4 avril 2024 | International, C4ISR
Considerations for Operational Technology Cybersecurity
Operational Technology (OT) Cybersecurity: A Balancing Act! OT systems' unique traits demand tailored security measures. Learn why safeguarding OT req
1 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Despite Trump’s Rhetoric, U.S. Defense Firms Pitch Moving Production To India
As big defense firms line up to pitch their fighter planes to India, the government of Narendra Modi is demanding they build in India, something that might be at odds with the Trumpian America First philosophy.
By PAUL MCLEARY
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has cleared the decks for what promises to be a huge increase in technology and weapons exports to India, putting the country on the same footing as members of NATO, and allies like Japan and Australia, when it comes to favored export status.
While the new status may pave the way for major U.S. defense firms to lock up multi-billion deals with the Indian government, those deals would likely come with the stipulation that production be moved to India, something American defense giants like Lockheed Martin and Boeing have promised to do, even if it runs counter to the Trump administration's focus on creating more manufacturing jobs at home.
Such offsets, as they are known in the arms export business, are a staple of such deals and are a crucial part of negotiations.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross made the announcement yesterday as part of the US government's continuing efforts to draw closer to Delhi, partly as a bulwark against Chinese expansionism in the region. Granting India Strategic Trade Authorization status also comes as the Indian military is considering spending tens of billions of dollars on drones, fighters and helicopters made by U.S. defense manufacturers.
Ross, speaking at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, said the move reflects India's efforts to abide by multilateral export rules, and “provides India greater supply chain efficiency, both for defense, and for other high-tech products.”
India's ambassador to the United States, Navtej Sarna, added that it is a sign of trust in India's “capabilities as an economy and as a security partner, because it also...would allow the transfer of more sensitive defense technologies,” and “fleshes out our defense partnership in a big way.”
But the new trade status can only do so much, and India's decades-long reliance on Russian weaponry over U.S. or European equipment is something that shows no sign of changing anytime soon, a fact that rankles many on Capitol Hill.
In Washington, the House recently passed its version of the 2019 NDAA, which granted Defense Secretary James Mattis' request to waive sanctions on partner countries that have bought Russian arms in the past, but the Senate has yet to take up the bill, and is expected to vote on it some time next month. The waivers, Mattis said in a series of letters to lawmakers, would allow the Pentagon to forge closer ties with countries like India, Vietnam, and Indonesia, by not penalizing them for having Russian equipment, even as they move closer to the U.S.
But the chronically chaotic state of the Indian military's acquisition practices also presents significant hurdles, according to experts.
Air Marshal M. Matheswaran, former deputy chief of the defense staff in the Indian Ministry of Defense told an audience at the Stimson Center in Washington that the Indian government and military often seek to simply to “fill in technological gaps” they believe they have, rather than building strategically.
“Their procurement is a mess. They're not joint. They're risk adverse. They've just got a ton of problems,” one former White House official, who asked to speak anonymously, told me.
“Broadly, in procurement they have tried in the post-Cold War era to diversify their procurements as a political sop to potential partners,” he said. “They start to move more through the pipeline than they can actually pay for, and they end up building this very motley force in a way that's not always coherent.”
As it stands, the United States accounts for about 12 percent of India's defense imports, a number which is expected to grow 6.2 percent annually through 2023, according to a recent study by Avescent, a consulting firm.
The Indian defense budget, at more than $53 billion, is the fifth-largest in the world, and as the Avascent analysis noted, it “is also one of the most competitive,” as local companies battle it out, along with a mix of Russian, French, Israeli, and American firms. The air force, for example, flys Russian MiG and French Rafale fighters, along with American C-17 and C-130 transport aircraft and Israeli Heron drones.
In recent years, France has emerged as the big winner in several hard-fought awards, inking an $8.6 billion contract for 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in 2016 — which will serve as India's primary nuclear delivery aircraft — and a deal for six Scorpene-class submarines for $4.6 billion in 2005. As part of the government's “Make in India” initiative, most of the work on the subs will be done at the Mazagon dockyard in Mumbai.
But Russia isn't going anywhere. Moscow is on the verge of finalizing a $3.2 billion contract for four S-400 surface-to-air missile systems with India, part of about $12 billion worth of Russian arms deals in the works with the Indian government.
The two countries are also close to finalizing a $1.1 billion deal for 48 additional Mi-17-V5 military transport/utility helicopters, with final signatures expected during Russian President Vladimir Putin's October visit to India. According to local reports, the contract will mandate that 30 percent of the work be done by the Indian defense industry, as part of the Modi government's push to build up the Indian manufacturing sector. The helicopters joint U.S.-made Chinooks and Apaches in the country's rotary-wing fleet.
The Indian government says that it doesn't have a problem with such a mix and match approach, however, even if it does complicate supply chains.
Currently, the big contract up for an award is the Indian Air Force's requirement for 110 aircraft, expected to be worth as much as $15 billion.
Boeing has announced it would join with Indian firms Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Mahindra Defense Systems to manufacture its F/A-18 Hornet in the country if it wins the contract, and Lockheed Martin has pledged to move its entire F-16 production line to India from Greenville, S.C., to India, potentially at the expense of 250 South Carolina jobs.
“The F-16 gives the Indian industry a unique opportunity to be at the center of the world's largest fighter aircraft ecosystem,” Lockheed exec Vivek Lallsaid earlier this year in his pitch, adding that the company was ready to equip the jets with the same target tracking device currently on the F-35, as well as a helmet-mounted tracking system and a new radio data link system.
Swedish defense giant Saab Group is also in the running for the fighter deal, and has announced it is ready to do a “full” technology transfer of its Gripen-E fighter jet production to India if it wins the competition.
