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Rheinmetall Subsidiary ZMS Wins Important Order to Equip Bundeswehr Field Hospital in Gao, Mali

Tuesday, March 29th, 2022

The German Bundeswehr has contracted with the new Rheinmetall subsidiary Zeppelin Mobile Systeme GmbH (ZMS) to supply and integrate state-of-the-art medical technology for the field hospital at Camp Castor, the Bundeswehr’s forward operating base in Gao, Mali. In all, the order is worth a figure in the lower two-digit million-euro range. The material will be furnished in the second half of the year, with integration slated to take place at the end of 2022 on location in Mali.

Besides furnishing and integrating high-quality medical technology into the fixed infrastructure of the forward operating base in Gao, ZMS GmbH’s scope of performance includes training of personnel, comprehensive documentation as well as a service and maintenance package.

“As a subsidiary of Rheinmetall, we at ZMS are eager in these challenging times to be the Bundeswehr’s first choice for high-quality medical technology in mobile field hospitals”, states Hauke H. Bindzus, managing director of ZMS GmbH. “Here we offer wide-ranging capabilities for integrating highly advanced medical technology, with an extensive array of products enabling us to supply complete turnkey field hospitals. In the contract just awarded, we will be equipping the field hospital at the forward operating base in Gao with state-of-the-art medical technology. We are keenly aware of the importance of this mission, which is to ensure that our troops deployed in Mali get the best-possible medical care.”

Rheinmetall bought Zeppelin Mobile Systeme GmbH in November 2021, a company based in Meckenbeuren near Lake Constance in southwest Germany. The takeover reflects the strategic decision of Rheinmetall’s International Projects and Services business unit to significantly expand its range of activities in support of customers’ foreign deployed operations. Here, ZMS brings to bear its longstanding expertise in medical technology and mobile field medical care.

Beyond the medical realm, ZMS is a leading maker of individually customized shelter solutions for a wide variety of applications in the security and military sector. Its high-quality shelters are frequently used in a military support context, e.g., as field kitchens, decontaminations systems, mobile maintenance and repair facilities, and for housing military communications equipment.

ZMS is already supporting the Bundeswehr as a direct or indirect supplier in several projects.

The Group’s new International Projects and Services business unit, to which Rheinmetall Project Solutions GmbH and ZMS GmbH both belong, serves a key international market. Going forward, the business unit will bundle Rheinmetall’s capabilities in areas such as operational support, depot organization and the disposal of expired munitions. It seeks to support customers by providing specific long-term services during deployed operations, positioning itself as a “one-stop shop” in the process. For example, Rheinmetall can plan and construct troop accommodations for forward operating bases, including hardened facilities; take charge of surveillance, including state-of-the-art sensor systems and robotics; take over day-to-day running of the base, including logistic services and provision of support personnel; and dismantle the base when the mission ends. Cooperation agreements with other companies and additional acquisitions are planned in order to further expand the portfolio.

Posted in Advertiser, Contracts, International, Medical, Press Release | Comments Off on Rheinmetall Subsidiary ZMS Wins Important Order to Equip Bundeswehr Field Hospital in Gao, Mali

Short Battery Life: A Drone’s Worst Enemy

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022

IARPA awards $10.2 million for battery research to a team of performers led by Rutgers University for the RESILIENCE program

CAMBRIDGE, MA—March 23, 2022—Sensors and small aerial drones are touted as force multipliers for the military. Drones, known to specialists as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), serve as the eyes and ears for combat and surveillance operations while keeping soldiers and intelligence personnel out of harm’s way.

UAVs can be configured to detect weapons, track troop movements and even pick up trace amounts of chemicals. But a key component that has long stymied UAVs is an adequate power source: aerial drones typically cannot fly for as long or as well in demanding operational conditions as many missions require.

Now scientists and engineers are developing a power source for UAVs that can better withstand conditions such as large temperature fluctuations, vibration and shock. The new tech incorporates recent advances in electrochemistry, microelectronics and packaging that combine for novel energy storage. The aim is to create reliable power solutions for missions conducted in extreme and challenging environments—and potentially triple battery life over best-in-class lithium-ion.

Rob Doe, an energy storage expert and microsystems integrator at Draper, says improving a drone’s power supply, or battery, is possible given recent advances in science and technology. “A battery that doubles or triples the energy density while meeting all other necessary performance requirements is well beyond the current performance of commercial solutions, but is within reach of the developer community,” Doe said.

