IAI to Provide Loitering Munitions Systems to Asian Countries in Deals Worth Over $100 Million USD

Sur le même sujet

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  7 juillet 2021 | International, Naval

  MBDA remporte des contrats pour fournir des missiles CAMM aux destroyers de type 45 de la Royal Navy

  MBDA a obtenu plusieurs contrats pour « améliorer de manière significative » les capacités de défense aérienne et antimissile des six destroyers de type 45 de la Royal Navy. Dans le cadre de ces travaux, le CAMM (Common Anti-Air Modular Missile) sera associé pour la première fois à un système de commandement et de contrôle (C2) Sea Viper amélioré. Le CAMM « offre une défense antiaérienne rapprochée et locale de premier ordre », et viendra compléter l'Aster 30, renforçant ainsi la capacité de défense antiaérienne de la Royal Navy, précise MBDA.

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  12 novembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial

  Italy signals slowdown on F-35 orders

  By: Tom Kington ROME — Italy will stretch out the order of F-35 fighter jets, buying six or seven of the aircraft in the next five years instead of the previously planned 10 jets, a government source told Defense News. The decision follows a review of the program by Italy's populist government, which took office in June and is mulling defense spending cuts to pay for social welfare programs and cover tax cuts. The source said the plan did not envisage a reduction in orders, merely a slowdown of intake, which would leave the decision of the total F-35 purchase to a future government. Previous governments planned to buy 60 F-35As and 30 F-35Bs for a total of 90 aircraft. The new government will focus on spending plans over its five-year mandate and not beyond, the source said, adding that discussions are underway with the U.S. about the change in schedule. The decision on the slowdown keeps with Italian policy on the F-35 set out by Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta after she took office in June. “What I would like to do is lighten the load, since we have other spending commitments in Europe. We will try to stretch out deliveries instead of cutting the order, which would reduce offsets and mean penalties,” she told Defense News at the time. Italy has taken delivery of 10 F-35As and one F-35B. Two of the "A" models as well as the "B" model are being used for training in the U.S., while eight "A" models are now based at the Italian Air Force's base in Amendola, southern Italy. Trenta was tapped for office by the Five Star party, one of two political parties in Italy's current coalition government. Five Star politicians took a hostile line toward the F-35 program before taking office, at one point promising to scrap it. However, a defense spending document released last month suggests the government will maintain spending on the program in the next two years, with €766 million (U.S. $874 million) due to be spent in 2019 and €783 million in 2020. Those figures should be treated as provisional until the overall budget is signed in Parliament in the coming weeks. Five Star politicians have also shown hostility toward another U.S. defense program — the ground station planned in Sicily to support the Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS, network, a U.S. Navy-run satellite network providing voice and data communications to U.S. military personnel and platforms around the world, even when they are under thick forest canopies. Long held up by legal challenges in Sicily amid health fears, sources have said the MUOS antenna in Sicily could soon see final approval from the Italian government. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/11/09/italy-signals-slowdown-on-f-35-orders

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  22 juillet 2020 | International, C4ISR

  To be competitive in 5G, the US must play offense, not defense

  Joel Thayer , Harold Feld , and Daniel Hoffman The Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation are far from the first to try to upend an independent agency's proceeding. However, these executive agencies have been far more aggressive than normal in that pursuit in response to the Federal Communications Commission's April 20 Ligado decision. This dispute significantly compromises the United States' leadership in global markets — by both undermining domestic initiatives and by undercutting our policy positions internationally. The recent dispute concerning Ligado pits the DoD and DOT on one side, and the Federal Communications Commission, the State Department and Attorney General Bill Barr on the other. This dispute involves the FCC's unanimous decision to grant new wireless entrant Ligado's request to modify its licenses to provide a national, low-power 5G network for Internet of Things services. The Ligado decision took nearly two decades, all told. It is not overstating to say that what should be a straightforward engineering decision has devolved into a watershed moment that, if Congress doesn't act, may prevent the U.S. from deploying 5G at a rate greater or equal to China or other international sovereigns. Worse, it will deprive Americans of competition, wireless innovation and related economic growth for years to come. IoT enabled by 5G will revolutionize everything from precision agriculture to self-driving cars. By focusing exclusively on IoT, Ligado can expedite the deployment of this technology while traditional wireless carriers focus on building out consumer-oriented 5G networks. This will accelerate deployment of 5G networks and introduce competition into the nascent IoT market. This is why Barr (whose Antitrust Division concentrates on competition) and the State Department (which wants to see the U.S. retain wireless leadership in global markets) have supported the FCC's decision. Ostensibly, the DoD and DOT say that Ligado will interfere with sensitive GPS operations. But its rationale does not survive even casual scrutiny. In recent weeks, internal emails from the DoD have surfaced showing that at least some of the DoD's own spectrum experts categorically agreed with the FCC that Ligado posed no threat, but were overruled by their superiors. The real issue is that the DoD and DOT are the largest and most powerful federal spectrum users. Any growth in 5G will require them to make further adjustments. Oddly, neither agency operates near Ligado's spectrum, and yet they seek to impede Ligado's ability to innovate in it. Put simply, Ligdao is just the unlucky party caught in the middle of their broader interagency spectrum fight. Congress made the FCC an independent, expert agency to prevent precisely this kind of situation. One of the most important reasons the FCC even exists is to set uniform rules for commercial wireless networks so that equipment can interoperate and companies can innovate, which ensures consumers ultimately reap the benefits of their products. Unfortunately, the Senate and House Armed Services committees intend to end run the agency by including provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that, in effect, prevent stakeholders that work with the Defense Department — either directly or indirectly — from using Ligado's network, which includes just about every major company in America. The U.S. squabbling with itself only yields an uncontested “win” for China. Our competitors are coordinated and not stumbling over themselves on petty spectrum disputes. They are certainly not waiting for the United States government to get its act together. To the contrary, as the House Appropriations Committee observed in its report on the FCC's budget: “The U.S. is falling behind other countries in the allocation of [5G] spectrum.” Chinese-owned companies Huawei and ZTE have already bought up significant wireless infrastructure for its 5G networks across the globe and have begun deploying IoT services in the same or similar bands the FCC authorized for Ligado. If that happens, it's China that sets the terms for 5G, which adversely affects our nation's security given China's penchant for international data aggregation. Upending the FCC would hand China a nearly insurmountable advantage in the race to 5G. Also, if Congress sides with the DoD and DOT instead of observing the FCC's 17-year-long rigorous testing and analysis, which included that of the DOT's and the Defense Department's own spectrum experts, then the FCC will be effectively paralyzed going forward. Congress needs to put a stop to these games before they do permanent damage and let the FCC do its job. Joel Thayer focuses his practice on telecommunications, regulatory and transaction matters, as well as privacy and cybersecurity issues. Harold Feld has worked in telecommunications law for more than 20 years. He is senior vice president of Public Knowledge, a 501(c) that advocates for policies to expand broadband access. Public Knowledge has provided support for Ligado several times in the FCC proceeding. Ligado sponsors its IP3 award at the $5,000 level. Daniel Hoffman worked in the CIA, where he was a three-time station chief and a senior executive clandestine services officer. He has been a Fox News contributor since May 2018. https://www.c4isrnet.com/opinion/2020/07/23/to-be-competitive-in-5g-the-us-must-play-offense-not-defense/