Latest news with #SOCOM
Business Wire
13-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Legion Intelligence to Partner with Palantir to Deliver Advanced Generative AI to U.S. Special Operations Command
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Legion Intelligence (formerly Yurts AI), a leading provider of scalable and secure Generative AI (GenAI) solutions for the Department of Defense, today unveiled they are working with Palantir Technologies to enhance the U.S. Special Operations Command's (SOCOM) Mission Command System (MCS) with next-generation AI capabilities. This collaboration builds on Legion's leadership in deploying GenAI across SOCOM's sensitive and classified networks, leveraging cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. The integration of Legion's AI platform with Palantir's Apollo Mission Manager will enable efficient and secure deployment, accelerating the adoption of large language models (LLMs) to support situational awareness, data-driven insights, and superior decision-making in mission-critical environments. In addition to enhancing SOCOM's operational workflows, Legion's platform enables the rapid incorporation of Generative AI capabilities into and across applications that may not easily leverage AI, whether in on-premises infrastructure or sensitive networks. This integration extends the core functionalities and data residing in the Mission Command System into new experiences and use cases, allowing SOCOM to unlock greater potential from its operational technology. 'We're honored to deepen our relationship with SOCOM by bringing Generative AI directly into mission workflows,' said Ben Van Roo, CEO of Legion Intelligence. 'GenAI delivers its greatest value when integrated into decision-making processes and networks critical to national defense. This partnership is a vital step toward empowering warfighters with immediate, secure access to actionable intelligence.' Legion's scalable AI solutions and Palantir's robust data integration and security capabilities deliver a reliable and mission-focused platform for SOCOM's global operations. About Legion Intelligence Legion (formerly Yurts AI) is an agent-orchestration platform for defense, government, and enterprise organizations. Legion empowers teams to securely deploy, manage, and scale intelligent autonomous agents, enabling sophisticated, efficient coordination across sensitive operational environments. By integrating advanced MLOps, robust security protocols, dynamic decision-making, and human-centric design, Legion ensures every critical mission is backed by a capable legion of intelligent agents. With Legion, the future of secure, sophisticated AI orchestration is here. Existing and prospective customers can confidently navigate their most sensitive environments, leveraging Legion's proven capabilities to enhance operational effectiveness, security, and strategic decision-making. Visit to learn more.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Army's Future Tiltrotor Gets Heavier So It Can Rapidly Convert Into Special Ops Variant
The U.S. Army has incorporated special operations-specific requirements into the design of its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) tiltrotor, which has led to an unspecified increase in gross weight. The changes are intended to make it cheaper and easier to convert baseline FLRAAs into special operations versions for the Army's elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR). The current process for turning standard UH-60M Black Hawks into special operations MH-60Ms is very complex and resource-intensive. Lt. Col. Cameron Keogh, the Program Manager for both Future Vertical Lift and the MH-60 within U.S. Special Operations Command's (SOCOM) Program Executive Office-Rotary Wing (PEO-RW), provided an update on the special operations end of the FLRAA effort at the annual SOF Week conference today. The Army announced it had selected a design based on Bell's V-280 Valor tiltrotor as the winner of its FLRAA competition in 2022. FLRAAs are expected to replace a significant portion of H-60 Black Hawk variants across the entire Army, including around half of the 160th's special operations MH-60Ms. When it comes to FLRAA, 'we are very tightly nested with Big Army on this one. We, again, are about half a step behind. They put in their base contract some CLINs [Contract Line Item Numbers] for us to use for development,' Keogh explained. 'We started with some engineering analysis.' 'We're going to have to hang all the mission equipment that we currently have on the ramp, or that we're gonna have on the ramp at that point in time when this is fielded,' he continued. 'Do we have the structural provisions to do that? Do we have space reserve to [sic] where we could put this stuff?' The MH-60Ms that special operations FLRAAs are set to replace are absolutely jam-packed with systems not found on standard UH-60Ms, including a nose-mounted radar, additional sensors, defensive systems, and communications gear. They also have an inflight refueling probe not found on regular Army Black Hawks. You can read more about what goes into the last special operations Black Hawks here. 