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  10 décembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Airbus prepares for ‘Eurodrone’ contract signing in early 2021

  By: Vivienne Machi   STUTTGART, Germany — The cogs are churning for the four-nation Eurodrone unmanned aerial system program, with a development contract approved last month and formal contract signing expected early next year, an Airbus official said Dec. 9. Speaking at the company's annual trade media briefing, Airbus' Unmanned Aerial Systems director Jana Rosenmann shared that the company reached an agreement Nov. 19 with the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) to develop the next-generation medium-altitude, low-endurance drone. OCCAR is managing the Eurodrone program on behalf of the four European partners: Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The program's industrial team, composed of lead contractor Airbus Germany, along with Dassault Aviation and Leonardo, submitted a bid for the program in June. Since then, the companies have been involved in “very interesting and very lively discussions” with OCCAR, Rosenmann said during the briefing, which was held virtually. “I believe that what we have now, today on the table, is a fair and reasonable offer for both sides, both for the customer, as well as for industry,” she said. While a formal contract signing is expected in nearly 2021, the industry teams will now prepare for the Eurodrone program's ramp-up, to include filling 7,000 new technical positions around the continent. Rosenmann also revealed that the Eurodrone's final assembly will take place at Airbus' hub in Manching, Germany. “We will only have a single final assembly line,” she said. “This is for efficiency purposes, and clearly also for cost reasons for our customers.” Certain elements may be manufactured elsewhere, and then transferred to Manching for final assembly and ground testing. The delivery center will also be located in Manching, she noted. The aircraft fuselage will be fully integrated and assembled in Spain, before being transferred to Germany, Rosenmann added. Meanwhile, questions remain on who will supply Eurodrone's 120 total engines. “As we are in a competitive process at the moment, we're not at liberty to reveal any further details,” Rosenmann said. The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption to industries around the world, and Airbus was not exempt, Rosenmann noted. But the UAS division began to pick up steam once again at the end of calendar year 2020, and is eager to maintain momentum on its portfolio of programs, including Eurodrone, she said. While the company awaits the formal contract signing, Airbus anticipates Eurodrone's first flight in 2025, and deliveries to begin in 2028, per Rosenmann. The current contract provides for 20 Eurodrone systems, each of which will include three aircraft for a total of 60 twin-engine air platforms. Currently, Germany as the program's lead nation is on contract for seven systems, while Italy has committed to five systems. Spain and France are each targeting four Eurodrone systems. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/12/09/airbus-prepares-for-eurodrone-contract-signing-in-early-2021

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  20 septembre 2018 | International, Naval

  NAVSEA: New Pentagon Strategy Putting Pressure on Private, Public Maintenance Yards to Deliver Ships on Time

