Saab Receives Finnish Squadron 2020 Order

On the same subject

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  April 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  La place Beauvau recherche 645 drones

  Le ministère de l'Intérieur vient de diffuser un appel d'offres portant sur 645 drones en quatre lots. Le volume total atteindrait les 3,8 M€. 645 drones de toutes tailles Le service de l'achat, de l'innovation et de la logistique du ministère de l'Intérieur (SAELSI) recherche 645 drones de toutes tailles, apprend-on dans un appel d'offres diffusé le 15 avril. Le volume atteindrait les 3,8 M€ en quatre lots. Le premier concerne les drones du quotidien, un programme initié par la gendarmerie, et qui désormais semble profiter aussi à la police nationale. Le contexte d'emploi principal concerne des opérations diurnes. Ce lot de 1,8 M€ concerne à la fois la formation, la fourniture de drones (565) et leur maintenance pour des unités non spécialisées. Tout le territoire et l'outremer pourront être ainsi dotés. Nano-drones Le deuxième lot équipera des drones pour les unités nationales spécialisées, pour une valeur de 1,58 M€. Les mini-drones concernés sont utilisables de jour comme de nuit, et plus résilients, mais aussi plus chers. Là aussi, le lot concerne la formation, le MCO et la livraison des 66 drones, de quoi équiper notamment le GIGN, le RAID et leurs antennes. Tous sont aujourd'hui dotés d'une kyrielle de modèles. Les nano-drones spécialisés constituent le troisième lot. Il sera là aussi réservé aux unités dont certaines, comme le GIGN, disposent déjà de Black Hornet. Le volume peut sembler assez minime puisque seulement 175 000 euros sont réservés. Ce qui, au prix, du Black Hornet 3 représente assez peu de systèmes. Les prévisions sont néanmoins assez élevées, pas moins de 20 nano-drones. Le quatrième et dernier lot concerne les capacités de communication afférentes, pour une valeur de 240.000 euros. 300 passerelles wi-fi sont attendues. Barkhane La gendarmerie a été motrice sur l'engagement de drones, via le GIGN, mais aussi lors de manœuvres de maintien de l'ordre, à Notre-Dame des Landes, lors des manifestations des gilets jaunes. Elle a notamment utilisée des DJI Phantom IV et des micro drones NX70 et NX110 de Novadem. Elle a rencontré des difficultés avec les NX70 de première génération, interdits de vol plusieurs mois. Ces problèmes ont apparemment été réglés sur la deuxième génération, car les militaires qui les utilisent à Barkhane n'en font pas état. L'expérimentation de drone du quotidien, qui vient de s'achever, a concerné 48 micro-drones, notamment des Mavic Pro et des Anafi du Français Parrot qui a manifestement une belle carte à jouer. https://air-cosmos.com/article/la-place-beauvau-recherche-645-drones-22936

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  October 27, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  South Korean study finds Chinook upgrade more expensive than buying new helos

