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  29 janvier 2021 | International, Terrestre

  Northrop Grumman Says It Will Walk Away From Cluster Bomb Contract

  The company's CEO says the decision is part of a move to "be thoughtful about potential human rights implications" of its products. Northrop Grumman said Thursday that it would walk away from a U.S. government cluster bomb contract as the company moves to distance itself from the deadly weapons commonly associated with civilian casualties. The contract involves the “testing of cluster munition components” and is “structured to help remove cluster munitions safely,” Northrop CEO Kathy Warden said on her company's quarterly earnings call on Thursday. The company does not make cluster munitions, which are air or ground-launched bombs that contain submunitions that spread indiscriminately over a wide area. Unexploded weapons from wars decades ago are still killing civilians. “We recognize that even supporting an area like cluster munitions for investors is of concern, because safe removal implies that at one point there was an embracing of the use of these products,” she said. “When we look at our portfolio, we are going to continue to recognize, we support our government and our allies in the important work of enabling our troops to do their work, but at the same time, be thoughtful about potential human rights implications, and how these technologies may be used in the future and provides equal consideration to safeguards associated with them.” With Democrats now controlling the White House and Congress, Warden used the earnings call to tout the company's environment, sustainability, and workforce-diversification efforts. “When we look through the lens of sustainability at our portfolio, we look at not only what capability we're providing, but how it's being used, or how we expect the customer to use that capability going forward,” she said. Still, Warden said, she expects no “significant changes” to the company's portfolio. Her comments come as the Biden administration has reportedly frozen several controversial weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Trump administration cleared multibillion-deals to sell F-35 stealth fighters and armed drones to UAE. It also reportedly approved a $500 million deal that would have allowed Raytheon to sell smart bombs to Saudi Arabia. Earlier this week, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said he expects the Biden administration to block that deal. “Generally speaking, when it comes to arms sales, it is typical at the start of an administration to review any pending sales to make sure that what is being considered is something that advances our strategic objectives and advances our foreign policy,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Wednesday. “So that's what we're doing at this moment.” Saudi and UAE airstrikes have killed thousands of civilians in Yemen's civil war, according to UN reports.“We already have a portfolio where we have looked through that lens in making decisions about where we invest and what work we undertake,” she said. “This was just one small contract that came to us through the acquisition, and we've made a decision to stop performing in that area.” Northrop's decision to abandon the contract represents “a symbol of the stigma attached to these weapons,” said Jeff Abramson, coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition. “Investors have gotten a lot of pressure not to invest in companies touching cluster munitions,” he said. Warden said Northrop would walk away from the cluster munition “surveillance” contract by the end of the year. “A stockpile surveillance program is a continuing process of testing of a stockpile to track its reliability as it sits in storage for the balance of its shelf life,” said Mark Hiznay, associate director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch. Textron, the last U.S. company to make cluster bombs, announced in 2016 that it would quit producing them, after the Obama administration banned sales to Saidi Arabia. ATK was a supplier to the CBU-87 and Sensor Fuzed Weapon cluster munitions. Warden, who became CEO of Northrop in January 2019, touted Northrop's recently being named in the top 25 of gender-balanced S&P 500 firms as well as being named to DiversityInc's list of Top 50 Companies for Diversity for more than a decade. The Biden administration has assembled what is believed to be the most diverse Cabinet in U.S. history. “In our endeavor to enable global security and human advancement, we recognize the importance of our environmental, social and governance responsibilities, and we expect to continue leading our industry forward,” Warden said. https://www.defenseone.com/business/2021/01/northrop-grumman-says-it-will-walk-away-cluster-bomb-contract/171713/

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  2 octobre 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  MDA and Army see successful Patriot and THAAD test after failure

  Jen Judson UPDATED — This story has been updated to include a statement from Lockheed Martin. WASHINGTON — After a failed test in February, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Army successfully intercepted a target in an Oct. 1 test using a Patriot air and missile defense system as well as a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system integrated together, according to an MDA statement. In the test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, the THAAD AN/TPY-2 radar detected and tracked a Black Dagger target missile and provided that information to the Patriot system. The Patriot launch system deployed a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missile and destroyed the target. In February, the AN/TPY-2 detected and tracked a Black Dagger and supplied the information to the Patriot system, but the missile missed the target “due to an interceptor software upgrade error,” according to the MDA statement. The error “has since been corrected, as demonstrated by today's successful intercept,” the statement noted. The success of the test "validates the interoperability of the Patriot and THAAD weapon systems,” MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill said in the statement. “This capability is vital to the Ballistic Missile Defense System to defend against rogue threats to our homeland, deployed forces and allies.” “We're proud to support the Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Army Program Executive Office Missiles and Space to provide this vital capability within the Ballistic Missile Defense System,” Scott Arnold, Lockheed Martin vice president of integrated missile defense in the company's Missiles and Fire Control business, said in statement. Lockheed Martin manufactures the THAAD weapon system. The missile tests this year meet a congressional requirement for the Army and the MDA to test integration and interoperability of the THAAD and Patriot weapon systems annually. Last year, the first-ever test of THAAD's ability to remotely fire an interceptor was a success, a significant milestone in proving the ability to decouple launchers from radars and fire control systems. The Army's work to integrate the Patriot and THAAD systems was born out of an urgent operational need on the Korean Peninsula. The effort uses some of the principles of decoupling launchers and radars so an operator, for instance, can use a THAAD radar — which can see farther than a Raytheon-made Patriot radar — but decide to engage a Patriot interceptor depending on the threat picture. The ability to use the THAAD radar also gets more out of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement weapon fired from Patriot units, which outperforms the organic Patriot radar. In another test last year at White Sands, a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Cost Reduction Initiative interceptor took out an air-breathing threat at a record distance. That test also showed it can be integrated into the Northrop Grumman-made Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, which is the command-and-control system of the Army's future air and missile defense architecture. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/10/01/mda-and-army-see-successful-patriot-and-thaad-test-after-failure/

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  23 août 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  USAF’s Skyborg unmanned drone advances to next development phase