installed in the entire fleet on Day 1, it is projected to save approximately 50 million gallons of fuel a year,” he said.
“With that magnitude of fuel savings, you can reduce the requirement for forward ops, reduce deliveries to those forward locations, and reduce convoy deliveries and security requirements as well. All of those things translate into freeing up assets and lessen the people you put in harm’s way.”
Mission equipment—Integrated mis- sion equipment with maximum effectiveness in the battlespace calls for multifunctional solutions, said Naveen N. Murarka,
Program Manager,
Advanced Concepts and Technologies Division, Northrop Grumman Elec- tronic Systems Sector. In developing the hardware and the software archi- tecture, modularity and the ability to enhance capabilities in the future are important, he said. This includes pro- cessing, he noted. “Every single system that we provide typically comes with a separate process. What we need to do is engage the warfighter early on in the process.
“As our technology and our sensor systems
an exponential
improve, we’re going to see rise of data
across getting
into the cockpits, getting to the UAS [Unmanned Aircraft System] stations, and moving
the battlespace.
What we need to be able to do is take that data and apply smart processes” to reduce workflow for the crew, Mura- rka said. “We’ve got to sift through that data and provide the actual intel- ligence that the pilot or the crew need.”
Open architecture standards should not get in the way of innovation, he said.
“We need to ensure that we allow our- selves to have the eventual upgrades to those existing standards that really
enable us
to add capabilities
to the
existing systems. … We need to be able to work collaboratively with govern- ment and industry partners to develop solutions, and really look at the best ways to prevent the government from getting locked in.”
The Army’s series of Network Integration Evaluations will pro- vide
opportunities to demonstrate
and enhance interoperability, Murarka said.
Looking at the capabilities Aviation will nostics will
need be in 2030, critical, said
that Army diag- Tim
Randich, Director of Product Sup- port, Lockheed Martin Missiles Fire Control, in a separate session titled
and
“Contractor Support for Army Avia- tion on the Battlefield and Kuwait.” “If you provide the communication design that makes it able for the Soldiers and maintainers to quickly make repairs, turn times are shorter, and it gets the unit back in the fight as quickly as possible,” he said.
INVESTMENT ISSUES One of
the issues discussed at the
symposium was whether industry could sustain research and development funding for new technology with no guarantee of production, especially as the military draws down and overall defense spending is less.
No clear answer to that question emerged, but were skeptical.
industry representatives
Offering a Northrop Grumman perspec- tive, Murarka said, “I think in the short term, we can certainly do that, but as we move toward … actually building future platforms, there’s a large invest- ment required to do that. And there is a challenge with how we can survive, say
in the next 5 to 10 years, as a business to support that.
“I think we still need to work on it as a business model and work with the govern- ment to see how we can sustain,” he said.
“I would say that it will be a factor of how the government reacts to some of those investments and how they treat them,” said Sikorsky’s Van Buiten. “There are decisions in front of us that would poten- tially stifle further industry investment, or accelerate it.”
CONCLUSION “Next-generation vertical flight capa- bilities
are critically important,
and we can’t afford another Coman- che,” said Hirschberg of the American Helicopter Society International, refer- ring to the Army’s decision in 2004 to cancel development of the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter after spending $6.9 billion and more than 20 years to develop the surveillance and attack aircraft.
To succeed, FVL development will have to place “equal focus on affordability, avail- ability and capability,” Boeing’s Dunford said. “And any new technology that comes along must
support reducing support costs as well as advancing the capability.”
“We have to succeed this time and sustain leadership from the Army and other
services,” Hirschberg “We can’t afford to fail.”
MARGARET C. ROTH is the Senior Editor of Army AL&T Magazine. She holds a B.A. in Russian language and linguistics from the University of Virginia. Roth has more than a decade of experience in writing about the Army and more than two decades’ experi- ence in journalism and public relations.
ASC.ARMY.MIL 153
concluded.
CONFERENCE CALL
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