Report: US Army could field two new vertical lift aircraft if service lives within its means

Sur le même sujet

• 

  26 mars 2024 | International, Terrestre

  Elbit Systems Awarded Approximately $300 Million Contract to Supply Defense Solutions for an International Customer

  The contract will be performed over a period of ten years.

• 

  27 août 2019 | International, Naval

  Raytheon awarded $190.5M for Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile production

  ByStephen Feller Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Raytheon has been awarded a contract to cover the remaining materials and spares to start low-rate initial production of the U.S. Navy's Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile. The contract, announced Wednesday by the Department of Defense, is valued at $190.5 million and covers materials and spares for ESSM Block IIproduction, which includes the remaining materials to support three production lots of the missile. The ESSM Block II is an international development program between the Navy and 11 other NATO-member nations to upgrade the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow Missile. Development of the ESSM started in 2014, with improvements dual-seeker head that employs semi-active and active guidance. Raytheon started transitioning to full production of the new ESSM in May 2018, and NATO successfully tested it in June 2018. Raytheon also receiveda $97.7 million contract for long-lead material to support low-rate initial production this May. Roughly half the work under the new contract will be conducted in Tucson, Ariz., with the rest spread around the United States and several other countries, for which the Navy has already obigated just over $200 million. Work on the contract is expected to be completed by March 2023. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/08/22/Raytheon-awarded-1905M-for-Evolved-Sea-Sparrow-Missile-production/7791566495639/

• 

  11 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  After a hard-fought competition, ULA and SpaceX to remain military’s rocket launch providers

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance and SpaceX have won the Space Force's next-generation rocket contract, locking the two companies in as the Defense Department's launch providers of choice for the foreseeable future. ULA — a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing — was awarded $337 million, while SpaceX will be getting $316 million for phase two of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, the Pentagon announced Aug. 7. They beat out Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman. Phase 2 of the NSSL program is the U.S. military's vehicle for ordering launch services from fiscal year 2022 to 2027. ULA is slated to get 60 percent of the manifest, with SpaceX getting the remainder. “We don't think this is the last round of innovation that we're going to see,” Will Roper, the Air Force's acquisition executive, told reporters during an Aug. 7 roundtable. “Although we're excited for the next five years, we're looking ahead to ‘Phase 3' five years from now and wondering what new leap-ahead, lower-cost technologies might be on the forefront to make assured access to space not just assured, but cheaper.” The award pays for the first three missions in 2022, which include two ULA launches and one for SpaceX. All are classified, Roper said. There is no ceiling on the number of launches that the Pentagon can order in Phase 2, but Roper expects about 32 missions. Funding for those missions will be distributed in future task orders. The NSSL Phase 2 award moves the U.S. military one step closer to eliminating its dependence on the Russian RD-180 engine, which is used in ULA's Atlas V rocket. The Defense Department has until 2022 to stop RD-180 procurement, and Roper said he was confident was on “a low risk path” to ensure it will meet that deadline. For the Phase 2 SpaceX offered the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, which are both certified and in use. ULA proposed a new rocket, the Vulcan Centaur, which is under development and expected to make its maiden flight in 2021. “Vulcan Centaur is the right choice for critical national security space missions and was purpose built to meet all of the requirements of our nation's space launch needs,” said Tory Bruno, ULA's president and CEO, said in a statement. Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman were also in the process of creating new launch systems under a 2018 agreement with the Space and Missile Systems Center. That organization will now work with those companies on how to best halt the government's involvement in that development, Roper said. “We will tie off the [launch service agreement] contracts as soon as we can, at a point that makes sense,” he said. “We want to make sure that work that's in flux, that we're able to document what the vendors have done. Where the government has rights to the data and the work, we want to make sure we retain them.” Unless the companies protest the contract award, the next opportunity for Northrop, Blue Origin or other challengers to compete for national security launches is NSSL Phase 3, but the department's approach and timeline for that effort is still being determined. “If funding were available for a Phase 3 launch service agreement, there's no prohibition on how early we could start Phase 3,” said Roper, who added that studies have shown “some strategic benefits for doing that sooner rather than later.” https://www.defensenews.com/space/2020/08/07/after-a-hard-fought-competition-ula-and-spacex-to-remain-militarys-rocket-launch-providers/