Corps Advancing Amphibious Vehicles, Landing Craft for 21st Century Warfare

Combat-development and integration officials and technological experts are looking to ever-evolving advancements in technology to enhance the Corps’ ability to conduct amphibious operations in the 21st century.

These plans include procuring the right ship-to-shore connectors for amphibious operations and improving armored ground mobility so infantry units can close on an objective from the sea with greater protection and lethality.

The air cushioned landing craft, the LCAC, will be eventually be replaced with the Ship to Shore Connector (SSC), a more capable air cushioned craft. A potential vehicle being explored is the Ultra-Heavy Amphibious Connector (UHAC), which operates on water and land with captive air cell treads. A half-scale model is undergoing testing and a full sized version has the potential to lift three times as much as the SSC with a range of over 200 nautical miles.

The Corps is also seeking ideas from industry to develop a family of systems capable of delivering heavy loads, such as several main battle tanks, as well as smaller loads such as an armored combat vehicle, from amphibious ships to shore at distances of over 100 nautical miles and at speeds of up to 25 knots.

To tackle the problem of mobility once close to shore and inland, the Corps is also developing a wheeled amphibious combat vehicle that, once ashore, can move Marines to their objectives with greater speed, lethality and protection than the Corps’ current tracked Amphibious Assault Vehicle.

“The ACV’s ability to operate in loose sand, snow, mud, and (its) ability to climb grades will be superior to the current AAV,” said Col. Christopher Woodbridge, the Corps’ lead for the Ground Combat /Tactical Vehicle Strategy planning team.

Along with better mobility and vehicle suspension than the tracked vehicle, the wheeled ACV has the ability to move out of a kill zone even after losing a wheel to a blast.

“One of the things we found in Iraq and Afghanistan was that our (seven-ton tactical trucks), which weren’t specifically built for IEDs, did much better than our other vehicles because it had such higher ground clearance,” said Brig. Gen. William Mullen, director, Capabilities Development Directorate, in a video interview published in April 2014.

“It’s going to be lethal, more lethal. It’s going to be faster; the troops inside are going to be better protected. That’s why we are going after the ACV.”

According to Woodbridge, the Corps can expect to see fielded ACVs in 2017, with an initial operating capability in 2020. Until the ACVs are fielded, the Corps plans to sustain and upgrade a number of its tracked AAVs. This upgrade program will extend the AAV’s service life through 2035.

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Robocopter: New Technology Brings New Capabilities to the Marine Corps

Autonomy options for the Marines have taken a major step forward, as officials at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced today two successful helicopter flight demonstrations with unmanned flight capability at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., part of the Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (AACUS) program.

AACUS will enable the Marine Corps to rapidly resupply forces on the front lines using cutting-edge technology sponsored by ONR. The system consists of a sensor and software package that will be integrated into rotary wing aircraft to detect and avoid obstacles in unfavorable weather conditions, or to enable autonomous, unmanned flight. The capability will be a welcome alternative to dangerous convoys, manned aircraft or air drops in all weather conditions.

“This is a giant leap in autonomous capabilities for our Marines,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder. “Imagine a Marine unit needing more ammunition and water where a helicopter crew would be in peril trying to fly in, either from weather or enemy fire.

“With AACUS, an unmanned helicopter takes the supplies from the base, picks out the optimal route and best landing site closest to the warfighters, lands, and returns to base once the resupply is complete-all with the single touch of a handheld tablet.”

The need for this capability surfaced during Marine Corps operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, experts say. Cargo helicopters and resupply convoys of trucks bringing fuel, food, water, ammunition and medical supplies to the front lines frequently found themselves under fire from adversaries, or the target of roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices.

The AACUS technology is designed to be simple to use; an operator with minimal training can call up the supplies needed and order the flights using only a handheld tablet. In the demonstration tests at Quantico, a Marine with no prior experience with the technology was given a handheld device and 15 minutes of training.

The Marine was able to quickly and easily program in the supplies needed and the destination, and the helicopters arrived quickly-even autonomously selecting an alternative landing site based on last-second no-fly-zone information added in from the Marine.

