Malaysia to resume hunt for Flight MH370, 10 years after it vanished

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  June 5, 2020 | International, Naval

  Kick-off NAVIRIS’ activities

  Genova, June 4, 2020 – Naviris, a 50/50 owned joint venture by Fincantieri and Naval Group, has signed its first contract regarding R&T with OCCAR, the European Joint Armaments Cooperation organisation. Naviris, as prime contractor, will coordinate technical activities managed by Fincantieri and Naval Group and will own the intellectual property of all the research findings. Naviris' R&T program is a cornerstone of a long-term cooperation between Fincantieri and Naval Group Claude Centofanti, CEO of Naviris, declared: “We are delighted that OCCAR has relied on us to participate to the Franco-Italian R&T program. This contract is the first step of more-to-come European projects, regarding not only joint research activities but also the upgrade of design and production process for the vessels destined to France, Italy and their export. We are enthusiastic to launch the activities of such a promising collaboration: the joint-venture Naviris will increasingly contribute to foster innovation and European leadership”. Pierre-Eric Pommellet, CEO of Naval Group, declared: “I am very proud of the kick off of Naviris activities. Thanks to France, Italy and OCCAR, our joint-venture is able to launch a very ambitious R&T program for the coming three and a half years. The extraordinary skills and experience of Fincantieri and Naval Group will contribute to the long term technological advantage of our vessels. This dynamic will sustain the economic recovery of both our countries, Italy and France, in the aftermath of Covid-19 and will contribute to increase our Navies superiority. This R&T program is the first of many more to come. In addition to research projects, Naviris' activities will soon encompass additional initiatives such as the Mid-Life Upgrade of the Horizon frigates”. Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri, said: “Today we welcome the beginning of one of the most important projects we have worked on in recent years. We have long believed that the consolidation of the European naval industry represents one of the fundamental means, if not the main in terms of critical mass and synergies, to allow our continent not to be left on the sidelines and instead to play a pivotal role in the upcoming challenges worldwide”. Bono concluded: “On these grounds, we are grateful to the governments of our two countries for sharing the common vision and supporting the alliance between Naval Group and Fincantieri, which will mark the future of our sector”. This R&T program of Naviris encompasses five different projects all aiming at enhancing the performance of Fincantieri's and Naval Group's vessels This R&T program aims at improving the performance of Naval Group's and Fincantieri's vessels. The R&T program is divided into five different projects (see below): 1) Digital ship. This project will develop warship simulation capabilities throughout the whole ship's lifecycle in order to improve product performances assessment, while reducing the need of real testing, and optimize the use of Computer Aided Engineering to enhance both design definition (Hydrodynamics, Aerodynamics) and ship daily on-board operations (through the integrated approach of the Digital Twin Concept); 2) Energy consumption optimization. This project will identify new architectures and equipment useful to improve the global efficiency of the electrical network and monitoring electrical consumption on board Surface Vessels; 3) Fuel cells for surface vessels. This project will develop a modular Fuel Cell System (FCS) suitable for marine applications, capable of being fully integrated on board naval surface vessels; 4) Logistics of the future. This project will boost shipbuilding competitiveness by developing solutions able to increase production efficiency and effectiveness and to reduce costs during the entire product life cycle, ; providing new tools for inspection and maintenance purposes as well as on board management of components in a Naval Vessels working environment. 5) Winning a sea state. This project aims at developing methods, tools and engineering solutions to allow naval surface vessels to safely carry out daily operations (like launch and recovery of units) in worse environmental conditions than currently met. Three sites of Naval Group will be involved in the projects – Nantes-Indret, Ollioules and Lorient, as well as its subsidiary SIREHNA – while, for Fincantieri, the sites of Genova and Trieste will work on the project, along with the subsidiaries Cetena and Seastema. View source version on NAVIRIS: https://www.fincantieri.com/en/media/press-releases/2020/kick-off-naviris-activities/

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  December 26, 2024 | International, Land

  US approves two foreign military sales to Morocco

  The US State Department has approved two potential foreign military sales (FMS) to Morocco.

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  May 19, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Trump has questions about the F-35′s supply chain. Here are some answers.

