Northrop Grumman explores ammunition co-production in Poland | Reuters

On the same subject

• 

  October 30, 2020 | International, Land

  Danish Defence Sets Up 2000 Vehicles with Fleet Complete Carsharing Solution

  Located throughout the country, all Danish Defence staff members will be able to access a variety of fleet vehicles – from cars to mini-buses – through a keyless reservation system, called Carsharing. COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Oct. 29, 2020 /CNW/ - Danish Defence subscribed its 2,000 service vehicles for Fleet Complete's fleet management and carsharing solution. Through an online mobile reservation system, the Defence will be able to improve access to vehicles for its personnel nationwide and maximise the use of assets for more economical and environmentally responsible operations. The pool of vehicles comprises regular cars, mini-vans and other service transport used by the Defence staff across Denmark. The Carsharing app will accommodate all employees with RFID access, minimizing the need for keys. The in-app booking system will suggest to users the closest available vehicle upon request and pinpoint its location on a web map for easy pickup with their driver ID card. Carsharing is an effective means of reducing organisation's operating costs and ensuring better utilisation of existing vehicles in the fleet. The administrators get full visibility into what vehicles are being driven, where, how often and by whom. Usage reports provide clear data on whether vehicles are located in the best spot according to employee's needs and whether they are used in the most optimal way. Additional reporting on maintenance and driving behaviour provides insight into personnel safety and conduct on the road. With more efficient allocation and use of resources, the fleet drives fewer kilometers, consumes less fuel, and lowers CO2 emissions as a result, contributing to greener, cost-effective operations. "Fleet Complete's Carsharing is an advanced, mature solution," says Tony Lourakis, CEO of Fleet Complete. "The benefits are almost immediate. Today, most companies use Outlook or Excel to manage their internal car reservations, which is both time consuming and inaccurate. Our car sharing solution has everything – an app with a booking module to reserve the best available vehicle on your smartphone, keyless entry, and automatic usage reports that you can export or integrate directly into ERP and other information systems. It's an easy choice." For more information on Carsharing, please visit [www.fleetcomplete.dk/delebiler/] About Fleet Complete® Fleet Complete® is a leading global provider of connected vehicle technology, delivering mission-critical fleet, asset and mobile workforce management solutions. The company is servicing approximately 600,000 subscribers and over 40,000 businesses and government organizations in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Australia, and across Europe. It maintains key distribution partnerships with AT&T in the U.S. and Mexico, TELUS and Rogers in Canada, Telstra in Australia, Telia in Denmark, Cosmote in Greece, and Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) in multiple European countries. Fleet Complete cultivates strong OEM partnerships with global market leaders, such as Cummins, Ford, General Motors, Mitsubishi Australia, and Toyota, among others. It remains one of the fastest-growing companies globally, having won numerous awards for innovation and growth. For more information, please visit fleetcomplete.com SOURCE Fleet Complete For further information: David Prusinski, EVP, Sales and Marketing, Fleet Complete, marketing@fleetcomplete.com https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/danish-defence-sets-up-2000-vehicles-with-fleet-complete-carsharing-solution-821749117.html

• 

  July 3, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Italy’s new defense minister commits to F-35, butts heads with France

