Pentagon, EU ready pact to spur defense cooperation — with exceptions

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  16 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Dassault Aviation au service des armées

  A l'occasion du bilan d'étape dressé par Madame Florence Parly, ministre des Armées, au sujet de la réforme du maintien en condition opérationnelle (MCO), Dassault Aviation tient à rappeler sa fierté de servir les armées françaises en apportant un soutien quotidien aux flottes de Rafale, de Mirage 2000, d'ATL2 et de Falcon de surveillance maritime. Saint-Cloud, le 15 octobre 2020 – A l'occasion du bilan d'étape dressé par Madame Florence Parly, ministre des Armées, au sujet de la réforme du maintien en condition opérationnelle (MCO), Dassault Aviation tient à rappeler sa fierté de servir les armées françaises en apportant un soutien quotidien aux flottes de Rafale, de Mirage 2000, d'ATL2 et de Falcon de surveillance maritime. La décision du ministère des Armées de verticaliser le MCO du Rafale et de l'ATL2, avec les contrats RAVEL et OCEAN, permet d'assurer aux forces aériennes françaises une disponibilité optimale de leurs flottes. Gr'ce à la mise en service de RAVEL depuis 18 mois, Dassault Aviation et ses partenaires industriels, dont Thales, assurent ainsi une disponibilité de 76% des Rafale, soit une valeur supérieure aux 73% prévus contractuellement. La qualité de ce service va encore s'améliorer au fil du temps, comme prévu, avec notamment la mise en place d'un système d'information b'ti en coopération avec les opérationnels par Dassault Aviation ; un outil qui s'appuie sur l'expertise de Dassault Systèmes en matière de gestion/analyse des données et qui sera basé sur sa technologie Cloud et son logiciel EXALEAD. © Dassault Aviation – A. Pecchi « Je m'assure en permanence de la satisfaction de l'armée de l'Air et de l'Espace et de la Marine nationale dans le soutien que leur apportent les équipes de Dassault Aviation. En confiance avec elles et avec la Direction de la maintenance aéronautique, nous recherchons sans cesse toutes les possibilités d'amélioration du soutien qui leur est apporté », a déclaré Éric Trappier, P-DG de Dassault Aviation. Gr'ce à l'étroite coopération avec les personnels des bases aériennes, les équipes de Dassault Aviation sont aussi très fières d'avoir poursuivi efficacement, durant ces derniers mois, le soutien des forces armées, malgré le confinement lié à la crise COVID-19. À PROPOS DE DASSAULT AVIATION Avec plus de 10 000 avions militaires et civils livrés dans plus de 90 pays depuis un siècle (dont 2 500 Falcon), Dassault Aviation dispose d'un savoir-faire et d'une expérience reconnus dans la conception, le développement, la vente et le support de tous les types d'avion, depuis l'appareil de combat Rafale jusqu'à la famille de business jets haut de gamme Falcon en passant par les drones militaires et les systèmes spatiaux. En 2019, le chiffre d'affaires de Dassault Aviation s'est élevé à 7,3 milliards d'euros. Le Groupe compte 12 750 collaborateurs. https://www.dassault-aviation.com/fr/groupe/presse/press-kits/dassault-aviation-au-service-des-armees/

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  14 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  No COVID impacts on Apache production, supply chain, says Boeing

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic has not had an impact on the production and delivery of Apache helicopters, but Boeing is closely watching the international supply chain for signs of slowdown, a company official said Tuesday. The coronavirus impact going forward is difficult to predict, said T.J. Jamison, Boeing's director of vertical lift international sales. Still, he expressed a belief that the company should be able to stay on track with its plans to produce more than 100 Apache models in 2020. While production on the CH-47 Chinook and V-22 Osprey in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area was stopped for two weeks in April, the Mesa, Arizona, Boeing plant that produces the Apache never had to stop work. However, there have been a number of individuals working remotely, primarily from the sales team; it will likely be a month or more before they are all back working at their desks, Jamison said. Some international customers have signaled that “we might need a potential slowdown in operations. But not one has said: ‘Hey, we need to cancel these orders because of the COVID-19 issue,' ” Jamison said. “There have been no cancellations, and there have been no significant requests for delay.” However, just like the Pentagon, the company is closely watching the international supply chain. For the Apache, that includes fuselage production in Hydrabad, India (managed by Tata) and in Sacheon, South Korea (managed by Korea Aerospace Industries). Boeing's decision to maintain two suppliers for that production has “served us very well” in the current situation, Jamison said, adding that while India has been hit hard by COVID-19 and is undergoing government-mandated shutdowns, the Korea Aerospace Industries plant is able to keep production on track. “We really do not like to have a single point of failure with any of our components that we receive through the supply chain,” he said. “There hasn't been a dramatic impact to the supply chain today. Again, I don't have that crystal ball and I can't tell you how this pandemic is going to play out. But right now, there hasn't been a dramatic impact.” https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/05/13/no-covid-impacts-on-apache-production-supply-chain-says-boeing/

