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By: Otto Kreisher WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of senior Navy civilian officials said the planning efforts for the future combat fleet was focused on making the fleet more flexible, interoperable and lethal. There also is an emphasis on open architecture to make it easier, quicker and cheaper to upgrade combat systems, they said. Those priorities would reduce the cost of sustaining the fleet going forward, the officials said at the American Society of Naval Engineers' annual Technology, Systems & Ship symposium on June 19. Michael Stewart, deputy director for integrated warfare systems, said his job was to look at the available capabilities across all the different surface platforms to make the fleet more capable and lethal. He also would ensure that all requirements going forward were clearly tied to the National Defense Strategy, since “we can't afford to fund everything.” John Hootman, the deputy director for surface warfare, said he was looking at the architecture for the future surface combatants in the 2030-2040 timeframe, when the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and some of the early Arleigh Burke destroyers would be retiring. But, he said, “we can't know what we'll need until we know how we'll fight.” In response to a question, Hootman praised the creation of the Surface Development Squadron, which will help in that effort to determine how the future fleet would fight. Hootman also emphasized the need to look at capabilities across the fleet, not at specific platforms, to promote commonality across the fleet, including a common combat system that could equip the whole range of surface combatants and even the amphibious ships. But that focus on common systems also could apply to the hull, mechanical and electrical elements of future ships. “The push for commonality is key.” Another official extended that quest to communications systems, arguing that every different circuit in the fleet reduces capacity, flexibility and the ability to integrate operations in the strike group. Steven Dries, filling in for Rear Adm. Steven Pardoe, director of integrated warfare, noted that the capabilities that ships would need in the future will change, which makes it all the more important to field systems that can be modernized with software changes, rather than having to tear out hardware. Hootman stressed the same thing as a way to more efficiently modernize ships and gain commonality. He also cited the savings in training sailors to operate and maintain systems that are common across platforms. https://news.usni.org/2019/06/19/navy-mulling-how-to-make-surface-fleet-flexible-lethal

By: Ben Werner WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Navy's next large surface combatant will probably look more like the futuristic Zumwalt class of guided-missile destroyers than fleet's current workhorse class of Arleigh Burke destroyers, the program executive officer said. Navy and industry designers are talking about increased payloads, increased computing and increased design flexibility when considering the possible capabilities of the fleet's next large surface combatant, Rear Adm. William Galinis, the Navy's program executive officer for ships, said during the American Society of Naval Engineering's annual Technology, Systems & Ship symposium on Tuesday. Designers also have to consider that the Navy now plans to operate in an increasingly contested environment, which means taking into account how adversaries will see the new ship class on radars. “The signature aspect of it, what does that do to the shaping of deckhouse hull form. I will tell you, not to predispose anything, but I think in the end, you know, it's probably going to look a lot more like a DDG-1000 than a DDG-51 if I had to say so,” Galinis said. “But there's still a lot of work to kind of go do in that area.” Galinis was speaking during the opening keynote address at the 2019 TSS conference. Rear Adm. Lorin Selby, the Navy's chief engineer and deputy commander for ship design at Naval Sea Systems Command, joined Galinis during the keynote. The Navy had planned to buy the first of its new class of large surface combatant in 2023, but Galinis said the Navy has since pushed back the start date. USNI News first reported the Navy now is looking at awarding a contract in Fiscal Year 2025. The current Arleigh Burke-class multi-year contract expires in 2022. By pushing back the production timeline, Galinis said the Navy can refine its requirements now and incorporate feedback from industry and current programs to help improve the ship design and control costs. As an example, Galinis said the Navy continues learning from the DDG-1000 program. The Navy is applying a lot of acquisition and production lessons learned from the Zumwalt class experience to the Columbia-class submarine program, Galinis said. “When you start thinking about large surface combatant, that's going to be a key element of that acquisition strategy,” Galinis said. At the same time, the current emphasis on developing new ships is increasing the demand for ship design expertise, Selby said. He wants to establish a constant design workflow so the Navy doesn't lose talent during the years between ship major designs. “There's a lot of design work across the enterprise,” Selby said. “We really have to work hard to build that talent base back up.” When introducing Galinis and Selby, retired Navy Capt. Richard White, the TSS 2019 committee