Communiqué_Le ministère des Armées soutient la start-up Earthcube, qui devient Preligens, dans sa levée de fonds de 20 millions d'euros pour consolider son leadership européen.

On the same subject

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  March 1, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Airbus remodèle des avions sans pièces allemandes

  BERLIN (Reuters) - Airbus, frustré par la décision de l'Allemagne de geler les exportations d'armes à l'Arabie saoudite, a décidé de revoir la conception de son avion de transport militaire C295 assemblé en Espagne afin d'en enlever les composants allemands, ont dit des sources du groupe à Reuters. L'Allemagne a décidé de manière unilatérale en octobre de refuser toute future licence d'exportation d'armes à l'Arabie saoudite après le meurtre du journaliste Jamal Khashoggi. Elle a en outre gelé la livraison de tous les équipements ayant déjà été autorisés. Les accords existants permettent à l'Allemagne de bloquer les exportations d'armes contenant des pièces allemandes. “Nous sommes en train d'exclure (les composants allemands) de l'avion”, a dit une source informée de ces projets. Les phares d'atterrissage du C295, par exemple, sont fabriqués en Allemagne et environ 4% des pièces de l'appareil sont d'origine allemande, a dit cette source. Airbus a reçu 208 commandes de 28 pays pour cet avion de transport militaire, dont 166 exemplaires sont actuellement opérationnels dans le monde. D'après une deuxième source, Airbus s'efforce de déterminer si des pièces en provenance d'Allemagne sont aussi susceptibles d'être remplacées sur d'autres modèles d'avions contenant moins de composants allemands. Cette source a ajouté qu'il serait difficile, voire impossible, de modifier la conception de l'Eurofighter Typhoon, un programme multinational composé pour environ un tiers de pièces allemandes. Le gel décidé par l'Allemagne a retardé les efforts du gouvernement britannique pour finaliser la vente de 48 nouveaux Typhoon à l'Arabie saoudite pour 10 milliards de livres (11,7 milliards d'euros). Le Parti social-démocrate (SPD), partenaire de coalition des conservateurs de la chancelière Angela Merkel à Berlin, a exprimé cette semaine sa volonté de prolonger cet embargo au-delà de la date butoir actuellement fixée au 9 mars, malgré les pressions de la France et de la Grande-Bretagne en faveur d'une levée de cette interdiction. Angela Merkel a refusé de dire si ce gel serait prolongé. Des élus conservateurs allemands de premier plan ont dit n'avoir constaté aucun progrès vers un assouplissement éventuel de la position du gouvernement. https://fr.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idFRKCN1QG2O3-OFRBS

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  February 18, 2022 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Bruxelles veut renforcer l'industrie de défense européenne

  « Je note une véritable prise de conscience que nous devons faire plus ensemble pour construire une Europe de la Défense », a déclaré mardi Thierry Breton, Commissaire européen au Marché intérieur. La Commission a présenté mardi sa contribution au débat en suivant trois axes. D'abord le développement des achats en commun de matériels de défense, pour lequel les Vingt-Sept se sont fixés un objectif de 35%. Des achats communs ont de nombreux avantages, dont des économies d'échelle et une plus grande capacité d'exportation. Pour inciter les Etats membres à plus de collaboration, la Commission envisage des incitations fiscales via une exonération de la TVA, par exemple. Bruxelles réfléchit aussi à revoir le fonctionnement du Fonds européen de défense (FED), qui dispose d'une enveloppe de 7 Md€ sur la période 2021-2027. La Commission veut ensuite identifier les dépendances stratégiques de l'UE pour les réduire. Bruxelles veut inclure systématiquement l'industrie de la Défense dans les grandes initiatives industrielles (dans l'élaboration des normes, par exemple) et renforcer le filtrage des investissements directs de pays tiers. Enfin, la Commission veut protéger « les nouveaux espaces contestés » contre les menaces hybrides ; elle a déjà annoncé un prochain « Cyber Resilience Act » qui doit mettre en place des sortes de gardes-frontières de l'espace cyber européen. Les Echos du 16 février

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  July 30, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Can The UK Afford To Develop Its Tempest Optionally-Manned Stealth Fighter?

