December 25, 2024 | International, Aerospace
February 16, 2018 | International, Aerospace
UK submits bid for Belgium fighter competition, pitting Typhoon against F-35
By: Andrew Chuter
LONDON — Britain has pitched a range of strategic and industrial tie-ups to the Belgian government as part of a bid to secure a deal to supply Eurofighter Typhoon jets to replace the country's aging F-16 fleet.
“The proposal includes 34 Typhoon aircraft, underpinned by the offer of a deep strategic, defence and industrial partnership between the Governments of Belgium and the U.K.,” the British Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
Feb. 14 was the deadline date for the submission of best and final bids for the Belgian air combat capability program. A decision on the winning contractor is expected later this year with the fleet being delivered starting 2023.
British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, in Brussels for a two-day NATO defense ministers meeting, said the jets offer Belgium a “formidable capability which forms the backbone of European air power, as well as a comprehensive long-term defense and industrial partnership with the U.K. A unique partnership with the RAF and integration with our world-leading support service mean Belgium's selection of the Typhoon would be a powerful demonstration of us working together to support security across the continent.”
The British are leading the Typhoon bid on behalf of the Eurofighter nations in a formal competition with the Lockheed Martin F-35A to replace 54 F-16s. Germany, Italy and Spain are also part of the Eurofighter partnership.
The U.S. State Department said last month it had approved a possible foreign military sale of 34 Lockheed Martin F-35 jets to the Belgians in a deal which could be worth up to $6.5 billion.
Earlier this month the U.S. confirmed it had responded to the request for final offers.
“The F-35 Joint Program Office invested considerable effort to craft an offer that enables our Belgian allies to acquire the F-35's unmatched capabilities well within the budget specified by the [Belgian] Strategic Vision for Defense 2030,” said the U.S. government.
Speaking recently to an audience of alliance and industry partners, US Charge d'Affaires, , Matthew Lussenhop said a F-35 purchase would pay big dividends for Belgium.
“Joining the F-35 program provides access to technology that support all of Belgium's essential security interests and opens the door to related projects with potential returns well in excess of the initial investment — just like the F-16 program has in the past,” he said.
Lockheed Martin and engine maker Pratt & Whitney both have memoranda of agreement with a number of Belgian companies.
It may not be a two-horse race though. The French government and Dassault are also somewhere in the mix. They declined to formally respond to requests for proposals, claiming they had more to offer than bid requirements which, they said, were too restrictive.
Instead the French have been offering Belgium what has been described as a deep and structured economic and military partnership.
Dassault Aviation chairman and CEO Eric Trappier on Feb. 13 signed 13 cooperation agreements with Belgian companies as part of an offer of the Rafale in a proposed government-to-government deal. That signing is “part of the proposal of the Franco-Belgian strategic partnership concerning the jet fighter,” Dassault said in a statement.
The French proposal of the Rafale falls outside the Belgian tender, as Paris seeks to build a broad bilateral relationship aimed mainly to counter an offer of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.Those cooperation agreements bring to more than 30 contracts signed with Belgian partners for activities including service for the Rafale, training of aeronautical engineers and work on drone projects, the company said. Other areas include automating production lines, simulation, research on advanced material and predictive maintenance.
Among the local partners were Sabca, Safran Aero Booster and Thales Belgium. The former is the Belgian unit of Dassault Aviation.Following an order, Dassault, Safran and Thales are committed to investing in Belgium at least €20 billion over 20 years, and supporting more than 5,000 high technology jobs, the aircraft builder said. Dozens more agreements with local partners would be signed as part of a campaign by French companies to invest in the Belgian economy, Trappier said.
The status of the French bid is unclear at this point.
The French decision was not the first left field move by expected bidders. Boeing pulled the F/A 18 E/F Super Hornet from the contest last April citing issues with the fairness of the bidding process.
Not long after that Saab unexpectedly withdrew the Gripen E saying they could not meet Belgian operational support requirements without a change of Swedish Government foreign policy.
For their part the British are, on the military front, offering to further strengthen co-operation between the two air force, integrate the Belgians into Royal Air Force support arrangements and form a training partnership which involves training and exercising together.
The British are also offering to help establish a National Network Cyber Centre, a Cyber Innovation Centre and a Cyber Research Partnership, underpinned by a partnership between the two governments.
U.K. Typhoon lead contractor BAE Systems and others, have been signing industrial co-operation deals with Belgian industry. As of Feb. 7 BAE said it had signed agreements with more than 20 Belgian companies to explore potential collaboration opportunities as part of a wide-ranging Eurofighter industrial proposal.
Despite the efforts by the Europeans to entice the Belgians with attractive strategic and industrial offers Doug Barrie, the senior air analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies reckons the F-35 remains the aircraft to beat.
“My money is on the F-35, particularly if the Belgians insist on retaining the ability to deploy B-61 freefall nuclear weapons to match the capability they have on the F-16,” said Barrie. “The F-35 is the only aircraft in the competition presently able to do that. Rafale is wired to deploy nuclear free fall weapons but they are French.”
Pierre Tran in Paris contributed to this story.
