July 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace

British next-generation fighter program taps new suppliers

LONDON – A raft of top systems suppliers have been recruited to join the team leading Britain's development of the Tempest next-generation fighter aircraft.

Bombardier in Northern Ireland, GKN, Martin Baker and Qinetiq, alongside the UK arms of Collins Aerospace, GE Aviation and Thales, have signed up to collaborate with the BAE Systems-led team working on the future air combat system, it was announced July 20 on what should have been the opening day of the Farnborough air show before Covid-19 caused the event's cancellation.

At the same time as the announcement, Sweden's Saab revealed it was setting up a UK hub to potentially participate in future combat air systems work between the two nations.

It's been almost two years to the day when the wraps were taken off a plastic mock-up of a Tempest fighter at the Farnborough show.

The British revealed a BAE-led partnership, also involving Leonardo, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, that would begin investigating the technologies required for a future combat air system.

Some $2.5 billion has so far been committed to the program.

Now, just months before an outline business case to develop the program further is due to be delivered to the UK government, Team Tempest, as the industrial team is known, has signed up its first seven systems suppliers.

With the first phase of the new partnerships signed, the companies will seek opportunities to join forces on established projects and developments with the core Team Tempest partners.

More than 60 technology demonstration activities are currently underway on future combat air systems in the UK employing 1800 people – a number expected to grow to 2500 by the end of the year.

In a statement, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he was “delighted seven more companies have joined this mission to work in collaboration with the MoD, under the Team Tempest banner. They will bring the ambition, invention and expertise that will deliver the breakthroughs we will depend on for decades to come.”

The rising employment levels and increasing industrial support comes at a crucial time for a program which will pretty much dictate Britain's future position in the defense industrial world, given the air sector's importance to jobs, skills and exports here.

An integrated defense, security and foreign policy review is underway led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his advisors, who are said to be skeptical of local industry's ability to deliver major programs on time and on budget and would rather buy defense equipment off the shelf.

With Covid-19 pretty much emptying government coffers, launching a multibillion-dollar program like Tempest is likely to be an issue unless the British can sign up some major international partners to share the cost.

Last year Italy and Sweden both signed up to investigate partnering with the UK on a future combat air system, and those studies are ongoing with neither country yet committing to the program.

Sweden may not have yet committed to a partnership with the British and others, but its biggest defense company, Saab, announced July 20 it was to invest an initial $63 million setting up a new future combat air center with other initiatives in the UK.

Saab leads Sweden's future combat air system industrial participation in cooperation with the defense ministry.

Details of where and when the company will invest in the UK are sparse, but Micael Johansson, the president and CEO of Saab, said the move demonstrated the company's commitment to combat air development and the UK.

“Saab took the decision to create a new future combat air system center so that we can further develop the close working relationship with the other FCAS industrial partners and the UK MoD. This emphasizes the importance of both FCAS and the United Kingdom to Saab's future,” said Johansson.

The British have cast their net beyond Europe in the search for partners, with India and Japan also having held discussions about a potential tie-up on a future combat air system.

Across the English channel France and Germany are together developing a new combat jet to a similar time frame.

Attempts to merge the two European programs have so far failed, but that's not to say that post Covid-19 financial reality may not cause a potential tie-up to be revisited.

Howard Wheeldon, of consultants Wheeldon Strategic Advisory, said that the British government knew was at stake in the development of a future combat air system.

“Team Tempest is a very significant program for the UK. ... A partnership between government, military, industry and international partners all of whom are determined to succeed,” he said.

