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September 19, 2024 | International, Naval

Canada kicks off submarine tender after survey of global vendors

Canada wants to have up to 12 new boats within ten-plus years, in line with the country's security aspirations as an Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic nation.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/the-americas/2024/09/19/canada-kicks-off-submarine-tender-after-survey-of-global-vendors/

On the same subject

  • UK facilities for American F-35 jets are delayed and over budget

    August 7, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    UK facilities for American F-35 jets are delayed and over budget

    By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force is on track to begin permanently basing its F-35 jets abroad next year, with RAF Lakenheath in England set to become the service's first international F-35 base. But construction on new hangars and facilities necessary for supporting the high-tech stealth jet have gone over budget and over schedule, and many buildings won't be ready when the first planes arrive in November 2021. On average, construction projects associated with the F-35 beddown at Lakenheath are about 25 percent over the initial $480 million budget estimated in 2015, said Lt. Col. Clinton Warner, who leads the 48th Fighter Wing's F-35 program integration office. “The overall trend has been projects are late and also over budget,” he told Defense News during a July interview. “A lot of the assumptions that were made back in 2015 weren't necessarily valid. There's been cost growth that was outside of the planning assumptions that were made back in 2015.” The cost increase is not the only problem. As RAF Lakenheath's first F-35 squadron stands up, neither the hangars planned to house the jets nor the headquarters building used for planning operations and maintenance will be ready, Warner said. A training simulator building will also be late. Despite the delays, the Air Force still plans to move forward with the beddown of the jet. Warner said the service is exploring options to keep operations on track, such having the new F-35 squadron share space with existing units — which include three American F-15 squadrons — or potentially leasing additional facilities on base from the United Kingdom. “In terms of getting here and flying the aircraft, we will still do that. [There is] really no difference in terms of the capability is going to be delivered, but it'll just look different in how we do it,” Warner said. “It will be some strain on the units here at the base, as there's more crowding and with waiting for those facilities to come online.” The arrival of U.S. Air Force F-35s in Europe has been a long-awaited milestone for the service, which announced in 2015 that RAF Lakenheath would become the first international location to get the jets. Since then, F-35s temporarily deployed to the base in 2017. “Having a fighter with the capability of the F-35s one hop closer to a part of the world that's seemingly less stable certainly will have a deterrent effect,” said Frank Gorenc, a retired four-star general who commanded U.S. Air Forces in Europe from 2013 to 2016. “Being able to daily train with the partners that have F-35s will have a deterrent effect,” Gorenc told Defense News. “It will cause interoperability to soar both on the maintenance side and on the operations side. I think the benefits of having that equipment — the demonstration of having a fifth-generation [fighter jet] in theater combined with F-15Es and F-16s — I think is the right signal.” Under the current plans, F-35 pilots and maintainers will begin to arrive at RAF Lakenheath in June 2021, with the first aircraft to follow in November. The base will eventually be home to two F-35 squadrons, each with a total of 24 jets. That beddown will follow more than five years of planning and development on the part of the Air Force, which stood up a team in 2015 to get the base ready for the incoming jets. In 2018, the U.S. Air Force chose Kier-Volker Fitzpatrick, a joint venture of U.K.-based design and construction firms Kier Group and VolkerFitzpatrick, to build and renovate all installations associated with the F-35 presence at RAF Lakenheath. Construction began in July 2019, with seven of 14 new facilities — which will include new hangars, a building for flight simulation, a maintenance unit and storage facilities — currently either being built or already complete. As unforeseen costs have mounted, the base's program integration office has had to request $90 million in additional funding from Congress, as well as permission from the Pentagon to revise the scope of the projects, Warner said. But there's no overarching answer for why costs have ballooned. “Each individual project had a different set of assumptions, a different set of risk profiles, and some were correct and some are not correct,” Warner said. With only a few years between the decision to base F-35s at Lakenheath in 2015 and the original planned start of operations in 2020, the U.S. government wanted to put a construction firm under contract sooner rather than later, said Stephen King of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, a U.K. government agency charged with overseeing the building and maintenance of military facilities. But workforce costs grew as the project was discovered to be more complex than originally anticipated. “When the workers are tendered, the prices that are coming back in are found to be different from those originally estimated, and it seems to be the price of doing business on a military establishment. There seems to be an ‘add-on' to the outside market,” King said. Because the F-35 is a stealth jet that processes large amounts of classified information, many of the installations linked with its operations must meet certain security specifications. Building those structures to both U.S. and U.K. standards while using a foreign workforce of U.K. citizens posed challenges that the U.S. Air Force did not foresee during the design process, Warner said. “Luckily most of these problems are behind us, but they did cause delays in terms of when we were programming out in the schedule and looking at what we thought it would look like,” he said. “Some of the challenges associated with building those secure facilities were not fully understood.” Air Force officials have said keeping the projects on track was always going to be a challenge. In 2016, Col. Robert Novotny, who was then the commander of the base's 48th Fighter Wing, predicted construction projects could face troubles getting funding or finding a skilled workforce to build the new facilities, and that F-35s likely wouldn't begin to arrive on base until at least 2021 or 2022. “For me, the concern I have when I look at Lakenheath is not the F-35,” he told Defense News in July 2016. “For me, the concern I have is: Are we going to be able to build enough stuff fast enough?” https://www.defensenews.com/smr/nato-air-power/2020/08/06/uk-facilities-for-american-f-35-jets-are-delayed-and-over-budget/

