18 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
NEW DELHI — Indian defense companies may have lost $3 billion in potential revenue during March 24-May 31 amid a nationwide lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Ministry of Defence official.
Those affected include more than 100 large defense firms and some 4,000 small and medium aerospace and defense businesses. The lockdown has also impacted the supply of local and foreign material for 50 major defense projects.
Currently, every Indian-made weapon and platform is designed to use 10-20 percent of imported components. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to disrupt the supply of such components for at least a year, which could cause delays and cost overruns for major defense programs, according to a senior executive with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, a defense industry advocacy body.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said local defense industry factories are operating at 30-50 percent capacity and that the outlook is grim.
“This will lead to a direct hit in the first-quarter revenue of all defense companies operating in India, which will also seemingly struggle for cash flows for operation costs,” he said, adding that those costs could increase in the second quarter of the current fiscal year.
Another MoD official told Defense News that some of the ongoing major defense projects — such as licence production of French Scorpene submarines, Project 17A destroyers, Indo-Russian BrahMos cruise missiles and license production of Russian T-90MS main battle tanks — will take a major hit because foreign engineers are unwilling to come to India to supervise the projects.
Due to disruption in the supply chain, the SIDM exec warned, the cost of material and components will increase sharply — possibly an extra 10-15 percent — and Indian defense companies will have to spend more if fluctuations in the exchange rate between the Indian rupee and the euro or U.S. dollar harms India's purchasing power.
27 avril 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Safran Electronics & Defense has also won a contract from Leonardo to develop and supply the high-performance EuroflirTM 610 electro-optical?system, for the Eurodrone.
5 juin 2020 | International, Naval
By: Tom Kington ROME – Italy and France are to fund half the cost of new cutting-edge technology projects launched by Naviris, the joint venture between the countries' leading shipyards. The money will be used for development work on computer-aided engineering, vessel lifecycle simulation, energy efficiency, fuel cells for surface vessels, logistics and new technologies for helping sail in rough weather. Naviris is a 50-50 joint venture launched in 2019 by Italy's Fincantieri and France's Naval Group to develop common vessels including a new European corvette which has attracted interest from Spain after Greece signed up. The deal on funding for new research, announced on Thursday, will see the injection of state cash overseen by OCCAR, the European procurement organization which is used by nations to manage multinational programs. “Through this deal, managed by OCCAR, Naviris will provide half the funding for the research, while the defense ministries of Italy and France will provide the other half,” said a Fincantieri source. “Naviris will have the intellectual property of the results, which can be exploited by Italy and France for their navies,” he added. No value was given for the three-and-a-half-year contract. In a statement, Naviris said that three Naval Group sites will be involved in the projects – Nantes-Indret, Ollioules and Lorient, as well as its subsidiary SIREHNA. Fincantieri facilities at Genova and Trieste will work on the project, along with its subsidiaries Cetena and Seastema. OCCAR said that the contract would be followed by a successive deal involving the European organization in upgrade work undertaken by Naviris on Horizon frigates operated by France and Italy. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/06/04/french-italian-naval-joint-venture-invests-in-future-technologies/
19 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
SOURCE: FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM, BY: GARRETT REIM After completing static, drop and durability testing on the F-35A, Lockheed Martin believes that early results indicate potential for an increased service life certification of the stealth fighter. The F-35's service lifetime is designed to be 8,000h, but each test airframe is required to successfully complete two lifetimes of testing, the equivalent of 16,000h. The F-35A exceeded the requirement by completing three full lifetimes of testing, 24,000h, prompting Lockheed to moot the potential service-life extension. “We look forward to analyzing the results and bringing forward the data to potentially extend the aircraft's lifetime certification even further,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin's vice president and general manager of the F-35 program. “Already certified for one of the longest lifetimes of any fighter, an increase would greatly reduce future costs for all F-35 customers over several decades to come.” The USAF plans to fly the F-35A until at least 2070, so a longer lifespan per aircraft may allow the service to reach that goal without having to purchase new fighters. However, as aircraft age they become more expensive to maintain and operate, making it unclear if a service life extension of the F-35A would be economical. The F-35A airframe completed its testing at BAE Systems in Brough, England. The F-35B and C variants were tested at Lockheed Martin's facility in Fort Worth, Texas, though the company did not release the results for those variants. All variants will eventually undergo final teardown inspections at the National Institute for Aviation Research in Wichita, Kansas. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/f-35-stress-tests-raise-possibility-of-longer-servic-451964