31 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
By: Jill Aitoro
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Private investors are not yet lining up to back defense startups, but they are paying close attention.
Two factors have created an opening that could lure venture capitalists to defense investments: first, a few select venture-backed technology startups are gaining traction; and second, there's been a strategic shift in approach to weapons development from the U.S. Department of Defense, focusing more on information warfare and, as such, software.
In the words of Mike Madsen, director of strategic engagement at the Pentagon's commercial tech hub, Defense Innovation Unit: "We're at a significant inflection point right now that will be visible through the lens of history.”
Nonetheless, for the tech startups, it's been slow going, as discussed during a Defense News roundtable in California. For the second year, leadership from DoD and the tech community came together to discuss the state of the Pentagon's efforts to attract commercial startups — this time digging into the challenges and opportunities that come with investment in defense development.
“We went into this eyes wide open, knowing full well that to the venture community, the math doesn't make sense. Making the choice to contribute to the advancement of artificial intelligence for DoD represented for us more of a mission-driven objective,” said Ryan Tseng, founder of artificial intelligence startup Shield AI.
But early on, “we were fortunate to get the backing of Andreessen Horowitz, a top-tier venture fund. They're certainly leaning in, in terms of their thinking about defense technology — believing that despite the history, there might be a way to find an opening to create companies that can become economically sustainable and make substantial mission impact.” Shield AI has raised $50 million in venture funding since 2015, with more rounds expected.
Indeed, a few key Silicon Valley investors have emerged as the exceptions to the rule, putting dollars toward defense startups. In addition to Andreessen Horowitz, which counts both Shield AI and defense tech darling Anduril in its portfolio, there's General Catalyst, which also invested in Anduril, as well as AI startup Vannevar Labs.
And then of course there's Founders Fund. Led by famed Silicon investors Peter Thiel, Ken Howery and Brian Singerman, among others, the venture firm was an early investor in Anduril, as well as mobile mesh networking platform goTenna. Founders Fund placed big bets on Palantir Technologies and SpaceX in the early days, which paid off in a big way.
Some of the early successes of these startups have “done an excellent job of making investors greedy,” said Katherine Boyle, an investor with General Catalyst. “There's a growing group who are interested in this sector right now, and they've looked at the success of these companies and [are] saying: ‘OK, let's learn about it.' ”
Take Anduril: The defense tech startup — co-founded by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey and Founders Fund partner Trae Stephens — has raised more than $200 million and hit so-called unicorn status in 2019, reaching a valuation of more than $1 billion. As the successes piled up, so did the venture capital funding. According to Fortune magazine, those investors included Founders Fund, 8VC, General Catalyst, XYZ Ventures, Spark Capital, Rise of the Rest, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel.
“I started my career at Allen & Company investment banking. Herbert Allen, who's in his 80s, always said: ‘Hey, you should run into an industry where people are running away,' ” said John Tenet, a partner with 8VC as well as a co-founder and vice chairman of defense startup Epirus.
“There's so much innovation occurring, where the government can be the best and biggest customer. And there are people who really want to solve hard problems. It's just figuring out where the synergies lie, what the ‘one plus one equals three' scenario will be.”
Also attracting the attention of Silicon Valley investors is the growing emphasis by the Pentagon not only on systems over platforms, but software over hardware. Boyle described the shift as the “macro tailwind” that often drives innovation in a sector. Similar revolutions happened in industrials and automotive markets — both of which are also massive, global and slow-moving.
That emphasis on tech, combined with some recent hard lessons, also provides a glimmer of hope that the typical hurdles associated with defense investments — lengthy procurement cycles and dominance by traditional manufacturers, for example — could be overcome.
Consider U.S. Code 2377, which requires that commercially available items be considered first in procurement efforts, said Anduril's Stephens. He also noted court decisions in lawsuits filed by SpaceX and Palantir, which ultimately validated claims that defense agencies had not properly ensured a level playing field for major competitions.
“These types of things are now at least in recent memory for Congress, and so they have some awareness of the issues that are being faced,” Stephens said. “It's much easier now to walk into a congressional office and say, ‘Here's the problem that we're facing' or ‘Here's the policy changes that we would need.' There are also enough bodies like DIU, like In-Q-Tel, like AFWERX, like the Defense Innovation Board, like the [Defense Science Board] — places where you can go to express the need for change. And oftentimes you do see that language coming into the [National Defense Authorization Act]. It's part of a longer-term cultural battle for sure.”
For now, all these factors contribute to the majority of skeptical investors' decisions to watch the investments with interest — even if they still take a wait-and-see approach. And that places a lot of pressure on the companies that are, in a sense, the proof of concept for a new portfolio segment.
“My fear is that if this generation of companies doesn't figure [it] out, if they don't knock down the doors and if there aren't a few successes, we're going to have 20, 30 years of just no investor looking around the table and saying we need to work for the Department of Defense,” Boyle said. “If there aren't some success stories coming out of this generation of companies, it's going to be very hard to look our partners in the eye and say: ‘We should keep investing in defense because look at how well things have turned out.'”
