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September 25, 2024 | International, Aerospace

Embraer says South Africa in talks for purchase of C-390 aircraft

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  • Submarine Industrial Base Ready to Grow – But Only If Pentagon, Congress Send the Right Signals

    November 9, 2020 | International, Naval

    Submarine Industrial Base Ready to Grow – But Only If Pentagon, Congress Send the Right Signals

    By: Megan Eckstein November 6, 2020 3:56 PM Huntington Ingalls Industries is confident its businesses are well-positioned for whatever the future of the Navy is – whether it's the implementation of the Pentagon's Battle Force 2045 plan or something else implemented by new leadership, according to the chief executive. HII president and CEO Mike Petters told investors on Thursday that “we are pleased to see our portfolio of ships in the (Battle Force 2045) plan and recognize that there is still much work to be done to bring any plan to fruition.” “We remain confident that we can create additional capacity that may be necessary to support even the most robust shipbuilding plan,” he added. Asked by investors what a potential change in administration means for the company's outlook, Petters said that “national security tends to be pretty bipartisan, and the Pentagon tends to operate in a world where they're looking external to the country, trying to figure out how to do security. This Pentagon has said we need a bigger Navy to be more secure, and they're working through that process right now. If you have a change in the leadership, in the administration, the new folks are going to be looking at the same outside world that the folks that are there now are. And there might be changes on the edges – is it this many ships or that many ships, or anything like. What I take away from what has been said so far is that the future Navy needs to be bigger, it needs to be faster, cheaper, and probably a bit smaller in terms of sizes of ships. So a faster, cheaper, smaller set of platforms, with a lot more of them. We believe that's going to persist.” Specifically, he said, the undersea domain – both manned submarines and unmanned undersea vehicles – will be at the center of future fleet growth. On the submarine side, HII's Newport News Shipbuilding ran into some struggles on the Block IV Virginia-class SSN deliveries. Some of the delays predate the pandemic, as the supply base and the two shipyards struggled to get up to a two-a-year construction rate. COVID-19 has only increased the challenge, with Petters saying during the last quarterly earnings call in August that the Navy asked Newport News to prioritize repair work – on submarines and aircraft carriers – with the workers who were able to come in on any given day, meaning that the submarine construction side of the business fell further behind. At this point, Petters said this week, workforce attendance is up compared to the spring, and while the company hasn't figured out how to catch back up on Virginia-class construction, they're not falling further behind anymore. “We took a pretty big divot in attendance in April and May. Where we've been since then is, we've been pretty steady in terms of what we can predict in terms of the number of people who are going to be there and who's going to be there and how to allocate those resources. So that's working very well for us, and it's really consistent with the schedules that we reset at the end of Q2,” he said. Petters said the company had about 200 active COVID cases in its workforce now, but due to increases in testing the company can keep fewer people in quarantine and can better predict how the virus is affecting the workforce and therefore how many welders, how many electricians, how many pipefitters they might have on any given day and how to allocate them across all the shipbuilding and ship repair activities. After revamping the SSN construction schedule after falling so far behind in the second quarter of the year, “we're tracking the new schedules. The opportunity to really recover the divot that we took out, we haven't quite figured out how to go and accelerate back to where we were in terms of schedule. But we're working on that. But we're definitely supporting the new schedules we have laid out.” In the longer term, Battle Force 2045 calls for a larger attack submarine force, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper called for the Navy to quickly begin buying three SSNs a year – which would put significant pressure on Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics' Electric Boat, as well as thousands of suppliers across the country, to ramp up production even as they're readying to start construction on the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, the contract for which was awarded Thursday. Petters said he was confident industry could act to grow their capacity faster than the government could actually get appropriations and contract modifications into place – though he said industry would only make moves to expand if the government was truly committed to buying more submarines over a long timeframe. “I think the shipyards will have to build, maybe