CACI Awarded $907 Million U.S. Army Task Order to Provide Intelligence Analysis to U.S. Forces in Afghanistan

Sur le même sujet

• 

  11 mars 2022 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Critères ESG : la guerre en Ukraine change la donne pour le secteur de l’armement

  Alors qu'elles se montraient jusque-là réfractaires à financer une industrie de la défense jugée peu conforme aux critères socialement responsables (ESG), certaines banques européennes ont changé de position après l'invasion russe de l'Ukraine. « L'industrie de la défense doit continuer à être bien financée, et les efforts des banques françaises, parmi les plus actives dans le monde dans ce domaine, le démontrent », considère la Fédération bancaire française. « Alors que nous alertons sur les difficultés de financement rencontrées par les industriels depuis deux ans maintenant, au niveau national et européen, nous observons un changement de perception générale », indique aux Echos Jan Pie, le secrétaire général de l'ASD (AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe). Les valeurs des industries de Défense, comme Dassault Aviation et Thales, qui s'étaient vues exclure en novembre dernier, comme douze autres sociétés du secteur, de la politique d'investissement du premier fonds de pension norvégien (KLP), ont considérablement augmenté, relèvent Les Echos. Les Echos du 9 mars

• 

  12 octobre 2018 | International, Aérospatial

  To up fighter readiness levels, Pentagon looks to retire older planes and fix supply chains

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — With Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis issuing new guidancedemanding readiness for tactical air assets increase in just one year, the Pentagon is openly acknowledging that older planes will have to be retired and cannibalized for parts to make it happen. The department will also look to overhaul how it handles its supply chain, according to the department's No. 2 official. In a September memo, first reported by Defense News, Mattis ordered the Air Force, Navy and Marines to get the Pentagon's fleets of F-16, F-18, F-22 and F-35 fighters to a minimum of 80 percent mission ready. That would represent a major jump in readiness over a short period of time, raising skepticism amongst analysts. From a pure numbers-on-paper standpoint, the easiest way for getting readiness rates up on the fleet would involve retiring older, less ready aircraft — essentially increasing the percentage of good-to-go planes by reducing the overall size of the fleets. Such a move may not be popular on the Hill, which routinely complains about the size of the military compared with previous eras. But it's a logical step being endorsed by both Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan and Gen. Robert Neller, the Marine Corps chief of staff. “You gotta get rid of airplanes. At some point, you gotta get rid of the old ones,” Neller told reporters Wednesday at a Defense Writer's Group event, when asked how he would hit that 80 percent mark. Neller added that such a move has to be part of a broader spectrum of moves, including better quality parts from vendors, being more efficient with maintainers, and adjusting the flying hours for pilots to make sure the wings aren't being worn off on jets. “It's not going to be a single thing, so we've got to do our part,” he added. Speaking to reporters at the AUSA conference the same day, Shanahan seemed to zero in on the oldest Navy jets as ones that could be retired. “Well, when you look at the size of the fleet of the F-18s, you got [F-18A models] out there, then you look at what it would take to restore them to a certain level of readiness, you might say it's much easier just to retire those,” he said. “So, I mean, there's a mix of answers.” “It probably doesn't make sense to generate a lot of activity to make something that is older more reliable, but when you think about the joint strike fighter and the hundreds of those that we're going to take, 80 percent should be the minimum, OK? It shouldn't be some aspirational goal, it should be the minimum.” However, he pushed back at the idea that anyone will “game the system” to get those readiness percentages up. Commercial practices In the memo, Mattis specifically notes the commercial aviation industry is able to maintain higher readiness rates and directs the service to look that way for inspiration. “I am confident in our department's ability to generate additional capacity from our current aircraft inventory, alongside the commercial aviation industry's sustainment of high availability rates,” Mattis wrote. “As we seek to achieve our goals, we can learn from industry's benchmarks for measuring speed, cost and mission capability, as well as its best practices for implementing a sustainable, Department-wide system.” Shanahan, who will be the overall leader of the readiness rate improvement efforts, is a longtime Boeing executive who worked directly on a number of commercial jet production programs. And to him, there are absolutely lessons that can be drawn from passenger aviation. “A jet engine is a jet engine; no one will convince me otherwise,” he said. “I've lived in both worlds, I've been on more airplanes than anybody in the United States, I know these things, OK?” The deputy said his focus was on helping the service develop “methods, systems and practices” that will lead to systemic changes in how maintenance is done and provide dividends for years to come. “When you look at the F-18s, this is the same size of fleet as Southwest has. It's not a super-large fleet, they're all basically the same,” Shanahan noted. “So how do we put in place, you know, the support practices and the parts so that people aren't working as hard?” The need to keep part quality and quantity up were on display just a day after Shanahan and Neller's comments. On Thursday, the Pentagon ordered a temporary stop to flying the F-35 as it investigated a fuel tube inside the engines of the fleet. That same day, an F-22 crashed on its side following a landing gear malfunction. During his talk with reporters, the Navy was singled out as already having committed to improving their methodologies. And he called out the need to “restructure” how both the Navy and Air Force handle their supply chains — something he said will ultimately bleed over into maintenance beyond the four selected jet fleets. “The real end game to me is as a department, how do we end up with a single sustainment system? And what was good about this is that once you get the F-18 right, it spills over into the P-8, because they're side-by-side, so [the P-8 maintainers] going to be like, ‘Those guys, they're working a lot less hard than we are and they're getting much better results, why don't we just do it that way?' “And then as people see the methods they apply to shipbuilding or ship maintenance,” he added. Shawn Snow of Marine Corps Times contributed to this report. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/10/11/to-up-fighter-readiness-levels-pentagon-looks-to-retire-older-planes-and-fix-supply-chains

