Quand le patron de Dassault raille le projet d’avion de combat britannique

Sur le même sujet

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  15 novembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - November 14, 2018

  NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $22,712,874,822 not-to-exceed undefinitized contract modification to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm-target, firm-fixed-price advanced acquisition contract (N00019-17-C-0001) for 255 aircraft. This modification provides for the production and delivery of 106 F-35 aircraft for the U.S. services (64 F-35As Air Force; 26 F-35Bs Marine Corps; 16 F-35Cs Navy); 89 F-35s for non-Department of Defense (DoD) participants (71 F-35As, 18 F-35 Bs); and 60 F-35s for Foreign Military Sales customers (60 F-35As). The U.S. aircraft quantities are for the Lot 12 program of record plus fiscal 2018/fiscal 2019 aircraft quantity congressional adds. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (57 percent); El Segundo, California (14 percent); Warton, United Kingdom (9 percent); Cameri, Italy (4 percent); Orlando, Florida (4 percent); Nashua, New Hampshire (3 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (3 percent); San Diego, California (2 percent); Nagoya, Japan (2 percent); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2023. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 aircraft procurement funds (Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy) in the amount of $3,505,522,468 (59 percent); non-DoD participant funds in the amount of $1,578,531,164 (26 percent); and Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $916,667,000 (15 percent) for a total of $6,000,720,632 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Owego, New York, is awarded a $382,000,000 not-to-exceed, firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, undefinitized contract that provides for the production and delivery of eight MH-60R aircraft as well as associated systems engineering and program management support. Work will be performed in Owego, New York (52 percent); Stratford, Connecticut (40 percent); and Troy, Alabama (8 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2020. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $147,000,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulations 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-19-C-0013). Bethel-Garney Federal JV,* Anchorage, Alaska (N62473-19-D-1201); Frawner Corp.,* Anchorage, Alaska (N62473-19-D-1202); Transtar-Orion JV,* San Diego, California (N62473-19-D-1203); Pate Construction Co., Inc.,* Pueblo West, Colorado (N62473-19-D-1204); KEAR Civil Corp.,* Phoenix, Arizona (N62473-19-D-1205); West Point – Granite JV LLC,* Tucson, Arizona (N62473-19-D-1206); and Central Environmental Inc.,* Anchorage, Alaska (N62473-19-D-1207), are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award construction contract for new construction, renovation, and repair primarily by design-build or secondarily by design-bid-build, of wet utilities projects at various government installations located in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. The maximum dollar value including the base period and four option years for all seven contracts combined is $249,000,000. Types of projects may include, but are not limited to: water, steam, wastewater, storm sewer, pumping stations, treatment plants, storage tanks, and related work. All structures (including buildings) that are integral parts of the water, steam, wastewater, pumping stations, treatment plants and storage tanks are included. This contract will not include environmental remediation, waterfront/marine construction or petroleum, oils, and lubricant systems construction. No task orders are being issued at this time. All work on these contracts will be performed at various government installations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest area of responsibility including, but not limited to, California (90 percent); Arizona (6 percent); Nevada (1 percent); Utah (1 percent); Colorado (1 percent); and New Mexico (1 percent). The terms of the contracts are not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of November 2023. Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $35,000 are obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by military construction (Navy); operations and maintenance (Navy and Marine Corps); and Navy working capital funds. This contract was competitively procured as a small business set-aside procurement via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 16 proposals received. These seven contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contracts. The NAVFAC Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Kaman Precision Products Inc., Orlando, Florida; and Middletown, Connecticut, has been awarded a $52,026,000 firm-fixed-price modification (P00009) to contract FA8681-18-C-0009 for the Joint Programmable Fuzes. The contract modification is for the purchase of an additional 15,000 fuzes being produced under the basic contract. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida; and Middletown, Connecticut, and is expected to be completed by June 1, 2020. Fiscal 2016, 2017 and 2018 ammunition procurement funds in the amount of $52,026,000 are being obligated at time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $225,422,234. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity. L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace LLC, Madison, Mississippi, has been awarded a $35,000,000 firm-fixed- price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract modification to contracts FA8106-17-D-0001 for contractor logistic support of the Air Force C-12 fleet. Work will be performed in Madison, Mississippi; San Angelo, Texas; Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Buenos Ares, Argentina; Gaborone, Botswana; Brasilia, Brazil; Bogota, Columbia; Cairo, Egypt; Accra, Ghana; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Budapest, Hungary; Joint Base Andrews, Maryland; Nairobi, Kenya; Rabat, Morocco; Manila, Philippines; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Bangkok, Thailand; Ankara, Turkey; Edwards Air Force Base, California; Holloman AFB, New Mexico; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; and Yokota Air Base, Japan. Work is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2018. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement funds in the amount of $2,000,000 will be obligated at the time of award. Total face value of obligated funds for this contract is $30,913,890. Air Force Lifecycle Management Center, Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY McRae Industries Inc.,* Mt. Gilead, North Carolina, has been awarded a maximum $7,558,498 modification (P00003) exercising the first one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SPE1C1-18-D-1011) with four one-year option periods for hot-weather combat boots. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is North Carolina, with a Nov. 14, 2019, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1690639/source/GovDelivery/