  By: Sam LaGrone VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Pentagon's new focus on high-end warfare with sophisticated adversaries will put increased emphasis and pressure on Navy readiness, and the service's maintenance infrastructure needs to better in fixing ships on time, the head of Naval Sea Systems Command said on Tuesday. Taking cues from Secretary of Defense James Mattis' new National Defense Strategy, all the services are focused on dialing up readiness to meet a higher-level threat, Vice Adm. Tom Moore said during a keynote speech at the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) Fleet Maintenance and Modernization Symposium. “The last year has had the biggest focus on readiness that I have seen in the 37 years I've been in the Navy, and that's on all levels. Navy leadership is talking about readiness every single day, from the [chief of naval operations] on down,” Moore said. “Right now we're not delivering on everything we need delivered, and going forth we really need to deliver, and the pace of change is only going to get faster.” According to Moore, the Navy's public yards are delivering ships on-time about 45 to 50 percent of the time, while private shipyards are getting ships out on time about 35 percent of the time. “It's important to keep in mind that I have 55 ships coming into maintenance availabilities in the private sector in 2019, and in 2018 only 35 percent ships I have in availabilities are expected to move on time,” he said. “Thirty-five percent is just not going to be good enough moving forward to meet the demands that fleet has today.” He indicated that the four public shipyards are improving. “We're starting to see some results. Last year we delivered all four carriers all on time. We stubbed our toe a little bit on Ike,” Moore said referring to the maintenance availability of carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower(CVN-69) that has almost doubled in length. Work on nuclear submarines has also lagged in public yards, he said. “All I have to do is look at Ike, Rhode Island and Ohio and Seawolf and some of the ships that are in the yard today to know that's still a challenge for us.” NAVSEA has a plan on the books to retool and refresh its four public yards over the next 20 years and has now turned its attention to the private yards: it needs to contract in a way that promotes more efficient work, and it needs more capacity through more drydocks. “There are people who argue with me that whether we have a capacity challenge or not, but all I do is look that only 35 percent of the ships are delivered on time, and the conclusion I draw is there are not enough people working on ships,” he said. “If we're going to be successful, we have to be able to provide a stable and predictable workload for industry, and we're going to have to be competitive.” NAVSEA is taking yet another look at how it contracts with private shipyards for maintenance, with a plan to modify the Multiple Award Contract/Multi-Order (MAC-MO) contract strategy that was meant to optimize cost for the Navy. “The consensus was, after two years of running with MAC-MO, I think we agree that strategy isn't delivering the results that we need,” Moore said. To improve the process, NAVSEA is working a pilot program that would bundle availabilities on each coast that would allow companies a more predictable set of work. “We'll get bids from industry and we'll be able to lay [our] chips on the table. We'll be able to look at the bids. We'll be able to look at who has capacity and who doesn't. We'll be able to look at, hey, it's important to keep an industrial base, and we'll be able to make decisions that are not solely based on price that will allow us to deliver our ships on time and give you a little more stable and predictive work,” Moore said. “My goal is eventually that we will eventually – on each coast – bundle availabilities six months at a time... so you can know at least what work you can have in the next six months and beyond.” The Navy is set to test the scheme with a three-ship pilot program for repairs of guided-missile destroyers USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) and USS Bulkeley (DDG 84) and amphibious warship USS Gunston Hall(LSD-44). With the increase in predictability for bundled MAC-MO contracts, the Navy hopes private industry will invest in infrastructure to handle the planned 355-ship Navy. “The acquisition strategy we have today doesn't incentivize industry to hire and make investments that I think they need to make,” Moore said. “I think that acquisition strategy is the root cause of what I would say was a lack of capacity in the private sector today.” In another bid to expand capacity, the NAVSEA is looking to certify drydocks to Navy standards. Moore said NAVSEA has been in touch with 12 shipyards who mostly don't do work on warships that are interested in having their drydocks certified for use for repair work. Moore said he's also looking to increase private industries ability to work on nuclear submarines. Currently, there are four submarines in repairs at public yards. Overall, Moore stressed the need to improve maintenance is growing as the Pentagon strives to be more dynamic and the service grows. “We're putting strain on the ships, we're putting strain on the men and women out there wearing the uniform that are out there at the tip of the spear, and it's up to us to figure out how to generate the readiness for the force that we have: 287,” he said. “As we go up to 355, if we can't generate the readiness with 287 in terms of delivering ships on time – as you know there's a lot of skepticism that we can do that as we head to 355.” https://news.usni.org/2018/09/19/navsea-new-pentagon-strategy-putting-pressure-private-public-maintenance-yards-deliver-ships-time

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  4 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - June 03, 2020