“This technology truly opens up new unmanned operations capabilities,” said Max Snell, the AACUS program manager. “In the most immediate sense, AACUS will enable safer resupply for the warfighter and save pilots’ lives. Down the road, as the technology develops, it could be used for casualty evacuation, bringing supplies to first responders in disaster areas, and more.”

The technology enables the manned or unmanned rotary wing aircraft to detect and avoid obstacles like telephone wires, large objects on the ground and even a vehicle or other object that has appeared since the initial landing site was chosen by AACUS.

Officials say the five-year effort represents a leap-ahead technology for the Marine Corps and Navy, moving autonomous flights far beyond the current standard which requires a specialized operator to select a landing site and manually control an unmanned aircraft via remote.

“Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has discussed using drones to deliver a customer’s book order in 30 minutes,” said Klunder. “We’re talking the same concept here-the difference is, we’re bringing our customer, the Marine, 5,000 pounds of ammo and water instead.”

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Army, Marine Corps Take Delivery of JLTVs for User Testing

All 66 Joint Light Tactical Vehicle prototypes have been delivered to the military so that 14 months of testing can begin at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., and Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz. Full-scale testing is scheduled to begin next week, according to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle joint program office.

Each of the three vendors competing in the current research and development program delivered a total of 22 vehicles and six trailers to the two locations, said Col. John Cavedo, the joint project manager. The vendors are Oshkosh Defense, which builds the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle and others; Lockheed Martin, which produces the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System; and AM General, which builds the Humvee.

While this marks the beginning of full-scale testing, a certain amount of testing in the current phase has already been done, he added, pointing to: more than 400 ballistic and blast tests on armor testing samples; underbody blast testing; and more than 1,000 miles in shakedown testing.

But next week Soldiers from the Army Test and Evaluation Command and personnel from the Defense Department’s Office of Test and Evaluation will put the vehicles through realistic and rigorous field testing during a 14-month-long government performance testing period, Cavedo said.

Once that is completed in fiscal year 2015, the Army and Marine Corps look forward to awarding a production contract to a single vendor for nearly 55,000 vehicles.

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV, fills a big gap in vehicle needs for the Army and the Marine Corps, Cavedo said. In the 20th century, the strategy was to build heavily armored vehicles for front-line service and lighter vehicles such as Humvees for rear-area duty.

But 9/11 changed all that, he said. Battle lines are now blurred, and there is need for a vehicle that can carry a lot of gear and personnel, and capitalize on emerging networks. Such a vehicle must also be heavily armored and have plenty of speed, maneuverability and power.

According to the Army’s Equipment Modernization Strategy, “the Army is moving forward with developing the JLTV to fill the capability gaps in the light vehicle fleet by carefully balancing performance, payload and protection. The JLTV provides the same level of protection as the Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected All-Terrain Vehicle, or M-ATV, better network integration than the [Humvee] and better mobility and transportability than the M-ATV.”

The price tag had to be right too, he added. In fiscal year 2011 dollars, each vehicle coming off the assembly line could not exceed $250,000.

“We’ve insisted on that,” he said. “So the program is on schedule and on budget.”

Cavedo said he sees the testing progressing on schedule. He also thinks members of Congress see the critical need for the vehicle.

Long-term plans include the first Army units receiving JLTVs by fiscal year 2018 and all 49,000 JLTVs delivered to the Army by sometime in the 2030 decade, he said. The Marines will acquire a total of 5,500.

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Corps of Engineers completes Army’s largest solar array installation

By Army News Service on Thursday, January 24th, 2013

The largest solar power system in the U.S. Army is coming online at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and officials gathered Jan. 16, to mark the occasion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The Energy Savings Performance Contract, or ESPC, project, awarded and managed by the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, provides the sprawling desert base with a new 4.465 megawatt solar photovoltaic system, guarantees energy savings of 35,358M British thermal units per year, and reduces their energy consumption by 10 percent, said Wesley Malone, Huntsville Center project manager.

