Q&A: Maxar execs discuss US Army simulation, Project Maven

On the same subject

• 

  July 23, 2020 | International, Land

  Private equity firm buys Humvee-maker AM General

  By: Joe Gould and Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Humvee-maker AM General has been acquired by KPS Capital Partners, a private equity firm known for buying financially distressed manufacturers, the companies announced Wednesday. KPS acquired AM General of South Bend, Indiana, from MacAndrews & Forbes in a deal in which terms were not disclosed. AM General has largely been stagnant since losing the competition for the U.S. Army's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle in 2015 to Oshkosh. Following its loss in the JLTV competition, the company turned to the international market to continue growing its Humvee business, such as through offering to foreign customers a multipurpose truck with a military-grade rolling chassis from its Humvee design with a la carte add-ons. KPS Partner Jay Bernstein said in a joint statement that the firm would continue to work with AM General's chief executive, Andy Hove, as well as its management and employees “to build on this great platform, organically and through acquisition.” “We intend to leverage the Company's commitment to research, technology, innovation and new product development, as well as its heritage and iconic brand name,” Bernstein's statement read. Hove said the firm would work with KPS “to continue to execute our strategy and invest in our very ambitious growth plan.” “KPS' demonstrated commitment to manufacturing excellence, continuous improvement and commitment to invest in technology and innovation will only enhance the Company's ability to compete in today's military and commercial marketplace,” Hove said. “Plenty of industrial companies and investment firms had considered buying AM General,” James Hasik, senior fellow at the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, told Defense News July 22. “And plenty of companies have considered teaming with AM General for a bid on a forthcoming production program.” AM General has continued to try to adapt to the needs of the U.S. military, bringing a robotic combat vehicle to an Army demonstration last year as the service mulls the future of robots on the battlefield. The company also competed for the Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transport vehicle program but was not selected. Yet, AM General has remained a single-product firm with the Humvee, Hasik noted, and the future of the Humvee is “hard to call.” Many militaries around the world use Humvees, and the U.S. Army plans to keep some in its fleet, but the U.S. Marine Corps is divesting its stock. According to Hasik, it's possible that since the Humvee is less expensive than the JLTV and would likely be relegated to noncombat roles, the Army might choose to purchase pickup trucks instead. “The Humvee was developed in part because the Army's pickup trucks of the 1970s were unimpressive, but that was 50 years ago, and automotive technology has advanced,” he said. “Today's pickup trucks are much cheaper to buy and operate, and that's what the Canadian Army has done.” While AM General has come up with some novel ideas, “nothing has stuck,” Hasik said. For several years, the company has shown up at trade shows touting a howitzer on a Humvee, like it did at London's DSEI exposition in late 2019. Still, the U.S. Army is struggling to figure out how it would fit into formations. The good news for KPS is that the company has a running factory with “efficient, medium-speed production of 4x4 military trucks and a production team who know how to do that,” Hasik said. “That's an important skill set, as it works better for military programs than enlisting a pickup truck factory, which must make them in the hundreds of thousands to make money.” AM General has advertised on its website that it could build bigger trucks, and the Army has just issued a request for information for a program to replace all of its heavy trucks, Hasik pointed out. “It could also build small trucks, similar to the Humvee, for future autonomous applications. There's no guarantee, but we might see lots of those in a few years.” “All in all, I suspect that KPS didn't buy AM General just to wring some more efficiencies out of the Humvee program. The folks there probably see some of these upside possibilities as well,” he added. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/07/22/private-equity-firm-buys-humvee-maker-am-general/

• 

  August 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  MDA pauses defensive hypersonic missile design to refocus plan

