US Space Force increases efforts to plug training capabilities gaps
The service has been seeking simulation and emulation solutions capable of reproducing multiple in-orbit threats.
Rockwell Collins has received a follow-on contract from the US Army Program Executive Office C3T to produce 101 Handheld, Manpack, and Small Form Factor (HMS) Manpack radios and ancillaries, the company announced on 3 August.
The previous contract, awarded last spring, qualified the company to compete for the ten-year, $12.7 billion HMS Manpack radio programme.
The contract award comes after customer testing that included the production and testing of the AN/PRC-162 two-channel, software-defined military communication radio, based on the company’s TruNet networked communications solution family of products. Part of the evaluation involved increasing network complexity and validating interoperability with various radio systems.
Harris Corporation will also supply the US Army with multi-channel Falcon III HMS Manpack radios to support the test events, the company announced on 3 August.
The Harris AN/PRC-158 multi-channel radio – both dismounted and mounted manpack configurations – is one of the three radios the army selected for evaluation during the field-based risk reduction and operational test. The order also includes vehicle installation kits, ancillaries, training and field service representative support.
HMS Manpack radios will undergo field-based risk reduction testing next year. During this test, radio compliance with delayed threshold requirements and other performance attributes will be evaluated to down-select the competition to two vendors for full rate production.
The service has been seeking simulation and emulation solutions capable of reproducing multiple in-orbit threats.
The service has been conducting several acquisition and upgrading efforts involving artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve communication, data analysis and ISR systems.
The Syracuse 4B communications satellite, developed by Airbus and Thales Alenia Space, was launched last year, bolstering secure military satellite communications for the French Armed Forces. Thales has now been selected to provide terminals for vehicles.
The growing importance of space in modern warfare, advancements in satellite technology, and increasing threats from rivals like China and Russia were among the topics of a Eurosatory 2024 panel on military space operations.
AN/ARC-232A is a Starfire radio that provides VHF/UHF communications to airborne platforms and the transceiver is software-programmable, allowing for multiple waveform support as well as optional national electronic counter counter-measure (ECCM) capability.
During the 18-month period of the contract, Lockheed Martin will apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques to create surrogate models of aircraft, sensors, electronic warfare and weapons within dynamic and operationally representative environments.