North American aviation product, support & services businesses that are remaining open during the COVID-19 crisis | Update April 10

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  29 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC) to deliver US$240 Million in contracted air services to the U.S Air Force

  Newport News, VA - July 27, 2020 - Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), part of the Textron Systems segment of Textron Inc (NYSE: TXT), announced today that it has been selected to provide two U.S. Air Force bases with adversary air live training under the Combat Air Forces (CAF) Contracted Air Support (CAS) program. Under the awards, worth up to a combined $240 million, ATAC will provide adversary air live training to pilots at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. The combined awards provide for over 3,000 sorties per year for up to 4.5 years, which will be provided by ATAC's fleet of Mirage F1 fighter aircraft and are expected to commence by Fall 2020. The awards are part of an initial round of 5 operating locations the Air Force has selected under the CAF CAS program, with the Air Force stating its intention to contract for such services at up to 22 operating locations: 12 for adversary air and 10 for contracted close air support. "ATAC is thrilled to have been selected to provide adversary training at Luke and Holloman AFBs, enabling us to continue our excellence in providing training to US and allied pilots,” said Scott Stacy, ATAC General Manager. “With additional ATAC F1s and pilots coming online, we are well positioned to expand our flight operations and provide adversary training at additional bases and locations, as needed." ATAC is the global leader of tactical airborne training, having pioneered much of what are now contracted air services industry standards with a fleet of over 90 aircraft, over 60,000 flight hours, and 20 years of operating experience. ATAC has provided a wide range of contracted air support capabilities to the U.S. Department of Defense in locations world-wide, including the Continental United States, Hawaii and the Western Pacific region. ATAC has helped train crews from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps and regularly operates out of as many as 25 different air bases per year. About Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC) ATAC provides tactical flight training and adversary aggressor services for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, including live military air-to-air, air-to-ship, and air-to-ground training and support services. ATAC comprises the world's leading civilian-provided, tactical airborne training organization and proudly provides the highest quality live training to squadrons, Air Wings, and Battle Groups. For more information visit: www.atacusa.com About Textron Systems Textron Systems is a world leader in unmanned air, surface and land products, services and support for aerospace and defense customers. Harnessing agility and a broad base of expertise, Textron Systems' innovative businesses design, manufacture, field and support comprehensive solutions that expand customer capabilities and deliver value. For more information, visit www.textronsystems.com About Textron Inc. Textron Inc. is a multi-industry company that leverages its global network of aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell, Cessna, Beechcraft, Hawker, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Artic Cat, Textron Systems, and TRU Simulation + Training. For more information visit: www.textron.com Certain statements in this press release may project revenues or describe strategies, goals, outlook or other non-historical matters; these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update them. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, changing priorities or reductions in the U.S. Government defense budget, including those related to military operations in foreign countries; our ability to perform as anticipated and to control costs under contracts with the U.S. Government; the U.S. Government's ability to unilaterally modify or terminate its contracts with us for the U.S. Government's convenience or for our failure to perform, to change applicable procurement and accounting policies, or, under certain circumstances, to withhold payment or suspend or debar us as a contractor eligible to receive future contract awards; and risks related to multi-award contracts. Contact John Rupp, ATAC Tel (757) 298-8467 Jrupp@atacusa.com View source version on Textron Systems: https://investor.textron.com/news/news-releases/press-release-details/2020/Airborne-Tactical-Advantage-Company-ATAC-to-Deliver-240-Million-in-Contracted-Air-Services-to-the-U.S.-Air-Force/default.aspx

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  22 avril 2024 | International, Terrestre

  Lockheed Martin eyes Patriot interceptor production in Spain

  Spain's Grupo Oesia is to make parts of the PAC-3 MSE interceptor missile for Lockheed, expanding the two companies' partnership first announced last year.

