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Federal Ambassador Julie Golob Takes Gold and Silver at the 2022 Bianchi Cup

June 5th, 2022

ANOKA, Minnesota – June 2, 2022 – Federal Ammunition is proud to congratulate legendary shooter, hunter, author, mother, and U.S. Army veteran Julie Golob on an excellent performance at the 2022 Bianchi Cup. Competitors from throughout the United States and worldwide attended the event, which is the Action Pistol National Championships and International Tournament, held at Green Valley Rifle & Pistol Club near Columbia, Missouri, May 25-27, 2022. Golob took home the Women’s Team Gold Medal and was the Women’s Silver Medalist. She placed 20th Overall in the Open Division.

“After a challenging 2 years of contending with COVID-19, this sport is building back up to pre-pandemic attendance, which is great to see,” said Golob. “The event consisted of four courses of fire: Practical, Barricades, Falling Plates, and Moving Target. The match tests extreme accuracy and speed. Unlike many other action shooting sports, Bianchi is unique in that there is a perfect score. It allows you to track your progress and test yourself against the best shooters in the world.”

“We at Federal congratulate Julie on her recent wins in Missouri,” said Federal Vice President of Marketing Jason Nash. “Julie and Federal have been partners for many years. She has done excellent work for us, promoting our brand and products. Especially this year with her efforts in helping us produce our ‘It’s Federal Season’ podcast. We thank her for all she does for us, on and off match stages.”

“I rely on Federal Premium components and use a custom load tuned for my Open Division action pistol that starts with high quality Federal brass and incredibly reliable Federal primers,” Golob said. “Their products build confidence in my performance.”

Federal Ammunition can be found at dealers nationwide or purchased online direct from Federal. For more information on all products from Federal or to shop online, visit www.federalpremium.com.

Posted in Ammo, Press Release, Shooting Sports | Comments Off on Federal Ambassador Julie Golob Takes Gold and Silver at the 2022 Bianchi Cup

Army Modernizes Pacific Expeditionary Signal Battalion

June 5th, 2022

HELEMANO MILITARY RESERVATION, Hawaii — As the 307th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, or ESB, celebrated its 80th birthday on May 27, the Army is converting the unit to an ESB-Enhanced formation. With this conversion comes a smaller, lighter and faster network communications equipment tool suite that will better serve the unit’s unique and varied mission sets.

With companies in both Hawaii and Alaska, the battalion provides global network connectivity on short notice to U.S. Army Pacific and U.S. Army North units, often in harsh locations, from secluded island jungles thousands of miles across the ocean to ice-covered mountains in the Arctic Circle.

“We talk about the tyranny of distance, about the challenges created by the vast number of locations and extreme environments throughout the Pacific; this new expeditionary equipment set will help us to support those missions,” said Col. Lee Adams, commander of the 516th Theater Signal Brigade, to which 307th ESB-E is assigned. “We are always trying to improve and to provide foundational capabilities for the theater Army. This transition to an ESB-E does that for us; it gives us a better capability to enable the theater Army to fight successfully.”

The reduced size and system complexity of the equipment set enables ESB-E units to significantly increase their network support to other units with more nodes and less manpower, while reducing transportation requirements by over 60 percent. The tool suite includes various-sized expeditionary satellite dishes and baseband equipment, high-throughput backhaul radios, and wireless command post technologies. It replaces the unit’s much larger Tactical Network Transport At-The-Halt equipment, formally known as Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, which is often transported across the Pacific via cargo ships. The new equipment set can be transported via commercial airline if needed, in hours versus days or weeks.

Prior to his current position, Adams commanded the first unit to be converted to an ESB-E, the 50th ESB-E, during the planning and initial fielding of the unit’s pilot equipment. The 307th ESB-E conversion marks the sixth unit that the Army has fielded with the new equipment package. The Army’s Project Manager Tactical Network, assigned to the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, began fielding the unit with the Scalable Network Node to the companies in both Hawaii and Alaska in March. Fielding the remainder of the initial baseline systems is expected to be complete by the end of the fiscal year.

The Army’s agile ESB-E acquisition and fielding approach aligns with its two-year incremental Capability Set fielding process, which enables the service to enhance the ESB-E baseline capability in future capability sets if Soldier feedback warrants it, or when evolving commercial technologies become mature enough to be procured. On the current plan, the Army is fielding several ESB-Es per fiscal year until all of the ESBs have been upgraded to the new baseline capability.

