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

Defense Contractors Keep Most Plants Running Despite Outbreak

By Anthony Capaccio

  • As of Wednesday, 86 sites were closed out of 10,509 locations
  • Boeing's aircraft plant closings are one big exception

The Pentagon's contractors have largely avoided widespread closings or “major impacts” so far from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a running tally compiled by its contracts management office.

Of 10,509 locations tracked or monitored by the Defense Contract Management Agency, 135 had closed at some point as of Wednesday. Forty-nine of those reopened after an average of about 10 days.

“These closures have generally been short-term in order to clean facilities” or to “reduce the potential exposure of employees,” agency spokesman Matthew Montgomery said in a statement.

The agency doesn't track how many workers are affected, he said. And the numbers on closings don't reflect defense contractors that have cut back their operations -- or the outsized impact of Boeing Co.'s shutdowns.

Boeing, the No. 2 U.S. defense contractor, has indefinitely halted assembly of the KC-46 refueling tanker and the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft at its facilities in Washington State, the initial U.S. center of the pandemic.

Last Friday, the company began a two-week shutdown of the Philadelphia-area factory where it manufactures military rotorcraft, including the Chinook CH-47 cargo helicopter and the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey.

Huntington Is Open

By contrast, Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., has had no closings to this point, according to spokeswoman Beci Brenton. With 42,000 employees, it's the sole U.S. builder of aircraft carriers and the co-contractor of Navy attack submarines and DDG-51 destroyers.

Montgomery said the Defense Department “has worked closely with local and state governments to ensure that the defense industrial base is considered critical infrastructure to help minimize the impact of statewide closures.”

Impacts from closings “are being seen across all sectors including but not limited to clothing and textiles, aerospace, shipbuilding, and ground vehicles,” he said.

Many Pentagon contractors “are struggling to maintain a mission-ready workforce due to work site closures, personnel quarantines and state and local restrictions on movement” that can't “be resolved through remote work,” Kim Herrington, the Defense Department's pricing and contracting director, said in a memo Wednesday.

To support the defense industry, the DCMA has modified about 1,400 contracts to increase the rate for “progress payments” for work completed on time from 80% to 90% of costs incurred for large businesses and from 90% of cost to 95% for small businesses.

The move resulted in $3 billion being advanced to industry, according to Herrington.

That's in addition to $882 million that the Air Force is providing to Chicago-based Boeing. The funds were being withheld until the company corrected or provided sufficient plans to correct numerous deficiencies with KC-46 tankers. Most of those flaws remain unresolved.

Also, the Pentagon issued guidance Thursday that lets military contracting officers reimburse companies for documented payments to employees who can't work because of coronavirus facility closings or related restrictions.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-10/defense-contractors-keep-most-plants-running-despite-outbreak

Sur le même sujet

  • New Swiss defense chief orders second opinion on huge air-defense revamp

    1 mars 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Terrestre

    New Swiss defense chief orders second opinion on huge air-defense revamp

    By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Switzerland's new defense chief, Viola Amherd, has intervened in the course of the multibillion-dollar “Air 2030” program, tasking a former Swiss astronaut with critiquing its underlying premises. Claude Nicollier, an astrophysicist and former military pilot, has until the end of April to review a 2017 expert report on the $8 billion project to buy a new fleet of fighter aircraft and ground-based air-defense gear. The second opinion is expected to delay the political process for the program. Technical evaluations of contractor offerings will proceed as planned this spring and summer, the defense ministry said in a statement. Former defense chief Guy Parmelin had planned to present a full program and investment plan for Air 2030 to parliament in February. Government officials still want to subject the proposal to a referendum in 2020. Replacing the country's decades-old F/A-18 and F-5 jets will eat up the lion's share of the program, at roughly $6 billion. The rest will go to new, ground-based, air and missile defense weapons. The envisioned concept of operations dictates that a fleet of 30 or 40 aircraft will intercept those targets outside of the ground weapons' range. Officials want enough capacity to have four planes in the air at any given time during crises. Defense ministry spokesman Renato Kalbermatten told Defense News that Nicollier's scope for critiquing the 2017 expert report is wide open, which means anything from aircraft numbers to cost is open for scrutiny. It is not expected, however, that the review will question the overall need for the program, he said. Notably, a reassessment of the threats expected to be countered by the modernization program is part of Nicollier's mandate. Swiss officials received offers from five aircraft makers on Jan. 25: Airbus with its Eurofighter, Boeing's F/18 Super Hornet, Dassault's Rafale, Lockheed Martin's F-35A and Saab's Gripen E. In the ground-based interceptor portion of the program, the Eurosam consortium is expected to offer its SAMP/T; Israel's Rafael is pitching David's Sling; and Raytheon wants to sell its Patriot system. The three vendors met with Swiss industry representatives earlier this month in preparation for a requirement to offer offset deals worth 100 percent of the eventual contract. Those deals are meant to benefit a broad section of Swiss industries, including the country's famed watchmakers, according to Armasuisse, the country's defense acquisition office. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/02/28/new-swiss-defense-chief-orders-second-opinion-on-huge-air-defense-revamp

  • Saab and FMV Extend Support and Maintenance Contract for Gripen

    6 avril 2021 | International, Aérospatial

    Saab and FMV Extend Support and Maintenance Contract for Gripen

    The order value amounts to approximately SEK 1.6 billion for the period from 1 April 2021 to 31 December 2022

  • Raytheon upgrading Germany's Patriot integrated air and missile defense system

    30 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial

    Raytheon upgrading Germany's Patriot integrated air and missile defense system

    $105 million contract provides Germany the most advanced version available ANDOVER, Mass., July 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is upgrading Germany's Patriot Integrated Air and Missile Defense System to the most current configuration available under a $105.5 million direct commercial sales contract from the NATO Support and Procurement Agency. The contract award was first announced on Raytheon's earnings call on July 25th. "This upgrade ensures that Germany's air and missile defense remains current until at least 2035," said Tom Laliberty, Raytheon vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense. The contract comes shortly after the Defense and Budget Committees of the German Federal Parliament approved the upgrade, ensuring Germany remains aligned with five other EU and NATO allies that rely on Patriot for their air and missile defense. All countries – including the U.S. – benefit from being part of the 16 nation consortium through: Cost sharing for upgrades Enhancements to stay ahead of the growing threat Interoperability with other partner nations Patriot has been successfully used more than 250 times in combat to defend allied forces and civilian populations against hostile aircraft, drones and tactical ballistic missiles. About Raytheon Raytheon Company, with 2018 sales of $27 billion and 67,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 97 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I® products and services, sensing, effects and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on Twitter. Note to Editors The 16 Patriot Nations are: United States of America The Netherlands Germany Japan Israel Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Kuwait Taiwan Greece Spain Republic of Korea United Arab Emirates Qatar Romania Poland Sweden Media Contact Mike Nachshen +1.520.269.5697 idspr@raytheon.com SOURCE Raytheon Company http://raytheon.mediaroom.com/2019-07-29-Raytheon-upgrading-Germanys-Patriot-integrated-air-and-missile-defense-system

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