17 septembre 2023 | International, Aérospatial, Sécurité
SAIC hires former Air Force CIO Knausenberger for tech innovation role
SAIC brought in $3.7 billion in defense-related revenue in 2022, according to Defense News "Top 100" analysis.
26 mars 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Latest emergency coronavirus funding package includes tens of billions for defense, VA
Leo Shane III
The Department of Defense is poised to get another $10.5 billion in emergency funding and the Department of Veterans Affairs another $19.6 billion as part of a $2 trillion package designed to blunt the economic impact of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak throughout America.
The money includes $1.4 billion in direct funding for National Guard deployments to help state governments respond to emerging health needs, $1.5 billion for the expansion of military hospitals and mobile medical centers if needed, and $1 billion for the Defense Department to help with production of medical supplies running short because of the pandemic.
The measure — which if passed would be the third major coronavirus response by Congress this month — also includes provisions to deliver billions of dollars to hospitals, new state and local government support, expanded unemployment compensation and massive business loans, all designed to help stabilize the economy amid unprecedented social shut-downs to curb the virus spread.
Senate lawmakers are expected to vote on the measure sometime Wednesday afternoon. The House could take it up soon afterwards.
Nationally, more than 54,000 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19, the strain of coronavirus causing worldwide disruptions and panic. More than 730 deaths have been connected to the illness in the United States alone, all in the last month.
"Combating this disease has forced our country to put huge parts of our national life on pause and triggered layoffs at a breath-taking pace,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said after the deal was reached Wednesday morning. “This strange new reality has forced our nation on to something like war-time footing. A fight has arrived on our shores.”
Lawmakers who worked on the agreement said the Defense Department funding is targeted “primarily for the protection of members of the Armed Forces, their families, and military retirees.”
None of the funds can be transferred to accounts connected with the construction of a southern border wall, a sticking point between Democrats and President Donald Trump in past appropriations fights.
Of the $10.5 billion total, $1 billion will be set aside for use with the Defense Production Act, allowing department officials to “invest in manufacturing capabilities that are key to increasing the production rate of personal protective equipment and medical equipment.”
Those items have been in short supply in recent weeks. Trump invoked the act earlier this week but has yet to order any civilian production of the scare items.
Veterans Affairs
Within VA, the majority of the money — nearly $15.9 billion — will be used for direct care specifically in response to veterans health needs.
“This covers treatment of veterans nationwide for coronavirus within VA hospitals as well as in community urgent care clinics and emergency rooms,” a bill summary stated. “These funds allow VA to cover overtime for their clinical staff, the purchase of personal protective equipment, test kits, and other necessary equipment to manage the impacts of this pandemic among the veteran population.”
Another $3.1 billion will be set aside for new telemedicine efforts within VA, including staffing and equipping mobile treatment sites and “remodeling to VA facilities and state run veterans homes to address the needs of veterans being treated for coronavirus.”
Nearly 300 veterans have already been diagnosed with the coronavirus strain, and four deaths of VA patients connected to the illness.
The bill also includes a number of expanded authorities for VA officials to respond to the threat, including extended overtime pay rules for medical providers, new agreements with broadband internet suppliers to increase telemedicine options for veterans, and waiving some rules regarding income-level eligibility for department benefits.
Lawmakers also included $360 million for the Department of Labor to invest in programs providing training and supportive services for dislocated workers, to specifically include homeless veterans.
White House officials have indicated Trump will sign the measure into law if it passes Congress. Earlier this week, Trump called on lawmakers to quickly pass some deal, saying that the economic impact of the illness on the country could be more devastating than the health complications.