“As I talk to the other ESB-E commanders, the [project manager], and its fielding team that is here now, and we get feedback from our Soldiers as they going through the training, I can see firsthand the accumulation of lessons learned and how the equipment set continues to improve,” said Lt. Col. Drew Chaffee, commander of the 307th ESB-E, who also once served as a company commander for the unit.

The ESB-E tool suite is a critical element of Capability Set 21, which delivers smaller, lighter and faster communications systems that are easier to operate and provide increased network communication Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency, or PACE, plan options. The tool suite provides signal path diversity in congested and contested environments, leveraging numerous high-throughput line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight capabilities.

“It’s critical to have a good PACE plan, to be able to incorporate different transport that may be more survivable in a particular terrain. Every commander wants more options,” Adams said. “When we are fighting in a battle environment that is degraded, intermittent or just has delayed latency, I have to have different technologies, different pieces of kit that make me more survivable, make us a harder target to hit, yet allows us to stand still to support multi-domain operations at an assured level. And that is what having these different network transport capabilities provide us.”

To enable additional transport paths for improved network resiliency, the Army is working to deliver high-throughput and low latency satellite communications leveraging emerging commercial technologies and services in non-traditional orbits, such as Low Earth Orbit and Medium Earth Orbit. In April, the 307th ESB conducted a demonstration of commercial high-throughput and low latency satellite communications, at the Helemano Military Reservation on Oahu. The unit plans to further experiment with the capability during upcoming U.S. Army Pacific training exercises.

“The name of the game is operational flexibility,” Chaffee said. “This new kit is scalable and tailorable to the mission. We have the operational flexibility to tailor our teams, our equipment set, and our footprint to the requirements based on the mission and the environment that we find ourselves in. This smaller lighter ESB-E kit is going to get us there much more effectively and it highlights the United States’ ability to support and adapt in some of the most austere and remotely located environments in the world.”

By Amy Walker, Project Manager Tactical Network, PEO C3T, public affairs

Posted in Army, Comms, Forces Focus, Guest Post | Comments Off on Army Modernizes Pacific Expeditionary Signal Battalion

KC Eusebio Wins Again!

June 4th, 2022

Atlanta Arms congratulates our shooter, KC, on his recent Dragons Cup Championship victory

KC won 1st Place Open using Atlanta Arms’ very own .38 Super Comp Elite ammo. When asked how the day went, KC responded “This was one of the hardest matches of the year. Moving steel targets, sliding moving targets, and 107 degree weather made this competition so challenging. My Atlanta Arms Elite ammunition is the driving force in my marksmanship. Always consistent, always the best. Thank you so much to my Atlanta Arms family for always taking care of me.” Congratulations!

Posted in Ammo, Guest Post, Shooting Sports | Comments Off on KC Eusebio Wins Again!

Mountainsmith Makes Big Splash with New Lumbar Packs for 2023 Colorado-based Company Adds, Updates, and Refines Award-winning Packs

June 4th, 2022

Golden, CO (June 2022) – Mountainsmith, a Golden, Colorado based company that has spent more than 40 years as a leading gear manufacturer specializing in durable goods for hiking, camping, and a variety of outdoor activities has expanded their storied line of lumbar packs, while also upgrading their critically acclaimed backpacks. The new lumbar packs coming to market for spring of ‘23 will be the Swoop, Epic, Sprint, and Timber.

Mountainsmith has always been committed to providing outdoor enthusiasts with durable gear that can withstand the rigors of any backcountry pursuit. Celebrated for a pioneering spirit that led to a series of breakthrough designs for backcountry adventurers in the 1980s and 1990s, Mountainsmith continues to innovate with groundbreaking designs, while also refining what is tried and true. The need for moving light and fast, while being able to carry a sufficient amount of gear in order to pursue big and wild adventures has never been more paramount than now, which has allowed the famed Colorado outdoor company to re-stake their claim and design what recreationalists and athletes need by doing so with new lumbar packs.

With Senior Designer Rio Telge at the forefront of the company’s design plans since ‘21, who has over twenty years worth of designing for outdoor and travel brands, has played a big role in these next level lumbar packs that are changing the way we recreate outdoors by feeling light but stocked with the right gear. These new packs include features such as hunting and fishing front panel organization on the Timber, two side bottle pockets for mountain bike water bottles on the Epic, and a high-performance construction to carry everything you need and nothing that

you don’t on the Swoop, while all new lumbar packs have bright yellow lining to promote visibility.

