December 23, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
U.S. Judge Rules Against NSO Group in WhatsApp Pegasus Spyware Case
WhatsApp wins U.S. court ruling against NSO Group for Pegasus misuse; 43 intrusions revealed, damages trial ahead.
February 4, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Industry bids are in for Finland’s $13 billion fighter race
By: Gerard O'Dwyer
HELSINKI – Finland's HX-FP multirole fighter replacement program has advanced to the next stage as five aircraft manufacturers have tendered their proposals to the Finnish Defence Forces' (FDF) Logistics Command office. The proposals include preliminary quotations on cost.
The air force plans to retire its fleet of F/A-18 C/D Hornet jets between 2025 and 2029. The HX-FP carries an estimated price tag of €11.4 billion, a cost that includes life cycle service and maintenance overheads on a fleet of 64 multirole aircraft.
The government received proposals from four countries, including the United States, Sweden, France and Britain.
The aircraft types covered in the proposals are Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin's F-35, France's Dassault Rafale, the British-made Eurofighter and the Swedish Saab Gripen. The Saab proposal includes both the single-seat Gripen E and the dual-seat Gripen F versions.
Request for Quotation (RFQ) documents were dispatched by the Logistics Command to the governments of France, the United States, Britain and Sweden in April 2018. The petitions were then forwarded to the five participating manufacturers. The deadline for acceptance of responses was Jan. 31, 2019.
The proposals received by the Logistics Command include information pertaining to technical systems requirements for operating a fleet of 64 aircraft, as well as support documentation dealing with training systems, essential maintenance tools, testing equipment, spare parts, weapons systems and sensors.
The next stage in the HX-FP program will be an analysis of the various proposals. This is expected to be completed during the first half of 2019. At that point, the procurement program will enter the first phase of a negotiations process during which a more forensic examination of the quotations tendered will be conducted in consultation with the five bidding manufacturers.
The Logistics Command will forward a more detailed RFQ to manufacturers during the second half of 2019. This will precede the second phase of negotiations. Participating manufacturers will be required to submit final tender documents to the government during the second stage process which is slated to end in 2020. The Finnish government plans to bring its final decision to the national parliament for approval in 2021.
The proposal presented by Saab sets out the basis for a broad, long-term industrial cooperation between Finland and Sweden framed around any deal. The proposal covers the production of military aircraft in Finland. It also includes the transfer of maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities to local industry in Finland. Moreover, Saab is proposing to establish a Gripen sustainment and development center in Finland.
On the same subject
-
-
March 7, 2024 | International, Land
Brunei defense budget surges by 32%, with focus on intel, targeting
In the coming fiscal year, the government has allotted $594 million for defense.
-
June 10, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Ensuring Future Air Power Capability - Key to European and National sovereignty
June 9, 2020 - Contested environments: Threat levels are rising due to the increasing development and dissemination of Anti Access/Areal Denial means. European air forces and navies need to prepare themselves for potential large scale high tempo operations in contested environments. To maintain air superiority and minimize attrition levels, Europe's Future Combat Air System (FCAS) will be a system of systems leveraging manned and unmanned collaborative combat, bringing the next level of Air Power. Decisive tactical edge: FCAS will ultimately require a New Generation Fighter in 2040, which will be more sophisticated with very low observability, cutting edge passive and active sensors, on board smart applications and human machine collaboration. Such a New Generation Fighter will be a battle management platform capable of operating deep within enemy space. When teaming with unmanned modular platforms, named Remote Carriers, New Generation Fighters will have the needed scalable and flexible force multipliers to open new fields of tactics based on deception and numeric superiority. Accelerated operational tempo: European air forces and navies will need to accelerate the operational tempo to complete OODA (Observe Orient Decide Act) loops faster than the adversary and take control of the situation. The interoperable Air Combat Cloud will provide common situational awareness by instantaneously capturing, sharing, merging and processing massive amounts of data from all connected manned and unmanned platforms. The Air Combat Cloud's warfare analytics and real-time coordination will provide better situational awareness, tactical options, decisions and collaborative effects to speed-up the OODA loop. Better effects paths: Operating as a system of systems orchestrated by an Air Combat Cloud, FCAS will allow the OODA loop to be distributed across platforms allowing the dynamic combination of sensing, shooting and battle management capabilities. With a distributed OODA loop, FCAS will provide European air forces and navies with better, faster and more resilient effects paths under human supervision. Incremental journey: FCAS will be an incremental journey. In a world with increasing threats, Airbus and its industrial partners need to start providing from 2025 the first capabilities to maintain European and National sovereignty. FCAS will lead to a doctrinal and technological change. Using such new capabilities will be a huge challenge for European air forces and navies, which cannot be instantaneously achieved. New doctrines, processes and skills need to be gradually developed in alignment with the planned arrival of FCAS capabilities and meeting the related technological challenges. FCAS will require a step by step approach to be jointly tackled by European air forces, navies and industry. More on FCAS here View source version on Airbus: https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/stories/Ensuring-Future-Air-Power-Capability.html