Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 21, 2020

On the same subject

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  March 4, 2020 | International, C4ISR

  EXCLUSIF Défense : le leader français de la vision nocturne va passer sous bannière américaine

  La société d'électronique californienne Teledyne est entrée en négociations exclusives pour reprendre Photonis pour près de 500 millions d'euros, de sources concordantes. Le dossier divise au plus haut niveau au sein de l'Etat. Par Anne Drif Publié le 3 mars 2020 à 6h14 Le leader mondial de la vision nocturne est sur le point de perdre son pavillon français. Donné favori, l'Américain Teledyne est bien entré en négociations exclusives pour racheter Photonis au fonds Ardian pour une valeur d'un peu moins de 500 millions d'euros, de sources concordantes. Ce dossier, qui divise au plus haut niveau au sein de l'Etat, serait déjà en procédure d'examen par la direction générale du Trésor. C'est à Bercy que revient l'arbitrage ultime en faveur de la cession au titre du contrôle des investissements étrangers, a réagi en janvier le Premier ministre sous le feu des critiques de 17 députés de tous bords . Les parlementaires, mais aussi un pan du ministère des Armées, lié aux technologies d'application militaire et des services de renseignement, s'opposent au passage sous bannière étrangère de cet actif jugé « critique » pour les opérations de terrain souvent nocturnes. « Après le rachat du fabricant des appareils de mesure des rayonnements nucléaires Canberra et Premium Analyse, spécialiste français de la détection du gaz tritium, par l'Américain Mirion, nous sommes en passe de créer de nouvelles dépendances technologiques vis-à-vis d'acteurs étrangers très proches du ministère américain de la Défense », critique un proche du dossier. Le groupe américain a réalisé plus de 60 acquisitions ces dernières années pour un total de 3,6 milliards de dollars avec l'objectif de se développer dans l'imagerie, les infrarouges, les rayons X, les instruments de contrôle pour la marine ou encore l'électronique pour la défense et le spatial. Il cherche désormais à se déployer hors de ses bases américaines pour réduire sa dépendance aux opérations extérieures menées par les Etats-Unis. Bercy plutôt ouvert Un opposant du projet pointe la mise en cause de Teledyne par le bras armé du Trésor américain en matière de sanction (OFAC) pour des exportations au Soudan. A ce stade, cependant, le ministre de l'Economie Bruno Le Maire s'est montré plutôt ouvert. « Aucune décision n'a encore été prise, a-t-il déclaré sur Sud Radio mi-février. Nous regardons toutes les options, pour intégrer Photonis dans une chaîne de valeur industrielle, qui permette le développement de l'emploi et la protection de cette technologie, et nous serons très attentifs au respect de nos intérêts de souveraineté. » Ancrage en France Un partisan du projet souligne l'ancrage de Teledyne en France au travers de deux filiales, e2v vers Grenoble dans les semi-conducteurs et Oldham Simtronics dans la détection de gaz vers Arras. « Qu'est ce qui doit primer ? La poursuite de l'approvisionnement technologique aux armées françaises ou risquer de rendre l'entreprise moins viable faute de repreneur et créer un incident politique en cas de rejet officiel ? Ces logiques doivent aussi être prises en compte », nuance-t-on au sein du ministère des Armées. Sur le plan industriel, l'absence de vente imposerait simplement au fonds actionnaire de garder l'entreprise plus longtemps, réagit un opposant. Le temps de trouver une alternative française ? Interrogé par les sénateurs, le directeur général de l'armement, Joël Barre, a affirmé avoirdemandé à Safran et Thales de se pencher sur le dossier. Sans succès à ce stade. https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/air-defense/exclusif-defense-le-leader-francais-de-la-vision-nocturne-va-passer-sous-banniere-americaine-1181289

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  April 30, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Boeing Defense to Surpass Commercial Side For First Time In More Than a Decade