“To date this is the largest solar project in the Army,” said Michael Norton, Huntsville Center Energy Division chief. “Projects like this are important because the impact of rising energy prices on installations has resulted in an adverse increase of utility budgets spent on existing, often inefficient or outdated equipment.”

“ESPC projects provide energy efficient equipment resulting in a lower utility consumption,” Norton said. “Lower utility consumption reduces the DOD utility bills and assists in meeting federal mandates.”

ESPC brings in private party financing for energy conservation measures at Defense Department garrisons. An Energy Savings Contractor, ESCO, provides capital and expertise to make infrastructure improvements on government facilities to significantly reduce Army energy, in exchange for a portion of the generated savings. In the case of the White Sands solar power system, Siemens Government Technologies, Inc., of Arlington, Va. was selected as the ESCO.

Along with being the largest solar project, there’s another first in how the system at White Sands Missile Range was funded.

“We used an Energy Services Agreement for the photovoltaic equipment along with the ESPC concept which was a first for the Army,” said Will Irby, Huntsville Center ESPC Program Manager.

An ESA is an arrangement whereby a third party owns, operates and maintains the power generation system and provides electricity to the customer. This third-party ownership mechanism allowed for a significant tax grant from that reduced the project cost by $6.1M, Irby said.

Construction of the $16.5M system started in July and was completed in December.

Siemens was the solar system designer, integrator and is the operator. Their industry team included project construction by Texas Solar Power Company of Austin, Texas, with solar modules and tracking systems by Solaria Corporation of Fremont, Calif., and inverter manufacturer SatCon Technology Corporation of Boston. The project is owned, through the Energy Services Agreement, by Bostonia Group, also of Boston.

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Bell Helicopter Delivers 100th H-1 Helicopter to the US Marine Corps

By Bell Helicopter on Friday, January 18th, 2013

Bell Helicopter today delivered the 100th of a planned total of 349 H-1 helicopters during a ceremony at its Amarillo Assembly Center. The US Marine Corps H-1 helicopter program is comprised of both the UH-1Y utility helicopter and the AH-1Z attack helicopter.

John Garrison, president and CEO of Bell Helicopter said, “We are deeply proud to be the Marine Corp’s partner in these aircraft. They are among the most advanced, capable and affordable attack and utility helicopters serving today.”

The UH-1A story began back in 1959 with the U.S. Army and it progressed through various versions ending with the M model. The “Huey”, as it was affectionately known, also served as the foundation for the Cobra attack gun ship. These helicopters also have a long Marine Corps lineage going back to the original basic Huey helicopter, first deployed during the Vietnam War in 1963 as the UH-1E. Later the E model was upgraded to a twin engine N model. The Cobra attack helicopter traces its history back to 1968 and the AH-1G model.

Although the exterior look may have remained the same, each new model introduced new performance and capability upgrades such as new rotor systems, gear boxes and materials, and ultimately achieving the capable and lethal versions the Marines fly today.

Major suppliers for these latest H-1 models include: Northrop Grumman supplying the Integrated Avionics Suite, Thales providing the Helmet Mounted Sight and Display System, Lockheed Martin Orlando supplying the AH-1Z Target Sight System (TSS), FLIR Inc. with the UH-1Y BRITE Star II forward-looking infrared sensor, L-3 Crestview Aerospace providing the UH-1Y cabin structure, and General Electric Aviation supplying the T700 engines.

Previous models achieved considerable international sales success and the current models are beginning to attract foreign interest as well. The AH-1Z is in competition to supply 36 new attack helicopters to South Korea with a decision sometime this year.

Bell Helicopter, a wholly owned subsidiary of Textron Inc., is an industry-leading producer of commercial and military, manned and unmanned vertical-lift aircraft and the pioneer of the revolutionary tiltrotor aircraft. Globally recognized for world-class customer service, innovation and superior quality, Bell’s global workforce serves customers flying Bell aircraft in more than 120 countries.

