Modernisation and Procurement Opportunities in the Global Combat Aircraft Market to Exceed $101 Billion by 2026

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  10 octobre 2024 | International, Aérospatial

  MacDill dodges major storm damage as people, planes remain evacuated

  MacDill officials consider the base fortunate to have avoided the worst of the storm, but ordered personnel not to return for now while roads are cleared.

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  3 septembre 2019 | International, Terrestre

  Here’s who will build and integrate the first hypersonic weapon system prototype

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Dynetics Technical Solutions will be the first to manufacture a set of hypersonic glide body prototypes while Lockheed Martin will serve as the weapon system integrator, according to a U.S. Army announcement. The other transaction authority, or OTA, contract awards mark an important step forward in getting a prototype of the Army's Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, or LRHW — capable of flying at five times the speed of sound — that will launch from a mobile ground platform fielded by fiscal 2023. An OTA is a congressionally mandated contracting mechanism that makes it easier to prototype capabilities. The Army's No. 1 modernization priority is Long-Range Precision Fires, and hypersonic development falls into that category. “Delivering hypersonics to a unit of action will provide a critical combat capability for the Army in support of the National Defense Strategy,” Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, director of hypersonics, directed energy, space and rapid acquisition, said in an Aug. 30 statement. “With a collaborative effort by our partners in industry and the Department of Defense, we will advance this strategic weapon system and fulfill a critical mission for our nation.” Dynetics, based in Huntsville, Alabama, will get $351.6 million to produce the “first commercially manufactured set of prototype Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) systems,” according to the statement. This means the company will get the first crack at building the C-HGB, but it is likely others will subsequently receive awards to learn how to manufacture the C-HGB developed by the federally funded Sandia National Laboratories in an effort to build up the currently nonexistent hypersonic industrial base in the United States. Dynetics and future award winners will work with the lab to learn how to build the C-HGB. As hypersonic missiles become a reality, industry must relearn how to effectively, efficiently and economically produce them. While companies have developed warheads, glide bodies and other components, there is no industrial base equipped to manufacture hypersonic weapons. By giving multiple companies a chance to learn how to build the glide body, the hope is the process will build that vital industrial base. Lockheed Martin will integrate a launcher that can accommodate the C-HGB onto a mobile truck. That contract is worth $347 million. The OTA awards cover the design, integration and production work that will bring about a series of flight tests starting in 2020, which will lead to a fielding of a prototype LRHW battery, consisting of four trucks, launchers, hypersonic missile rounds and a command and control system. The Army is in charge of producing the LRHW C-HGB as part of a collaboration with the other services. "Dynetics has been developing enabling technologies for many years,” Steve Cook, the company's president, said in a statement. “Our team is pleased the Army saw that our highly-skilled engineers and technicians can bring this technology rapidly and affordably to the warfighter.” DTS will lead “a world-class team for the project, including established and proven defense industry contractors” like General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. “Each of these companies will bring decades of experience and will join science and technological capabilities to make a modern prototype and eventually become a program of record,” Cook said. General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems will provide cable, electrical and mechanical manufacturing. Lockheed will support the manufacturing, assembly, integration, testing, systems engineering and analysis. And as a principal subcontractor, Raytheon will provide its “extensive experience” in advanced hypersonic technology to build control, actuation and power-conditioning sub-assemblies that control flight, and it will help assemble and test the prototype. Lockheed Martin's integration team also includes Dynetics, which will develop launchers with hydraulics, outriggers, power generation and distribution for the ground platform. Other members of Lockheed's team are Integration Innovation Inc., Verity Integrated Systems, Martinez & Turek, and Penta Research. “We believe our relationships offer the Army unmatched expertise and puts us in the best position to deliver this critical capability to the nation," Eric Scherff, vice president for hypersonic strike programs for Lockheed Martin Space, said in a statement. Lockheed Martin's hypersonic strike contract awards already exceed $2.5 billion. The Army plans to deliver a hypersonic missile and launcher to a unit in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. The unit will train for an entire year without live rounds, Thurgood said earlier this month at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. He noted that the canisters the unit will use will be filled with cement to match the weight. The first live-round test will take place in FY22 and will be conducted by a battery led by a captain. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/08/30/heres-who-will-build-and-integrate-the-first-hypersonic-weapon-system-prototype

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  30 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Key lawmaker says DoD shouldn’t get funding boost in next coronavirus stimulus package

  By: Joe Gould and Leo Shane III WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Wednesday he doesn't think upcoming economic stimulus packages related to the coronavirus outbreak should include more money for defense, saying other public health needs are more pressing. “Without question, with the pandemic and the needs of national security and the Defense Department, we're going to have to spend a lot of money,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., in a teleconference with reporters. “The good news is we have a lot of money. “The defense [budget] bill last year was $738 billion. I'm not saying that there aren't needs within the Department of Defense, I'm saying they have a lot of money and ought to spend that money to meet those needs.” Smith's comments come as the Pentagon is readying a request for billions in a future economic package under consideration by Congress, which has already passed nearly $3 trillion in emergency funding bills in recent weeks. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord said last week that the Pentagon is working with the White House budget office on a package to aid defense contractors hit by closures or other effects of the coronavirus pandemic. DoD has already announced it would make $3 billion in expedited “progress payments" to increase cash flow to primary contractors and more vulnerable, smaller subcontractors. But Smith said his priority in the next stimulus bill is public health, not the defense industry. “Of all the needs that we face in this country, [my priority is not] to spend more money on basic DoD to go buy more planes or ships or boats or anything like that,” he said. In an emergency spending package approved earlier this month, lawmakers gave the Defense Department about $10.5 billion in funding for defense health programs and Tricare response to the public health threat, as well as money for National Guard deployments to help state prevention efforts. Smith has been an advocate of military personnel taking a larger role in conducting and processing coronavirus tests for the general public, saying the Defense Department's logistical expertise and infrastructure could dramatically speed that work. He said he would back more money for those efforts, but “I have not seen an argument that makes sense to me [for putting] more money into defense to manufacture things.” The Senate is scheduled to return to Washington next week, but House lawmakers have postponed any votes for the near future. No timeline has been announced for when the next stimulus package could be completed. https://www.defensenews.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/04/29/key-lawmaker-says-dod-shouldnt-get-funding-boost-in-next-coronavirus-stimulus-package/