“Industry, along with the RAF Rapid Capabilities Office, have already achieved a vast amount in a very short period of time. I, for one, am in no doubt that the government fully understands the importance of what ‘Team Tempest' means to the UK, not only to jobs and maintaining necessary skills, but in the potential that the development has in terms of future prosperity,” said Wheeldon.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/07/20/british-next-generation-fighter-program-taps-new-suppliers

On the same subject

February 6, 2019 | International, Aerospace

U.S. Army selects GE’s T901 engine for Improved Turbine Engine Program
The U.S. Army has selected GE Aviation's T901-GE-900 engine for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), the U.S. Army's endeavor to re-engine its Boeing AH-64 Apaches and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks. “We are honored to be chosen by the Army to continue powering their Black Hawks and Apaches for decades to come,” said Tony Mathis, president and CEO of GE Aviation's military business. “We've invested in the resources and infrastructure to execute immediately, and our team is ready to get to work on delivering the improved capabilities of the T901 to the warfighter.” GE has powered Black Hawks and Apaches for the past four decades with its T700 engine, racking up more than 100 million flight hours of combat-proven experience. Through continuous upgrades and technology advancements, GE has doubled the power of derivative engines in the T700 family over its lifetime and reduced its cost to the government by 50 percent. GE carried over the benefits of the T700 engine's single-spool core architecture, ensuring that the T901 engine is ready to continue delivering combat readiness to the warfighter over the next four decades. The T901's single-spool core design is the key to its low cost, growth, reliability, maintainability and reduced life-cycle costs. The full modularity of the T901's single-spool core provides the Army with superior fix-forward maintainability. Combat units can swap out modular parts of the engine in the field and travel with fewer full-sized spare engines, simplifying logistical footprints and supply lines. The fully modular design also offers superior growth potential at a lower cost through incremental improvements to engine modules, a significant advantage to meet the Army's FVL requirements. The U.S. Army is also expecting the ITEP engine to meet Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft requirements for Future Vertical Lift (FVL). GE has invested $9 billion in maturing technologies applicable to the T901 and more than $300 million to develop and test turboshaft-specific technologies. Additionally, GE has invested more than $10 billion in their supply chain over the past decade, including eight new facilities, ten plant expansions and one-and-a-half million square feet of new, advanced manufacturing space in the U.S. This robust, first-in-class supply chain stands ready to deliver T901 engines to the Army. https://www.verticalmag.com/press-releases/u-s-army-selects-ges-t901-engine-for-itep/
September 17, 2020 | International, Naval

