IAI and Czech Ministry of Defence signed a contract for Sustainability and maintenance of MMR radars

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  21 octobre 2020 | International, Terrestre, Sécurité

  Rheinmetall eyes do-over in new pitch of its Lynx vehicle to the US Army

  Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Rheinmetall is teaming with Textron Systems to pitch the Lynx KF41 vehicle as a Bradley replacement to the U.S. Army, the company announced Tuesday. The campaign marks the second time that the Düsseldorf, Germany-based company is targeting the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle program following an unsuccessful attempt last year that eventually saw the ground service halt the race. This time around, Rheinmetall is putting greater emphasis on a U.S. footprint, led by its growing American Rheinmetall Vehicles subsidiary based in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Textron, as the newcomer on Team Lynx, is meant to be front and center when it comes to manufacturing and robotics capabilities. “Textron Systems' Slidell, Louisiana, vehicle production facility has supported more than 15 armored vehicle programs of record supporting over 20 countries,” Henry Finneral, senior vice president and general manager of Textron Systems' Marine and Land Systems business, said in a statement. “We stand ready to support the team and the US Army and deliver a trusted platform for the future.” Matt Warnick, managing director at American Rheinmetall Vehicles, said the “teaming agreement brings together two of the world's leading providers of defense industry solutions." Raytheon remains part of the team. Executives hope the new Army competition will give all bidders more leeway in fine-tuning their eventual offers to the service's requirements. That marks a contrast to the previous acquisition attempt, where the ground service essentially wanted specific features already built into prototype vehicles, with little time for companies to adjust. This time around, the Army plans to downsize to five bidders, then three, before picking an eventual winner. A final request for proposals is expected late this year or early next. Service officials have put competitors on notice that an open architecture in the vehicle design will be at a premium, a feature that Rheinmetall touted in its bid notice. “The network is almost more important in some ways than building the combat vehicles,” Maj. Gen. Brian Cummings, program executive officer of ground combat systems, told Defense News in an interview ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army's virtual conference, which ended last week. Rheinmetall previously planned to present the teaming arrangement with Textron at this year's AUSA show if the event had taken place in person. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/10/20/rheinmetall-eyes-do-over-in-new-pitch-of-its-lynx-vehicle-to-the-us-army/

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  12 avril 2023 | International, Aérospatial

  Romania selects F-35 to upgrade air force fleet

  The country could become the third Eastern European ally, after Poland and the Czech Republic, to operate the fifth-generation aircraft.

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  12 juin 2020 | International, C4ISR

  Year two post merger, L3Harris looks toward $1B more in divestitures

  By: Jill Aitoro WASHINGTON — One year post merger, L3Harris is a third of the way to its goal of shedding roughly $1.5 billion of the company, with COVID-19 slowing progress, said its two top executives in an interview with Defense News. About $500 million in business has been divested since June 2019, when Harris and L3 Technologies combined into a single, $17 billion company. That total came by way of three deals that shed the EOTech business, the night vision business, and the security detection and automation businesses. “Out of the gates, we were really running at this,” said CEO Bill Brown, who noted in previous interviews the audacious goal for divestitures of 8-10 percent of total revenue. “We continue to make progress on others, but obviously with the COVID crisis and the financial impacts of that, it's moved some opportunities to the right.” The sale of the security detection and automation businesses to Leidos for about $1 billion will ultimately be one of if not the biggest divestiture for the company, said Brown, who declined to point to any specific portions of business as currently up for sale or likely to be shed. Thus far divestitures have been driven either by overlap created by the merger — which subsequently raised the alarm bells of regulators — or by a desire to focus the portfolio even more to become what Brown described as a “powerhouse C4ISR company.” Brown stopped short of stating any intention to exit the commercial or federal business altogether — even as the former took a significant hit from pandemic fallout: Commercial revenues are expected to be down around 35 percent organically for the year. Also likely to suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic is international business. Foreign sales, which account for 20 percent of total revenue, will likely remain flat, versus the increase in low to mid-single digits previously expected. “We identify that as an area where we think we can outperform,” Chris Kubasik, L3Harris chief operating officer, said during the interview. “Clearly the global pandemic applies some pressure, especially in the Middle East with the prices of oil and all the countries having their own bailouts or stimulus plans. Just like the U.S., I think the situation is going to call into question how those countries deal with defense going forward. It's going to be one of these areas that we need to monitor, and are probably going to have to take market share to grow.” An inability to travel has, however, opened doors to new ways of doing business around the world. Kubasik pointed to a particular deal with a customer in a Far East country that was negotiated via Skype. “Nobody's really closed for business,” he said. “We've just got to be creative and do it differently. You feel pretty good when you do a one- or two-hour Zoom [video conference], where in the old days it would have taken four days by the time you flew to the country, cleared customs, got a good night's rest, held a meeting, met again and flew back.” For L3Harris, year two post merger will focus on the remaining $1 billion in divestitures and see a continuation of company integration. In the longer term, those efforts will set the company up nicely for additional acquisitions, which Kubasik called “a clear expectation” for spurring growth. And C4ISR is the area that will likely be the focus of potential buys. “The value of those capabilities and technologies will be even greater in the future in a near-peer competition,” Brown said. “It's not the platforms, but what the platforms do and how they interoperate that requires networks and new ways of communicating, which is in the sweet spot of the company. So I would imagine that anything we would do through acquisition would happen in that broad C4ISR domain.” But for now, he added, the company is focusing on “the basic fundamentals." "And if we do that really well, then we build credibility to go and do another acquisition, another merger over time. The key is earning the right to do that — building the credibility and the muscle to go down that path, and that's what we're doing today.” https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/06/11/year-two-post-merger-l3harris-looks-toward-1b-more-in-divestitures/