  Seventy-six years after higher-performing Tempest fighters joined the Royal Air Force's Hawker Typhoons in harrying Nazi air and ground forces during World War II, the United Kingdom is once again counting on a warplane called the Tempest to replace succeed its Typhoons. London has big ambitions for its Team Tempest program kicked off in 2018, which aims to develop a sixth-generation optionally-manned stealth fighter (ie. it can fly without an onboard pilot if necessary) to enter service around 2040 to replace its current fleet of Eurofighter Typhoon jet fighters. Unfortunately, those ambitions may simply not square with the money available for “Combat Air” programs in the British defense budget according to a new paper published by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the UK's premier defense think tank. The author of Combat Air Choices for the UK Government, defense analyst Justin Bronk, argues that putting U.K's strategic goals in line with its available financial means may require procuring more stealth jets in the short term, while in the long term reconceiving the optionally-manned Tempest as a more affordable unmanned (drone) combat systems. British Combat Air Power, circa 2020 Today's Royal Air Force draws its primary combat strength from a projected fleet of 145 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters deployed in seven operational squadrons concentrated in two lightly-defended airbases, as well as a testing and training squadron each. Developed by a British/German/Italian consortium (BAE/Airbus/Leonardo respectively), the Typhoon is an advanced 4.5-generation fighter originally focused on a high-speed and high-altitude air-to-air combat, but which has since integrated short- and long-range precision ground attack capabilities. The RAF plans to further upgrade its Typhoons with an advanced CAPTOR-E active electronically scanned array radar which will substantially improve the type's reconnaissance, air-to-air, air-to-ground and self-defense capabilities. But because the Typhoon isn't a stealth aircraft, it can't safely penetrate airspace interdicted by long-range surface-to-air missiles like Russia's S-400 system until those systems are suppressed or destroyed. That job is set aside for 48 Lockheed F-35B Lightning II stealth jump jets shared by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Air Force, of which 35 have been delivered so far. Though less agile than the Typhoon, the Lightning's low radar cross-section allows it to penetrate hostile airspace in comparative safety, while its powerful networked sensors enable it to locate and destroy air defense batteries and other key targets—or shuffle targeting data to non-stealth platforms a safe distance away to execute a strike Unfortunately, as discussed in this article by David Axe, 48 F-35s may not be enough to perform the anti-air defense mission in a hypothetical high-intensity conflict with Russia, particularly when the Royal Navy will want a significant chunk of those jets deployed on its Queen Elizabeth-class carriers to support naval operations. Lastly, the UK is finishing procurement of sixteen MQ-9B Protector drones which can cost-efficiently perform long-endurance surveillance and on-call strike missions in a counter-insurgency context. However, the MQ-9B lacks the stealth or agility to survive in a high-intensity conflict. The Tempest, not by Shakespeare In July 2018, the UK launched Team Tempest, a project to develop an optionally-manned sixth-generation stealth fighter that could replace the Typhoons as they age out of service in 2040. A mockup of a sleek twin-tail stealth design was unveiled at the Farnborough Airshow in July 2018, as well as a presentation highlighting concepts including adaptive cycle turbofans built by Rolls-Royce, revolutionary electrical power generation capabilities, integration of directed-energy (ie. lasers or microwaves) and hypersonic weapons, AI that could assist the pilot or even fly the plane without one, and control of swarms of supporting drones. London has committed £2 billion ($2.6 billion) in initial funding to Tempest, and Italy and Sweden have joined in as partners via companies Leonardo and Saab. Involvement of the Netherlands has also been rumored. In 2020, the British government announced it had recruited seven more companies into the program, and that the number of persons working on Team Tempest would increase from 1,800 to 2,500 by 2021. Tempest is implicitly a rival to the French-German-led Airbus/Dassault Future Combat Air System project which also includes Spain, though there has been tentative suggestions that FCAS and Tempest could be merged. According to Bronk, because modern combat aircraft have grown so immensely expensive to develop, and retaining a core of specialized engineering expertise is so vital, the fate of the Tempest program may determine the future of the UK's military aviation sector, which currently counts 46,000 jobs. “Tempest is the only way that the UK can retain a national combat aircraft design and manufacturing capability, and is currently the assumed source of a replacement capability for Typhoon by 2040... A failure of Tempest to generate significant airframe production contracts would also all but guarantee the demise of UK defence industry combat aircraft design and manufacturing capacity.” In other words, a failed Tempest project could relegate British companies to building components for other jets like the F-35 instead of for domestic jet fighter designs. The Budgetary Crunch Unfortunately, based on other stealth fighter programs abroad, completing development of an optionally-manned Tempest fighter would likely cost at least £25 billion ($32.5 billion) according to Bronk. Already, he writes there is “no headroom” to develop Tempest in the £18 billion set aside in the defense budget for Combat Air over the next decade, nor even to acquire more than 48 F-35s. The paper outlines some ways the Ministry of Defense could reallocate funds, arguing the RAF should do a “large-scale culling” of capabilities that wouldn't be survivable in a conflict with Russia, namely slow-moving intelligence/surveillance aircraft (ISTARs) and transport planes and helicopters. Additional F-35 purchases could be of the cheaper land-based F-35A model, which besides has superior performance. And older, more limited-capability Typhoon Tranche 1 aircraft could be retired early in the late 2020s. Nevertheless, completing Tempest would still likely require a large injection of funds outside of the regular defense budget. Instead, the report argues Tempest would likely become much more affordable as a stealth unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV). Indeed, analysts are debating whether even the United States should choose to go that route for its next generation fighter. Removing a pilot achieves major weight savings as cockpit, ejection and life support systems can be trimmed away. The UK has already developed the Taranis stealth UCAV prototype, showing it already has a knowledge base with such technology. Furthermore the paper argues that unlike manned aircraft, closer to 100% of drones can remain available for operational missions. This is because pilots can do all of their training in simulators and units don't need to be rotated out of the line to rest and recover. That would mean both that a smaller number of UCAVs would need to be procured than jet fighters, and fewer personnel would be required to maintain them. “Cost savings derive from the significantly reduced airframe complexity, fleet size, training, testing and certification requirements compared to a piloted aircraft development effort... Without the need to rotate squadrons, airframes and personnel for training, maintenance, deployment and rest cycles, UCAVs offer significantly more operationally ready airframes from a given fleet size.” Admittedly, a Tempest UCAV would be less profitable for British defense industry. “The lower production volumes and rates which make UCAVs attractive from a military capability standpoint also greatly reduce potential profits per customer for industry,” Bronk concedes. Making the leap from manned to unmanned combat aircraft comes with other challenges. One is the need to harden UCAVs against hostile cyber- and electronic-warfare that could disrupt the command link. That likely includes building in autonomous AI capability so that UCAV can complete missions without relying on human direction. Especially in lower-intensity conflicts, it may be preferable to have a human pilot who can judge better from context whether a target is civilian or military. And air forces led by fighter pilots may resist the idea of replacing manned aircraft with unmanned ones. Regardless of whether one agrees with the RUSI report's recommendations, it seems clear that London will need to make some difficult choices in the years ahead as it balances the desired to field an effective air force today with investing in new technologies for tomorrow. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastienroblin/2020/07/30/can-the-uk-afford-to-develop-its-tempest-optionally-manned-stealth-fighter/#4452a87249b9