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First Arctic Survival Kits Installed in Eielson F-35As

Friday, October 23rd, 2020

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska — In November of 2019, Airmen from the 354th Fighter Wing developed a new arctic survival kit for the F-35A Lightning II. Now, 11 months later, the first kits are being installed in Eielson’s F-35A fleet.

Eielson’s F-35As are the first of the Air Force’s fleet to be stationed in an arctic climate, which drove the need for a new survival kit. After months of research, development and testing, the design was sent to the 354th Operations Group commander for approval. In April the kit was given the “green light” and aircrew flight equipment Airmen got busy building them for the approaching winter.

“Due to the smaller size of the seat we are limited on how many items we can pack in here,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ross Dugger, a 354th Operations Support Squadron AFE craftsman. “Over the years, we’ve worked with [survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialists] to develop this kit and decided what is the most essential equipment needed to survive.”

Airmen from AFE are responsible for packing the kit to fit a specific size in the F-35A before it is ready to go into the jet. The kit consists of survival tools and equipment to help pilots in case of an emergency ejection to include a knife for gathering food, a poncho to stay dry, and flares to signal rescue teams.

“It’s been a learning curve, with the seats being so new they are not as easy to pack,” Dugger said. “With time we will become more efficient and continue to ensure our pilots’ safety.”

After the kit has been packed and fitted to the seat, Airmen assigned to the 354th Maintenance Squadron Aircrew Egress Flight bring the kit to the jet and carefully swap the summer kit with the arctic kit. While doing this, Egress also inspects the seat for discrepancies to ensure the pilot will be safe if they eject.

“We are starting from the ground up, setting up systems and learning as we go,” said Staff Sgt. Victor Benitez, a 354th MXS Aircrew Egress specialist. “There’s a lot of components and sometimes it can take a long time to put just one bolt in, but it has to be done so that everything works 100 percent of the time.”

The new arctic seat kits will be installed on all of Eielson’s F-35A fleet and could potentially be used by some partner nations who have F-35s in similar climates.

“Hopefully they never have to use these items but I take a lot of pride in my work, which could potentially save a pilot’s life,” Dugger said.

By Senior Airman Beaux Hebert, 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post, SERE | 16 Comments »

Brigantes Presents – One Bravo Quadcopter Drones

Wednesday, October 21st, 2020

Parrot have long been the European leader in professional consumer drones and the features of these drones are able to translate very successfully within a military environment.

The ANAFI Thermal SE is a French, discreet, micro drone equipped with EO/IR cameras for Scouting & Intelligence, Combat Support & Mobility Support. Ultra compact and lightweight, with 11x zoom, it delivers real-time video and high resolution shooting capabilities from up to 4km away. With 26 minutes of flight time, ANAFI Thermal SE flies at an altitude ensuring total discretion beyond enemy lines and contributes to the conduct of close operations. Close operation requires speed and mobility. Thanks to the small form factor and its compact design, ANAFI Thermal SE can be easily integrated in the soldier’s tactical equipment pack. The camera module provides high quality and precise thermal imaging for urban environment detection and identification of threats and its secure wireless link (AES) transmits images and commands in real time with no data being disseminated.

The Anafi USA was originally designed for the US Army and is manufactured in Massachusetts. It is considered a big jump up in capability from the Thermal. The USA has similar features to the Thermal SE with additional features. It is IP rated to IP53, so it is ideal for poorer weather conditions and desert environments. It has a much larger thermal sensor, so the quality is increased, and it has a stabilised 32x zoom, which is a feature usually reserved for much larger, expensive drones in this industry.

Brigantes have worked with Parrot to provide advise and feedback to make these drones even more suitable to the end user. The additional changes, such as allowing the software to recognise grid referencing in MGRS and measuring angles in mls, make data mapping and surveillance in many deployments much easier to accomplish.

These drones are powerful, lightweight and can pack away easily in a Burgan whilst on exercise or deployments.

For more information:

UK – tribe@brigantes.com

International – international@brigantes.com

For visit our website Brigantes.com to set up an account. Procurement accounts are available.

Posted in Guest Post, UAS | 1 Comment »

MATBOCK Monday – Acquire Read Deploy ARD Sight

Monday, October 19th, 2020

Acquire Read Deploy (ARD) Sight

Good morning and Happy MATBOCK Monday!

