14 juillet 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Serbia looks to join Spanish surveillance drone program
Belgrade has previously signaled interest, but it remains too early to tell in what capacity it would be joining the initiative.
13 novembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
Airbus expects updated industry call for Germany’s Tornado replacement contest
By: Sebastian Sprenger
BERLIN — Airbus expects an updated industry solicitation for Germany's multibillion-dollar Tornado replacement program, for which the company will offer an electronic attack-capable Eurofighter.
Wolfgang Gammel, the head of combat aircraft business development, said he learned about the impending update during conversations with Defence Ministry officials.
A ministerial spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the official line that an announcement about the acquisition program is expected in the first quarter of 2020 and that Berlin is looking to quickly replace its aging Tornado fleet.
The requirement for an electronic attack capability was absent from the original request for information when competitors placed their bids in the spring of 2018, Gammel told reporters Tuesday at the International Fighter Conference, a gathering of senior air force and industry leaders in Berlin.
After Lockheed Martin and its F-35 were eliminated early this year, that left only the Eurofighter and Boeing's F-18 Growler in the race.
An updated RFI presumably would reopen the competition between the remaining bidders as the acquisition process plays out anew on the question of electronic attack capabilities. Such a move would all but certainly result in a sizable delay, as German officials have been trying to be especially thorough in seeing the program through.
Airbus said introducing so-called escort jammer pods to the Eurofighter fleet, to be carried under the belly or the wings of the aircraft, would require little effort because the proposed integration strategy is meant to piggyback on upgrade efforts already on the books.
Complicating a pick between the Eurofighter and the F-18 is the requirement that Germany must keep a contingent of aircraft capable of carrying U.S. nuclear bombs under NATO's nuclear doctrine. That seemed to give Boeing's offering an advantage, German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung claimed in a report last month.
For its part, the F-18 is known for its ability to counter enemy air defenses, an area where Airbus now seeks to lay down its own marker.
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14 décembre 2022 | International, C4ISR
Pentagonâs AI ambitions require high-quality data, CDAOâs Martell says
Established in December 2021, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office hit its first full strides in June.
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14 septembre 2020 | International, Terrestre
Hungary is Rheinmetall’s launch customer for the Lynx fighting vehicle
By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Rheinmetall announced it has found the first-ever taker for its new Lynx infantry fighting vehicle, with Hungary buying 218 copies for more than $2 billion. Company executives celebrated the order as a key deal for the company, following an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Army's Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle replacement program last year. “The Lynx's market breakthrough is a major success for us,” Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said in a statement. “And the fact that we were able to convince Hungary — an important EU and NATO partner — to choose this innovative vehicle makes this success all the greater.” Hungary has been on a military shopping spree recently, with billions of dollars spent on American missile-defense weaponry and German Leopard 2 tanks in the most modern configuration. At the same time, the government of Prime Minister Victor Orban is at odds with much of the European Union over its curbing of press freedoms and sidelining parliamentary oversight under the pretext of a state of emergency in response to the spread of COVID-19. Rheinmetall's €2 billion (U.S. $2.4 billion) contract with the Hungarian government, signed in Budapest, is for 218 Lynx KF41 vehicles, nine Buffalo armored recovery vehicles, as well as spares and simulators, the company wrote in a statement. The Lynx vehicles will be equipped with Rheinmetall's manned Lance 30mm turret. Production is slated for two phases, with the first 46 Lynx copies and the nine Buffalos to be built in Germany and delivered by early 2023. A second batch of 172 Lynx vehicles will then roll off a future production line in Hungary, for which the company established a joint venture with the Hungarian government last month. Rheinmetall's newest vehicle is also in the running in the Czech Republic as well as Australia, where the company has something of a lock on much of the land modernization program. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/09/11/hungary-is-rheinmetalls-launch-customer-for-the-lynx-fighting-vehicle