“Our main goal was to build upon the heritage of our brand while improving and adding new styles for the modern customer. Through testing, surveys of our friends and customers, and market research we have created some great new enhancements for existing styles as well as added some excellent new products to our 2023 collection to make it the best yet,” said Senior Designer Rio Telge. “From the tried and true classics of the Day and Tour, to the multifunctional and technical additions such as the Epic and Timber, to the Ergonomic Swoop and crossbody carry of the Knockabout, there is something for everyone and every adventure.”

Mountainsmith has a truly renowned past when it comes to lumbar packs. This is thanks to the company’s original 1996 patent that was filed and won with the US Patent Office for a self-supporting lumbar pack. Initially designed to cater to backcountry skiers, the lumbar pack was needed in order to move faster and hold avalanche gear. As backcountry skiing practices changed, lumbar packs became better suited for in-bounds terrain when used for skiing, although the patent, patented for the creation of the Delta Strap, became essential for hikers. The Delta Strap helps pull the load closer to a hiker’s body and into the thoracic region of the back for a more dynamic load carrying system.

“The new 2023 collection is simply superb. We have dug into our heritage and expertise to add some fantastic updates and new styles to our lumbar pack collection,” Mountainsmith General Manager Jonathan McFarland said. “I think you will find the quality and durability you expect to see from Mountainsmith layered in with some real functional and thoughtful designs. I am excited with the work the team has done and am more excited to show them to the world.”

To learn more about Mountainsmith, please visit www.mountainsmith.com.

Posted in Packs, Press Release | 1 Comment »

Air Force, Space Force Announce Next Hackathon at 3 Locations and Classifications, Enabling Government, Industry, Citizens to Build Emergent Weapons System Capabilities

June 4th, 2022

WASHINGTON (AFNS) —

Applications are now open for the next BRAVO Hackathon, BRAVO 1 Canary Release, which will kick-off July 18-22 simultaneously at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia; Patrick Space Force Base, Florida; and Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

A hackathon is an innovation and software development event commonly employed by technology companies in which teams self-form and urgently develop working prototypes that are later presented to senior leaders. Canary Release takes its name from a data-driven software release technique, leveraged frequently by technology companies where new software is introduced to a sample of users in production for telemetry collection and validation before distributing the software to the remaining population.

BRAVO hackathons gather engineers, data scientists, data visualization and user experience experts, and product and use case owners from industry, academia, government and citizenry to build operationally focused emergent capabilities with mentorship from senior Department of Defense leaders. At BRAVO 0, the first hackathon’s 11 teams focused on challenges such as: jet sensor visualization and playback, target planning and pairing, multi-jet sensor fusion analysis, artificial intelligence-assisted radar sensor failure mitigation, maintenance visualization and automation/artificial intelligence-assisted personnel recovery.

Four months after BRAVO 0, one project’s work has been operationalized to the European theatre, while half have been selected by Air Force organizations for additional development, testing and fielding. BRAVO 0 projects produced capabilities related to Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall’s operational imperatives in areas such as Air Force Joint All-Domain Command and Control, next generation system of systems, post-flight data analysis and readiness.

“A senior DoD official recently referred to the capability to deploy updates to SpaceX Starlink in response to data indicating jamming as ‘eye-watering.’ This shouldn’t be the case. Every big tech company and some nation states have already built automated pipelines that collect, aggregate and fuse data to enable such capabilities,” said Stuart Wagner Department of the Air Force chief digital transformation officer.

“DoD talks a lot about connecting weapons systems but has been too slow to implement groundbreaking, data-driven capabilities. BRAVO hackathons leverage existing Department of Defense technologies to provide hackers the development environment and operational data to rapidly build data-driven kill chains and cognitive electronic warfare capabilities. If you are a cleared or uncleared American citizen with technology skills looking to build national security capabilities during a one-week event, this is your opportunity.”

Unlike other DoD technical environments, BRAVO hackathons allow hackers to bring open-source software and data into the development environment in minutes providing unprecedented software and data collaboration on operational data.

The goals for Canary Release are to: validate rapid development in a cloud-based environment across multiple bases, military departments and classifications on operational use cases; provide a new way for American companies, citizens and government employees to develop DoD capabilities; and generalize the BRAVO development model to enable future scaling to partner military departments, combatant commands, U.S. government agencies, and U.S. partners and allies.