Doe and his colleagues at Draper are contributing to the development of sensors and UAVs as part of a team recently selected by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). Led by Rutgers University, the team is developing portable power solutions for IARPA’s Robust Energy Sources for Intelligence Logistics In Extreme, Novel and Challenging Environments (RESILIENCE) program.

Battery cell development, using rechargeable lithium metal, is headed by Glenn Amatucci, Ph.D., professor of materials science engineering and director of the Energy Storage Research Group at the Rutgers School of Engineering. Draper’s primary contribution is to leverage its expertise in custom microelectronics, packaging and systems integration to optimize the energy storage system output, meet stringent size requirements and accelerate adoption of Rutgers’ energy storage solution.

The team has set a goal of developing a power source for drones, small sensors and portable devices that exceeds that of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and single-use legacy lithium batteries. The team is working to create new electrochemical energy storage solutions, and lay the foundation for using rechargeable lithium metal in the power source they create. The vision is to extend battery life and design a battery that can be charged and discharged thousands of times.

IARPA says the aim of the RESILIENCE program is to develop “portable power solutions for electronics that can operate under the demanding operational conditions experienced by intelligence community officers.” If successful, the effort will provide power sources to extend the function of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with vertical takeoff and landing capability and unattended electronic devices, which must operate in extreme environmental conditions for years.

The company has previously applied its multidisciplinary engineering capabilities to a variety of related programs including to tiny, robust communications and navigation devices; persistent surveillance systems; and navigation software for drones.

www.draper.com

This publication was supported by a subaward from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, under Award No. 2021-21060200003 from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence – IARPA.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Rutgers or those of the Office of Director of National Intelligence – IARPA.

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DroneShield Receives Its Initial GSA Order

Friday, March 18th, 2022

DroneShield is pleased to advise it has received its initial order via a GSA schedule from a U.S. Government law enforcement and public safety agency.

GSA Schedule (U.S. General Services Administration, or also referred to as Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) and Federal Supply Schedule) is a United States long-term government-wide contract with commercial firms providing federal, state, and local government buyers access to more than 11 million commercial supplies (products) and services.

DroneShield products are available for U.S. State, local, and tribal governments through GSA Multiple Award Schedule under Special Item Number (SIN) 334290, or alternatively via GSA’s Cooperative Purchasing Program.

The public safety project includes multiple DroneSentry-C2, DroneShield’s enterprise command-and-control system, DroneShield RfOne long-range UAS direction finder sensors, and RadarZero small form-factor radar.

Matt McCrann, CEO of DroneShield LLC (DroneShield U.S. subsidiary), commented, “State, local and tribal governments have a growing need for drone detection solutions. Often the procurement process presents complexity for Government end users to field the capabilities needed across their organizations. Our availability on the GSA Schedule provides an easy-to-use contract vehicle for them to acquire this capability and field effective counterdrone solutions. With DroneShield solutions now on GSA, Government agencies have the confidence of receiving proven products at competitive pricing.”

Oleg Vornik, DroneShield CEO, added, “We welcome onboard our first customer through GSA, and anticipate for this to be one of numerous U.S. deployments. Purchasing via GSA is also a great indicator of increasing maturity and scale of the C-UAS market, whereby the acquisitions move from experimental budgets to streamlined large acquisition processes.”

Further information about DroneShield’s law enforcement C-UAS solutions can be found at www.droneshield.com/law-enforcement.

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US Army Awards Contract to Evaluate Ammunition Industrial Base

Friday, March 18th, 2022

Yesterday DoD announced:

McKinsey & Co. Inc., Washington, D.C., was awarded a $16,397,621 firm-fixed-price contract to develop a model to evaluate the bottlenecks and capacities of the ammunition industrial base, assess outside the continental U.S. ammunition supply chain dependency and risk, and to develop financial assessments of government-owned, contractor-operated facilities. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Washington, D.C., with an estimated completion date of March 15, 2024. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation, Army funds in the amount of $16,397,621 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Newark, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (W15QKN-22-C-0038).

Posted in Ammo, Army, Contracts | 1 Comment »

HENSOLDT Equips German C-130 “Hercules” with State-of-the-art Missile Defense System

Wednesday, March 16th, 2022

Taufkirchen, 11. March 2022 – In the course of the acquisition of three Lockheed C-130J-30 and KC-130J “Hercules” aircraft each, the German Bundeswehr decided to equip all aircraft with HENSOLDT’s latest generation of defense sensor technology. With MILDS Block 2, HENSOLDT is supplying a total of 35 sensors (five per aircraft and five units for lab use) to Danish company Terma A/S, which is managing the integration of the systems at Lockheed Martin through Terma Inc. The contracts, with a scope of 2.9 million euros, were signed in 2020. So far, 20 sensors and the ordered desiccant-kits have already been delivered. By January 2023, the remaining 15 sensors will be delivered. The first “Hercules” for the German Air Force was handed over in Évreux/Fauville (France) on February 19, 2022 to the Franco-German air-transport squadron. With MILDS Block 2, HENSOLDT is also helping to close the capability gap created by the retirement of the C-160 “Transall”.

