1 novembre 2021 | International, Terrestre
GM Defense shows off updated Infantry Squad Vehicle
GM Defense's ISV is electric and can power the vehicle, as well as drones and sensors.
2 janvier 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna
ASHINGTON — Boeing won't be delivering the first KC-46 tanker to the Air Force in 2018 as planned, due to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' surprise ouster from the Pentagon, a source told Defense News on Monday.
The Air Force had intended to accept the first KC-46 by the end of December and was awaiting signature from Mattis, which would finalize the delivery plans, Reuters first reported on Dec. 20.
However, later that day, Mattis announced that he would step down from the top Defense Department post in February, and just three days later, President Donald Trump tweeted that Mattis would wrap up his work as secretary of defense by the end of 2018.
With sweeping changes in leadership at the Pentagon imminent, a decision on KC-46 was pushed out, a source close to the program told Defense News. The situation was further complicated because Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan — who by the end of Dec. 31 will temporarily take over Mattis' role as defense secretary — is a former Boeing executive and must recuse himself from all decisions involving the company.
Boeing declined to confirm that the delivery would not take place on Dec. 31.
“KC-46 remains a top priority and we look forward to delivering tanker aircraft in partnership with the Air Force,” said Kelly Kaplan, a spokeswoman for the company, in a statement to Defense News.
The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The delay is a blow for Boeing, which had promised to deliver the first tanker by the end of 2018 after a string of missed delivery dates stemming back to August 2017.
“We continue to make steady progress toward final certification of the KC-46 tanker,” Boeing's CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in an October earnings call. “We are working with our U.S. Air Force customer toward completing all the steps required to deliver the first tanker aircraft this quarter."
The company has now racked up more than $3 billion in pre-tax charges on the program, as it is responsible for any costs beyond the $4.9 billion fixed price contract value originally awarded in 2011.
Boeing officials are hopeful that the Air Force will be able to move forward with delivery after a set of meetings in early 2019, one source said.
But at the moment it is unclear who will authorize the KC-46 delivery with Shanahan barred from the process, though it may fall to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson or to Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment.
The Air Force plans to buy 179 KC-46s throughout its program of record. McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas is set to become the first installation to receive the new tankers, and training for pilots and boom operators has already begun.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/12/31/first-kc-46-delivery-stalled-by-mattis-departure
1 novembre 2021 | International, Terrestre
GM Defense's ISV is electric and can power the vehicle, as well as drones and sensors.
21 août 2019 | International, Terrestre
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army is nearing a decision on who will build its Lower-Tier Air-and-Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, which will provide the sensing capability for the future Integrated Air-and-Missile Defense System the service is developing. The service is planning to award a contract no later than the end of the fiscal year to one of the three vendors that participated in a “sense-off” competition at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, over the spring, Daryl Youngman, the deputy director in charge of Army AMD modernization, told Defense News in a recent interview. According to other sources, that decision is expected next month. The radar is part of a new AMD system that will replace the Army's Raytheon-made Patriot system. Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and a Lockheed Martin-Elta Systems team all brought radars to the White Sands sense-off and subsequently submitted proposals for the prototype competition in July. The winner will build six prototypes by the end of FY22 to prove whether the radar can be built and then fielded to a unit for evaluation. A follow-on contract for 16 additional radars is expected if all goes well. The plan leaves an opening for other radar solutions to get back in the game if the prototyping effort does not pan out. While the Army has dropped its long-prioritized requirement for a radar capable of detecting threats from 360 degrees, it now seeks a broader baseline requirement to “expand the battle space beyond what the current Patriot radar has,” Youngman said. And the system will ideally have a lot of growth potential baked in, he added. Replacing the Patriot radar has been a long time coming. The radar was first fielded in the 1980s, and the Army previously attempted to replace the system with Lockheed Martin's Medium Extended Air Defense System through an international co-development effort with Germany and Italy. But that program was canceled in the U.S. after closing out a proof-of-concept phase roughly six years ago. Since then, the Army has studied and debated how to replace the Patriot radar while Raytheon continues to upgrade its radar to keep pace with current threats. It is acknowledged that there will come a point where radar upgrades will be unable to keep up with future threats. Taking years to decide, the service moved forward on a competition to replace the radar in 2017 and chose four companies to come up with design concepts for the capability — Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Technovative Applications. Toward the end of 2018, Raytheon and Lockheed were chosen to continue technology development under that program. Defense News first broke the news last fall that the Army was attempting to hit the reset button on the LTAMDS program, deciding to host a “sense-off” to identify available radar capabilities. While LTAMDS is considered the fourth priority out of four major lines of effort with which the Cross-Functional Team in charge of AMD has defined, it is not because it's the least important, Youngman noted, but more related to schedule — where the system is in the development and fielding timeline. The AMD CFT's top priority is its command-and-control system — the Integrated Battle Command System — for its future IAMD architecture. Limited user testing will occur next spring with a decision to move into production in the fourth quarter of FY20. Manuever-Short-Range Air Defense — or M-SHORAD — is the second priority as the Army . The service is set to begin development testing of its prototypes this fall. The Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) Increment 2 program is ranked third as the Army prepares to take receipt of its interim cruise missile capability — two Iron Dome Systems — soon. The Army is in the midst of coming up with a new strategy for the IFPC system that will ultimately defend against rockets, artillery and mortar as well as cruise missiles and drone threats. The IFPC system will have to tie into the Army's IBCS system as well. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/08/20/us-army-nears-decision-on-who-will-build-new-missile-defense-radar-prototypes/
17 juin 2022 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
56 entreprises israéliennes étaient présentes au salon Eurosatory. Les exportations militaires israéliennes ont battu un record en 2021 : avec 11,2 Md$, elles « ont réalisé une augmentation de 55% en deux ans », affirme le brigadier général Yair Kulas, chef de la Sibat (International Defense Cooperation Directorate du ministère de la Défense). L'Europe est le premier client, avec 41% du total des exportations, contre 30% en 2020, suivie par la région Asie-Pacifique (34%), l'Amérique du Nord (12%) et les pays du Golfe (7%). A Eurosatory, la société Elbit, notamment, a présenté « Raketa », un nouveau système radar capable de suivre plusieurs objets dans l'espace, ce qui élimine la nécessité de hiérarchiser les cibles. Israel Aircraft Industries a dévoilé l'OTHELLO-P, un nouveau système de détection de tir passif haute performance (GDS), qui augmente la capacité de survie et la capacité des troupes à riposter. Les Echos du 17 juin