Bulgaria issues request for proposals for fighter jets

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  9 décembre 2022 | International, Aérospatial

  Defense bill underlines need for tactically responsive space program

  The language continues a three-year push from lawmakers for the service to prioritize the capability.

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  28 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  DoD Budget Cuts Likely As $4 Trillion Deficit Looms

  By THERESA HITCHENSon April 27, 2020 at 5:02 PM WASHINGTON: With the federal deficit expected to balloon to over $4 trillion in fiscal 2020 due to spending to pump the economy in the face of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, downward pressure on the US defense budget is inevitable, several experts believe. “I think the budget comes down sooner rather than later,” Mackenzie Eaglen, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said bluntly in a webinar today. The best-case scenario is for flat defense budgets for the foreseeable future, but if history is a guide, the smart money is on defense budget cuts, explained Todd Harrison, DoD budget guru at the Center for Strategic and International Security (CSIS). “What has historically happened is, when Congress's fiscal conservatives come out and get serious about reducing the debt, reducing spending defense is almost always part of what they come up with for a solution,” he said. “So, we could be looking at a deficit-driven defense drawdown coming. ... At least history would suggest that that is a real possibility.” Indeed, even as Congress is pulling out all the stops trying to assist DoD and the defense industrial base to weather the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, DoD already is being eyed as the future deficit bill-payer, Eaglen told the webinar. “DoD is at the top of the list,” she said. Eaglen added that, at a more macro-level, the budget crunch could force DoD to re-look the goals of the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) with an eye to downsizing. “There's going to be an impact across the board,” she said. “There probably will be a total relook — at even the NDS fundamentals, and what mission is going to have to go — in response to this.” Harrison noted that already DoD has been looking at flat budgets through 2021, which has caused it to have to take some risks as it tries to juggle divesting in high-maintenance legacy systems with investing in future programs while maintaining readiness to handle a possible peer conflict with Russia and/or China. “Just to divest legacy systems and invest in new ones and try to maintain, or slightly grow, force structure, DoD was already saying that it would need three to five percent real growth each year in the defense budget, going forward, just to fully execute that,” he said. This means that DoD leadership is going to face even more difficult decisions in the future, Harrison explained. “Now we're looking at an environment where the budget might be flat at the best case or trending down over time. Something's gonna have to give. And so, if DoD really wants to protect these key modernization programs, not only is it going to have to divest legacy systems, it's going to have to divest them faster, and it's going to have to make some reductions in force structure that's going to incur risk.” More immediately, Harrison said, as Congress moves over the next few months to pass a fourth, or even a fifth, economic stimulus package DoD already is signaling that it hopes to see a number of its “unfunded requirements” stuffed into those bills. “DoD is saying: ‘hey, if you want to fund more things for DoD to help stimulate the economy, and help the defense industry, well, here's a list you already have that you can pick from.” DoD's unfunded priorities list — the annual wish list of programs it would like to fund if only there was more money in the top-line — for 2021 includes a total of $35.9 billion for programs across the military services and the combatant commands. The Pentagon might also petition Congress for greater authority to use operations and maintenance funds appropriated but not spent due to work slowdowns to short up programs facing cost overruns because DoD paid contractors for work supposed to be done, but not actually done, while employees are home-bound due to the pandemic, Harrison said. “DoD has implemented the CARES Act implementation, saying that they would pay for paid leave for employees of defense industry firms that are unable to report to work. And so that cost is covered,” Andrew Hunter, who works on defense industrial base issues at CSIS, explained. “Those folks aren't necessarily going to be laid off; they will be kept on the payroll and paid. And again, that will create some costs down the road to then pay those folks to do the actual work that they're originally scheduled to do.” Most of the nearly $10.5 billion in the CARES Act, signed by President Donald Trump on March 27 to help DoD protect itself from the impacts of the pandemic goes into O&M accounts, according to CSIS. That said, some $1 billion goes to procurement funding, with an eye on health-related equipment. Further, it includes some $1.5 billion in the Defense Working Capital Fund, which allows DoD to make investments in things like depot maintenance, transportation and supply management in the near term and recoup the costs through future year pricing deals. However, the bill grants DoD a good deal of flexibility to move money around — with the exception of banning any funding for Trump's southern border wall construction. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/04/dod-budget-cuts-likely-as-4-trillion-deficit-looms/

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  8 octobre 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Avion de combat du futur: Dassault et Airbus appellent Paris et Berlin à avancer «sans plus attendre»

  Dassault Aviation et Airbus ont appelé lundi Paris et Berlin à lancer «sans plus attendre» les études menant à la conception d'un démonstrateur pour le Système de combat aérien futur (SCAF), remplaçant des Rafale et Eurofighter. «Il importe à présent de faire avancer concrètement le SCAF», affirment les deux groupes dans un communiqué commun. Il s'agit notamment de notifier aux industriels les contrats pour les études menant à la construction d'un démonstrateur en 2026. «Le prochain conseil des ministres franco-allemand doit servir de catalyseur à cette volonté commune d'aller de l'avant par le lancement rapide de cette phase de démonstrateurs et par l'engagement des nations partenaires sur un plan de financement fiable pour confirmer le caractère pérenne et cohérent de ce programme de développement européen», ajoutent-ils. «Nous appelons les responsables politiques à tout mettre en oeuvre pour lancer le plus rapidement possible ces démonstrateurs, étape clef pour mettre cet ambitieux projet en marche», affirment le PDG de Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier et le président exécutif d'Airbus Defence and Space, Dirk Hoke, cités dans le communiqué. La ministre française de la Défense Florence Parly se rendra mercredi à Berlin pour préparer le futur conseil des ministres franco-allemand. Paris, Berlin et Madrid ont signé le 17 juin lors du salon du Bourget un accord-cadre structurant les trois pays autour du SCAF. Au coeur de ce système se trouve le futur chasseur (NGF, Next Generation Fighter) destiné à remplacer les actuels Rafale et Eurofighter à l'horizon 2040. «Les technologies futures doivent être développées dès maintenant pour être ensuite testées et qualifiées en vol» par le biais de ce démonstrateur, arguent Dassault et Airbus, qui rappellent avoir pour leur part «su rapidement trouver des accords et se mettre en ordre de marche». «On espère notifier les contrats d'ici la fin de l'année» a-t-on indiqué à l'AFP au ministère des Armées, où l'on se dit «raisonnablement confiants» sur le fait d'avoir «un démonstrateur du NGF qui vole en 2026». Mi-septembre, le patron de Dassault avait imputé ce retard de notification de contrats à des règles «d'exportabilité» du futur SCAF à définir entre Paris et Berlin. Selon une source gouvernementale française, un accord sur la question des exportations est en passe d'être conclu. http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/avion-de-combat-du-futur-dassault-et-airbus-appellent-paris-et-berlin-a-avancer-sans-plus-attendre-20191007