F-35 head warns future upgrades at risk, production shutdown possible

On the same subject

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  February 1, 2021 | International, Aerospace

  Royal Australian Air Force benefits from Airbus SmartForce digital services

  Amberley (Australia), January 28, 2021 – Airbus has recently signed a contract to provide a digital services focus for the maintenance of the Air Refueling Boom System (ARBS) on the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport (A330 MRTT) fleet. Based on the Airbus suite of digital services SmartForce, this service is intended to support the operator in reducing maintenance costs and improving fleet availability by optimizing the fault diagnosis and troubleshooting tasks for the ARBS of the tanker aircraft, based on data analytics applications. The Central Data System plays a key role, allowing operators to draw on the flight data recorded by the Mission Recording System and provides information outputs about issues registered during the flight and recommended maintenance actions to fix them. Within the KC-30A Enterprise, the Central Data System is a joint development built upon a successful long-standing collaboration among Airbus, the Commonwealth of Australia (CoA) and the Australian KC-30A Through Life Support (TLS) provider Northrop Grumman Australia, in sharing data and defining the architecture of the system. Future proposed development of the capability will allow customers which apply this technology to their fleet to be able to extend the ARBS analytics to entire aircraft level diagnostics. Stephan Miegel, Head of Military Aircraft Services at Airbus Defence and Space, said:“Since the launch of SmartForce in 2018, Airbus is fully committed to support the digital initiatives of our customers. Working collaboratively with them, we have signed five agreements for the co-development of new services and technologies. We are proud to see that military operators are increasingly joining us on our digital journey.” Jake Adams, Northrop Grumman Australia KC-30A Program Manager, said: “The introduction of the Central Data System has provided significant benefits in terms of increased availability of the ARBS. The recent agreement between Airbus and Northrop Grumman Australia ensures that the RAAF continues to benefit from this capability as well as providing the opportunity for ongoing collaboration and sharing of data and analytics to enhance the ARBS capability.” Group Captain Scott Parry, Officer Commanding Heavy Air Lift Systems Program Office, commented: “The Central Data System delivers a significant capability benefit for the KC-30A aircraft and demonstrates the strong commitment within the KC-30A enterprise to innovation and improvement.” SmartForce is a suite of services enabling military operators to exploit aircraft data to improve troubleshooting, optimize maintenance effort, predict maintenance actions and plan smartly for material demand and improving the fleet availability. SmartForce capitalizes on the new power of big data analytics coupled to secured connectivity to maximize mission readiness. @AirbusDefence @AusAirForce #A330MRTT Your Contact Pablo Correa External Communications - Airbus Defence +34 6 89 66 96 02 Send an email Belinda Ng Communications - Airbus Asia-Pacific +65 9683 6361 Send an email View source version on Airbus: https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2021/01/royal-australian-air-force-benefits-from-airbus-smartforce-digital-services.html

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  August 13, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Embraer’s defense head talks growth areas for the Brazilian giant

  By: Aaron Mehta FARNBOROUGH, England — When Boeing and Embraer announced a tie-up for commercial business, it left quite a few questions about how the defense side of the Brazilian firm would work with the American giant. The answer, early on, is that there will be a new partnership around the KC-390 transport aircraft; but according to Jackson Schneider, president and CEO of Embraer Defense & Security, that is just the first step. During an interview at last month's Farnborough International Airshow, Schneider laid out his hopes for the Boeing tie-up as well as potential growth for the company's border security operations and A-29 Super Tucano aircraft. How does the Boeing-Embraer commercial deal impact the discussions you'll be having on the defense side? Defense will be a different transfer. We will decide together which will be the format. But it works as a normal joint venture, normal relationship, normal partnership. The most important thing to me in this dimension is [the interest] that both companies are dedicating for the programs. It is clear Boeing and Embraer is dedicated to investigate and identify the opportunities together. A lot of analysts expect the two companies to start in on some sort of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance/early-warning special-mission aircraft designs. Do you anticipate the same? I think that we have very interesting applications in terms of business jets — very creative. We have already had some solutions that could go to market for training, for medical evacuation, for airport inspections, but there are many other opportunities, alternatives that we can explore together, also in this joint venture. We will begin a conversation to see how we can explore together special-mission solutions for the market. Full Article: https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2018/08/03/embraers-defense-head-talks-growth-areas-for-the-brazilian-giant/

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  August 2, 2023 | International, Land, Security, Other Defence

  Elbit Systems Awarded Approximately $60 Million Contract to Supply Artillery Shells to the Israel Ministry of Defense

  The expansion and the upgrade of our production infrastructure enables the provision of rapid  production of a range of high quality solutions to the Israel Ministry of Defense