13 mars 2024 | International, Aérospatial
20 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre
Lord hopes to loosen weapon export restrictions in next six months
By: Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's top weapons acquisition official on Thursday called for another review of what defense technology is export-restricted, in an attempt to ensure the United States remains a defense technology provider of choice for other nations.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Reagan Foundation, Ellen Lord said she has in recent months become “passionate” about revisiting export controls.
“In the next six months, I very much hope to open the envelope, particularly on some of the weapons technology that we can export,” Lord said.
“I am concerned that sometimes we are losing international competitions, because we have — as we have increased our capability, we have not increased the capabilities that we export in a commensurate fashion,” she added. “And we sometimes are having some of our potential customers, typically in the Mideast turn to Russia or China — you see the same thing in India, for instance.”
Export control reform is hardly a new issue. In 2018, the Trump administration unveiled new defense export policies that it said should increase sales of U.S. weapons abroad; during the rollout, officials used some of the same phrasing about the need to think “strategically” as Lord did on Thursday.
And in a process that started under the Obama administration and continued into the Trump administration, the U.S. State Department reviewed the 21 categories on the U.S. Munitions List, moving thousands of pieces of technology into categories that allow for straight commercial sales without a government review.
Many of those technologies that were reviewed are systems that are no longer unique to America, or are so prevalent in commercial systems that to restrict them would be to harm broad swathes of American industry. But Lord's comments indicated that she feels not enough has been done in the realm of making it easier to export defense items.
“We are having a very focused discussion on: Let's rethink this from a strategic point of view” she said. “A lot of this technology — frankly, the magic sauce is in the manufacturing of it, the technical data package doesn't always give it to you. So obviously we have to make sure we're very careful not to have things that could be disassembled and understood and so forth.”
Lord also noted a desire to “beef up” the National Technology and Industrial Base, or NTIB, which currently covers Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Countries in the NTIB are considered part of the American defense industrial base, making it easier to collaborate on materiel.
The U.S. remains the largest arms exporter in the world. Per data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, America represented about 35 percent of all arms exports from 2015-2019; Russia, at 18 percent, was a distant second.
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10 décembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Air Force wants to house three F-35 squadrons at rebuilt Tyndall, move Raptors permanently
By: Stephen Losey Nearly two months after Hurricane Michael devastated Tyndall Air Force Base in Northern Florida, the Air Force on Friday said it wants to rebuild the installation — so it can station three squadrons of F-35 fighters there. But the change in plans, if approved, would mean operational F-22 Raptors from the 95th Fighter Squadron would not return to Tyndall. The Air Force is asking Congress for supplemental funding to repair Tyndall's damage, the service said in a release. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said the amount of money is still being decided. A preliminary evaluation showed Tyndall could accommodate up to three F-35 squadrons, the Air Force said. If Congress grants the supplemental repair funds and the F-35 basing is approved, F-35s could be based there beginning in 2023. The move would mean operational F-22s that were formerly at Tyndall would be permanently moved to squadrons at other bases that are now temporarily housing them: Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. Those F-22 squadrons would grow from 21 to 24 fighters apiece to permanently accommodate the Tyndall aircraft. “We have recommended that the best path forward to increase readiness and use money wisely is to consolidate the operational F-22s formerly at Tyndall in Alaska, Hawaii and Virginia, and make the decision now to put the next three squadrons of F-35s, beyond those for which we have already made decisions, at Tyndall,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said. “We are talking with congressional leaders about this plan and will need their help with the supplemental funding needed to restore the base." This decision will allow the Air Force to tailor the new construction at Tyndall to the best fit for F-35s, the Air Force said. The 325th Fighter Wing, which was comprised of two F-22 squadrons, was located at Tyndall before the Oct. 10 storm. Most Tyndall aircraft evacuated before the storm hit, but 17 Raptors could not be flown and stayed behind, sustaining varying levels of damage that is now being repaired. Nearly a month after the storm, Wilson said that F-22 training with the 43rd Fighter Squadron would be temporarily moved to nearby Eglin Air Force Base. The Air Force said it will conduct a formal process to decide what will be the best location for the 43rd and its training mission. The 95th has 21 F-22s and 36 active-duty airmen, the Air Force said last month, and its associated maintenance units have about 500 airmen. F-35 basing decisions in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin, which have already been announced, will not be changed. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/12/07/air-force-wants-to-house-three-f-35-squadrons-at-rebuilt-tyndall-move-raptors-permanently
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3 janvier 2019 | International, Aérospatial
Army's Decision On Huge Helicopter Engine Program Will Impact GE, Honeywell, United Technologies
Loren Thompson Sometime in the very near future, probably this month, the U.S. Army will announce the winner of a competition to develop a new engine for most of the service's helicopters. Called the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), it is a multibillion-dollar effort that has often been described as the Army's top aviation modernization priority. It isn't hard to see why. The weight of Army light and medium helicopters has been growing by 70-100 pounds per year since they debuted in the last century as new equipment, munitions and armor were added. As a result, both the Black Hawk utility helicopter and the Apache attack helicopter are under-powered when operating in “high-hot” conditions, meaning above 6,000 feet in temperatures of 95 degrees or greater. Such conditions are common in places like the Persian Gulf, and pose a challenge to conducting missions successfully. In 2006, the Army launched an effort to develop an engine that could provide 50% more power than the existing General Electric T700 engine (3,000 versus 2,000 shaft horsepower), while reducing fuel consumption by 25% and extending the life of the engine 20%. That in itself was a tall order, but the new engine also had to fit into thousands of fielded helicopters with minimal modifications, and it couldn't weigh more than 500 pounds (the current engine weighs 456 pounds). The Army also wanted each engine to cost much less than the T700–not just in the cost of manufacturing the new engines, but in the cost of maintaining them across a multi-decade service life. Given these very demanding requirements, and a dearth of money for modernization during the Obama years, it isn't surprising that a dozen years passed before the Army felt it was in a position to pick a design that met all the service's needs. But now it is. The choice is between a successor to the T700 built by General Electric Aviation, and a competing design offered by a joint venture of Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney (a unit of United Technologies, and contributor to my think tank). The decision has probably already been made, and simply awaits formal announcement later this month. Full article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2019/01/02/armys-decision-on-huge-helicopter-engine-program-will-impact-ge-honeywell-united-technologies