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  11 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  Airpower Demands Drive Air-Launched Cruise Missile Evolution

  Tony Osborne Thirty years ago, news cameras shot shaky imagery of long tubular missiles flying across the Baghdad skyline. They were a mix of Raytheon Tomahawks launched from U.S. Navy warships in the Arabian Sea and Boeing AGM-86 Air Launched Cruise Missiles, released from Boeing B-52s in the final moments of their flights, closing in on targets in the city center with a precision never seen in previous conflicts. The missile firings were the opening shots of one of the most successful air campaigns in history. Within 39 days the air assault had rendered Iraq's armed forces ineffective, ruined the country's economy and helped prevent the conflict from drawing in neighboring states. Advanced seekers drive greater autonomy in engagement endgame More than 20 countries have air-launched cruise missiles Weapons use low-observability tech to increase survivability Operation Desert Storm almost certainly secured the role of the cruise missile for future air campaigns, with the weapons providing the opening salvos for attacks in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Libya and more recently Syria. Today, nearly 20 countries have an air-launched cruise missile capability and others are aspiring toward it as the technology proliferates. Nations such as Brazil, India and Pakistan are developing their own. Increasingly, the missiles no longer are seen as just an offensive capability in the hands of the superpowers, but also as a defensive one—a long arm that can hold adversaries at bay. Neutral Finland has equipped its Boeing F/A-18 Hornets with the Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), Sweden is considering the integration of a long-range missile for its Saab Gripens later in the 2020s, and Taiwan has developed an air-launched cruise missile for use from its AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-Kuo indigenous combat aircraft. “The significantly increased effective range of air-defense and anti-ship missiles since the end of the Cold War has allowed these nominally defensive systems to be used for offensive political purposes in various parts of the world, by threatening air and maritime assets far outside the territory on which they are based,” says Justin Bronk, a fellow for airpower and technology at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “Cruise missiles are a necessity for any nation or coalition which needs the capability to threaten or destroy targets protected by modern ground-based air-defense networks.” At the same time, the definition of a cruise missile is being blurred. Loitering munitions and attritable UAVs—including those being developed as additive capabilities for future combat aircraft—use similar technologies, as do air-launched decoys such as Raytheon's Miniature Air-Launched Decoy and proposed systems from MBDA and Saab. The term “cruise missile” also has been hijacked and associated with shorter-range standoff weapons and even anti-ship missiles, although some have a limited land-attack capability. Even the UK's new MBDA Spear 3 weapon recently was described by the company as a mini cruise missile. The cruise missile's precursors date back more than a century. Curtiss-Sperry's Aerial Torpedo took a converted biplane, fitted it with remote controls and filled it with explosive, although it was never used in anger. Then just 25 years later, during World War II, Hitler's Germany launched thousands of V-1 pulsejet-powered flying bombs against the Allies, including more than 1,000 launched from modified Heinkel He.111 bombers. Fast-forward to today: Modern cruise missiles are capable of flying thousands of kilometers across land and sea, their positions guaranteed by satellites. Then, in the final moments of an attack, onboard sensors seek out the objectives before the missiles' penetrating warheads defeat even hardened targets. Development of a cruise missile will be bound up in the requirements stipulated by the sponsoring nation, but among the most prominent will center on the weapon's launch platform. This will generate its own constraints including the physical size and weight of the weapon, particularly if it needs to be fitted inside an aircraft's internal bay-—like that of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Platform legacy is another factor, as the weapon might end up being in service longer than the carrier aircraft. For example, carriage of the UK's MBDA Storm Shadow had to be transferred from the Panavia Tornado to the Eurofighter Typhoon when the Tornado exited service in 2019. That means consideration also is needed for future platforms. This is a particular issue in cases where missile companies have not had input into aircraft development programs and is being addressed in Europe through initiatives such as the UK-led Tempest and German/French/Spanish Future Combat Air System. As with all weapons, range has a major influence on design, not only for the amount of fuel carried onboard, but also how close to the target the carrying platform needs to be before launch. A longer-range weapon permits planners to undertake more circuitous routes, reducing exposure to detection. It also can allow for attacks to be conducted from several different directions to overwhelm air defenses, or alternatively, several targets can be struck simultaneously in different parts of a country by multiple weapons to achieve a particular effect. In addition to fuel, designers also must consider the type of warhead as commanders would like to ensure the weapon can deal with any target it strikes once it gets there. Both the Storm Shadow/Scalp Taurus KEPD 350 and Lockheed JASSM, arguably the most commonly exported air-launched cruise missiles, are kitted with penetrating warheads to deal with hardened targets such as command-and-control bunkers and hardened aircraft shelters. Other factors in cruise missile design include responsiveness. Missile experts suggest planners need to be able to take advantage of windows of opportunity, such as the movement of air defenses to different sites, opening a gap through which the missile can fly. The missile