The MATBOCK ARD (Aquire Read Deploy) is a new 40mm weapon sight designed and manufactured in the USA. Made from anodized aluminum and mountable on either side or top rails, the sight has a digital LCD screen that outputs the range of 40mm projectiles given the angle of the weapon, the weapon system and the round used. Currently, the sight is configured for m203, 320, PGL6 weapon platforms as well as multiple rounds to include HE and non-lethal rounds. More weapons and rounds are to be brought online and each weapon sight can be updated with the new software. The simplicity of the sight is what makes it so adaptable in a firefight. Simply estimate the range of the enemy and raise the weapon to achieve that desired distance. After the first round impact is visualized, the operator can adjust fire to bring him/her on target very quickly.

www.matbock.com/products/ard-sight

Don’t forget to join us Monday at 1:00 PM EST as we go live to show you the ARD Sight!

Posted in Advertiser, Guest Post, Optics | Comments Off on MATBOCK Monday – Acquire Read Deploy ARD Sight

SCUBAPRO Sunday – Operation Flipper

Sunday, October 18th, 2020

Operation Flipper was a raid by the Combined Operations to kill Field Marshall Erwin Rommel at his headquarters in Sidi Rafa, Libya, that would take place between10-19 November 1941. The attack would use man from Combined Operations, Special Boat Services (SBS), No. 11 Commando, Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), and also the man from the Special Operations Executive (SOE) G(R). This raid was to be a smaller part of a more significant campaign to relieve Tobruk and push the Axis from North Africa.

The operation had four main objectives, first and foremost was to kill Rommel at his headquarters, destroy the nearby Italian headquarters and its communications network, sabotage the Italian Intelligence Office in Appolonia and its communications network between Faidia and Lamdula, and lastly, conduct general sabotage actions elsewhere in the Axis forces rear area.

Leading the mission was Colonel Robert Laycock. His second in command was Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Keyes. On November 10, 1941, Laycock’s six officers and 53 men boarded the submarines Torbay and Talisman and left Alexandria harbor for Beda Littoria, Cyrenaica. Waiting for them on the beach was Captain Jock Haselden and an Arab soldier from the SOE’s G(R). They would guide the folbots (early versions of Klepper type canoes) to the beach and help them ashore. Once ashore, they would meet up with the rest of Haselden man, including two more Brits, a free Belgian, and another Arab soldier who stayed further inland; all had been dropped off by the LRDG earlier that day. Haselden’s team had local knowledge of the area; one of the Arabs would lead the assault team to the target while the rest of Haselden’s team would sabotaging the communications. Keyes got himself and all his men ashore. But as Layton and his men prepared to disembark, a storm struck. Heavy seas drove Talisman aground, and only Layton and seven men reached the beach.

With his force cut in half, Keyes modified the plan. It would be a two-part assault; Keyes would attack Rommel’s HQ, and Lt. Roy Cooke would lead the Italian headquarters’ attack. Layton and a small force would defend the force’s escape route. On the evening of November 15, Keyes, Cooke, and their men headed inland. Despite the weather, the groups managed to reach their respective launch positions on the evening of November 17. At midnight, they attacked. Keyes, leading a three-person assault team, burst into the villa identified as Rommel’s headquarters. They surprised a German officer who was killed as he struggled with Keyes. The attackers then rushed down the hall, and Keyes opened a room where ten Germans were arming themselves. One of the Germans shot Keyes, killing him. What the team didn’t know was that Rommel had left the compound a week earlier for Rome. After Keyes’s death, things started to get worse.

Campbell was shot in the leg by one of his men. He passed command to Sergeant Jack Terry and remained behind. Terry gathered the raiding team and retreated with 17 men to rejoin Laycock at the beach. Cooke’s men encountered a platoon or so of Italian police paratroopers. The Italians had been searching for the British raiders close to the village Mansura north of Cyrene. With the Italian and Germans looking for the raiding party, Laycock knew it would be impossible to re-embark on the submarines as they waited for the weather to improve. They were discovered and exchanged fire with local Italian and German troops. Low on ammo and aware that they could not stand off a larger force, Laycock ordered the men to scatter. Laycock and Terry made it to safety after 37 days in the desert. Bombardier John Brittlebank, one of the SBS teams who had guided the commandos in the folbots, escaped and survived alone in the desert for forty days until Allied troops picked him up. The rest of the raiding force was captured, some of them were wounded.

