Les métamatériaux, l’avenir de la défense ?

Sur le même sujet

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  12 mai 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Semiconductor companies consider new plants in the US

  By: The Associated Press NEW YORK — Intel and a Taiwanese company are talking to the Trump administration about building new semiconductor plants in the United States amid concern about relying on suppliers in Asia for chips used in a wide variety of electronics. A spokesman for Intel, the biggest American chip maker, said Sunday that the company is in discussions with the U.S. Defense Department about improving domestic technology sources. Spokesman William Moss said Santa Clara, California-based Intel is well-positioned to work with the government “to operate a U.S.-owned commercial foundry.” Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is open to building a plant outside of Taiwan and has talked with the Commerce Department, a spokeswoman said. “We are actively evaluating all the suitable locations, including in the U.S., but there is no concrete plan yet,” said the TSMC spokeswoman, Nina Kao. The discussions were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which said TSMC is also talking with Apple Inc., one of its biggest customers, about building a plant in the U.S. The newspaper said the coronavirus pandemic has heightened worries about global supply chains, and that U.S. officials are particularly concerned about the growing reliance on Taiwan, the self-ruled island that is claimed by China. Intel CEO Bob Swan said in a letter last month to two Pentagon officials that strengthening U.S. production “is more important than ever, given the uncertainty created by the current geopolitical environment.” He said it would be in the best interests of the United States and Intel to explore how the company could build a plant. Concern about relying so heavily on chips from Taiwan, South Korea and China started even before the coronavirus outbreak. The Pentagon and the Government Accountability Office issued reports on the matter last year. The GAO said that when U.S. companies shift operations overseas it can mean lower prices for components and technology used in weapons systems. However, having global sources “can also make it harder for [the Pentagon] to get what it needs if, for example, other countries cut off U.S. access to critical supplies,” the GAO said in a report last September. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/05/11/semiconductor-companies-consider-new-plants-in-the-us/

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  24 novembre 2021 | International, C4ISR

  New report sees near-term strength in space industrial base, but calls for government guidance

  The authors want the White House to craft a North Star vision to coordinate civil, commercial and national security space efforts.

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  26 juin 2020 | International, Terrestre

  Japan confirms it’s scrapping US missile defense system

  By: Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press TOKYO — Japan's National Security Council has endorsed plans to cancel the deployment of two costly land-based U.S. missile defense systems aimed at bolstering the country's capability against threats from North Korea, the country's defense minister said Thursday. Taro Kono said the country will now revise its missile defense program and scale up its entire defense posture. The council made its decision Wednesday, and now the government will need to enter negotiations with the U.S. about what to do with payments and the purchase contract already made for the Aegis Ashore systems. Kono announced the plan to scrap the systems earlier this month after it was found that the safety of one of the two planned host communities could not be ensured without a hardware redesign that would be too time consuming and costly. “We couldn't move forward with this project, but still there are threats from North Korea,” Kono said at a news conference Thursday. Japan will discuss ways to better protect the country and the people from the North's missiles and other threats, he said. The Japanese government in 2017 approved adding the two Aegis Ashore systems to enhance the country's current defenses consisting of Aegis-equipped destroyers at sea and Patriot missiles on land. Defense officials have said the two Aegis Ashore units could cover Japan entirely from one station at Yamaguchi in the south and another at Akita in the north. The plan to deploy the two systems already had faced a series of setbacks, including questions about the selection of one of the sites, repeated cost estimate hikes that climbed to 450 billion yen (U.S. $4.1 billion) for their 30-year operation and maintenance, and safety concerns that led to local opposition. Kono said Japan has signed contract worth nearly half the total cost and paid part of it to the U.S. He said Japan is trying to get the most out of what it has already paid, though he did not elaborate. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has steadily pushed to step up Japan's defense capability, said last week that in light of the scrapping the government would need to reconsider Japan's missile defense program and do more under the country's security alliance with the U.S. Abe said the government would consider the possibility of acquiring preemptive strike capability, a controversial plan that critics say would violate Japan's war-renouncing Constitution. Kono on Thursday also raised concern about China's increasingly assertive activity in regional seas and skies. He said Chinese coast guard vessels are repeatedly in and out of Japanese waters around disputed East China Sea islands, and a Chinese submarine recently passed just off Japan's southern coast. “China is trying to change the status quo unilaterally in East China Sea, South China Sea and with Indian border and Hong Kong as well,” Kono said. “It is easy to make connections about those issues.” https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/06/25/japan-confirms-its-scrapping-us-missile-defense-system/