NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NAVIGATION SYSTEMS, AVIONICS AND SOFTWARE (2024)

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07 Aug 24. Chinese Special Forces Showcase Advanced Gadgets in Training Exercise. Chinese State TV has released footage of China’s special forces conducting a training exercise. In celebration of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) 97th anniversary, Chinese state television aired footage of a special forces training exercise showcasing an array of new gadgets. The exercise, held at the Nanchang Infantry Academy in Jiangxi, featured the Jiaolong Commandos, an amphibious unit of the Chinese navy. The demonstration showed the incorporation of new technology, including electric skateboards, jet surfboards, and bird-shaped drones, in military operations.

During the televised exercise, commandos were seen riding jet-powered surfboards across a garden lake, supposedly simulating a high-speed approach in a potential hostage rescue scenario. The use of electric skateboards by soldiers armed with assault rifles added a futuristic element to their movement through a paved road.

The PLA also showcased the deployment of a winged drone resembling a sparrow, which was launched by one of the commandos. Additionally, a larger drone designed to look like an eagle was shown being launched while the operator rode an electric skateboard.

The exercise also included commandos using handheld drones equipped with small propellers. One such drone was directed into a wall where it detonated. The commandos then performed an explosive breach on a plywood structure, retrieved a dummy representing a hostage, and evacuated the area in a pickup truck.

Further demonstrations included the use of a jetpack, similar to those tested by the UK’s Royal Marines, and various surveillance drones. A quadcopter drone was shown conducting reconnaissance, while a remote-controlled drone executed a strike on a paper target.

While these personal electric vehicles and drones are not yet widely used by major militaries, their presence in the PLA’s exercise reflects a growing interest in versatile, low-cost technology for combat and reconnaissance purposes. This trend is not unique to China; for instance, Russian forces in Ukraine have reportedly used electric scooters for silent movement, and pro-Russian militias in the Donbas region have employed motorcycles to avoid detection by drones. (Source: https://www.sofx.com/)

08 Aug 24. Anduril unveils new ‘Arsenal’ factory in bid to scale up weapons production. Anduril will “focus on building what we believe is the sort of supplementary capabilities that we can get quickly and we need to get quickly, which is autonomous systems and weapons of all classes,” said Chief Strategy Officer Chris Brose.

Defense startupAnduril Industriestoday announced plans to open a new factory dubbed “Arsenal” that a senior company official said will boost the firm’sautonomous weapons output dramatically, with a focus on systems that can be rapidly manufactured at scale.

Chief Strategy Officer Chris Brose said his firm will never “focus on building exquisite weapons systems,” but will instead “focus on building what we believe is the sort of supplementary capabilities that we can get quickly and we need to get quickly, which is autonomous systems and weapons of all classes.”

Anduril raised about $1.5bn in part to fund the factory endeavor, which the company plans to be software-defined to establish common interfaces and standards across disparate systems so that they can be more easily adapted, Brose told reporters ahead of the announcement. He added that the company is further aiming to simplify manufacturing to attract more workers.

Anduril is still evaluating sites to place the factory,called Arsenal-1, butBrose said it’ll be in the United States. The factory represents an investment of “hundreds of ms” of dollars and is set to house “more than five million square feet of production space that will employ thousands of people,” according to a press release. Eventually, the company hopes the factory will be “fast-followed” by an Arsenal-2 facility, which would share many similarities with it predecessor but could be located either in the US or on the territory of an ally or partner.(Anduril hasexpandedinto Australia, for instance.)

Simply put, Brose said the manufacturing approach consists of building all of Anduril’s products “under one roof” — except for energetics, whose restrictive manufacturing processes required them to be separated.After notching winsagainst established primes in competitions like the Air Force’sCollaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, Anduril’s portfolio now spans the likes of loitering munitions to electronic warfare systems.

When it comes to the Arsenal facility, Brose emphasized the factory “needs to be capable of producing tens of thousands” of larger systems Anduril has successfully competed for, such as CCA or large, undersea drones for the Navy. Brose additionally highlighted the company’s move to consolidate work in one location, as opposed to more traditional methods that can spread manufacturingover several legislative districts to curry favor with lawmakers.