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29 avril 2020 | International, Naval
Navy Readies To Buy New Frigates As Industrial Base Wobbles
The Navy will recompete the program after the first 10 ships are under contract, leading to a new award and another bite at the apple for the bidders who lost out the first time around. By PAUL MCLEARY WASHINGTON: The Navy will award the first contract for an ambitious new class of frigates in the coming days, several sources with knowledge of the plan said, speeding up a program that wasn't slated to get underway until later this year. After the first award for ten ships, the Navy will launch a new competition for the next ten, possibly splitting the class and giving other shipbuilders another bite at the apple. Moving forward the buy of the first of what should be 20 frigates serves more than one purpose. It locks in place one of the service's top priorities while also pushing work to the winning shipbuilder months ahead of the original schedule, just as the Pentagon worries about the cratering of global manufacturing supply chains as a result to the COVID-19 pandemic. The country's largest shipbuilders are competing for the $1.2 billion first ship, with the price settling in at a projected $900 to $950 million per ship after that. In the running are Huntington Ingalls Industries, which is thought to be offering a more lethal version of its national security cutter. There's also a joint effort between Navantia and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works with a version of its F-100 design already in use by the Spanish navy. Fincantieri Marinette Marine is offering a version of its FREMM frigate in use by the Italian navy. Finally, Austal is trying with a version of its aluminum trimaran Littoral Combat Ship. Fincantieri and Lockheed also make a version of the LCS, but decided not to submit it to the competition. Hanging over any new start shipbuilding program however is the specter of the long-troubled LCS, a vessel still working to find a role and mission within the fleet. Despite its problems, the Navy has ordered 38 of them but is walking away from the class to pursue the new frigate. Unveiling the fiscal 2021 budget earlier this year, Rear Adm. Randy Crites, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget, acknowledged “we don't want to have a repeat of some of the lessons of LCS where we got going too fast,” on the frigate effort, despite speeding up the initial award. Plans call for the FFG(X) to be a small, multi-mission ship loaded out with the Aegis combat system, 32 vertical launch cells and the new SPY-6 radar system. The ship will be smaller than the Arleigh Burke destroyer, the Navy's current workhorse, but outfitted with more power generation capabilities and advanced electronic warfare systems, along with radar and anti-submarine warfare gear. Navy spokesman Capt. Danny Hernandez said in an email that the frigate “will provide increased range, endurance and survivability over previous small surface combatants,” as well as improvements in surface warfare, electromagnetic maneuver warfare and air warfare, “with design flexibility for future growth.” That's a lot of capability to fit in a relatively small package at less than $1 billion per ship. But the Navy's top brass and Defense Secretary Mark Esper have declared the fleet needs to be faster, lighter, more maneuverable and more numerous to meet the challenges of modern Chinese and Russian navies. “It's clear they need fewer large surface combatants and more smaller surface combatants,” a congressional source told me. “But whether the frigate is considered by the Secretary of Defense as being small enough” is an open question. Getting the frigate in place early will provide some stability in an uncertain time for the Navy and its industrial base. The service's long-term plans were thrown into flux in February when Secretary Mark Esper held up the release of the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan and the long-awaited Integrated Force Structure Assessment (INFSA), after he found the Navy's draft wanting. He assigned Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist to lead a group through a months-long review of the plans before making them public this summer. In a letter to the House Armed Services Committee, Esper said he wants the force to grow larger than the much-discussed 355 ship fleet Navy leaders have long aspired to, with many of those new ships being smaller than the ones currently at sea, and many others unmanned. “Three months ago, I would have said, ‘oh yeah they're gonna want to build more than 20'” frigates,” the congressional source said. “But now with the intervention of the Secretary of Defense it's unclear. Maybe he's fine with just 20, and he wants them to build a lot more of something that's considerably smaller still.” Two of the shipbuilders competing, Fincantieri in Wisconsin and Austal in Alabama have a lot riding on the contract, as their big-ticket work on LCS runs out in coming years. Huntington's yards are somewhat protected because it is the only shipbuilder in America capable of building aircraft carriers, and has two more Ford-class big decks to build over the next decade, along with large amphibious ships. Lawmakers in Wisconsin, well aware of what's at stake, sent a letter to President Trump earlier this year promoting the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard as best suited for the work. “We have witnessed what the loss of opportunity does to the Midwest,” the letter said. “When industry departs, so does hope.” Wrapping up the pitch for close to $20 billion worth of work over the 20 ship contract, the senators concluded by telling the president his “leadership and attention to this opportunity is vital.” There is no indication that any political weight is being put on the Navy in awarding the contract, but in an election year, with an industrial base staggering through supply chain meltdowns, the frigate contract is looming large. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/04/navy-readies-to-buy-new-frigates-as-industrial-base-wobbles/