chair, said Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer had requested that conference attendees not ask questions about aircraft carriers. During his keynote address highlighting recent advances naval ship design, Galinis merely said, “the one new design over the last couple of years is obviously the Ford-class carrier, but we're not going to talk a lot about that over the next couple of days.” During the second day of TSS 2019, White provided clarification to his previous comments regarding the discussion of aircraft carriers. When planning this year's conference, the decision was made to focus on surface ships. There was no direction from the Navy regarding asking about aircraft carriers. “I did not receive any direction from the Secretary of the Navy,” White said. https://news.usni.org/2019/06/19/navy-next-large-surface-combatant-will-look-a-lot-like-zumwalt

By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― The Democratic-controlled House passed a $985 billion appropriations package for fiscal 2020 that aims to fund national security at $17 billion less than the White House requested, end the post-2001 war authorizations after eight months, pull military support in Yemen and defund the W76-2 nuclear warhead. The vote was 225-203, with seven Democrats voting with the Republican minority. Zero Republicans voted for the bill. It's a salvo from Democrats in FY20 budget negotiations with the GOP-controlled Senate and White House, and the White House has threatened that President Donald Trump would veto the massive bill. Beyond the above provisions and others, the administration strongly objected to language meant to block Pentagon funds being applied to a wall on the southern border. The threat foreshadows pushback from the Senate and the White House, in part because both advocated for a $750 billion national defense budget, while the House-passed bill is consistent with a $733 billion national defense budget. (The House bill would fund the Pentagon alone at $8 billion less than the White House request.) The four-bill “minibus” contained the two largest of the 12 annual appropriations bills; the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill and the Defense bill. For the defense, it totaled $645.1 billion in base-defense funding, and $68.1 billion in the budget-cap-exempt wartime funding account. House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., emphasized the package's investments outside the Pentagon, including a 4 percent increase in State Department funding. “This bill rejects the administration's unacceptable budget request and irresponsible policies and, rather, strives to uphold many bipartisan congressional priorities,” Lowey said when the bill was introduced. “America's foreign policy is strongest when diplomacy, development and defense are well-funded and equally prioritized, as many of today's global challenges cannot be addressed by military intervention alone.” Republicans have opposed the minibus as an empty exercise because Congress lacks a bipartisan deal to ease spending caps and avoid across-the-board sequestration cuts. Nor does the bill contain border wall funding sought by conservative Republicans. “Moving these bills as-is is a wasted opportunity because the bills are far from what the president has requested and will support,” said the House Appropriations Committee's ranking member, Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas. “Defense spending does not meet the request while nondefense spending greatly exceeds the request in current levels. This could lead to a veto and another government shutdown, something both [parties] agree would be devastating ― in addition to these funding concerns.” The White House issued a veto threat last week that spelled out its objections to provisions in the bill that would end the post-2001 war authorizations after eight months and pull military support in Yemen―and because the House parked less defense spending in the budget-cap skirting war fund. The language surrounding the authorization for the use of military force, Granger said, could jeopardize the Pentagon's ability to conduct military operations worldwide. “It's a bad policy that will force the DoD to unwind counterterrorism operations overseas if the Congress and the president cannot agree on a new authorization,” she said. To avoid another government shutdown, 12 appropriations bills must pass Congress and get the president's signature by Oct. 1. Negotiations between the White House and lead lawmakers on a deal to ease budget caps has been ongoing, according to a statement last week by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.. (The Senate Appropriations Committee hasn't yet moved any of its bills.) Another likely sticking point in budget talks with the GOP-controlled Senate and the White House is the minibus' bill's prohibition on the Defense Department spending funds to implement its policy on open transgender service. The vote to approve an amendment that contained the prohibition broke mostly along party lines, 234-183. The amendment targets a March 12 memo that would largely bar transgender troops and military recruits from transitioning to another gender, and require most individuals to serve in their birth sex. The House defeated Republican amendments that would have added back $19.6 million for the W76-2 low-yield submarine-launched nuclear warhead and would have added back $96 million for “conventional missile systems” in the range of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. However, it also defeated a Democratic amendment that would have barred funding for research on the Long Range Standoff weapon. The bill was passed out of committee with language to restrict the Pentagon's authority to transfer money between accounts to $1.5 billion ― a response from Democrats to the administration's use of defense funds for Trump's proposed border wall. Next week, the House is expected to take up a separate minibus that contains the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, which was at the heart of last year's 35-day government shutdown. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/06/19/house-passes-983-billion-spending-package-226-203-bucking-white-house/

MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY DTechLogic LLC, a joint venture** Huntsville, Alabama, is being awarded a competitive cost-plus-award-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost-reimbursable contract. The total value of this contract is $255,909,986. The contractor will provide the infrastructure and cybersecurity engineering necessary to support ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) and related ground testing in a continuous integration/continuous agile testing (CI/CAT) environment. The work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama. The performance period is from June 2019 through June 2024. This award is the result of a competitively awarded acquisition in which four offers were received. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $100,000 are being obligated on this award. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity (HQ0147-19-C-0012). AIR FORCE ArmorWorks Enterprises, Chandler, Arizona, has been awarded a $206,073,316 firm-fixed-price contract for delivery of payload transporters. This contract provides for replacement of aging payload transporters. Work will be performed in Chandler, Arizona, and is expected to be complete by July 30, 2024. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2018 procurement funds in the amount of $31,322,624 are being obligated at the time of award. The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Contracting Division, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8204-19-C-0005). DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY Dell Federal Systems, Round Rock, Texas, was awarded a firm fixed order for $82,895,710 (Base-plus-2) and FAR 52.217-8 six months extension in the estimated amount of $13,815,951 with an estimated total of $96,711,662, using fiscal 19 O&M funds (HT0015-19-F-0087). This is an enterprise-level blanket purchase agreement (BPA) call for Microsoft software and support against the Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) BPA for Microsoft. This procurement is to renew Microsoft licenses for 72 customers within Defense Health Agency (DHA), Air Force, Army, and Navy. These licenses are required for products including VISIO Professional, Windows Server Standard, Project Standard, and SQL Server Enterprise. The requirement was competitively solicited among all awardees under the ESI multi-award BPA for Microsoft, and the proposals were evaluated on the lowest-price-technically-acceptable (LPTA) basis. The amount of $27,631,903 for the base year is obligated at the time of the award. The DHA Health Information Technology Contracting Division (HIT-CD), located in San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity (HT0015). (Awarded June 10, 2019) NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is awarded a $76,670,049 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-18-C-5103 to exercise options for AEGIS development and test sites operation and maintenance at the Combat Systems Engineering Development Site, SPY-1A Test Facility and Naval Systems Computing Center. This option exercise is for continued technical engineering, configuration management, associated equipment/supplies, quality assurance, information assurance and other operation and maintenance efforts required for the AEGIS development and test sites. This option exercise also provides for the continuing site maintenance and planned improvements of the sites for AEGIS Combat System and Aegis Weapon System upgrades to CG-47 and DDG-51 class ships through the completion of Advanced Capability Build 20 and Technology Insertion 16, in addition to AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense and FMS requirements. This contract modification combines purchases for the U.S. Navy (34.7%), Missile Defense Agency (MDA) (22.7%) and the governments of Japan (34.4%), Australia (4.7%), South Korea (2.1%), and Norway (1.4%) under the foreign military sales program. Work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey, and is expected to be complete by June 2020. Foreign military sales (Japan, Australia, South Korea, Norway); fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (MDA); fiscal 2019 operation and maintenance (MDA); fiscal 2019 operation and maintenance (Navy); fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $29,746,093 will be obligated at time of award, and funding in the amount of $4,617,194 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Data Intelligence LLC,* Marlton, New Jersey, is awarded a $12,584,840 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide cybersecurity and security engineering-related services to the Department of Defense, National Guard Bureau and Department of Homeland Security. This two-year contract includes