“So what we’re actually saying is, notwithstanding those benefits that we could get through distribution, the benefits that we can achieve from a manufacturing standpoint through consolidation are so much more profound that they outweigh whatever kind of political benefits we might get out of disaggregation of distribution,” he said.(Source: Breaking Defense.com)

06 Aug 24. Ukraine trialling new robotic quadruped on front line. Infantry from the Kurt & Company 28th Mechanized Brigade who are trialling the platform published promotional-style footage and images of the unidentified remote-controlled robotic quadruped on their Telegram channel on 2–5 August.

In the footage the quadruped moves dynamically in the urban and rural environment, jumping, rolling, and moving in undergrowth as well as running alongside a soldier. The robot’s portability was evident as a soldier carried it in one hand with ease. The system is designed to support reconnaissance missions.

Although the name of the system is not detailed, its physical characteristics distinctly resemble those of the Unitree Go2 robotic quadruped, featuring a prominent circular LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and a horizontal strip containing a light and camera at its nose. The platform is developed by Unitree Robotics, a Chinese company.

The Unitree Go2 is a 1.5 kg robotic platform equipped with a 4D LIDAR for obstacle avoidance, a 1,280×720 front camera with a 120° field-of-view, and an 8,000 mAh battery. Controlled wirelessly via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, it can carry various payloads weighing 10 kg in total such as power modules, depth cameras, 3D navigation radar, and a small mechanical arm. Priced at approximately USD2,800, the system also features Chat GPT technology and can reach speeds of up to 18 km/h.

For more information on robotic quadrupeds and countries’ efforts, please seeUK StratCom buys V60 ‘robotic dogs’and

(Source: Janes)

06 Aug 24. Merlin Kicks Off KC-135 Test Flight Campaign with SNC to Progress Autonomous Capabilities for the United States Air Force.

SNC to Progress Autonomous Capabilities for the United States Air Force”

Merlin, the leading developer of safe, autonomous flight technology for fixed-wing aircraft, today announced that together with its partner, global aerospace and defense leader SNC, it recently conducted the first three test flights in Merlin’s ongoing KC-135 Stratotanker test program at the Pittsburgh Air National Guard Base. Starting July 22, Merlin and SNC were granted a temporary military flight release by the United States Air Force (USAF). The team conducted real-time data collection and analysis to inform the Merlin Pilot’s integration design and flight control tuning for military aircraft.

The flights support anongoing agreementwith Air Mobility Command (AMC) and Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) to design, integrate, test, and demonstrate aspects of the Merlin Pilot on the KC-135. Merlin engineers alsojoined USAF pilots on data collection flights at MacDill Air Force Basein May 2024. The flights helped the team better understand crew workload drivers for military use cases. Together, these milestones signify Merlin’s progressive system design and integration work to achieve its goal of an in-flight demonstration of the Merlin Pilot in the next year, as well as support broader product alignment to help inform the planned Next Generation Air-Refueling System (NGAS).

“Autonomous capabilities are essential to increasing operational capacity for the USAF and enhancing national security, emphasizing the importance of these data collection flights to properly inform the integration design ahead of flight demonstrations,” said Matt George, CEO and founder, Merlin. “Over the last few months, we’ve achieved important milestones on the KC-135 that allow us to strengthen the relationship between the pilot and the aircraft as well as enhance safety and operational efficiency aboard a vital military aircraft. These are foundational and critical steps that get us closer to advancing and scaling autonomous capabilities across the USAF’s fleet.”

06 Aug 24. Cuashub.com said today that UAV Monitoring and Airspace Management Solutions Introduced. Aerobits, a leading technological company in avionics miniaturization, has recentlyintroducedthe DRS-1 Dual-Band Receiver Station and the GS2L Ground Station, which are UAV monitoring andairspace managementsolutions.

Officially launched in June 2024, the DRS-1 is a high-performance receiver station that provides reliable airspace surveillance capabilities. This dual-band receiver is especially suited for monitoring airport traffic, air traffic management systems, and local airfields. The DRS-1 marks a significant advancement in Aerobits’ ground infrastructure solutions, which are crucial in developing UTM and U-Space systems.

