Air Force going ‘line by line’ to bring down nuclear missile costs

On the same subject

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  May 6, 2019 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  Thales Alenia Space and Maxar Consortium Achieve Significant Milestone for Telesat’s LEO Satellite Constellation

  CANNES, France & WESTMINSTER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Thales Alenia Space, a Joint Venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%) and Maxar Technologies (NYSE: MAXR) (TSX: MAXR), have completed an important milestone for the Telesat LEO constellation. Our solution leverages both Maxar and Thales Alenia Space's experience in building LEO constellations and also integrates advanced technologies from Maxar's MDA business. The consortium has now significantly advanced their detailed, low-risk designs for the complete LEO system, including system optimization, requirements development, engineering trade-offs and technology prototyping to establish mature and compelling designs for Telesat LEO's space, ground and user terminal segments. As previously announced, Telesat selected the consortium of Thales Alenia Space and Maxar, as one of two contractors for its LEO system design phase to design an end-to-end communications system, including satellites, landing stations, user terminals, operations centers, and ground network. In January, the consortium, led by Thales Alenia Space, announced the success of the System Requirements Review. The Thales Alenia Space / Maxar design for Telesat LEO is based on the combined companies' proven experience, industrial capability and a strong supplier base for fully integrated communications satellite systems, including payload antenna design, on-board processing, optical inter-satellite links and LEO satellite production. This milestone is the result of fruitful and efficient teamwork between the two commercial companies. “Together with Maxar, we bring a strong expertise in integrated systems, high throughput payloads, advanced antennas and processors, as well as production heritage for constellations of high technology satellites. Leveraging the flight proven success of sophisticated constellations deployed by Thales Alenia Space, we are confident to enable Telesat LEO to deliver low-risk, breakthrough performance and affordability dedicated to broadband services around the world,” declared Martin Van Schaik, Senior VP Sales and Marketing Thales Alenia Space. “Achieving this milestone demonstrates the success of Maxar's close collaboration with Thales Alenia Space and highlights the progress we've made in our innovative and low-risk design for Telesat's LEO constellation. Our solution leverages both Maxar and Thales Alenia Space's experience in building LEO constellations and also integrates advanced technologies from Maxar's MDA business,” said Megan Fitzgerald, Maxar's Senior Vice President and General Manager of Space Solutions. “For over 60 years, Maxar has helped to address many of the world's most challenging communications requirements, delivering some of the most complex, powerful and highest capacity satellite systems, and building a better, more connected world.” The operations of DigitalGlobe, SSL and Radiant Solutions were unified under the Maxar brand in February; MDA continues to operate as an independent business unit within the Maxar organization. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190506005173/en

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  May 11, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Greece and Israel deal spotlight leasing model for military UAVs

  By: Seth J. Frantzman JERUSALEM — Greece's Hellenic Ministry of National Defense will lease unmanned aerial vehicles from Israel, in a deal that offers up an alternative to pricey acquisitions amid budgetary constraints. The Heron long endurance drones, manufactured by IAI, will be used for border defense under a leasing model that IAI said may grow more appealing with the new pandemic dynamics that countries face. Executive vice president and general manager of AIA's Military Aircraft Group, Moshe Levy, praised the new deal with Greece as "yet another example of the successful leasing model promoted by IAI in many parts of the world.” Greece will have an option to purchase the Herons after the lease term ends in three years. The Heron is one of the most popular of IAI UAVs, which have collectively seen 1.8 million operation flight hours with over fifty partners worldwide, the company says. IAI could not comment on the overall value of the lease agreement. The twin-boom Heron comes in several models, including the smaller tactical Heron unveiled in 2019, and the longer endurance Heron MK II unveiled this year. With development roots in the early 1990s, the larger Heron UAVs have been active with the Israeli Air Force since the early 2000s and been used by countries such as Turkey, India, Australia, Singapore, Azerbaijan and Germany. Greece and Israel have become closer partners in defense and maritime relations over the last decade. The Heron lease for Greece will include a unique maritime configuration with sensors and communications designed to monitor the extensive water borders of Greece. Levy says that Israel sees this maritime security model as an important market. The coronavirus pandemic has made countries increasingly aware of the need to control borders, Levy said, creating newfound demand for large surveillance UAVs like Heron. The flexibility of lease agreements with operations outsourced allows customers to get the data they need to secure borders, but without the overhead of ownership or the large logistical footprint. Levy points to previous lease agreements, such as a $600 deal in 2018 with Airbus and Germany to lease Heron TPs. Those leased Herons saw more than 30,000 hours of flight time in Afghanistan. “We supply the birds [UAVs] and the maintenance and another company takes the bird and puts it in the air," Levy said. “The customer just does the mission and get the data.” Lease agreements were signed with Australia and Canada over the last decade as well. “We assume after coronavirus, budgets will shrink and people will look for different solutions and things that are simpler, and less costly, so the lease option can meet the needs,” Levy said, particularly for states that want only a few large UAVs, without the overhead of operations and training. Israel was the world's largest exporter of drones through 2013, bringing in more than $4.6 billion in sales between 2006 and 2012 and selling UAVs to more than two dozen countries. However, China has rapidly increased its military drone sales to become one of the largest exporters last year. At the same time, UAV sales are increasingly a smaller percent of Israel's overall defense exports, illustrating a changing market. “We have to adapt and manage our portfolio. We are offering a wide variety of platforms,” says Levy. The new Heron MK II, with a wingspan of 16 meters, weighs 1,300 kg and can reach an altitude of 35,000 feet for up to 45 hours. It has a new more powerful Rotax 915 iS engine, says Levy, who pointed to increased demnd for versatile vertical-takeoff and landing (VTOL) options or UAVs that require only a short runway. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/05/08/greece-and-israel-deal-spotlight-leasing-model-for-military-uavs/