  • TERMA AND SCANDINAVIAN AVIONICS SECURE F-35 SUSTAINMENT CONTRACT

    February 19, 2019 | International, Aerospace

    TERMA AND SCANDINAVIAN AVIONICS SECURE F-35 SUSTAINMENT CONTRACT

    Avionics Test Center Denmark (ATCD) formed by Terma and Scandinavian Avionics in collaboration with the U.S. will be responsible for repair and maintenance globally of avionics components. Copenhagen, Monday 18 February 2019 - U.S. Department of Defense F-35 Joint Program Office announced Avionics Test Center Denmark to be responsible for maintenance of avionics (16 components) for the F-35 fighter aircraft. During the period of 2021-2025 Avionics Test Center Denmark (ATCD) formed by Terma and Scandinavian Avionics in collaboration with the U.S. will be responsible for repair and maintenance globally of avionics components. “We are very proud to be selected by the F-35 program to play an essential role in the global F-35 sustainment network. It is a great day for both Terma and for Danish industry since the perspectives for Denmark now being part of the F-35 operational setup in decades to come are huge,” said Mr. Lars Hedemann Hilligsøe, Senior Vice President, Terma Support and Services. From 2025 ATCD will be responsible for regional repair and maintenance of avionics components within Europe. ATCD's sustainment work will take place in Denmark. Major General Henrik R. Lundstein, Director of the Fighter Aircraft Program in Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organization (DALO) says: "It is very satisfying that the Danish Defence' close collaboration with the industrial consortium consisting of Scandinavian Avionics and Terma has resulted in Danish industry now being awarded the first major F-35 maintenance contract. This shows that the Danish defense industry is able to compete with the largest companies in the market on competitive terms, i.e. price, time, delivery security, and quality.” In April 2018, the Danish companies Terma and Scandinavian Avionics submitted a joint response, to a so-called Request for Information (RFI), on maintenance of F-35 components. For this purpose, the two companies established Avionics Test Center Denmark, which has now been selected to carry out the task. The RFI that ATCD has won parts of is the second procurement of F-35 components repair to be published. The initial RFI (Tier 1) covers – together with the RFI for Tier 2 – approx. 60% of all the F-35 components published for repair. The remaining approx. 40% will be published among the F-35 Partnership countries later this year and in 2020. Danish Industrial Partnership Within the framework of the Industrial Partnership, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program represented by the Danish Ministry of Defence has been supporting the answers from ATCD. The Industrial Partnership was established as part of Denmark's procurement of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The Partnership consists of The Confederation of Danish Industry, The Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, The Danish Ministry of Defence, and The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark with the purpose of strengthening the opportunity for Danish companies to win orders for production and repair of F-35 and to open doors to further high technology or defense related exports to the USA. https://www.terma.com/press/news-2018/f-35/

  • Dassault Aviation: First Indian Air Force Rafale Handover to the Government of India

    October 9, 2019 | International, Aerospace

    Dassault Aviation: First Indian Air Force Rafale Handover to the Government of India

