Defense aerospace primes are raking in money for classified programs

On the same subject

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  May 14, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Special Ops Budget Crunch Looms, But New Aircraft Demo Coming

  And so what's really important to me is what the vendor brings to the table, in terms of their ability to integrate weapons onto a non-developmental platform," said SOCOM acquisition czar Jim Smith. By PAUL MCLEARY and THERESA HITCHENSon May 13, 2020 at 4:32 PM WASHINGTON: Like the rest of the Defense Department, Special Operations Command is preparing for flat to declining budgets in the coming years as the national debt spirals to $25 trillion and the economy flattens due to COVID-19 related shutdowns. At the moment, the command that trains, equips and sustains the nation's elite covert operators boasts a $13 billion budget, $7 billion of which goes directly into buying and repairing new gear, with another $800 million pumped into research and development. And that's the unclassified part of the budget. The command wants to protect those investments, Jim Smith, SOCOM's top acquisition executive, told reporters this morning. But fiscal realities being what they are, “right now, our planning assumptions are based on a flat budget out through the next seven years or so,” he said. “And then, if you take into account inflation, you might even have a slightly downward pressure on our overall budget.” Just recently, Defense Secretary Mark Esper suggested that the budget pressure might force his hand in cutting older, legacy systems earlier than planned to pull savings toward priority modernization programs like the $500 billion the DoD plans to spend on the refurbishment of the nuclear triad over the next decade. Earlier this month Esper declared, “we need to move away from the legacy, and we need to invest those dollars in the future. And we have a lot of legacy programs out there right now — I could pick dozens out from all branches of the services” that could be cut or curtailed. Asked by Breaking Defense if pressure on SOCOM budgets could lead to the command walking away from bigger and older systems, Smith said “SOF is a little different. There is a propensity for us to accept a near-[commercial] solution and get it into the fight very quickly. And for that reason, we tend not to sustain equipment or the 20-year, 30-year life cycles that you see in the services.” That's not to say “we don't have the same pressures,” as the services in finding savings, he added. “We're trying to divest in a force that you know likes to hold on to things. And so we have very rich dialogue at the command level, I can assure you, about trying to divest over some of our larger programs going on.” One area commanders want to grow is close air support and ISR in areas without large, improved landing strips via the Armed Overwatch program. Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, said in February at the Air Force Association's annual meeting that the aircraft would replace AFSOC's U-28s — and focus more on plane's close air support, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Smith today explained that effort is standing on the shoulders of the Air Force's defunct Light Attack Aircraft effort. “We are on the backs of the Air Force's effort. We're using the same program managers and engineers,” Smith said. “Everything that was learned by the Air Force in their light attack experiment is being leveraged into ours.” The Air Force's long-running light attack aircraft saga — that at one point was expected to involve procurement of up to 300 airplanes — began way back in 2011, when the Air Force initiated a program to procure what it then called “light air-support” aircraft for use in insurgencies. In 2017, the program morphed into what the service called the Light Attack Experiment, aimed at developing a concept of operations that involved US allies as well as fleshing out an overall acquisition strategy. In 2018, then-Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said the service had set aside $2.4 billion in the fiscal year 2019 budget's five-year cycle to acquire agile, armed reconnaissance aircraft — once it had tested out its chosen competitors: Textron's AT-6 and the Sierra Nevada-Embraer team's A-29. In October 2019, facing a threat from Congress to strip the program from its control, the Air Force issued a request for proposal to Textron and Sierra Nevada to buy “two or three of both” companies' turboprops. Finally, in February this year, the Air Force threw up its collective hands and gave up the quest to buy light attack aircraft in quantity — purchasing only two each of the AT-6 Wolverine and A-29 Tucanos for continued experimentation. Several of the companies who originally fought it out way back in the day under the Air Force effort, as well as Textron and Sierra Nevada, are now throwing their hats in the SOCOM ring. Spokespeople for Air Tractor (which had formally protested the Air Force's contract award in the light attack competition), Sierra Nevada and Textron confirmed to Breaking Defense today that they are all in for the live-fly demonstration expected in November. The plan is for SOCOM to buy up to 75 of the aircraft over seven years, beginning with a $106 million request in the 2021 budget to kick things off. The Special Operations community is as interested in what it can put on one of these planes as it is in the aircraft itself. “At the end of the day, I'm going to deliver a weapon system,” Smith said. “And so what's really important to me is what the vendor brings to the table, in terms of their ability to integrate weapons onto a non-developmental platform. I think the Air Force, you know, there was a lot of focus on the actual platforms. I don't think you'll see that from SOCOM. We are far more interested in the integration capability of our eventual industry partners on the platform.” https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/special-ops-budget-crunch-looms-but-new-aircraft-demo-coming