  By: Jen Judson   WASHINGTON — The Missile Defense Agency has paused its effort to design a defensive hypersonic missile and wants to refocus its plan of attack by concentrating on near-term options that could feed into a more “elegant” solution, according to Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the organization's director. The agency tapped industry in January to design and build an interceptor capable of defending against regional hypersonic weapons threats, releasing a draft request for proposals to build prototypes. The request directed industry to submit whitepapers by March 19 to build a Hypersonic Defense Regional Glide Phase Weapons System interceptor. The plan then was to select at least one prime contractor to build prototypes that would culminate in a flight test, according to the draft RFP. But last month, the agency updated its posting on the federal government's contract opportunities website and said the final solicitation was under review. It also said the agency was assessing COVID-19 impacts, technology maturation efforts, threat analyses, and empirical data from the recent joint Defense Department hypersonic testing in March “to accurately establish the technical baseline and future end-state for hypersonic missile defense and the (RGPWS) effort.” Agency leaders said they expect to complete the review by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2021. “One of the reasons we took the pause and said, ‘We'll get back to you later in the year,' is we want to see what we can do in the very near-term, and I'll define the near-term as the mid-20s, and then feed the science and technology investments going so you can get to that farther-term, more elegant solution,” Hill said at the virtual Space and Missile Defense Symposium Aug. 4. “But we want to get that capability out there as soon as possible to defend against the hypersonic threat and we want to continue to build out that capability and we believe the glide phase, further back in that trajectory, is always better than the terminal systems that we got today,” Hill added. He noted that the capability to take out threats in the terminal phase of flight is still critical. But, “you will want to move back that trajectory as far as you can,” he said. Achieving “glide phase” defensive capability could come through a variety of technologies, he said, including different warhead types, different effector types and what kind of propulsion is used to get there. MDA is on a long-term path to achieving hypersonic defensive capability, but it is focused first on its Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS), according to Hill. “That is number one, we have got to be able to sense, detect and get tracking and fire control information down to the shooter,” he said. As the agency went through its analysis of alternatives for a defensive hypersonic interceptor, “we recognized there are two paths you can take to get to a weapon system,” Hill said. MDA is going to build off its command-and-control battle management and the effectors it has in place, Hill said, adding the agency can take advantage of terrestrial-based and mobile sea-based sensing today to get tracking data and push it where it needs to go. “The question is how long do you stay in the science and technology world? You should also take a look at a quick development path and that is what we are looking at now,” Hill said. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2020/08/04/mda-pauses-defensive-hypersonic-missile-design-effort-to-refocus-plan/

• 

  May 1, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Boeing's MQ-25 refueling drone moved to air base for flight testing

  By Allen Cone April 30 (UPI) -- Boeing's prototype MQ-25 unmanned aerial refueling drone is so huge it needed help from government agencies in Missouri and Illinois to move 40 miles. With assistance from law enforcement in both states, a truck carried the aircraft -- which is the size of an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter -- from Boeing's technical plant at St. Louis's Lambert International Airport across the Mississippi River to MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, a small regional airport next to Scott Air Force Base in rural Illinois. The semi traveled on side roads and at 5-10 mph for much of the trip Sunday night, KDSK-TV reported. Temporary road closures were in Edwardsville, Marine and Lebanon as the jet moved through. The plane arrived before 6 a.m. Monday, KMOV-TV reported. The regional airport is in less crowded airspace, which "gives us some flexibility in how we can fly," Dave Bujold, the Boeing program manager overseeing drone project, told The Drive. Boeing plans to test fly the MQ-25 Stingray, known as known as T-1 or "Tail 1," before the end of the year. But first it must pass ground taxiing tests and the Federal Aviation Administration must certify the aircraft and grant clear airspace for it to fly. Ground control stations are being installed at the airport. The Boeing test aircraft later will undergo testing on the East Coast. The Navy will also hoist it onto an aircraft carrier for deck handling testing. "By the time the Navy's assets are jumping in the air, we will already have had thousands of test hours on the ground and hundreds in the air," Bujold said. The first Navy aircraft is scheduled to fly in fiscal year 2021. Last August, Boeing was awarded a $805 million contract to build four aircraft for the U.S. Navy. The drones, which won't carry weapons, will be based on aircraft carriers to refuel other aircraft mid-flight, including the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler and Lockheed Martin F-35C fighters. "The MQ-25 program is vital because it will help the U.S. Navy extend the range of the carrier air wing, and Boeing and our industry team is all-in on delivering this capability," Bujold said. Curtiss-Wright's Defense Solutions, which has been a Boeing contractor for 60 years, announced last week it has been awarded a contract by Boeing to supply data technology systems for the program. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/04/30/Boeings-MQ-25-refueling-drone-moved-to-air-base-for-flight-testing/5091556634478/