'So we did an engineering analysis, which is now turned into the detailed design on that,' Keogh added. The Army's FLRAA program manager and the service's Program Executive Office for Aviation (PEO-Aviation) 'took our engineering analysis with the initial cuts at the detailed design. They looked at it, they looked at the weight trades – it did add a little bit of weight to the baseline of that aircraft – but they said, 'Hey, this buys us future growth capability for mission equipment, as well,' and they inserted those into the baseline aircraft.' The Army has already made clear that the production FLRAA design will differ substantially from Bell's V-280 demonstrator, which has been flying since 2017. The service has also talked about pushing to lay the groundwork now to make the integration of new and improved capabilities down the line easier. Now, 'every FLRAA that gets built for fielding is going to have the provisions for us to put our things on the aircraft, which is a huge cost reduction for us when it comes time to field the [160th Special Operations Aviation] Regiment. So that was a huge win,' Keogh said. 'Again, we're in lockstep with the Army on that one. We're not – we can't move ahead of them. There's no way for us to accelerate that program. They're doing a great job with it.' Keogh added that his office is also working now to take special operations-unique software in use now on 160th helicopters and see what of it might be adaptable to work with FLRAA's mission systems. A key area of focus for the Army with FLRAA has already been modular and open-architecture systems to help speed up the introduction of new functionality in the future. 'We have a unique avionics suite to the [160th Special Operations Aviation] Regiment. It's common between the big aircraft [the MH-60M and MH-47G Chinook]. The user is very happy with it. It's got great functionality. They've been developing it for 20-plus years now,' he explained. 'We're working to pull some of those software bits out, turn them into applications that we can then put into the FLRAA computing environment, so we can still have the same stuff that we use in CAS, the common avionics architecture' without having to 'pull all those boxes out [and] put our own cockpit in there.' The process Keogh outlined for converting baseline FLRAAs into special operations versions is fundamentally different from how MH-60Ms are converted from UH-60Ms today, not to mention simpler. The resulting helicopter is also substantially different, right down to its core structure, from the standard M variant of the Black Hawk. 'You fly a good Black Hawk, a good Army UH-60M Black Hawk, up to SOFSA [the Special Operations Forces Support Activity in Lexington, Kentucky], and then we take it completely apart,' he explained. 'We fly at higher gross weights, because we have a ton of mission equipment to do the things – to give the operators the capability to do the things they need to do.' 'All that mission equipment adds weight to the airframe. So we had to do a lot of structural modifications to increase our gross weight, so we can still offer a suitable payload to carry the operators where they need to go,' he continued. 'And then we ran into the problem, now we've got this really heavy aircraft, the engines only make so much power, so we've got bigger engines. We run the YT-706. YT because it's not fully qualified, but it's a very qualified engine. … it's one of the things that we do here, is we are able to accept a higher level of risk in order to provide capability for our users. Highly trained users, the best pilots in the world, they can manage that risk.' 'So we do that, rip it apart, all the structural mods, we've got the engines, we put the SOF [special operations forces] peculiar' systems in, 'and then the last thing we do is paint it black.' It's not hard to see how making changes to FLRAA's basic design to streamline this process could pay serious dividends. As Keogh noted, 'Big Army' could also leverage the trade space now baked into the design to add in additional capabilities to meet its own needs. FLRAA is already set to completely change how the conventional Army conducts air assaults thanks to its substantially greater range and speed compared to the Black Hawk. The service has been targeting a top speed of at least 250 knots (285 miles per hour), and potentially up to 280 knots (320 miles per hour), and an unrefueled combat radius of between 200 and 300 nautical miles for its new tiltrotor. A typical current-generation Black Hawk flying under normal operating conditions can get up to a top speed of 163 knots (187.5 miles per hour) and fly 268 nautical miles without needing to refuel, according to Lockheed Martin, the parent company of the helicopter's manufacturer Sikorsky. The speed and range of the FLRAA would be particularly important in any future conflict in the Pacific region, where initial launch points – on land or at sea – and operating areas could easily be very far apart. Those capabilities could also be very valuable for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which is regularly called upon to conduct especially challenging long-duration