January 25, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Jan. 22, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak
The F-35 Joint Program Office, Lockheed Martin, and Pratt & Whitney are negotiating prices for the 15th through 17th lots of Lightning II fighters and engines, aiming for a deal by the end of September.
The contracting strategy is to negotiate a “base year” contract for Lot 15, with “two single-year options (Lots 16 and 17),” a JPO spokeswoman said. While the air vehicles are under negotiation, the “propulsion Lot 15-17 proposal is currently in technical evaluation,” the spokeswoman said. Although Lockheed quotes prices publicly for F-35s with engines included, the government negotiates with the engine maker separately. The Lightning II is powered by Pratt's F135 turbofan.
The strategy likely buys time for the F-35 to finally exit engineering and manufacturing development and be declared ready for full-rate production, a milestone postponed last month for the third time by former Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief Ellen Lord.
The Lot 15-17 contracts will also mark the first major deals for the F135 engine conducted with Pratt under the ownership of Raytheon Technologies, which formally took over the engine maker in April 2020. Pratt was previously owned by United Technologies.
The program office expects to conclude both the air vehicle and propulsion talks within fiscal 2021, the spokeswoman said. Lot 15 air vehicles “are planned to be fully funded and awarded in FY'21,” but the Lot 16 and 17 options would be exercised in fiscal year 2022 and 2023, respectively, “when funding becomes available.”
The Lots 15-17 contracts were originally expected to include a multi-year “block buy” agreement including the U.S. However, by law, the U.S. cannot enter into a multiyear procurement arrangement for a weapon system until it has passed Milestone C, or full-rate production. The F-35 most recently was supposed to clear Milestone C in March, but Lord postponed that declaration until further notice, due to ongoing challenges integrating the F-35 with the Pentagon's Joint Simulation Environment—a wargaming system that helps Pentagon leaders decide on optimum force sizes for various weapon platforms. Lord's move leaves it up to the Biden administration to declare whether and when the F-35 is ready for full-rate production.
When the Lot 12-14 contract was announced in October 2019, Lord said the F-35 had completed 90 percent of the tasks necessary to pass Milestone C.
U.S. partners in the F-35 program are already participating in a “block buy” arrangement with Lockheed Martin.
The $34 billion October 2019 contract, which covered Lots 12-14, achieved Lockheed and the JPO's longstanding goal of getting the unit cost of the F-35A below $80 million a copy. That contract, the largest yet for the fighter, included 478 aircraft; 291 for U.S. military services and 127 for foreign users. It also marked a 12.8 percent drop in the price of the Air Force version of the Lightning II over Lot 11. Engine costs had only declined 3.5 percent versus the previous lot.
Lots 15-17 will likely involve a slightly larger number of aircraft.
Industry officials said they expect smaller cost reductions in the F-35 from now on, as the production line is nearly at capacity and peak efficiency. The 2019 contract was the “big bang” deal, said one, in which Lockheed “pushed it” to get the unit cost below $80 million. At that price, the fifth-generation F-35 costs less than fourth-generation types like the F-15EX, but its operating cost remains significantly higher.
Lockheed missed its delivery quota of F-35s in 2020 by about 20 airplanes, due to delays incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Michele Evans, former Lockheed aeronautics vice president, said in the fall the company expects to gradually make up those missed deliveries by around 2023, noting it did not want to disrupt the production enterprise for a brief surge to get back to par.
https://www.airforcemag.com/next-f-35-contracts-under-negotiation-deal-expected-by-late-september
September 29, 2024 | International, Land
US sanctions crypto exchanges, charges Russian nationals in cybercrime crackdown. $7.8M seized. Rewards offered for suspects' information.
