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  17 janvier 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  La DARPA confie à Airbus le contrat de développement d’une plate-forme pour les petits satellites du programme Blackjack

  HERNDON, Virginie, USA, le 14 janvier 2019 - L'agence de recherche militaire américaine DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) a confié à Airbus Defense and Space Inc. un contrat visant à développer une plateforme de satellite pour la constellation du programme Blackjack. La DARPA décrit le programme Blackjack comme un prototype d'architecture destiné à démontrer l'utilité militaire des constellations globales en orbite basse et des réseaux maillés de faibles taille, poids et coût. L'Agence souhaite acquérir des bus de satellites commerciaux pour les équiper de capteurs et charges utiles militaires. Le bus fournit pour chaque satellite l'energie, le contrôle d'attitude, la propulsion et la transmission des télémesures, et permet l'intégration de charges utiles, notamment des emplacements de montage spécifiques pour des capteurs militaires. « Airbus a déjà co-investi plusieurs centaines de millions de dollars dans la technologie de production en grande série et la gestion de la chaine logistique et d'approvisionnement pour construire de grandes constellations de petits satellites », a déclaré Tim Deaver, Directeur des Programmes spatiaux américains au sein d'Airbus Defense and Space, Inc. « Airbus s'est engagé à augmenter ses capacités industrielles aux États-Unis, de sorte que nos clients gouvernementaux puissent profiter de ce levier commercial pour développer des constellations en orbite basse, en complément des grands systèmes existants. » Gr'ce à ce contrat, le site Airbus Defense and Space, Inc. de Herndon, en Virginie, et son partenaire stratégique, OneWeb Satellites, implanté sur le complexe d'Exploration Park en Floride, deviennent des prestataires de services de premier plan pour le programme Blackjack. Une chaîne d'assemblage à cadence élevée et un système de conception à coût objectif (CCO) permettent à OneWeb Satellites de proposer des solutions de constellations à faibles coûts au gouvernement américain et aux autres clients. Ces constellations de satellites peu onéreux offrent des architectures désagrégées à grande échelle améliorant la résilience dans des zones de mission très différentes. OneWeb Satellites crée des solutions spatiales d'avant-garde à forte valeur ajoutée, en concevant et fabriquant des satellites ultra performants en grande série. « Notre modèle de conception, d'approvisionnement et de production a entièrement changé la donne », a déclaré Tony Gingiss, CEO de OneWeb Satellites. « Nos équipes ont révolutionné l'industrie spatiale et nous sommes sur le point de démontrer que nous honorons nos promesses. » OneWeb Satellites utilise des capacités qui réduisent considérablement le coût et les délais d'acquisition pour les clients, gr'ce à une conception modulaire et à la production agile de satellites en série. L'usine de production de satellites de OneWeb Satellites en Floride est la dernière mesure prise par Airbus dans le cadre de sa politique de développement constant et durable de l'industrie, de l'emploi et de l'investissement aux États-Unis. Cet établissement, qui soutiendra à terme plusieurs milliers d'emplois, est le deuxième du genre après l'usine d'assemblage final des Airbus A320 à Mobile, Alabama, d'où est sorti le premier exemplaire en 2016. Une chaîne d'assemblage de l'Airbus A220 sera également construite sur ce même site à partir de janvier 2019. S'approvisionnant auprès d'un vaste réseau de fournisseurs américains, Airbus est le plus important client de produits aérospatiaux et de défense américains au monde, avec un volume d'achat supérieur à celui de n'importe quelle autre entreprise, et même nation. Airbus a investi 16,5 milliards de dollars dans des entreprises américaines en 2017, contribuant ainsi à soutenir 275 000 emplois outre-Atlantique. https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/fr/2019/01/Airbus-wins-DARPA-contract-to-develop-small-constellation-satellite-bus-for-Blackjack-program.html

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  19 décembre 2018 | International, Naval