missions in unforgiving environments, typically at night. A prime example of this in the Regiment's relatively recent history is the famous raid in Pakistan that led to the death of Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden. The Army had said in the past that its goal was to begin fielding the baseline FLRAA variant by 2030, but just this week the service disclosed it is now looking to accelerate that timeline to 2028. Army officials have also pushed back on the possibility of the program being canceled as part of a massive U.S. military-wide review of priorities. The service is looking to make major cuts to a host of programs, some of which it is now moving to axe entirely, as part of a larger force restructuring effort. With the work it has been doing with the Army on FLRAA in the meantime, SOCOM is laying the groundwork for getting special operations versions of the tiltrotor into service as quickly as possible once the baseline variants begin being fielded. Special thanks to FlightGlobal's Ryan Finnerty for providing audio of the PEO-RW session from the SOF Week conference. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Yahoo
Upgrades ahead across the special operations helicopter fleet
TAMPA, Fla. – Special operators are upgrading nearly every aspect of their helicopter fleet as they await the Army's newest addition to the rotary wing section. From the MH-6 light attack assault 'Little Bird,' to the MH-60 medium attack assault 'Blackhawk,' to the MH-47 heavy assault 'Chinook,' officials who develop the aircraft showcased ongoing upgrades Thursday at the Global SOF Foundation Special Operations Forces Week. Developers continue to tweak the Little Bird, the small but powerful aircraft unique to SOCOM. 'It is your streetfighter,' said Paul Kylander, product manger of the aircraft for Program Executive Office-Rotary Wing. 'When operators want to get to your front door, this is the aircraft they use.' The 'R' model project is finding ways to lighten the aircraft for greater speed and range by resetting the entire fleet's fuselage with lighter materials. Hegseth champions special operations as the force for today's threats The project is also upgrading the cockpit for better avionics management and an advanced airborne tactical mission suite, Kylander said. Those upgrades are part of ongoing efforts that will continue until 2034 for the aircraft. Then, plans call for a Block 4 upgrade or a possible divestment between 2035 to 2042. They're also lightening main and auxiliary fuel tanks and both the attack and assault planks for the aircraft. The MH-60 is seeing some of its own upgrades. Software updates, navigation tools for degraded visual environments, improved sensors, sensor data fusion and next generation tactical communications are currently being installed on the MH-60 fleet, said Lt. Col. Cameron Keogh. There's ongoing work to improve the engine life of the YT706 engine, and future efforts include building an open architecture common cockpit. On the weapons side, the Blackhawk is adding the joint air-to-ground missile, a conformal lightweight armament wing, M-230 recoil dampers, the GAU-19 Gun Pod and a helmet display tracking system. Those additions provide more options to Blackhawk crews. 'Having a quiver full of tools to do your job is pretty handy,' Keogh said. The Blackhawk will also see an improved crew chief seat, AN/PQ-187 Silent Knight Radar nose door reconfiguration and upturned exhaust suppressor II, engine inlet barrier filter for dusty environments and the GE T901 Improved Turbine Engine. On the heavy side, the MH47G Chinook is seeing increased demand for payloads, range and speed, said Lt. Col. Thomas Brewington, product manager for the Chinook at the PEO. The oldest frame in the Chinook fleet will retire soon after 59 years of service, Brewington said. But the aging platform is seeing its own set of advancements with a replacement of the existing flight control pallets, which augment manned flight by using a system called the Active Parallel Actuator Subsystem. The system 'augments manned flight by providing tactile cueing to prevent the pilot from exceeding an aircraft performance limit resulting in increased safety and operational usage while reducing pilot workload during the most critical stages of flight,' Brewington said. An October 2024 test of the system allowed a 'hands off' landing on a predesignated point by a Chinook crew at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, Brewington said. The system is a 'stepping stone' to autonomous pilot assist, he said.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
Navy Special Ops Speedboats Getting Retractable Multiple Drone Launch Systems
