March 14, 2024 | International, Land
Revamped KC-46 vision system slipping into 2026, nearly two years late
RVS 2.0 will provide KC-46 boom operators a vastly improved 4k, 3D image of aircraft refueling — but its schedule has slid repeatedly.
December 24, 2018 | International, Naval
Brazil’s oil revenue is set to fuel multibillion-dollar warship program
RIO DE JANEIRO — The incoming Brazilian government is poised to follow through on a plan to funnel oil and gas revenue toward new defense spending, leaving European shipbuilders hopeful that the country can afford its new corvette program.
Directing 2 percent of royalties from offshore drilling to the military has been a national policy for some time, but previous governments have never fully applied it, according to Eric Berthelot, who heads the Brazilian subsidiary of French shipbuilder Naval Group. Officials under outgoing president Michel Temer first moved to tap the oil fund and have so far forwarded roughly $650 million to state-owned Emgepron to manage new naval projects like the $1.5 billion Tamandaré frigate program.
The government of President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician who will take office in January, is expected to further implement the policy, according to several industry officials in Europe. They said Brazil's ability to pay for the program will be closely watched as the Bolsonaro government makes its first moves next year.
Naval Group is competing against Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Dutch shipbuilder Damen and Italy's Fincantieri. The Brazilian Navy and the four bidders are in the final stages of coordination before the proposals are due on March 8. The Navy is expected to pick a winner later that month, though it is possible officials will await the LAAD defense expo here in early April to announce results.
The Tamandaré program is for four ships and an initial eight-year maintenance package. The warships are meant to help protect Brazil's resource-rich waters up and down its vast coastline, dubbed the Blue Amazon.
European vendors tussling for business in the same competitions worldwide has become a recurring theme, fueling calls for consolidation of the continent's shipbuilding industry to retain a competitive edge.
“The Europeans are more divided than ever,” Naval Group Hervé Guillou told reporters at one of the company's offices here. But, he cautioned, “you have to wait for the right moment to consolidate.”
Naval Group and Fincantieri already have decided to join their businesses to some extent, but so far nothing concrete has sprung from those aspirations.
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June 2, 2022 | International, Aerospace
Cure de rajeunissement des hélicoptères CH-146 | Un projet de 800 millions, retombées difficiles à chiffrer
Bell Textron Canada pilotera un projet de 800 millions pour prolonger la durée de vie des 85 CH-146 Griffon de l’Aviation royale canadienne, mais seulement 9 hélicoptères se poseront à l’usine de la multinationale située à Mirabel pour y subir une cure de rajeunissement.
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January 21, 2020 | International, Naval
Australian defense leaders defend submarine buy with France’s Naval Group
By: Nigel Pittaway MELBOURNE, Australia – Australian defense leaders this week denied claims that their department was urged to consider alternatives to the navy's plans of buying 12 large conventionally-powered submarines from France's Naval Group. The claims, reported by local news media in the wake of an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report about the program earlier this week, suggested negotiations with Naval Group were at such a poor state the Commonwealth-appointed Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board had earlier recommended drawing up contingency plans. However, in a statement released Wednesday by Secretary of Defence Greg Moriarty, Chief of Defence Force Gen. Angus Campbell, Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mike Noonan and Deputy Secretary Naval Shipbuilding, Tony Dalton, denied the claims. “Contrary to media interpretations of ANAO's latest report on the Future Submarine Program, Defence was not advised to ‘walk away' from Naval Group by the Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board,” the statement read. “In line with best practice and following the advice of the Advisory Board, Defence has continued to assess all of the risks that attend this highly complex program. At each stage, we are adopting relevant risk mitigation strategies. The ANAO acknowledges that Defence has taken steps to manage risks.” The 12 Attack-class submarines are being acquired under Australia's Sea 1000 (Future Submarine) program to replace six existing Collins-class boats which, without a major service life extension program, will need to be retired by 2036. The design is based on the French Barracuda-class nuclear attack boat, and the program is valued at either $34.5 billion (50 billion Australian dollars), or $55.2 billion (AUD 80 billion), depending on accounting practices. Either way, it is Australia's largest-ever defense acquisition program. The ANAO report, titled “Transition to Design,” found that the design phase of the program is already nine months behind schedule and two important milestones had been missed. It said Defence “could not demonstrate” its expenditure of $396 million (US $273 million) on the design to date has been fully effective in achieving the two milestones to date. The Defence Department has spent 47 percent of all program expenditure thus far on design work and, despite the risk mitigation strategies, it continues to describe program risk as “high”. “While the first scheduled major milestone under the Submarine Design Contract was reached five weeks later than planned, Defence and Naval Group are working towards the recovery of this delay by the next contracted major milestone in January 2021. Importantly, the delivery of the Attack-class submarine has not been delayed,” the statement continued. “Acknowledging the scale of this program, we remain confident that our work on the Attack-class program with Naval Group and Lockheed Martin Australia (as the Combat Systems Integrator) is progressing thoroughly and will result in the delivery of a regionally-superior submarine from the early 2030s, establishing a truly sovereign capability as we maximize the involvement of Australian industry.” The Sea 1000 program timeline calls for delivery of the first Attack-class boat in 2032 with service entry around 2034. https://www.defensenews.com/2020/01/17/australian-defense-leaders-defend-submarine-buy-with-frances-naval-group