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  December 20, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Trump’s new Space Force to reside under Department of the Air Force

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — After months of deliberating how to stand up a Space Force, a sixth branch of the military proposed by President Donald Trump, Pentagon leaders have decided to funnel the new organization under the Department of the Air Force, Defense News has learned. “There is established a United States Space Force as an armed force within the Department of the Air Force,” states a draft of the legislative proposal due to be put forward alongside the fiscal year 2020 budget early next year, which was viewed by Defense News on Dec. 20. The new service will be overseen by the newly-created undersecretary of the Air Force for the Space Force and a Space Force chief of staff, who will sit on the Joint Chiefs. Although the version of the proposal seen by Defense News is still in draft form and thus subject to change, an administration official with knowledge of discussions said that there is alignment across the Defense Department on keeping the Space Force within the Department of the Air Force. The document has been circulating among top Pentagon and service leaders, with the intent to hand it off to the Office of Management and Budget next, said one Defense Department official who was not authorized to speak on the record. The decision is a major victory for the Air Force, which initially stood against attempts to carve out space operations from the service. Although Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson eventually declared her support for the president's Space Force initiative, keeping the new branch within the Department of the Air Force will allow Air Force leaders to continue to have a voice on military space. A spokesman for Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, who is leading the department's efforts to create a Space Force proposal, declined to confirm the details of the draft. “In concert with White House guidance, we are moving forward with a legislative proposal for Space Force,” said Lt. Col. Joe Buccino in statement. The proposed structure of the new service — which retains the moniker of Space Force that is favored by Trump — most closely mirrors the Space Corps proposal originally offered by Rep. Mike Rogers, the Alabama Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee's strategic forces committee. Rogers and others in the House had advocated for a Space Corps that would sit under the Department of the Air Force, similar to the Marine Corps' existence as an independent service under the Department of the Navy. The measure was passed through the House as part of the 2018 defense policy bill, but failed to make it though the Senate. However, it was seemingly brought back to life stronger than ever when Trump directed the Pentagon to stand up a Space Force. Trump said this new, independent military branch would be “separate but equal” to the Air Force, leading defense wonks to speculate that a new Department of the Space Force would be created. It appears that, after doing its analysis, the Pentagon favors a more modest approach — one that allows the Air Force to retain a degree of oversight over the Space Force initially, with the idea that it could establish a Department of the Space Force later if the need presented itself. “The Space Force shall be organized, trained and equipped to provide for freedom of operations in, from and to the space domain for the United States and its allies” and “to provide independent military options for joint and national leadership and to enable the lethality and effectiveness of the joint force,” the legislative proposal states. The service, which consists of an active duty and Space Force Reserves, “includes both combat and combat support functions to enable prompt and sustained offensive and defensive space operations and joint operations in all domains.” The undersecretary of the Air Force for the Space Force will be responsible for “the overall supervision” of the new service, but is still subordinate to the Air Force secretary, the legislative proposal states. On the uniformed side, a chief and vice chief of the Space Force would lead the “Space Staff.” The proposal does not lay out the Space Force's relationship to the newly re-established U.S. Space Command or the Space Development Agency, which the Pentagon intends to form to organize the rapid procurement of space technologies. Nor does it spell out the cost of standing up a new space service, a topic that has been hotly debated within the Pentagon and beyond. In November, Defense One reported that the Defense Department was evaluating multiple ways of organizing the Space Force, including as a subordinate organization to the Air Force. This marked a change from its initial mandate to create a wholly independent department, one that Pentagon leaders saw as necessary to appeal to Congress, which gets the final decision on whether to establish a Space Force, the publication wrote. Last week, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters that the Pentagon had finalized an answer to questions about the organization of a Space Force, and that Trump had been briefed on the proposal. “There were two primary options,” he told reporters Dec. 13. “We're now down to one option. I'm really not in a position to disclose what that one option is, but I can tell you that the legislative proposal itself probably tomorrow will start to go through the [Pentagon] for coordination.” Vice President Mike Pence was briefed on the way forward during a visit to the Pentagon on Wednesday, reported Space News. https://www.defensenews.com/space/2018/12/20/trumps-new-space-force-to-reside-under-department-of-the-air-force