MILDS Block 2 is a passive, true imaging sensor system optimised for detecting emission signatures in the UV solar blind spectral band emitted from an approaching missile exhaust plume. The sensor is designed as the successor to the well-known MILDS AN/AAR-60, offering increased sensitivity and additional applications. MILDS Block 2 detects incoming missile threats and indicates the direction of arrival with maximum warning time. MILDS Block 2’s high spatial resolution combined with advanced temporal processing provides a very high declaration rate while virtually eliminating false alarms. MILDS Block 2 consists typically of four to six identical interconnected detectors integrated into the higher-level EW system. In addition, neither cooling nor a central processing unit are required.

A high percentage of aircraft losses in current and recent conflicts have been caused by ground-based defense systems using IR SAM (infrared surface-to-air missile). To keep pace with this evolution on the threat side, HENSOLDT Sensors has developed the MILDS AN/AAR-60 Block 2 missile warning system, a self-protection solution specifically for helicopters and wide-body aircraft that allows for higher performance and enables additional features such as in-sensor data recording and Hostile Fire Indication (HFI). Rapid detection and declaration, combined with automatic countermeasure release and crew alerting, supports mission success and safe crew and aircraft return.

Posted in Aviation, Contracts, International | Comments Off on HENSOLDT Equips German C-130 “Hercules” with State-of-the-art Missile Defense System

US Army Seeks Sources for M240 6.8mm Conversion Kits

Wednesday, March 16th, 2022

The U.S. Army, Army Contracting Command-New Jersey at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ 07806-5000 is conducting a market survey / sources sought notice on behalf of the Project Manager Soldier Lethality (PMSL) for an M240 6.8mm conversion kit for M240B and/or M240L. Presently, the M240B and M240L machine guns are 7.62mm weapons.

From the RFI:

The conversion kit should include all hardware and instructions needed to modify a standard M240B and/or M240L to fire the 6.8mm ammunition. This will include a new barrel assembly and may include changes to the weapon powering through updates to the gas regulator, drive spring, or other means. The barrel assembly may be either of the standard barrel length (M240B) or short barrel (M240L). Information on 6.8mm ammunition type, specifications, and availability should be provided.

The winner of the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program to replace the 5.56mm M4 Carbine and M249 SAW with weapons firing 6.8mm for close combat forces (XM5 & XM250) should be announced soon. From the beginning of this effort many have referred to it as an ammunition program. This Army RFI demonstrates the veracity of that claim.

While there have been several different candidate weapons involved, there were three very different ammunition types in the running until late last year. All were developed to meet the Army’s requirement to create what is essentially a 270 WSM but with a 20% weight reduction for both ammo and weapons.

The most radical type of ammunition offered up was the so-called case telescoped cartridge from Textron, a rimless technology with the projectile embedded within the case. They are no longer in the running and such a modification to the M240 desired by the Army would have been impossible.

Slightly less ambitious is True Velocity’s polymer cartridge case with its peculiar neck design where the projectile is inserted into the case. TV’s ammunition is intended to be manufactured in their proprietary machines.

Finally, SIG SAUER’s ammunition division introduced a hybrid case with a brass body and steel head. With this construction, they claim to gain an significant increase in velocity over conventional brass ammunition as well as the desired weight reduction. It can be manufactured with current machinery, but adds the step of attaching the two case components together.

However, despite Textron’s exit from the program, I will assert that there are still three candidate cartridges. Along with SIG and True Velocity, the Army is sure to have cooked something up in-house, if only for experimentation purposes to establish a baseline of 6.8 conventional, brass case ammunition.

Both the Army and industry know a lot about how such a cartridge would perform across all JPEO Ammunition’s requirements and how to manufacture it with the machines currently located at Lake City Army Ammunition Plant.

In fact, no matter which type of ammunition is elected for NGSW, it will be manufactured at Lake City Army Ammunition Plant. The program has budgeted for a new next gen ammo building there.

