BAE Systems receives $500 million contract to provide new turret for Netherlands’ CV90s

On the same subject

• 

  April 3, 2024 | International, Aerospace

  Greece approves purchase of 35 Blackhawk helicopters from US-sources

  ATHENS, April 3 (Reuters) - Greece has approved the purchase of 35 UH-60M Blackhawk helicopters from U.S defence contractor Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), opens new tab in an effort to modernize its armed forces, two people with knowledge of the deal told Reuters.

• 

  September 18, 2018 | International, Naval

  After Pacific tour, Navy’s No. 2 talks readiness, staying ahead of competition

  By CAITLIN DOORNBOS | STARS AND STRIPES YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran heard right from the source how the Navy's largest foreign command is keeping up with readiness challenges, including a significant maintenance backlog and an ever-increasing competition landscape. Moran — the service's second-highest ranking officer — visited Navy bases in South Korea and Japan last week on a listening tour that he said brought helpful insight into on-the-ground operations in the Pacific. “We in Washington have our own views about things and it's largely programmatic in nature, budgetary in nature and some policy,” he told Stars and Stripes in an interview Thursday. “But to get feedback from sailors, commanding officers, chiefs and master chiefs in the fleet really helps us refine and make sure that we're supporting from Washington what they need [in the Pacific].” Readiness challenges At Yokosuka on Thursday, Moran spent time on the waterfront discussing ship maintenance. The base is home to U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility Japan Regional Maintenance Center, which is working on what Moran called a “not insignificant” backlog. A request for exact numbers on that backlog went unanswered. The 7th Fleet is operating with fewer ships than it had planned after two of its guided-missile destroyers — the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain — were severely damaged in separate fatal collisions at sea last year. While Yokosuka added an additional destroyer — the USS Milius — earlier this year, the fleet remains down two operational ships because Milius was originally intended to be an additional ship in support of Indo-Pacific operations, former Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Scott Swift told Stars and Stripes last year. Moran said the McCain, which is being repaired in Yokosuka, is expected to get out of drydock this fall and the Navy is aiming to have it underway in the spring. The Fitzgerald is undergoing maintenance in Pascagoula, Miss., and the service has said the goal is to return it to sea by 2020. Moran said ship maintenance “is a key critical element for overall fleet readiness.” “Everybody recognizes that we've got to do the maintenance that's built up over time. While that's important to everybody, no one likes to be in the yards,” Moran said. “There's a cost of doing that right now and we have to re-baseline the maintenance of our ships across the fleet, particularly [in the Pacific] because it is so active, it has been a very busy place for a long time.” On Sept. 12, Moran and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith toured Yokosuka's USS Blue Ridge, which has been undergoing maintenance for about two years. Crews first re-lit the boilers on the Navy's oldest commissioned operational ship in June, and Moran said the 7th Fleet's flagship is “about ready to go to sea.” “She's outfitted like an old ‘57 Chevy that we've took the engine out, took the dashboard out and put all modern capability in, and man, she sounds and she's going to run kind of nice,” Moran said. The Blue Ridge's staff moved back onto the ship this summer. Capt. Brett Crozier, the Blue Ridge's commander, said it was an honor to host Moran. Full article: https://www.stripes.com/news/after-pacific-tour-navy-s-no-2-talks-readiness-staying-ahead-of-competition-1.547999

• 

  June 9, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Defense industry aid in limbo as new COVID package drags

  By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― It's been seven weeks since Pentagon officials first pledged to ask Congress for billions of dollars in the next stimulus package to help defense contractors affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but the request remains in limbo. Though the pandemic, according to Department of Defense officials, has been hitting space-launch companies as well as the aviation and shipbuilding supply chains, the Trump administration appears to have sidelined a request to provide more financial support. Such support would supplement $688 million for the defense-industrial base that the DoD previously earmarked as part of the $10.5 billion it got from the coronavirus relief fund created under the CARES Act. New friction between Congress and the Trump administration over the latter's use of the military to respond to nationwide protests as well as its slow use of past stimulus funds likely spell headwinds for another tranche of aid, observers say. “First question will be whether there will ever be another stimulus, given current animosity between the Hill and administration,” said Bill Greenwalt, a defense consultant who was a senior defense acquisitions official in the George W. Bush administration. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord said April 20 that the DoD plans to ask for “billions and billions” in a new package to help Pentagon suppliers, pending approval from the White House Office of Management and Budget. Lawmakers will have a chance to ask what that request would contain and about the health of the defense-industrial base when she testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at a public event May 4 that he anticipated “the likely need for additional monies” for medical supplies and “to continue priming the defense-industrial base.” “We want people at work, we want our base at work, we want to continue with payments, we want to help with cash flow, and we're looking at a variety of ways by which we can do that. Again, it's very important,” he said. By that time, the Pentagon had submitted the request to OMB, where it has since stalled, according to two congressional aides. The DoD, in close contact with industry, has projected a three-month slowdown for top weapons programs and sought to make $3 billion in expedited “progress payments" to increase cash flow to primary contractors and more vulnerable, smaller subcontractors. Pandemic-related closures and other disruptions are expected to mean some number of weapons programs will also cost more and arrive later than initially anticipated. “There is no doubt there will be an impact on cost and schedule of DoD programs when the vast majority of people are not going to work,” Greenwalt said. “Then you have the issues of disruption of supply chains and actual closed lines due to the virus.” Meanwhile, Congress is split over how next to address economic and health care crises created by the pandemic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wants to measure the impact of past tranches before taking up more funding, saying there are no plans to advance a stimulus bill before the two-week recess begins July 3. He and President Donald Trump were still discussing last week how to fashion the next economic stimulus bill. A stronger-than-expected jobs report could further scramble an already uncertain picture for passing a fifth and possibly final coronavirus aid bill. The positive statistics are feeding the wait-and-see approach of the White House and its GOP allies in Congress. It's also unclear how Congress will be predisposed to a request for more defense funding after it was disclosed last month that the Pentagon has so far placed on contract only 23 percent of the $10.5 billion it was afforded by the CARES Act. The DoD responded to lawmaker concerns with its spending plan for the aid, which prioritized suppliers of aircraft engine parts, shipbuilding, electronics and space launch. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said in April that Congress ought to forgo a spending boost for the DoD in COVID-19 aid packages, as public health needs were more pressing. Along similar lines, more than two dozen House Democrats wrote Smith to say defense spending for 2021 should be lower than 2020's $738 billion top line, and that COVID-19 aid should be increased. For its part, the National Defense Industrial Association has called for a supplemental defense spending bill to cover the military's pandemic-related costs. It remains to be seen whether the massive fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act will emerge as a potential vehicle for the aid. The Senate Armed Services Committee was this week occupied with the markup of its version of the bill, and the House Armed Services Committee expects to take up its version in late June and early July. “Pentagon leaders are going to be climbing uphill on this request generally given that the GOP is souring on any more stimulus at all,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense budget analyst with the American Enterprise Institute. “Not a party-wide belief yet by any means, but there was already a desire to move on, and the focus now is on the protests and NDAA markup.” Though the Pentagon's request isn't public, Eaglen said it was initially based on the armed services' lists of items left unfunded in Trump's FY21 budget request, which are heavy with procurement programs. Eaglen suggested the administration would do better to find savings within the DoD's own budget. “I think it will be important for DoD not to look tone-deaf,” Eaglen said. “There will be excess readiness and other funds that should go to stimulus priorities first and then, if there is any gap, Congress can plug it from there.” https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/06/09/defense-industry-aid-in-limbo-as-new-covid-aid-drags