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  March 8, 2022 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  Accord entre l’Arabie saoudite et Lockheed Martin sur les systèmes de Défense

  L'Arabie saoudite a annoncé lundi un accord avec Lockheed Martin, pour deux projets de production sur son sol de systèmes antimissiles THAAD (Theater High Altitude Area Defense), selon l'agence de presse officielle SPA. Cet accord « améliorera les capacités militaires du système de défense aérienne » de l'Arabie saoudite, a affirmé à l'agence Gasem Al-Maimani, à la tête de l'autorité saoudienne supervisant l'industrie de Défense. Aucune information concernant la partie financière de l'accord n'a été révélée. L'annonce a été faite en marge du premier salon international de Défense en Arabie saoudite, qui se tient à Ryad depuis dimanche, avec environ 600 entreprises et organisations, venues de 42 pays. Le Figaro du 8 mars

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  August 9, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land

  Hypersonics by the dozens: US industry faces manufacturing challenge

  By: Jen Judson HUNTSVILLE, Ala. —The U.S. military is a few years from launching offensive hypersonic weapons that are currently under development. But building those initial missiles is one thing — manufacturing the weapons in multitude is another issue entirely. “I would say we really need to understand, again, how can we produce precision hardware at scale,” Michael Griffin, the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, told a group of reporters Aug. 7 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. “If we talk about ballistic missile defense or hypersonic offense and we talk about proliferating architectures, we need any dozens, many hundreds, maybe thousands of assets,” he added. “This takes us back to the Cold War where at one point we had 30,000 nuclear warheads and missiles to launch them. We haven't produced at that kind of scale since the wall came down.” As hypersonic missiles become a reality, industry is going to have to relearn how to effectively, efficiently and economically produce them, Griffin said. While industry has developed warheads, glide bodies and other components, there is no industrial base equipped to manufacture hypersonic weapons. Things are moving in the right direction when it comes to bringing industry up to speed and preparing for larger-scale manufacturing of missiles, Griffin said. But building these systems is challenging because, for example, hypersonics require a greater degree of thermal protection than what has been required of other weapons in the past, he noted. Building hypersonics is no longer a technical issue or a matter of understanding physics, but rather an issue of understanding the industrial engineering required to produce a larger number. “I'm not sure how much help the government can be there,” he said. “Mass production is not what we do. ... That is going to be an industry problem.” The Army is just weeks away from awarding a contract to a company that will work with the federally funded laboratory that developed a hypersonic glide body to develop manufacturing plans and strategies. Other companies will have a turn as well. The effort is spearheaded by the service's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office. Griffin stressed that the weapons manufacturing process needs to be affordable. “Our adversaries have clearly found ways to make them affordable. China has these things now by the thousands. What do we do to learn, once again, how to produce sophisticated things at scale and affordably?” he said. China is able to field new systems every few years, Griffin noted, while the U.S. takes a decade or more to get through a cumbersome acquisition process. “It don't believe that the issues facing the United States aerospace and defense establishment are issues of specific technologies,” he said. “I believe that over the last 30 years ... we've become lost in our processes.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2019/08/08/hypersonics-by-the-dozens-us-industry-faces-manufacturing-challenge/

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  July 3, 2019 | International, Other Defence

  Peraton Awarded $185.8 Million Tactical Aerostat Systems Contract

  (Source: Peraton news release) Peraton was awarded the Tactical Aerostat Systems (TAS) contract in support of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), under the U.S. General Services Administration's One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) vehicle. The five year contract, valued at $185.8 million, is comprised of one base with four option years. Under the TAS program, Peraton will help provide round-the-clock regional domain awareness and long-range persistent ground surveillance along the United States–Mexico border. Operating from sites across the Rio Grande Valley in Southeast Texas, TAS are strategically used to enhance mission coverage by maintaining surveillance of challenging terrain and over-the-horizon situations, enabling USBP to detect, identify, classify, and track cross-border activity. "The TAS program builds on our decade-plus partnership with DHS CBP providing integrated logistics support for the Tethered Aerostat Radar System program," said John Coleman, president, Defense and Homeland Security sector. "Peraton operates and maintains the critical communications infrastructures that equip USBP agents with the vital intelligence to enforce functional borders – facilitating the flow of legal immigration and goods while preventing illegal trafficking of people and contraband across our nation's borders." With its legacy of delivering maximal aerostat availability through effective logistics management, while implementing staffing efficiencies, integrating emerging technologies, and satisfying evolving mission demands, Peraton's deep expertise drives the strong customer partnerships that advance desired mission outcomes. http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=eec2e7e4-68e1-4e91-86ba-8746cb036548