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  15 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  What Might DARPA’s Longshot Fighter Drone Be Armed With?

  It appears that the new drone will come with an upgraded, or perhaps new, advanced air-to-air missile. by Kris Osborn The prospect of new drone-fired air-to-air weapons, such as those being introduced in DARPA's LongShot effort, raise impactful tactical questions regarding the nature of air warfare moving into future decades. The DARPA program is invested in engineering a new kind of aerial attack drone configured such that it can integrate a new generation of air-to-air weapons potentially changing or at least impacting existing aerial warfare paradigms. The Pentagon's DARPA just awarded LongShot development deals to Northrop Grumman, Lockheed and General Atomics to explore concepts, computer modeling and design options for a new air-attack platform. “Current air superiority concepts rely on advanced manned fighter aircraft to provide a penetrating counter air capability to effectively deliver weapons. It is envisioned that LongShot will increase the survivability of manned platforms by allowing them to be at standoff ranges far away from enemy threats, while an air-launched LongShot UAV efficiently closes the gap to take more effective missile shots,” DARPA writes in a statement on the program. What kinds of technologies and air-attack systems are likely to characterize future warfare in the skies? Clearly the intent of the DARPA program, which is early on and primarily in a conceptual phase, is to break existing technical barriers and architect weapons which advance the attack envelope well beyond simply upgrading existing weapons. This sets the bar quite high, given that the current state of upgraded air-to-air weapons is increasingly more advanced. The AIM-9X, for example, has been upgraded to accommodate what's called “off-boresight” targeting wherein a missile can engage a target to the side or even behind the aircraft it launches from. Off boresight capable AIM-9X missiles are now arming F-35s, bringing a new ability to fire course-changing air-to-air weapons at angles beyond direct line-of-sight. Weapons upgrades to the F-22 as well, brought to fruition through a Lockheed software upgrade called 3.2b, brings new upgrades to the AIM-9X and AIM-120D. Raytheon data explains that a Block 2 AIM-9X variant also adds a redesigned fuze, new datalink to support beyond visual range engagements, improved electronics and a digital ignition safety device. Another part of the weapons upgrade includes engineering the F-22 to fire the AIM-120D, a beyond visual range Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), designed for all weather day-and-night attacks. It is a “fire and forget” missile with active transmit radar guidance, Raytheon data states. The AIM-120D is built with upgrades to previous AMRAAM missiles by increasing attack range, improving seeker guidance GPS navigation, inertial measurement units and a two-way data link, Raytheon statements explain. Air-to-Air weapons are also being upgraded with new “countermeasures” to, among other things, enable guidance systems to stay locked on target even in a “jamming” environment. For example, adversaries are increasingly engineering electronic warfare weapons intended to find and “jam” radio frequency or infrared targeting technologies used in air-to-air weapons. Technical efforts to “counter” the countermeasures with frequency-hopping adaptations can enable electronically guided weapons to sustain a precision trajectory despite enemy jamming attempts. These kinds of innovations might, at least initially, be providing a technical baseline from which new weapons can be envisioned, developed and ultimately engineered. The new air-to-air weapons intended for LongShot will most likely not only be much longer range but also operate with hardened guidance systems, flexible flight trajectories, advanced countermeasures, a wider range of fuze options and newer kinds of explosives as well. Kris Osborn is the defense editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/what-might-darpa%E2%80%99s-longshot-fighter-drone-be-armed-178113