9 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
The biggest defense news on Capitol Hill this week will be taking place behind the scenes rather than in public view, as lawmakers grapple with the military's response to recent nationwide protests and their own plans for next year's Pentagon budget.
On Monday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville and District of Columbia National Guard Commander Maj. Gen. William Walker will brief members of the House Armed Services Committee in a non-public meeting.
The session was originally scheduled for late last week, amid concerns that guardsmen may have overstepped their roles as security support for D.C. police responding to some of the massive racial equality demonstrations outside the White House in recent days.
The protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man prosecutors say was murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer.
Since then, Pentagon officials appear to have tamped down President Donald Trump's suggestions that active-duty troops should be brought in to help handle the work, creating a massive show of force to “dominate” the streets of major cities across the country.
But House Armed Services Committee members have said they still have lingering questions about how those discussions progressed, and whether guardsmen were put in an uncomfortable political role instead of their traditional support response.
Democratic members are also sparring with Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, after committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., vowed to bring the Pentagon leaders to Capitol Hill for a full public hearing on the issues this week.
Esper and Milley have thus far refused, although Pentagon officials said they are negotiating scheduling issues for a possible future appearance.
“The DoD legislative affairs team remains in discussion with the HASC on this request," Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said last week. "In the meantime, DoD has committed to provide Army Secretary McCarthy, Army Chief of Staff Gen. McConville, and D.C. National Guard Commanding General Maj. Gen. Walker to brief the committee next week on the presence of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., this past week.”
Smith and 30 other Democratic committee members called Esper's refusal to appear this week “unacceptable.”
Several members of the committee have vowed to include the issue in the annual defense authorization bill. Subcommittee mark-ups of the massive military budget policy measure are scheduled to begin on June 22.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is beginning its mark-up of the authorization bill this week, with the first two subcommittee section votes scheduled for Monday afternoon. The full committee mark-up will take place starting on Wednesday.
Unlike their House counterparts, however, nearly all of that work will be done behind closed doors. Senate committee officials have said in the past that they can more quickly and efficiently navigate the hundreds of legislative issues within the bill if they keep the work out of public view, to allow seamless transition between classified and non-classified topics.
The only portion of the Senate authorization bill work to be made public will be the personnel subcommittee mark-up, set for Tuesday at 2 p.m. The hearing will be streamed through the committee's web site, as restrictions on public access to the Capitol complex remain in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The House Armed Services Committee will have a public hearing on a separate topic later this week: Ellen Lord, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, will testify on Wednesday about the impact of the ongoing pandemic on the defense industrial base.
2 mai 2022 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin ne tirent pas avantage des tensions internationales. Leurs résultats reculent à cause des sanctions prises contre la Russie et de la résurgence du Covid en Chine.
10 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Mike Yeo   20 hours ago MELBOURNE, Australia — Japan has created a timeline for the development and fielding of its locally made next-generation fighter jet, with serial production set to start at the beginning of the next decade. The Japanese Ministry of Defense presented the draft development plan for the fighter program to a group of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Tuesday, which showed that full-scale production is due to begin in 2031. The ministry added that the prime contractor for the program will be selected by early next year, although it could happen as soon as October 2020. This is to allow for the basic design for the airframe and engine to be launched before the end of the current Japanese fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2021. The next step would be the production of the first fighter prototype, which is planned to begin in 2024, with flight tests earmarked to start in 2028 following finalization of the design and production plans. The new fighter is slated to replace about 90 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries F-2 fighters, which are due to be phased out in the mid-2030s, as its replacement is to be formally introduced into service in 2035. Japan previously said the new fighter will be stealthy and interoperable with the U.S. military. Japan has researched and developed fighter technology over the past decade, including work on stealth designs and materials, active electronically scanned array radars, and afterburning turbofan engines. In addition, the U.S. ally also conducted a series of test flights of a locally designed and built fighter technology demonstrator between 2016 and 2018 in order to validate its work. The country used the data gleaned from the test program to further refine its indigenous capabilities. Despite these efforts, the country is still the largest customer of the American Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet, with plans to eventually operate 157 F-35s, including 42 of the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing F-35B variant. These will be used to equip the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's anti-submarine helicopter destroyer Izumo, which is being refurbished to accommodate F-35B operations. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/07/09/japan-unveils-timeline-for-indigenous-fighter-jet-program/
29 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Par Stefan Barensky - 25 juin 2020 Stockholm souhaite moderniser sa force aérienne face à la menace posée par Moscou. Cela va passer par l'intégration dans son armée de l'air d'avions de combat Gripen E/F de Saab, mais aussi par la mise en chantier d'un chasseur de nouvelle génération. Il y avait déjà le NGF (Next Generation Fighter) franco-germano-espagnol du Système de combat aérien futur (Scaf) et le Tempest britannique, mais l'Europe va bientôt se retrouver avec un troisième chasseur de nouvelle génération en développement. L'annonce est intervenue discrètement, et de manière laconique, le 15 juin, dans un discours en téléconférence du ministre de la Défense suédois, Peter Hultqvist, lors du forum des chefs de mission de l'Otan, dont son pays n'est pas membre. Parlant du danger que représentent pour les démocraties les efforts de déstabilisation par la désinformation, il a surtout mis en avant son intention de mettre sur pied une agence de défense psychologique. https://www.aerospatium.info/un-successeur-de-nouvelle-generation-pour-le-gripen/