16 juillet 2018 | International, Aérospatial

Pentagon reaches handshake deal with Lockheed on newest batch of F-35s

LONDON — The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have reached a handshake deal for the eleventh batch of F-35 joint strike fighters, the Pentagon's top acquisistion official confirmed July 15.

The lot 11 order will be the largest so far for the F-35 program, purchasing 141 jets for U.S. and international customers.

"The JPO and Lockheed Martin have made progress and are in the final stages of negotiation on the Lot 11 production contract,” said Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, in a statement.

“We have a handshake agreement which symbolizes the Department of Defense's commitment to not only equip our warfighters with the world's greatest fifth generation aircraft, but it also represents great value to the U.S. taxpayers, our allies and international partners. With each production lot, the F-35 unit recurring flyaway costs continue to come down across the board.”

Neither the Defense Department nor Lockheed disclosed either the total contract value nor the unit costs of the latest order, but a Lockheed spokesperson said the company remains on track to decrease the unit cost of an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing model — the most widely used variant — to $80 million by 2020.

In a statement, the Lockheed spokesperson stated that the total contract value and price per copy would be released once the contract was finalized, but the “unit price for all three F-35 variants went down significantly in the latest negotiation, demonstrating the program's continued progress, maturity and cost reduction.”

A contract for the tenth lot of low rate initial production (LRIP) F-35s, as announced in February 2017, lowered the price of an F-35A to $94.6 million — the first time any version of the joint strike fighter had been sold for less than $100 million. The F-35B jump-jet model used by the U.S. Marine Corps came in at $122.8 million, while the F-35C carrier version sat at $121.8 million.

Lockheed and the Pentagon took longer to reach a final contract agreement than either party would have liked, as the department's F-35 Joint Program Office had hoped to finalize an LRIP 11 contract last year. However, the deal could represent a sea change for the relationship, which soured considerably during the LRIP 9 and 10 negotiations.

After months of LRIP 9 negotiations went nowhere, the JPO in 2016 forced Lockheed Martin to abide by a unilateral contract action, which allowed the Pentagon to set the price of an aircraft and Lockheed's fee without input from the company.

Then, F-35 costs came under fire from President Donald Trump, who publicly lambasted the program and positioned Boeing's Super Hornet as an alternative. The pressure helped the Pentagon and Lockheed make a deal on LRIP 10 in February 2017, with unit costs reduced by about 7.5 percent when compared with the ninth batch of jets.

The announcement of the today's deal follows a $2 billion contract award made to Pratt & Whitney in May for the eleventh batch of F-35 engines. Pratt manufactures the F135 engine used in every version of the jet.

Going forward, Lockheed and the Pentagon will negotiate lots 12, 13 and 14 together as part of a block buy that will initially encompass international orders but could also accommodate the U.S. services as early as lot 13.

The Lockheed spokesman stated that the LRIP 11 deal “along with the technical stability of the aircraft, puts us on a great path to negotiate Lots 12, 13 and 14 as a Block Buy, which will generate additional savings for our customers.”

https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2018/07/15/pentagon-reaches-handshake-deal-with-lockheed-on-newest-batch-of-f-35s/

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13 septembre 2019 | International, Naval

Babcock Team 31 selected as preferred bidder for UK Type 31 frigate programme
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25 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial

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22 octobre 2019 | International, Terrestre

The field narrows in US Army’s light robotic combat vehicle competition
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army has invited four teams to compete to build prototypes for its future light Robotic Combat Vehicle, according to an announcement on the National Advanced Mobility Consortium's website. Out of a large pool of white paper submissions, a Textron and Howe & Howe team, a team of Qinetiq North America and Pratt & Miller, HDT Global and Oshkosh were each issued a request for prototype proposal. The Army plans to procure a light, medium and heavy RCV as part of an effort to bring next-generation combat vehicle capability to the force by 2028. The RCV-Light competition is being managed by the NAMC. While the Army is the decision maker, the consortium is tasked to execute the competition and is also running the RCV-Medium effort. The Army is expected to award up to two contracts toward the end of the second quarter of this fiscal year to deliver four non-developmental RCV-L surrogate vehicles for government evaluation, testing and manned-unmanned teaming experimentation over the course of a year. The RCV-M effort is not far behind the RCV-L as white paper submissions are currently being evaluated for down-select. NAMC also executed a week-long RCV market research demonstration with the Army at Texas A&M's RELLIS campus in May in order to better inform requirements. Out of the companies chosen to move forward, only Oshkosh was not present at the event. At the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference, Textron and Howe & Howe dramatically unveiled their RCV Ripsaw M5, which is based on Howe & Howe's deep history of building unmanned ground vehicles, but adds technology like scalable armor and suspension and drive options to cope with the challenges expected in the future fight. FLIR Systems is also part of the team, contributing advanced sensors. “Bringing together Howe & Howe, Textron Systems and FLIR Systems really represents a dream team,” Textron's CEO Lisa Atherton, said in a statement released at the show. “We formed this team based on our shared focus to serve this customer with disruptive ideas and proven experience, and we are dedicated to meeting and exceeding their requirements through the RCV program.” The team told Defense News before AUSA that it planned to submit a version of Ripsaw both for the light and medium variant of the Army's RCV. HDT brought its Hunter WOLF to AUSA, and Qinetiq North America announced its partnership with Pratt & Miller at the show. Qinetiq and Pratt & Miller plan to submit a variant of the Expeditionary Modular Autonomous Vehicle (EMAV) tailored for the Army's needs. The offering combines Qinetiq's modular open-architecture control systems with Pratt & Miller's advanced mobility platform. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2019/10/21/the-field-narrows-in-light-robotic-combat-vehicle-competition/

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