Bath Iron Works lands $3.9 billion Navy contract

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  5 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Top Royal Air Force representative to present at UAV Technology 2020

  SMi Reports: Royal Air Force's Wing Commander Judith Graham to brief on RPAS Capabilities at UAV Technology, this September. 05/04/20, 05:43 AM | Unmanned & Other Topics In recent news, the UK Royal Air Force is set to integrate the new Protector UAS, replacing the current Reaper models in service. As armed forces continue to invest in UAV developments, where remote combat UAS and ISR capabilities have solidified their importance to modern military operations, the RAF plans to acquire 16 Protectors by 2024.*With that said, SMi Group's 5th annual UAV Technology conference, reconvening on 28th and 29th September 2020 in London, UK and will further investigate RPAS capabilities. The 2020 event promises to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest wingmen programmes, long range ISR capabilities, regulation, counter-UAS technology and more. For Interested parties, there is an early bird saving of £300 for bookings made by 29th May. Register at http://www.uav-technology.org/robtomPR2 The Royal Air Force's Remotely Piloted Air Systems Programme Manager, Wing Commander Judith Graham will be providing an exclusive keynote presentation on ‘Transforming the Royal Air Force's RPAS Capabilities' covering: • Progress in delivering the Protector Remotely Piloted Air System to the Royal Air Force and testing the limits of the platform. • Advancing towards Airspace Integration and Certification. • Operational advantage of the Protector and how this will be leveraged in future operational planning, including Brimstone missiles, and upgraded sensor packages. • Looking further ahead: what part will the Protector play in future conflict both against near-peer and irregular adversaries. Delegates attending Europe's leading conference dedicated to UAV development will learn from high profile UK and international military speakers as they meet and share their insight and experiences with UAV technologies. For the full speakers and the programme, visit: http://www.uav-technology.org/robtomPR2 UAV Technology 28th - 29th September 2020 London, UK Sponsored by: AeroVironment, Fizoptika, Leonardo and Mynaric For sponsorship and exhibition queries please contact Justin Predescu jpredescu@smi-online.co.uk or call +44 (0) 20 7827 6130 For delegate queries please contact James Hitchen jhitchen@smi-online.co.uk or call +44(0)207 827 6054 For media queries please contact Carina Gozo at CGozo@smi-online.co.uk. *‘ RAF unveils deadly new Protector drone armed with ‘game-changing technology' (Express: August, 2019) https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1169075/raf-news-drone-protector-drone-high-tech-armed-surveillance-aircraft --END— About SMi Group: Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the world's most forward thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found at http://www.smi-online.co.uk https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/news/2020/05/04/top-royal-air-force-representative-to-present-at-uav-technology-2020/15214/

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  10 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  India Prepares For New Fighter Tender

  by Reuben F. Johnson While it is hard to believe, next year will mark almost 15 years since the Indian Air Force (IAF) embarked on a process to procure a new fighter. It will also be eight years since the force selected the Dassault Rafale for its Medium-Multirole Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA) program—a selection that was eventually not carried through to a license-production run as originally planned. The M-MRCA effort was planned for a procurement of 126 fighters by the IAF with an option for 63 additional units. All but 18 of these aircraft were to be license-assembled in India on a Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) production line. In 2012, India eventually selected the Dassault Rafale from a competition that included Russia's Mikoyan MiG-35, the Saab JAS-39E from Sweden, the Eurofighter, and both the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and a developed version of the Lockheed Martin F-16. The latter two are U.S. products. REPLACEMENT CRISIS However, in “winning a competition” such as this, a French industry official told AIN, “you do not really ‘win' anything. What you supposedly win is the right to then sit down and negotiate a contract—and if you cannot come to some agreement, then you get nothing after having spent tens of millions [of dollars] for all the years it takes to bid a major program in a place like India.” By 2015 the two sides had not come to an agreement on localized production, and in 2016 the new government of prime minister Narendra Modi ordered 36 Rafales “off-the-shelf,” the first of which has already been officially handed over to India. Seven of the aircraft should be delivered to the IAF between April and May 2020. This, however, still leaves the force woefully short of the force levels it says are needed to meet New Delhi's national security requirements. There is still no suitable replacement for the older (but modernized) MiG-21 Bison aircraft in service. There is also no solution to address the gap created by the 2018 Indian decision to withdraw from the HAL/Sukhoi joint program with Russia for a Future Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) program. India was to have purchased 127 of this aircraft, which would have been a heavily-modified version of the Sukhoi Su-57. After an IAF inspection of one of the program's prototypes, the force was calling for 43 major changes to the design to correct what it saw as deficiencies with the original configuration. VERSION 2.0 The consequence is that India—after some twists and turns—is on a path to issue another tender for what will be at least 100 of some aircraft to fill the void created by these developments. Originally, the program was to have been a competition for only single-engine airplane designs, which would have limited the competition to the JAS-39 and the F-16. The latter has now been re-christened the “F-21,” due to all of the changes that have been made to the design to accommodate Indian requirements. One of the changes was to add a probe-and-drogue refueling option in addition to the traditional USAF flying boom refueling method. This “single-engine only” competition was then widened to allow all of the twin-engine aircraft that participated in the original M-MRCA tender—with Russia's Sukhoi Su-35 now also thrown into the mix. This has prompted more than one observer to dub the still-officially unannounced re-running of the tender as “M-MRCA ver 2.0.” NEEDED: A SHORTER ACQUISITION CYCLE What makes this impending competition all the more critical for India's future defense posture is that the next-generation of aircraft carriers that will be coming online with the Indian Navy that will require a force of CATOBAR (catapult-assisted take-off barrier-arrested recovery) fighter aircraft. Both the Rafale-M and Boeing's Super Hornet are available for this mission and Saab has a design for a carrier-capable Maritime Gripen variant of the JAS-39E on the shelf that can be realized within a short time frame. What remains to be seen is whether or not a new tender can be carried out without making it a repeat of the arduous seven-year process that the original M-MRCA turned out to be. Suggestions had been made last year that a new tender could be carried out without an extensive set of flight trials to shorten the evaluation and down-select cycles. While there is no agreement on which aircraft type or types fit the requirements of both the IAF and the Indian Navy, there are numerous observers both inside and outside of India who disparage the manner in which the selection of a new fighter type has been carried out. “As it stands now, the methodology for buying a new fighter is an objectively dysfunctional process,” said one Indian aerospace expert. “The problem is that it will never change as long as the OEMs keep rewarding those who propagate that process without demanding that it change.” https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2020-02-06/india-prepares-new-fighter-tender

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  19 juin 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre

  Défense : un programme franco-allemand ambitieux

  ANNE BAUER Fabriquer un char franco-allemand commun ? Par deux fois, à la fin des années cinquante et dans les années 1970, la France et l'Allemagne sont passées à côté de ce symbole de réconciliation. La troisième fois devrait être la bonne. Le conseil franco-allemand qui se tient mardi à Meseberg doit permettre de sceller une nouvelle avancée significative dans la coopération entre les deux pays en matière de défense. En misant sur deux programmes... https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/air-defense/0301839563239-defense-un-programme-franco-allemand-ambitieux-2185084.php