    Saint-Cloud, October 8, 2019 - First Indian Air Force Rafale Handover to the Government of India. Ceremony hosted by Eric Trappier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dassault Aviation, under the high patronage of the Honourable Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of Defence of India, and the Honourable Ms. Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces of France. Ceremony held in Dassault Aviation Mérignac facility on October 8th, 2019, in the frame of the celebrations of Air Force Day. Today, Eric Trappier, Dassault Aviation Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, hosted the handover ceremony of the first Indian Air Force Rafale in Mérignac, Dassault Aviation's Rafale final assembly facility. The event was placed under the high patronage of the Honourable Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of Defence of India and the Honourable Ms. Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces of France. The ceremony, 3 years after the signature of the contract in 2016 for the acquisition of 36 Rafale to equip the Indian Air Force, marks the concretization of the strategic relationship between India and France and the celebration of the history of mutual trust between India and Dassault Aviation for more than 65 years. The handover of the first IAF Rafale, materializes the determination of the French Authorities to fulfill the expectations and needs of the Government of India to comfort India's protection and sovereignty and illustrates the exemplary cooperation between Dassault Aviation and the Indian Air Force, one of the most remarkable partner Dassault Aviation's has ever worked with. The setup of the Dassault Reliance JV (DRAL) production facility in Nagpur as well as the significant support of the educational and scientific policy of the Indian Government through the establishing of an engineering center in Pune, the creation of the “Dassault Skill Academy“ and the implementation of a vocational training programme “Aeronautical Structure and Equipment Fitter“, demonstrate Dassault Aviation full commitment to the “Make in India“ and “Skill India“ initiatives in building the foundations for a national aerospace and defence ecosystem to become a worldwide reference of the sector. Supported by Dassault Aviation partners, Thales already present in Nagpur, Safran to inaugurate its facility in Hyderabad as well as the French aeronautics and defence community among which twenty companies are already settled in India, this approach will mutually benefit both Indian and French industries and will contribute to guaranty both countries to meet tomorrow's aeronautical challenges. “I am particularly honored to host this ceremony today as India is part of Dassault Aviation's DNA. The long and trustful relationship we share is an undeniable success and underpins my determination of establishing for the long term Dassault Aviation in India. We stand alongside the Indian Air Force since 1953, we are totally committed to fulfill its requirements for the decades to come and to be part of India's ambitious vision for the future“, has declared Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation. ABOUT DASSAULT AVIATION AND INDIA: Dassault Aviation aircraft have been an integral part of Indian defence forces for over six decades. The first Dassault Aviation aircraft, Toofani was supplied to India in 1953, followed by the Mystere IV, the naval Alize, the Jaguar (manufactured under license by HAL), and the Mirage 2000. These aircraft have contributed to Indian sovereignty all along and the Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft continues to be the IAF's ‘cutting edge' till date. 36 Rafales fighter aircraft has been acquired on September 23rd 2016 to equip the Indian Air Force. ABOUT DASSAULT AVIATION: With over 10,000 military and civil aircraft (including 2,500 Falcons) delivered in more than 90 countries over the last century, Dassault Aviation has built up expertise recognized worldwide in the design, development, sale and support of all types of aircraft, ranging from the Rafale fighter, to the high-end Falcon family of business jets and military drones. In 2018, Dassault Aviation reported revenues of €5.1 billion. The company has 11,500 employees. dassault-aviation.com PRESS CONTACTS: Corporate Communications Stéphane Fort - Tél +33 (0)1 47 11 86 90 - stephane.fort@dassault-aviation.com Mathieu Durand - Tél +33 (0)1 47 11 85 88 - mathieu.durand@dassault-aviation.com Defence Communications Nathalie Bakhos - Tél +33 (0)1 47 11 92 75 – nathalie-beatrice.bakhos@dassault-aviation.com Photos HD : mediaprophoto.dassault-aviation.com Vidéos HD : mediaprovideo.dassault-aviation.com Attachment PR First Indian Air Force Rafale Handover to the Government of India VA View source version on GlobeNewswire: http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/10/08/1926382/0/en/Dassault-Aviation-First-Indian-Air-Force-Rafale-Handover-to-the-Government-of-India.html

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