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  18 septembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Companies are lining up to build a replacement for the MQ-9 Reaper drone

  Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Air Force embarks on a new effort to field a replacement for the MQ-9 Reaper drone, multiple defense companies are stepping up with new, long-range, stealthy design concepts for the emerging MQ-Next competition. On Sept. 11, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin released renderings of their respective offerings for the Air Force's MQ-Next program. Northrop made public its swarming SG-2 concept, and Lockheed announced its flying-wing design. General Atomics put out a concept drawing of a next-generation uncrewed aerial system on Sept. 14 to correspond with the first day of the Air Force Association's Air, Space and Cyber Conference. For the past two decades, the Air Force has relied on the MQ-1 Predator and then the MQ-9 Reaper — both made by General Atomics — as its workhorse drones for surveillance and strike missions in the Middle East. But as more commercial drone makers enter the fray, it may become more economical and effective to operate a family of UAVs, with some built for high-end penetrating strike and reconnaissance missions, and others for low-end surveillance from commercial off-the-shelf manufacturers, said Will Roper, the Air Force's top acquisition official. “You might make the case that the Department [of the Air Force] needs both,” he said during a Sept. 15 roundtable with reporters. “But I wanted to give our team time to discuss with industry options that exist on both sides of that divide. We've got a lot of interesting responses, and I'm in discussions right now with the operational side of the Air Force about what they think the requirement is going to be.” The Air Force issued a request for information to industry on June 3, seeking market research on available technologies as well as conceptual designs. Boeing and Kratos each confirmed they responded to the request for information but have not released concept art for their potential offerings. General Atomics, Lockheed and Northrop have begun to shed light on their respective designs. Northrop's flying-wing design bears a close resemblance to the X-47B the company designed for the Navy, including using the same Distributed Autonomy/Responsive Control flight management system, which allows for operators to task multiple drones to fly autonomously according to parameters set by the user. However, the aircraft in the rendering is just one potential concept that Northrop could develop for the MQ-Next family of systems, said Richard Sullivan, the company's vice president of program management. “The customer didn't really give us strict requirements. We know that the [National Defense Strategy] scenario calls out environments with a pretty significant threat scenario. And so, what would we do to mitigate those?” he said. “We looked at those things, and we came up with a family of concepts ... trying to solve the problem across the landscape in terms of the ranges, the threats and the costs.” The General Atomics concept features a stealthy, long-winged, jet-powered air vehicle — a departure from the turboprop-powered MQ-9 Reaper. Dave Alexander, president of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, told Defense News that the aircraft's survivability and endurance, which is “significantly longer” than the Reaper, will be defining characteristics for the company's offering. Alexander also pointed to internal investments made by the company's aeronautics division and its Electromagnetic Systems Group on advanced propulsion systems, though he declined to say more about potential engine advancements. Keeping costs down will also be an important factor, he said. “Some platforms that get up to super high costs, even though they're unmanned — you can't afford to lose them. So they're not attrition-tolerant, and we want to hang on to that piece of it.” Lockheed Martin's operational analysis has found that an optimal-force mix of drones will require high-end aircraft and low-cost, expendable systems that can operate in swarms, according to Jacob Johnson, the company's unmanned aerial systems program manager. The company's next-generation UAS concept art features a tailless, stealthy, flying-wing design geared toward the high-end fight, although Johnson said Lockheed may put forward less exquisite systems depending on the Air Force's final requirements. “Over the last few years, with a lot of the [drone] shootdowns across the globe, one of the trends that I think is hard to ignore is what used to be considered permissive airspace. [It] is becoming increasingly contested,” he said. “Survivability is really the key to almost any mission, and I think that trend is going to continue into the future.” However, survivability alone will not be enough, Johnson said. The Air Force has made clear that any future air system must plug into the service's Advanced Battle Management System and export data across that system. Lockheed also plans to develop the drone using digital engineering to lower the total cost. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/air-force-association/2020/09/17/defense-companies-are-lining-up-to-build-a-replace