Gulfstream Aerospace weighs G550 replacement for special missions

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  April 8, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Opinion: Aerospace Manufacturing In Time Of COVID-19

  Vivek Saxena “You never know who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.” I am reminded of Warren Buffett's words in the climate created by the coronavirus pandemic. Aerospace manufacturers that are lean, use enabling technologies and have a robust business continuity plan will stand tall in tough times. Conversely, inefficient companies that have ridden the gravy train of the aerospace supercycle will suffer. I will share a few best practices that should help industry prepare for the long haul, using an admittedly unscientific survey of multiple manufacturers in various tiers to assess how the aerospace supply chain is coping with the triple whammy of reduced demand, weakened productivity and increased supply chain distress. I asked, how are they dealing with dwindling attendance, regulatory confusion and the decoupling of remote support staff from the production staff? Leadership and communication matter more than ever. While liquidity remains the mantra, no factory can succeed without motivated employees. Shop floor attendance is dropping, depending upon the proximity to COVID-19 “hot spots” and, more important, the leadership's success in engaging with employees. We have already observed a 25% average drop in attendance at many suppliers. On the other hand, Click Bond CEO Karl Hutter reports little impact and is even expecting a record month. He set up a mission control office early and deployed an intranet system to communicate with employees. He calls this a “high-fidelity single source of truth about our people and our operations.” Another innovation is mobile check-in/check-out for employees at each building, allowing for a quick triage if necessary. The CEO of a California forger reports a slight improvement in attendance despite the COVID-19 outbreak in the state, owing to “honest communication and employees taking pride in working at a designated critical service.” The terms “critical infrastructure” and “essential business” have been thrown around without much explanation, sowing confusion among suppliers. Marotta Controls CEO Patrick Marotta took the lead in calming his suppliers. “Suppliers were especially appreciative when we communicated the [Defense and Homeland Security] memos classifying the defense industrial base as critical infrastructure,” Marotta said. Lean enables social distancing. Plants with a deeper lean culture have already implemented manufacturing cells. Lean enables operators to run multiple machines in their dedicated cells with minimal interaction with other areas. Consider Woodward's new plant in Rockford, Illinois, where instead of a large furnace, self-contained cells are situated with right-size furnaces. This design eliminates all unnecessary material and personnel movement at a shared service such as a large furnace. Additionally, closed-loop quality control preempts back-and-forth between inspectors and machinists. Technology is a friend. Protolabs in Minnesota is a great example of digital manufacturing. Plants with lights-out machining capability can scale the technology across all shifts, filling in for absent employees. Machine monitoring and the Internet of Things are especially helpful for remote support staff. Shops with a higher degree of automation will obviously see less of an attendance impact. Data analytics dashboards are a great enabler for remote production meetings. An OEM told us its supply chain organization was fully prepared to work remotely since its business continuity plan called for a system for executing and monitoring remote activities. A Tier 1 told us about a recent investment in information technology systems that is now paying off handsomely for remote operations. Now is an opportunity to catch up and come out stronger. The industry will find a way, says Nycote President Marcie Simpson. She is “impressed with the level of communication and transparency. . . . It seems as though everyone is innovating ways to ensure supply chain continuity.” The best-case scenario is that industry comes out of this crisis in about 12 months with moderately reduced demand and the Boeing 737 MAX back in service. The supply chain will then be functioning better, because the intervening period will have been used to catch up on past issues. For example, the engine supply chain can wrinkle out the kinks that have hobbled engine manufacturers. They can use the respite to address the early shop visit issues and develop much-needed repairs for new engines. Lower tiers would be well-advised to use this time to focus on operational excellence and technology implementation. Vivek Saxena is the managing director at Advisory Aerospace OSC, a consultancy focused on operations and supply chain. https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/manufacturing-supply-chain/opinion-aerospace-manufacturing-time-covid-19

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  June 10, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Use existing and planned craft for unmanned logistical resupply

