NATO calls for common standards in push to boost defence production

On the same subject

• 

  December 8, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  US expands list of ‘Communist Chinese military companies'

  by Jon Grevatt The US Department of Defense (DoD) has identified four additional Chinese corporations that it claims have links to China's military. The companies' inclusion on the list of ‘Communist Chinese military companies' means that US investors will be prevented from buying stock in the firms from January 2021. The new list, which takes the number of blacklisted Chinese companies to 35, features corporations that are known primarily for operations in commercial domains. They include the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China Construction Technology Company (CCTC), China International Engineering Consulting Corporation (CIECC), and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). The DoD said these firms' inclusion on the list is aligned with US efforts to tackle China's military-civil fusion (MCF) strategy, which seeks to adopt advanced commercial technologies for military gains. It said, “The [DoD] is determined to highlight and counter the People's Republic of China's (PRC) military-civil fusion development strategy, which supports the modernisation goals of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) by ensuring its access to advanced technologies and expertise acquired and developed by even those PRC companies, universities, and research programs that appear to be civilian entities.” The DoD added that the list of Chinese companies will continue to be updated “with additional entities as appropriate”. In response to the listing, China's foreign ministry spokesperson said on 4 December that the move constituted a “groundless suppression”. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/us-expands-list-of-communist-chinese-military-companies

• 

  January 27, 2024 | International, Aerospace

  General Atomics Awarded Space Development Agency Contract to Demonstrate Optical Communication Terminals

  GA-EMS is designing and building two OCTs to provide robust space-to-space communication in a degraded environment and establish and maintain links to meet SDA standards and requirements.

• 

  March 19, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Army FLRAA Moves Forward with Valor and Defiant

  by David Donald - March 17, 2020, 11:44 AM The U.S. Army's Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program has made significant progress with the March 16 award of contracts to bidders Bell and Sikorsky/Boeing. The contracts cover competitive demonstration and risk reduction (CD&RR) work associated with the Bell V-280 Valor and Sikorsky/Boeing SB>1 Defiant. With the awards, these two types become the official contenders for the FLRAA selection, which is intended to find a replacement for the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. The contracts have been awarded via the Other Transaction Authority (OTA) channel, which is more flexible than the traditional Department of Defense contractual process, and which does not require the Army to release contract values. Over two years, the companies will produce conceptual designs and perform risk and trade studies, leading to the launch of a full program of record competition and down-select in 2022. The winning FLRAA design is scheduled to enter service around 2030. Both Bell and Sikorsky/Boeing will draw on the large amounts of flight data amassed with the V-280 and SB>1 prototypes, which were produced for the Army's Joint Multirole Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) trials. Whereas a majority of JMR-TD work was company-funded, the DoD is providing around two-thirds of the funding for the CD&RR phase. The V-280 Valor first flew in December 2017 and has now amassed more than 170 hours. It has reached its intended optimal cruise speed of 280 knots, with a top speed of over 300. The SB>1 first flew in March 2019 but was temporarily grounded soon after as a technical issue encountered with a ground testbed was resolved. It returned to the air in September and has been flying regularly since. The aim is to push its speed envelope out to at least 250 knots. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2020-03-17/army-flraa-moves-forward-valor-and-defiant