Second French Offshore Patrol Vessel fitted with HENSOLDT's LYNCEA® Combat System

On the same subject

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  September 29, 2020 | International, C4ISR

  Britain’s new Protector drone completes maiden flight

  Andrew Chuter LONDON — British efforts to introduce a new family of long-endurance, medium-altitude drones has moved a step closer with an announcement by the Ministry of Defence Sept. 28 that the first General Atomics Protector RG Mk1 off the production had made its maiden flight. The MoD said the first production version of the drone flew in California on Sept. 25. The flight comes just over two months after the British announced they had inked a £65 million (U.S. $83 million) deal with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to supply the first three of an expected fleet of at least 16 drones. Three ground control stations and other associated support equipment were also included in the deal. The contract contains options for a further 13 air vehicles and supporting equipment valued at around £180 million. A commitment for the additional drones could come in April next year. Progress with the Protector test schedule follows a two-year delay imposed on the program by the MoD in 2017 after the British ran into wider defense budget problems. The delay was primarily responsible for a 40 percent hike in Protector program costs, top MoD official Stephen Lovegrove said in a letter to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee published earlier this year. The Protector vehicles will replace General Atomics Reaper drones widely used by the Royal Air Force in operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East, most recently providing reconnaissance, surveillance and strike capabilities in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Protector is the British version of General Atomics latest Predator variant, the MQ-9B Sky Guardian. The RAF drone will fly longer and, armed with Brimstone and Paveway IV precision weapons, hit harder than the Reaper. Crucially, the machine is also in line to be approved to fly in non-segregated airspace in places like the U.K. British Defence Minister Jeremy Quin said the inaugural flight of the production drone was a welcome step in development. “With increased range and endurance, greater ISR and weapons capacity and improved weather resilience, Protector will play a vital intelligence and deterrent role in countering future threats,” he was quoted as saying in a statement. For the moment the first Protector will stay in the United States to support systems testing as part of an MoD, U.S. Air Force and General Atomics team. Following completion of the work the drone will be delivered to the MoD in the summer of 2021. The platform will continue to be based in the United States to allow the RAF to complete its test and evaluation program. Operating from its base at RAF Waddington, eastern England, Protector is scheduled to enter service by mid-2024. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/09/28/britains-new-protector-drone-completes-maiden-flight/

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  January 28, 2021 | International, Aerospace

  Boeing’s cost overruns on KC-46 now exceed initial contract with US Air Force

  By: Valerie Insinna Edited on 1/27/21 at 1:44 p.m. to provide more details on the cost overrun. WASHINGTON — With the Jan. 27 announcement of a new $275 million charge on the KC-46, Boeing has now paid as much in cost overruns for the troubled program as the U.S. Air Force invested in the tanker's development. The new charge, which the company reported as part of fourth-quarter 2020 earnings, means Boeing has now paid more than $5.0 billion out of pocket to pay for the myriad technical problems and production issues that have cropped up since the company won the program in 2011. Under the firm, fixed-price contract signed then, Boeing is responsible for paying for any costs in excess of the contract's $4.9 billion ceiling. The latest KC-46 overrun occurred “primarily due to production inefficiencies including impacts of COVID-19 disruption,” the company said. Steve Trimble of Aviation Week put together a list of KC-46 charges by year, finding that the program documented its largest overrun in 2020 despite seeing charges decrease to only $148 million in 2019. The company previously attributed $494 million in charges to the ongoing pandemic during the first, second and third quarters of 2020. The KC-46 is a commercial-derivative plane based on the Boeing 767 airliner. Because it is manufactured on the 767 production line in Everett, Washington, before undergoing military-specific upgrades, any slowdown in commercial plane volume also makes it more expensive to produce the KC-46. Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in October he believed the KC-46 had moved past the technical problems that plagued the program over the past few years, and the tanker would prove to be an asset for the company after the pandemic had run its course. “The tanker has been a drag on us for three or four years in every way you can think of with respect to investors,” he said at the time. “But we are continuing to clear the hurdle with our customers with respect to its performance in their fleet and their need for that tanker. “That whole relationship, I believe, will begin to transition next year, and opposed to being a drag on our franchise — which it's been — I believe it will become a strength in our franchise.” In an message to Boeing employees on Wednesday, Calhoun pointed to some key wins in the defense and space sector, including the first flight of the MQ-25 tanker drone with an aerial refueling store, and the demonstration of the F/A-18 Super Hornet's ski jump launch capability for the Indian Navy. Over the past month, Boeing has inked contracts with the U.S. Air Force for the sixth and seventh lots of KC-46 production, raking in $3.8 billion for an additional 27 tankers. However, during the earnings call, Calhoun noted that analysts should not count on Boeing's defense business to generate a massive amount of near-term growth in the wake of the pandemic. “We continue to believe that we're going to have stable growth, admittedly at the lower end of the single digits. That's the best guidance that we can talk about because we do believe there is pressure that will ultimately come down as a result of all of the COVID spending here in the United States,” he said. “But a large part of our business now is international market, and the order activity in those international markets is pushed to the right somewhat — and almost entirely because of COVID-related stuff,” he said. “We still like our position because we have a lot of ongoing programs that the military and of course our defense [spending] bills have been kind to.” The Air Force plans to buy 179 KC-46 aircraft over the program of record. The first KC-46 was delivered to the service in 2019. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2021/01/27/boeings-cost-overruns-on-kc-46-now-exceed-its-initial-contract-with-the-air-force

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  November 27, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security

  Matrix Botnet Exploits IoT Devices in Widespread DDoS Botnet Campaign

  Matrix botnet campaign exploits IoT flaws to target global IPs and CSPs with DDoS-for-hire services