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  June 15, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Comment les Rafale et véhicules aériens ont réduit le déficit commercial de la France en 2019

  Les exportations d'armements ont dopé la balance commerciale de la France en 2019. Selon des données dévoilées le 15 juin par l'Observatoire économique de la défense, les exportations de matériels de guerre ont atteint un niveau historique. En 2019, la France a réussi à diminuer son déficit commercial de 3,9 milliards d'euros. Comment ? Notamment gr'ce au succès de ses armements à l'international. Les exportations de matériels de guerre et produits liés ont atteint un record décennal de 11,3 milliards d'euros (+34 %), selon le bulletin du mois de mai de l'Observatoire économique de la défense (OED). Les véhicules aériens ont particulièrement contribué à ces résultats. Quatrième meilleur secteur en excédent commercial Le succès des armes françaises à l'export n'est pas nouveau. Début juin, le ministère des Armées rapportait un haut niveau de prises de commandes. Cette fois, on connaît la valeur totale des exportations, le type de biens exportés et également les zones géographiques vers lesquelles ils sont expédiés. Avec 2,7 milliards d'euros d'importations, l'excédent commercial lié aux livraisons de matériels de guerre s'élève à 8,5 milliards d'euros en 2019 (+2,1 milliards d'euros et +32,8 % par rapport à 2018). “Cet excédent sectoriel est une des principales sources d'atténuation du déficit commercial de la France”, fait remarquer l'Observatoire économique de la défense. Seuls trois secteurs dépassent cet excédent commercial en France : en premier l'aéronautique civile (+29,6 milliards d'euros), l'agro-alimentaire des boissons (+13,2 milliards) et l'industrie manufacturière des parfums et des cosmétiques (+12,5 milliards). L'aviation de défense repart Après une stagnation entre 2017 et 2018, les exportations d'avions et d'autres véhicules aériens repartent avec une augmentation de 24,4 % entre 2018 et 2019. Cette catégorie représente à elle seule 2,8 milliards d'euros, soit 25 % de l'ensemble des exportations de matériels de guerre. Les systèmes de propulsion (turboréacteurs, turbopropulseurs) enregistrent également une belle performance : leurs exportations ont cru de 34 % à 2,3 milliards d'euros, soit 20 % de la valeur totale exportée par la France. “Ces exportations sont principalement à destination, dans l'ordre, du Proche et Moyen-Orient, de l'Union européenne, de l'Amérique et de l'Asie”, note l'OED. L'Observatoire économique de la défense ne détaille pas les produits livrés mais l'avion de combat Rafale de Dassault Aviation a sans doute contribué à ces résultats. En 2019, les livraisons de cet appareil vers l'étranger ont explosé à 26 exemplaires. Belle croissance pour les instruments d'optique Derrière, les avions et les systèmes de propulsion les armes et les munitions comptent pour 2,1 milliards d'euros (+34,7 %), soit 18 % des exportations françaises de matériels de guerre. “Près de trois quarts de ces exportations sont des bombes, des grenades, des torpilles ou des missiles”, décrit l'OED. Les chars, les véhicules blindés, les instruments d'optique, de mesure et de précision représentent moins d'argent. En revanche ces catégories affichent les plus fortes croissances. Les exportations de véhicules blindés décollent de +56,8 % (1,1 milliard d'euros). Les instruments ont quant à eux progressé de 47 % (700 millions d'euros). “Il peut s'agir de télémètres ou encore d'appareils pour la navigation à usage militaire. 80 % des exportations sont à destination du Proche et Moyen-Orient, de l'Afrique et de l'Asie (hors Proche et Moyen-Orient)”, détaille l'OED. Pour le secteur maritime, l'année 2019 n'a pas connu de grandes livraisons à l'international. Les navires de guerre affichent une contre-performance de -20,4 % et n'ont compté que pour 128,3 millions d'euros dans les exportations. Les appareils de détection et de radiosondage (radars, sonars et leurs composants) affichent une croissance de 59 % à 1,8 milliards d'euros. Selon l'OED, ces matériels sont principalement exportés vers le Proche et Moyen-Orient. Le Proche et Moyen-Orient, principaux clients de la France De manière générale, le Proche et Moyen-Orient concentrent 42,4 % des exportations françaises (4,8 milliards d'euros, +205 %). Les résultats sont plus serrés entre les autres zones géographiques : l'Amérique représente 11,4 % des exportations (1,3 milliard), derrière l'Afrique (13,8 %, 1,6 milliard), l'Asie (15,7 %, 1,8 milliard) et l'Europe (16,7 %, 1,8 milliard). Pour les importations, la préférence européenne joue aussi. “La majorité des importations françaises de matériels de guerre et produits liés provient de l'Union européenne : 56,2 %, soit un 1,5 milliard d'euros”, fait remarquer l'OED tandis que l'Amérique représente 27,3 % des importations (0,8 milliard). https://www.usinenouvelle.com/editorial/comment-les-rafale-et-vehicules-aeriens-ont-reduit-le-deficit-commercial-de-la-france-en-2019.N975531

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  August 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR, Security

  FAA issues guide to Tactical BVLOS waivers to assist first responders with emergency drone operations