  ARMY Skanska Koch Inc., Carteret, New Jersey, was awarded a $43,865,000 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of physical security/safety improvements in the New York City area. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in New York, New York, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 3, 2022. Fiscal 2018 civil construction funds in the amount of $43,865,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York, New York, is the contracting activity (W912DS-20-C-0013). National Security Innovations Inc.,* Boston, Massachusetts, was awarded a $7,815,789 firm-fixed-price contract to conduct research using eight gray zone research topic areas. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Boston, Massachusetts, with an estimated completion date of June 2, 2025. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation, defense-wide funds in the amount of $7,815,789 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alexandria, Virginia, is the contracting activity (W5J9CQ-20-C-0004). Weeks Marine Inc., Covington, Louisiana, was awarded a $7,130,000 firm-fixed-price contract to furnish a fully crewed and equipped hydraulic pipeline cutterhead dredge on a rental basis. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Plaquemines, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 27, 2020. Fiscal 2020 civil operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $7,130,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans, Louisiana, is the contracting activity (W912P8-20-C-0027). Raytheon Lockheed Martin Javelin JV, Tucson, Arizona, was awarded a $7,060,279 modification (P00048) to contract W31P4Q-19-C-0038 for engineering services for Lightweight Command Launch Unit system qualification build initiation. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Army) funds in the amount of $7,060,279 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Honeywell Aerospace, Phoenix, Arizona, has been awarded a $41,632,751 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the compact strategic grade gyroscope. Work will be performed in Phoenix, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by Aug. 28, 2025. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $5,103,247 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, is the contracting activity (FA9453-20-C-0013). NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., a Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded an $18,670,070 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-20-C-0052) for the procurement of maintenance and sustainment operations support for the Norway Italy Reprogramming Laboratory systems and consumables in support of the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft for the governments of Norway and Italy. Work will be performed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and is expected to be complete by December 2022. Non-Department of Defense participant funds in the amount of $13,648,950 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 41 U.S. Code 253(c)(4). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Branscome Inc., Williamsburg, Virginia, is awarded a $16,920,452 firm-fixed-price contract (N40085-20-C-0031) for a design-bid-build, repair LP area runway and instrument landing system (ILS) installation located at Naval Station, Norfolk, Virginia. Work will be performed at Norfolk, Virginia. The work to be performed includes, but is not limited to: repair of LP Area Runway 10-28, which includes asphalt and concrete pavement maintenance and repairs, runway markings, runway rubber removal, partial reconstruction of runway pavement, demolition of paved no-taxi islands and incidental related work. For the ILS installation support, work includes the demolition of existing ILS equipment and their supporting concrete foundations, installation of antenna foundations and equipment pads including micro piling, grading and drainage improvements, access road construction and reinstallation of existing generators and transformers. This project will also include additional utility work consisting of underground electrical and communication systems and incidental related work. Work is expected to be complete by March 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $16,920,452 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Beta.SAM.gov website, and four proposals were received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity. DRS Laurel Technologies, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is awarded an $8,830,253 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-20-C-5605 to exercise an option and purchase additional consoles, displays, and peripherals (CDP) technical insertion (TI) 16, modification (MOD) 1 production equipment and spares to support the Navy's future surface ship combat systems. Work will be performed in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The CDP program consists of a suite of TI 16 MOD 1 common display system (CDS) consoles, thin client displays, multi-mission displays and peripheral equipment. The CDS consoles are a set of open-architecture watch station three-eyed horizontal display consoles comprised of three different console variants: water cooled CDS (14-35 Hz), air cooled CDS (14-35 Hz), and air cooled CDS (8Hz). The CDP hardware provides the human machine interface between the sailor and the ships combat systems. Work is expected to be complete by December 2021. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (99.96%) and the government of Spain (0.04%) under the Foreign Military Sales program. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2018 other procurement (Navy) funds; 2014 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2019 other procurement (Navy) funds; 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds; and government of Spain and 2018 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $8,830,253 will be obligated at time of award; funds in the amount of $152,639 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a Lockheed Martin Co., Stratford, Connecticut, is awarded a $7,681,241 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N00019-20-F-0692) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-19-G-0029. This order procures support to update existing CH-53K system/subsystem specifications produced by the original equipment manufacturer. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut, and is expected to be complete by October 2022. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds for $7,681,241 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. *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2207312/source/GovDelivery/