April 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Lee Hudson
The Pentagon predicts there will be a three-month slowdown for major defense acquisition programs because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Aerospace, shipbuilding and small launch are the most vulnerable sectors in the wake of COVID-19, Pentagon acquisition executive Ellen Lord told reporters April 20. Out of the 10,509 major prime contractors, 106 have shuttered their doors, and 68 have closed and reopened. Of 11,413 vendor-based companies, 427 are shut down, with 147 having closed and reopened, she said.
Lord's team has not identified specific programs but anticipates there will be schedule delays, she said. One of the measures the military is taking to support the defense industrial base is boosting progress payment rates to contractors, raising them for large businesses from 80% to 90% and for small businesses from 90% to 95%.
“Based on submitted invoices, we expect payments at the higher progress payments to start this week, helping provide $3 billion in increased cash flow to industry,” Lord said. “I commend Lockheed Martin and Boeing for both publicly committing to ensure this cash flow goes quickly down the supply chain to small businesses who need it most.”
The DOD is hoping other large defense contractors will make similar public announcements. The Pentagon's small business program office hosted a webinar with more than 1,000 companies to address their unique concerns, she said.
Over the last few weeks, Lord's team has focused on supply chain “illumination” tools and found “international dependencies.” Specifically, the defense industrial base is being hit hard by supplier closures in Mexico and India. Lord spoke with the U.S. ambassador to Mexico on April 17 and on April 20 was sending a letter to the Mexican foreign minister asking for help in reopening international suppliers.
The Pentagon also is hoping for additional aid from the American people via the second Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Lord would not pinpoint a particular amount, but the money sought is incremental funding for inefficiencies related to contracting, Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III, the defense industrial base and medical resources.
In the inaugural CARES Act, DOD received $1 billion for DPA Title III, $750 million for medical resources and $250 million for the defense industrial base.
The DPA Title III medical resources priorities are N95 masks, ventilators, active pharmaceutical ingredients, testing kits, suppliers and reagents, vaccines and delivery systems. The defense sector focus areas for DPA Title III include machine tools and industrial controls, aircraft supply chain illumination, chem bio, directed energy, radar, munitions, missiles, space, shipbuilding, soldier systems and ground systems.
To date, the Defense Logistics Agency has provided more than 1.8 million N95 respirator masks, 3.2 million nonmedical and surgical masks, 54.8 million exam gloves, 8,000 ventilators and 275,000 isolation and surgical gowns to the military services, combatant commands, and several federal agencies, Lord said.
“We have ordered face coverings for the workforce, 3 million active duty, guard, reserve and government civilians with deliveries starting this week,” she said. “We expect 135,000 by the end of April and 580,000 by the end of May.”
For the first time ever, U.S. Transportation Command (Transcom) was able to use the Defense Threat Reduction Agency-developed transport isolation system to move three COVID-19 positive patients from Afghanistan to Germany. The system was developed in 2014 during the Ebola crisis.
“The joint staff, Transcom, and the Air Force continue to work to ensure that we can safely transport COVID-19 patients from overseas locations to the United States,” Lord said. “We just issued a memo that directs contracting officers to support a U.S. Forces Afghanistan memo to redeploy at-risk contractor employees due to insufficient medical capability in-country.”
The Pentagon anticipates this will affect fewer than 1,000 personnel.
August 21, 2024 | International, Security
KBR was awarded this contract under the Department of Defense Information Analysis Center's multiple-award contract vehicle.
