April 21, 2024 | International, Aerospace
October 17, 2022 | International, Naval
Officials predict a new threat of high-intensity war, where battles may be fought underwater on the sea bed, in the air, in space, or on the surface.
April 24, 2018 | International, Naval
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan — State-of-the-art parts fabrication is keeping America's most advanced stealth fighter in the air during its first deployment aboard the USS Wasp. When a plastic bumper for a landing-gear door wore out this month on an F-35B Lightning II embarked on the amphibious assault ship, a 3-D printer was used to whip up a new one. The Iwakuni-based jet from Fighter Attack Squadron 121 later flew successfully with the new part, a Marine statement said. Called “additive manufacturing,” the process from Naval Air Systems Command allowed the Marines of Combat Logistics Battalion 31 to create the new bumper and get it approved for use within days, the statement said. Otherwise, they would have had to replace the entire door assembly, which is expensive and time consuming. “While afloat, our motto is ‘fix it forward,'” Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daniel Rodriguez, CLB-31's maintenance officer, said in the statement. “3-D printing is a great tool to make that happen.” The Navy said parts created using the 3-D printer are only a temporary fix, but it kept the jet from being grounded while waiting for a replacement from the United States. Lt. Col Richard Rusnok, commander of VMFA-121, lauded the use of the new technology. “Although our supply personnel and logisticians do an outstanding job getting us parts, being able to rapidly make our own parts is a huge advantage as it cuts down our footprint thus making us more agile in a shipboard or expeditionary environment,” he said in the statement. Marine Sgt. Adrian Willis, a computer and telephone technician who created the bumper, said he was thrilled to be involved in the process. “I think 3-D printing is definitely the future — it's absolutely the direction the Marine Corps needs to be going,” he said in the statement. The printer has been used multiple times during the patrol, the Navy said, including to create a lens cap for a camera on a small, unmanned ground vehicle used by an explosive ordnance disposal team. Templates for the parts will be uploaded to a Marine Corps-wide 3-D printing database to make them accessible to other units. bolinger.james@stripes.com Twitter: @bolingerj2004 https://www.stripes.com/news/3-d-printer-keeps-f-35b-flying-during-uss-wasp-deployment-1.522987
June 15, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
DEFENSE Qu'est-ce que la Base industrielle et technologique de défense (BITD) ? Selon L'Opinion, l'ancien candidat LREM à la mairie de Paris et porte-parole du gouvernement Benjamin Griveaux se serait vu confié en tant que député une mission sur la « Base industrielle et technologique de défense » (BITD). Durant deux mois, il serait chargé avec le député Les Républicains Jean-Louis Thieriot de se pencher sur la place des industries de défense dans le plan de relance post-Covid-19. L'occasion pour l'Usine Nouvelle d'expliquer dans un article ce qu'est la BITD. L'Observatoire économique de la Défense, rattaché au ministère des Armées, établit chaque année cette Base industrielle et technologique de la défense. Elle regroupe l'ensemble des entreprises contribuant directement ou indirectement à la production ou au maintien en condition opérationnelle des armements : elles sont soit fournisseurs directs du ministère des Armées, soit sous-traitants des grands maîtres d'oeuvre industriels de la Défense. En 2018, il s'agissait d'une dizaine de grands groupes de taille mondiale (groupe Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Naval Group, MBDA, Nexter, Safran, Thales...) et 4 000 PME, soit environ 200 000 emplois, qui étaient comptabilisés. L'Usine Nouvelle du 12 juin 2020