• 

  6 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  La Bulgarie va voler américain, elle achète 8 F-16 Block 70 à Lockheed Martin

  Par Michel Cabirol Lockheed Martin a signé avec Sofia un contrat évalué à 512 millions de dollars pour la vente de huit F-16 Block 70. Et la Bulgarie volera américain... comme beaucoup de pays européens. Le ministère de la Défense américain (DoD) a annoncé jeudi que Lockheed Martin avait signé avec Sofia un contrat FMS (Foreign military sales) évalué à 512 millions de dollars pour la vente de huit F-16 Block 70. Fabriqués dans la nouvelle ligne de production de F-16 à Greenville (Caroline du Sud), les avions de combat américains, qui devraient être livrés en 2027, vont remplacer une flotte de 15 MiG-29 bulgares (sur 19) encore en service jusqu'en 2029. Membre de l'OTAN, la Bulgarie compte également dans sa flotte huit Sukhoi, dont deux d'entrainement. La Bulgarie assurera la défense de son espace aérien Sofia avait opté en décembre 2018 pour les F-16 parmi trois autres appareils en compétition : le F/A-18 Super Hornet de Boeing, l'Eurofighter Tranche 1 d'occasion (Italie) et le JAS-39 Gripen C/D (Suède). Puis, le Département d'État américain avait approuvé cette vente en juin 2019. Il avait évalué la vente ainsi que le soutien des appareils à 1,67 milliard de dollars. Cette vente avait alors estimé le DoD contribuera à améliorer la sécurité d'un allié de l'OTAN et d'un partenaire clé des États-Unis pour assurer la paix et la stabilité dans cette région. Elle permettra également à la Bulgarie d'assurer la défense de son espace aérien et d'être interopérable avec les États-Unis et l'OTAN. Selon le DoD, la Bulgarie s'appuie actuellement sur les États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni pour opérer des missions de police aérienne bulgares. "En acquérant ces F-16, la Bulgarie sera en mesure d'assurer la défense de son propre espace aérien et de ses frontières", avait expliqué le DoD. https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/aeronautique-defense/la-bulgarie-va-voler-americain-et-achete-8-f-16-block-70-a-lockheed-martin-844265.html