invest in more capacity and more workforce. I think that we're going to have to create some parallel capacity, maybe think a little bit more about buying pieces that we were doing organically before, maybe structural units or fittings or foundations or something like that. ... And then I think you really have to be focused: if you ‘re going to get it there, you really have to get the supply chain up to speed. Our supply chain in support of all of shipbuilding, but in particular our nuclear enterprise, it's very capable, but it's also kind of thin. So you really need to have a persistent, consistent, sustainable set of messaging to the industry that you're going to sustain this rate for a significant time to create or attract the investment in technology, capital and people that the supply chain's going to need to go do,” Petters said. “I think there is the capacity to go do that, but it ain't a light switch and you don't turn it on overnight. My rule of thumb though is that if you're persistent on these signals from the government, the capacity in the industry can be built faster than the government can appropriate the funding to go do it. It takes so long to get to the appropriations process, there's a whole set of signals and long lead times and [requests for proposals] and things like that that would let the industry know you're really serious about doing it,” he added. Navy acquisition chief James Geurts and Electric Boat President Kevin Graney spoke at a separate event Thursday and reiterated to reporters that the whole industry was in a position to ramp up if the Navy became serious about buying more than two Virginias a year. Geurts said the Navy had an undersea advantage today that needed to be expanded in both capability and capacity. “It will take investment to enable us to move to a larger program than we have right now,” he said, which is doable, but only if it doesn't hurt the Columbia program. “The teams are looking at how do we do that and what are the strategic investments that we need to make now that enable us to expand the industrial capacity, should that be where the department goes?” he said. “If that's what we choose to do, we set up the right program to do that, we can deliver whatever industrial capacity output we need for the nation. That won't happen overnight, it will take careful program planning and some investments, just as we've expanded from one Virginia to two Virginias, and two Virginias to two Virginias and a [Virginia Payload Module] to two Virginias and VPM and Columbia. So we know how to do this, I have full confidence in America's ability to produce these should we do that.” Graney said during the media call that expanding would take three things: “we've got to make sure that the supply base keeps pace as we increase the tempo; we've got to make sure that our facilities can accommodate the increased footprint that more modules, for example, for the Virginia program might require; and then the last part – and I think they are kind of in that order – supply base, facilities, and then the last part is really the workforce, training up the workforce and making sure they're on the floor when the modules are ready to be built.” He added that talks with the Navy are ongoing to ensure everyone is clear on what it would take to increase submarine construction rates. For Newport News Shipbuilding's submarine business, the expansion in work might not be limited to construction. The Navy is increasingly realizing that, regardless of what efficiencies they're able to accomplish at the four public shipyards to get subs and carriers in and out of maintenance faster, there's still far too much work for just those yards to accomplish. Naval Sea Systems Command chief Vice Adm. Bill Galinis recently told USNI News that more sub repair work would have to go to private yards – Newport News and Electric Boat – in the future and that the Navy was in talks with the yards to look at what would be needed to increase workload both on the construction and repair side. Petters said Newport News has three submarine repairs taking place now, plus tiger teams deployed to submarine homeports to help with pierside maintenance work. He acknowledged that getting back into submarine repairs after about a decade of not doing that work has been a challenge, but he said it would be an important part of the portfolio going forward. “We're working very closely with the Navy, not just on the work that we have but trying to lay out a sustainable, predictable plan for how the, not just Newport News, but how does the private sector in general support the Navy's need to have more submarines at sea?” he said. “That's a big part of what we're talking about with the submarine repair business. ... That's also a big part of what's happening with the future force and the future of the Virginia class and that construction. At the end of the day, I think, no matter how many submarines the nation puts to sea, we're always going to wish we had more out there. So that's a good spot for us, and we're working very hard in that space.” https://news.usni.org/2020/11/06/submarine-industrial-base-ready-to-grow-but-only-if-pentagon-congress-send-the-right-signals

