U.S.' Buttigieg meets Mexican counterpart on aviation sticking points | Reuters

On the same subject

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  February 7, 2024 | International, C4ISR

  Future soldier resupply could rely on AI-powered logistics, robo-boats

  New watercraft are key to the Army's resupply, logistical plans for future combat.

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  October 2, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Land

  Ventes d’armes à l’Arabie saoudite : le timide embarras des pays européens

  A travers l'Europe, un sentiment de gêne se développe quant à la valeur morale et légale de ventes d'armes à l'Arabie saoudite et aux Emirats arabes unis, alors que l'intervention militaire de ces deux Etats au Yémen – lancée en mars 2015 – s'éternise, et que des accusations de crimes de guerre s'étayent contre eux. Les firmes européennes avaient exporté, entre 2001 et 2015, pour 57 milliards d'euros d'armements vers Riyad, deuxième plus gros importateur mondial, selon l'Institut international de recherche sur la paix de Stockholm (Sipri). De fait, près de 60 % de l'armement saoudien provenait alors d'Europe. Depuis, certains Etats ont poursuivi ces ventes, comme le Royaume-Uni, soutien indéfectible de Riyad. D'autres ont adopté une posture de prudence, discrètement pour la France, de façon plus velléitaire pour l'Allemagne et l'Espagne. Quitte à faire marche arrière, pour des raisons économiques. En Allemagne, la coalition prise en défaut L'hebdomadaire Der Spiegel a révélé, le 19 septembre, que le gouvernement allemand avait autorisé l'exportation de systèmes de navigation pour chars à l'Arabie saoudite, et de 48 ogives et 91 missiles destinés à des navires de guerre des Emirats arabes unis (EAU). L'opposition a vivement protesté, particulièrement les Verts et le parti de gauche Die Linke : ils font noter que de telles exportations contreviennent au « contrat de coalition » scellé, en février, entre les conservateurs (CDU-CSU) et les sociaux-démocrates (SPD). « A partir de maintenant, nous n'approuverons plus les exportations [de matériel militaire] vers les pays impliqués dans la guerre au Yémen », indique cet accord. Cet épisode s'intègre dans un rapprochement diplomatique entre Berlin et Riyad. Les relations s'étaient fortement dégradées, fin 2017, après que Sigmar Gabriel (SPD), alors ministre des affaires étrangères, eut mis en cause la politique régionale « aventurière »... Article complet: https://www.lemonde.fr/yemen/article/2018/10/01/ventes-d-armes-a-l-arabie-saoudite-le-timide-embarras-des-pays-europeens_5362768_1667193.html

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  May 22, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  BAE Makes Big Bet On Small Companies: FAST Labs

  By THERESA HITCHENS BOSTON: BAE Systems, the third-largest defense contractor in the world, is funding innovative small startups to get innovative technology quickly to its Defense Department customers. Through an initiative called FAST Labs, BAE is both providing seed capital directly to startups and funding a number of accelerators to widen the potential market. The standard tactics include simply buying a smaller company to gain its technology or investing in a startup in order to control the direction of its research. Instead, BAE's FAST Labs is attempting to serve as a middle man connecting startups with DoD customers and BAE's various units. “By giving [the startups] the feasibility money, we can expose them to those harsh requirements that exist in the aerospace and defense world, but we can also in turn do social engineering inside our company,” Jerry Wohletz, the vice president and general management of BAE FAST Labs, told me. The idea is to introduce the startups' designs to BAE's factory and engineering work force, he said, “because we need to get it out of R&D land and get it into those products and services” that BAE knows its defense customers are looking for. FAST Labs is focused on research related to next-generation electronics, intelligent autonomous systems, cyber, electronic warfare, and sensors and processing. Wohletz explained that BAE does in-house research on capabilities that are solely of interest to DoD and the Intelligence Community, but it is reaching out to startups in order to partner on products and services based on commercial market needs. “A lot of aerospace and defense companies have venture capital funds,” Wohletz said. “That's not what we are trying to do. This is not an equity play to drive bottom line performance. We talk here about innovation velocity. We want speed to market.” Therefore, BAE is also putting its money — but more importantly its time — into a number of technology accelerators, such as Techstars in Boston, Capitol Factory in Austin, Texas, and MASSChallenge with hubs in both cities. FAST Labs has a team of scouts whose job is to attend pitches all across the country. “This is not based on ownership. We leave them their freedom,” Francesca Scire-Scappuzzo, who heads the scout team, told me. “We want innovation not just to support our market, we want to support their own innovation” for the commercial market. “Other defense contractors are trying to get involved with venture capital, but they for the most part don't really get it. BAE was in early, and they had the benefit of being linked with us,” Lt. Col. Dave Harden, chief operating officer of AFWERX, the Air Force's innovation hub, told me during the Techstars Air Force Accelerator Demo Day here last Thursday. Indeed, BAE cosponsored the event, and put upfront investment in at least three of 10 start-up companies participating. Neither Wohletz or Scire-Scappuzzo would tell me the size of BAE's budget for startup investment, but Wohletz said “it's getting bigger every year.” Further, the company is using accelerators not just to help itself innovate, Wohletz said, but also to find foreign companies to partner with in bids where the buying country requires offsets, such as India. “It's a completely different way of looking at this than we have done in the past,” he summed up. https://breakingdefense.com/2019/05/bae-makes-big-bet-on-small-companies-fast-labs/