one, three-year option period which, if exercised, would bring the potential value of this contract to an estimated $31,832,280. Work will be performed in Marlton, New Jersey (25%) and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (75%), and work is expected to be completed June 18, 2021. If the option is exercised, work will continue through June 18, 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated as task orders are issued using operations and maintenance (Navy and Army); other procurement (Navy); research and development (Air Force); research, development, test and evaluation (Navy), and acquisition, contracts and improvements (Coast Guard). This contract was competitively procured via Request for Proposal N66001-17-R-0066 and publication on the Federal Business Opportunities website and NAVWAR e-Commerce Central website. Nine offers were received, and one was selected for award. The Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N66001-19-D-0076). Ultralife Corp., Newark, New York, is awarded a $9,985,687 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract procures Universal Vehicle Adapter radio battery chargers, MRC-UVA-V1, in support of the Family of Special Operations Vehicles Ground Mobility Vehicle and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected platforms. Work will be performed in Newark, New York, and is expected to be completed in June 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was a limited competition in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 3.02-1(c) via an electronic request for proposal posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website, with one offer received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (N68335-19-D-0132). ARMY B.L. Harbert International LLC, Birmingham, Alabama, was awarded a $67,147,000 firm-fixed-price contract for a general purpose warehouse at Red River Army Depot, Texas. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work will be performed in Texarkana, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 22, 2023. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 military construction and operations and maintenance Army funds in the combined amount of $67,147,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth, Texas, is the contracting activity (W9126G-19-C-0029). General Dynamics Mission Systems, Taunton, Massachusetts, was awarded a $20,576,456 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for system engineering and program management support for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Increment 2 systems and equipment. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Taunton, Massachusetts, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 13, 2020. Fiscal 2019 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $17,582,214 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W15P7T-10-D-C007). Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Connecticut, was awarded a $14,991,526 modification (P00005) to foreign military sales (Saudi Arabia) contract W58RGZ-17-C-0009 to procure the Post Green DD250 aircraft support, storage and maintenance for UH-60M aircraft for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of the National Guard. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2022. Fiscal 2019 foreign military sales funds in the amount of $14,991,526 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Pine Bluff Sand and Gravel Co., White Hall, Arkansas, was awarded a $9,925,269 modification (P00009) to contract W912EQ-16-C-0008 for the rental of the dustpan hydraulic pipeline dredge for up to six month to perform maintenance dredging within the Mississippi River and tributaries to authorized channel dimensions. Work will be performed in New Orleans, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 23, 2019. Fiscal 2019 Mississippi River and tributaries civil funds in the amount of $9,925,269 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Memphis, Tennessee, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Pama Inc.,* Elgin, Illinois, has been awarded a maximum $7,102,814 firm-fixed-price contract for horizontal boring mills. This is a one-year contract with no option periods. This was a sole source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. Locations of performance are Illinois and Italy, with an Oct. 30, 2020, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Richmond, Virginia (SPE4A8-19-C-0002). *Small business **Woman Owned Small Business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1881299/source/GovDelivery/

By: Cal Pringle WASHINGTON — The U.S. Marine Corps is testing a prototype laser weapon that could be used by war fighters on the ground to counter enemy drones, according to a Wednesday news release. The prototype Compact Laser Weapons System — or CLaWS — is the first ground-based laser approved by the Defense Department for use by ground troops, the Marine Corps explained. The program is on a rapid prototyping, rapid delivery track, the service said. “This project, from start to finish — from when we awarded the DOTC [Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium] contract, to getting all the integration complete, all the testing complete, getting the Marines trained, and getting the systems ready to deploy — took about one year,” said Lt. Col. Ho Lee, product manager for ground-based air defense future weapons systems at Program Executive Office Land Systems. The Defense Department believes lasers are a more affordable alternative to traditional firepower and that they prevent drones from tracking and targeting Marines on the ground. The release notes the laser is not a standalone weapon, but is meant to serve as part of a larger counter-drone system. If the prototype is successful, it could be incorporated into fixed-site and mobile capabilities designed to counter unmanned aircraft, the Marine Corps said. The Army and Navy are also exploring the possibilities of laser technology. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2019/06/19/us-marines-to-test-drone-killing-laser-weapon/

