Saab and FMV Extend Support and Maintenance Contract for Gripen

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  6 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Exclusive: Trump administration advances $2.9 billion drone sale to UAE - sources

  By Mike Stone, Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department gave Congress notification it plans to sell 18 sophisticated armed MQ-9B aerial drones to the United Arab Emirates in a deal worth as much as $2.9 billion, people briefed on the notification said. The move comes on the heels of last week's notification of a potential sale of F-35 fighter jets to the middle-eastern country. This would mark the first armed drone export since the Trump administration reinterpreted a Cold War-era arms agreement between 34 nations to allow U.S. defense contractors to sell more drones to allies. Reuters has reported that UAE has long shown interest in purchasing drones from the United States and would be among the first customers in line after U.S. export policy changed this summer. A $600 million deal to sell four unarmed but weapons-ready MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones to Taiwan was the first to be formally notified to Congress on Tuesday. This informal notification for the Reaper-style drones is the precursor to the State Department's formal and public notification. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees - whose members have criticized UAE's role in civilian deaths in Yemen's civil war - have the ability to review and block weapons sales under an informal review process before the State Department sends its formal notification to the legislative branch. The U.S. State Department may wait to formally notify Congress of the sale once staff and members are briefed on the potential sale, one of the people said. The formal notification gives Congress 30 days to object to any sales. A U.S. State Department spokesman told Reuters, “As a matter of policy, the United States does not confirm or comment on proposed defense sales or transfers until they are formally notified to Congress.” The armed MQ-9B drones will also be equipped with maritime radar and could be delivered in 2024. The package notified to Congress is for 15 with an option for three additional drones, one of the people said. The UAE is also seeking a package of Boeing Co EA-18G Growlers, an electronic warfare version of the two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft, that are capable of jamming radar and other advanced capabilities. Growlers are operated buy the U.S. and Australia. The United Arab Emirates, one of Washington's closest Middle East allies, has long expressed interest in acquiring the stealthy F-35 jets and was promised a chance to buy them in a side deal made when they agreed to normalize relations with Israel. The informal notification for 50 Lockheed Martin Co F-35 jets was made on Oct. 29. But any deal the U.S. makes to sell weapons in the region must satisfy decades of agreement with Israel where the U.S.-made weapon must not impair Israel's “qualitative military edge,” guaranteeing U.S. weapons furnished to Israel are “superior in capability” to those sold to its neighbors. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-emirates-drones-exclusive/exclusive-trump-administration-advances-2-9-billion-drone-sale-to-uae-sources-idUSKBN27M06L

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  1 novembre 2023 | International, Aérospatial

  Treaty on GCAP jet fighter project to be signed by end-2023, Italy says | Reuters

  A treaty for the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) jet fighter programme will be signed in Tokyo by the end of the year, Italy's defence ministry said on Wednesday.

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  21 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Pentagon Predicts Three-Month Major Program Delay

  Lee Hudson The Pentagon predicts there will be a three-month slowdown for major defense acquisition programs because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Aerospace, shipbuilding and small launch are the most vulnerable sectors in the wake of COVID-19, Pentagon acquisition executive Ellen Lord told reporters April 20. Out of the 10,509 major prime contractors, 106 have shuttered their doors, and 68 have closed and reopened. Of 11,413 vendor-based companies, 427 are shut down, with 147 having closed and reopened, she said. Lord's team has not identified specific programs but anticipates there will be schedule delays, she said. One of the measures the military is taking to support the defense industrial base is boosting progress payment rates to contractors, raising them for large businesses from 80% to 90% and for small businesses from 90% to 95%. “Based on submitted invoices, we expect payments at the higher progress payments to start this week, helping provide $3 billion in increased cash flow to industry,” Lord said. “I commend Lockheed Martin and Boeing for both publicly committing to ensure this cash flow goes quickly down the supply chain to small businesses who need it most.” The DOD is hoping other large defense contractors will make similar public announcements. The Pentagon's small business program office hosted a webinar with more than 1,000 companies to address their unique concerns, she said. Over the last few weeks, Lord's team has focused on supply chain “illumination” tools and found “international dependencies.” Specifically, the defense industrial base is being hit hard by supplier closures in Mexico and India. Lord spoke with the U.S. ambassador to Mexico on April 17 and on April 20 was sending a letter to the Mexican foreign minister asking for help in reopening international suppliers. The Pentagon also is hoping for additional aid from the American people via the second Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Lord would not pinpoint a particular amount, but the money sought is incremental funding for inefficiencies related to contracting, Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III, the defense industrial base and medical resources. In the inaugural CARES Act, DOD received $1 billion for DPA Title III, $750 million for medical resources and $250 million for the defense industrial base. The DPA Title III medical resources priorities are N95 masks, ventilators, active pharmaceutical ingredients, testing kits, suppliers and reagents, vaccines and delivery systems. The defense sector focus areas for DPA Title III include machine tools and industrial controls, aircraft supply chain illumination, chem bio, directed energy, radar, munitions, missiles, space, shipbuilding, soldier systems and ground systems. To date, the Defense Logistics Agency has provided more than 1.8 million N95 respirator masks, 3.2 million nonmedical and surgical masks, 54.8 million exam gloves, 8,000 ventilators and 275,000 isolation and surgical gowns to the military services, combatant commands, and several federal agencies, Lord said. “We have ordered face coverings for the workforce, 3 million active duty, guard, reserve and government civilians with deliveries starting this week,” she said. “We expect 135,000 by the end of April and 580,000 by the end of May.” For the first time ever, U.S. Transportation Command (Transcom) was able to use the Defense Threat Reduction Agency-developed transport isolation system to move three COVID-19 positive patients from Afghanistan to Germany. The system was developed in 2014 during the Ebola crisis. “The joint staff, Transcom, and the Air Force continue to work to ensure that we can safely transport COVID-19 patients from overseas locations to the United States,” Lord said. “We just issued a memo that directs contracting officers to support a U.S. Forces Afghanistan memo to redeploy at-risk contractor employees due to insufficient medical capability in-country.” The Pentagon anticipates this will affect fewer than 1,000 personnel. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/budget-policy-operations/pentagon-predicts-three-month-major-program-delay