9 janvier 2024 | International, Aérospatial
NATO is expanding its space radar to build closer relations with space industries. NATO is inviting the commercial space sector to its Space Reverse Industry Event on 20 February 2024 in Brussels to give a new impetus to dialogue and engagement with this growing sector.
9 août 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna AMARI AIR BASE, Estonia — As NATO looks to replace its E-3A Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet, it has asked operators for feedback on what technologies to incorporate in its future system. While NATO leaders have not yet decided whether a single platform or a family of systemswill take over the early airborne warning mission, "I think the most essential thing is the capability ... be absolutely interoperable. I think that's the key, that is the most essential thing,” said Lt. Col. Hans Growla, a crew member and public affairs officer for the NATO E-3A component in Geilenkirchen, Germany. But Growla declined to comment on what specific technologies could be integrated into an AWACS replacement to grow its capability, citing sensitivities. In June, the head of the NATO organization that manages the E-3A inventory told Reutersthat the organization was racing against the clock to choose an AWACS replacement. NATO plans to spend $750 million for the final service life extension of the aircraft, which would keep it flying until 2035, said Michael Gschossmann, director of the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Programme Management Agency. But if it delays making a decision on a replacement for too long, it could get stuck paying for additional work on the current E-3A aircraft. “We have to get moving on this. We have to ensure that the studies move along quickly. We need a reality check,” he said. One option, Gschossmann said, would be to purchase the E-7 Wedgetail, a Boeing aircraft currently operated by Australia, Turkey and South Korea. The United Kingdom also plans to purchase the aircraft. “That would give us a basic capability that could be expanded in the future,” he said. Like the units that conduct Baltic air policing, the NATO E-3A component has found itself similarly taxed after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, with the number of surveillance missions increasing. “There is a clear shift from training to real world missions/operations,” Growla said, with a growing presence over the skies of Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. “Flying in northeast Poland gives you a great view into the Baltic states. We don't need to be physically flying in the airspace of the Baltics, we can stay a bit more south and see everything.” Despite the high operational tempo, Growla said NATO's E-3A component is making do with its 14 AWACS planes. “The Ukraine crisis was starting when we were still deployed to Afghanistan. ... [For a time] we had more or less two tasking, and then ISIL," he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. "We were really busy.” Currently, 17 nations participate in NATO's early-warning-and-control force, which operates 14 E-3As and six E-3Ds: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Canada announced in February it would rejoin the NATO E-3A mission, after dropping out in 2014 to cut costs. Earlier this year, NATO wrapped up a two-year-long effort to modernize its E-3A aircraft, replacing the fleet's 1970s-era flight instruments with glass cockpits that include five full-color displays and modern avionics that are easier to maintain. One of those upgraded AWACS planes made the trip to Amari Air Base, Estonia, for an air show commemorating the Estonian Air Force's 100th anniversary. It was the first open display of a NATO E-3A in Estonia, with visitors able to walk inside the aircraft to view the cockpit and crew stations. “We want people to see the NATO asset that is flying more or less daily, touch it, and see the guys who are making their airspace safer,” Growla said. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/a-modern-nato/2019/08/08/operators-of-natos-surveillance-plane-reveal-what-they-want-in-its-replacement/
9 décembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Steve Trimble December 09, 2020 Strategic bombers are enjoying a stealthy renaissance against a backdrop of renewed competition among “great power” states: namely, the U.S., China and Russia. For more than a decade, all three countries have labored to push a new generation of stealth bombers into service under programs cloaked in secrecy, while at the same time expanding the capacity and quality of an aging bomber fleet. The first fruits of the new stealth-bomber generation may become visibly tangible to the public in 2021. Although the U.S. Air Force has backed off from a schedule revealed in July 2018 to fly the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider for the first time on Dec. 4, 2021, the first aircraft still may emerge from Building 401 on Site 4 at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, during the next 12 months. The Air Force's new schedule calls for first flight of the B-21 in 2022. Given the traditional 6-9-month period of outdoor ground testing in advance of any first flight by a new aircraft, the updated schedule still implies a strong chance of a factory rollout during the second half of 2021. Less is known of the construction status of China's first stealthy, flying-wing bomber, probably named the H-20. Since 2018, the U.S. Defense Department has estimated in annual reports to Congress that the H-20 is likely to be a stealthy, subsonic bomber resembling the Northrop B-2 or X-47B, with a range of at least 4,590 nm (8,500 km) and payload capacity of conventional and nuclear munitions totaling at least 10 metric tons. In 2019, the department added that the H-20 could “debut” during the 2020s. If the Pentagon's range estimate for the H-20 is accurate, it falls well short of the U.S. West Coast but encompasses most of the northern Pacific Ocean, including Alaska and Hawaii. A rollout and first