May 19, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
By: Bill Brown, L3Harris Technologies
The Department of Defense and defense industry have a long history of responding quickly and forcefully to crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Today, hundreds of thousands of dedicated defense workers remain at their posts – delivering mission-critical products and services to support our troops around the world, while also providing personal protective equipment and other supplies to first responders and health care workers here at home.
However, this most recent crisis has re-exposed weaknesses in our defense industrial base – highlighting the need to significantly bolster the nation's vital supply chain. This serves as a call to action to develop a strategic, long-term approach across government and industry.
We witnessed the fallout from the 2008-09 financial crisis. Thousands of suppliers shuttered or permanently shifted precious capacity to other verticals when defense budgets were indiscriminately cut following the Budget Control Act of 2011 and sequester of 2013.
When budgets began to recover several years later, the damage was clear – longer lead times that in some cases doubled or more, and increased reliance on single-source and international suppliers for critical components, such as microelectronics.
In 2017, President Trump signed an executive order and established a multi-agency task force to study supply chain resiliency. The task force identified five macro forces that create risk to the supply chain and national security preparedness including sequestration and the uncertainty of government spending, the overall decline of U.S. manufacturing capabilities and capacity, harmful government business and procurement practices, industrial policies of competitor nations, and diminishing U.S. STEM and trade skills.
Task force members proposed a comprehensive set of risk-reduction actions – ranging from establishing sustained and predictable multi-year budgets and developing an adaptive acquisition framework, to directing investment to small businesses and diversifying the supplier base.
Over the past two years, the government has made initial strides on a number of these fronts, including working to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign sources for critical rare earth minerals and decreasing the country's dependence on China and other international suppliers for semiconductors and related components.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged before these and other task force initiatives gained serious traction and forced the DoD to refocus its near-term priorities. And the urgency escalated when we began to see the brutal impact the pandemic was causing in the commercial aerospace sector, an important vertical market for many defense suppliers.
The department quickly designated defense suppliers as essential and increased progress payments, spurring larger defense contractors to accelerate payments to thousands of small business suppliers.
These actions helped companies to continue operating, maintain their employment and hiring goals, and sustain critical spending on internal research and development (IRAD) to keep the innovation engine humming. At L3Harris, for example, we recommitted to investing nearly 4 percent of revenues in IRAD, hiring 6,000 new employees and maintaining our apprenticeship and internship programs to provide opportunities for the workforce of the future.
The combined DoD and industry efforts demonstrate the power of a focused, collaborative approach to mitigate and address the damaging effects of the pandemic and to support the broader defense industrial base.
Today, we are at a critical juncture. We have an opportunity to make the necessary strategic investments that could significantly strengthen our supply base for generations to come, including:
· Ensure sustained/predictable budgets – stable, long-term funding helps companies better plan and encourages them to invest in staffing, technology and facilities needed for the country to maintain its technical superiority. Now is not the time to pull back the reins on defense spending.
· Accelerate contract awards – shorter decision and acquisition cycles enable suppliers to invest in and deliver technologies faster than with traditional methods, and in the near term could help offset the impact of the commercial aerospace downturn.
· Expand domestic supplier base – increasing domestic capabilities reduces vulnerabilities and increases access to critical components, such as rare earths and microelectronics, and over time can help reduce the proportion of sole/single-source supply.
· Increase workforce investment – providing advanced STEM education opportunities drives innovation and productivity by enhancing critical skillsets for existing employees, while attracting, training and growing the workforce of the future.
· Institutionalize process improvements – the COVID-19 pandemic forced government and industry to find new and more efficient ways to work. The challenge now – to make these advances permanent.
These are not quick fixes. However, they provide a strong platform for a more resilient national defense supplier base, which is vital at a time when near-peer adversaries continue to invest heavily in new technologies that threaten our nation's security.
The imperative is clear – and the opportunity is now.
Bill Brown is chairman and CEO at L3Harris Technologies.
April 20, 2021 | International, Aerospace
The shipment of the first aft airframe section is the latest milestone in Saab’s contribution to the design and development of the T-7A Red Hawk trainer for the U.S. Air Force.
June 3, 2021 | International, C4ISR
Les Echos se penchent sur le contexte entourant la création d'Athea, la société commune à Thales et Atos visant à développer une plateforme souveraine associant traitement de données massives et intelligence artificielle pour les secteurs de la défense, du renseignement et de la sécurité intérieure, dont le lancement a été annoncé la semaine dernière dans le cadre du programme technologique de la direction générale de l'armement (DGA). Destinée à développer un logiciel souverain dont les états-majors auront la pleine maîtrise, Athea a vocation à devenir un champion européen de l'analyse de données en grandes quantités (Big Data) pour les armées et le renseignement, capable de rivaliser avec l'américain Palantir. « Nous avons énormément de projets à venir car l'intelligence artificielle permise par l'analyse de grandes quantités de données est de plus en plus utile pour les militaires, que ce soit pour le renseignement, la cybersécurité ou la logistique des forces armées », souligne Marc Darmon, le directeur général adjoint de Thales. « Notre ambition est d'être l'outil qui réponde aux besoins techniques des programmes de défense et de sécurité », précise-t-il. Les Echos du 3 juin
January 13, 2021 | International, Land
By: Mike Yeo MELBOURNE, Australia — Hanwha-led Team Redback officially launched its Redback infantry fighting vehicle on Tuesday ahead of delivering three for evaluation trials as part of a risk mitigation effort for the Australian Army. The infantry fighting vehicles are undergoing trials as part of Project Land 400 Phase 3, which is tasked to acquire about 450 tracked IFVs that will replace Australia's fleet of M113AS4 armored personnel carriers. The Redback, which is named after a venomous spider found in Australia, is up against Rheinmetall's Lynx KF41 for the program, which is due to announce a winner in 2022. The risk mitigation effort involves detailed test and evaluation of the vehicles throughout 2021 with the aim of providing objective quality evidence to support a government decision on the preferred platform. Team Redback is the group of companies led by Hanwha Defense Australia, and includes Electro Optic Systems, Elbit Systems and several other Australian companies. Protection for the Redback meets STANAG Level 6 requirements (a NATO standard), and is fitted with a range of active and passive protection systems in addition to survivable seats in the troop compartment, a floating floor to mitigate the effects of mines or improvised explosive devices, and Plasan-made add-on armor. The passive protection system includes Elbit laser warning devices providing all-around coverage, while active protection comes in the form of the Israeli company's Iron Fist active protection system. The Redback is based on South Korea's AS21 infantry fighting vehicle and is fitted with an EOS T2000 turret mounting a Mk44S Bushmaster II 30mm cannon and a 7.62mm coaxially mounted machine gun. An EOS R400 four-axis remote weapons station is also mounted on the turret roof and can be fitted with a range of weapons including machine guns or an automatic grenade launcher. Grant Sanderson, CEO of the Defense Systems division at Electro Optic Systems, told Defense News that the coronavirus pandemic has slowed efforts to integrate the turret, pointing out that having to fly engineers between Australia, Israel and South Korea has been a challenge. However, the lethality testing of the integrated turret is continuing and is expected to culminate in a live-fire demonstration of the turret with Australian optics and systems in August. The Redback is also designed with ride comfort in mind, with rubber tracks and independent suspension in lieu of more common metal running gear and torsion bar suspension. Hanwha added that noise reduction measures has also meant it is possible to conduct conversations in the troop compartment, even when the vehicle is moving. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2021/01/12/hanwha-led-team-launches-redback-vehicle-for-australian-army-competition/