itself also must be survivable; many of the new-generation, modern air-defense systems have been developed to track and shoot down cruise missiles. One of the primary roles of Russia's Mikoyan MiG-31 Foxhound is to intercept and down air-launched cruise missiles and, if possible, their carrying aircraft. “Survivability [of the cruise missile] is not a military capability requirement,” an industry expert on air-launched cruise missiles tells Aviation Week. “But clearly without it, you can't go somewhere, meet the range or achieve the effect that the military planners want.” The push for survivability has driven manufacturers to incorporate more low-observability design aspects and materials to reduce the radar cross-section of the weapon, as can be seen with the Storm Shadow/Scalp and JASSM. The basic cruise missile configuration is dominated by the warhead, fuel and engine. Each has its own trade-offs, so missile engineers are faced with balancing the requirements of range over warhead size—particularly as cruise missiles' strategic targets are often large, sometimes even hardened fixed structures. More efficient, small turbofan engines, rather than turbojets, have helped to boost range while the remaining missile fuel can enhance the explosive power when combined with the warhead. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of cruise missile use is the mission planning process. Most cruise missiles will have undergone an extensive planning process prior to launch, with the path of flight often defined by a set of waypoints in the sky—and with more advanced weapons, the construction of 3D digital models of the target so onboard seekers can recognize it. The process can be quite granular, down to the height at which the weapon will cruise during most of its flight, attack angles and when to switch on seekers. Imperfect geographic data means some latitude has to be built in to ensure the weapon comfortably avoids crashing into high ground when using onboard terrain databases. Nearly all cruise missiles will have a basic capability to fly to a GPS coordinate. More advanced weapons can operate in GPS-denied environments, recognizing their targets using imaging onboard seekers so the weapon can pick out the target structure in cluttered terrain. “The seeker on the front of the missile provides more flexibility,” a missile industry expert states. “In some cases a target can be difficult to differentiate, so we may need to use a target basket to locate a target in a certain area of engagement.” Such seekers include electro-optical and infrared types, but future developments could include the use of laser-based Lidar and even radio-frequency seekers that could allow the weapon to pick out and identify its target earlier. During the Cold War, such accuracy was less important. The missiles could hit within tens of meters of the desired hit points and, when equipped with nuclear warheads, their kilotons of destructive power could comfortably knock out most targets. “High accuracy today means that commanders have confidence you can do the damage you need to with conventional warheads,” says Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. But the slow process of mission planning means cruise missiles are less effective against potentially fleeting targets of opportunity, a concern that is prompting development of speedier planning and faster missiles. “High speed is a way forward for cruise missiles,” says the missile expert. “It lends itself to responsiveness, it is a simpler activity to plan and it increases the element of surprise.” But high speed comes with its own challenges. Such a weapon can be difficult to design and will need to be finely tuned, with little room to make changes, say experts. Most supersonic cruise missiles are either anti-ship types with a limited land-attack capability such as the Indian/Russian BrahMos, or more specialized weapons such as France's nuclear-roled ASMP-A—which Paris plans to replace with an even faster, possibly scramjet-powered weapon called the ASN4G, in the 2030s. Experts believe there is a role for both high-speed and subsonic weapons. The subsonic missile, on the other hand, is more of a “bomb truck,” says the missile industry expert. With their big boxy airframes, such weapons “are quite resilient to changing things inside, so it supports a flexible future. “For high speed, we [industry] are still grappling with developing technologies for propulsion and . . . for controlling the airframe. . . . There's still a lot of technology growth to take place.” Governments increasingly desire such capabilities, particularly in the new era of great-power competition. But while sales are lucrative, cruise missiles are not easy to export. Transfers continue to be governed by the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) whose 35 signatories aim to prevent the proliferation of technology that could lead to long-range nuclear-weapon delivery systems. Many of the countries' weapons with ranges of over 300 km (190 mi.) are considered in Category 1 and face the greatest restraint in terms of transfers, while controls on weapons with a range of less than 300 km are less strict, with decisions often based on national discretion. However, the MTCR rules seem likely to evolve, particularly as the U.S. looks to export more unmanned air systems, which were previously covered by the regime. But even if the weapons are not being exported, more nations than ever are achieving the technical prowess to develop indigenous cruise missiles, and not all are MTCR signatories. So as the threat to airpower from ground-based defenses grows, the desire for such weapons is turning to necessity, as it seems likely such weapons will play an even bigger role in future conflicts beyond the opening salvos. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/missile-defense-weapons/airpower-demands-drive-air-launched-cruise-missile-evolution

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  14 septembre 2023 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Estonian firm develops virtual ‘shooting range’ to test cyber defenses

  CybExer Technologies works with Estonian Defence Forces, as well as the armed forces of a number of European countries including Ukraine.