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — During a Thursday morning cable news appearance, U.S. President Donald Trump blasted the F-35's global supply chain and hinted he might intercede to bring more work on the Lockheed Martin-made jet back to the United States. Trump brought up the F-35 during an exchange where Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo asked how the president plans to incentivize key U.S. industries — such as pharmaceutical companies — to cut China out of their supply chain. “I could tell you hundreds of stories of the stupidity that I've seen. As an example, we're making a fighter jet. It's a certain fighter jet, I won't tell you which, but it happens to be the F-35,” Trump said. “It's a great jet, and we make parts for this jet all over the world. We make them in Turkey, we make them here, we're going to make them there. All because President [Barack] Obama and others — I'm not just blaming him — thought it was a wonderful thing,” he said. “The problem is if we have a problem with a country, you can't make the jet. We get parts from all over the place. It's so crazy. We should make everything in the United States.” “Could we do it?” Bartiromo asked. “Yeah, we're doing it because I'm changing all those policies,” Trump said. “Look, we make F-35s — very important, the greatest jet in the world — where the main body of the jet is made in Turkey and then sent here.” But if that relationship breaks down, Turkey could refuse to give the United States key F-35 components, Trump said. It was unclear whether Trump actually plans to take action to move additional elements of F-35 back to the United States. In a statement to Defense News, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Andrews said the Pentagon has no comment and referred questions on Trump's statements to the White House. “The Department remains fully committed to the F-35 program, and maintaining a competitive edge with its unique, unmatched 5th generation capabilities. We will continue to aggressively reduce F-35 cost, incentivize Industry to meet required performance, and deliver advanced capabilities to our warfighters at the best value to our taxpayers." he said. A spokesman for Lockheed referred questions to the Defense Department. It's worth noting that while Trump got many broad assertions about the program right, not all of his statements about the F-35 stand up to scrutiny. Here's a point-by-point explainer: Global participation is baked into the very foundation of the Joint Strike Fighter program. The Joint Strike Fighter program — which stems from efforts started in the 1990s — was structured not only to produce planes for the U.S. military but also for key allies. Nations that wanted to be “partners” on the program would help foot the bill for developing the jet in exchange for work producing components on the program. There were several benefits to this structure. From an operational perspective, it would ensure that many of the Pentagon's closest allies were using the same jet, making it easier to send information and coordinate military engagements. From an industrial perspective, having a deep, multilayered global supply chain would theoretically make F-35 production less prone to disruption, and it could make it easier for Lockheed to distribute parts to sustain the jet worldwide. There were also economic advantages for the United States. Having so much international buy-in ensured future sales, which benefited U.S. defense manufacturers and the Defense Department, which can buy its planes more cheaply due to economies of scale. Originally there were nine partner nations on the program: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. However, the United States expelled Turkey from the program last year after the country purchased the Russian S-400 air defense system. President Barack Obama and his predecessors weren't really to blame for the globalized structure of the program. Historically — at least until Trump — a president hasn't publicly interfered in the F-35 program. The Obama administration was broadly supportive of the F-35, continuing to finance the program even as it hit a number of technical snags that caused cost and schedule to balloon. However, the structure of the program and much of the F-35 supply chain was already set in stone before Obama was sworn into office in 2009. Lockheed Martin won the Joint Strike Fighter contract in 2001 after producing a prototype version of the F-35 known as the X-35 and facing off against Boeing's X-35 demonstrator. At that point, the company would have already cemented much of its supply chain as part of the process of preparing a proposal for the competition. The first F-35 flew in 2006. While there have been changes to the F-35 supply chain since the jet went into production, the more major changes have occurred during block upgrades, when legacy technologies are swapped out for cheaper, improved versions. One example is the transition of the distributed aperture system from a Northrop Grumman to Raytheon product during the upcoming 15th lot of F-35 production. Turkey has an industrial role in building the F-35, and that's changing on the U.S. government's terms. Trump's assertion that Turkey could deny the United States key F-35 components doesn't reflect the current status quo, as it's the U.S. Defense Department that is working to expel Turkey from the program. While it is true that Turkey, as an international partner on the F-35 program, helps to manufacture the jet and build key components, Trump has overstated the role played by Turkey. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Turkey makes about 1,000 different components for the F-35. The Pentagon is set to stop awarding F-35-related contracts to Turkish firms this year. According the GAO, the Defense Department already identified alternate suppliers for all components currently made in Turkey, and the department is working with those suppliers to speed up production. When Trump talks about Turkey building the “main body” of the jet, he is talking about the center fuselage, some of which are built by Turkish Aerospace Industries. However, TAI is only the secondary supplier of the center fuselage, with Northrop Grumman making that component for the majority of F-35s. It is very likely that Northrop will take over production of that structure until another supplier is found to replace TAI. Updated 5/14/20 with statements from the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/05/14/trump-has-questions-about-the-f-35s-supply-chain-here-are-some-answers/