  • COVID-19: Help Fleets Of Innovators Make 3D Printed Face Masks

    April 8, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    COVID-19: Help Fleets Of Innovators Make 3D Printed Face Masks

    By JOHN QUIGG Next month we'll celebrate the 80th anniversary of Operation Dynamo, better known as “the Miracle of Dunkirk.” In the course of three days, hundreds of British civilian boats crossed the Channel to save their Army from starvation and the advancing Germans. Why? The Royal Navy did not have enough ships to transport the troops nor the right type of boats to operate in the shallows of the French coast. The key to the operation's success was governmental agility, masterful logistics, and realizing that the only solution to saving the entire force was a never-seen-before public/private partnership and lightning fast decision making (along with favorable weather and air cover). Our first responders and medical heroes are trapped on a figurative beach as the crest of the COVID-19 epidemic looms with too few supplies, thus facing illness and possible death. Supply chains ravaged by years of creating just-in-time global networks are not up to this challenge. The “Little Ships” in our modern story to the rescue will be 3-D printers. The air cover will be shielding from tort lawyers, and the civilian volunteers the remarkable talents comprising the nation's maker community. I confess that this is personal — my youngest brother is an EMT in suburban Atlanta. He tells me that his coworkers and emergency room staff are already down to handmade masks and are begging for supplies. The need is clear – top priority must be placed on vetting and publishing designs, finding out where the nation's supply chain can't satisfy projected demand, and the command and control required to match makers with the needs of the nation's first responders. For example, the Seattle Children's hospital was running critically low on masks several weeks ago and was desperate for help. Enter Rory Larson, a talented CAD designer who spent two caffeine fueled days and nights designing and testing a printable version of an N-95 mask with replaceable filters which were enthusiastically embraced by the hospital staff. His father, Garr, connected him with Jonathan Roberts, a veteran of Microsoft and Innovation Partners. Roberts helped scale the availability of the design, enlisted production partners and reached out to people who could help them leap over the many administrative hurdles — and set up a website. Now anyone with a printer can download the design and print their own masks. The military is already headed down this path. US Forces Korea tasked their science advisors from the Office of Naval Research and Army Futures Command to start an internal effort given the shortages of masks and other supplies in Asia. They designed, produced and disseminated a face shield for gate guards and are exploring the techniques for other medical shortfalls however the design and approval process is still problematic. One of their largest challenges is procedural – sharing military-manufactured equipment falls foul of all sorts of regulations and they will need process changes at a pace no earthly acquisition official could normally achieve. This problem is replicated across the defense enterprise as installations around the world wrestle with the red tape surrounding helping their neighbors and host countries. To help, the Department of Defense Manufacturing Innovation Institute for additive manufacturing (www.AmericaMakes.us) initiated a fast track certification process to breach the monolith of government approvals. ONR Global's Mark Buffum tells me that they are working with ONR/USFK legal to check that the validation coordination between the FDA and AmericaMakes will allow designs that have passed Clinical Review to be moved to production at DOD installations globally. The end state for now is a tested design placed on the NIH's 3D design exchange that is approved for manufacture. The government is working on the dispensations needed to take a mask printed on a Navy ship in Korea, an Army logistics train in Iraq, or an Air Force base in Colorado. Similarly, 3D makers near Active Duty/Reserve/National Guard installations should be integrated into their supply chain. If worst case scenarios come to pass and civilian logistics fail then we have an exercised plan to connect military supply and transport capabilities to the manufacturers and vice versa. Much as the Royal Navy executed the plan to flag and man the Little Ships during Dunkirk, we must figure out how the military can leverage local, regional, and national maker capabilities to get those printers humming. A case in point is the Belgian chemical company Solvay, partnering with Boeing, to leverage its extensive expertise in thermoplastic materials—and especially medical-grade plastics—to support various efforts aimed at fighting the pandemic. Their support centers located around the world are ready to support material selection, manufacturing support, relevant testing and regulatory certifications. They are offering to put makers in touch with their extensive network of distributors, molders and machine shops.Additionally, Boeing is working with Solvay to design/produce more durable face shields for healthcare workers. Boeing announced last week it would be shifting some of its manufacturing capacity, including its in-house 3D printing, to produce thousands of face shields per week for medical workers. At the local level, community leaders like Todd Spain are talking to their local hospital to determine shortfalls, and are working with a regional maker group, Colorado Makers Unite (MakerUnite.co) to produce their own masks and ventilator adapters to protect the staff and enable equipment sharing. They are prepared to make anything their first responders need. One of the biggest roadblocks is the administrative state: the only readily available plastic is not approved for medical use, the approved plastic is on a 3-week wait list and costs 10X more, shipping of vital feed-stock and machines is not on the prioritized list, and the usual hurdles of liability, etc.... One can only imagine the potential legal hurdles to using something that hasn't been tested in countless lawsuits unless a company gets regulatory relief. A partnership with the local National Guard unit or military installation could bring their concerns to light and allow the Defense Department to take on the job of connecting the capability to the population and while providing emergency protection from the trial bar. We must move heaven and earth to give the brave people trying to build an ad hoc network of 3-D mask makers our best and ensure that the “small ships” of the 3-D printing world and its makers are allowed to give it their best shot. I can only hope that history looks back at this time with wonder that we were able to pull it off. John Quigg, a retired Army officer, was one of America's first cyber warriors. He is a senior advisor to Spurrier Capital Partners, a New York investment bank, and a senior staffer at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Lab. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/04/covid-19-help-fleets-of-innovators-make-3d-printed-face-masks

  • Army Wants Manned-Aircraft Airworthiness Levels From Future UAS

    June 11, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Land

    Army Wants Manned-Aircraft Airworthiness Levels From Future UAS

    Graham Warwick | Aviation Week & Space Technology Its appetite Fueled by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. Army is a big user of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), from thousands of hand-launched RQ-11 Ravens to hundreds of tactical RQ-7 Shadows and medium-altitude MQ-1C Gray Eagles. And the service has made progress in how it uses UAS, including manned-unmanned teaming between Shadows and AH-64 Apache helicopters in the reconnaissance role. But as it looks to the future, the Army is less than happy with some aspects of its UAS ... http://aviationweek.com/defense/army-wants-manned-aircraft-airworthiness-levels-future-uas

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