April 29, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Back hard-hit businesses? Experts press EU to instead boost defense spending

By: Tom Kington

ROME — Defense experts are concerned that Europe's newfound commitment to joint defense spending may be cast aside as the European Union diverts cash into economies hammered by the coronavirus lockdown.

The scenario was discussed in a webinar hosted by Italy's IAI think tank on April 8. And last week, Polish and German experts wrote of the risk that the fledgling European Defence Fund will be savagely cut.

Then on April 27, eight experts issued an appeal to EU policymakers, arguing that rather than cutting defense funds to free up money to support hard-hit businesses, they should do the opposite and beef up defense spending.

With so many high-tech jobs in the defense industry, “specific support for this sector will be needed to mitigate the economic crisis' effects and preserve the long-term future of Europe,” wrote the experts, who hail from Spain, Italy, the U.K., France and Lithuania.

According to the letter, the EU plans to pack its 2021-2027 budget with measures to limit a recession some economists believe will follow the pandemic. Economists have also warned such a recession would dwarf the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis.

“Undoubtedly it will focus on critical sectors such as health or energy. We believe that the defence sector should be included in such critical sectors and that a revised version of the [budget] should be the opportunity to reassert a truly ambitious budget for the European Defence Fund,” the experts wrote.

Apart from shoring up defense jobs, feeding the European Defence Fund would help defend the EU as threats grow, they wrote.

“Indeed, COVID-19 will not stop or mitigate the ongoing worsening of the international security environment threatening European security and interests. On the contrary, it is likely to make the world more unstable and more insecure,” they added.

Defense spending had been slashed after 2008, the experts said, and faces a similar fate now, just as “Europe is trying to develop next-generation fighter aircraft, main battle tanks, frigates and other capabilities such as unmanned systems crucial for its military and technological edge.”

Cutting budgets would not only increase Europe's dependency on “third states” but would “significantly hinder the credibility of European nations as military partners, notably within NATO,” they added.

Prior to the spread of coronavirus, pressure had grown inside the EU to halve the €13 billion (U.S. $14 billion) planned for the European Defence Fund during 2021-2027.

Now, the EU should halt any plans to cut the fund and instead increase it, the experts wrote. “As Europe gradually emerges from the pandemic, there [cannot be a] secure ‘new normal' without a solid European defence,” they concluded.

The letter's release coincided with a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute that found total global military spending rose 3.6 percent in 2019 to $1.917 trillion — marking the largest annual growth in spending since 2010.

The think tank report also found that U.S. spending grew by 5.3 percent to a total of $732 billion in 2019, at 38 percent of the global total. The increase alone in U.S. spending was roughly equal to the entire budget of Germany. The European country's military spending rose by 10 percent last year to $49.3 billion, which the think tank said was the largest increase in spending among the top 15 military spenders in 2019.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/04/27/back-hard-hit-businesses-experts-press-eu-to-instead-boost-defense-spending/

On the same subject

September 5, 2018 | International, Aerospace

T-X competition to end in September with selection of new USAF trainer aircraft
2018-08-30 WILLIAM KUCINSKI Officials will soon award a 350-unit contract to one of three competing aircraft teams. According to officials, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) will select a new trainer aircraft by September 30 – before the end of the 2018 fiscal year. The aircraft will be one of the three remaining next-gen trainer candidates from the USAF's ongoing T-X competition, either the clean-sheet T-X from Boeing and Saab, the T-50A from Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (KAI), or the T-100 from Leonardo DRS. The USAF will replace its aging fleet of Northrop T-38 Talon supersonic jet trainers with 350 new aircraft from the T-X competition, spending approximately $16 billion to acquire and maintain the new trainers over the course of their service life – one of the largest USAF contracts in recent times. The seasoned T-38 has been in use since 1961, training nearly 50,000 pilots who would later fly aircraft like the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, McDonell Douglass F-15 Eagle, and Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II. However, as the USAF transitions employs more and more cutting-edge technologies, a next-gen trainer is needed to better facilitate fifth-gen fighter aircraft pilot training for the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lighting II. The winning T-X aircraft will serve as a platform to acclimate pilots to aircraft with extreme agility, full-sensor fusion, integrated avionics, supercruise, and consolidated and integrated battlespace management technologies. Industry analysts currently favor the Lockheed/KAI T-50A – based on KAI's T-50 trainer used by South Korea's Republic of Korea Air Force and co-developed by Lockheed Martin, manufacturer of the F-22 and F-35; and the Boeing/Saab T-X – which, as a completely new design – benefited from additional development time due to the T-X competition's repeatedly protracted award announcement. While speculation has floated that the T-X award announcement would occur during the Air Force Association's Air, Space & Cyber (ASC) Conference from Sept. 17-19, those close to the program hinted at a decision coming through the following week of Sept. 24. https://www.sae.org/news/2018/08/t-x-competition-to-end-in-september-with-selection-of-new-usaf-trainer-aircraft
January 30, 2020 | International, Aerospace

Safran signe un contrat de maintenance pour les moteurs des hélicoptères EH101 Merlin portugais
Safran Helicopter Engines a signé un contrat de 10 ans avec la Force aérienne portugaise (Força Aérea Portuguesa) pour réaliser la maintenance des moteurs RTM322 de ses hélicoptères EH101 Merlin. Un total de 38 moteurs va bénéficier du contrat de soutien Global Support Package (GSP) de Safran. Cet accord répond aux souhaits de la Force aérienne portugaise garantissant ainsi une disponibilité optimale de ses moteurs, durant ses opérations sur le territoire national et à l'étranger. « Nous misons beaucoup sur ce contrat qui va garantir la disponibilité de nos moteurs durant nos opérations » a déclaré le général de corps d'armée Cartaxo Alves, de la Force aérienne portugaise. Avec le contrat GSP, les opérateurs sont assurés de disposer de moteurs opérationnels quand ils en ont besoin, tout en ayant des garanties en matière de budget prévisionnel, de coûts fixes à l'heure de vol et de partenariat technique avec le constructeur. GSP fait partie de la gamme EngineLife Services, les offres de services de Safran pour les moteurs d'hélicoptères. https://www.air-cosmos.com/article/safran-signe-un-contrat-de-maintenance-pour-les-moteurs-des-hlicoptres-eh101-merlin-portugais-22485
January 26, 2021 | International, Aerospace

Le Royaume-Uni développe un chasseur piloté à distance
Le ministère de la défense britannique a annoncé le 25 janvier le lancement d'un prototype de chasseur piloté à distance. Ce projet, connu sous le nom de « Mosquito », est intégré au programme LANCA (Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft). Une enveloppe de 30 M£ lui sera allouée, afin d'aboutir à un premier prototype d'ici trois ans. Un démonstrateur à l'échelle 1 devrait pouvoir réaliser des essais en vol d'ici fin 2023. Spirit AeroSystems a été choisi pour diriger l'équipe de recherche, dont Northrop Grumman UK fait également partie. « Nous adoptons une approche révolutionnaire, en nous tournant vers une combinaison inédite faisant collaborer des essaims de drones et des chasseurs sans équipage, comme Mosquito, aux côtés d'avions de combat pilotés comme le Tempest, qui transformera l'espace de combat d'une manière inédite », a déclaré le chef d'Etat Major de la Royal Air Force, l'Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigton. Air & Cosmos du 26 janvier

All news