and subsystems.”
Natural Language C2. General Dynamics Land Systems and Primordial Labs announced on Oct. 7 they’ve signed a teaming agreement to work on bringing the latter’s Anura natural language command and control capability to the former’s portfolio of ground combat vehicles. “The collaboration pairs GDLS’s expertise in combat vehicle design and integration with Anura, Primordial Labs’ Natural Language Command and Control (NLC2) software, enabling crews to direct on-board vehicle systems by simply stating their goals, objectives and constraints for what they want accomplished,” the two companies said. “Rather than navigating menus and manual controls for every task, crews can express their intent via natural language and let Anura carry out actions through interaction with relevant on-board subsystems such as sensors, displays, communications and uncrewed systems that would otherwise require dedicated operator stations. Because Anura runs entirely at the edge with no cloud reachback, these capabilities remain available in contested, communications-denied environments.”
KG-142. The U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded Viasat, Inc. a $10 million or less sole source award on Sept. 24 for the company’s KG-142 family of ethernet encryptors—what the Department of the Air Force called the “cornerstone” communications security system for SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. KG-142 is a National Security Agency (NSA)-certified Type 1 encryption device designed to operate at multiple speeds up to 200 gigabits per second in the aggregate, according to Viasat. “The government acknowledges the risk of vendor lock inherent in proprietary cryptographic equipment,” the department said in a Justification and Approval (J&A) document for the sole source award to Viasat. “To mitigate this risk, any cryptographic device capable of meeting the NSA Type-1 standard and matching standard network layer protocols can be evaluated in future competitive tech-insertion spirals.”
Nighthawk Display. The Air Force retired the last of its Lockheed Martin Skunk Works F-117A Nighthawks in 2008, but one just flew in the cargo hold of a C-5M Galaxy on the way to a future display of the stealth attack aircraft at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., outside of Washington, D.C. For transport from Palmdale, Calif., “the F-117’s cockpit upload was unexpectedly delayed overnight due to a coordination breakdown regarding the required number of tie-down points on the fourth-generation fighter,” according to the Air Force. While the C-5M and F-117A waited on the tarmac, “the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works mechanical team worked through the night to resolve the issue,” the Air Force said. “Their efforts to fabricate and install the points ensured the entire plane was successfully delivered to the Smithsonian team on Oct. 6.” Dubbed the “Overachiever,” the F-117A to be displayed at Udvar-Hazy “was the only F-117A to fly in all four major conflicts in which Nighthawks flew combat operations: Just Cause, Desert Storm, Allied Force and Iraqi Freedom,” according to the service. “During its 1991 participation in Iraq, it flew 1,271 sorties, achieving an 80 percent mission success rate while suffering no battle damage. The jet retired in 2007.”
