23 août 2021 | International, Aérospatial
Le Tempest démarre avec l'Italie... et le Japon - Aerospatium
Loin des contraintes politiques qui freinent son homologue franco-germano-espagnol, le Tempest a franchi une étape programmatique.
11 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Lord: Defense Contractors Need Billions In COVID-19 Relief
The Pentagon is likely to seek double-digit billions of dollars to reimburse defense contractors that were authorized to seek the money by the CARES Act to preserve their workforce during the COVID-19 crisis, the Pentagon's top procurement officer told lawmakers June 10.
The problem is that while the section of the $2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill allows contractors to seek that reimbursement, the bill did not provide any related funding. For just one prime contractor, the estimated costs to keep its workforce in a steady state throughout the crisis exceeds $1 billion, Ellen Lord, the under secretary of acquisition, logistics and technology, said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
Without additional funding, Lord warns that the Pentagon will “eat into readiness and modernization and slow down readiness and modernization on an ongoing basis.”
Aviation and aviation propulsion are two of the hardest-hit areas of the defense industrial base, because of the implosion of the civil aviation industry, she said. Satellite launches also have been hit, given their dependence on the commercial industry, Lord said.
Lawmakers were looking for details about how much would be needed for defense contractors, as they anticipate a new COVID-19 spending bill will move through Congress at the end of July.
According to Lord, there have been 960 closures and 859 reopenings due to COVID-19. The average closure is about 57 days. But contractors will be specifically requesting reimbursement for issues that affected their employees.
So far, contractors are holding back from seeking claims because they are aware that no appropriation exists yet. The Pentagon's internal acquisition group has been tracking data from prime contractors; subcontractors, though, may not be sharing all of their issues to avoid revealing proprietary data, she said, while pledging to provide specific guidance on allowable costs within 30 days.
“The defense industrial base is the nexus of economic and national security and it's vitally important to make sure it stays as healthy as possible,” she said.
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24 avril 2018 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR
Pentagon creates new position to help guide software acquisition, F-35 development
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department is creating a new position to help formulate its software strategy and ensure it keeps pace with commercial advancements — and the most important resposiblity will be overseeing the F-35 joint strike fighter's agile software strategy. During a Friday roundtable with reporters, Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, announced that she has tapped Jeff Boleng to the newly created position of special assistant for software acquisition. Boleng, currently the acting chief technology officer at Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, will start April 16 as a member of Lord's team. “Jeff Boleng will spend over 90 percent of his time on F-35. He is going to be the individual who is working amongst all of the groups to enable us to bring the right talent onboard,” Lord said. “We have a challenge, I think both within the JPO [F-35 joint program office] as well as Lockheed Martin, in terms of getting a critical mass of contemporary software skill sets to begin to move in the direction we want to.” As the F-35 joint program office embarks on a new strategy called Continuous Capability Development and Delivery, or C2D2, which involves introducing agile software development, Lord wants to ensure that both the JPO and Lockheed have employees with the right training to execute the effort and that they can attract new professionals with additional software expertise. “This is something that [Lockheed CEO] Marillyn Hewson and I have talked about,” she said. “Lockheed Martin has some excellent software capability throughout the corporation. My expectation is that they're going to leverage that on the F-35. And as we within the Department of Defense really increase our capability for software development focused on C2D2, our expectation is that Lockheed Martin will do the exact same thing. “So they have the capability. I'm very energized about the leadership focus that I have seen in the last four to eight weeks, so I have great expectations that that will continue and that Lockheed Martin will keep pace or outpace DoD in terms of modernization for F-35 software development.” Boleng, a former cyberspace operations officer and software engineer who served more than 20 years with the Air Force, last held the position of teaching computer science at the Air Force Academy before moving to the private sector. At Carnegie Mellon, he is responsible for spearheading the institutes research and development portfolio, which includes software development, data analytics and cyber security activities in support of the Defense Department. As the special assistant for software acquisition, he will help develop department-wide software development standards and policies and “advise department leadership on latest best practices in commercial software development.” Boleng will also interface with Pentagon organizations charged with ramping up the department's software prowess such as Defense Digital Services, a small group of former private-sector tech professionals who led the department's “Hack the Pentagon” events and have conducted a few assessments of F-35 software. That starts with a meeting today between Lord, Boleng and a Defense Innovation Board group centered on software acquisition, which has been embedded both with the joint program office and Lockheed Martin, Lord said. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/04/13/pentagon-creates-new-position-to-help-guide-software-acqusition-f-35-development/
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13 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial
GKN Aerospace and Boeing extend partnership on significant military aircraft contracts
May 11, 2020 - GKN Aerospace has announced that it has signed a strategic agreement with Boeing [NYSE:BA] to solidify a continued working partnership until 2023. The agreement covers the production of structural components and assemblies for: F/A-18E/F Super Hornet F-15E Strike Eagle C-17 Globemaster III GKN Aerospace has been a sole-source supplier for items such as external surfaces, internal structures, wing trailing and leading edges for these Boeing aircraft since 2001. Krisstie Kondrotis, President - Defense Business, GKN Aerospace said: “This contract not only solidifies a continued partnership with Boeing, but is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our GKN Aerospace employees. We will strive to meet our commitments under this agreement and align on future opportunities utilizing GKN Aerospace capabilities and advanced technology improvements.” Photo caption: Boeing F/A-18 View source version on GKN Aerospace: https://www.gknaerospace.com/en/newsroom/news-releases/2020/gkn-aerospace-and-boeing-extend-partnership-on-significant-military-aircraft-contracts/