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19 décembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR
L'observation spatiale nouvelle génération parée au lancement
Helen Chachaty Mise à jour 13h (heure française) : Le lancement est reporté de 24 heures en raison de conditions météorologiques défavorables. L'observation spatiale prend une nouvelle dimension. Le premier satellite CSO (Composante spatiale optique) doit en théorie être mis sur orbite ce 18 décembre par un lanceur Soyouz, depuis le Centre spatial guyanais (CSG) de Kourou. La constellation CSO - composée de trois satellites - remplacera à terme le système Hélios II et reprendra les missions d'observation spatiale pour les forces armées françaises, mais aussi pour les pays partenaires du programme MUSIS (Multinational space-based imaging system). D'une masse de 3,5 tonnes, CSO-1 sera placé sur une orbite héliosynchrone à 800 kilomètres d'altitude et déployé pour des missions de reconnaissance, avec la capacité de produire des images très haute résolution. CSO-3 aura les mêmes fonctions, alors que CSO-2 sera quant à lui placé sur une orbite polaire à une altitude différente, soit 480 kilomètres d'altitude, afin de remplir la mission d'identification. Le deuxième satellite bénéficiera donc d'une résolution augmentée par rapport à CSO-1 et -3 et sera capable de produire des images d'extrêmement haute résolution - une donnée non-dévoilée. CSO-2 sera théoriquement lancé en mai 2020, toujours par Soyouz, CSO-3 devrait quant à lui être tiré par Ariane 6 en octobre 2021. Ces satellites de nouvelle génération représentent un « saut qualitatif en termes de résolution d'image, de précision de localisation et de nombre de prises de vue », explique un aviateur. Les satellites CSO sont destinés à effectuer des prises de vue en fonction des besoins militaires de la France et des pays partenaires (Allemagne, Belgique, Espagne, Italie, Suède). Dotés de capacités multispectrales et infrarouges, les satellites CSO permettront de disposer d'images mono- et stéréoscopiques. La participation de la Suède, qui met à disposition une antenne à Kiruna, permettra par ailleurs au satellite de « décharger » les données toutes les 90 minutes, contre environ deux fois par jour pour l'antenne de la base aérienne de Creil. La capacité journalière maximale est estimée à environ 800 images. La composante spatiale optique est articulée autour des trois satellites, d'un segment sol de mission pour le contrôle des satellites et d'un segment sol utilisateur. CSO-1, -2 et -3 ont été réalisés sous maîtrise d'oeuvre d'Airbus Defence & Space, l'instrumentation optique a été fournie par Thales Alenia Space France. Le segment sol mission est opéré par le CNES depuis Toulouse. Il est composé d'un centre de programmation (Capgemini) et de commande-contrôle (Airbus Defence & Space) et d'un centre d'expertise qualité image (Thales Service et Capgemini). Quant au segment sol utilisateur, situé à Creil, il a été conçu et réalisé par Airbus Defence & Space. La Direction générale de l'armement est responsable de la conduite du programme et assure la maîtrise d'ouvrage du segment sol utilisateur. Elle a délégué au CNES la maîtrise d'ouvrage pour la réalisation des satellites et du segment sol de mission, ainsi que le lancement des satellites - qui sera effectué par Arianespace. Le lancement de CSO-1 intervient alors que la ministre des Armées Florence Parly doit prochainement rendre au président de la République Emmanuel Macron un rapport sur la stratégie spatiale militaire française. « Il faut avoir en tête que l'espace devient le thé'tre de confrontations », avait-elle déclaré à l'occasion d'une rencontre avec des journalistes début septembre, mettant en avant la nécessité de disposer de capacités spatiales efficientes. Florence Parly avait également rappelé que « protéger l'espace, c'est protéger nos opérations. C'est aussi garantir notre souveraineté et trouver l'opportunité de partenariats avec nos alliés européens, et c'est surtout protéger nos modes de vie et notre quotidien ». La Loi de programmation militaire 2019-2025 inclut, outre la mise en oeuvre du programme CSO-MUSIS, la mise en service du programme CERES (Capacité d'écoute et de renseignement électromagnétique spatiale), des deux premiers satellites du système Syracuse IV et le lancement du programme OMEGA (Opération de modernisation des équipements GNSS des armées). Les premières images produites par CSO-1 sont attendues « dans quelques mois », explique-t-on au CMOS (Centre militaire d'observation spatiale). Après le lancement du satellite suivra une période de calibrage des instruments de bord et de calage du télescope et de la structure. https://www.journal-aviation.com/actualites/41584-l-observation-spatiale-nouvelle-generation-paree-au-lancement