  By: Wayne Prender and David Phillips To counter expected adversary anti-access/area denial strategies, U.S. naval forces will face significant challenges resupplying dispersed units under emerging distributed operations concepts, particularly in the large geographical distances of the Western Pacific. Future Marine littoral regiments, for example, will require layers of manned and unmanned vessels capable of moving personnel and materiel in decentralized operations to complicate enemy decision-making and targeting. Naval leaders have made clear such decentralized resupply of small, but lethal, expeditionary teams is key to defeating anti-access/area denial threats. With the Department of the Navy already challenged to affordably build and sustain a larger combat fleet, designing, buying and commissioning significant numbers of purpose-built craft solely for this purpose is not ideal. Rather, the Navy should look to adapt fleets of scaled derivative versions of existing or planned naval craft types — particularly those which can be unmanned or optionally manned for specific missions. This option provides the Navy with a greater breadth of capabilities at a more affordable cost. A future fleet of unmanned logistical connectors can leverage existing and planned programs of record. The technology already exists to optionally man or unman such vessels. Appropriately scaled and tailored derivatives of these vessels would conduct logistical cargo missions when required, in addition to performing the existing vital functions the craft already carry out for the fleet. The unmanned logistics fleet would be a necessary adjunct to larger planned manned assets, such as a next-generation light amphibious warship. Naval planners will have to strike a balance between size, capability and affordability. However, even with a lower cost, the vessels must still be large and flexible enough to be capable of performing multiple missions with different payloads. The resulting craft should also be able to reliably operate autonomously over a wide range of environmental conditions at significant distances, have a light logistics footprint and possess sufficient cargo-carrying capacity. Rather than a homogeneous unmanned cargo fleet, the Navy could instead utilize several derivatives of existing vessels it already operates or has planned, which will ease any additional maintenance or training burden. Marines operating in the wide-open spaces of the Western Pacific might, for example, use larger variants capable of hauling cargo over greater distances, while units in other geographic locations are equipped with smaller versions more appropriate for their specific environments. The ability to repurpose multiple craft types would allow a more diverse fleet composition of manned and unmanned vessels teamed for mission-tailored flexibility. Moreover, craft that can accommodate interchangeable payloads would also be available to naval planners for additional missions. For example, the vessels could be equipped with a variety of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors to improve fleet situational awareness while also performing the cargo resupply missions. Buying scaled derivatives of existing program craft will bring additional benefits, including cost savings through economies of scale for acquisition, while minimizing any upfront developmental costs, as hull forms, key components and systems largely already exist. Moreover, because much of the basic systems and components will be common, training, maintenance and repair functions can be streamlined, adding yet more savings over the vessels' life cycles. Likewise, the technologies for unmanning and optionally manning are well along in their development, while autonomous behaviors and autonomy technologies developed for other programs can be reused rather than having to be created anew. For example, autonomous behaviors and control technologies developed for unmanned aircraft systems can be leveraged for naval applications, while similar autonomy technologies for unmanned ground vehicles are also progressing. Within the naval domain, experimentation such as Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2019 and Exercise Citadel Shield-Solid Curtain earlier this year have already demonstrated that unmanned surface vessels can autonomously station keep, navigate around obstacles, protect high-value assets and conduct other necessary core functions. As autonomy technologies further develop, unmanned naval craft of the size and complexity envisioned for logistics and cargo hauling will be able to add new missions and functionality. Longer term, delivery of logistical payloads to Marines on a beachhead can be done completely with unmanned platforms. For example, small to medium robotic ground vehicles loaded with supplies could be carried by one of these unmanned logistical craft. Rather than Marines exposing themselves to hostile fire while unloading supplies on the beach, robotic ground vehicles or aerial drones disembark from the vessels and deliver cargo directly to the Marines in a more secure location. Such vehicles need not be fully autonomous, but rather could be partially autonomous or remotely operated from the security of the protected location. While many details of this concept require further exploration and refinement, conducting experimentation to bring truly multidomain capabilities to bear on the resupply challenge is a worthy endeavor. Getting these and related technologies into the hands of sailors, Marines and other U.S. forces to test and refine will be the quickest and most fruitful way to develop the new concepts and field the necessary capabilities. Wayne Prender and David Phillips are senior vice presidents at Textron Systems. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/06/09/use-existing-and-planned-craft-for-unmanned-logistical-resupply/

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  April 8, 2024 | International, Land

  Greece Moves Forward In Procurement Of UH-60M Black Hawk

  With its existing S-70B fleet and newly acquired MH-60R maritime helicopters for the Hellenic Navy, Greece will operate several variants of the Hawk family and benefit from the operational and...