November 13, 2020 | International, Aerospace
By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Airbus is trying to make hay out of its $6.5 billion sale of 38 Eurofighter aircraft to Germany for other procurement competitions in Switzerland and Finland. The European defense giant inked a deal with the German Luftwaffe, or Air Force, this week after the country's parliament, the Bundestag, approved the budget earlier this month. The Luftwaffe stands to get 30 single-seater and eight twin-seater planes, Airbus said in a statement. Four of those aircraft will serve as test beds for future technology, as the company positions the Eurofighter as the bridge to the next-generation Future Combat Air System, a German-French-Spanish collaboration, according to the service. “The renewed order from Germany secures production until 2030 and comes at a strategically important time for the program,” the company statement read. “In addition to an expected Eurofighter order from Spain to replace its legacy F-18s, procurement decisions in Switzerland and Finland are imminent in 2021.” Switzerland wants to buy up to 40 aircraft for a maximum of $6.5 billion, and the Eurofighter is one of the aircraft in the running. Similarly, Finland is considering the plane as a replacement for its F-18 fleet. “The variant offered in Switzerland corresponds to the configuration of the German Quadriga order,” Airbus officials wrote in the statement, referring to the name of a new, fourth tranche of aircraft. The new batch, to be delivered by 2030, will replace the first tranche, bought between 2003 and 2008, which can only do air-to-air combat and boasts an obsolete radar, according to the German Defence Ministry. Voters in Switzerland approved a new air defense package in September, including a ground-based weapon system and a fleet of combat aircraft. A second offer from the four competing companies is expected this month. Besides the Eurofighter, Dassault's Rafale, Boeing's F-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin's F-35 also are under consideration. The Finnish government over the summer upped the budget for its “HX” fighter program to $5.8 billion, eyeing a procurement decision in 2021. “The new Tranche 4 Eurofighter is currently the most modern European-built combat aircraft with a service life well beyond 2060,” Airbus Defence and Space CEO Dirk Hoke said in a statement following the contract signature with the German government. “Its technical capabilities will allow full integration into the European Future Combat Air System, FCAS.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/11/12/airbus-hopes-its-65-billion-german-eurofighter-sale-will-shine-for-switzerland-finland
December 5, 2019 | International, Aerospace
by Sebastien Roblin Key point: Paris wants new planes, but it has no plans to build or buy its own stealth fighters. In January 2019, French Defense Minister Florence Parly announced France would commit $2.3 billion to develop an F4 generation of the Dassault Rafale twin-engine multirole fighter. This would include production in 2022–2024 of the last twenty-eight of the original order of 180 Rafales, followed by the purchase of an additional thirty Rafales F4.2s between 2027–2030, for a total of 210. Since 2008, France has deployed land- and carrier-based Rafales into combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali and Syria. In January 2019, French Defense Minister Florence Parly announced France would commit $2.3 billion to develop an F4 generation of the Dassault Rafale twin-engine multirole fighter. This would include production in 2022–2024 of the last twenty-eight of the original order of 180 Rafales, followed by the purchase of an additional thirty Rafales F4.2s between 2027–2030, for a total of 210. Since 2008, France has deployed land- and carrier-based Rafales into combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali and Syria. The Rafale is much more agile than the F-35, with superior climb rate, sustained turn performance, and ability to super-cruise (maintain supersonic flight without using fuel-gulping afterburners) at Mach 1.4 while carrying weapons. The Rafale's all-moving canards—a second set of small wings near the nose—give the Rafale excellent lift and low-altitude speed and performance, as you can see in this majestic airshow display. However, compared to larger fourth-generation twin-engine jets like the Su-35 or F-15, the Rafale can't fly quite as high (service-ceiling of 50,000 instead of 60,000 ft), and has a lower maximum speed (only Mach 1.8 compared to Mach 2-2.5). The Rafale's agility won't help as much if it is engaged at long distances by enemy surface-to-air missiles and stealth jets. To compensate, the Rafale boasts an advanced Spectra electronic warfare system that supposedly can reduce the Rafale's cross-section several times over—it is rumored by reflecting back signals using ‘active canceling.' Spectra also incorporates powerful jammers and flare and chaff dispensers, provides 360-degree early-warning, and can even assist Rafale pilots in targeting weapons to retaliate against attackers. Spectra's capabilities reportedly allowed Rafales to deploy on raids over Libyan airspace in 2011 before air defense missiles had been knocked out. Other key capabilities include sensor fusion of the Rafale's RBE-2AA Active Electronically Scanned Array multi-mode radar, which can track numerous targets over 124 miles away, with its discrete OSF infrared-search and track system, which has an unusually