Amid Pacific naval arms race, US defense chief calls for increased funding for ships
Aaron Mehta and David B. Larter Update 9/16/20 — The original version of this story included a statement from Esper's prepared remarks calling for the Navy's shipbuilding accounts to grow to 13 percent of the service's budget. His delivered remarks did not include that specific figure. The story has been appended below to reflect Esper's delivered comments. WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Wednesday announced called for increased funding for Navy shipbuilding after a major review of its force structure — but it is unclear where that funding will come from. In a speech delivered at the think tank Rand, Esper called for a Navy of “over 350 ships,” specifically by increasing the Navy's shipbuilding funding account. “We will build this fleet in such a way that balances tomorrow's challenges with today's readiness needs, and does not create a hollow Navy in the process,” Esper said. "To achieve this outcome, we must increase funding for shipbuilding and the readiness that sustains a larger force. Doing this, and finding the money within the Navy budget and elsewhere to make it real, is something both the Navy leadership and I are committed to doing. The Pentagon sought $207 billion for the Navy in its fiscal 2021 budget request. Even a 2 percent shift under that top line would represent $4.14 billion in extra funding for shipbuilding — real money, even by Pentagon standards. The call to shift funding toward shipbuilding comes amid an accelerating naval arms race in the Pacific, with China investing in both a massive fleet and shore-based, long-range anti-ship missile capabilities to keep the U.S. Navy's powerful carrier air wing out of striking distance. China is building toward a fleet of as many as 425 ships by 2030, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, while the U.S. Navy is building to a fleet of more than 355 ships, Esper said. The decision to increase shipbuilding funds, which Esper billed as a “game changer” in his remarks, comes as a result of an internal “Future Naval Force Study,” led by Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist. That study — which essentially superseded a review from the service itself — was delivered to Esper this week. That envisioned fleet will include a number of unmanned systems that will “perform a variety of warfighting functions, from delivering lethal fires and laying mines, to conducting resupply or surveilling the enemy,” Esper added. “This will be a major shift in how we will conduct naval warfare in the years and decades to come.” In his remarks, Esper said the forthcoming study “will serve as our guidepost as we decide on, program and build out future fleet and conduct follow-on assessment in select areas.” “In short it will be a balanced force of over 350 ships, both manned and unmanned, and will be built in a relevant time frame and budget-informed manner,” he added. Part of the increased funding could come from Congress shifting around authorities. Esper called on the defense committees to allow the service to “put unused end-of-year Navy funding directly into the shipbuilding account, rather than see it expire.” Traditionally, unspent dollars at the end of the fiscal year are no longer usable by the military. But an internal shift in the Navy's budget, without a corresponding overall increase, means a shift in priorities elsewhere — likely, at least in part, through the retirement of older systems. A key question is whether the Navy will need to fully fund the budget realignment from inside its own coffers, or whether the Department of Defense will realign its own priorities to cover any of the increase, something Esper has been hesitant to commit to in the past. The Navy's shipbuilding budget has been squeezed by the arrival of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, the exorbitantly expensive next generation of nuclear deterrent-bearing boats. Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, said in a January speech at the annual Surface Navy Association symposium that the DoD budget should be realigned to cover the cost of the new Columbia class because it is eating a disproportionate share of the shipbuilding budget at a time the country is trying to grow the size of the fleet to match China. Even a single percentage realignment would make a difference, Gilday argued. To compare, he said, the Navy's budget in the 1980s — when it was building the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine — was much higher than today's budget. “One percent of the DoD budget would be $7 billion per year in the shipbuilding accounts,” the CNO explained. “If I make some comparison from today and I go back to the 1980s, there are some similarities there.” “Right now we are building the Columbia-class submarine. That is my highest priority,” he added. "By the time we sundown the Ohio class, we'll have 42 years in those hulls. We need to get Columbia out there. “Now, let's go back to when we were building Ohio in the 1980s: It was about 20 percent of the shipbuilding budget. Right now, Columbia is about 20-25 percent. In FY26-30 it's going to be about 32 percent. That's a lot of dough. In the 1980s, the Navy's percentage of the DoD budget was 38 percent. Right now, it's 34. So I think historically I have a case to make.” Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and analyst with the Telemus Group, said the recognition that the DoD is underfunding shipbuilding is a big step. “It sounds like he [Esper] has recognized that given where we are going with the Columbia class, that the Navy needs more money for shipbuilding, and that's an important recognition,” Hendrix said. “The other part of this is: Is this coming from the Navy's budget, or is it coming from the DoD budget? Because the Navy still needs the rest of its budget to do training and readiness. So that is a very important aspect of this.” https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2020/09/16/amid-pacific-naval-arms-race-us-defense-chief-pledges-billions-more-for-ships/
January 11, 2022 | International, Aerospace

Atos accompagne Dassault Aviation dans le développement du Falcon Albatros
Atos accompagne Dassault Aviation dans le développement et la production de la nouvelle version du système vidéo embarqué à bord du Falcon Albatros, futur avion de surveillance et d'intervention maritime de l'aéronautique navale française. Prévu pour une mise en service en 2025 dans le cadre du programme AVSIMAR conduit par la Direction générale de l'armement (DGA), la Marine nationale va acquérir l'Albatros, ce qui contribuera au renouvellement de ses capacités pour la protection et la défense maritime du territoire. Le programme AVSIMAR vise à répond aux enjeux de l'action de l'Etat en mer (lutte contre la pollution et les trafics, surveillance des frontières et des zones exclusives, etc) ; pour cela, l'Albatros est doté d'un système de mission de dernière génération et de systèmes de communication dédiés. Atos prend en charge la conception et la production du système vidéo embarqué qui intègre les enjeux de sécurité informatique. « Nous sommes fiers d'accompagner Dassault Aviation dans la préparation des Falcon Albatros qui soutiendront l'Etat dans ses missions de surveillance et d'intervention maritime » a déclaré Cyril Dujardin, SVP, Directeur des activités Digital Security chez Atos. « Ce projet stratégique nous permet de consolider notre relation de long terme avec Dassault Aviation autour des systèmes embarqués et de mettre en œuvre notre expertise en matière de systèmes de missions sécuritaires et de vidéo haute définition sur fibre optique ». Zonebourse et Boursier.com du 10 janvier

All news