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August 13, 2024 | International, Aerospace

Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics to build their own rocket motors

Aug 13 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin said on Tuesday it had signed an agreement with peer General Dynamics to build solid rocket motors, which propel missiles, amid surging demand driven by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Efforts to replenish U.S. inventory are also driving the global demand for missiles and a shortage of rocket motors could pressure production.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/lockheed-martin-general-dynamics-announce-pact-build-rocket-motors-2024-08-13/

On the same subject

  • New high-altitude spying program to come to US Army in fiscal 2025

    December 6, 2023 | International, Aerospace

    New high-altitude spying program to come to US Army in fiscal 2025

    High-altitude platforms with deep-sensing capabilities could soon come to the Army, providing a new way for troops to see across vast distances.

  • Turkey reports nearly 15% drop in defense exports

    January 20, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Turkey reports nearly 15% drop in defense exports

    By: Burak Ege Bekdil ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's defense and aerospace exports stood at $2.3 billion in 2020, marking a 14.8 percent decline in comparison to 2019, official figures have revealed. The Turkish Exporters' Assembly, or TIM in its Turkish acronym, said disruption in production, supply and logistics processes due to restrictions imposed over the coronavirus pandemic caused the fall in exports. In 2020, the defense and aerospace industry accounted for 1.3 percent of Turkey's overall exports. TIM said the top market for Turkish manufacturers in 2020 was the United States, with $784.2 million in sales, or 4 percent less than in 2019. Turkey's staunch political ally in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, was the second-largest export market, with sales reaching $260.8 million, marking a 194 percent rise from the previous year. Another major market was the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf rival to Turkey in foreign policy. Turkish exports to the UAE were at $200.2 million, up 51 percent from 2019. Locally produced systems meet 70 percent of Turkey's military's requirements, compared to 35 percent in 2002. In that same period, the number of defense procurement programs rose from 66 to more than 700, or from $5.5 billion to $70 billion in contract value. Similarly, defense and aerospace industry turnover went up from less than $1 billion to more than $9 billion, and exports from $248 million to $2.7 billion. In 2020, there were seven Turkish companies on Defense News' list of the top 100 defense companies around the world. The government has declared its defense and aerospace industry exports target as $10.2 billion by 2023. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2021/01/19/turkey-reports-nearly-15-drop-in-defense-exports/

  • Heckler & Koch — maker of the Marine Corps M27 — is in dire straits

    June 13, 2019 | International, Other Defence

    Heckler & Koch — maker of the Marine Corps M27 — is in dire straits

    By Ian D'Costa For decades, German arms giant Heckler & Koch has served as the gold standard for military and civilian weapons manufacturing — building revolutionary and oftentimes game-changing rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, submachine guns and pistols for a variety of customers including special operations forces, conventional infantry units and law enforcement agencies. After a lackluster 2018, reports indicate that H&K is now struggling to keep its head above water, with the hopes that boosting sales in FY2019 buys the company at least another year to come out of the red and fix the situation it's in. The Tactical Wire recently reported that German business journals have already predicted the end for what was once one of the most powerful arms manufacturers in the world. In fact, the situation is so bad that, as The Firearm Blog reported just last month, H&K employees jointly voted to increase weekly work hours without paid overtime, as well as nixed a one-off payment of 400 Euros per head for the month of July, so as to provide their beleaguered company some form of relief. H&K's financial woes stem primarily from diminishing sales, so much so that FY2018 would have seen the company tank had it not been for “two bridging loans from an unnamed major shareholder.” As the company's preexisting contracts with various international buyers are fulfilled, it has faced immeasurable difficulty generating new large-scale contracts with any of its products. According to Neue Zürcher Zeitung, after KPMG conducted an audit of H&K in 2018, it was forced to insert a red flag warning that: “the lack of liquidity endangers the continued existence of Heckler & Koch." KPMG went on to state that the only way H&K would survive going forward is to generate a considerable bump in revenue over previous years, or face bankruptcy. Earlier this year, H&K completed production and delivery of the M27 IAR (a derivative of the HK416) to the US Marine Corps. However, contracts with countries in the process of revamping their small arms arsenals, such as Portugal, have failed to materialize with these countries opting for weapons from other manufacturers. 2019 has also seen the imposition of a multi-million dollar fine on H&K by a German court after it was discovered that the company violated Germany's War Weapons Control Act through the illegal sales of rifles to Mexican states affected considerably by drug-trade violence. H&K's hopes more than likely rest in securing a massive contract yet to be tendered by the German government for the long-term replacement of the German army's G36 assault rifles, another H&K product though one which didn't necessarily live up to the next-generation hype that earlier surrounded it. Whether or not H&K will win the contract is a completely different question altogether, as it's also standard German defense procurement procedure to take into account the fiscal health and economic well being of the companies which have bid for larger contracts... and that's not looking too good for H&K. It should also be noted that H&K is currently in the process of reequipping the French army with HK416 rifles to replace the FAMAS bullpup rifle platform with an overall mass order of over 93,000 units. The Norwegian government also contracted the company to supply HK416s to the Norwegian Armed Forces earlier this year. However, that might not be enough to save H&K. Should H&K lose out on the German G36 replacement contract, this could spell the end for the 71 year-old German small arms producer, and a potentially new beginning for a restructured company in its place. https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/gearscout/irons/2019/06/12/heckler-koch-maker-of-the-marine-corps-m27-is-in-dire-straits/

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