October 25, 2018 | International, Aerospace
Mardi 23 octobre 2018, 0800, Lausanne, entrée en lice des avionneurs américains.
Pour rappel, deux avions américains sont en compétition dans le cadre du programme AIR2030, le F/A 18 Super Hornet de Boeing et le F35 de Lockheed Martin.
Au menu de cette matinée, le F/A 18 Super Hornet de Boeing.
L'avion proposé n'est pas inconnu puisqu'il avait été naturellement envisagé lors de la précédente campagne de renouvellement de la flotte avant que Boeing ne renonce à faire une offre à la Suisse.
Boeing avait expliqué à l'époque que « le nouveau Super Hornet est peut-être un avion trop poussé par rapport aux besoins de la Suisse. ».
Huit ans plus tard, les besoins exprimés par la Suisse pour son nouvel avion de combat ont évolué et le Super Hornet fait à nouveau office de candidat sérieux.
En effet, les F/A 18 Hornet dans leur version C et D sont en service dans les forces aériennes suisses depuis maintenant vingt ans et l'avion est bien connu de nos pilotes et militaires.
Quelles différences par rapport au modèle actuel ?
Le F/A 18 Super Hornet n'est pas un nouvel avion mais bien une évolution du Hornet que nous connaissons. Il s'agit cependant d'une évolution en profondeur avec une refonte du design, de la signature radar, une mise à jour des systèmes d'armes et de l'électronique embarquée ou encore une augmentation importante de l'autonomie.
Aujourd'hui, le F/A 18 Super Hornet E/F est un biréacteur de 4ème génération + disponible en monoplace et biplace comme les variantes C et D de son prédécesseur.
Boeing va droit au but
La présentation du jour de Boeing est, comme disent les américains, « straight to the point ».
Communication à l'américaine oblige, on débute avec un clip vidéo figurant un compte à rebours égrené par une voix féminine à l'issue duquel divers types d'engins fabriqués par Boeing s'élancent dans le ciel dans un panache de fumée incandescent.
Sans autre intermède, le représentant de Boeing, Monsieur CRUTCHFIELD, développe directement sur la facilité de transition entre le modèle actuel de l'armée suisse et le Super Hornet, un mois d'entraînement au maximum étant selon lui nécessaire aux pilotes aguerris sur F/A 18 Hornet pour se familiariser avec cette nouvelle version.
Quant au matériel d'entretien et à l'armement, il est en partie compatible entre les deux versions.
Compte tenu de l'avenir bien incertain des F/A 18 suisses actuels dans le contexte politique tendu des exportations d'armes, le recyclage partiel est un point pour le moins pertinent.
Pour Boeing, le Super Hornet est la transition la plus simple et la moins onéreuse pour la Suisse.
C'est au tour de Madame Nell BRECKENRIDGE, première femme à s'exprimer pour un constructeur, de prendre le relais.
Elle partage premièrement quelques chiffres : Boeing est un géant de l'industrie, qui a l'habitude de l'offset et de travailler avec des partenaires dans le monde entier.
Historiquement, l'offset Boeing c'est près de 50 milliards USD dans environ 40 pays depuis 35 ans. Actuellement, c'est 65 collaborations pour un montant de 20 milliards USD dans 20 pays.
Efficacité et engagement
Viennent ensuite les arguments phares de Boeing pour la Suisse.
Premièrement, le géant américain, en tant que constructeur du F/A 18 Hornet, le dernier avion acquis par l'armée suisse, peut s'appuyer sur sa propre expérience dans le cadre du programme offset d'USD 1,3 milliards réalisé en Suisse dans le cadre de l'achat de cet avion en 1997.
Détail piquant au pays de la ponctualité, le programme d'offset de l'époque a été complété 3 ans avant le délai prévu.
Dans la même veine, un nouveau programme d'offset a été signé par Boeing avec la Suisse en 2009 pour la mise à jour des F/A 18 Hornet, lequel a également été complété, selon Boeing, en avance du calendrier prévu.
Au total, toujours selon Boeing, ce sont plus de 600 sociétés suisses qui font ou ont fait affaire avec l'avionneur au cours des vingt dernières années.
Sur leur dernier slide de présentation, Boeing déclare : Promises made, promises kept. (Promesses faites, promesses tenues)
Tout un programme.
November 28, 2023 | International, Security
Business jet maker Textron said on Tuesday it would cut 725 jobs as part of its restructuring plan in an attempt to reduce operating expenses, sending its shares up more than 2% after the bell.