The raid was considered a failure by the British high command, but to the Germans, especially to Rommel, it showed what the Combined Operations could do. It would also help Winston Churchill decide to put the Commando’s and other groups under the SOE after the British military decide they didn’t need them anymore. Rommel was quoted as saying, “It was a brilliant operation and with great audacity.” Rommel ordered that Keyes and all the rest of the Commandos be buried with full military honors, sending his personal chaplain, priest Rudolf Dalmrath, to officiate. He had cypress crosses and wreaths made for the British and German dead. Rommel also instructed that photographs be taken of the ceremony and Keyes’ grave and sent them to his parents, a chivalrous act that increased British respect for him. British Special Operations would continue to wreak havoc thru out the Africa Theater of Operation, significantly contributing to the Allies victory.

Posted in Advertiser, Guest Post, History, Maritime | 5 Comments »

FirstSpear Friday Focus— FirstSpear Wins MAAWS Pocket Contract for MARCORSYSCOM

Friday, October 16th, 2020

Photo Credit: Department of Defense. US Marines fire a Carl Gustaf weapon system on Townshend Island at the Shoalwater Bay training area in Australia, July 21, 2017, during Talisman Saber 17.

Next year, the United States Marine Corps will begin fielding the 84mm MAAWS, a recoilless rifle weapons system to every squad in the corps. While the original version of the launcher was introduced in 1946, the ammunition has evolved significantly. The newest round, developed by Raytheon, is a precision-laser guided projectile with a multi-target warhead, capable of defeating bunkers, concrete, light-skinned vehicles and armored personnel carriers. Additionally, it has a range of nearly 2,000 meters and can be fired from inside an enclosed room.

FirstSpear is proud to announce it has received a contract to produce up to 10,200 of the company’s 84mm MAAWS Ammunition Pouch, to help Marines carry munitions under a balanced load in combat situations and quickly deploy them as needed. Awarded on September 25, 2020, the company is already ramping up production and will manufacture all pockets in the U.S. with Berry Compliant materials.

FirstSpear designed the pouch to be adjustable in length from 18 to 38 inches to accommodate a variety of projectiles, to meet current infrared requirements, and be compatible with current Marine Corps load bearing equipment. Zippered across both ends for ease of loading, the closed pocket design limits sand and debris exposure. It features an internal pocket primer protector and it comes equipped with an adjustable sling and tube straps for use with a hard case. Like all FirstSpear products, the 84mm MAAW Ammunition Pouch was designed to be durable, lightweight and highly functional.

For more information, check out First-Spear.com. To discover more about FirstSpear’s technology, check out First-Spear.tech.

Posted in Contracts, FS Friday Focus, Guest Post, Load Carrying, USMC | 3 Comments »

Army Readies Charging Port for Autonomous Drone Swarms

Thursday, October 15th, 2020

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — A swarm of hundreds of unmanned air vehicles will soon descend on unmanned ground vehicles to autonomously recharge, thanks to U.S. Army-funded research now underway at the University of Illinois Chicago.

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory awarded the University of Illinois Chicago a four-year, $8 million cooperative agreement in August to develop foundational science in two critical propulsion and power technology areas for powering future families of unmanned aircraft systems, or UASs.

This collaborative program will help small battery-powered drones autonomously return from military missions to unmanned ground vehicles for recharging. The university is developing algorithms to enable route planning for multiple teams of small unmanned air and ground vehicles.

Dr. Mike Kweon, program manager for the laboratory’s Versatile Tactical Power and Propulsion Essential Research Program, said the research on route planning is critical to the Army, which needs intelligent, small UASs that can find optimal routes during a military mission to autonomously return to unmanned ground vehicles, known as UGVs, for recharging. This will optimize the operational range extension and time on mission.

“Imagine in the future, the Army deploying a swarm of hundreds or thousands of unmanned aerial systems,” Kweon said. “Each of these systems has only roughly 26 minutes with the current battery technologies to conduct a flight mission and return to their home before they lose battery power, which means all of them could conceivably return at the same time to have their batteries replaced.”

