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August 5, 2021 | International, Aerospace

What Does Sudden Lockheed CFO Departure Mean For Prime? | Aviation Week Network

Lockheed Martin surprised stakeholders late Aug. 3 when it announced the sudden departure of its chief financial officer, the second in almost as many years, as well as lower earnings per share guidance for the year, albeit due to a one-time financial transaction.

https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/budget-policy-operations/what-does-sudden-lockheed-cfo-departure-mean-prime

On the same subject

  • BAE, Vertex announce deal to maintain Harrier II fleet

    January 13, 2021 | International, Aerospace

    BAE, Vertex announce deal to maintain Harrier II fleet

    By Christen McCurdy Jan. 12 (UPI) -- BAE Systems and Vertex Aerospace announced Tuesday that they have signed a nine-year agreement to enhance availability of the U.S. Marine Corps' AV-8B Harrier II fleet. Vertex, which received a $123 million task order for maintenance of the fleet in July, chose BAE as its subcontractor for the logistics support contract. Under the contract, BAE and Vertex will "support the crucial training and combat operations conducted from U.S. Navy's aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, and forward operating bases," said an announcement from BAE. "The Harrier is one of the most iconic military aircraft ever created, with its British designed short take-off and vertical landing technology," Tom Fillingham, senior vice president of US Programs for BAE Systems Air, said in a press release. "Our expertise with the aircraft goes back 40 years and this new contract with Vertex Aerospace ensures we can continue to apply our expertise to support the U.S. Marine Corps in their crucial operations," Fillingham said. In May, Boeing was awarded two contracts worth $87.5 million to upgrade the U.S. Marines' T/AV-8B Harrier II trainer aircraft. The Harrier, meanwhile, is due to be phased out in 2025 while the Marines extend the life of Boeing F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters, per an aviation plan released in 2014. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2021/01/12/BAE-Vertex-announce-deal-to-maintain-Harrier-II-fleet/6641610478105/

  • It will be at least a decade before Canada sees any of its new frigates

    February 15, 2021 | International, Naval

    It will be at least a decade before Canada sees any of its new frigates

    New frigates are being packed with more combat capability than comparable ships of allies Murray Brewster It will be 2031, at the earliest, before the navy sees the first of its new frigates; a setback brought about partly by the fact Canada, Britain and Australia are still feeling their way around how to build the ultra-modern warship. The outgoing president of Irving Shipbuilding Inc., which is in charge of constructing combat ships for the federal government, said he anticipates steel will be cut on the first of the new generation high-end warships by mid-2024. "We have been trying to take an honest look at where we are and what it will take to build the ship," said Kevin McCoy who recently announced his retirement from the East Coast shipbuilder. The current estimate is that it will take up to seven-and-a-half years to build the surface combatant, a timeline being used by Britain's BAE Systems Inc., which is constructing the first of what's known as the Type 26 design. Both Canada and Australia are building their own variants. "Early on [in the shipbuilding process] estimates are not very good," said McCoy. "Early estimates are not very good for price; they're not very good for size; they're not not very good for duration," McCoy said. "The British ship has a seven-and-a-half year build cycle. So, we're locked in. We said our build cycle will be seven-and-a-half years as well." If they can find ways to speed up the process, they will, he said. ANALYSIS Battle of the budget: DND gears up to defend cost of new warships in the new year Serving military member sues DND over mould exposure on warship Ottawa awards $2.4B contract to finish building navy's supply ships If that timeline holds, it means the federal government's marquee shipbuilding strategy will be two decades old by the time it produces the warship it was principally set up to create. While Irving has been pumping out smaller, less complicated arctic patrol ships and Seaspan, in Vancouver, is building coast guard and science vessels, the strategy conceived by the former Conservative government was driven by the necessity of replacing the navy's current fleet of Halifax-class frigates. Originally, when the shipbuilding strategy was unveiled, it envisioned Canada receiving the first new frigate in 2017. A lot of water, wishful thinking and even money has gone under the bridge since then. Building off existing design The current Liberal government, since taking over in 2015 and embracing the strategy, has been opaque in its public estimates of the build time; suggesting, in some documents, a delivery time in mid-2020s while other more internal records have pegged the first new frigate in the 2027 timeframe. The Department of National Defence, in a statement, acknowledged some of the design and build intricacies are now better understood, and because of that; the first warship will be "approximately 2-3 years later than the previous estimate." A spokeswoman echoed McCoy's remarks about finding ways to move construction along. "We continue to look for efficiencies and are actively working with industry to accelerate the project in order to deliver this important platform to the RCN as soon as possible," said National Defence spokesperson Jessica Lamirande. One of the ways they could do that, she said, would be to construct some, less complex modules of the warship early, the way it has been in the navy's Joint Support Ship project at Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyard. $1 billion and counting: Inside Canada's troubled efforts to build new warships Industry briefing questions Ottawa's choice of guns, defence systems for new frigates McCoy, a blunt-talking former U.S. Navy admiral, suggested the expectations going to the surface combatant program were ultimately unworkable because the federal government came in expecting to do a so-called "clean sheet" design; meaning a warship built completely from scratch. It was the shipyard, he said, which ultimately inched the federal government toward building off an existing design because of the enormous risk and expense of purpose-built ships, a position the Liberals adopted in the spring of 2016. The selection of the British Type 26 design by the Liberal government has spawned criticism, a court challenge and will figure prominently in upcoming reports by the auditor general and the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Combat capability packed into ship The nub of the complaints have been that the frigate is not yet in the water and is still under construction in the United Kingdom. The defence department acknowledged that adapting the British design to Canadian expectations and desires will take a year longer than originally anticipated and is now not scheduled to be completed until late 2023, early 2024. Canada, McCoy said, can expect to pay no more $2.5 billion to $3 billion, per ship as they are produced, which is, he claimed, about what other nations would pay for a warship of similar capability. "This is a big ship, lots of capability" he said, indicating that full displacement for the new frigate will likely be about 9,400 tonnes; almost double the 4,700 tonnes of the current Halifax-class. How much will Canada's new frigates really cost? The navy is about to find out PBO pushes up cost estimate for Canada's frigate build by $8 billion McCoy said what is not generally understood amid the public concern over scheduling and cost is the fact that the Canadian version of the Type 26 will be expected to do more than its British and Australian cousins. Where those navies have different warships, performing different functions, such as air defence or anti-submarine warfare, Canada's one class of frigates will be expected to perform both because that is what the government has called for in its requirements. Dave Perry, a defence analyst and vice president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, has studied the program and said he was surprised at the amount of combat capability that was being packed into the new warship. "On the one hand, Canada's one [class] of ship will have more combat capability than many of the other classes of ship that our friends and allies sail with, but it also adds an additional level of complexity and challenge getting all of that gear, all of that firepower into one single floating hull and platform," he said. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-shipbuilding-decade-frigates-1.5912961

  • Chinese Hackers Exploiting Cisco Switches Zero-Day to Deliver Malware

    July 2, 2024 | International, Security

    Chinese Hackers Exploiting Cisco Switches Zero-Day to Deliver Malware

    China-linked hackers exploit Cisco switch flaw to deliver malware. Unpatched D-Link routers expose user accounts.

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