The GS2L Ground Station serves as a powerful Remote ID ground receiver and offers a range of features, including ADS-B/FLARM/UAT or RID reception, Power Over Ethernet (PoE) power supply, weather-resistant design, and easy installation and configuration

The GS2L receiver station offers various configurations, including functioning as an ADS-B/FLARM omnidirectional receiver with BLE/Wi-Fi Remote ID receiver capabilities. This allows it to detect and identify different aircraft types, includingdroneswith Remote ID transmitters. A vital feature of the GS2L is its onboard multi-constellation GNSS sensor, which provides superior positional accuracy for tracking UAVs in monitored airspace.

Aerobits also offers Remote ID transmitters like the idME series, with the idME PRO being an advanced Remote ID device for UAVs. This device supports dual-technology broadcasting, making it versatile for drone identification and tracking. The idME PRO is FAA and EASA-approved, allowing it to be used in the United States and European Union markets.

Remote ID ground receivers, such as the DRS and GS2L, enhance airspace safety by detecting and processing Remote ID signals from UAVs equipped with Aerobits idME series or other modules that use BLE and Wi-Fi technologies. Aerobits has demonstrated the effectiveness of their solutions with range tests, achieving nearly 16 km using the idME PRO transmitter and GS2L ground station, a notable result given the use of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology.

The GS2L’s ability to receive and process these signals makes it essential for airspace monitoring and management. Aerobits’ DRS and GS2L solutions significantly advance ground-based Remote ID receiver technology. By offering subsystems for UAV integration and specializing in air traffic control systems, Aerobitspositionsitself as a key player in U-Space development. Their solutions, including the DRS-1 and idME PRO, address current UAV autonomy limitations and facilitate the transition to more autonomous operations, providing a complete infrastructure for monitoring and managing drone fleets.

https://cuashub.com/en/content/uav-monitoring-and-airspace-management-solutions-introduced/?utm_campaign=C-UAS%20Hub%20General&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8YMcapxOELXt3DD34QvDownhkw4T0NBkLW30fpXj5IQZdUsR7rlMkIaoRO00WtJzVJc_v3HNE0ZHPblkqYT7kYfW5lxuQFrWAOu3ITBY3rJPmKDGI&_hsmi=318884599&utm_content=318884599&utm_source=hs_email (Source: https://cuashub.com/)

05 Aug 24. Delivering Janes data into SitaWare Insight. Following on from a memorandum of understanding signed in September 2023, Janes and Systematic have now signed a further agreement to help with the integration of Janes’ data into Systematic’s SitaWare Insight intelligence and decision support tool.

SitaWare Insight is now able to receive data from Janes’ Intara Foundational Data via an application programming interface (API), giving users access to critical equipment data and information within the SitaWare Insight interface. Janes’ Intara Foundational Data is searchable when loaded into the Data Lake in SitaWare Insight. As a result, users of SitaWare Insight can now benefit from a fully integrated intelligence workflow on a single screen.

“With data being recognised as a key enabler in the modern battlespace, the ability for intelligence teams and military planning staff to rapidly obtain critical data on the capabilities of their own forces and the enemy’s can help to reduce risks and lead to greater success on the battlefield. The combination of SitaWare Insight with Janes’ data will enable more militaries to take advantage of the data they can access,” Henrik Sommer, Director, Defence Operations at Systematic said.

“As SitaWare is being increasingly deployed across major national militaries and international alliances, such as NATO and the Five Eyes alliance, the more demand there is for digitalisation of the battlespace – from blue-force tracking, to planning and distribution of orders, and to intelligence collection, collation, and dissemination. The addition of a new information source to SitaWare Insight’s data lake demonstrates the platform’s abilities to take data from a wide range of sources, process them, and turn them into actionable intelligence that can be acted on to support the warfighter from the tactical edge to the highest echelons,” Sommer added.

“The excellent progress we have made with the integration of Janes foundational open-source data into SitaWare Insight in our initial release is a key milestone for Janes,” said Leendert Van Bochoven, Chief Commercial Officer, Janes. He went onto say, “We believe that this development will be of great benefit to our joint customers, providing deeper intelligence on the battlefield. As our partnership evolves, we are committed to delivering greater integration for our customers to achieve intelligence advantage from headquarters to the battlespace.”

