September 22, 2021 | International, Land
UK's future force to lean heavily into robotics, AI and hybrid power
The new program Mercury, run by the British Army, will help shape the force for battlefields beyond 2035.
May 1, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
How The Pentagon Is Reaching Small Suppliers
Jen DiMascio
The Pentagon is employing new ways to track and funnel dollars to small- and medium-sized aviation suppliers hit hard by a drop-off in their commercial business since the novel coronavirus took hold.
One way has been to accelerate up-front progress payments to prime contractors. Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, announced April 30 that in this week alone, the Defense Department processed more than $1.2 billion out of $3 billion to defense contractors in accelerated payments.
The acceleration was enabled by a March 20 memo which lifted the amount that large contractors could receive before delivering a contracted item from 80%-90% and for small contractors from 90%-95%.
Lord singled out Lockheed Martin for praise for committing to speed $450 million to its supply chain.
As those payments are being released, the U.S. Air Force is studying the needs of small suppliers and charting the flow of those progress payments through the industrial base, service officials said during an April 29 Aviation Week MRO webinar.
After the first COVID-19 stimulus package was released, Col. Kevin Nalette, vice director, 448th Supply Chain Management Wing, Air Force Sustainment Center, said his office was asked to find out how much money small companies would need to maintain a constant flow of work to continue to support the defense sector. They had two days to ask contractors–the third- and fourth-tier “mom-and-pop shops” whose work becomes an end item purchased somewhere up the stream.
The majority of defense vendors do more work–55% or more–for commercial aviation businesses. “As soon as the commercial sector shut down, we had an amazing ability. We now had their full attention,” Nalette said. “When you come to their attention with basically free cash, it's amazing what you can get done.”
Tony Baumann, director of contracting for the Air Force Support Center, is capturing data about where the money and progress payments are going. And he is tracking some 2,700 contracts to find out the COVID-related constraints they are operating under.
“My guys talked to all of them,” Baumann said, and they stay in contact so that the Air Force knows when a supplier needs to shut down to clean a business. Then Nalette's group is looking at whether that closure might impact deliveries of critical supplies or inventory.
That has caused the Air Force to rewrite service contracts using new authorities granted by the CARES Act COVID-relief bill passed by Congress to keep multiple teams of service personnel on contract so that one group can work and another can be ready to backfill so that no group would experience a 14-day interruption, Baumann said.
All of those changes are being tracked and coded based on COVID-19, he added.
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November 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
NATO International Concept Development & Experimentation (ICD&E) Conference
In NATO, much of concept development and experimentation (CD&E) activity begins with the identification of a concept that will contribute to capability development. Since a concept represents the first step to developing a capability, the starting point for the concept's development will often result from emerging technologies impacting on traditional methods of carrying out military operations. As acknowledged by Rear Admiral John Tammen in his welcome address to the International Concept Development & Experimentation (ICD&E) Conference, organised by NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT), “the Science and Technology Organization had already done a significant amount of study into EDTs”, and thus, as the world's largest collaborative research forum in the field of defence and security, the STO can help inform concept developers on scientific research and technology innovations to help NATO develop concepts and capabilities to face current and future security challenges. Besides its virtual booth, the STO contributed to the ICD&E Conference with experts from the System Analysis and Studies (SAS) Panel, who ran a virtual wargame based on Intermediate Force Capability, and Exercise MADness, a CD&E exercise for countering civil unrest with emerging non-munitions technologies. Finally, the CMRE Deputy Director, Dr. Giovanni Sembenini, addressed the conference's main stage to reflect upon “Experimenting at the Frontier: S&T Challenges at CMRE in support of Naval Operations”. For further insight on the STO's work on CD&E, check out this video on Non-lethal Weapons and Intermediate Force Capabilities (IFC), which has helped to support the NATO Protection of Civilians Concept and is currently helping support NATO and National NLW/IFC concepts. https://www.sto.nato.int/Lists/STONewsArchive/displaynewsitem.aspx?ID=578
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January 18, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Ch'tellerault : pour la société aéronautique TMH-AMS, "le militaire a sauvé la mise" en 2020
Depuis le début de la crise, l'État a tenu à soutenir les industriels de défense, en particulier les PME, à la fois en maintenant un niveau important de commandes de matériels et en débloquant des fonds de soutien. Tel est le message adressé hier par Geneviève Darrieussecq, la ministre déléguée à la Mémoire et aux Anciens Combattants, lors de sa visite à TMH-AMS à Ch'tellerault. Cette société aéronautique de 22 salariés conçoit et fabrique des bancs hydrauliques fixes et mobiles pour la maintenance au sol des avions et des hélicoptères civils et militaires. Elle travaille à 70 % pour la défense et à 50 % à l'export. Ses clients ? Les principaux donneurs d'ordre du secteur. TMH-AMS est l'une des cinq entreprises du groupe poitevin Techman-Head. Qui, à l'image de tout l'aéronautique, sort d'une année 2020 « compliquée, dixit le président Jean-Yves Taboni et le directeur général Philippe Jehanno. On a perdu 33 % de chiffre d'affaires. » Les deux dirigeants confirment que l'effort de l'État dans le domaine de la défense a été bénéfique pour leur groupe, dont l'activité militaire pèse 33 % : « Ça a sauvé la mise de nos deux entreprises qui travaillent majoritairement pour le militaire, TMH à Ch'tellerault et Novatec à Poitiers. » L'enjeu de la vaccinationUn autre élément a permis à Techman-Head de passer 2020 sans dommage : « Financièrement, le groupe est sain, solide et rentable. Notre capacité à développer des produits propres, et donc à ne pas dépendre uniquement de donneurs d'ordre, est un point fort. » Techman-Head « ne se fait guère d'illusions sur 2021. On n'attend pas de reprise avec le second semestre. » Cela n'empêche pas le groupe de se projeter déjà sur un redémarrage : « Il y aura des opportunités à saisir, il faudra être prêts, analyse Jean-Yves Taboni. Dans cette compétition internationale, la vaccination est un enjeu majeur. C'est là qu'on va gagner ou perdre la partie. Il ne faudrait pas prendre du retard vis-à-vis des Anglais ou des Allemands. » Le message – à la ministre – est passé. https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/chatellerault/chatellerault-pour-la-societe-aeronautique-tmh-ams-le-militaire-a-sauve-la-mise-en-2020