NORTHROP AND RAYTHEON TO COMPETE TO BUILD LASER WEAPON FOR SHORT-RANGE AIR DEFENSE

On the same subject

• 

  October 25, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Italy plans to slash half a billion dollars from defense in 2019

  By: Tom Kington ROME — Italy will cut €450 million (U.S. $512.3 million) from its planned defense spending in 2019 by suspending helicopter and missile purchases and canceling an office move by the defense ministry to help shore up social welfare and tax cuts, a defense source has told Defense News. Italy's total outlay on defense in 2019 will be announced in parliament in the next few days, as Rome's populist government seeks support by members of parliament for its state budget, which contains billions of euros for a new wage for the unemployed. To free up funds to cover spending, Rome has made its cut to the defense budget, just as most European states are increasing their military outlay. During 2019 all ongoing purchases of NH-90 helicopters for the Italian Army and Navy will be suspended, the source said. Italy is planning to buy 60 NH-90s for the Army and 56 for the Navy at a total cost of €4 billion, with the procurement due to wind up in 2024. Upgrades to Tornado aircraft will also be suspended, said the source, who added that the two measures would save €370 million. Italy's purchase of the MBDA Camm-Er missile defense system will also be put off for a year, saving €30 million in 2019, the source added. Another €50 million — to reach the total of €450 million — will come from the cancellation of plans to move the headquarters of Italy's armed forces out of their separate buildings in Rome's city center to a unified HQ in the suburbs. The plan, dubbed ‘Italy's Pentagon,' was due to cost a total of €1.1 billion, the source said. The source added that F-35 purchases would be “slowed” in order to spread out payments. Italy is currently planning to buy 90 aircraft. Italian defense minister Elisabetta Trenta will discuss the plan with U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis when she visits the United States in November, the source said. The Italian coalition government which took office in June combines the anti-migrant League party with the anti-establishment Five Star party, which has long criticized spending on defense in Italy. A second defense source said that the defense ministry was about to publish its much delayed document breaking down the year's defense spending by program, which is normally released in the spring. The source said the document would this year indicate military procurement programs considered “ethical” by the new government. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/10/24/italy-plans-to-slash-half-a-billion-dollars-from-defense-in-2019

• 

  March 3, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contracts for February 26, 2021

  Today

• 

  April 3, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Missile Defense Agency to inject competition into homeland missile defense contract

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency plans to hold a competition that could split up the work among contractors to modernize and sustain America's missile defense system, which is designed to destroy intercontinental ballistic missile threats. Boeing has held the development and sustainment contract for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense systems in place at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Boeing's contract is set to expire in 2023. The GMD system is made up of more than 44 Ground-Based Interceptors buried in silos in the ground along with ground control stations, detection and fire control systems, and other support infrastructure. Boeing received a sole-source $6.6 billion award in 2018 to build a new silo and 20 more GBIs, as well as to sustain the system. But Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the MDA's director, told an audience in March at an Association of the U.S. Army event that “we know that contract is not giving us everything that we need for the future, so we are going to compete that contract downstream.” The agency is working to develop a Next-Generation Interceptor that would replace the current GBIs with more capable interceptors. Its plan to upgrade the GBI's exoatmospheric kill vehicle with a redesigned version was canceled in 2019 due to technical problems. Rather than rework that program, the agency decided to design an entirely new interceptor and stop building new GBIs. A request for proposals for the NGI is due imminently. But along with a new NGI, “we are going to make sure that ground systems, sensors and fire control, all the rest of the system, we have the opportunity to inject that competition because I think that is very important,” Hill said. The MDA previously considered splitting up the contract several times, believing that would reduce cost and create efficiency in the program, but nothing materialized toward that goal. This time, the MDA has released two requests for information with the possibility of splitting up the contract. The most recent RFI was posted on Beta.Sam.Gov in March. “I will tell you that our lead system integrator does a great job today and the partnerships with industry within that construct do a great job, but we think that it's so large and complex we should be doing everybody a favor by being able to split that up without losing the integration among all those pieces,” Hill said, “so our intent is to move in that direction.” The agency “is exploring different approaches for fulfilling the GMD Program Element requirements. Acquisition approaches under consideration range from an award of multiple contracts to execute segments/missions of the program scope to a single contract to execute the entirety of the program scope,” the RFI states. “Essential to all of the acquisition approaches under consideration is the establishment of an enduring arrangement strategy for the execution of the [Weapon Systems Integration (WSI)] functions across the program lifecycle, either under a single prime contract, or as one of the multiple contracts.” The RFI lays out a possible plan to split up the contract into five pieces. One contractor would provide the NGI, which is being addressed through a separate request for proposals. Another would be responsible for legacy and future ground systems, and another for sustaining the existing GBIs. And a company would operate the weapon system along with military operators and would run fleet maintenance scheduling and deconfliction, site operations, test support, and depot and parts management, the RFI lays out. Lastly, a contractor would serve as the weapon systems integrator, making it responsible for overall GMD integration “including physical and logical integration of the GMD components, GMD system and MDA enterprise level integration, planning and execution of all necessary testing to verify and validate overall requirements compliance,” the RFI states. Responses to the RFI are due April 10. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2020/04/02/missile-defense-agency-to-inject-competition-into-homeland-missile-defense-contract/