Coopérations dans l'armement : la France peut-elle vraiment faire confiance à l'Allemagne ? (1/3)

Sur le même sujet

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  7 juin 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  L3 to Modernize Avionics for U.S. Air Force C-130Hs

  NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 6, 2019-- L3 Technologies (NYSE:LLL) announced today that it has been competitively awarded the $499 million U.S. Air Force C-130H Avionics Modernization Program Increment 2 (AMP INC 2). Under the contract, L3 will design, produce and certify a state-of-the-art modernization solution for a fleet of 176 Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve C-130H aircraft to improve aircraft availability, reliability and sustainability while significantly reducing life-cycle costs. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190606005185/en/ L3's avionics and Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) upgrade solutions are fully certified for airworthiness and CNS/ATM compliance, and are flying today with U.S. and international customers. (Photo: Business Wire) “L3 is committed to delivering innovative, cost-effective solutions to ensure mission readiness in support of the U.S. Air Force's modernization strategy,” said Christopher E. Kubasik, L3's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. “We are focused on providing an agile and low-risk approach to modernizing the Air Force's diverse fleet of C-130s, enabling these assets to operate well into the future.” Modernization solutions will include integration of a commercial off-the-shelf avionics suite, as well as L3's training integration and services. Development, initial- and full-rate production will take place at L3's facility in Waco, Texas, on multiple C-130H variants, including the C-130H1, C-130H2, C-130H2.5, C-130H3 and LC-130H. “L3's aircraft modernization and modification capabilities are world-class,” said Jeff Miller, L3's Senior Vice President and President of its ISR Systems segment, which includes the Waco facility where work on the AMP will be centered. “Our skilled workforce and our unique 1.25-million-square-foot facility in Waco will provide differentiated capabilities for C-130H fleet longevity.” L3 has more than 65 years of experience as an aircraft systems integrator, including modernizing avionics for C-130 aircraft in the U.S. Air Force fleet and for international allies. The company's tailored C-130 solutions feature a modern cockpit and open-architecture solutions that integrate avionics from leading providers, and are fully certified for airworthiness and Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) compliance. L3's aircraft modernization and modification facilities are capable of retrofit, modernization and production for both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, delivering a broad range of aerospace modification and integration solutions to keep international military, head-of-state, government and commercial customers safe and mission-ready. L3 supports aircraft of all types, sizes and missions, with industry-leading capability to provide complex aircraft conversions; maritime, ISR, command and control, and airborne systems missionization; depot fleet maintenance and modification; and highly customized design, integration and certification of mission subsystems and interiors. With headquarters in New York City and approximately 31,000 employees worldwide, L3 develops advanced defense technologies and commercial solutions in pilot training, aviation security, night vision and EO/IR, weapons, maritime systems and space. The company reported 2018 sales of $10.2 billion. To learn more about L3, please visit the company's website at www.L3T.com. L3 uses its website as a channel of distribution of material company information. Financial and other material information regarding L3 is routinely posted on the company's website and is readily accessible. Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release are forward-looking statements. Statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to events or conditions or that include words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “will,” “could” and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements set forth above involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any such statement, including the risks and uncertainties discussed in the company's Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-Looking Statements included in the company's recent filings, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. https://www.l3t.com/press-release/l3-modernize-avionics-us-air-force-c-130hs

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  6 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Boeing to get $882M in withheld KC-46 funds back for COVID-19

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force will release $882 million to Boeing that it had retained due to ongoing technical problems involving the KC-46 tanker, the service announced Thursday. The move is meant to help the company make ends meet during the novel coronavirus pandemic. “This agreement provides Boeing $882M of withheld payments for previous non-compliance in 33 KC-46 deliveries,” the service said in a statement. “This withhold release is in line with Department of the Air Force and Department of Defense policies to maximize cash flow, where prudent, to combat coronavirus impacts on the industry base." When the U.S. Air Force agreed to take delivery of the first KC-46 tanker in January 2019, it made clear to Boeing that it still maintained a significant piece of financial leverage. The service could withhold a maximum of $28 million every time a new KC-46 was delivered — about 20 percent of the total sum due to Boeing. Air Force officials said they would hold back those funds until they saw measurable progress in fixing technical deficiencies, particularly the tanker's troubled Remote Vision System. By January, when Boeing had delivered 30 planes, the service had withheld about $800 million, according to Defense One. The Air Force and Boeing on Thursday announced a final agreement to fix the RVS, the imaging system used by boom operators to see the position of the receiver aircraft and the movements of the boom itself. According to the deal, Boeing will pay for both incremental fixes to current RVS software and hardware, as well as a complete redesign of the system with new cameras, processors and computers. Speaking with reporters about the decision on Thursday, Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper stressed that the service will be able to re-enact the cost penalties if Boeing's performance begins to slip. However, the service wanted to ensure that Boeing has the funding it needs to begin the RVS redesign, which it is calling RVS 2.0. “Have we given up our leverage? No, I think we've used it well," he said. “Part of what we committed to Boeing is to do an expedited review over the next 120 days for the 159 outstanding noncompliances. Boeing asserts that they have addressed those noncompliances, and we are going to review those quickly. We will not instate withholds over the 120 period, but if we put that some of the corrections that have been put in place don't make our requirement, then we will start withholds again.” As the largest maker of commercial planes in the United States, Boeing has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spurred travel restrictions and called into question commercial airlines' ability to pay for Boeing aircraft already on order. Meanwhile, Boeing announced last week that it would shutter operations for two weeks at its facilities in the Seattle, Washington, area due to the high number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Those production operations include the manufacturing of the KC-46 at Everett and the P-8 submarine-hunting plane in Renton. The Air Force intends to buy 179 tankers over the KC-46 program of record. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/04/02/boeing-to-get-882m-in-withheld-kc-46-funds-back-for-covid-19

