31 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR

Armaments consortium launches new path to field high-tech prototypes

WASHINGTON ― The National Armaments Consortium, along with the DoD Ordnance Technology Consortium and Army Contracting Command-New Jersey, is taking steps to fast-track their armament prototyping efforts, it was announced Thursday.

A year after the Army's high-profile reorganization to more quickly field cutting-edge weapons technologies, the Charleston, South Carolina-based National Armaments Consortium ― made up of 900 companies and academic institutions ― wants to better sync with both the government's increased demand and its actual bandwidth for turning research into prototypes.

Pentagon modernization efforts have prioritized, in recent years, long-range precision fires, hypersonic and extended-range missiles, and anti-jam GPS devices ― all of which fall in the lane of the armaments consortium, said National Armaments Consortium Executive Director Charlie Zisette.

“Armaments is kind of where the rubber hits the road for our war fighter because we're dealing with everything in the kill chain, protection and survivability,” Zisette told Defense News. “All of these things created a fairly large demand signal for modernization of our systems and components.”

The 20-year-old NAC is one of a growing number of Pentagon-sponsored consortia that work to translate the government's notional requirements into technological breakthroughs and business opportunities.

Consortia members will work with the government through collective “other transaction agreements” or “other transaction authorities.” These OTAs have become a popular tool to allow the government to communicate more openly about its needs and to work with nontraditional defense contractors whose innovations the Department of Defense wants to harness.

According to Zisette, the NAC has 650 active projects at various stages to solve tough problems like developing a new heat-resistant composite material, new types of explosives and a complex long-range precision artillery system. So far this year, its efforts have led to 150 new-start acquisition programs, half awarded to “non-traditionals.”

Historically, the NAC would release one annual solicitation based on government requirements, and host one annual collaboration event for NAC members to tout their technologies and ask government representatives about requirements. NAC also hosts a members-only online collaboration portal along similar lines.

But something had to change. Amid the DoD's modernization efforts, the NAC has grown such that there would be 350 government solicitations and upward of 1,400 whitepapers, almost simultaneously. It was a “huge bow wave” that overwhelmed the procurement, legal and program staffs involved, Zisette said.

“It became too much for the Department of Defense, so we were seeing our award-cycle times getting stretched out,” he said. “We realized we had to level that workload out: put in more agreements officers and contracts specialists so we could ... get quickly through the process itself.”

The NAC unveiled Thursday it will initiate faster deadlines to develop prototypes, but it will also move to monthly solicitation releases and three virtual collaboration events per year instead of one.

Other consortia will often either deal with requirements on an annual or ad hoc basis, meaning they're emailed out as they're developed. To Zisette's knowledge, no other DoD-sponsored consortia have monthly solicitation releases like the NAC is planning, but the idea for tri-annual events was something Zisette borrowed.

“The total model will be a pathfinder,” he said, “but absolutely leveraging some of the best practices and input from across the department.”

https://www.defensenews.com/2020/08/27/armaments-consortium-launches-new-path-to-field-high-tech-prototypes/

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2 avril 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité, Autre défense

