Australia looks towards space with force restructure, investment and training
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
Vehicle-mounted High Energy Laser Weapon System mounted on a Polaris MRZR D4 vehicle. (Photo: Raytheon)
Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S) has paired its High Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS) with the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) air defence system in a C-UAS demonstration at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The live-fire demonstration against a ‘drone swarm’ showed how high-energy lasers ‘can augment existing systems to provide [a] wide area of protection’, Raytheon noted in a 31 March statement, adding that the exercise showcased how NASAMS (developed by Kongsberg and the US company) could be augmented with an added layer of interoperability for medium-range air defence.
In all, the HELWS downed nine Group 1 and Group 2 UAVs.
During the live-fire exercise, the high-energy C-UAS system received cues from the NASAMS Fire Distribution Center and used automated target cueing and a ‘full spectrum’ of EO/IR sensors to track, identify and quickly take down UAVs at tactically relevant distances, Raytheon stated.
Annabel Flores, president of EW systems at RI&S, claimed: ‘We’re showing the world that our defensive laser weapons can plug into existing air defences to find and drop drones in the blink of an eye.’
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
The Portuguese company’s naval communications system is in service across more than a dozen countries. It has turned to its home nation for support in developing a new vehicle based C2 system.
The Vision4ce Deep Embedded Feature Tracking (DEFT) technology software is designed to process video and images by blending traditional computer vision with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to present actionable information from complex environments.
Persistent Systems has been cleared by National Security Agency (NSA) to transmit sensitive data on commercial networks. The devices are added to the NSA’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) component list which also includes other companies’ products providing the same security.
The release of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) has been long promised as mid-year. It is possible it could be as early as 2 June although the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) continues to play its cards close to its chest.
Intelsat outlines how its multi-orbit SATCOM architecture is enhancing connectivity and resilience for special operations forces operating in degraded and contested environments.