“The first BRAVO hackathon set a record for maximum concurrent users on our AI development environment. We agree that we must increase our digital and AI investments to operational use cases, including those identified and built at BRAVO hackathons. We are evaluating opportunities to scale this innovation model to the DoD and federal government enterprise,” said Greg Little, deputy director of Enterprise Capability at the Chief Digital and AI Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense.

For Canary Release, use cases have been sourced from Air Combat Command, Space Launch Delta 45 and Space Force Chief Technology Information Office. All participants must be American citizens. Participation at the Patrick SFB does not require a security clearance while participation at the remaining bases requires a secret clearance. Companies with employees holding active Special Access Program read-ins are encouraged to apply.

BRAVO Hackathon intends for 60% of hackers to be government employees or DoD contractors with approval of their government contracting officer with the remainder coming from industry, academia and American citizenry.

Canary Release is hosted by various organizations within Air Combat Command, Space Launch Delta 45, Space Force Chief Technology and Innovation Office, DAF’s Chief Information Office, 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, CyberWorx, AFWERX, Congressional offices from the Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks Program Executive Office, Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer, BESPIN software factory and Morpheus among many others.

About BRAVO hackathon series

The BRAVO hackathon series is named from Project B, a 1921 series of joint Army-Navy target exercises conducted on surplus ships in response to Army Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell’s claim that bombers sink battleships. This claim undermined the then-current investments and strategy of the then Department of War. The Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy authorized Project B to disprove and disgrace Mitchell by demonstrating the insignificance of airpower. Mitchell instead directed his bombers to destroy all the test ships, changing military strategy, defense resourcing for aeronautics and aircraft carriers, and ultimately the Department of War by proving the need for a separate Air Force military department.

Styled off Project B, BRAVO hackathons are sponsored by senior DoD leaders to provide technical and cultural innovation environments that enable government, academia, industry and citizenry to test and validate bold ideas on real DoD data.

Application

Department of Defense employees and DoD contractors may apply as either support staff or hackers via Common Access Card login here.

Federal employees outside of the DoD or contractors without a Common Access Card may apply here.

Industry, academia and citizens interested in being considered to participate via Air Force CyberWorx’s Partnership Intermediary, CCTI, can apply here. Selected participants will receive additional details.

Project demonstrations are offered to DoD and federal employees through a science fair. Applications are available here.

Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

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Rheinmetall Supplies 35mm Ammunition to NATO Customers – Contract Value Around € 20 Million

June 3rd, 2022

Rheinmetall has been contracted by several NATO customers to supply 35mm calibre ammunition. Deliveries will take place in 2023 and 2024 and the contract is worth a total of around €20 million. Between 2023 and 2024, Rheinmetall will supply the customer countries with various types of ammunition in 35mm x 228 calibre for infantry fighting vehicles. Rheinmetall works continuously with the user nations to further develop the combat capability of the system.

Against the background of changes in the security situation, many NATO and NATO partner countries have an increasing need for modern ammunition. Rheinmetall offers its customers an extensive portfolio in this regard and is adapting to the higher demand.

Rheinmetall provides a comprehensive medium-calibre ammunition portfolio for its own and other cannons. The portfolio covers a broad range of mission profiles and targets and allows minimizing the number of required ammunition types balancing performance with logistics.

The ammunition combines a high penetration performance, versatility, reliability, low dispersion and handling safety. Corresponding target practice and drill rounds complete the portfolio.

Posted in Advertiser, Ammo, Contracts, International, Press Release | Comments Off on Rheinmetall Supplies 35mm Ammunition to NATO Customers – Contract Value Around € 20 Million

OpEx 22 – Brief Relief

June 3rd, 2022

Chances are, if you’ve deployed, you’ve used Brief Relief’s products. Yes, it’s a privy. But their disposable bagging system minimizes the mess.

One point I found quite interesting is that their hygiene products are certified for use in the Arctic.

Additionally, their urinal bag contains a nontoxic powder which becomes a gel once used (see pack on the left) which can easily be disposed of. Additionally, it is designed to be used by both men and women and includes a one-way valve to prevent spillage.

Posted in Medical, OpEx | 3 Comments »

OpEx 22 – Nanuk

June 3rd, 2022

Nanuk is a Canadian protective hard case company and they’ve got a new case coming out which is twice as deep as standard rifle cases. The internal dimensions of this wheeled case are 41.8″ x 13.5″ x 12.6″. Externally it is 45″ x 16.4″ x 13.6″.

The smaller OD case you see in the photo is designed to transport ammunition.

Posted in Load Carrying, OpEx | Comments Off on OpEx 22 – Nanuk