Test launches of Anduril's ALTIUS-700 loitering munitions from one of the U.S. Navy's stealthy Combatant Craft Medium (CCM) boats are helping pave the way for a future maritime special operations strike capability. A key requirement for the planned successor to the CCM, or CCM Mk 2, is the integration of a launcher that could fire ALTIUS-700s and other precision munitions. Members of U.S. Special Operations Command's (SOCOM) Program Executive Office-Maritime (PEO-M) provided updates on work toward the new loitering munition capability and other special operations combatant craft modernization efforts at the annual SOF Week conference this week, at which TWZ has been in attendance. The loitering munition effort, which dates back to at least 2018, has been formally known as the Maritime Precision Engagement (MPE) program, but SOCOM says the name is now shifting to Maritime Launched Effects (MLE). A stock picture of one of the US Navy's Combatant Craft Medium (CCM) special operations boats. USN David Vann, a naval systems engineer at the Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) who works with the division of SOCOM's PEO-M that deals with the combatant craft fleets, was one of the individuals who shared new details regarding the MPE/MLE program at SOF Week. He confirmed today that the ALTIUS-700 is the munition that has been and continues to be used in live-fire testing of the prototype system, with another test launch scheduled to occur this month, in response to direct questions from TWZ Howard Altman. The ALTIUS-700 is a larger and longer-ranged derivative of the increasingly popular ALTIUS-600 drone, originally developed by Area-I, which Anduril acquired in 2021. The ALTIUS-700 is a modular design that could be configured with additional sensors or other payloads, including electronic warfare and signal relay packages. When configured as a loitering munition, it carries a warhead that offers anti-armor and anti-structure capability, as you can read more about here. PEO-M also offered new views of a prototype eight-cell MPE/MLE launcher, which has been installed on an existing CCM, including one showing an actual test launch, as seen at the top of this story and below. Details about the launcher remain limited, but it retracts flush into a space on the CCM's bow. This make senses for maintaining the boat's overall stealth characteristics when the launcher is not in use. Images of the prototype MPE/MLE launcher. SOCOM via Howard Altman Though ALTIUS-700 has been used for MPE testing to date, it is just one munition that could be integrated into the launcher. 'It could be,' Vann said when asked if UVision's Hero-120 loitering munition might be another option. The U.S. special operations community and the U.S. Marine Corps are already acquiring variants of the Hero-120, including for employment from maritime platforms. A US Marine Corps Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV) with an eight-cell launcher for Hero-120 loitering munitions. USMC SOCOM has also shown UVision's smaller and shorter-ranged Hero-30, as well as Rafael's Spike NLOS (Non-Line Of Sight) missile, as notional options that might meet its MPE/MLE requirements in the past. The U.S. Army has notably fielded the Spike NLOS integrated onto its AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. A 2018 briefing slide discussing the MPE program, which includes images of a Spike NLOS missile and a Hero-30 loitering munition. SOCOM 'We're not limiting ourselves to any single item,' Vann said. In terms of the present schedule for the MPE/MLE program, SOCOM now expects the system to enter service as a core element of the CCM Mk 2 boats, the requirements for which are still being finalized. The current goal is to begin fielding the CCM Mk 2s by Fiscal Year 2030. 'It's sort of shocking to some people that none of my combatant crafts are inherently built with an offensive or defensive capability in whole,' Navy Capt. Jared Wyrick, head of PEO-M, said during a talk at the SOF Week conference yesterday. 'And I'm always a big fan of saying, if you can make a product more quickly, things will want to stay further and further away from you.' 'When we specifically are looking at the CCM Mk 2 that we're working on the design of right now, and hoping to put out more information [on] later this year, part of that design was built around what is the fleet of … unmanned aerial systems look like now, so that we were able to accommodate that, and thinking about what's the next generation to look like,' Capt. Wyrick added during a deep-dive session on his office's portfolio at SOF Week today. It is worth noting here that existing CCMs, as well as smaller Combatant Craft Assault (CCA) special operations boats, can currently be armed with crew-served weapons like the .50 caliber M2 machine gun and 40mm Mk 19 Mod 3 automatic grenade launcher. What mounted armament options might presently be available for the larger and more secretive Combatant Craft Heavy (CCH) boats is unknown. Before they were retired in 2013, the Navy's Mk V Special Operations Craft also offered naval special operators a boat with an integrated ability to launch and recover Scan Eagle drones. A CCM armed with a pair of .50 caliber M2 machine guns. USN A loitering munition in the general class of the ALTIUS-700, which has a stated maximum range of 100 miles, as well as the ability to stay aloft for up to 75 minutes, will offer CCM Mk 2 crews an all-new way to prosecute targets at sea or on land at standoff ranges. Loitering munitions also have secondary surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that could be valuable to these kinds of