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February 5, 2019 | International, C4ISR
A tweaked DoD cloud strategy looks beyond Amazon
By: Jessie Bur A recent Department of Defense memorandum indicates that the agency wants to pursue multiple commercial cloud vendors as it attempts to modernize its IT and data infrastructure, though a single provider will still have singular influence over the agency's “general purpose cloud.” “DoD is driving toward an enterprise cloud environment that is composed of a general purpose cloud and multiple fit-for-purpose clouds,” the memorandum to Congress, released Feb. 4, said. “In addition, it should be recognized that the Department will still need non-cloud data center capability for applications that are not suited for the cloud. Over time, with the adoption of an enduring enterprise cloud strategy, the non-cloud environment should become smaller.” That general purpose slot will be filled by the awardee of the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, which has been criticized for its single-award intent as giving the winner an outsized control of the defense cloud market. Many companies vying to support the Pentagon's cloud requirements claimed that the odds were stacked in Amazon's favor. The approach spurred protests and a lawsuit in fact. According to the memorandum, the fit-for-purpose environment will be made up of the Defense Information Systems Agency's milCloud suite, as well as other unnamed vendors. Throughout the cloud migration process, DoD will stick to four guiding principles: War-fighter First — any cloud solution must at all times address the needs of improving lethality while not jeopardizing the safety and mission of American war fighters. Cloud-Smart, Data-Smart — cloud solutions must streamline transformation and embrace modern capabilities while enhancing data transparency and visibility. Leverage Commercial Industry Best Practices — the cloud strategy should promote competition and innovation while preventing lock-in of one particular solution or technology. Create a Culture Better Suited for Modern Technology Evolution — the strategy will need to create a culture of learning and innovation while discouraging custom, federated approaches. This approach to commercial cloud is not entirely unexpected, as DoD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasey said during an October 2018 press event for the Defense Enterprise Office Solution cloud contractthat the agency would be delineating between general purpose and fit for purpose contracts. "This marks a milestone in our efforts to adopt the cloud and also in our larger efforts to modernize information technology across the DOD enterprise," Deasy said in a statement on the memo to Congress. “A modern digital infrastructure is critical to support the war fighter, defend against cyberattacks and enable the department to leverage emerging technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence.” The new strategy also means that DoD will move away from a cybersecurity posture that focuses on perimeter defense and instead prioritize the protection of data and systems. “DoD will produce a unified cybersecurity architecture that addresses cloud and the needs of classified and unclassified missions and data. The capabilities will be tested and assessed independently and frequently to ensure that cybersecurity attributes remain effective against developing threats,” the memo said, adding that the CIO will determine the command and control requirements between the agency and the cloud service providers. Cloud contracts will also likely include requirements for training and workforce development to ensure that DoD can develop the expertise necessary to use and protect their new cloud environments. And any potential migrations to cloud will have to come with thorough evaluations of legacy DoD applications. “It is imperative that DoD has a cloud strategy to ensure that legacy applications are not moved to cloud without properly re-architecting them to make use of the data, security, resiliency and application advantages that cloud provides,” the memo said. “Additionally, DoD should independently test and assess cloud network security to verify security compliance and incident response and review all contractor and third-party testing results to ensure that performance and security monitoring are sufficient.” https://www.federaltimes.com/it-networks/cloud/2019/02/04/dod-to-officially-pursue-a-multi-vendor-cloud-strategy
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March 26, 2019 | International, Aerospace
La Malaisie renoncerait-elle à l’achat de chasseurs européens au profit de chinois?
Qualifiant les mesures de l'UE de «protectionnistes», le Premier ministre malaisien a promis que, si l'UE poursuivait sa mobilisation contre l'huile de palme, son pays renoncerait également aux produits européens, notamment en acquérant plutôt des chasseurs chinois. La Malaisie a annoncé son intention d'acheter des chasseurs à la Chine, si l'Union européenne continuait sa campagne contre le biocarburant à base d'huile de palme, rapporte la version numérique du journal New Straits Times, citant le Premier ministre du pays. «Nous pouvons adopter des mesures réciproques, s'ils ne veulent pas acheter notre huile de palme. Dans ce cas, nous n'avons non plus besoin de leurs produits. Je viens de rentrer du Pakistan où, lors d'un défilé, il y avait des chasseurs fabriqués par la Chine. Si nous avons besoin d'un chasseur, nous examinerons l'acquisition de ceux fabriqués en Chine», a déclaré le chef du gouvernement malaisien, Mahathir Mohamad, lors d'une rencontre à laquelle étaient présents des fabricants d'huile de palme. Pour rappel, il avait été plus tôt annoncé que la Malaisie examinait la possibilité de se procurer des chasseurs polyvalents français Rafale ou des Eurofighter Typhoon, produits par le consortium européen Eurofighter GmbH. Mahathir Mohamad considère que l'UE agit d'une manière «injuste» lorsqu'elle propose de prohiber l'huile de palme, ajoutant qu'il s'agit d'une mesure protectionniste par laquelle ce bloc cherche à plonger «dans la pauvreté» les Malaisiens. «L'huile de palme n'est pas un poison et ils ne doivent pas dire qu'on ne peut pas en mettre dans la nourriture. Ils n'ont pas pitié de 600.000 pauvres ouvriers qui perdront leur emploi et seront privés de revenus, si on ferme les plantations», a-t-il ajouté. https://fr.sputniknews.com/international/201903241040483791-malaisier-chasseurs-europe-chine/