  But that's no cakewalk as new Air Force One and KC-46 tanker eat into the company's cash. Updated, April 30, 2020, with a U.S. Air Force statement. For the first time in 12 years, Boeing executives expect the company's defense and space unit to outperform its commercial airplane business, which is reeling from coronavirus and 737 Max losses. Boeing's defense business has not outperformed its commercial side since 2008, when the commercial market was still recovering from post-9/11 declines and U.S. defense spending spiked during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The prediction comes on the back of pre-existing problems in the Boeing Defense, Space & Security division. The company's defense unit took a $1 billion hit in the first quarter of 2020, adding to the growing list of financial woes for the company trying to dig itself out of a massive hole. “This year ... the defense business will probably be bigger than the commercial business,” Boeing CEO David Calhoun said during a call with Wall Street analysts. “That will probably hold for a while.” MOST READ 1Artificial Intelligence Outperforms Human Intel Analysts In a Key Area 2Pentagon's ‘Willingness to Kiss the President's Ass' Worries Top Lawmaker 3Boeing Defense to Surpass Commercial Side For First Time In More Than a Decade SUBSCRIBE Receive daily email updates: Subscribe to the Defense One daily. Be the first to receive updates. ADVERTISEMENT Additionally, executives said Wednesday that Boeing would lose $827 million on its work building KC-46 aerial refueling tankers and $168 million on the new Air Force One 747s that will fly the president, according to executives and regulatory filings. It's the latest black eye for the tanker project, which has cost the planemaker more than $4 billion over the past nine years. However, it is the first cost increase on the high-profile Air Force One project, which President Donald Trump personally negotiated with former Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg. Boeing began work converting two 747 jetliners into the unique Air Force One configuration in January before the coronavirus pandemic forced many workers out of the office. “As we've had folks working virtually, and particularly on the engineering side — as well as that's gone — it's certainly experienced some inefficiencies that has caused us to reevaluate our estimate to complete those efforts,” Boeing CFO Greg Smith, said of the Air Force One project during a Wednesday afternoon call with reporters. “The team has been doing a great job managing the program and executing very well on many fronts, but this we could not offset in the quarter as a result of COVID,” he said. “The program remains on schedule and ... continuing to execute, but we're looking for opportunities obviously to mitigate any further risk that we may have as a result of COVID.” The terms of the Air Force One contract require Boeing, not taxpayers, to pay for any cost increases during the development of the plane, which the military calls a VC-25B. Despite the coronavirus-related issues, Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman, said the project remains on track. “As planned in the baseline schedule, the next phase of modification is on course to begin in June 2020,” Stefanek said in an emailed statement. “To maintain current schedule, Boeing and the VC-25B program office adopted maximum use of virtual tools, most notably to close Critical Design Review in March 2020 and conduct a modification readiness review in April 2020.” As for the tanker, $551 million in cost increases stem from a deal reached between the Air Force and Boeing requiring the company to fix the complicated camera system used when refueling other aircraft. Most of the remaining $276 million is the result of coronavirus-related factory closures in Washington state where the tanker is built, and a “cost shift” resulting from slowing production of other commercial manufacturing. “I do believe that that program now is exactly where it needs to be,” Calhoun said of the KC-46. “We're going to finish well. Importantly our customer is going to feel like we have finished well and we've delivered a product that is second to none. I do believe that even the tanker future is significantly brighter than the one we've experienced up until now.” Calhoun also touted the company's development work. Although he did not mention any projects by name, Boeing is in the early stages of testing two new aircraft — the T-7A pilot training jet and MQ-25 refueling drone. “Our development programs at the early stages are all looking quite good. We're really not off plan on anything and usually by now we have a snip that we might be. I feel pretty good about the risk profile of our defense business despite the difficulties that we've attempted to overcome in just the last couple of years.” The same can't be said of the company's commercial airliner and aircraft repair businesses. Boeing is planning to cut 10 percent of its 160,000 employees through voluntary layoffs, attrition and involuntary layoffs. The coronavirus has driven a substantial blow to the storied 104-year-old aerospace and defense company, which had already been reeling from the fallout of deadly 737 Max crashes in October 2018 and March 2019. Passenger air travel has fallen to record lows prompting airlines to cancel flights, ground aircraft, and defer buying new planes. Boeing in late March temporarily stopped making commercial and military aircraft — including the tanker and the Navy's P-8 submarine hunter — in the Seattle-area, a COVID-19 hotbed. It also shut down its military assembly lines in Philadelphia for the Chinook and MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopters, and the tilt-rotor Osprey. Those factories have since reopened. A shuttered 787 Dreamliner factory in Charleston, South Carolina, is expected to reopen next week. Now all eyes — including at the Pentagon — are watching to see how Boeing manages tens of thousands of employees on its complex assembly lines with new social distancing procedures in place. If successful, the model could become a blueprint for other U.S. manufacturers. “They have allowed me to share their practices more broadly with industry to make sure that anything that is working for them to either be safer or get back to work, that that's something that can be shared with all,” Will Roper, head of Air Force acquisition, said Wednesday. Boeing began the year with hopes of fixing its troubled 737 Max and restoring public confidence in the world's largest planemaker. Unable to deliver the unflyable Max to the airlines, it stopped building them in early January as it began running out of places to park them. Photos showed planes carefully aligned next to one another on tarmacs and even in employee parking lots. There's still no formal timetable for getting the Max flying again, although executives are hopeful regulators will approve a number of fixes in the coming months and that it can begin delivering 737 Max aircraft to airlines in the third quarter. https://www.defenseone.com/business/2020/04/boeing-defense-surpass-commercial-side-first-time-more-decade/165020/

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  November 7, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  ATHENA Successfully Defends Drone Threat

  FORT SILL, Okla., Nov. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) recently demonstrated their laser weapon system for the U.S. Air Force at a government test range at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where the system successfully engaged and shot down multiple fixed wing and rotary drones. The Advanced Test High Energy Asset (ATHENA) operated in a fully-netted engagement environment with a government command and control (C2) system and radar sensor. The radar track was provided to airmen who operated ATHENA via cues from the C2, then ATHENA's beam director slewed, acquired, tracked and defeated the drone with a high-energy laser. Validating this type of full kill-chain performance has been a priority of the U.S. Air Force and other branches of the Department of Defense, and it remains a requirement for laser weapons to be effective against unmanned aerial systems (UAS) on the battlefield. "We've watched in recent news this type of laser weapon solution is essential for deterring unmanned vehicle type threats, so it's an exciting time for us to watch airmen compete Lockheed Martin's critical technology. ATHENA has evolved to ensure integration and agility are key and it remains an affordable capability for the warfighter," said Sarah Reeves, vice president of Missile Defense Programs for Lockheed Martin. The ATHENA system was developed by Lockheed Martin to integrate seamlessly and provide a cost-effective, complementary anti-drone capability with the network of systems the warfighter is already using. ATHENA was operated by USAF personnel during this demonstration, and it was able to destroy multiple drones in engagements representative of what is being encountered by U.S. armed forces today. The ATHENA high-energy laser system is transportable and therefore enables the Air Force to emplace it anywhere they need to defend bases and high-value assets. For additional information, visit our website: www.lockheedmartin.com/DE About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 105,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. SOURCE Lockheed Martin https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2019-11-07-ATHENA-Successfully-Defends-Drone-Threat