The development of the API serves as a starting point for further integration of additional Janes data in the future to increase the understanding and assessment of the battlefield.

Systematic’s SitaWare suite allows the seamless integration of a wide range of C4ISR data and intelligence to deliver a comprehensive common operational picture to battlefield commanders – from those in a headquarters or joint operations centre, to vehicle-mounted troops and units on the ground. SitaWare Insight is a complete repository of data used to support military headquarters and intelligence units with their operations in the intelligence cycle, providing an integrated digitised solution to ensure that all the data available on the battlefield can be utilised by commanders and planners to make informed decisions. In combination with the SitaWare suite, equipment data can be easily shared across the battlefield, allowing for rapid threat analysis and assessment to be undertaken by commanders at all levels.

Trusted by over 50 countries, SitaWare is used by a variety of nations and organisations, including NATO, the US Army, the British Army, Australian Army, German Bundeswehr, Danish armed forces, Swiss Armed Forces, Defence Forces Ireland, Italy, and more.

05 Aug 24. Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, announced today the United States Army has approved the Milestone B decision for the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), marking the beginning of the weapon system’s Program of Record (PoR).

“This achievement marks a historic moment for both the U.S. Army and Bell,” said Ryan Ehinger, Bell’s Senior Vice President and Program Director, FLRAA program. “Now that the program has Milestone B approval, the course is set for delivering transformational capability to the warfighter. The FLRAA team remains laser-focused on working in tandem with the U.S. Army to execute the next phase of Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD).”

The Milestone B decision is a part of the Major Capability Acquisition process and comes after years of the Bell team working alongside the U.S. Army and Bell’s FLRAA teammates to decompose requirements, reduce risk and inform the weapon system acquisition. This includes the execution of the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) ensuring integration and effectiveness of the aircraft’s design including weapon system design, sustainment and system integrations that are integral to the U.S. Army’s special mission requirements.

“This significant milestone is made possible by the years of hard work and sacrifice by Team FLRAA and our teammates throughout the Army and the Department of Defense,” said COL Jeffrey Poquette, FLRAA Project Manager. “We are poised to deliver a truly transformational aircraft for the Army. The hard work continues into the Engineering and Manufacturing Development Phase where we will design, build and test FLRAA prototypes. It is certainly an exciting time for the program.”

Following the U.S. Army’s FLRAA contract award in December 2022, Bell established several new state-of-the-art facilities and established several new innovative manufacturing processes to drive cost, schedule and performance to support the program’s execution. As Bell and the FLRAA team enter into the EMD phase, Bell’s focus will be on continued design maturation and prototyping.

The U.S. Army’s new long-range assault aircraft will fly twice as far and twice as fast as the current fleet. By utilizing mature tiltrotor technology coupled with an innovative digital engineering approach and an open architecture, it will be the most reliable, affordable and high-performing long-range assault aircraft in the world.

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Oxley Group Ltd

Oxley offer a range of Military Marine NVG friendly LED lighting thatincludes navigation lights and controls, flight deck landing lights and interior compartment lighting. Our lighting products are used by Navies around the world including our own Royal Navy on UK Aircraft Carriers, Canadian Frigates, Swedish Submarines, Australian Surface vessels and Submarines, on board French Naval Carriers and in Naval Gun Turrets.

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The technology is extremely energy efficient and built robustly, with proven long life. The lightingisNVG friendly, dimmable andprogrammableto allow for operationswith aircraft pilots usingmilitary night vision goggles. They offersuperior design giving high reliability for the most demandingenvironments with high sealing and the ability to meet the most stringent EMC standards.

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Oxley are proud to say that we are working in partnership with SeaKing to enable a control panel to be offered with our LED Navigation Lighting. All of Oxley navigation lights have been specifically developed for vessels over 50 metres.

Contact Marcus Goad on 07850 917 263for more information or to arrangesamples.

Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, co*ckpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.

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NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NAVIGATION SYSTEMS, AVIONICS AND SOFTWARE (2024)

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