270 WSM next to SIG’s 6.8mm Hybrid Cartridge.

You’ll note that NGSW is a Carbine and SAW replacement and those are currently 5.56mm weapons. When you consider that the next gen is 6.8mm, regardless of which form it takes, is the equivalent of 270 WSM, then you realize it will outperform 7.62mm NATO. Then, you’ll ask yourself why you’d provide the Infantry Company a weapon with a shorter range which delivers less energy on target than what the Squad is carrying. From the beginning, it was a forgone conclusion that if feasible, at least some of the M240s in inventory (around 100,000 across DoD) would be rechambered to 6.8.

In fact, True Velocity demonstrated this capability in the M240 last year, and reports are that the US Army has conducted experimentation with their own 6.8mm ammunition.

This move makes complete sense and I’m glad to see the Army moving forward with it. However, since the Army has yet to announce which team has won NGSW and therefore which type of ammunition the 6.8 conversion will be required to fire, it will be more difficult for industry to offer specifics in response to the Army’s sources sought notice.

Eric Graves

Editor

Posted in Advertiser, Ammo, Army, Contracts, weapons | 22 Comments »

IWA 22 – GLOCK French Army Pistol System

Friday, March 4th, 2022

So far GLOCK has delivered around 80% of the almost 75,000 Pistolet Semi-Automatique examples of the new which the French military selected in 2019 to replace their aging MAC 50 and MAS G1 9mm NATO pistols.

At IWA they showed us what the package looks like.

As you can see the system consists of a G17 with three extra magazines, an extra upper with mounted Aimpoint ACRO RDS, and B&T suppressor.

The French Army, Navy and Air Force are included in the contract along with some other French agencies.

Posted in Contracts, International, IWA, weapons | 8 Comments »

U.S. Air Force Procures Orolia’s CRPA Testing Solution

Sunday, February 20th, 2022

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Feb. 15, 2022 – Orolia Defense & Security, the No. 1 provider of software-defined simulation solutions for navigation warfare, was selected by the U.S. Air Force Guided Weapons Evaluation Facility to deliver a BroadSim Wavefront. BroadSim Wavefront is a pillar of innovation among Orolia’s Skydel-powered advanced GNSS simulators.

The GWEF provides laboratory testing and simulation tools for developing precision-guided weapon technology, including a comprehensive scope of GPS/INS systems and integrated components like sensors, signals of opportunity and Controlled Reception Pattern Antennas. CRPAs are fundamental in many platforms due to their enhanced protection against electronic attacks in NAVWAR environments.

The Broadsim Wavefront simulator will be integrated into a test environment for networked, collaborative and autonomous weapon systems being developed under the Golden Horde program. Golden Horde is one of four Air Force Vanguard programs designed to rapidly advance emerging weapons systems and warfighting concepts through prototype and experimentation.

Of the several capabilities the GWEF required, features such as low-latency hardware-in-the-loop, automated calibration, and the flexibility to quickly integrate future signals and sensors were the most critical and serve as a key reason Orolia’s BroadSim Wavefront was selected. This system will also be capable of testing eight element CRPA systems, eight simultaneous Fixed Radiation Pattern Antenna systems, or a combination of CRPA and FRPA systems.

“When designing BroadSim Wavefront, we re-imagined every aspect for the user,” said Tyler Hohman, director of products for Orolia Defense & Security. “Though the GWEF unit contains eight nodes (corresponding to each antenna element), it can be scaled from four to 16 antenna elements. One of the greatest advancements is our continuous phase monitoring and compensation technique. It automatically monitors, aligns and adjusts the phase of each RF output continuously throughout the duration of a scenario.”

• Watch the Skydel Wavefront calibration tutorial on Orolia Defense & Security’s YouTube channel.

“Gone are the days of re-calibrating each frequency on your system, limiting your scenario duration or re-calibration every time you power cycle your system,” added Hohman. “Simply turn the system on, start the scenario, and your Wavefront system phase aligns and remains aligned for the entirety of the test.”

Leveraging the Skydel Simulation Engine, BroadSim Wavefront also supports high-dynamics, MNSA M-Code, alternative RF navigation, open-source IMU plug-in and 1000Hz iteration update rate.

“Because of the software-defined architecture, many upgrades don’t require additional hardware, which has been a crucial advantage for customers who are already using this solution,” Hohman said.

The next generation of CRPA testing is led by BroadSim Wavefront. For more information, visit www.oroliads.com/broadsim-wavefront.

Ask about Orolia’s wavefront superiority by contacting sales@OroliaDS.com.

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