This future concept is based on the reality of today’s technology, Kweon said.

“Soldiers would need to carry a few thousand batteries on missions to facilitate this, which is logistically overwhelming and overall, not conducive to a leading expeditionary military operation,” he said. “With this research project, we’re operationalizing scientific endeavors to increase Soldier readiness on the battlefields of tomorrow.”

The use of fast, recharging batteries and wireless power transfer technologies will allow multiple small UASs to hover around unmanned ground vehicles for wireless charging, and this will not require Soldier involvement.

“I believe this is the only way to realize practical UAS swarming, and small UAS and UGV teaming. Without solving how to handle the energy demand, all other advanced technologies using artificial intelligence and machine learning will be useless for the Army,” Kweon said. “On the battlefield, we do not have luxury to replace batteries for 100s of UAVs and recharging them for hours.”

For larger drones, Army-funded research will explore the fundamental science needed to develop miniaturized fuel sensors for future multi-fuel hybrid electric propulsion systems.

Fuel property sensors that university partners are developing will help Soldiers who operate fuel-based equipment measure fuel property in real time for the Army’s air and ground vehicles, Kweon said.

This knowledge will allow Army personnel to prevent catastrophic failures of the systems and to increase its performance and reliability.

“This research is critical not only for air vehicles but also ground vehicles, especially for the Army missions,” Kweon said. “The fuel sensor is telling the operator what type of fuel is being delivered from the fuel tank to the engine. This input signal can be used to intelligently tell the engine to adjust engine control parameters according to the fuel type to avoid any failures. This data can also be used to find root-cause failures if any engine component prematurely failed.”

The university’s current research in fuel sensor development examines the effects of fuel structure and chemistry on ignition in future multi-fuel drone engines so that real-time control can be implemented. This project further explores the underpinning science using advanced techniques including spectroscopic diagnostics and data science analysis to both enable and accelerate real-time control.

“It also enriches the understanding of the ignition of any unconventional fuel that may need to be burned in the drone engines,” said Prof. Patrick Lynch, a principal investigator at the University of Illinois Chicago on this project.

Army researchers said there is a lot of enthusiasm about partnering through the Open Campus model.

“This not only advances the state of the art, but also operationalizes science for transformational overmatch–the mission of the CCDC Army Research Laboratory,” said Dr. Mark Tschopp, ARL Central regional lead. “What is great is that we are expanding the team to include experts in academia, small businesses, and industry to push concepts and ideas into future capabilities for the Army. In a partnership with the Army, the University of Illinois Chicago brings subject matter expertise, unique facilities and a diverse student body in a collaborative partnership with Army scientists to advance these technologies and to provide future capabilities for the warfighter.”

This university-led research project is one of 11 funded this summer by the Army’s corporate research laboratory as a part of Center for UAS Propulsion efforts to develop technologies for multi-fuel capable hybrid-electric engines and fast efficient energy distribution. Each university partner is helping the Army address the energy demand required to power future unmanned vehicles. Universities also awarded for similar research are the University of Minnesota; University of Michigan; University of Wisconsin-Madison; University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign; Iowa State University; University of Delaware; University of North Texas; Texas A&M University; University of Missouri and University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

The research, slated to begin this fall, is part of a larger research portfolio of multi-fuel capable hybrid-electric technologies led by the laboratory that supports the Army Modernization Priority for Future Vertical Lift. Most recently, the laboratory recently announced the development of a new, advanced scientific model that will allow vehicle maintenance specialists to turn to bio-derived fuels in austere locations, and efforts to convert a home-based generator into a power source for autonomous ground and air vehicles.

By U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs

Posted in Army, Guest Post, Power, UAS | Comments Off on Army Readies Charging Port for Autonomous Drone Swarms

Brigantes Presents – Expeditionary Command Tents – The Revolutionary Alternative

Wednesday, October 14th, 2020

Hilleberg the Tentmaker is a family owned company with over 45 years of experience in manufacturing lightweight, all-season tents of the highest quality. Brigantes have worked in partnership with Hilleberg in advising and adapting these tents, making them a relevant to the military user.

They offer a solution that blows the traditional, command tents (that were organised using big, heavy canvas tents) out of the water! Using this alternative, no vehicle would be needed to act as transport, these tents when packed away can be carried on foot. A complete game changer when forces need to respond in a rapid reaction or expeditionary way. The Atlas MIL and Stalon XL MIL are two tents that can be used effectively as a command station.

