French army places new ammunition order with Thales

On the same subject

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  December 4, 2024 | International, Aerospace

  Space Force racing to meet training, testing demands

  The Space Force is taking a hybrid approach to improving its training systems, stitching together legacy capabilities with commercial tech.

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  September 29, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Airbus’s First Wide-Body Deal Since March Is for Sole Tanker-Jet

  Charlotte Ryan Airbus SE announced its first wide-body order in almost six months -- for a single aerial refueling and transport aircraft based on an old model of its A330 jet. The A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport or MRTT was ordered by Europe's multinational procurement body on behalf of NATO and will be available to the air forces of six nations, Airbus said in a statement Monday. The military purchase highlights the collapse in sales to airlines and leasing firms that traditionally dominate orders as the coronavirus crisis shatters travel demand. In normal times, Airbus and Boeing Co. would expect to have racked up dozens of orders for hundreds of planes over the summer. Airbus's last twin-aisle deal, for 10 A350-900 jets, was secured on March 31. Since then, the pandemic has compelled the Toulouse, France-based company to focus more on protecting existing orders by allowing its struggling customers to defer deliveries rather than targeting up new business. The tanker purchase comes after Luxembourg agreed to maximize participation in the shared program and means all three options for additional MRTT planes have been exercised, taking the total fleet to nine. In addition to air-to-air refueling, the jets can carry troops, cargo and be used for medical evacuation. Airbus will announce full order and delivery figures for September next week. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-28/airbus-s-first-wide-body-deal-since-march-is-for-sole-tanker-jet

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  August 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Air Force moves to enact space acquisition reforms, despite hold up of legislative proposals

  Nathan Strout WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is trying to move ahead with reforms to how it acquires space systems, even as a report outlining significant legislative changes has gotten held up by the Office of Management and Budget. Released in May, the Department of the Air Force report recommends nine specific proposals to improve contracting under the newly established U.S. Space Force. While most of the changes can be undertaken independently by the Department of Defense, three recommendations would require legislative action by Congress. But according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration Shawn Barnes, the report has yet to get past OMB, which oversees the President's budget proposals and ensures legislation proposed by agencies is consistent with the administration. “[It's] still not on the hill. I'm a little frustrated by that, but I think we're very close with OMB at this point and I think we're just about there,” said Barnes during a July 30 call with reporters. “There are a couple of sticking points, but I'm not going to talk about those directly here.” Barnes continued on to say that OMB had no issues with the vast majority of the report. And while the Air Force has to wait for legislative action on some recommendations, Barnes said they are already moving ahead with internal reforms, such as establishing a distinct Space Force budget. “We're in the process of figuring out how to implement those actions within the alt-acquisition report that don't require any legislative change, and of the somewhat less than ten of those specific actions, probably six of them are within the Department of Defense's ability to get after. So we're building implementation plans for that,” he said. The most important recommendation in the report, at least according to the Air Force, is budgetary. They want to be able to consolidate Space Force budget line items along mission portfolios, such as missile warning or communications, instead of by platforms, allowing them more flexibility to move funding between related systems without having to submit reprogramming requests to Congress. This was a point of contention between the Pentagon and legislators last year, as the Air Force issued repeated reprogramming requests to secure the funding needed to push up the delivery date of the first Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellite. Barnes insisted that managing funding at the portfolio would give the Space Force more flexibility to react to program developments without sacrificing transparency. While funding would not longer be broken out at the program level, it could still be expressed at a lower level, he said. “We would still be breaking it down at a subordinate level but what we would hope is that we would have the ability to still move money from one of those subordinate levels to another, and that's where we can have that transparency,” he explained. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/07/30/air-force-moves-to-enact-space-acquisition-reforms-despite-hold-up-of-legislative-proposals