12 septembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Sebastian Sprenger and Andrew Chuter
LONDON – BAE Systems and Leonardo on Wednesday formalized a partnership agreement to cooperate on the Tempest next-generation combat aircraft, following a pact signed between the U.K. and Italian governments late Tuesday afternoon.
The inclusion of Italy in the ambitious project marks the third partner nation, following Sweden, that the British were able to sign. And BAE officials on hand here at the DSEI defense trade show hinted that more could follow soon.
Leonardo brings with it a smattering of Italian companies, including Avio Aero and Elettronica, adding to the team of MBDA and Rolls Royce already onboard.
BAE Systems chief Charles Woodburn said both nations and their respective industries are “committed” to seeing Tempest through. The program is envisioned to be a sixth-generation, aerial combat system featuring manned planes, drones, sensors and weapons working in unprecedented collaboration.
The two countries already work together on the American-led F-35 as well as the Eurofighter Typhoon. Advancing those programs is also an explicit objective in the new partnership between London and Rome.
A statement released by the UK Ministry of Defence Wednesday morning framed the government agreement – signed by Simon Bollom, the head of Defence Equipment and Support, and Lt. Gen. Nicolò Falsaperna, Italian Secretary General of Defence – as a broad pledge to cooperate on matters of “combat air capability.” The idea is to “deepen discussions on Tempest military requirements,” come up with a “road map” for feeding advanced Eurofighter capabilities into the future program, and facilitate an industry ecosystem to make it all happen, according to the statement.
“The U.K. and Italy have a proven 50-year track record of working closely together on Combat Aircraft development and support through the Panavia Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon programs,” reads the defense ministry statement. “Both governments confirmed a common desire for a strong industrial base to develop key capabilities and boost prosperity in both nations. The agreement also paves the way for closer industrial collaboration, including through shared industrial entities such as Leonardo and MBDA.”
Leonardo CEO Alessandro Profumo lauded the joint Tempest effort as an “ambitious and strategically important” program. Joining it this early in the process, he said, would allow his company greater say in future decisions.
The U.K.-Italy venture comes as France, Germany and Spain are working on their own version of Europe's next-generation weapon, the Future Combat Air System. With much pomp and circumstance accorded here to the Tempest effort, including promotion under the banner of the Royal Air Force and a full-scale mockup sitting prominently in the exhibit hall, the continental counterpart appeared more of a distant theory in comparison.
The FCAS program, led on the industry side by Airbus and Dassault, has been dogged by a fundamental disagreement between German and France about the exportability of its envisioned components. Berlin taking a more restrictive stance than Paris when it comes to potential buyers in the Middle East.
Following Spain's recent inclusion in the program, the Madrid government has designated electronics specialist Indra as the national industry lead, a move that left the Spanish Airbus division feeling burned, according to sources.
Trade show attendees here associated with the FCAS program brushed aside the notion of Tempest as the more concrete proposal, noting how Brexit would cast a shadow of uncertainty on the UK's budget, not to speak of Italy's ongoing financial troubles.
At the same time, the U.K.-Italian-Swedish and the Franco-German-Spanish efforts make for formidable competition in a continent where military budgets are limited.
Asked by a reporter how he sees the two programs play out over the next ten years, Profumo only stated the obvious: “Two programs are more expensive than one.”
So where might the British turn next in their quest for international partners?
Woodburn, the head of BAE, told Defense News that talks with other possible partners are ongoing. "We are in discussions with other nations, but what it shows is there are plenty of people who want to join the team although they may be different types of partners to the ones we have right now," he said.
Leonardo U.K. boss Norman Bone said Team Tempest hadn't stopped talking to core companies but were also looking at partners who bring other benefits. “We haven't drawn the line on industrial capability but maybe there are partners who bring money and markets in exchange for technology transfer,” said Bone.
Enzo Benigni, the CEO of Elettronica, said his company's participation in Tempest is a crucial milestone for the company. “It's a partnership that will last 40 or 50 years,” he told reporters.
20 janvier 2022 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR
Leonardo has won 260 million euros ($296 million) in Eurofighter radar work from Germany's Hensoldt, meaning the Italian firm now has a major role in all three of the new e-scan radars being built for Typhoon customers.
