5 juillet 2019 | International, Naval
The Ministry of Defence has signed an £85 million contract with Rolls-Royce to maintain the engines of the Royal Navy's Type-23 frigate fleet.
The contract includes a comprehensive support package to Spey gas turbines, including the overhaul of engines, provision of spares, as well as engineering and safety support. Updates to the turbines are vital as they boost propulsion in the Type-23 Frigates. They are also key pieces of equipment for Anti-Submarine Warfare.
The world-beating Type-23 frigate is able to carry out a wide variety of operations, from securing the UK's vital maritime trade routes East of the Suez Canal to safeguarding British interests in the South Atlantic.
Defence Minister Stuart Andrew announced the contract at HMNB Devonport where he saw Thursday War training which prepares the Royal Navy for war-fighting, humanitarian relief and emergency situations through a variety of drills and exercises.
Defence Minister Stuart Andrew said:
This £85m contract demonstrates the UK's commitment to modernisation through the maintenance of our formidable Type-23s. This work continues the British tradition of supporting our closest allies and solidifying our global position as world-leaders in advanced maritime technology and development.
The contract will see Rolls-Royce overhaul thirty Type-23 engines from the UK and NATO partners Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands.
The contract is expected to deliver a £35 million increase in savings to the MOD over the next eight years, by incentivising Rolls-Royce to improve repair schemes, minimise unnecessary work and procure spares at a lower cost. This will result in shorter, less expensive overhauls.
Rolls-Royce will project manage the support contract, while the main overhaul and repair work will be carried out by RWG based in Aberdeen, supporting up to 25 UK jobs across both companies.
Scotland benefits from MOD expenditure of £300 per person each year and a huge investment in local industry and commerce of £1.6 billion. UK Defence also supports over 10,000 industry jobs in Scotland and the nation is renowned for building the world's finest warships including the UK's new aircraft carriers and the Royal Navy's state-of-the-art Type-26 frigates.
Defence Equipment and Support Chief of Materiel Ships Vice Admiral Chris Gardner said:
The Type 23 frigate is central to Royal Navy operations around the world and keeping it at the forefront of operations is critical.
This contract will ensure Rolls-Royce continues to innovate through improving repair schemes, minimising unnecessary work and procuring spares cheaper. This will result in shorter, less expensive overhauls, which is good news for the Royal Navy and good news for the tax payer.
Matt Nadin, Director Naval Fleet Services at Rolls-Royce said:
This vital support contract builds upon our Rolls-Royce target to achieve and sustain increased Spey engine availability to the Royal Navy and their NATO partners, The Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.
This contract highlights our successful collaboration with the UK Ministry of Defence to provide the technical support and repair activities required to not only keep these engines in-service with the Royal Navy and their NATO partners, but also to deliver increased value for money.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/85m-contract-to-boost-type-23-capabilities
21 avril 2021 | International, C4ISR
To deal with disruptions to GPS, sometimes caused by malicious jamming or spoofing, Honeywell is developing several alternative navigation technologies for military aircraft.
18 octobre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR
By: Adam Stone In the face of a rising near-peer threat to electronic communications, the Air Force is pressing forward with efforts to develop a new, more resilient, harder-to-jam waveform that soldiers could use on the battlefield. The service expects to receive responses from industry soon on a recent request for information around protected satellite communications. The request sought industry guidance on how best to implement a new, more resilient protected tactical waveform (PTW), which enables anti-jamming capabilities within protected tactical SATCOM. “The Air Force is looking to protect our warfighter's satellite communications against adversarial electronic jamming,” the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) said in a written statement to C4ISRNet. The threat comes from “adversarial electronic jammers that are intended to disrupt and interfere with U.S. satellite communications,” leaders at SMC said. Protected tactical SATCOM is envisioned to provide worldwide, anti-jam communications to tactical warfighters in benign and contested environments. The quest to solidify satellite communication links has taken on increasing urgency in recent years. As satellite communications has emerged as an integral component in the military's command and control infrastructure, potential adversaries have stepped up their ability to disrupt such links. “Tactical satellite communications are vital to worldwide military operations,” the agency noted. “Our adversaries know this and desire to disrupt U.S. satellite communications. The Air Force is fielding Protected Tactical SATCOM capabilities to ... ensure warfighters around the globe have access to secure and reliable communications.” Industry is expected to play a key role in the development and deployment of any new waveform. Officials at SMC said that early prototyping efforts will be conducted through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), which is managed by Advanced Technology International. SpEC acts as a vehicle to facilitate federally-funded space-related prototype projects with an eye toward increasing flexibility, decreasing cost and shortening the development lifecycle. The organization claims 16 prototype awards to date, with some $26 million in funding awarded. Understanding the protected tactical waveform Government documents describe PTW as the centerpiece of the broader protected tactical SATCOM effort, noting that it provides “cost-effective, protected communications over both military and commercial satellites in multiple frequency bands as well as broader protection, more resiliency, more throughput and more efficient utilization of satellite bandwidth.” A flight test last year at Hansom Air Force Base suggested the emerging tool may soon be ready to deliver on such promises. While SMC leads the PTW effort, Hanscom is working in collaboration with MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the MITRE Corp. to conduct ground and airborne terminal work. Researchers from MIT's Lincoln Laboratory flew a Boeing 707 test aircraft for two and a half hours in order to use the waveform in flight. With a commercial satellite, officials gathered data on the PTW's ability to operate under realistic flight conditions. “We know this capability is something that would help our warfighters tremendously, as it will not only provide anti-jam communications, but also a low probability of detection and intercept,” Bill Lyons, Advanced Development program manager and PTW lead at Hanscom, said in an Air Force news release. The test scenario called for the waveform to perform in an aircraft-mounted terminal. Evaluators were looking to see whether its systems and algorithms would function as expected in a highly mobile environment. “Everything worked and we got the objectives accomplished successfully,” Ken Hetling, Advanced Satcom Systems and Operations associate group leader at Lincoln Laboratory, said in an Air Force press release. “The waveform worked.” Asking for industry input should help the service to chart its next steps in the development of more protections. While the request does not specify when or how the Air Force intends to move forward, it is clearly a matter not of whetherthe military will go down this road, but rather when and how. https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/satellites/2018/10/05/air-force-looks-for-help-on-new-hard-to-jam-satellite-waveform/
10 septembre 2023 | International, Aérospatial
“The longer you take to get started, obviously, that has back-end consequences,” Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter told Defense News.