  5 takeaways: Top US Navy officer releases updated strategy document

  By: David B. Larter WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy's top officer released an updated version of his strategy document Monday, an expanded version heavy on goals for specific programs that extend beyond his tenure as chief of naval operations. Almost twice the length of the first edition, Adm. John Richardson's Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority version 2.0 expands on some of the concepts laid out in 2016, and functions as a to-do list for both the fleet and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations staff. Here are five takeaways: 1) Adversaries Design 2.0 is still aimed squarely at competing with China and Russia. “China and Russia seek to redefine the norms of the entire international system on terms more favorable to themselves,” the document reads, and goes on to say that the U.S. “competitive advantage has shrunk and, in some areas, is gone all together.” The U.S. Navy must be agile to keep pace with technology and the tactics of adversaries, the document outlines. To do so it must compete in “gray zone” areas as well as when the shooting starts – to compete with China and Russia in scenarios short of war as well as in direct combat, Richardson writes. “Our adversaries can operate at different levels of intensity in different domains and the same time,” the document reads. 2) To-do list The middle of the document greatly expands on the CNO's “lines of effort,” or areas of focus. Under “Strengthening Naval Power,” CNO lists a number of strategic goals – including standing up the new Norfolk-based 2nd Fleet, which will control ships, submarines and aircraft based out of Norfolk; developing new concepts of operations that focus on fighting as a more spread-out force able to cover more territory through networking sensors; and continuing to apply the lessons learned from the two fatal guided-missile destroyer accidents in 2017. The document outlines award date goals for contracts to major programs, from the future frigate (2020) and Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (2023). It identifies the requirement for the replacement to the F/A-18 Super Hornet and E/A-18G Growler by the end of 2019 – a program known as Next Generation Air Dominance – to field by 2030. Other initiatives include integrating more artificial intelligence and machine learning into warfare systems, as well as 3D printing for replacement parts. The document also establishes goals for personnel including making it easier for sailors to choose and negotiate orders and access their records on their smart phones. 3) New stuff The document calls for a new three-star command inside OPNAV that is linked to a related effort to transform the Naval War College in Rhode Island and the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, California. Naval War College, combined with Naval Warfare Development Command, will support Development Group East, which will workshop and develop new concepts based on the new technologies entering the fleet. On the West Coast, Development Group West will be supported by Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command the Post-Graduate School and will serve as a “center of excellence” for capabilities development. The three-star inside OPNAV will be the coordinator for these new constructs, tasked with overseeing the Navy's “education, experimentation, exercise, and analytic efforts.” The document also calls for the development and fielding of an offensive hypersonic weapon by 2025, a move to counter China and Russia's moves with similar systems. It also references a new “large-scale exercise” planned for 2020, although details are sparse. 4) Logistics The new design puts an emphasis on what has become a glaring shortfall of the U.S. military, its logistics. “We will aim to act as early as possible to de-escalate any crisis on our terms and be ready for the next move,” the document reads. “This will require we sustain the fight with the logistics capabilities needed to refuel, rearm, resupply and, repair our operational forces” Later the document calls for the Navy to “posture logistics capability ashore and at sea in ways that allow the fleet to operate globally, at a pace that can be sustained over time.” 5) Takeaway While the document is detailed, the overall tone shift of Richardson's design from documents released a decade ago is stark, according to James Holmes, a strategy professor at the Naval War College. “The change of tone from the 2007 Maritime Strategy, our first strategy since the 1980s, is stunning,” Holmes said in an email. “The 2007 strategy was a document for a world that might turn competitive or might remain cooperative. The name China appeared nowhere, let alone as a potential foe, while there were a fair number of gauzy generalities and platitudes in there. “You could track the shift in tone from 2007 through the 2015 ‘refresh' of the Maritime Strategy through Design 1.0 in 2016 to this document. Doing so tells you the world has changed around us and we are trying to change with it – or catch up where we've fallen behind.” As for the detailed pieces of the document, they function as a good list of priorities, said Bryan McGrath, a former destroyer skipper turned consultant who worked on the last Maritime Strategy. “This is a solid statement of command intent,” McGrath said. “It is essentially a worklist for his subordinates to guide and prioritize their efforts. It seems to me that any interest to an audience broader than the Navy flag community would be in understanding CNO's priorities.” Military Times reporter Geoff Ziezulewicz contributed to this report. https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/12/17/top-us-navy-officer-releases-updated-strategy-document-five-takeaways/

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  28 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Collapse of Boeing-Embraer deal could have major impact on C-390 Millennium’s future