  Brian Kim SEOUL — Research on the long-awaited upgrade of Chinook helicopters flown by the South Korean military shows it would be cheaper to buy new aircraft, according to a local lawmaker. Rep. Min Hong-chul of the ruling Democratic Party revealed the result of the latest preliminary research on the Chinook upgrade during a parliamentary audit of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration on Oct. 20. The lawmaker, who sits on the National Assembly's Defense Committee, said the research concluded in September that the cost of upgrading 17 of the 43 CH-47D Chinook helicopters would be about 1.35 trillion won ($1.2 billion), which is higher than the estimated cost of 1.22 trillion won for buying new ones. The upgrade cost is partly driven by the fact that Chinook manufacturer Boeing no longer produces parts for older variants, like those owned by South Korea, so specially ordered parts could prove expensive, Min said, citing the research conducted by the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality, which is affiliated with DAPA. Furthermore, some Korean military task equipment such as the Korean Variable Message Format data link cannot be installed on the upgraded helos due to incompatibility, the research suggested. “A series of reverses and delays on decision-making have foiled key arms acquisition projects, including the Chinook upgrade,” Min said, expressing concern about an operational gap in military transport trainings and missions. South Korea operates about 50 Chinooks, with some of them in service for up to 50 years. With some parts of the older Chinook no longer being produced, the South Korean fleet's operational rate has suffered, according to the lawmaker. For instance, the Air Force's Chinook utilization rate from the first half of the year was around 40 percent. DAPA is expected to hold a meeting soon to decide whether to buy new heavy-lift helicopters rather than upgrade the existing fleet. But industry sources expect buying new helos would take more time and end up costing more, depending on the variant. “To get Block I CH-47F Chinook cargo helicopters, which have been on the shopping list of the South Korean Army, the letter of offer and acceptance should be issued by July next year at the latest, but it would be very difficult to finalize the decision-making procedures within the timeline,” said Ahn Seung-beom, a military analyst and writer with Defense Times Korea. “[If it doesn't] buy Block I, South Korea has an option to get Block II, which is to be produced for the U.S. Army first, and then it could take more time and costs to get the up-to-date, heavy-lift helicopters.” A source at Boeing told Defense News that both cost and an export license stand in the way of South Korea's CH-47F Block II purchase. “The development of the CH-47F Block II is still underway, so the price cannot be expected at this moment,” the source explained on condition of anonymity. “The U.S. Army has yet to place an order for the new cargo helicopters, so it's unclear how many aircraft would be produced.” It's also unclear if a foreign sale will receive approval, the source added. “The U.S. government strictly controls arms technology, so getting an export license for key weapons systems is a hurdle.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/10/27/south-korean-study-finds-chinook-upgrade-more-expensive-than-buying-new-helos/

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  January 28, 2019 | International, Other Defence

  What the Pentagon could learn from unicorns

  By: Jill Aitoro WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — The promise of Silicon Valley is built on unicorns — startup companies valued at more than $1 billion. They're rare. Hence the name. But the payoff is big enough that venture capitalists are willing to funnel a lot of money by way of multiple rounds of funding toward unproven technologies, to accept significant risk, in hopes they'll be in on the ground floor of the next great discovery. Compare that to Washington, where in the words of Defense Innovation Board Executive Director Josh Marcuse: “We put forward a defense program full of things that we know aren't going to work, but no one is willing to say so.” For more than three years the Pentagon has attempted to draw upon the Silicon Valley culture of innovation, to buy instead of build, to take advantage of commercial technology. But success has been spotty at best — with SpaceX and Palantir rather exclusively held up as the two “unicorns” catering to the military. But while many procurement reformists will point to burdensome regulations as the problem, innovation leaders from both the Department of Defense and Silicon Valley companies agreed during a November roundtable hosted by Defense News that no laws currently in place prevent smart buying by the government. Instead, those same innovation leader say that what causes the greatest minds in the tech community to walk away from the largest buyer in the world is a slow, arduous process combined with a serious lack of understanding within the Pentagon for how software is designed. “We basically created an innovation program where you have to have Howard Hughes-style entrepreneurship to do anything that matters,” said Trae Stephens, partner at San Francisco-based venture capital firm Founders Fund and co-founder of Silicon Vally tech firm Anduril. To buy or to build Since the 1990s, defense acquisition regulations have clearly stated that commercial preference should be given in every contracting decision. Reinforcing that point, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics released a guidebook for acquiring commercial items in January 2018, stating: “The time and cost to develop and field new capabilities, the technological advances made by near peer competitors and the rapid pace of innovation by private industry have demonstrated the need to access the best technology — now.” And yet, such earnest support of commercial tech does not regularly filter to the acquisition community. Agencies over-specify requirements, “so now if the company wants to do business with [the Pentagon], they have to modify their product,” Stephens said. “All you have to do is say, ‘Yes, we have validated that there is no commercial product that meets our requirements,' and that's it.” The Pentagon does not, however, do the opposite — adapt requirements for a particular product. “There are a lot of things that we just have to build. We're going to build aircraft carriers, we're going to build fighter planes,” Stephens added. “And then there's the thing that we're going to buy — the products. These should be entirely separate conversations.” That over-specification runs counter to the “agile” development method typically favored by the tech community, which is built on a premise of short sprints that factor into evolving requirements. Agile can't exist without a degree of flexibility, ensuring, too, that if you fail, you fail fast. Contrast that with the traditional waterfall approach that predefines the various phases of development to ensure, in theory, a predictable outcome. Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/smr/cultural-clash/2019/01/28/what-the-pentagon-could-learn-from-unicorns