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Marine Corps Seek to Arm Firescouts with Guided Rockets

The US Marine Corps plans to integrate the newly fielded Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rocket onto the MQ-8B Firescout unmanned helicopter. The US Navy recently awarded a contract for such integration to the weapon developer BAE Systems. The weapon is currently fielded with US Marine Corps AH-1W and UH-1Y manned helicopters and has been used in combat in Afghanistan. The Firescout will become the first unmanned platform to use the laser guided rocket, expanding the operational flexibility and self sufficiency of combat units.

The system is being integrated onto the Fire Scout in response to an urgent operational need and is being prepared for rapid deployment. BAE Systems will support this rapid APKWS integration by performing system analyses and modeling based on its high fidelity, integrated flight simulator.

“This expansion onto unmanned aircraft is the next exciting step after demonstrating performance on both rotary and fixed-wing manned aircraft,” said Roy Rumbaugh, APKWS program manager at BAE Systems.

BAE Systems is integrating the APKWS laser guided rocket onto the Firescout MQ-8B unmanned helicopter, under an urgent operational requirement by the US Navy. Photo: BAE Systems

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Marine Corps MPC Finally Moving Forward

The Marine Corps requires the MPC to ‘swim’, enabling water obstacle crossing. Photo: Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin has won a USMC contract funding the evaluation of the Patria AMV 8×8 vehicle, as part of the marine Corps Marine Personal Carrier (MPC) program. The $3.5 million contract funds the test and evaluation of the vehicle, dubbed ‘Havoc’. The eight months testing will take place at the Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch at Camp Pendleton, Calif., where the corps will evaluate the vehicle’s human factors and amphibious capabilities. A parallel evaluation of the vehicle’s protection will occur at the Nevada Automotive Test Center in Carson City, Nev. The MPC program is scheduled for seven years with production of nearly 100 units.

Following a comprehensive study and testing of a technology demonstrator vehicle, the Marine Corps prepared an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) summarizing the requirements for the new vehicle.

The MPC was not designed to replace an existing capability but rather complement the capabilities of existing protected transport provided by the AAV in the Assault Amphibian Battalion. Originally, the Marine Corps were looking at vehicles complementing the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) which was terminated later.

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In the next 8 months the Marine Corps will evaluate the Patria AMV (also known as Havoc) to assess its suitability for their Marine Personnel Carrier (MPC) vehicle requirement. Photo: Lockheed Martin

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Lockheed Martin Delivers Four F-35s To USAF And Marine Corps

By Lockheed Martin on Wednesday, July 11th, 2012

With the delivery of four Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II aircraft since June 29, an important milestone was achieved as the Department of Defense now possesses more operational-coded F-35s than test aircraft. A total of nine F-35s have been delivered for the year, giving the DOD a total of 30 aircraft fleet-wide. Of these, 16 are operational aircraft and 14 are test planes.

“To date, the F-35 program has focused on system development and flight testing while most recently transitioning to low rate initial production,” said Orlando Carvalho, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and general manager, F-35 program.

“We’ve crossed a critical threshold as we begin delivering our LRIP 3 aircraft. We’re increasingly becoming more operationally focused. These deliveries illustrate the program’s natural progression and maturation that is taking place on a daily basis.”

The four aircraft, which were formally accepted by the Defense Contract Management Agency with the signing of Department of Defense Form 250 (DD-250), are the first jets manufactured as part of Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Lot 3.

They will begin ferrying to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in the coming days, bringing the total there to 16. The DOD has eight test aircraft at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., and six test aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Three of the jets are F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variants and will be assigned to the U.S. Air Force’s 33d Fighter Wing.

One F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft will be assigned to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing’s Marine Fighter/Attack Training Squadron 501. Once at Eglin, the 5th Generation fighters will be used for pilot and maintainer training at the base’s F-35 Integrated Training Center.

The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th Generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment.

Three distinct variants of the F-35 will replace the A-10 and F-16 for the U.S. Air Force, the F/A-18 for the U.S. Navy, the F/A-18 and AV8-B Harrier for the U.S. Marine Corps, and a variety of fighters for at least nine other countries.

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