Boeing, in conjunction with Indian manufacturer Tata has already moved part of its Apache helicopter fuselage manufacturing to India, and the factory will eventually be the sole supplier of the part for Boeing's worldwide sales. The promise was one of the keys to the company winning the $3.1 billion deal in 2015 for 22 Apache and 15 Chinook helicopters.
While the deal for the fighter planes shakes out over the coming months, the competition is merely one part of a larger American push, which included a recent visit by the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, Ellen Lord, and the upcoming “two-plus-two” meeting between defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and their American counterparts, James Mattis and Mike Pompeo.
And in a jab at the Russians, Indian officials announced this week that they would be replacing their Russian-made Pechora air defense systems around the capital in a $1 billion deal to buy the NASAMS-II, manufactured by Kongsberg and Raytheon.
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15 octobre 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - October 11, 2019
NAVY Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Connecticut, is awarded a $434,370,635 contract for lead yard support and development studies and design efforts related to Virginia class submarines. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut (94.1%); Newport News, Virginia (4.8%); and Newport and Quonset, Rhode Island (combined 1.1%), and is expected to be complete by September 2020. The contract provides lead yard support for Virginia class submarines that will maintain, update and support the Virginia class design and related drawings and data for each Virginia class submarine, including technology insertion, throughout its construction and post-shakedown availability period. The contractor will also provide all engineering and related lead yard support necessary for direct maintenance and support of Virginia class ship specifications. In addition, the contract provides development studies and design efforts related to the Virginia class submarine design and design improvements; preliminary and detail component and system design; integration of system engineering, design engineering, test engineering, logistics engineering and production engineering. The contractor will continue development studies and design efforts related to components and systems to accomplish research and development tasks, and prototypes and engineering development models required to fully evaluate new technologies to be inserted in succeeding Virginia class submarines. Fiscal 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (SCN) (Navy); and fiscal 2019 research, development, test and engineering (RDT&E) (Navy) funding in the amount of $68,321,021 will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $4,050,000; and fiscal 2019 research, development, test and engineering (Navy) funds in the amount of $7,341,250 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year — fiscal 2018 SCN (38.8%); fiscal 2017 SCN (34.9%); fiscal 2019 RDT&E (10.7%); fiscal 2014 SCN (7.1%); fiscal 2019 SCN (5%); fiscal 2016 SCN (3.4%). This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii) — only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-20-C-2120). Space Ground Systems Solutions LLC, West Melbourne, Florida, awarded a $17,082,880 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification to overall ceiling for previously awarded contract (N00173-15-D-2015) for spacecraft engineering, software, research and development services to the Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST). Specifically, the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) provides support for software engineering development, maintenance, enhancement and configuration management support for all components contained within the Neptune™ software suite under the direction of the NRL Configuration Control Board, and the VMOC™ software framework under the direction of the VMOC™ program management and software engineering teams. Funding will be obligated for each task order and no funds are obligated on the base IDIQ contract. Work will be performed in Washington, District of Columbia (50%); and West Melbourne, Florida (50%), and is expected to be completed by March 2020. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Rolls-Royce Corp., Indianapolis, Indiana, is awarded a $9,066,270 modification (P00013) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-17-C-0081). This modification exercises an option to procure three spare AE1107C engines in support of the V-22 Osprey program for the government of Japan. Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is expected to be completed in November 2020. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $9,066,270 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. ARMY Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded a $60,619,031 modification (P00185) to contract W31P4Q-08-C-0418 for engineering, logistics, integration, test and evaluation, and program management activities. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $5,000,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. BAE Systems Ordnance Systems Inc., Radford, Virginia, was awarded an $8,309,050 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to incorporate a requirement to stabilize the legacy nitroglycerin area facility at Radford Army Ammunition Plant. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Radford, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2019 procurement of ammunition, Army funds in the amount of $8,309,050 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-20-F-0021). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., El Segundo, California, has been awarded a maximum $24,299,972 firm-fixed-priced delivery order (SPRPA1-19-F-LT31) against a five-year basic ordering agreement (SPRPA1-15-G-001Z) for rudders in support of the F/A-18 aircraft platform. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a seven-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is California, with an Aug. 31, 2026, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2026 Navy working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Belleville Shoe Co.,* Belleville, Illinois, has been awarded a maximum $12,524,036 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Air Force temperate weather, Coyote boots. This was a competitive acquisition with two responses received. This is a one-year base contract with three one-year option periods. Location of performance is Illinois, with an Oct. 10, 2020, performance completion date. Using customer is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2020 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-20-D-1208). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1988088/source/GovDelivery/
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10 septembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
PODCAST: The Pentagon’s Plan to Mix Fourth and Fifth-Gen Fighters
The Pentagon is considering purchasing new fourth-gen Boeing [BA] F-15EXs in addition to fifth-gen Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35s to more quickly replace the Air Force's aging fighter fleet. Where did this scenario come from, and what's the rationale behind it? On this episode of THE BUSINESS END, John is joined by Congressional and Air Force reporter Vivienne Machi to explore the fighter modernization strategy and what the procurement of F-15EXs would mean for the F-35 program. The conversation also features Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, and retired four-star General Mike Loh, former Commander of Air Combatant Command. Take a listen to this episode below, or click here to download the show from iTunes. (Spotify here, and Google Play here.) If you like the show, make sure to SUBSCRIBE so you get new episodes as soon as they're released! Got feedback on the show, or want to get in touch? Please get in touch! We look forward to hearing your thoughts. This episode of THE BUSINESS END is sponsored by Boeing. Sponsors have no input on editorial direction or coverage. https://www.defensedaily.com/podcast-pentagons-plan-mix-fourth-fifth-gen-fighters/air-force/