16 mars 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Contracts for March 15, 2021
Today
1 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Only 20 defense firms sought $17 billion in COVID loans. Now the Trump administration is weighing a fix.
By: Joe Gould
WASHINGTON ― Because fewer than 20 firms sought to apply for $17 billion in federal loans for Defense Department suppliers hurt by the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration is weighing how to broaden the eligibility requirements, a top Pentagon official said Thursday.
“The challenge is that this $17 billion worth of loans comes with some fairly invasive kind of riders, and I think companies have to think very carefully about whether that makes good business sense for them,” Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord said at a Pentagon news conference.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose agency is implementing the loans, is requiring public companies seeking a share of $17 billion in coronavirus-related relief offer an equity stake to the government.
“It may not be as interesting as for private companies, so that's one of the differentiators I see,” Lord said.
The loans were intended for companies operating top secret facilities and with DX-rated contracts, which means the Pentagon deems them of highest national priority.
“I am not sure that companies with DX-rated contracts are the ones that have the most critical needs. They have had a little less than 20 companies reach out to date,” Lord said.
The Treasury Department has been in consultation with the Pentagon, and it's been open to ways the loan program could be expanded ― potentially to firms the Pentagon designates, Lord said.
“So I'm hoping that early next week, between the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense, we can come back with a little bit more fidelity to the defense industrial base to better identify who might most benefit from this particular money,” Lord said.
The agency had set a May 1 deadline for applications.
The $17 billion tranche in the CARES Act for COVID-19 relief was widely assumed to be targeted at Boeing, which is a prime defense contractor and had indicated that it might seek assistance. However, U.S. lawmakers have said the loans are intended to span the defense supply chain, said Andrew Hunter, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies's Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group.
“I would just say the requirements under that program are pretty strict that," he said. "You have to be really in desperate need for financing and have no access to other forms of financing, you have to accept a lot of limits on how the business operates: [on] share buybacks, dividends, executive compensation. And so it's really been designed and set up as a lender of last resort to firms that really need that assistance.”
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3 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Planes could give heads-up when part is about to break
By: Charlsy Panzino What if an aircraft could tell you a part needs maintenance before it actually breaks? That's the kind of technology that the head of Air Mobility Command is hoping to install on the command's aircraft as one way to deal with its older fleet. The goal is to outfit the planes with instruments that will monitor specific equipment and relay information back to the maintainers, giving them a heads up if a part is worn out and needs to be repaired or replaced. “As the airplane is beeping and squeaking ... as it's passing its zeros and ones, we can do an algorithm on the data that is received and we can say, predictability means this is going to fail at that time, go check that part,” Gen. Carlton Everhart told Air Force Times at the Pentagon on Thursday. Everhart said instruments have been installed on one of AMC's C-5M Super Galaxy transport aircraft to begin testing the idea of predictive maintenance. Full article: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/08/02/planes-could-give-heads-up-when-part-is-about-to-break
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11 mai 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Cyberdéfense : la France, «nation la plus forte dans l’Union européenne»
Défense Cyberdéfense : la France, «nation la plus forte dans l'Union européenne» Le général de division aérienne Didier Tisseyre, commandant de la cyberdéfense, s'exprime dans La Tribune. Il estime que la France est «la nation la plus forte dans l'Union européenne» dans le domaine de la cyberdéfense. Il relève notamment que la France a su rester souveraine sur le plan du chiffrement : «ce sont des chiffreurs français, avec des composants français, toute une procédure française», note-t-il. La France s'est dotée d'une doctrine de lutte informatique offensive à des fins militaires. Pour le général, «celui qui maîtrisera le cyberespace aura un avantage, non seulement pour se protéger, mais aussi pour assurer sa supériorité opérationnelle». Une supériorité opérationnelle qui peut être remise en question avec les nouvelles technologies comme l'intelligence artificielle : «nous avons bien conscience des enjeux et travaillons énormément dans le domaine des IA», assure le général Tisseyre. La Tribune du 11 mai