June 27, 2019 | International, Other Defence
By: Sebastian Sprenger PARIS — Lockheed Martin executives are preparing for a stiff debate in Germany about the price tag of a next-generation anti-missile system formally proposed to Berlin just days ago. “I think the price will be a challenge, and we'll have to negotiate to come to an agreement,” Frank St. John, executive vice president of the company's Missiles and Fire Control business, told Defense News in an interview at the Paris Air Show last week. “But we're going to do better than the early expectations of the price.” That is a reference to a figure that surfaced during the spring following testimony of a senior German defense official before parliament. At the time, the cost estimate for the TLVS program, short for Taktisches Luftverteidigungssystem, was €8 billion (U.S. $9 billion). St. John declined to name the price ultimately included by Lockheed Martin and its German partner MBDA in their June 21 proposal. But he suggested the figure would lie significantly enough below the €8 million mark to be considered more than cosmetic. “I still anticipate a healthy debate and discussion about the pricing and the scope of the program through the negotiation process,” he said. Negotiations are expected to begin as soon as the German Defence Ministry has analyzed the proposal, described by German officials as being thousands of pages long. If the government and Lockheed Martin come to an agreement, the proposed investment would go before lawmakers for a decision, probably late this year or early next year. German plans for the TLVS program are based on the Medium Extended Air Defense System, conceived about 10 years ago as a replacement for the Patriot fleets of the United States, Germany and Italy. Soldiers had criticized the decades-old Patriot system as too cumbersome to deploy and maintain in the field. Germany has stuck with MEADS even after the United States and Italy dropped off, with officials in Berlin arguing the prospect of developing a truly novel defensive weapon was worth the gamble of going it alone. Defense officials in Germany have since added new requirements. For one, Berlin wants full control over all components, as opposed to buying an American weapon whose inner workings are shrouded in secrecy. In addition, the German government wants to be able to shoot down what officials call “advanced threats” (code for hypersonic missiles, such as those developed by Russia). According to St. John, Lockheed's latest TLVS proposal comes with the promise of intercepting such threats, though probably not the most sophisticated ones. “And then there is a provision in the contract and in the design of the system to add capability as time goes by and as the threat evolves,” he said. One of the sticking points for the proposed program — German access to secret performance data of the weapon's principal interceptor, the so-called MSE missile — appears to have been resolved, St. John said. Until late last year, Berlin was unhappy with U.S. Army restrictions placed on the information, which Germany considers crucial for adapting the system to its needs. Senior Pentagon leaders intervened to help resolve the logjam after Defense News reported on the issue in December 2018. “We believe that we have coordinated that with the Department of State and the appropriate folks at the Department of Defense, and that the German customer is going to have access to the data they need to evaluate the system,” St. John said. “They'll also have access to the data they need to recommend future modifications. We think that issue is resolved now.” At the same time, he added, another round of approvals will be needed from the U.S. government as contract negotiations with Germany progress. “We'll have to go back one more time ... to verify that everything is still in a good place." Patriot-maker Raytheon issued a statement Monday reiterating its readiness to snatch the missile-defense contract from arch enemy Lockheed Martin if the TLVS program goes south. The company especially played up the option of connecting an upgraded Patriot system to a lower-tier system, made by Rheinmetall, to defend against drones and artillery rounds. Ralph Acaba, president of Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business, said his company is increasingly banking on a layered air defense concept in which different systems — perhaps owned by different countries — take on various threat types. “No single nation, no single system can do it all when it comes to missile defense,” he told Defense News at the Paris Air Show. According to Joseph de Antona, vice president for business development and strategy in Acaba's division, Raytheon does not consider Lockheed's TLVS bid a threat to Patriot sales. “If a country makes a decision, it's our responsibility to honor and recognize that,” he said. At the same time, he added, Raytheon plans to continue to advise the German government on new threats and how to counter them. The company is “absolutely” still talking to the Berlin government to that effect, de Antona told Defense News. German lawmakers on the Defence and Budget committees on Wednesday approved roughly €120 million to upgrade the country's Patriot fleet to the newest configuration, known as “3-plus.” According to Raytheon, Berlin's investments to keep Patriot up to date had been lagging since the decision in favor of TLVS. Meanwhile, the proposed new system's funding profile has begun to take shape. Berlin wants to spend €3.36 billion on TLVS between 2021 and 2028, according to a draft government budget proposal meant for deliberation by lawmakers after the summer recess. That figure likely would be too low to finance Lockheed's entire program proposal. But the draft budget includes a provision permitting a transfer of funds from the envisioned €5.6 billion budget for a new heavy transport helicopter. The two contenders for that program are Boeing and Lockheed Martin. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/paris-air-show/2019/06/26/lockheed-braces-for-german-blowback-over-cost-of-missile-defense-pitch/
November 28, 2023 | International, Land
Pratt & Whitney also expects to finish its preliminary design for the Engine Core Upgrade in December, and face the government's review in January.