Leonardo plans upgrades for its UK operations, as leaders meet

Sur le même sujet

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  2 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Karem, Northrop, Raytheon team for Army’s future attack recon helo competition

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Karem Aircraft has forged a team with Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to compete in the Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) competition, according to a July 1 company statement. Karem was one of five companies awarded a prototyping development contract in April. While details are scant as to how each company will contribute to the overall design, due in January or February of 2020, the teaming announcement says the three companies together “will apply decades of combined knowledge, skills and abilities to bring the best of vehicle and systems technologies and processes to the first aircraft within the Future Vertical Lift family of systems.” Karem is bringing its “unique active variable speed rotor technologies,” which have been developed over the last 10 years through collaboration with the Army, to the teaming effort. The company's experience “will be augmented with Northrop Grumman's manned and autonomous military aircraft development, system integration, production and support expertise and Raytheon's systems architecture, mission equipment and weapons capabilities,” the company statement adds. While Karem competed to be one of two teams selected to build a flying aircraft for the Army's Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR TD), it was not selected. Instead, the Army awarded it a smaller technology development contract to continue to refine its unique technology. The JMR TD program will inform a Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program of record to replace UH-60 Black Hawks and AH-64 Apache helicopters. The JMR TD program is not a head-to-head competition between the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant coaxial helicopter and the Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft, but will inform the FLRAA program. Bell and a Sikorsky-Boeing team have each built a JMR TD aircraft which is flying in that program. AVX Aircraft Co. also received a smaller technology development contract similar to Karem's award. The Karem-Northrop-Raytheon team will compete with an AVX-L-3 Communications Integrated Systems team, Bell, Boeing and Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky to provide design plans to the Army for FARA. The Army will choose just two teams to advance to build a flyable prototype, much like it did for the JMR TD program — except this time, one of those aircraft will be chosen for production. The Army has set an ambitious schedule for FARA, with plans to fly prototypes in 2023. A production decision could happen in 2028, but the service is looking at any way possible to speed up that timeline. Truncating the timelines for both FLRAA and FARA has been on the table for many years and the service continues to assess any way possible to bring the aircraft online faster. With the advent of the new Army Futures Command — focused on six major modernization priorities, of which FVL is third — the service is moving faster on prototyping capability to ultimately procure major weapon systems at a somewhat unprecedented speed. Through the AFC and the use of contracting mechanisms like OTAs, the Army has found a way to compress parts of the acquisition process that previously took three-to-five years into periods of time often amounting to less than a year. FARA is intended to fill a critical capability gap currently being addressed by the AH-64E Apache attack helicopter teamed with Shadow unmanned aircraft, following the retirement of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters. The service has tried and failed three times to fill the gap with an aircraft. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/07/01/karem-northrop-raytheon-forge-team-for-armys-future-attack-recon-helo-competition/

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  2 novembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - November 1, 2018

  ARMY American Mechanical Inc.,* Fairbanks, Alaska (W911KB-19-D-0001); Osborne Construction Co.,* Kirkland, Washington (W911KB-19-D-0002); and Patrick Mechanical LLC,* Fairbanks, Alaska (W911KB-19-D-0003), will compete for each order of the $48,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for design, construction and repair of various utilidor systems in military family housing on Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 31, 2023. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Anchorage, Alaska, is the contracting activity. DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded an $18,153,589 modification (P00199) to contract W58RGZ-13-C-0040 for aviation field maintenance services. Work will be performed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Germany, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2018. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $18,153,589 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND Boeing Co., Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, has been awarded a $42,835,847 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification under delivery order H92241-18-F-0022-P00002 for four new build MH-47G rotary wing aircrafts. The contract modification satisfies an urgent need to sustain U.S. Special Operations Forces heavy assault, rotary wing aircrafts. The contract modification is funded with fiscal 2018 procurement; and aircraft procurement, Army funds. The majority of the work will be performed in Ridley Park. This contract modification is a non-competitive award and is in accordance with Fair Acquisition Regulation 6.302.1. U.S. Special Operations Command, Tampa, Florida, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a $14,592,654 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, time-and-material contract for the F-15 Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) Aircraft Maintenance Debrief System (AMDS). This contract provides administration and support to the RSAF F-15C, D, S and SA aircraft sustainment program at up to six locations throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Services acquired under this effort include, but are not limited to, providing fully-trained AMDS personnel to operate, maintain AMDS equipment and to provide AMDS familiarization training to RSAF members that will enable them to safely and efficiently operate all AMDS equipment. Work will be performed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is expected to be completed Nov. 4, 2023. Foreign military sales in the amount of $8,744,949 are being obligated at the time of award. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8505-19-C-0001). (Awarded Oct. 31, 2018) NAVY Detyen's Shipyards Inc.,* North Charleston, South Carolina, is awarded an $8,175,517 firm-fixed-price contract for a 59-calendar day shipyard availability for the mid-term availability of USNS Arctic (T-AOE 8). Work will include furnishing general services for the ship, collection holding tank, piping repairs, 4 overhead steel replacement, tank top steel replacements, main switch board cleaning, refurbish unrep saddles, winches, and drive chains, vent systems cleaning, underwater propellers cleaning and generator cleaning. The contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the total contract value to $8,175,517. Work will be performed in Charleston, South Carolina, is expected to be completed by Jan. 23, 2019. Navy working capital funds in the amount of $8,175,517 are obligated and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal. This contract was a small business set-aside with companies solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with one offer received. The Navy's Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N3220519C6001). Raytheon Co., Space and Airborne Systems, McKinney, Texas, is being awarded a $7,676,741 cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order (N0001919F0270) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0003). This order provides for completion of Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) 0043 for the Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared Processor and Video Obsolescence Avoidance system upgrade. This ECP productionizes the Input Image Processor Version 2 (I2P2) Circuit Card Assembly (CCA); updates associated support test equipment; and performance of I2P2 CCA qualification to enable future growth and mitigate potential obsolescence issues. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be completed in November 2019. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $7,676,741 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1679376/source/GovDelivery/