long range of sixty-two miles. Rafale pilots also benefit from uncluttered instrumentation combining voice command with flat-panel touch screens. The multirole jet carries a punchy thirty-millimeter revolver cannon and up to twenty-one thousand pounds of weapons on fourteen hardpoints, making it a versatile air-to-ground platform. Because Paris requires expeditionary capability in Africa, the Rafale can refuel in flight and carry up to five fuel tanks for very long transits, and can be operated from relatively unprepared airfields, unlike most high-performance jets. What's new in the Rafale F4? Dassault produces three basic types of Rafales: the single-seat Rafale-C, the two-seat Rafale-B (the additional weapon systems officer being preferred for strike and reconnaissance missions) and the carrier-based single-seat Rafale-M, which has an arrestor hook, reinforced landing gear and buddy-refueling pod capability. Each type has evolved in common generations designated F1, F2, F3 and F3R. The F4 generation introduces additional network-centric warfare capabilities and data-logistics similar to those on the F-35 Lightning, enabling Rafales on patrol to build a more accurate picture of the battlespace by pooling their sensors over a secure network, and even exchange data using new satellite communications antenna. The pilots also benefit from improved helmet-mounted displays. The Spectra defensive system will receive more powerful jammers and new threat libraries tailored to meet the improving capabilities of potential adversaries. Furthermore, Dassault seeks to use “Big Data” technology to develop a predictive maintenance system reminiscent of the F-35's troubled ALIS system to cost-efficiently implement preventative repairs. Other systems to be tweaked include the air-to-ground mode of the RBE-2AA radar, the M88 turbofan's digital computers, and a new AI-system for its reconnaissance and targeting pod allowing it to rapidly analyze and present information to the pilot. Rafale-Ms will also receive a new automated carrier landing system. New weapons set for integration most notably an improved model of the Mica short-to-medium range air-to-air missile, which has a range of forty-nine miles. The Mica can be launched without initially being locked and guided remotely by a data link on the fighter before engaging either an infrared or AESA radar seeker to close in for the kill, using a vector-thrust motor to pull off tight maneuvers. Because both the Rafale and the Mica missile can employ passive infrared targeting without using an indiscrete active-radar for guidance, the MICA can be launched with little warning for the target. The Mica-NG model will incorporate new infrared-matrix sensors for better performance versus stealth fighters, carry additional propellant for longer range, and integrate internal sensors to reduce maintenance costs. Its dual pulse motor will allow it to accelerate just prior to detonation for a greater probability of achieving a kill. For longer range engagements, newer Rafales F3Rs and F4s can launch British Meteor missiles which can sustain Mach 4 speeds. Another weapon set for integration is heavier 2,200-pound variants of the AASM HAMMER, a guidance kit similar to the U.S. JDAM. Previously, the Rafale could only carry 485-pound variants of the weapon which can use either GPS-, laser- or -infrared guidance to deliver precise strikes. Unlike the JDAM, the HAMMER also incorporates a rocket-motor, allowing it to hit targets up to thirty-seven miles away when released at high altitude. The Rafale will also be modified to integrate future upgrades of the French SCALP-EG stealthy subsonic cruise missile and the supersonic ASMP-A cruise missile which carries a 300-kiloton-yield nuclear warhead. Reportedly France may develop a hypersonic AS4NG variant increasing range from 300 miles to over 660 miles. Currently, the French Armée de l'Aire has three Rafale multi-role squadrons and two nuclear-strike squadrons based in Mont-de-Marsan (south-western France), Saint-Dizier (north-eastern France) and al-Dhafra in the UAE. There are also an operational conversion unit and a testing and evaluation squadron. The French Navy has three Rafale-M squadrons which rotate onboard France's nuclear-powered carrier Charles de Gaulle. In 2018, a squadron of Rafale-Ms proved their capability to operate from the U.S. carrier George H. W. Bush. The forthcoming Rafale F4s will progressively replace France's fourth-generation Mirage 2000s, over 110 of which remain in service today. French periodical Le Figaro claims that older Rafales will also eventually be updated to the F4 standard. Abroad, Dassault is finish delivery of orders from Egypt (twenty-four), Qatar (thirty-six) and India (thirty-six). All three countries may order additional Rafales, though the price of its initial Rafale order has caused a political scandal in New Delhi. As France must wait nearly two decades before a European stealth fighter can enter service, its armed forces are betting that in the interim adding networked sensors and weapons to the Rafale's superior kinematic performance and powerful electronic warfare systems will keep the agile jet relevant in an era of proliferating stealth aircraft and long-range surface-to-air missiles. Sébastien Roblin holds a master's degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. This first appeared early in June 2018. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/no-f-35-you-french-air-forces-new-rafale-fighter-wont-be-stealthy-101722