Les start-up spécialisées dans la défense et la sécurité poussent tous azimuts
Par Michel Cabirol Cinq des dix start-up accompagnées par Generate, l'accélérateur du Groupement des Industries Françaises de Défense et de Sécurité Terrestres et Aéroterrestres (GICAT), sont devenues des scale-up. Qui a dit que la défense et la sécurité n'étaient plus un domaine d'innovations... Deux ans après le lancement de son accélérateur de start-up dans le domaine de la défense et de la sécurité (Generate), le Groupement des Industries Françaises de Défense et de Sécurité Terrestres et Aéroterrestres (GICAT) tire un bilan positif des deux premières promotions de start-up accompagnées. Sur les dix ayant intégré Generate dès le départ, cinq ont franchi un cap pour devenir les fameuses scale-up (ou TPE). Ce sont le cas d'Aleph Networks, qui explore le deep et le dark web, de CerbAir (lutte anti-drone), de Diodon (drones), d'Internest, qui améliore la sécurité des vols des drones et des hélicoptères et, enfin, de l'éditeur de logiciels Linkurious, qui fournit des analyses de réseaux sociaux. En revanche, Othello, qui a développé une approche scientifique du comportement humain, Numalis, qui analyse les logiciels pour détecter et corriger les vulnérabilités numériques, Physip, qui propose des solutions d'analyse automatique de l'activité cérébrale basées sur l'EEG (électroencéphalogramme) et Uniris, qui fournit des services inviolables d'authentification, vont rester une année supplémentaire au sein de Generate afin de d'essayer de passer le cap de start-up. Enfin, Sterblue, qui édite une solution de pilotage automatique adaptable à tous les drones du marché, va se consacrer aux marchés civils. Cette start-up nantaise, créée par des anciens d'Airbus, a réussi fin 2018 une première levée de fonds de 2 millions de dollars. 8 millions d'euros de levées En deux ans, 50% des start-up de Generate ont réussi à lever des fonds, nouer des partenariats industriels, remporter des contrats et se projeter à l'export. Ainsi, elles ont réussi à lever 8 millions d'euros de fonds auprès d'investisseurs publics, privés et notamment des Venture Capital d'industriels du GICAT. Elles ont réalisé un chiffre d'affaire de 4,8 millions d'euros et près d'une start-up sur deux est aujourd'hui présente à l'export et y remporte des marchés. Elles emploient aujourd'hui près d'une centaine de personnes, dont la moitié a été recrutée sur les deux dernières années. Enfin, elles ont remporté sept trophées et prix aussi bien dans la défense et la sécurité, mais également auprès d'organisme civil. Pour le GICAT, ces résultats confirment sa volonté de poursuivre le recrutement de nouvelles pépites, en développant son système de parrainage, en se faisant connaitre auprès d'investisseurs et en accompagnant nos partenaires institutionnels (Délégation générale de l'armement, Agence Innovation défense, Armées, Ministère de l'intérieur, etc.). Generate accueille ou a accueilli au total 28 start-up depuis ses débuts. https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/aeronautique-defense/les-start-up-specialisees-dans-la-defense-et-la-securite-poussent-tous-azimuts-811829.html
12 septembre 2023 | International, Aérospatial

RTX jet engine problem ripples across global aerospace industry | Reuters
Aerospace suppliers and airlines around the world warned of rising costs and a squeeze on plane capacity after U.S. engine maker RTX disclosed that a rare manufacturing flaw could ground hundreds of Airbus jets in coming years.
11 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

U.S. Air Force Upgrading C-17 and C-130H Avionics As Supplier Base for Legacy Systems Falls
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is requesting $4.5 billion in funds for the European Deterrence Initiative, the second straight year that the department has cut its request for the program. The EDI is a special part of the department's Overseas Contingency Operations funding, focused on reassuring allies in Europe and deterring Russian aggression on the continent. The Pentagon requested $4.8 billion for EDI in FY18, a request which grew to $6.5 billion in FY19. The FY20 request, however, dropped it down to $5.9 billion. Congress plussed up the funding to $6.5 billion, meaning the department's request for this year would be a $1.5 billion cut. Funding will go towards rotational force deployment and the implementation of previously funded multiyear agreements. It will also support additional exercises in Europe and the prepositioning of U.S. equipment on the continent. Two European officials contacted by Defense News downplayed concerns, with one saying that a drop in funding is normal given the number of infrastructure projects that are being completed. Included in the EDI funding is $250 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which can be used to replace any “weapons or defensive articles” provided to Ukraine by the U.S. government. Such funding became a flashpoint in 2019, eventually leading to the impeachment of President Donald Trump, who was acquitted in the Senate last week. In the last National Defense Authorization Act, Congress requested that the Pentagon submit a five-year plan for EDI in FY21. Overall, the OCO funding request is $69 billion, slightly down from the $71.3 billion enacted by Congress for FY20. Other major OCO funds include $16.2 billion for operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria; $7.6 billion for the replenishment of major munitions that have been expended around the globe; and $4 billion to train and support Afghanistan security forces. OCO also funds $600 million in security cooperation funding, which has now been rebranded as the National Defense Strategy-Implementation fund, or NDS-I. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/federal-budget/2020/02/10/european-defense-initiative-funding-drops-in-defense-budget-request

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