3 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial
COLOGNE, Germany – Airbus and Dassault executives hope to finalize their offer for the next phase of the Future Combat Air System by the end of the week, putting to rest a dispute over the handling of intellectual property rights that has been simmering between partner nations Germany, France and Spain.
At issue is whether countries participating in the development of mainland Europe's futuristic weapon system are free to use the technology to make adjustments of their own later on, said German Air Force Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz.
“It should be clear that if we're developing a European system, there can be no black boxes,” he said at an virtual press conference organized by German aerospace industry association BDLI. The term “black box” refers to technology purchased as-is, with no means by customers to understand, replicate or modify it.
“It must be possible to hand intellectual property rights from branch of industry to another so that it's possible for all partners to make their own developments in the future,” Gerhartz added.
The tri-national FCAS program aims to replace the German Eurofighter and French Rafale fleets by 2040. As envisioned, it will consist of a next-generation manned jet and a series of drones, dubbed remote carriers, that can be tasked to work in concert on anything from reconnaissance to strike missions.
Germany's Airbus and France's Dassault are the primary contractors for the program. As Europe's most ambitious weapons project ever, it is estimated to have a price tag in the hundreds of billions of euros. Spain is meant to be a full participant, with Indra as national lead, getting access to a third of the overall work share.
Next up for the program is additional development work culminating in the presentation of a demonstrator aircraft and remote carriers by 2026 or 2027. Those could be simple, throw-away drones or more elaborate unmanned planes in the style of a “loyal wingman” to the human pilot, said Dirk Hoke, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, at the same event.
An agreement on intellectual property usage is needed both on the government and industry level before submitting an offer for the upcoming program stage. The idea is to find a compromise by Feb. 5, have the Berlin government submit the documentation to the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, for approval over the next few months, and get the green light to spend additional money before the summer break, Hoke said.
While Airbus is used to sharing its intellectual property rights when selling to the German government, partner nations, France and Spain handle those occasions differently. “I'm confident that we can find a common solution,” Hoke said.
Reinhard Brandl, a lawmaker of Bavaria's Christian Social Union who sits on the Bundestag's appropriations committee, said he shared the optimism but singled out IP rights as a continuing sticking point. “We will look at the agreement very carefully,” he said. “We don't want to see unfavorable concessions just for the sake of an agreement.”
Brandl belongs to a faction of German lawmakers who fear that domestic companies could lose out in a cooperative program with France. That is especially the case, following that logic, because Airbus, as the German lead contractor, is partly French to begin with.
The French, meanwhile, have at times become frustrated with Germany's piecemeal approval process for FCAS funding, a dynamic that could become even more pronounced if money gets tight as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Thomas Jarzombek, the point person for aerospace policy at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, said the program remains crucial for German industry, describing it as a recovery activity for companies post-COVID. “It's become even more important than before,” he said.
Brandl said he still worries about spending cuts in the future, especially during development, as the defense ministry may seek opportunities for more near-term fixes to lagging readiness rates across the force. He proposed anchoring FCAS funding elsewhere in the federal government other than under the auspices of the Bundeswehr, at least until the program gets close to showing actual military utility.
31 août 2023 | International, Naval
The delivery to Camp Pendleton in California marks a step forward for the Open Systems Interoperable and Reconfigurable Infrastructure Solution, or OSIRIS.
13 mars 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Mark Pomerleau The Army released its draft proposal March 10 for a contract that could worth as much as $1 billion to provide cyber training for the Department of Defense. The Cyber Training, Readiness, Integration, Delivery and Enterprise Technology (TRIDENT) is a contract vehicle to offer a more streamlined approach for procuring the military's cyber training capabilities. The largest part of that contact will be the Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE). PCTE is an online client in which members of U.S. Cyber Command's cyber mission force can log on from anywhere in the world for training and to rehearse missions. Cyber Command leaders have said the component is one of the organization's most critical needs. Currently, no integrated or robust cyber training environment exists. The procurement is being organized by the Army on behalf of the Defense Department. According to slides from a December industry day, a final solicitation is slated for the end of second quarter 2020 with an award expected at the beginning of 2021. “The objective of Cyber TRIDENT is to provide for the managed evolution of the PCTE Platform and to provide support across all facets of the Acquisition Life Cycle for PCTE,” the documents read. “The goal of Cyber TRIDENT is to continue development operations with the integration of software and hardware enhancements from third party vendors as technology insertion occurs while conducting testing, providing periodic system updates, and fielding technology upgrades of PCTE to the Cyber Mission Forces (CMF) through an agile cadence. The vision is to leverage the existing PCTE baseline and investment in cyber training software and related infrastructure through Associate Contractor Agreements (ACAs) or subcontracts with current platform vendors.” The notice also describes how the program manager envisions management, maintenance, and evolution of the PCTE platform. This includes platform architecture and product management, agile development and delivery systems engineering processes, development and automation, hardware and software infrastructure management, user event support, development operations (DevOps) environment management, PCTE infrastructure tool management, help desk support and onsite and remote support. Using what are known as Cyber Innovation Challenges to award smaller companies a piece of the program, the program office is already incrementally building a platform, which is in use and is helping to prove out the concept for PCTE, refine requirements for the final contract, and reduce risk. Officials and members of industry have indicated that the awardee of TRIDENT will inherit the final prototype version of PCTE, dubbed Version C, and advance that forward. Industry officials noted that the draft document doesn't include many surprises and that DoD leaders have been receptive to feedback, through the prototyping process and industry engagements. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2020/03/12/the-army-roughs-out-its-1b-cyber-training-contract/
30 novembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Par Nathalie Guibert Il a déjà remis une note d'étape à Emmanuel Macron, son rapport sera bouclé à la fin de l'année. Missionné par le président sur le sujet piégé de l'Europe de la défense, l'ancien secrétaire général pour la défense et la sécurité nationale, Louis Gautier (par ailleurs membre du conseil de surveillance du Monde), suggère des décisions fortes. Sa mission s'achèvera en février 2019 après des consultations diplomatiques pour tester les idées retenues par l'Elysée. « En parlant d'armée européenne, Emmanuel Macron permet d'incarner le projet pour nos concitoyens, de secouer la technostructure, de pousser à la clarification des choix, car le moment de vérité arrive pour les Européens », indique-t-il. Tout l'inverse des petits pas symbolisés par « l'initiative européenne d'intervention » avancée par le même Macron en septembre 2017, un concept dit « pragmatique » d'échange stratégique – hors des cadres formels dédiés de l'Union européenne –, sur lequel la ministre des armées, Florence Parly, travaille. M. Gautier considère ce projet comme un pis-aller à court terme, le résultat tangible minimum dans la période de crise politique que connaît l'Europe. « Beaucoup sont déçus par les résultats opérationnels de la défense européenne dans les administrations, aux affaires étrangères comme à la défense. Ils pensent que le militaire restera toujours du ressort national ou de l'OTAN, et que l'Europe ne servira qu'à financer les ... Article complet: https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2018/11/28/europe-de-la-defense-emmanuel-macron-attend-de-nouvelles-propositions_5389767_3210.html