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  27 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Will defense budgets remain ‘sticky’ after the COVID-19 pandemic?

  By: Eric Lofgren Congress' unprecedented fiscal response to COVID-19 has many in the defense community wondering whether belt tightening will hit the Pentagon. On May 19, the Congressional Progressive Caucus wrote a letter arguing for substantial defense budget cuts to support additional spending on the pandemic. Nonprofit progressive supporters have been asking to cut a much larger $350 billion each year from the Pentagon in their “Moral Budget” proposal. What the progressives perhaps do not fully appreciate is the “stickiness” of defense budgets. In economics, stickiness refers to rigidity in the movement of wages and prices despite broader economic shifts pushing for new equilibrium. The phenomenon is apparent in defense budgets as well. Most expectations are that the fiscal 2021 budget will remain over $700 billion. Consider an analogy: the 2008 financial crisis. Lehman Brothers collapsed just a couple weeks before fiscal year 2009 started, leaving that $666 billion defense budget largely beyond recall. The following years' budgets were $691 billion, $687 billion, $646 billion and then finally in FY13 a more precipitous 10 percent fall to $578 billion. It took four years for the Pentagon to really feel the squeeze of the financial downturn. The uninitiated may believe COVID-19 happened with enough of lead time to affect the FY21 budget. Congress received the president's budget in February 2020 and has until the start of October to make targeted cuts without encountering another continuing resolution. The defense budget, however, represents the culmination of a multiyear process balancing thousands of stakeholder interests. It reflects a vast amount of information processed at every level of the military enterprise. The Pentagon's work on the FY21 budget request started nearly two years ahead of time and includes a register of funding estimates out to FY25. Moreover, defense programs are devised and approved based on life-cycle cost and schedule estimates. Cuts to a thorough plan may flip the analysis of alternatives on its head, recommending pivots to new systems or architectures and upsetting contract performance. Not only are current budgets shaped by many years of planning, but they get detailed to an almost microscopic level. For example, the Army's FY21 research, development, test and evaluation request totaled $12.8 billion, less than 2 percent of the overall Pentagon request. Yet the appropriation identifies 267 program elements decomposing into a staggering 2,883 budget program activity codes averaging less than $10 million each. Congressional staff is too small to understand the implications of many cost, schedule and technical trade-offs. To gather information on impacts, the Pentagon is thrown into a frenzy of fire drills. More draconian measures, like the FY13 sequestration, leading to indiscriminate, across-the-board cuts can sidestep hard questions but comes at a significant cost to efficiency. Targeted cuts at a strategic level, such as to the nuclear recapitalization programs and other big-ticket items, can expect stiff resistance. First, there is real concern about great power competition and the damage that may be wrought by acting on short-term impulses. Second, targeted programs and their contractors will immediately report the estimated number of job losses by district. Before measures can get passed, a coalition of congressional members negatively impacted may oppose the cuts. Resistance is intensified considering the proximity to Election Day. Budget stickiness is built into the political process. The FY22 budget is perhaps the first Pentagon budget that can start inching downward. More than likely, severe cuts aren't in the offing until FY23 or FY24 at the very earliest. That gives time for policymakers to reflect on the scale of the rebalancing between defense and other priorities. In some important ways, congressional control of the Pentagon through many thousands of budget line items restricts its own flexibility. For example, continuing resolutions lock in program funding to the previous year's level until political disagreements can be resolved. The military cannot stick to its own plans, much less start new things. If budget lines were detailed at a higher level, such as by major organization or capability area, then the Pentagon could make more trade-offs while Congress debates. Similarly, if the Pentagon had more budget flexibility, then Congress could more easily cut top lines and allow Pentagon leaders to figure out how to maximize with the constraint during the year of execution. Congress could gain the option to defer the hard questions that can make cuts politically difficult. The Space Force recently released a proposal for consolidating budget line items into higher-level capability areas. It reflects the idea that portfolio-centric management is an efficient method of handling rapid changes in technologies, requirements or financial guidance resulting from economic shocks. Until such reforms are pursued, expect defense budgets to remain sticky. Eric Lofgren is a research fellow at the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University. He manages a blog and podcast on weapon systems acquisition. He previously served as a senior analyst at Technomics Inc., supporting the U.S. Defense Department's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/05/26/will-defense-budgets-remain-sticky-after-the-covid-19-pandemic/