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  27 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  British Defence Ministry reveals why a drone program now costs $427M extra

  By: Sebastian Sprenger Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the cost increase to Britain's Protector acquisition program. The program is said to now cost an extra £325 million, with £187 million of that attributed to a delivery delay. LONDON — The British Defence Ministry's top civilian has identified in a letter to lawmakers the reasons why a drone acquisition program has experienced a near 40 percent hike in costs. The Ministry of Defence decided to delay by two years the delivery of 16 General Atomic Protector RG Mk1 drones to replace the Royal Air Force's MQ-9 Reaper fleet, the letter to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee said. Stephen Lovegrove, the ministry's permanent secretary, cited that decision as the main reason for the £325 million (U.S. $427 million) cost increase to the program, as £187 million of that could be attributed to the delay. “The cost growth and time delay to the program imposed in July 2017 were outside of program tolerances but were the result of the need to ensure the affordability of the overall defence program,” Lovegrove wrote in his letter. The MoD is currently in negotiations with the U.S. over a deal to build the first three of the 16 Protectors scheduled to be purchased for the RAF. The final number of vehicles on order could eventually expand beyond 16 — subject to the MoD's fragile finances in the coming years unless defense gets a sizable increase in the Conservative government's next budget round due later this year. The letter was sent Nov. 5 but has only recently been made public. Lovegrove detailed further causes of the cost increase rise in the drone program, which was expected to cost £816 million when it was approved by the MoD in 2016. Aside from the increased costs caused by the delay, the letter said that the fall in the value of the pound against the dollar accounted for £50.8 million of the price rise, and a new primary sensor cost another £64 million. Other unspecified program costs accounted for a further £23 million. The pound has firmed up against the dollar a little since the Conservative Party won the general election in December, which may lessen the impact of increased costs for the moment. The new primary sensor investment involves provision of an improved electro-optical and infrared sensor. The letter said the investment was to avoid future obsolescence issues. Consideration is still being given to the purchase of what is known as a “due regard air-to-air radar” designed for vital detect-and-avoid duties on the platform. Protector, which is the British name for its version of the new General Atomics MQ-9B SkyGuardian, is scheduled to achieve initial operating capability in November 2023, the letter read. The vehicle will replace the current fleet of MQ-9 Reapers, which the RAF has operated almost constantly during the last few years over Afghanistan and the greater Middle East. Lovegrove said the MoD had compared Protector with other options to meet the requirement but the General Atomics platform remained the best value for money. “A comparison was made between: developing a new remotely piloted aircraft system capability (either collaboratively or nationally); procuring the current Reaper Blk 5 (as used by the US Air Force and others); and procuring Protector,” he said. “This concluded that procuring Protector represented best value for money, as its higher performance meant that the operational task could be delivered by procuring fewer air vehicles. The 2-year delay and resultant cost increase have not undermined this value for money case ... it remains affordable despite the cost growth,” the permanent secretary added. Lovegrove said the biggest problem for the Protector program was not the platform itself but the availability of trained crew in the run-up to initial operating capability. “The most significant risk to the Protector program is the RAF's ability to generate and sustain the volume of trained personnel necessary to assure IOC in Nov 2023. The Protector work force builds on the current Reaper force; training and retaining sufficient remotely piloted aircraft system crews has historically proved challenging and is being closely monitored,” the letter said. The Protector is expected to fly longer and hit harder than the Reaper. The UAV will also fly in nonsegregated airspace in places like the U.K . in September, the MoD and General Atomics signed a significant deal to complete the test and evaluation activities required to fly the system in civil airspace. The first test and evaluation aircraft is due to be delivered next year subject to the successful completion of the production contract. An initial production deal is currently in negotiation, with aiming of inking a deal in the next few months. In a first for the system, the SkyGuardian version of the medium-altitude, long-endurance drone flew across the Atlantic Ocean in July from Grand Forks, North Dakota, to RAF Fairford in England. The flight covered 3,760 nautical miles in 24 hours and 2 minutes. https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2020/01/24/british-defence-ministry-reveals-why-a-drone-program-now-costs-245m-extra/