By: Kelsey Reichmann WASHINGTON — The U.S. agency responsible for making explosive materials used in nuclear weapons is facing challenges that could impact the country's planned modernization of its nuclear arsenal, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous agency within the Energy Department, is facing three main challenges, according to the report: a dwindling supply of explosive materials, aging and deteriorating infrastructure, and difficulty in recruiting and training qualified staff. This report comes amid congressional debate over the cost of modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, an effort driven by President Donald Trump. NNSA's supply of materials, which are “highly specialized” with specific chemical and physical characteristics, are in low supply, the report says. Furthermore, the NNSA is lacking the knowledge base to produce the materials, as the recipes to make them were not well-documented, or the processes themselves infrequently practiced, the report notes. Challenges in obtaining materials is not a new issue for the NNSA, the watchdog notes. The agency experienced a similar situation with a material known as “Fogbank,” and the GAO reported in March 2009 that the NNSA lacked the knowledge to manufacture the material — leaving the process for Fogbank “dormant for about 25 years." Fogbank is used in the production of the W76-1, a warhead for the Navy's Trident ballistic missile. Under the Trump administration's plans for a new low-yield nuclear weapon, the U.S. is making a W76-2 variant, which entered production earlier this year. The GAO notes that when the NNSA is actually able to replicate formulas for materials, procuring those materials has proved challenging, given the irregular and small order specifications to contractors. But the GAO identifies aging infrastructure as the greatest risk to the NSSA. “The NNSA 2019 Master Asset Plan states that 40 percent of the explosives infrastructure of NNSA's sites is insufficient to meet mission needs, which can lead to contamination of explosive products or limit the use of facilities,” the report says. It notes that contamination has already occurred from rust falling off rafters and grass blowing through cracks in the walls, contaminating batches of explosives. Aging facilities must receive updates to modern safety standards to protect employees, the GAO says. The Los Alamos High Explosives Chemistry Laboratory, for example, was built in the 1950s and has struggled to adopt to modern instrumentation, according to the report. Facilities also deal with limited storage, the report says, meaning explosives can be stored in a single location where they could potentially cause a chemical reaction. The report also cites NNSA documents that describe challenges in recruiting qualified staff, who often must have a security clearance. For example, Pantex, a contractor hired by the agency, in 2018 estimated it would need 211 full-time staff members. However, in November that year, it reported only 172 full-time employees. Officials with agency contractors told the GAO that the problem is largely due to the competitive industry; in particular, Pantex competes with oil and gas companies in Texas. The company has now expanded its recruitment efforts to include local colleges and universities, the report says. In a written response to the report, the head of the NNSA, Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, said the “GAO's observations and recommendations are consistent with [the Department of Energy]/NNSA's recent efforts to centralize management of energetic material." The Office of Safety, Infrastructure, and Operations previously identified many of the infrastructure data issues presented in the report and developed a series of actions aimed at improving the accuracy of asset data,” she wrote. “These efforts have already resulted in improved data quality, and the accuracy and consistency of data will continue to improve as additional actions are completed.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/the-americas/2019/06/19/government-watchdog-finds-3-issues-disrupting-us-nuclear-modernization-efforts/