  By: Tom Kington ROME ― Italy's new populist government may slow down but not reduce its order of F-35 fighter jets, while trimming its manpower in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta has told Defense News. In one of her first interviews since taking office at the start of June, Trenta said Italy remained a faithful ally of the U.S., but added she was skeptical about sanctions imposed on Russia by the West. A former defense academic at the Link University in Rome and a veteran of the Italian Army's civil reserve unit, Trenta was named defense minister by a coalition government formed in June, which groups the anti-migrant League party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement. Five Star officials promised last year to scrap Italy's purchase of 90 F-35 fighters, but Trenta said the new government would not cut orders, even if it might stretch out its purchase plan. “It's a program we inherited and we have lots of questions; that is why we will evaluate the program considering the industrial and technology benefits for national interest, as we are the new government,” she said. “What I would like to do is lighten the load since we have other spending commitments in Europe. We will try to stretch out deliveries instead of cutting the order, which would reduce offsets and mean penalties,” she said. Foreign military invovlement Trenta met U.S. national security adviser John Bolton on June 26 as he visited Rome, and she confirmed the new government's strong ties with the U.S. “The U.S. is our historic ally, we have never doubted that,” she said. Trenta said she told Bolton that Italy aims to reach NATO's defense spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product. “But we would also like our strong presence in military missions recognized as an added value,” she said. She said that presence would still be substantial despite the government's plan to trim its headcount in Afghanistan from 900 to 700, if and when replacements could be found to step in from other nations. “We don't want to undercut stability or reduce support for Afghans. We want to start a change of pace, as established by the previous government, keeping at the same time the mission operative,” she said. “We don't want to weaken the mission, so we will look for other partners to take over tasks like logistics.” The minister said she asked Bolton for help launching a planned Italian military mission to Niger in Africa to help combat people smugglers who send migrants across the Sahara to Libya, where they embark on boats heading for Europe. The mission was announced last year but has been blocked by the Niger government, she said. She said she also asked Bolton to help Italy take a “leadership” role in bringing peace to lawless Libya, noting she would visit the country next month in hopes of meeting Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the military commander hostile to the United Nations-backed Tripoli government that is supported by Italy. Italy has been irked by French diplomacy in Libya, including backing for Haftar and support for elections by year-end. The election plan, Trenta said, was “not the best thing to do — the U.S. has seen in Iraq what happens when you rush things.” Butting heads France and Italy have meanwhile bickered this month over differing plans to deal with migrants arriving in Europe, but Trenta said no amount of political arguing would derail a planned merger between the naval operations of Italian shipyard Fincantieri and France's Naval Group. “Both countries are planning on the deal going ahead — there has been no impact from the migration discussion,” she said. The new government in Rome has not yet signed up to a French plan for a multinational rapid intervention force, which would contain fellow European Union members, but also the U.K., which is planning to leave the EU. France said it wants the initiative to exist separately to the EU's Permanent Structured Cooperation initiative for security and defense. Trenta said Italy would probably sign. “As a new government, we wanted to study it and make sure it does not weaken the EU PESCO initiative,” she said. Italy's new government rattled its European allies earlier this month when Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he would like to end sanctions that were imposed on Moscow after Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Trenta shares his view. “We have to consider Italy's strategic interests — sanctions have damaged Italian exports, and it would be a good idea to evaluate alternative instruments,” she said. “We see the U.S. as an ally, but we don't see Russia as a threat — we see it as an economic partner,” she said. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/06/29/italys-new-defense-minister-commits-to-f-35-butts-heads-with-france/

• 

  August 17, 2020 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  Spain’s Indra gets a key role in new Eurofighter radar development

  Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Spanish defense contractor Indra is joining Germany's Hensoldt as a co-lead in the development of a new radar for the Eurofighter warplane, the company announced. The news comes after the German parliament in June approved a contract award to aircraft manufacturer Airbus worth almost $3 billion for a new version of the active electronically scanned array radar, dubbed Captor-E. More than half of that investment will go to sensor specialist Hensoldt, a former Airbus subsidiary. The contract is aimed at retrofitting roughly 130 German and Spanish aircraft in the mid-2020s, according to Hensoldt. Officials in Europe have billed the radar upgrade as a key prerequisite for keeping the Eurofighter relevant for future missions and possible sales — including ongoing acquisition decisions in Finland and Switzerland. Indra becoming the co-lead for the Captor-E's follow-on generation, dubbed Eurofighter Common Radar System Mk1, represents a boost to the company's prospects when it comes to developing a new generation of air warfare equipment. “The contract will allow Indra to create long-term highly-skilled jobs, in addition to reinforcing its technological expertise and role as a key supplier in the field of airborne sensors, as well as the leader of the Sensors technological pillar within the FCAS program,” the company wrote in a statement, referring to the German-French-Spanish Future Combat Air System program. The pairing of Hensoldt and Indra for the fully digitized Mk1 version of the radar represents something of a fork in the road for the aircraft's radar developments. To date, the “Euroradar” consortium — made up of Leonardo's British and Italian arms as well as Hensoldt and Indra — has overseen technology development for the multinational fighter program through the Captor-E, or Mk0, version. Kuwait and Qatar also purchased Mk0 upgrades for their respective Eurofighter fleets, though the Mk1 version is slated to go only into Spanish and German planes. The British military has said it wants its own sensor for the fleet of Royal Air Force Typhoons, reportedly with more specialized performance in the areas of air-to-ground and electronic warfare, as well as with an eye on connectivity to the American-made F-35 fighter jet. Italy has yet to declare which way it wants to go, meaning Leonardo stands to lose a lead role in the Mk1 development. The ongoing industrial teaming arrangements for the Eurofighter radar, complete with hedging and betting on political developments, can be seen as a precursor for a similar dynamic in Europe's race for a next-generation air weapon. The United Kingdom is spearheading the development of the Tempest fighter jet as a competition to the mainland's FCAS proposal. For Airbus, a co-lead in the project with France's Dassault, the Eurofighter is something of a test bed and bridging technology on the way toward more futuristic weaponry. https://www.c4isrnet.com/global/europe/2020/08/14/spains-indra-gets-a-key-role-in-new-eurofighter-radar-development/