US Navy awards largest-ever shipbuilding contract to Electric Boat for new attack submarines

On the same subject

• 

  April 8, 2022 | International, Aerospace

  MBDA boss rallies European governments to spend locally

  '€œThe Ukrainian drama is emphasizing again the importance of sovereignty,'€ said CEO Eric Beranger.

• 

  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/

• 

  October 16, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Dassault Aviation au service des armées

  A l'occasion du bilan d'étape dressé par Madame Florence Parly, ministre des Armées, au sujet de la réforme du maintien en condition opérationnelle (MCO), Dassault Aviation tient à rappeler sa fierté de servir les armées françaises en apportant un soutien quotidien aux flottes de Rafale, de Mirage 2000, d'ATL2 et de Falcon de surveillance maritime. Saint-Cloud, le 15 octobre 2020 – A l'occasion du bilan d'étape dressé par Madame Florence Parly, ministre des Armées, au sujet de la réforme du maintien en condition opérationnelle (MCO), Dassault Aviation tient à rappeler sa fierté de servir les armées françaises en apportant un soutien quotidien aux flottes de Rafale, de Mirage 2000, d'ATL2 et de Falcon de surveillance maritime. La décision du ministère des Armées de verticaliser le MCO du Rafale et de l'ATL2, avec les contrats RAVEL et OCEAN, permet d'assurer aux forces aériennes françaises une disponibilité optimale de leurs flottes. Gr'ce à la mise en service de RAVEL depuis 18 mois, Dassault Aviation et ses partenaires industriels, dont Thales, assurent ainsi une disponibilité de 76% des Rafale, soit une valeur supérieure aux 73% prévus contractuellement. La qualité de ce service va encore s'améliorer au fil du temps, comme prévu, avec notamment la mise en place d'un système d'information b'ti en coopération avec les opérationnels par Dassault Aviation ; un outil qui s'appuie sur l'expertise de Dassault Systèmes en matière de gestion/analyse des données et qui sera basé sur sa technologie Cloud et son logiciel EXALEAD. © Dassault Aviation – A. Pecchi « Je m'assure en permanence de la satisfaction de l'armée de l'Air et de l'Espace et de la Marine nationale dans le soutien que leur apportent les équipes de Dassault Aviation. En confiance avec elles et avec la Direction de la maintenance aéronautique, nous recherchons sans cesse toutes les possibilités d'amélioration du soutien qui leur est apporté », a déclaré Éric Trappier, P-DG de Dassault Aviation. Gr'ce à l'étroite coopération avec les personnels des bases aériennes, les équipes de Dassault Aviation sont aussi très fières d'avoir poursuivi efficacement, durant ces derniers mois, le soutien des forces armées, malgré le confinement lié à la crise COVID-19. À PROPOS DE DASSAULT AVIATION Avec plus de 10 000 avions militaires et civils livrés dans plus de 90 pays depuis un siècle (dont 2 500 Falcon), Dassault Aviation dispose d'un savoir-faire et d'une expérience reconnus dans la conception, le développement, la vente et le support de tous les types d'avion, depuis l'appareil de combat Rafale jusqu'à la famille de business jets haut de gamme Falcon en passant par les drones militaires et les systèmes spatiaux. En 2019, le chiffre d'affaires de Dassault Aviation s'est élevé à 7,3 milliards d'euros. Le Groupe compte 12 750 collaborateurs. https://www.dassault-aviation.com/fr/groupe/presse/press-kits/dassault-aviation-au-service-des-armees/