Canadian defence contractors upgrading NZDF warships locked in legal battle - NZ Herald

On the same subject

• 

  May 13, 2020 | International, C4ISR

  SpaceX could fill the US military’s Arctic communications gap by the end of this year

  Nathan Strout The U.S. Defense Department relies on a mixture of military and commercial satellites to connect its war fighters all over the world. And while users can complain that terminals are too bulky or that they should have the roaming capability exhibited in commercial cellphone technology, the system largely works. But that's not the case in the Arctic. “Very simple things become hard when you're in the Arctic, not the least of which is communication. When you are above about 65 degrees north, satellite communication starts to diminish, and above about 70 degrees north it becomes extremely limited except for some of our more exquisite capability — submarines, for example,” said U.S. Northern Command spokesman Maj. Mark Lazane. The U.S. Space Force's primary communications satellite system, Wideband Global SATCOM, is designed to provide connectivity between 70 degrees north and 65 degrees south — basically to the edge of the polar region. The Space Force also operates two Enhanced Polar System satellites — the Arctic complement to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency constellation. EPS satellites provide highly secure, anti-jamming signals, and like its counterpart, EPS is built for high-priority military communications, like that used with submarines. And while elsewhere in the world the military supplements its purpose-built systems with commercial communications satellites, that option is limited in the Arctic. After all, commercial satellites providing coverage of other areas aren't solely serving the military, and the services rely on commercial consumers to offset the costs of designing, building, launching and maintaining a satellite. But there's far less commercial demand for satellite communications in the Arctic than in more populated areas, and commercial satellite coverage reflects that. That leaves U.S. Northern Command with a significant gap in the connections available to its war fighters and platforms. “Connection capabilities [in the Arctic] are limited and lack resiliency. We're challenged in areas from basic point-to-point connections to communication with our distributed sensors,” Lazane said. “Having a reliable broadband communications capability for Arctic operations is the top unfunded priority of USNORTHCOM. With the increase of great power competition in the Arctic, there is a need for additional communications capability and capacity.” But the command thinks it's found a solution in the form of new, proliferated commercial constellations. Private companies OneWeb and SpaceX have launched hundreds of satellites into low-Earth orbit in an effort to provide competitive broadband to users all around the world. USNORTHCOM is asking Congress for $130 million to explore OneWeb's and SpaceX's capabilities in order to provide reliable and potentially cost-effective connectivity to Arctic platforms, installations and war fighters. “Leveraging emerging proliferated low-Earth orbit commercial SATCOM providers in the Arctic enables the United States (and our allies) the opportunity to scale communications capability and capacity quickly in a cost-effective manner,” Lazane said. “The unique capabilities provided by PLEO [proliferated low-Earth orbit] commercial SATCOM providers in the Arctic enables access to high-bandwidth, low-latency communications capability and capacity.” In a Feb.11 letter to Congress, USNORTHCOM Commander Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy said that funding for this effort was his No. 1 unfunded priority. If approved, the $130 million in funding will be used for polar communications experiments as well as the fielding of prototype terminals that can connect to commercial PLEO constellations. If those experiments prove successful, USNORTHCOM would need another $110 million in fiscal 2022 for full coverage. SpaceX has stated that its Starlink constellation will begin offering broadband services this year, and USNORTHCOM is hopeful that could enable early Arctic capability by the end of the year. https://www.c4isrnet.com/smr/frozen-pathways/2020/05/11/spacex-could-fill-the-us-militarys-arctic-communications-gap-by-the-end-of-this-year/

• 

  July 5, 2019 | International, Other Defence

  Building on a successful fifteen-year relationship, Her Majesty’s Armed Forces awards a new framework contract with Rheinmetall in the field of infantry ammunition