October 2, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, Security
Jen Judson CORRECTION - Blackwing is a reconnaissance system. The dash speed of the Switchblade 600 is 115 mph. WASHINGTON — Building on its Switchblade 300 loitering missile legacy with the U.S. Army, AeroVironment is releasing a family of capabilities to include its new Switchblade 600, a larger version suited to go up against armored targets at greater ranges in denied and degraded environments. AeroVironment has provided the tube-launched, rucksack-portable Switchblade to the Army for roughly a decade, delivering thousands of them into theater, but the company sealed the largest loitering munitions deal to date with the service in May — a $146 million contract, funded at $76 million for the first year, to supply the 300 version of the system for the Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile Systems program. “Our family of loitering missile systems is redefining and disrupting a multibillion-dollar missiles market,” AeroVironment CEO Wahid Nawabi told reporters during a Sept. 30 media event. The family also includes Blackwing, a loitering reconnaissance system that can be deployed from a submarine while submerged and used in an underwater air-delivery canister. “The ability to identify a threat on the battlefield, assess it, neutralize the threat with an extremely high degree of precision, with low to no collateral damage, while always having the option of waving off the mission and reengaging the same or different target, is at the core of our solution sets and capabilities,” Nawabi said, “and we're going beyond that.” Department of Defense customers wanted the same features of the 300, but with greater effects, Todd Hanning, AeroVironment's product line manager for tactical missile systems, said during the same event. “The 600 delivers with enhanced effects, greater standoff range and extended endurance,” Hanning said. “This all-in-one, man-portable solution includes everything required to successfully launch, fly, track and engage non-line-of-sight targets with lethal effects.” The 50-pound system can be set up and operational in less than 10 minutes and is designed to be capable of launching from ground, air or mobile platforms, “providing superior force overmatch while minimizing exposure to enemy direct and indirect fires,” Hanning said. The new version can fly for 40 minutes with a range of more than 40 kilometers. The missile exceeds a 115 mph dash speed and carries an anti-armor warhead designed to neutralize armored vehicles without the need for external intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance or fires assets. The new system comes with a touchscreen tablet-based fire control system with an option to pilot the vehicle manually or autonomously. The missile is secured through onboard encrypted data links and Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module GPS. The Switchblade 600 is also equipped with a patented wave-off capability where operators can abort missions at any time and recommit. “From [artificial intelligence] to autonomy, we're not stopping there. We're investing in future technologies like edge computing and artificial intelligence engines, latest-gen processing with massive computing power,” Hanning said. “We believe it'll be the smartest loitering missile in the market.” AeroVironment began developing the 600 as a new class of loitering missiles to meet a set of requirements in an Army development program called Single Multi-Mission Attack Missile. But according to Brett Hush, the company's senior general manager of product line management for tactical missile systems, “we've evolved beyond that.” Other customers, including the U.S. Marine Corps and a “number of DoD customers,” have since adopted similar requirements, he said. “We've been developing very closely with a number of DoD customers,” Hush said, “The only one that we can talk about publicly at this point in time is the U.S. Marine Corps program, of which we are one of the competitors in the phase one development demonstration.” He added there would be a fly-off in January followed by a downselect to a single supplier. The company has had a rigorous test schedule over the past several years for the Switchblade 600, according to Hanning. Most of that testing was ground-launched against both fixed and moving targets. “I think we are up to about over 60 flights in our test program,” he added, "and we'll continue to do that through this next year. Then the 600 will progress into both maritime and aerial environments, Hanning said. AeroVironment is also continuing to find ways to integrate Switchblade into air and ground platforms. The company continues to team up with General Dynamics Land Systems to offer an integrated solution as part of its offering to the Army's Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle competition. AeroVironment is also teaming with Kratos Defense and Security Systems to demonstrate a “high-speed, long-range unmanned combat air vehicle” that serves as a mothership to deliver large quantities of Switchblade 300s that can provide a mesh network of information back to a ground control station “to tactically execute multiple attack scenarios cooperatively and to overwhelm and disable enemy systems,” Hanning said. Initial air-launch testing will begin at the start of next year, Hush said. While AeroVironment is not one of the initial companies developing capabilities within the Army's Future Vertical Lift Air-Launched Effects, or FVL ALE, portfolio, “we definitely see a way for AeroVironment to participate in that and really be a player in that market knowing that Switchblade 600 is definitely designed for air-launched effects, air-launched capability,” Hush said, “and that's something that we'll continue to work on and look at the opportunity to be a part of that effort. We definitely see its capabilities are directly aligned with that fight and with those platforms.” When asked if the company submitted an offering to the ALE development competition, Nawabi said: “I'm not in a position to be able to comment on the specific details due to the competitive nature of the deal, but we believe that we have a lot to offer for the ALE program and initiative as a whole. I will keep you updated in the future.” https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/10/01/aerovironment-debuts-bigger-anti-armor-loitering-missile/
October 18, 2022 | International, Other Defence
Between China's 20th Communist Party Congress, that began Sunday, and the next one in 2027, Japan will undertake its biggest arms buildup since World War Two in a race to deter Beijing from war in East Asia, according to Japanese government officials and security analysts.