6 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial
5 October 2020, Bordes
Safran Helicopter Engines and the Spanish aero-engine company ITP Aero have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to cooperate on Ardiden 3TP, a turboprop engine suitable for European military applications – specifically the unmanned, training and transport sectors. The Spanish aero engine specialist strengthen the European team with Safran Helicopter Engines, and ZF Aviation Technology in Germany.
Ardiden 3TP is a 100% European solution based on Safran's Ardiden 3 core engine and featuring technologies developed through its Tech TP technological demonstrator, which ran for the first time in June 2019.
Alvaro Santodomingo, ITP Aero Defence Business Unit Executive Director, said: "A collaboration with Safran Helicopter Engines in this engine is an important opportunity for us. Our aero-engine technologies and capabilities will significantly benefit this engine propulsive system, lowering operating and maintenance costs, while supporting future Spanish industrial capabilities".
Commented Florent Chauvancy, Safran Helicopter Engines EVP OEM Sales, "We are proud to welcome ITP Aero into this exciting project. We are committed to delivering the Ardiden 3TP, a 100% European engine featuring high levels of design maturity and competitive operating and maintenance costs. It will be designed, built and supported by highly-experienced teams using state-of-the-art industrial capabilities in Germany, Spain and France. For European nations seeking to protect their national interests, in civil or military fixed-wing programs, Ardiden 3TP is the natural choice."
The Ardiden 3TP will be optimized for operation at medium and high altitudes, up to 45,000 feet, and be easy to operate -- thanks to a unique throttle and Full Authority Digital Engine and Propeller Control (FADEPC) controlling power and propeller pitch. MT-Propeller will contribute to the propeller.
It is based on Tech TP, a Clean Sky 2 research and innovation programme validating the technologies necessary to develop a new-generation turboprop. Since June 2019, tests have progressed at a steady pace. Featuring a compact and lightweight architecture, Tech TP offers
15 per cent lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions (over current engines). It is one of the first Clean Sky 2 demonstrators to enter its test phase. More than 20 partners from eight European countries are contributing to the project.
The Ardiden 3 is a new-generation core engine in the 1,700 to 2,000 shp power range. Two EASA-certified models, the Ardiden 3C and 3G, have completed over 10,000 hours of tests, confirming high levels of design maturity and competitive operating and maintenance costs. In addition, more than 250 Ardiden 1 engines have flown over 200,000 hours. The Ardiden 3 features a remarkably compact modular architecture, a best-in-class power-to-weight ratio and a low cost-of-ownership.
24 novembre 2021 | International, Aérospatial
European Union defense ministers have approved new collaborative projects meant to boost the bloc's military capabilities in air, space and drone operations.
30 octobre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Atlantic Diving Supply Inc., doing business as ADS,* Virginia Beach, Virginia (SPE8EH-19-D-0001); W.S. Darley & Co.,* Itasca, Illinois (SPE8EH-19-D-0002); Unifire Inc.,* Spokane, Washington (SPE8EH-19-D-0003); Mallory Safety and Supply,* Longview, Washington (SPE8EH-19-D-0004); Federal Resources Supply Co.,* Stevensville, Maryland (SPE8EH-19-D-0005); and L.N. Curtis & Sons,* Oakland, California (SPE8EH-19-D-0006), are sharing a maximum $78,000,000 bridge contract under solicitation SPM8EH-12-R-0009 for fire and emergency services equipment. These are firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, 120-day bridge contracts. These were sole-source acquisitions using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. Locations of performance are California, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, with a Feb. 27, 2019, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal year 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Califon Systems LLC,** Dallas, Georgia, has been awarded a maximum $20,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for medical equipment, maintenance of medical equipment, and/or spare parts for medical equipment. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. This was a competitive acquisition with 59 responses received. Location of performance is Georgia, with an Oct. 28, 2023, performance completion date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2023 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2D1-19-D-0003). General Dynamics Land Systems, Sterling Heights, Michigan, has been awarded a $14,334,060 firm-fixed-price contract for distribution boxes. This is a one-year contract with one one-year option. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. Locations of performance are Michigan and Florida, with a Jan. 31, 2020, 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 Land and Maritime, Warren, Michigan (SPRDL1-19-C-0009). Honeywell International Inc., Torrance, California, has been awarded a maximum $10,028,200 firm-fixed-price delivery order (SPRPA1-19-F-LH07) against a five-year basic ordering agreement (SPRPA1-14-G-001Y) for heat exchangers. This is a two-year, six-month contract with no option periods. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. Location of performance is California, with an April 29, 2022, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2022 Navy working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ARMY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Arizona, was awarded a $46,051,155 modification (P00097) to contract W58RGZ-15-C-0017 to complete negotiations on, and take delivery of, undelivered items as well as continue investments in both supply chain management performance and reliability improvements. Work will be performed in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2019. Fiscal 2019 Army working capital funds in the amount of $46,051,155 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. NAVY JLL-Midnight Sun IFMS, LLC,* Kotzebue, Alaska, is awarded a $30,408,548 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for base operations support services at Naval Air Station Jacksonville and outlying areas. The work to be performed provides for base operations support services to include facility investment, other (training pools), utilities management, electrical, wastewater, steam, water, compressed air, base support vehicles and equipment, environmental, and other related services. The maximum dollar value including the base period and seven option years is $236,917,489. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Florida (99 percent); and outlying areas (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2019. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy and Marine Corps Reserve); fiscal 2019 Navy working capital funds; fiscal 2019 Defense Health Program; and fiscal 2019 family housing operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $24,099,510 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the base period. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with five proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity (N69450-19-D-1750). Reid Middleton Inc.,* San Diego, California, is awarded a maximum amount $30,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, architect-engineering contract for structural engineering services in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest area of responsibility (AOR). The work to be performed provides for preparation of fully designed plans and specifications for design-bid-build construction projects; preparation of request for proposal packages for design-build projects; structural and/or seismic investigations, studies, evaluations and recommendations for upgrades to existing facilities; anti-terrorism design related to analysis of blast effects and design to prevent progressive collapse; innovative structural system design; technical reviews of government-prepared designs and design-build packages; post construction award services; cost estimating; and coordination of various technical disciplines. No task orders are being issued at this time. Work will be performed at various Navy and Marine Corps facilities and other government facilities within the NAVFAC Southwest AOR including, but not limited to California (87 percent); Arizona (5 percent); Nevada (5 percent); Colorado (1 percent); New Mexico (1 percent); and Utah (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by October 2023. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $5,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by operations and maintenance (Navy and Marine Corps). This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with six proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-19-D-2414). DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY HRL Laboratories LLC, Malibu, California, was awarded a $9,155,987 cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) millimeter-wave GaN maturation project. Work will be performed in Malibu, California (97 percent); and Huntington Beach, California (3 percent), with an expected completion date of April 2020. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $1,208,000 are being obligated at time of award. This contract was a competitive acquisition off the Microsystems Technology Office office-wide broad agency announcement HR001116S0001, with 138 offers received. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HR0011-19-C-0006). *Small Business **Veteran-owned small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1675408//
11 mai 2020 | International, C4ISR
"The impact is significant, and it's unacceptable," Gen. Jay Raymond told the Senate Armed Services Committee. By THERESA HITCHENSon May 06, 2020 at 8:14 PM WASHINGTON: DoD is pressing for the FCC to reverse its controversial decision to approve Ligado's plan to create a mobile 5G communications network, one the Pentagon asserts will jam GPS receivers. “It is clear to DoD that the risk to GPS far outweighs the benefits of this FCC decision. And the FCC needs to reverse their decision,” DoD CIO Dana Deasy told the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing during a marathon hearing this afternoon. A formal “re-petition” action has to be taken by National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) by the end of May. NTIA, which falls under the Commerce Department, coordinates federal agency use of the radio frequency spectrum. DoD, Deasy told the SASC, is working to provide NTIA with the necessary technical information to do so. SASC members were divided on the wisdom of the FCC's April 20 decision to approve Ligado's latest plan to repurpose its current L-band spectrum for use in a US-wide terrestrial 5G network. The SASC hearing did not fall along partisan lines. Instead, the division came between the SASC leadership and the committee's members who also sit on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. It has jurisdiction over the FCC. For example, while Republican SASC Chairman James Inhofe and Democratic Ranking Member Sen. Jack Reed excoriated the FCC decision, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, who chairs the Commerce committee, expressed support for the FCC. Indeed, a number of senators with a foot in the Commerce Committee raised the fact that the FCC's decision not only was approved unanimously by the five FCC commissioners, but also has been praised by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr. (Barr was tapped by President Donald Trump on April 4 to head a new Telecom Team designed to ensure that China cannot dominate the 5G marketplace and undercut the security of emerging US networks.) DoD and many other agencies, including the Transportation Department, have opposed the planned Ligado (formerly LightSquared) network for nearly a decade, arguing that it will drown out GPS signals in most current receivers. Their protests have been echoed by a wide swathe of the defense and commercial transport industry, including the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Defense Industrial Association. Indeed, according to a press release put out today by Inhofe's office: “This opposition extends to the private sector as well. Numerous industries across the gamut – commercial air, satellite communications, weather, construction, and more – have also registered their objections to the FCC's Order.” Mike Griffin, head of DoD Research and Engineering, explained that the issue is the “noise” that will be created by Ligado because it will use spectrum designed for satellite use to rebroadcast via terrestrial cell towers. He said that the situation for the vast number of GPS receivers today would be analogous to trying to hear the “rustling of leaves” through the noise of “100 jets taking off all at once.” Perhaps most significantly, Griffin pushed back hard against Ligado's assertions in FCC filings (and most recently in a letter today to the SASC obtained by Breaking D) that most receivers would not be affected. He said testing done by the Transportation Department showed that high-end GPS receivers used in civil aviation, which costs some $10,000 each, are impacted by Ligado's planned signal strength. Even those “hardened” receivers are “barely capable” of discerning GPS signals through the “noise” caused by Ligado's 9.8 dBW — an energy level about equal to that put out by a 10 watt light bulb). More worryingly, Griffin asserted that most commercial GPS receivers — including those that would be used to guide self-driving cars in the future — “lose lock” on the signal at a power level some 100 times lower than Ligado plans to use. Gen. Jay Raymond, double hatted as the head of Space Force and Space Command, told the SASC that Ligado's network would have a “significant impact” on Dod's homeland defense mission, as well as on military and commercial space launch capabilities. “In my opinion, the impact is significant, and it's unacceptable,” he said. While Deasy said one avenue for reversing the decision could be legislative action, it remains unclear what the SASC can actually do, however — should the committee even be able to agree on a course of action. Inhofe said it is legally unclear to him right now whether the Congressional Review Act, that allows Congress to overturn a decision by a federal agency, actually applies to the FCC decision for technical reasons. (The FCC officially is independent of the Executive Branch.) Retired Adm. Thad Allen, former Coast Guard Commandant and chair of the Space-Based Positioning and Timing National Advisory Board, suggested that the Senate Commerce Committee should hold a hearing and force the FCC to reconsider. Those members of that committee participating today, including Wicker, seemed reluctant to consider the idea of even having an exploratory hearing. For example, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal suggested that the matter perhaps might be better adjudicated in the courts, given the questions raised about the legalities of the FCC's administrative process that have been raised by members of Congress as well as several industry groups. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/dod-pushes-to-reverse-fcc-ok-of-ligado-5g-network/