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  July 24, 2020 | International, Land

  Germany’s KMW pitches bridge-launching Boxer vehicle

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — German tank-maker Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is developing a tactical bridge-launching capability for its Boxer vehicle that the company hopes to sell to its growing customer base. Executives still consider the module an internal prototype, with more testing planned in the coming months. But the premise of a bridge-launching capability in forces lighter than the heavy, tracked vehicles mostly used for that job today could garner interest, they said. The German military, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Australia are current or soon-to-be operators of Boxer fleets. The vehicles were developed in a joint venture with Germany's Rheinmetall. The rides are modular by design, consisting of base chassis that can be combined with payloads for troop transport, command and control, combat, or medical evacuation, for example. The new module will be able to deploy two types of bridges: a heavy variant that spans 14 meters and can carry 80 tons, and a longer version of 22 meters certified for 50 tons. Those weight limits are sufficient for heavy battle tanks and the slightly lighter infantry fighting vehicles, respectively. KMW officials had planned to debut the new development at the Eurosatory expo in Paris, France, last month before organizers canceled the event due to the coronavirus pandemic. The next chance to display the bridging module for would-be clients will be the U.K.-based DVD2020 conference, sponsored by the British Ministry of Defence, in November, according to the company. Modifications needed to operate the bridging module with the base version of the Boxer include a new drive output for siphoning power from the main engine to the hydraulic arms used to push the bridge from the vehicle to the ground, officials explained. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/07/23/germanys-kmw-pitches-bridge-launching-boxer-to-its-customer-base/

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  September 20, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  The US Navy’s new autonomous refueling drone takes historic first flight

  By: David B. Larter WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy's MQ-25 Stingray refueling drone, destined to be the first carrier-launched autonomous unmanned aircraft integrated into the service's strike arm, took its first test flight from MidAmerica Airport in Illinois, Boeing announced Thursday. The two-hour flight, remotely controlled by Boeing pilots, tested the basic flight functions of the aircraft, a Boeing statement said. “The aircraft completed an autonomous taxi and takeoff and then flew a pre-determined route to validate the aircraft's basic flight functions and operations with the ground control station,” the release said. Boeing's project head said it was an important step toward getting the drone on the flight deck. “Seeing MQ-25 in the sky is a testament to our Boeing and Navy team working the technology, systems and processes that are helping get MQ-25 to the carrier,” MQ-25 Program Director Dave Bujold said in the release. “This aircraft and its flight test program ensures we're delivering the MQ-25 to the carrier fleet with the safety, reliability and capability the U.S. Navy needs to conduct its vital mission.” An $805 million contract awarded to Boeing last August covers the design, development, fabrication, test and delivery of four Stingray aircraft, a program the service expects will cost about $13 billion overall for 72 aircraft, said Navy acquisition boss James Geurts. The award to Boeing kicks off what the Navy would is aiming to be a six-year development effort moving toward a 2024 declaration of initial operational capability. At the end, it will mark a historic integration of drones into the Navy's carrier air wing. The MQ-25 flown Thursday is a Boeing-owned test asset and a predecessor to the first four engineering design model aircraft provided for under last year's contract. The model “is being used for early learning and discovery to meet the goals of the U.S. Navy's accelerated acquisition program,” the release said. The Stingray was a priority pushed by the Navy's previous chief of naval operations, Adm. John Richardson, who saw it as a chance to force a program through the system and field a new capability quickly. “The MQ-25 was really a signature program to test the limits and plow new ground in that direction,” Richardson told Defense News last April. "And so we brought industry in way earlier. I think that's key to getting the acquisition cycle faster, even in the refinement of the requirements phase. “And so that's where we've been with MQ-25, is to bring them in, see what they've got and see how fast they can get a prototype together to fly. One thing we did do was we locked down on requirements. We could probably get agreement from everybody that we need something to tank. It liberates a lot of our strike fighters from doing that mission and it's something that we can get done ― its relatively straightforward.” https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2019/09/19/the-us-navys-new-autonomous-refueling-drone-takes-historic-first-flight