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October 15, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Land

Budgets Défense : les doutes du député Cornut-Gentille

Jean-Marc Tanguy

Le député de la Haute-Marne, rapporteur spécial pour la défense à la Commission des finances de l'Assemblée Nationale a, une fois de plus, transmis ses doutes sur le projet de loi de finances (PLF) 2021.

Surcoûts Opex

Le député (LR) de la Haute-Marne, rapporteur spécial pour la défense à la Commission des finances de l'Assemblée Nationale, a une fois de plus transmis ses doutes, ce 13 octobre, sur la fin de gestion 2020, et le projet de loi de finances (PLF) 2021, qui sera étudié en première lecture dans l'hémicycle à la fin du mois. François Cornut-Gentille estime que la « fin de gestion 2020 sera compliquée comme tous les ans, mais un peu plus en 2020 » du fait de l'augmentation des surcoûts Opex liés aux 600 personnels déployés en plus à Barkhane (mais aussi aux pertes en matériels), aux opérations Résilience et Amitié. Ainsi, le niveau pourrait atteindre 1,6 Md€, estime l'élu.

Dassault Rafale pour la Grèce

Auparavant, le ministère des Armées trouvait des ressources pour financer ces surcoûts : les montants non dépensés du titre 2 par exemple, mais le député estime que la totalité des fonds du T2 seront dépensés cette année. Le report de charge, qui aurait dû se réduire dans le cours de la LPM, progresse, constate François Cornut-Gentille, et pourrait atteindre 15 à 16 %. Le député se félicite aussi des annonces grecques sur le Dassault Rafale, « une bonne nouvelle pour les exportations et pour Dassault Aviation » mais il s'inquiète comme beaucoup des conséquences du prélèvement des 12 Dassault Rafale dans l'Armée de l'Air. Et du fait qu'il va falloir inscrire environ un milliard d'euros non prévus en LPM au chapitre des dépenses. Certes, la Grèce va payer pour les appareils d'occasion (sur lesquels en sus il faudra enlever des équipements/ndlr), mais moins que pour des avions neufs.

Definvest pas à la hauteur ?

Et la ministre des Armées, Florence Parly, elle-même reconnaissait en commission il y a peu qu'elle n'était pas sûre de récupérer le produit de cette vente même si elle entend obtenir gain de cause avec Bercy. Le niveau du reste à payer, les engagements non couverts par des paiements, atteint les 72,7 MdEUR à la fin 2019, un plus haut historique depuis 2006 au moins. François Cornut Gentille veut aussi dynamiser la logique de Definvest, qui n'a réalisé « que huit opérations » et « n'est pas à la hauteur des enjeux ». Photonis n'a pas été suffisamment protégé, constate-t-il. Enfin, il a déploré l'absence de réponses du ministère des Armées à ses 150 questions budgétaires posées en juillet en vue du PLF2021, ou des réponses trop tardives : 50 sont arrivées au courrier ce samedi. D'autres réponses, enfin, sont accompagnées d'une demande de discrétion, alors qu'elles figurent par ailleurs... en source ouverte, dans d'autres documents budgétaires.

https://www.air-cosmos.com/article/budgets-dfense-les-doutes-du-dput-cornut-gentille-23737

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    September 27, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval

    Boeing delivers first operational Block III F/A-18 Super Hornet to U.S. Navy - Skies Mag

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  • The next key to the Army network: air-ground integration

    June 18, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Land, C4ISR

    The next key to the Army network: air-ground integration

    By: Mark Pomerleau The Army wants greater network integration with its air and ground units and has started working with industry to make that process more seamless. Service leaders point to significant gaps in today's network architecture enabling aircraft to communicate with ground units and vice versa. But, they say, forces in the future will have to operate over significant distances and do so under a near constant jamming threat. “A lot of units and rifle squads in the 101st [Airborne Division] right now, that squad leader's radio in many cases can't interface with similar radios in adjacent units or the helicopter that just delivered him or her to an objective area. Or the helicopter that's providing close air support ... can't pass data with it,” Maj. Gen. Brian Winski, the division's commander, said in Nashville, Tennessee, May 30. “We need that capability for ground forces to be able to talk to their aviation partners and have that inextricable link that makes us so incredibly powerful. We also have to collectively figure out how we're going to communicate over significantly increased distances.” To solve these problems, Army leaders from the aviation and networking community gathered in Nashville, Tennessee at the end of May to hash out the challenges they face with industry and the operational community. The forum was a venue for members of the operational community to voice their concerns and provide examples of issues they faced while deployed. “This air to ground focus ... is the thing we've really got to crack the code on if we are going to penetrate deep into an [anti-Access/area denial] environment ... they've got to be able to communicate,” Maj. Gen. 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We're about talking of operating at distance to 400 to 1,000-plus kilometers,” Al Abejon, chief of aviation architecture at the program executive office aviation, said. “Now the challenge is: how do you maintain that continuous mission command, [situational awareness] ... throughout that operational distance and oh, by the way, be able to survive the operational environments that are going to be changing at these distances at those air speeds. "All those rolled into one thing make up a considerable problem set.” Along with the newtwork, the Army has also listed future vertical lift aircraft as one of its six top modernization priorities. These future aircraft will be capable of teaming with unmanned systems, a concept the aviation community is calling advanced teaming. From an operational perspective, Winski said the 101st must be able to share information digitally between air and ground units in the Army and with joint and coalition partners to “violently and decisively exploit developing opportunities on the battlefield.” They'll also need to provide electronic and kinetic fires over the horizon, increase the linkages between intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms and shooters, whether they are existing or future aircraft, future long range precision fires platforms or existing fires platforms. Gallagher told C4ISRNET that if beyond line of sight satellite communications are knocked out, alternative solutions could include high frequency solutions or mid-earth or low-earth orbit satellites rather than geosynchronous satellites. Abejon mentioned one option could be to link line of sight communications to the command and control aircraft that have beyond line of sight capability. 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Ryan Coyle of the aviation enablers – requirements determination directorate. “Converging [the] mission command system and the network to support efficient data management but also rapid voice and data exchange are critical in order to optimize those cross domain effects.” This is similar to the Command Post Computing Environment, which will shrink stovepiped systems into applications on a common interface allowing all forces to have a common look and feel regardless of their location. The other part of a common suite of communications gear is having radios that can connect to ground and air forces. However, for air platforms, such as radios, waveforms or mission command systems, the air community must pass airworthiness standards to fly in domestic or international airspaces. “If we have a SINCGARS waveform in the bird and we have a SINCGARS waveform on the ground in a manpack radio or a leader radio, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to interoperate perfectly between those two systems,” said Jim Evangelos, standards branch deputy director of the Joint Tactical Networking Center. “One way to guarantee this interoperability is to have software defined radios on the ground, software defined radios in the bird operating the same version of the same software. That's a lot easier said than done. 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The Army is currently soliciting white papers and will evaluate proposals to help solve these challenges. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2019/06/15/the-next-key-to-the-army-network-air-ground-integration/

  • UK Ministry of Defence orders more than 500 Boxers in €2.6 billion contract

    November 8, 2019 | International, Land

    UK Ministry of Defence orders more than 500 Boxers in €2.6 billion contract

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