  On 6 June 2019, Rheinmetall AG and Defence Equipment and Support, the UK's defence procurement agency, signed a new framework agreement to enable the repeat procurement of infantry ammunition. The framework agreement will represent the default source of supply for specific impact rounds, ammunitions and grenades in the next 5-7 years and has an estimated throughput of up to €100 million (£90m). Rheinmetall continues to expand its role as a major supplier of ammunition. Only a few days ago, the Dutch armed forces also renewed a partnership agreement for the supply of ammunition with the Düsseldorf-based specialist for security and mobility technology, which runs through to the end of 2030. The contract, which has now been renewed with the British procurement authorities, establishes Rheinmetall as the preferred supplier of 25 infantry ammunition products produced by four manufacturing locations in Germany and Switzerland. Simon Valencia, Sales Director Rheinmetall Weapon and Munitions UK commented “we are delighted to be able to renew our long standing supply agreement with the UK MoD and provide the British Armed Forces with high quality, reliable, products that have been proven both operationally and in training for the last fifteen years. This new contract provides the UK MoD with value for money and continued confidence in re-supply of assured munitions products. The UK MoD is a key strategic partner for Rheinmetall and this new contract supports Rheinmetall's continued growth into the UK Defence Market”. Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) is currently is the process of negotiating a portfolio of framework agreements with defence suppliers to enable repeat procurement of in-service munitions. The contract with Rheinmetall Defence is the first contract DE&S has agreed with the munitions industry on framework terms and marks a positive step change in the way UK MoD engages with industry. https://www.rheinmetall-defence.com/en/rheinmetall_defence/public_relations/news/latest_news/index_20864.php

• 

  June 11, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Security

  Why the new Raytheon Technologies will eschew platforms for new technology development

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — “Platform agnostic.” It's a term getting a lot of play from United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes and Raytheon CEO Tom Kennedy, in the wake of this weekend's surprise announcement that the two companies would be merging into a new firm,known as Raytheon Technologies Corporation. Neither company works as a platform producer, eschewing the production of aircraft or ground vehicles and instead focusing on the technology that makes them work. It's a business model that has produced well for both firms, and in a Monday interview with Defense News, the two CEOs made it clear they see no need to deviate now. “One of the first and foremost things we absolutely agree on is, we want to be platform agnostic,” Hayes said, noting that UTC sold off its Sikorsky helicopter unit almost five years ago because “we didn't like the programmatic risk associated with platforms.” “We'll supply all the content and all the systems, all of the offensive, defensive capabilities necessary to make the system successful, but we really think it's important that we remain agnostic among the platform providers,” Hayes added. Said Kennedy, “Neither of us essentially develop platforms or sell platforms. Why that's important is, really, the amount of capital that you have to go and spend in maintaining and creating these platforms kind of takes your eye off the ball relative to investing in technology moving forward. So that was a big feature, that both companies are platform agnostic.” Instead, both men said the new firm will remains focused on developing high-end technologies which can be inserted on, or in, platforms developed by the other major defense primes. With that goal in mind, the company is preparing to spend $8 billion in R&D funds in the year following its merger. When the merger is completed in early 2020, Kennedy will become chairman of the board, with Hayes serving as CEO. Two years later, Kennedy will step down, with Hayes adding the chairman title. One area Kennedy highlighted as having good synergies is hypersonic weapons, a major interest for the Pentagon. Raytheon has already been working on hypersonic missiles, including the guidance and control systems, but UTC's experience with propulsion and materials science might be able to help deal with a specific challenge for Raytheon's weapon designers. “It just turns out when you're flying at Mach 5, you really increase your temperature on all your surfaces," Kennedy said. "If you have a propulsion system, the air is coming in at such a high speed, that creates a significant amount of heat; it has to be dissipated in a very efficient way,” Kennedy said. “And one of the areas that the United Technologies has, really based in the Pratt & Whitney guys, is all the technology that they've developed over the years in working very high temperatures internal to their turbine engines,” he continued. “So not only do they have, I would call it the heat management capabilities, but also the material science to go implement those.” Hayes identified two areas where shared R&D will have a near-term impact, and they underline the benefit of having a new company that will be roughly 50-50 defense and non-defense business. The first is on aircraft control systems, where each company has technologies that can be brought to bear for the FAA's next-generation air traffic control networks. The second comes in the form of cybersecurity. “I think Raytheon is second to none as it relates to cyber, and we view this as a core competency that can benefit the entire commercial aerospace ecosystem,” Hayes said. “Not just the connected aircraft, which is probably the first order of business, but the whole ecosystem. How do you protect passenger data, how do you protect the equipment that's on the ground? How do you protect the airplane while it's flying? “I think we'll see that shortly in the marketplace.” https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2019/06/10/why-the-new-raytheon-technologies-will-eschew-platforms-for-new-technology-development/