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September 16, 2020 | International, Aerospace

Achat de Rafale par la Grèce, crise du secteur aérien : entretien avec Eric Trappier, président du GIFAS et PDG de Dassault Aviation

Eric Trappier, président du GIFAS et PDG de Dassault Aviation, s'exprimait ce matin sur RTL. Le dirigeant a notamment évoqué la commande de 18 Rafale par la Grèce, annoncée samedi 12 septembre. Les Rafale commandés par la Grèce seront livrés «dans l'année à venir, soit en 2021», indique M. Trappier. La commande comprendra 12 avions d' «occasion», actuellement opérationnels au sein de l'armée de l'Air française, une mesure décidée afin de répondre à l'urgence du besoin exprimé par la Grèce. Ces prélèvements d'appareils au sein de l'armée de l'Air française seront « compensés par la fabrication d'avions neufs », insiste M. Trappier. La fabrication de 18 Rafale garantit « un an de travail pour les chaînes de production de Dassault Aviation et de ses sous-traitants », souligne-t-il. M. Trappier rappelle également qu'une discussion avec le gouvernement français est en cours concernant l'achat d'une «cinquième tranche de 30 avions». Le Rafale est «un avion qui n'arrête pas d'évoluer, par standards successifs», souligne le dirigeant : «on est en train de développer le quatrième standard». Interrogé sur la crise que traverse actuellement le secteur de l'aéronautique, M. Trappier souligne que l'Etat est «très mobilisé» ; mais il met en garde contre le «changement d'hypothèse» qui surviendrait si «les frontières restent fermées et si le trafic aérien ne reprend pas». Il rappelle que le secteur de l'aéronautique travaille, depuis plusieurs années, à la mise au point d'un «avion décarboné», dont le développement s'est récemment accéléré avec le soutien du gouvernement. RTL Matin du 16 septembre

On the same subject

  • Le Japon va acquérir 105 avions de combat américains F-35

    May 31, 2019 | International, Aerospace

    Le Japon va acquérir 105 avions de combat américains F-35

    Le Japon va acheter 105 avions de combat américains F-35 supplémentaires, a annoncé lundi le président américain Donald Trump à l'issue d'un sommet avec le premier ministre japonais Shinzo Abe. « Les États-Unis soutiennent les efforts du Japon pour améliorer ses capacités de défense, et ces derniers mois nous leur avons envoyé une grande quantité d'équipements militaires », a déclaré M. Trump lors d'une conférence de presse, annonçant « l'intention du Japon d'acheter 105 F-35 neufs ». Le Japon, qui avait déjà annoncé fin 2011 l'achat de 42 F-35, est avec cette nouvelle commande le premier client international pour cet avion de combat de cinquième génération. En réalité, l'archipel s'était déjà engagé en décembre à cette acquisition, portant à 147 le nombre de ces chasseurs furtifs en sa possession, selon un communiqué du constructeur aéronautique américain Lockheed Martin publié à l'époque. Le gouvernement de Shinzo Abe, qui a annoncé en décembre un budget record pour la défense, a accru ses importations d'équipements militaires américains sous la pression de Donald Trump. Le but est de contrer la menace militaire de la Chine, mais aussi de réduire le déséquilibre commercial avec les États-Unis, régulièrement dénoncé par le président américain. Lancé au début des années 1990, le F-35 est produit par Lockheed Martin, et ses moteurs par un autre américain, Pratt et Whitney. Selon les derniers chiffres, 390 F-35 ont été livrés dans le monde. C'est le plus cher des programmes d'armement de l'histoire militaire américaine, avec un coût estimé au total à près de 400 milliards de dollars pour l'armée américaine, pour un objectif de près de 2500 appareils à produire dans les décennies à venir. https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/201905/27/01-5227679-le-japon-va-acquerir-105-avions-de-combat-americains-f-35.php

