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The UK’s FRES Transformational Armored Vehicles

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Piranha-V VBCI Boxer-MRAV
FRES-U finalists:
There can be… none?
(click to view full)
DII

FRES-SV weapon agreement; Shake, rattle & roll testing; BAE shifts course in bid to win FRES-SV contract. (March 12/10)

Many of Britain’s army vehicles are old and worn, and the necessities of hard service on the battlefield are only accelerating that wear. The multi-billion pound “Future Rapid Effects System” (FRES) aims to recapitalize the core of Britain’s armored vehicle fleet over the next decade or more, filling many of the same medium armor roles as the Stryker Family of armored wheeled vehicles and/or the Future Combat Systems’ Manned Ground Vehicle family. Current estimates indicate a potential requirement for over 3,700 FRES vehicles, including utility and reconnaissance variants. Even so, one should be cautioned that actual numbers bought usually fall short of intended figures for early-stage defense programs.

The FRES program was spawned by the UK’s withdrawal from the German-Dutch-UK Boxer MRAV modular wheeled APC program, in order to develop a more deployable vehicle that fit Britain’s exact requirements. Those initial requirements were challenging, however, and experience in Iraq and Afghanistan led to decisions that changed a number of requirements. In the end, GD MOWAG’s Piranha V won the utility vehicle competition. FRES-U is not the end of the competition, however, or the contracts. In fact, FRES-U had the winning bidder’s preferred status revoked; that entire phase will now take a back seat to the FRS-SV scout version…

Nimrod Was Actually a Fine Hunter: Upgrading Britain’s Fleet (updated)

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Nimrod MR2 & Ship
Nimrod MR2 at work
(click to view full)
DII

MRA4 declared fit for training, as MR2 fleet retires early, leaving a gap. (March 10/10)

British naval theorist Sir Julian Corbett saw the navy’s proper role as “directly or indirectly either to secure the command of the sea or to prevent the enemy from securing it.” Airpower plays a prominent role in both of those missions. In 1996, Britain began a program to rebuild their existing Nimrod MR2 maritime patrol planes to the MRA4 standard with new wings, new engines, and new internal technologies and mission systems. Unfortunately, that program has faced a series of budget cuts, stalls, and conditions that have reduced the program from 21 aircraft, to 12, to 9. At times, it has been threatened with complete cancellation.

Like Lockheed’s P-3 Orion, Britain’s Nimrod aircraft are also based on a previous airliner design. Unlike the USA, Britain chose a jet-age Comet airframe. They ended up with an aircraft that boasted an unrefueled endurance of over 10 hours and longer range than the P-3, but less-favorable “low and slow” flight characteristics. The British claim, however, that “propeller-engined aircraft make a discrete resonance that can be detected by submerged submarines, whereas the jet noise of the Nimrod is virtually undetectable.”

Both aircraft types would go on to see long and successful service, and both would also be produced in ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) / SIGNIT (Signals Intelligence) versions: the EP-3, and the Nimrod MR1. Both would also face difficult replacement programs, with the USA canceling the P-7 and eventually settling on the 737-based P-8A. Now, Britain must also execute its replacement program…

Rapid Fire: 2010-03-05

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  • “Bet you’re surprised” category: 3 US Navy facilities nominated for wildlife conservation awards.

Secure Semiconductors: Sensible, or Sisiphyean?

Related Stories: Americas - USA, IT - Cyber-Security, Industry & Trends, Issues - International, Issues - Political, Security & Secrecy

silicon chip

The May 2008 IEEE spectrum magazine, in “The Hunt for the Kill Switch”:

“Feeding those dreams is the Pentagon’s realization that it no longer controls who manufactures the components that go into its increasingly complex systems. A single plane like the DOD’s next generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, can contain an “insane number” of chips, says one semiconductor expert familiar with that aircraft’s design. Estimates from other sources put the total at several hundred to more than a thousand. And tracing a part back to its source is not always straightforward. The dwindling of domestic chip and electronics manufacturing in the United States, combined with the phenomenal growth of suppliers in countries like China, has only deepened the U.S. military’s concern.”