operations, well. As TWZ has pointed out in past reporting on the MPE/MLE effort, armed with this capability, the Navy special operations speedboats could be used in a variety of scenarios, including engaging high-value and/or time-sensitive targets close to a coastline or at sea. Non-line of sight fire support, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities could also just particularly useful for supporting special operations raids ashore or boarding operations at sea. A networked swarm of loitering munitions and other drones with different payloads could offer additional flexibility when it comes to finding targets and employing non-kinetic effects, as well as launching kinetic attacks, across a broad area. Control of loitering munitions could also be passed off to other friendly forces in the air, at sea, and on land, including other drones configured as signal relays, to help reach further-flung target areas. This is a concept of operations that has been explicitly highlighted in relation to the MPE/MLE program. A graphic included in a PEO-M presentation at this year's SOF Week conference that shows the prototype MPE/MLE launcher, at left, as well as a depiction of how control of a loitering munition launched from a combatant craft could be passed to forces ashore. SOCOM via Howard Altman 'One of our combatant crafts is not going to stop next war. It's not going to be the one on the line saying, 'don't step off.' That's going to be done by a lot of our capital asset platforms [like] carriers [and] submarines,' Capt. Wyrick said at SOF week yesterday. 'Naval Special Warfare [NSW] has the opportunity to increase their lethality and survivability when that war is going to start, and make it visible that they will have that edge when the war is going to start by the efforts that NSW is going to provide.' CCM Mk 2s with launchers loaded with ALTIUS-700s or other precision munitions are now set to be another way Navy special operations forces will be able to add that lethality in the future. Howard Altman contributed to this story. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hegseth champions special operations as the force for today's threats
TAMPA, Fla. – The secretary of defense championed special operations forces as a key leader in the Pentagon's priorities of maintaining high standards and meeting threats with asymmetric tools. 'Special Operations have never been more important in our country,' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the annual Global SOF Foundation Special Operations Force Week in Tampa. Hegseth noted that over the past three years SOF-specific missions have risen by 200%. And over the past six months, SOF units have killed 500 enemy combatants and captured another 600 in operations throughout the globe, Hegseth said. That increase was coupled with a 35% surge in deterrence support that has been requested of SOF units and Special Operations Command. SOCOM must improve high-risk training oversight, report says The head of that command, Gen. Bryan Fenton, echoed his boss' comments, stressing the asymmetrical nature of what the force does. 'We're the scalpel, but if the time comes we can bring the hammer,' Fenton said. 'We're tailor-made for this era ... where asymmetry matters more than it ever has.' Those advantages will wither, however, without the right technology — part of the pitch for this conference connecting industry entities with special operations planners. 'We can't and we won't fight today's opponents at yesterday's pace,' Hegseth said. That means rapid adaptation and evolving capabilities. The defense secretary called rapid fielding, innovation and feedback critical for SOF success. Fenton noted that adversaries such as Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and terrorist organizations are 'fusing' their efforts to work collaboratively. The four-star said that with the increase in missions also comes more challenges as an ever-growing portion of the areas in which they operate are contested by adversary systems. Fenton pointed to Sonic Spear, an exercise conducted in April that merged communications, virtual constructions and live training. The exercise tested SOCOM's ability to host and synchronize all the way from the seabed to low-Earth orbit. Experts analyzed how SOCOM contributes to the joint force's ability to sense and strike targets across various spectrums. 'Sonic Spear 25 is our first go at this,' Lt. Gen. Francis Donovan, SOCOM vice commander, told Defense Scoop at a National Defense Industrial Association event in February. 'Let's push our autonomous investments, some other investments we're making. ... What do our forward forces need to be able to control ourselves, control our robots and then link in with the joint force?' The aim now is to create an O-6 level multidomain special operation task force. The Army has created similar units known as Multi-Domain Task Forces, two for the Pacific theater and one designated for Europe. Real world scenarios, meanwhile, are showing the need for change. 'If we've learned anything from our partners in Ukraine, you innovate in minutes, days and weeks, not years and decades,' Fenton said.