  • Pentagon Mulls F-35 Sustainment Proposal

    September 24, 2019 | International, Aerospace

    Pentagon Mulls F-35 Sustainment Proposal

    The Pentagon is assessing Lockheed Martin's proposal to reduce Joint Strike Fighter sustainment pricing by 16% over five years through a performance based logistics (PBL) contract, but the largest F-35 customer, the U.S. Air Force, says there are several things that must be worked out before signing the dotted line. The company delivered a white paper to Ellen Lord, under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, in August outlining how a five-year PBL contract could save the military money on F-35 sustainment, Ken Merchant, F-35 sustainment vice president for Lockheed Martin, told reporters last week at the Air Force Association's annual conference in National Harbor, Maryland. Current F-35 sustainment contracts are annual and do not allow the Joint Strike Fighter's supplier base to conduct forward planning, he said. “What a PBL would do for us is give a five-year contract with [the] government and it would allow our suppliers to make those investments knowing that they have five years worth of business guaranteed,” Merchant said. The F-35 program has delivered over 425 aircraft to the fleet and will continue to grow; in fact it will double over the next few years. This is something the Pentagon must consider before entering a PBL with Lockheed Martin, Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics, told Aerospace DAILY in an exclusive Sept. 18 interview. “Normally a performance-based logistics contract makes sense when you have a majority of the fleet fielded, then you can start doing stable buys,” Roper said. “Those are the details that we'll need to look at. It's not just, would the performance-based logistics contract make sense if the fleet size were frozen? Does it make sense as the fleet size grows?” The Pentagon also must consider supply chain issues and software for the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) as the fleet size grows, he said. “Those problems might grow linearly as the fleet size grows [or] we might get a non-linear effect where they compound,” Roper said. “Those are the things we'll need to think through.” In a perfect world, Lockheed Martin would like to negotiate a multiyear sustainment contract for the F-35, but executives admit the construct would be hard to sell on Capitol Hill. “Multiyear contracts that are performance based can be very successful because they invite industry to make the upfront investment so that they can recoup their investment in terms of profit at a predictable period without worrying about the variability and the vacillations of the budgeting cycle,” Roper said. “The theory is sound, it's just the practice that has to be reviewed.” Roper worries about F-35 software the most because it is not only needed to sustain the system but also is integral for modernization. “Agile software development is so critical on our programs and I think it's not going to be a ‘nice to have' for the F-35, it's going to be an absolute ‘must have,'” he said. Under Roper's direction the Air Force launched Mad Hatter, a software coding project tackling ALIS that has delivered initial applications to the flightline at Nellis AFB in Nevada. “I'm really pleased that new [F-35 Joint Program Office] leadership under [Lt. Gen.] Eric Fick have viewed that as a very favorable direction for all of F-35 software that goes forward,” Roper said. “We're making the results available to them—not just the results in the field, but the process that produced them.” Lockheed Martin has pledged to migrate ALIS to the cloud by 2020 and Roper agrees this is paramount for the future of the program because the enterprise must use cloud-based development tools. This is the way the commercial industry is heading and it provides security benefits, he added. “I've directed numerous programs in the Air Force to move to our cloud-based DevSecOps stack, which is called Cloud One. F-16, F-22, B-21, [Ground Based Strategic Deterrent]—these are programs that need to write a lot of cloud quickly and securely,” Roper said. “Cloud-based development, if done correctly ... you can write secure code really quickly and get it accredited quickly, which we also want.” https://aviationweek.com/defense/pentagon-mulls-f-35-sustainment-proposal

  • GE awarded $180 million contract to support T700 engines

    June 25, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    GE awarded $180 million contract to support T700 engines

    Lynn, MA, June 22, 2020 – GE Aviation has been awarded a five-year, $180 million contract by the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) to repair and overhaul T700 rotorcraft engines in support of the U.S. Navy's MH-60 Seahawk, and the U.S. Marine Corps' AH-1Z Viper and Bell UH-1Y Venom/Huey helicopters. “GE is grateful for the opportunity to provide T700 overhaul and repair support to the US Navy and Marine Corps fleets for another five years,” said Harry Nahatis, vice president and general manager of GE Aviation's Rotorcraft & Turboprop Engines. “This contract will allow GE to work closely with the Navy to improve fleet readiness while reducing cost.” Upon service entry in 1978 in the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, the T700 quickly proved its mettle in helicopter service, and its operational benefits also made it an ideal derivative as a turboprop powerplant. Today, the T700/CT7 family of turboshaft and turboprop engines power 15 types of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft with more than 130 customers in more than 50 countries. The T700/CT7 family has surpassed 20,000 units delivered and more than 100 million total flight hours. The T700/CT7 engine line has become increasingly more powerful and reliable during its history. Many technological advances have been incorporated into the subsequent growth versions. Current models in the 2,000-3,000 shaft-horsepower range retain all the proven features and operating characteristics of earlier versions while delivering enhanced performance. The highly reliable T700/CT7 design has proven itself in the harshest environments, logging more than five million flight hours in hot-harsh combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. T700/CT7 helicopter engines power a variety of civil aviation and military applications including transport, utility and attack, medical evacuation, air rescue, firefighting, special operations and marine patrol. They serve five branches of the U.S. military, numerous international customers and civil aviation operators. Prime turboshaft applications include the Sikorsky Black Hawk, Seahawk, Jayhawk, Pave Hawk, S-70, S/H-92, CH-148, HH60-W CRH, and VIP transport helicopters; the Boeing AH-64 Apache, Bell UH-1Y Huey, AW-1Z Super Cobra,214ST Super Transport and 525 Relentless, Kaman SH-2G Super Seasprite, NHIndustries NH90, Leonardo AW101 and AW189 and KAI Surion. About GE Aviation GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. For more information, visit us at www.ge.com/aviation. Follow GE Aviation on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GEAviation and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GEAviation # # # For further information, contact: Nick Hurm 513.484.4450 nick.hurm@ge.com View source version on GE Aviation: https://www.geaviation.com/press-release/military-engines/ge-awarded-180-million-contract-support-t700-engines

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