By: Mike Yeo MELBOURNE, Australia — The U.S. Department of Defense has announced a contract award for 34 Insitu ScanEagle drones under the Foreign Military Sales program to partners in the Asia-Pacific region. Under the $47.9 million contract, announced May 31, the UAVs are for the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Respectively, they will take delivery of twelve, eight, eight and six ScanEagles. The manufacturer is a Boeing subsidiary. The announcement marks the first time that military equipment will be transferred to Vietnam following the end of a U.S. arms embargo imposed since the communist takeover there in 1975. It was fully lifted in 2016. The order also provides for spare payloads, spare and repair parts, support equipment, tools, training, technical services, and field service representatives. Work is expected to be completed in 2022. Defense News understands from multiple sources that the UAVs will be provided to these countries by the U.S. government, although there are conflicting reports on whether these will falls under the purview of the DoD's capacity-building program or the maritime security initiative announced in 2015. One of the key advantages of the ScanEagle is its ability to be launched by a pneumatic catapult unit and recovered by Insitu's Skyhook system, which means it can be operated from any patch of open space or from aboard a ship, negating the need for a runway. Sensor payloads available for the UAV include electro-optic, infrared and high-resolution video cameras that enable the operator to track stationary and moving targets. The UAVs will assist the recipient countries in improving maritime domain awareness over their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. The contract announcement came on the same day that the DoD released its latest Indo-Pacific Strategy Report. The document lists as key priorities, among other things, building partner capacity and enhancing maritime domain awareness for third party partners in the region, as well as strengthening interoperability that includes increased information sharing between the U.S. and other like-minded countries in the region. All the recipient nations in this contract have interests in the South China Sea, with Indonesia being the only country among this group of four that does not claim ownership of any of the islands, features and rocks in the disputed Spratly or Paracel groups. https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2019/06/05/these-us-partners-in-the-asia-pacific-are-to-receive-scaneagle-drones/

Par BOQUET Justine Plusieurs entreprises allemandes s'associent au sein du consortium FCMS pour participer au développement du système de combat aérien du futur. Le 19 juin, à l'occasion de la 53ème édition du salon du Bourget, plusieurs entreprises allemandes ont annoncé leur association à travers l'établissement d'un consortium dans le cadre du programme SCAF. Ce sont ainsi les sociétés Hensoldt, Diehl Defence, ESG et Rohde & Schwarz qui coopèreront au sein du consortium FCMS (Future Combat Mission System Consortium). Il s'agit ainsi d' « une union ayant pour objectif d'assumer la responsabilité liée à la thématique complexe de l'utilisation en réseau des capteurs et des effecteurs au sein du réseau SCAF », rapportent les parties prenantes. L'ambition est par ailleurs de faire émerger de nouveaux savoir-faire et technologies au sein de l'industrie allemande et ainsi de pouvoir intégrer de nouvelles solutions dans les technologies employées par les forces aériennes européennes. Hensoldt s'est félicité de cette association d'acteurs industriels allemands. Celia Pelaz, responsable de la division Spectrum Dominance & Airborne Solutions a ainsi déclaré : « Nous avons la conviction que l'union au sein de ce consortium des compétences individuelles d'excellence dans le domaine des capteurs et des effecteurs, de la communication et des systèmes de mission apportera une précieuse contribution en vue de satisfaire les besoins opérationnels correspondants des acteurs militaires dans le cadre du programme SCAF ». https://www.air-cosmos.com/article/bourget-2019-un-consortium-allemand-pour-le-scaf-10442

Boeing has awarded a contract to BAE Systems to supply the vehicle management control system and identification friend or foe (IFF) system for the MQ-25 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). With the contract, BAE Systems is the latest company to join the industry team for the US Navy's MQ-25 project. MQ-25 is the navy's first operational carrier-based unmanned aircraft. The aircraft will provide refuelling capabilities to help extend the combat range of F/A-18 Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler and F-35C fighters. BAE Systems Military Aircraft Systems director Corin Beck said: “BAE Systems leads the industry in high-integrity fly-by-wire and mission-critical IFF technologies. Our relationship with Boeing started more than four decades ago and has resulted in aircraft that have some of the most advanced avionics and reduced size transponders in the world.” The role of the vehicle management control system will be to control all flight surfaces and take care of overall vehicle management duties for the UAV. BAE Systems' IFF system will identify both coalition and enemy aircraft to enable operation in contested environments. Boeing is under an engineering and manufacturing development contract to provide four MQ-25 aircraft to the navy. Boeing MQ-25 programme director Dave Bujold said: “The MQ-25 programme is vital because it will help the US Navy extend the range of the carrier air wing, and Boeing and our industry team is all-in on delivering this capability. “The work we're doing is also foundational for the future of Boeing, where we're building autonomous systems from seabed to space.” In addition, Boeing has awarded contracts to GE Aviation and Parker Aerospace. GE Aviation will supply a stores management solution for the MQ-25 programme. Parker Aerospace is required to supply flight control tail actuation. Other companies to have received contracts for the programme include Harris, Curtiss-Wright's Defense Solutions, and Cubic Mission Solutions. https://www.naval-technology.com/news/boeing-selects-bae-systems-for-mq-25-tanker-programme/