The Atlas’ Geodesic design allows it to be a freestanding structure that holds up against all weather conditions. It is one of the strongest free-standing tents in the world. Regardless of location, whether in a hanger/warehouse or outside, it does not need to be pegged down.

The Stalon XL MIL is a very large, robust tunnel tent and can be erected by one person in good weather. The Stalon XL can be configured in nearly endless ways, not just as a command centre but a classroom, a mobile medical station, staging/briefing room, for search and rescue teams or as a field dormitory for any large group.

Both these tents offer all weather protection and are modular. Each module of the tent can be zipped on or off to accommodate the needs of the user, and multiple modules can be easily connected or disconnected as necessary. So, it is possible for the structures to grow as the unit/operation grows. With the addition of Hilleberg’s light blocking fabric, and using foldaway furniture by Big Anges, this ground-breaking alternative has the ability radicalise to how the military view command tent construction, making a much more lightweight, vehicle free solution.

For more information contact:

(For UK sales) tribe@brigantes.com

(International enquiries) international@brigantes.com

Or visit Brigantes.com and set up an account to view the range.

Are you looking to make a government purchase? Procurement accounts are now available.

Posted in Guest Post, International, Shelter | 2 Comments »

Army, Air Force Form Partnership, Lay Foundation for CJADC2 Interoperability

Wednesday, October 14th, 2020

WASHINGTON — Unity among military branches and a combined, all-domain effort could be the difference in winning large-scale, multi-domain battles the Army expects to fight in the future.

To help achieve that goal, the Army and Air Force signed a two-year collaboration agreement in the development of Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2, which will impact units in both branches, leaders announced Tuesday.

During the daylong meeting at the Pentagon, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. discussed how to best combine each service’s assets to achieve greater synchronization. It also marked the first Army-Air Force talks since Brown took on his new role in August.

Both service chiefs agreed to establish CJADC2 at the most “basic levels” by defining mutual standards for data sharing and service interfacing in an agreement that will run until the end of fiscal year 2022.

Army Futures Command and the Air Force’s office of strategy, integration and requirements, A-5, will lead the effort, designed by the Defense Department to deliver CJADC2 capabilities to the warfighter quicker and to promote “shared’ understanding of concepts and capabilities.

In the CJADC2 concept, each of the military’s six branches would connect sensors, shooters, and command nodes in a “mesh network” that will allow commanders more options and the ability to act faster. Each branch, including the newly-formed Space Force, must learn to interface with each other and successfully access data, reconnaissance and intelligence collected from across joint networks.

“The core challenges of the future fight are speed and scale,” said Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn, Army deputy chief of staff, G-3/5/7. “The future fight will be much faster, and the joint force will have more sensors and more shooters. [It will] be more widely distributed than ever before.”

The initiative will combine the Army’s Project Convergence with the Air Force and Space Force’s Advanced Battlefield Management System, or ABMS, and will impact the joint forces’ training as well as exercises and demonstrations.

Project Convergence is the Army’s plan to merge its joint force capabilities and keep pace with technological change. On Sept. 18, the Army completed its five-week Project Convergence 20 exercise at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, where it tested artificial intelligence capabilities along with its abilities to transmit information from sensors in the air, space and on the ground.

Meanwhile, the Air Force developed ABMS to enable the joint force to quickly collect, analyze and transmit data at machine speeds. Both projects are designed to help make informed battlefield decisions faster.

“ABMS is the Internet-of-Things for the military — it’s ‘IoT.mil.’ Imagine the level of situational awareness typically relegated to traditional brick-and-mortar centers being provided to those who need it most on the edge,” said Preston Dunlap, the Air and Space Force’s chief architect. “Imagine allowing operators to choose what data feeds are important to them and for others to be able to subscribe to get the information they need. The power of this architecture is unlocked by services, allies and partners working together to connect networks and share information at machine speed. That’s all-domain superiority. And today’s event took us one step closer to realizing that future.”

By Joe Lacdan, Army News Service

Posted in Air Force, Army, Guest Post | Comments Off on Army, Air Force Form Partnership, Lay Foundation for CJADC2 Interoperability