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Boeing's termination of a $4.2 billion deal for a majority stake in Embraer's commercial aviation business could have widespread implications on the Brazilian firm's flagship military aircraft. Boeing on Saturday announced that it would walk away from a joint venture that would give it an 80 percent stake in Embraer's commercial business, as well as a 49 percent stake in the company's C-390 Millennium cargo plane. Although Boeing said that the company would maintain previous teaming agreements to support Embraer with marketing the C-390 internationally, analysts told Defense News that the vitriol between the two companies could portend a wider collapse of their collaboration in the military sphere. “The future of the KC-390 without Boeing — or without a U.S. defense prime helping — isn't all that great,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group. “It just seems like cooler heads should probably prevail.” At Dubai Air Show last November, the companies announced the formation of a new entity known as Boeing-Embraer Defense set up specifically to proactively market the C-390 around the world — a step up from previous agreements that had Boeing in more of a hands-off role. The agreement gave Boeing a new plane that could compete head-to-head against Lockheed Martin's C-130, and gave Embraer the resources to match. The big question now is whether Embraer seeks out partnerships elsewhere for either the KC-390 or its commercial business, said Byron Callan, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners. “I just wonder, is there something else or someone else that emerges in 2021 or 2022 that ties up with Embraer. Could that be Chinese? Indian? Another country, company or entity outside of the United States?” he said. “That would be a more interesting broader change for aerospace, that has military implications as well, too.” It's even possible that Airbus could try to usurp Boeing's role as Embraer's partner on the C-390, said Callan, who noted that Airbus — like Boeing — does not offer a medium cargo transport aircraft that directly competes against the C-130. A good relationship gone bad On Monday morning, Embraer announced that it had filed arbitration proceedings against Boeing, capping off an angry back-and-forth between both companies that spanned the weekend. When Boeing announced it was walking away from the deal on Saturday, the company claimed it had “worked diligently over more than two years” to finalize the transaction, but that Embraer left some conditions of the master transaction agreement, or MTA, unresolved. "It is deeply disappointing,” said Marc Allen, Boeing's president of Embraer Partnership & Group Operations. “But we have reached a point where continued negotiation within the framework of the MTA is not going to resolve the outstanding issues." Embraer, however, issued a scathing statement of its own, asserting that it had fulfilled all contractual obligations and blaming the failure of the deal on Boeing's continued financial problems and the fallout from two fatal 737 MAX crashes. “Embraer believes strongly that Boeing has wrongfully terminated the MTA, that it has manufactured false claims as a pretext to seek to avoid its commitments to close the transaction and pay Embraer the US$4.2 billion purchase price,” the company said. “We believe Boeing has engaged in a systematic pattern of delay and repeated violations of the MTA, because of its unwillingness to complete the transaction in light of its own financial condition and 737 MAX and other business and reputational problems.” Boeing's decision to break its agreement with Embraer makes sense from a financial standpoint, Cai Von Rumohr, a defense analyst with Cowen, wrote in an email to investors. Because of COVID-19's impact on the aerospace industry, $4.2 billion seems an inflated price for Boeing to pay to acquire a controlling stake in Embraer's commercial business, and terminating the deal may help to free up cash that Boeing needs in the near-term. But while Von Rumohr said he believes Boeing and Embraer will continue to collaborate on the C-390, it will depend on whether the relationship can be salvaged. “This issue is, how pissed off is Embraer now, and is this something they're likely to get over to continue with what was a teaming agreement that made a whole lot of sense for both parties?” Von Rumohr told Defense News. Another major question is how the COVID-19 crisis effects worldwide defense spending, with implications for nations' domestic industries as well the international defense industrial base. Callan noted that some countries who have ordered the aircraft such as Brazil or Portugal “are probably looking at different defense budget projections. Aboulafia added that the dissolution of the partnership increases the likelihood that Embraer will need stimulus funds from the government of the Brazil to help fortify its commercial sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. “That money could easily come out of defense spending, which would impact Embraer defense programs, particularly Gripen or C-390,” he said. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/04/27/collapse-of-boeing-embraer-deal-could-have-major-impact-on-c-390-millenniums-future