3 mars 2021 | International, Aérospatial
SCAF, faut-il persévérer dans l’erreur ?
CHRONIQUE. "Une réflexion sur la pérennité de la coopération bilatérale franc...
23 septembre 2020 | International, Terrestre, Autre défense
After munition worker deaths, Army floats $16 billion plan to modernize production
WASHINGTON ― U.S. Army officials told lawmakers Tuesday they are seeking a new 15-year, $16 billion strategy to modernize and automate the military's aging munitions plants following nearly a dozen worker deaths and injuries over recent years.
In Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee testimony, Army officials suggested workers who handle dangerous materials could be replaced by robotics and computers as part of their ambitious plan. The testimony came as lawmakers are deliberating over a proposed reshaping of the Pentagon's explosives oversight body, as part of the 2021 defense policy bill.
“We're essentially making the explosives in a manner very much like we did in World War I in some cases, World War II in others,” Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Bruce Jette told lawmakers. “We literally have people standing under machines that are full of 1,500 pounds of molten explosives, drooling it into artillery shells to fill them up, and then they push the carts away. We don't have automation, we don't have robotics.”
Lawmakers described the ammunition industrial base as fragile because of its dependence on foreign sources of materials and because its aging facilities need of safety upgrades. (Munitions production facilities are contractor operated, with some owned by the government.)
Army officials largely agreed, saying they rely on 55 foreign suppliers for certain equipment and materials ― such as a TNT-replacement 2,4-Dinitroanisole, which comes from India ― because costs, environmental regulations and legal liabilities make many of them harder to develop in the United States. The Army even relies on a small volume of detonators and pyrotechnics from China, Jette said.
The Army is studying how to wean itself from foreign suppliers. At the same time, Jette has not ruled out supplies from Canada, Mexico and elsewhere, if a surge is needed, adding that he personally visited a South Korean factory that once supplied the U.S. with bullets at .50 caliber and below.
Calling safety a top priority, Army officials said human handling of the energetics, explosives and acids associated with munitions can be replaced with “process automation or other technology solutions, freeing the workforce to focus on technical oversight.” More than 80 percent of major mishaps at munitions facilities were caused by human error, they said.
“Three deaths in the last ten years on our facilities, two of them were related to the manufacturing process: We don't need to have that happen anymore,” Jette said. “I do not want to be the ASAALT and get another phone call that there's another death on something I could have provided the improvement to.”
Jette said the 2017 death of Lake City Army Ammunition Plant worker Lawrence Bass, 55, “should not have occurred,” and that Bass ― killed while handling an explosive component called tetrazine ― was performing his duties in accordance with procedures.
“His death is in fact a catalyst in transforming our approach, as opposed to modernizing under current circumstances. He should never have been in that close proximity where that event could have happened,” Jette said. “Should it happen with a machine, I can buy another machine.”
Still, modernizing in the way Army officials seek would require Congress appropriate roughly $1 billion per year for 15 years, which is more than twice what the Army has asked over the last three years. It's an open question whether Congress would be as inclined to support the munitions productions facilities, if they support fewer jobs.
“The idea of making it safer for workers, there's no doubt about that, but because these plants have grown up since the '40′s," said Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee Chairman Donald Norcross, D-N.J. "You eliminate many of those jobs, there's potential of that support also going.”
Asked what more industry could do to shoulder the cost of modernizing facilities, Jette suggested it would be better if the government made the investments upfront as industry would only pass the costs on later.
“This is the United States military's industrial base for munitions. We need to own that, not have anything beholden IP-wise or any other way to the defense industry or any other supplier," Jette said.
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4 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial
Karem Aircraft announces FARA Competitive Prototype team
Karem Aircraft Press Release Karem Aircraft, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Raytheon Company have formed a team to execute the U.S. Army Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Competitive Prototype (FARA CP) development contract. FARA CP will provide the U.S. Army with a new armed scout aircraft. The three companies will apply decades of combined knowledge, skills, and abilities to bring the best of vehicle and systems technologies and processes to the first aircraft within the Future Vertical Lift family of systems. Karem's unique active variable speed rotor technologies have been developed over the last decade through extensive collaboration with the U.S. Army. “Karem has enjoyed a strong partnership with the U.S. Army over the last decade collaboratively developing VTOL technologies and we look forward to leveraging the U.S. Army's investment by applying these innovative technologies to our FARA aircraft,” said Thomas Berger, Karem's program manager for FARA CP. “With our two exceptional partners, each with a strong track record of delivering combat capability in support of the warfighter, we are now able to provide a complete solution for the U.S. Army that maintains battlefield superiority into the future.” This expertise will be augmented with Northrop Grumman's manned and autonomous military aircraft development, system integration, production, and support expertise and Raytheon's systems architecture, mission equipment, and weapons capabilities. The Karem Aircraft-Northrop Grumman-Raytheon team will work collaboratively with the U.S. Army's multidisciplinary team to meet the needs of the FARA CP program. https://www.verticalmag.com/press-releases/karem-aircraft-announces-fara-competitive-prototype-team/
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24 avril 2018 | International, Naval
3-D printer keeps F-35B flying during USS Wasp deployment
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