  To support the approval of “Tactical Beyond Visual Line of Sight” operations, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a guide to TBVLOS waivers, aimed at first responders with emergency drone operations. The FAA introduced TBVLOS to support drone operations which take place away from busy locations and where the safety case can be supported by factors such as a particular location or application. In a time of extreme emergencies to safeguard human life, first responders require the capability to operate their unmanned aircraft (UAS) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) to assess the operational environment such as a fire scene at a large structural fire, to conduct an aerial search on a large roof area for a burglary in progress, or to fly over a heavily forested area to look for a missing person (see diagram below for a visual perception). To support public UAS operators acting in an active first responder capacity, the FAA may approve “First Responder Tactical Beyond Visual Line of Sight” (TBVLOS) waivers to 14 CFR 91.113(b). These temporary BVLOS flights are flown to both reduce risk to first responders and to ensure the safety of the communities they serve. The FAA will issue in advance, upon receipt of a complete and accurate application, a 14 CFR 91.113(b) waiver that will allow temporary UAS TBVLOS operations within specific conditions and requirements. These requirements are listed in the guidance document, along with the application and approval process. The guide can be accessed here: https://www.faa.gov/uas/public_safety_gov/public_safety_toolkit/media/TBVLOS_Waiver_Final.pdf For more information visit: www.faa.gov/uas https://www.unmannedairspace.info/latest-news-and-information/faa-issues-guide-to-tactical-bvlos-waivers-to-assist-first-responders-with-emergency-drone-operations/

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  April 2, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  U.S. Air Force to Develop AI-Powered Combat UAV

  Author: Mike Rees The U.S. Air Force has announced that its Office of Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation at the Air Force Research Laboratory is working on fielding a prototype Autonomous Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle as an Early Operational Capability as early as 2023. The program, known as Skyborg, and the SDPE office have issued a request for information to industry to conduct market research and concept of operations analysis to learn what is commercially available now as high technology readiness level capabilities which can meet the requirements and timeline of the Skyborg program. Skyborg officially stood up as a fiscal year 2019 funded pathfinder program through SDPE in October 2018, according to Ben Tran, Skyborg program manager. “There was a lot of analysis that determined what was put into the CRFI,” Tran said. “We've been given the overall objective to have an early operational capability prototype fielded by the end of calendar year 2023, so this is our first step in determining what the current state of the art is from a technology perspective and from a systems engineering perspective to provide that EOC capability in 2023.” Low cost, attritable, unmanned air vehicles are one way to bring mass to the fight when it comes to addressing potential near-peer engagements in the future, according to Tran. “We also know there is heavy investment by our near-peer adversaries in artificial intelligence and autonomy in general. We know that when you couple autonomy and AI with systems like low-cost attritables, that can increase capability significantly and be a force multiplier for our Air Force and so the 2023 goal line is our attempt at bringing something to bear in a relatively quick time frame to show that we can bring that kind of capability to the fight.” Matt Duquette, an AFRL Aerospace Systems Directorate engineer, brings a background in UAV control, autonomy, and modeling and simulation of UAVs, especially teams of UAVs to the effort while assisting the Skyborg program with formulating its approach to the autonomy system and some of the behaviors that the UAVs will have. “Skyborg is a vessel for AI technologies that could range from rather simple algorithms to fly the aircraft and control them in airspace to the introduction of more complicated levels of AI to accomplish certain tasks or subtasks of the mission,” Duquette said. This builds on much of the AFRL foundational work with AI shown with programs such as Have Raider and the Auto Ground and Air Collision Avoidance systems, which prove that levels of autonomy in high performance aircraft are not only possible, but also practical. “Part of our autonomy development is building assurance into the system. You can either build assurance by using formal methods or approaches where at design time, as you develop these autonomous capabilities, you guarantee certain behaviors, or a more practical approach is to assess the capabilities of these behaviors at run time, meaning while they're running on the aircraft. So, those are the capabilities that we're interested in looking at from the experimentation level to see what type of assurance you need in the system so you can mix high and low criticality.” “We're looking at a range of vehicle performance parameters – mission analysis will help us determine what the final outcome is and the responses from the CRFI will help us understand what the performance is of currently available systems and whether those will meet the needs or not. Everything from keeping up with combat platforms to slower platforms for sensing. There will be a range of possibilities there,” said Patrick Berry, from AFRL's Sensors Directorate, who is supporting the Skyborg program by conducting modeling, simulation and analysis. Although Skyborg is not scheduled for any particular type of aircraft platform at this time, Tran said the CRFI emphasizes the importance of an open systems architecture, having modularity in the system, not only from a sensing capabilities standpoint, but overall mission systems, as well as the autonomy associated with the mission capability for the platform. “We've partnered with the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and specifically an organization called the Emerging Technologies Combined Test Force and we're working with them beginning with small, fast-moving UAVs to test the current state of the art in AI and autonomy in those airplanes and the ability for them to autonomously team and collaborate in flight,” Tran said. Machine learning has progressed greatly over the last few years and we're very inspired by those results and excited by things that are going on in the gaming industry for instance,” said Maj. Ryan Carr, from AFRL's Aerospace Systems Directorate. “We expect that technology will continue to mature fairly rapidly. What we really need to understand is, ‘How do you take that and do something like bring it to the real world and fly with it for example?' The thing we're trying to get at early on is how to do that safely. We're talking about run-time assurance, working hand-in-hand with the flight test community who have a very long record of safe flight testing. That's really what we want to focus our attention on in this early period,” Carr said. “We want to do this in a way that builds trust in the system as you go along so that when you get to that EOC, you will have established a baseline of trust so that operational youth will believe what the system will do or believe it's safe. It's not just that end-state capability, it's the trust as you go along,” he added. Before operational AI innovation can occur, the Air Force must field an autonomous system that meets an immediate operational need and can serve as an iterative platform to facilitate complex AI development, prototyping, experimentation and fielding, and that system is Skyborg, the CRFI says. https://www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com/2019/03/u-s-air-force-to-develop-ai-powered-combat-uav/