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Rapid Fire: 2010-02-18

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Rapid Fire: 2010-02-12

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G’day Mate: Australian Defence Force Deploys Integrated RF Communication System

Related Stories: Australia & S. Pacific, Boeing, C4ISR, Contracts - Awards, Helicopters & Rotary, IT - Cyber-Security, IT - General, IT - Networks & Bandwidth, New Systems Tech, Signals Radio & Wireless, Surface Ships - Other

ELEC_Australia_MHFCS_Fixed_Network_Nodes.jpg
MHFCS Fixed Network Nodes
(click to view larger)

To provide Australian armed forces with an integrated communications system, the Australian Defence Force contracted with Boeing Defence Australia, a subsidiary of US-based Boeing, to deploy an integrated HF communications system throughout the country, replacing the separate HF communications systems operated by each service.

The A$628 million (US$547 million) system – called the Modernized High Frequency Communications System (MHFCS) – provides the ADF with a nation-wide secure command and control network for all of the armed forces. The project is divided into two phases [pdf] – the MHFCS core system and the final system. The core system was delivered in October 2004, and the final system was introduced into service on Sept 24/09. Boeing expects Australia to formally accept the final system in March 2010.

On Feb 4/10, Boeing Defence Australia announced that the MHFCS final system completed 130 days in service…

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Rapid Fire: 2010-02-05

Related Stories: Americas - Other, Americas - USA, Britain/U.K., Contracts - Awards, Corporate Financials, DARPA, Electronics - General, Equipment - Other, Europe - Other, IT - Cyber-Security, IT - General, IT - Networks & Bandwidth, New Systems Tech, Northrop-Grumman, Other Corporation, R&D - Contracted, Simulation & Training, Specialty Aircraft, Support Functions - Other, Surface Ships - Combat, T&C - IBM

Head in the Cloud: USAF Taps IBM for Cutting Edge Computing Technology

Related Stories: Americas - USA, C4ISR, Contracts - Awards, IT - Cyber-Security, IT - General, IT - Networks & Bandwidth, IT - Software & Integration, New Systems Tech, R&D - Contracted, T&C - IBM

ELEC_Cloud_Computing_Diagram
Cloud Computing Diagram
(click to view full)

The commercial IT sector has been using “cloud computing” for a number of years. Cloud computing is a term that describes how large scale computer infrastructure can tap the power of the Internet to perform complex tasks.

Cloud computing allows computer users to realize efficiency and cost savings by using shared IT resources such as applications, storage devices and servers that are delivered as services over the Internet.

The US Air Force wants to tap this technology for its complex IT needs. An obvious problem for the Air Force is the security of accessing information from remote locations not on its secure servers. The Air Force has tasked IBM to come up with a solution to this problem…

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Mainframe Computing: Not Sexy, But Essential to US DoD IT

Related Stories: Americas - USA, Contracts - Awards, Financial & Accounting, IT - Cyber-Security, IT - General, IT - Software & Integration, Logistics, Other Corporation, Support Functions - Other

Unisys_Clearpath_Dorado700_Server
Unisys Clearpath Server
(click to view full)

While it might be more thrilling to imagine US Special Operations Forces getting critical intelligence about enemy movements through a laptop computer in the field, the bread and butter of US Department of Defense IT are mainframe computers. They have the computing power necessary to process the huge amount of information generated by the sprawling DoD bureaucracy.

One of the major suppliers of mainframe computers to the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is Unisys. Since 1983, Unisys has been providing mainframe computer capacity for US Air Force logistics through DISA, the DoD agency that provides command, control and computing capabilities to the US services, other DoD agencies, and coalition partners.

On Feb 3/10, Unisys announced that it received a renewal of its contract to provide mainframe computer processing capacity and support services to DISA in support of USAF logistics and Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) financial activities. The contract is worth an estimated $187 million over 5 years.

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