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.
The Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) under development for the US Navy's aircraft carriers and amphibious warfare ships has completed its preliminary design review (PDR), Raytheon announced on 26 April.
The successful PDR confirms that the radar is on track for delivery to designated ship classes. It validated Raytheon's scaled design, which leverages the AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense Radar, configured into a rotating and a fixed face variant to match the missions of the multiple ship classes.
EASR is designed to provide aircraft carriers and amphibious ships with anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare and air traffic control mission capabilities. It is built on radar modular assembly (RMA) technology, which has been matured through development of AN/SPY-6 for the DDG 51 Flight III destroyers. Each RMA is a self-contained radar in a 2'x2'x2' box which can be integrated together to form arrays of various sizes.
EASR will replace the Volume Search Radar for the CVN 78 class, and the AN/SPS-48 and AN/SPS-49 radar systems for numerous ship classes.
The radar has already undergone systems requirements and system functional reviews and an integrated baseline review.
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.