September 17, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Procurement decision for powerful Navy jammer heads to court
L3Harris Technologies has filed suit in the Court of Federal Claims protesting a decision by the Government Accountability Office.
June 12, 2019 | International, Aerospace
MBDA aurait remporté un contrat de 200 millions d'euros au Brésil
MBDA va-t-il signer son prochain gros contrat au Brésil ? Le missilier européen aurait remporté une commande de 200 millions d'euros auprès de l'armée de l'air brésilienne, a rapporté samedi 8 juin La Tribune. L'entreprise fournirait ainsi une centaine de missiles air-air Meteor pour armer l'avion de combat Gripen NG dans le cadre d'un premier lot.
Contacté par L'Usine Nouvelle, MBDA n'a pas souhaité confirmer ou infirmer ces informations.
La part française de ce contrat s'élèverait à 15%, soit 30 millions d'euros, selon La Tribune. MBDA est une coentreprise entre le français Airbus (37,5%), l'Anglais BAE Systems (37,5%) et l'Italien Leonardo (25%). Le missile air-air Meteor de l'entreprise européenne équipe également l'Eurofighter européen, le Rafale de Dassault Aviation et le F-35 de Lockheed Martin.
ENTRÉE EN SERVICE DU GRIPEN NG DÈS 2021 AU BRÉSIL
Construit par le groupe suédois SAAB, le Gripen NG doit entrer en service en 2021-2022 pour la Força Aérea Brasileira. En 2014, SAAB avait finalisé la vente de 36 de ces avions de combat au Brésil pour 4,28 milliards d'euros avec une coopération industrielle de dix ans.
Ce nouveau contrat s'ajoute à un carnet de commandes bien garni pour MBDA. En 2018, le missilier européen avait ainsi amassé 4 milliards d'euros de commandes. À la présentation de ses résultats, début 2019, l'entreprise comptait ainsi recruter 1000 salariés de plus en 2019.
On the same subject
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August 3, 2020 | International, Land
After COVID delay, high-stakes test of Army’s critical battle command system underway
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — A high-stakes test of the U.S. Army's battle command system expected to control air and missile defense shooters and sensors is underway following a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kenn Todorov, Northrop Grumman's vice president for missile defense solutions, told Defense News in a recent interview. Northrop Grumman is the developer of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, or IBCS. The system's development and its fielding is the Army's top air and missile defense modernization priority. IBCS has had a long and marred history due to struggles in previous tests as well as increasing requirements causing a plethora of challenging software changes. But recent successful tests over the past several years have resulted in a deeper confidence of the system, and the Army has been racing to move through a limited-user test, or LUT, at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, to reach a production decision. The test will decide the fate of the program. The program was supposed to reach initial operational capability last year, but those plans slipped in 2017 by four years following software problems in the system's first LUT in 2016. IBCS was originally meant to serve as the command-and-control system for the Army's future Integrated Air and Missile Defense system against regional ballistic missile threats, but now the service sees a much more expansive future for the technology, with plans to tie it to sensors and shooters capable of defeating complex threats like unmanned aircraft. According to Todorov, the Army and Northrop had to take a “COVID pause” to ensure the safety of all of the participants of the LUT before proceeding. Originally, the IBCS test was scheduled for earlier in the spring as COVID-19 was spreading quickly across the United States. Precautions are taken to ensure participants stay healthy, Todorov said, but he doesn't believe those measures will sacrifice any of the rigor within the test. The LUT will have a broader range of threats to counter than the original, from ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and air-breathing threats, and this test will include the integration of some joint air assets, Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson, the head of the Army's missile defense modernization effort, told Defense News last year. Northrop took the extra time from the pause caused by the pandemic to improve the system's readiness and develop policies and procedures to ensure employees take precautions to avoid the spread of the virus during the LUT. The test is expected to go through the month of August and include endurance runs as well as two major flight tests. In Northrop's second-quarter fiscal 2020 earnings call on July 30, CEO Kathy Warden said that “successful completion of this [engineering and manufacturing development] milestone will support IBCS production, deployment and fielding to execute the Army's [IAMD] modernization strategy,” adding that the program is on track to reach a production decision later this year. Warden also noted that success with the IBCS program and the Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System puts the company on a path to contribute heavily to an anticipated “next-generation” program called Joint All-Domain Command and Control. JADC2 is expected to provide an information architecture across all service and domains of warfare. Northrop's IBCS development efforts are seen as a springboard into work it could do to develop JADC2, Todorov said. He added that the IBCS system in particular has gone through “tremendous advances,” as it has adapted to maturing and changing threats. One of the reasons the system has been able to quickly evolve is due to its designation by Congress — among just a few Defense Department programs — to adopt an agile software-development process that allows the system to be frequently updated with software upgrades or patches, as opposed to big software drops that potentially happen only once a year. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/07/31/after-covid-delay-high-stakes-test-of-armys-critical-battle-command-system-underway/
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July 10, 2024 | International, Aerospace
McConnell-based KC-46 completes round-the-world flight in 45 hours
A KC-46A tanker from McConnell AFB completed a record round-the-globe sortie in 45 hours, a mission that saw multiple aerial refuelings — and a birthday.