7 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Terrestre
Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army is on a path to use space sensors to help its artillery see and shoot well beyond current capability. The service has already wrapped up an effort to achieve this capability, which took place in Europe in February and March, Gen. Mike Murray, Army Futures Command commander, told reporters in a media call. Murray was discussing how Army modernization would proceed despite COVID-19 social isolation measures in April. The Army will continue to build upon these early successes tapping into space assets to help guns on the ground hit long-range targets, an Army spokesperson told Defense News in a written statement. Conducted through Futures Command's cross functional team in charge of Assured Position, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT), the service was able to link space sensors with shooters in live-fire demonstrations in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on three separate occasions with the latest on March 23, the spokesperson wrote. Over the course of the demonstrations, the team “successfully sensed and hit targets at ranges beyond line of sight using satellite capabilities that have not been accessible to ground forces until now,” the spokesperson said. The exercise showed the “Army's ability to engage and defeat time sensitive targets with timely and accurate fires anywhere on the battlefield.” Tapping sensors that can help guide missiles and munitions to targets deep into the battlefield is critical to the Army's future long-range precision fires capability and key to operating across multiple domains. But achieving such distances requires connecting sensors and shooters that have never worked together before Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) is the Army's top modernization priority as it plays a critical role in the future battlefield and will be a centerpiece in the service's future Multi-Domain Operations doctrine currently in development. The LRPT cross functional team will continue to push the capabilities to far greater ranges than previously capable or than those distances previously allowed prior to the United States' withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019. During the initial live-fire demonstrations, a unit conducted an operation using the weapons and ammunition associated with their mission — in this case the Army integrated the capability with the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and the M777 howitzer. The demonstrations used high explosive rounds equipped with a precision guidance kit fuze fired from the M777 howitzer or MRLS launcher. The Advanced Miniaturized Data Acquisition and Dissemination Vehicle accessed various sensors and target data was transmitted through the Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System and the Advanced Field Artillery Database System for the technical and tactical fire direction processes, the spokesperson detailed. The demonstrations gave “insight” into current capabilities “and their ability to link in novel ways to provide a capability down to the division operational level of combat,” the Army spokesperson said. Originally, pre-pandemic, the Army had planned to work on the capability throughout the scaled-back Defender Europe 2020 exercise using space-based sensors to pursue deep targets that “have not been responsive to ground forces until now,” according to the spokesperson. The APNT team will build upon the demonstrations by finding ways to reduce the sensor-to-shooter timeline to meet capability needs in the future anticipated operating environments. Ultimately, the Army will integrate the capability into the future Extended Range Cannon and a “full suite of Army fires platforms.” The ERCA cannon has already reached ranges of roughly 40 miles in recent tests at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. The service also plans to begin integrating with aviation platforms, the spokesperson said. The demonstrations are feeding into a “targeting process multi-domain operational strategy,” according to the spokesperson. The Army also plans to work on an architecture that connects both kinetic and non-kinetic assets from across joint, interagency and multinational partners. https://www.c4isrnet.com/2020/07/06/army-on-path-to-use-space-sensors-to-help-guns-on-the-ground-see-farther/
22 novembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
ByChristen McCurdy Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Raytheon has been awarded a new contract to produce the Paveway Family of Weapons, kits that turn "dumb" bombs in the precision guided bombs, for allied militaries. The $386 million contract, announced Wednesday by the Department of Defense, covers "Paveway-specific activities," including studies, production, certification, integration and sustainment, referred to as a total package approach. Paveway bombs, really kits that convert "dumb" bombs into precision weapons, can use either GPS or laser guidance, increasing both accuracy and flexibility of existing munitions. According to Raytheon, Paveways have made up a significant number of air-to-ground precision-guided weapons used in recent years in Middle East missions, including Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Unified Protector. The new contract is a modification to a previous one, increasing the ceiling of the previous contract, awarded in August 2018, from $110 million to $496 million. This modification involves 100 percent military sales to countries that have either contracted to acquire or expressed interest in acquiring Paveway weapons, and is funded entirely by foreign military sales funds, the Pentagon said. Work will be performed at Raytheon's Tucson site and at Air Force test ranges. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/11/21/Raytheon-awarded-additional-386M-for-foreign-Paveway-bomb-buys/2241574294851/