flight remain possible in 2021. A corporate video by the Aviation Industry Corp. of China, the H-20's corporate developer, released at the end of 2019 teased that the H-20's unveiling would come “shortly.” In Russia, the Prospective Aviation Complex for Long-Range Aviation (PAK DA) bomber likely transitioned into the production phase during 2020. Satellite photos in early spring revealed a large new factory being erected inside Tupolev's industrial complex in Kazan. By May, major structural assemblies for the first test aircraft had entered construction, according to a report by TASS. The same report, citing two anonymous sources inside Russia's defense industry, put the schedule for completing final assembly in 2021. All three programs represent the first new bomber designs initiated since the Cold War. Service-entry schedules for the three have not been announced but will be coming around 30 years after Northrop's first-generation stealth bomber—the flying-wing, four-engine B-2A—became operational in 1997. The impact on the defense industry could be profound as production ramps up over the next decade. For the B-21, low-rate initial production should begin in 2022, Northrop CEO Kathy Warden says. That timetable suggests production-aircraft deliveries beginning two years later. Due to the secretive nature of the program managed by the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office, precise B-21 production unit costs are unknown. At the time of contract award in October 2015, the Air Force estimated the average B-21 unit cost over a production run of 80-100 aircraft would be about $550 million in 2012 dollars. Adjusting for inflation, the average cost has increased to about $632 million. With Pentagon officials expecting budgets to remain flat or decline over the next several years, one of the Air Force's biggest challenges will be finding ways to reduce costs in other programs to accommodate the B-21 as production ramps up. With the ability to fly in proximity and even within defended airspace, a stealth bomber offers an ideal combination of survivability, range and weapons capacity. The aircraft's stealthiness adds substantially to the production cost, but the trade-off is an aircraft that can carry less expensive, short-range weapons such as glide bombs. None of the great powers, however, is willing to part completely with an existing bomber fleet, despite aircraft designs that date back to the late 1940s. Leveraging heavy investments in new propulsion, sensors and weapons, the U.S., China and Russia will breathe new life into their aging Cold War-era platforms. By June 2021, the U.S. Air Force expects to award a contract for delivery of 608 new jet engines for 76 Boeing B-52s, replacing a fleet of 60-year-old, 17,000-lb.-thrust Pratt & Whitney TF-33-P-3 turbofans. GE Aviation's Passport and CF34, Pratt's PW800 and Rolls-Royce's BR.725-based F130 are the Air Force's options, with each representing a multi-generational leap in fuel efficiency and reliability. The Air Force also will demonstrate that Cold War bombers can perform a new role in the 2020s. A pylon modification will allow the B-52 to carry up to 22,000 lb. on each external hard point, enabling the aircraft to carry three Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapons on either wing. Boeing upgraded both conventional rotary launchers inside the weapons bays to carry up to eight cruise missiles each. If a new generation of scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missiles now in development matches the size and weight of the AGM-86s now carried by the rotary launchers, each B-52 would be able to carry 22 long-range hypersonic missiles. A similar transformation will be demonstrated by the B-1B. In mid November, Air Force Global Strike Command showed a B-1B could accommodate a subsonic Lockheed AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (Jassm) on an external pylon. By extension, each of the B-1B's six external pylons could be adapted to carry hypersonic missiles such as the AGM-183s. Another eight hypersonic cruise missiles could be fired from the conventional rotary launcher inside the B-1B's weapons bays. Draft appropriations bills for fiscal 2021 in Congress include the Air Force's request to retire 17 B-1s and funnel the operating-cost savings to modernize what would be the remaining 45 aircraft in the fleet. The bomber renaissance also is seeing transformation of the Cold War-era fleets of the Chinese and Russian air forces. In mid-November, the People's Liberation Army Navy for the first time deployed the Xian H-6J to Yongxing Island, also known as Woody Island, in the South China Sea. While still unmistakably a descendant of the first Tupolev Tu-16 Badger delivered to China in 1958, the H-6J remains a potent weapon system against the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet, especially while armed with YJ-12 anti-ship missiles. Likewise, the People's Liberation Army Air Force revealed the H-6N in October 2019, showing China's first nuclear-capable bomber with the ability to be refueled in flight. Government-owned magazine Modern Ships published photos a month later of the H-6N carrying an air-launched ballistic missile in a recessed cavity carved into the fuselage. The weapon could be a medium-range, anti-ship DF-21. More recently, photos appeared of the H-6N carrying a different air-launched missile with a payload bearing a profile similar to the DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle. Russia's bomber fleet modernization also extends beyond development of the PAK DA. Over the past year, the first versions of Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers fitted with new engines have entered flight testing. Meanwhile, a second Tu-22M3M prototype entered flight testing in 2020, joining the first prototype that entered testing in December 2018 with new engines, avionics and missiles, including supersonic air-launched Kh-32s. https://aviationweek.com/aerospace-defense-2021/defense-space/secret-bomber-programs-set-possible-rollouts-2021