22 février 2024 | International, Terrestre
Russia’s maxed-out arms makers face labor, tech shortages
As the war against Ukraine enters is third year, Moscow's carefully orchestrated image as a defense-industrial juggernaut is facing headwinds.
30 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Leonardo buys Swiss helicopter firm
By: Tom Kington
ROME – Italy's Leonardo has dropped plans to develop a new, single-engine helicopter and opted instead to buy a small Swiss firm that has already built one.
The Italian defense giant announced on Tuesday it was purchasing Kopter Group AG, which has developed the SH09, a five- to eight-seater helicopter built with carbon composite materials which first flew in 2014.
A clean-sheet design developed by a small group of engineers, the SH09 maximizes pilot view as well as interior space with a maximum takeoff weight of 2,850 kg, while its Honeywell HTS 900 engine provides an 800km range and 140 knots top speed.
With the purchase, which is worth $185 million plus future pay-outs linked to the success of the program, Leonardo said it was saving itself the resources it had planned to use designing its own new helicopter in the category.
“This acquisition will replace the planned investment aimed at the development of a new single engine helicopter,” the firm said.
“Kopter's SH09, a new single engine helicopter, is a perfect fit for Leonardo's state of the art product range offering opportunities for future technological developments,” it added.
The Swiss company's skills would also be used to develop new technologies like hybrid and electrical propulsion, Leonardo said.
A company spokesman said the SH09 was viewed as a civil program in the short term. "The priority is the civil market but in the future, we will see – a military application is not excluded. However for now our AW119 is our military product in the light, three-ton, single-engine class," he said.
The purchase is an unusual step for the Italian firm, which has hitherto designed its own helicopters such as the AW139 and AW101, formerly under the AgustaWestland brand, which was retired before the company changed its name from Finmeccanica to Leonardo in 2016.
“Within the Helicopter Division of Leonardo, Kopter will act as an autonomous legal entity and competence centre working in coordination with us,” Leonardo said.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/01/29/leonardo-buys-swiss-helicopter-firm/
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9 décembre 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Northrop sells IT business to Veritas Capital for $3.4B
WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman has struck a $3.4 billion deal to sell its federal IT and mission support business to Veritas Capital. The agreement, announced Dec. 7, is expected to close by June 2021. At that point, Veritas plans to incorporate the Northrop business units with Peraton, a Veritas subsidiary that supports government customers and specializes in technology products for the space, defense and intelligence markets. Northrop is expected to generate $2.3 billion in revenue, which will be funneled into share repurchases and debt retirement, the company said in a news release. “This divesture allows us to drive value and reflects our strategy of focus on growing core businesses where technology and innovation are the key differentiators,” said Kathy Warden, Northrop's CEO and president. “We expect to create compelling value to our shareholders through this transaction and execution of our capital allocation strategy.” Reports of the sale first surfaced in October. Byron Callan, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners, said that the sale shows there is still isn't consensus within the defense industry on how to organize IT and services businesses alongside more traditional hardware business units for products like aircraft, vehicles or other weapons. Callan pointed to Lockheed Martin's sale of its information and global services business to Leidos in 2016; L-3′s sale of its IT solutions division to CACI in 2015; and Harris' sale of its IT business to Veritas in 2017, which later became Peraton. However, other major companies have acquired government IT companies, such as General Dynamics's purchase of CSRA in 2018. “We have believed that as DoD spending flattens in the 2020s, primes could seek to jettison ‘non-core' businesses that will still be profitable, but face declining sales or more intense competition,” Callan wrote in an email to investors. https://www.c4isrnet.com/industry/2020/12/08/northrop-sells-it-business-to-veritas-capital-for-34b/
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Air Force to fall nearly 150 pilots short of annual training goal
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