Spain seen joining Greece, France, Italy on European Patrol Corvette program

Sur le même sujet

• 

  25 novembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Guerre électronique : Le ministère des Armées lance la réalisation du programme ARCHANGE

  PAR LAURENT LAGNEAU En février 2018, la ministre des Armées, Florence Parly, avait annoncé le lancement du programme « CUGE » pour « Capacité universelle de guerre électronique », destiné à remplacer les deux avions C-160 Gabriel actuellement en service au sein de l'Escadron électronique aéroporté 00.054 « Dunkerque ». Il était question d'équiper non pas deux mais trois avions avec cette nouvelle charge de guerre électronique. La seule indication donnée était qu'ils appartiendraient à la gamme « Falcon » de Dassault Aviation. Il fallut attendre le dernier salon de l'aéronautique et de l'espace du Bourget pour apprendre qu'il s'agirait de trois Falcon 8X, capables de franchir la distance de 6.450 nautiques [11.945 km] et de voler à la vitesse maximale de Mach 0,9 à l'altitude de 51.000 pieds [15.545 m]. Le tout en étant 30% plus « éco-efficient » que les autres appareils de mpeme catégorie. Restait alors à lancer le développement et l'acquisition de ces trois Falcon 8X adaptés à recevoir cette capacité universelle de guerre électronique. Ce qui vient d'être fait, à l'issue d'un comité ministériel d'investissement réuni le 18 novembre. « Le renseignement est indispensable à nos opérations militaires. Fruit de 10 ans d'études, le programme ARCHANGE équipera l'armée de l'air dès 2025. Sa mission : la guerre électronique, soit l'interception d'émissions radio et radar », a commenté Mme Parly, via Twitter. Pour rappel, ARCHANGE signifie « Avions de Renseignement à CHArge utile de Nouvelle GEnération. » « Résultat de dix années d'études sur des technologies de pointe, l'ensemble des capteurs constituant la charge utile sera développé par Thales. Cette charge utile, basée sur des technologies innovantes [antennes multi-polarisation, intelligence artificielle pour améliorer les traitements automatiques], permettra de détecter et d'analyser les signaux radar et de communication gr'ce à des capteurs intégrés sur un avion d'affaire Falcon 8X construit par Dassault Aviation », a expliqué le ministère des Armées. Outre la livraison des trois Falcon 8X « ARCHANGE », il est prévu de mettre en place une plateforme d'entraînement pour leurs futurs équipages sur la base aérienne d'Évreux. « Les systèmes ARCHANGE accroîtront significativement les capacités de renseignement électromagnétique aéroporté français et contribueront à l'effort particulier sur la fonction stratégique ‘connaissance et anticipation', gage de l'autonomie de décision de la France et de sa supériorité en opération », fait encore valoir le ministère des Armées. Mis en service il y a maintenant 30 ans, le remplacement des deux C-160 Gabriel est une priorité, d'autant plus que la flotte de Transall C-160 ne tardera pas à s'éteindre. Ces appareils sont essentiels pour le renseignement militaire français dans la mesure ils permettent de collecter et d'analyser des signaux électromagnétiques, et donc de pouvoir évaluer les forces d'un adversaire et d'adapter, par exemple, les contre-mesures électroniques à ses moyens de protection. http://www.opex360.com/2019/11/22/guerre-electronique-le-ministere-des-armees-lance-la-realisation-du-programme-archange/

• 

  13 août 2020 | International, Naval

  Shipyards Not At Risk, Despite DoD Warning It Needs $$ To Save Them

  A DoD paper for Congress suggests COVID could shut down shipyards, but Navy officials and analysts say there is little risk. By PAUL MCLEARYon August 12, 2020 at 4:04 PM WASHINGTON: A top Navy official today tried to clarify a Pentagon information paper leaked last week which warned that “at least one” of the seven shipyards that churns out ships for the Navy could close unless Congress handed over billions more to the service. As part of an $11 billion package the Pentagon is requesting from Congress to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the defense industry, the Navy is requesting $4.7 billion in part to ward off the chances “at least one” of the big seven shipyards shutting down. The paper, which has been delivered to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, also warned of over 100,000 lost jobs across shipyards and factories that make aircraft and other weapons for the military. But the Navy's top acquisition executive told reporters today that the wording continued in the paper might leave too much out. “The words could be taken out of context,” James Geurts said. “There probably should be the word ‘temporarily' in there.” If a shipyard started to see a significant portion of its workforce test positive for COVID, “we might have to temporarily close down the shipyard for a period of time until we got it under control. Not that we would have to shut down a shipyard permanently.” The memo contains no such caveats, however. It flatly states a shipyard could close unless the Navy gets the funding boost. Asked where the paper came from, and who it was intended for, DoD spokesman Christopher Sherwood told me via email the department “provided informational material to our oversight committees when asked about the impacts COVID-19 has had on the Defense Industrial Base and our suppliers.” The Navy has gone to great lengths to help its shipyards weather the COVID storm, pumping $130 billion into its supplier base this year in upfront payments, spending that is 25% higher than at this point last year. But some yards have experienced pain keeping to schedule, with uncertain futures ahead as the Navy looks to change its fleet mix in the coming years to better compete with China and Russia. Mark Cancian, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, acknowledged that all Navy shipyards “have a backlog of work, including Bath Iron Works, which was the subject of speculation about closing.” Bath, already six months behind on building seven destroyers in dock, is stumbling to the conclusion of a six-week strike by 4,300 shipbuilders which will likely make those delays even longer. Likewise, the Mississippi-based Austal is looking at the end of the road for its contract to build dozens of aluminum Littoral Combat Ships in a few years, which would likely mark the end of the Navy's interest in buying aluminum hulls. That shipyard “would be at more risk” Cancian said. Neither shipyard is any worse off than the others due to COVID-related shutdowns, however, making the Pentagon's point that yards could shut and require COVID relief funds to keep going, an argument that finds few adherents. There's little doubt COVID is slowing down both ship construction and repair, “but that doesn't mean the Navy doesn't need the ships anymore,” said Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute. “It just means everything takes longer, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the shipyards are going to close.” Clark noted that while Bath is in a bad spot with delays to its destroyer work that will be compounded by the strike, the Navy still needs it to build destroyers in the future, since relying on Huntington Ingalls as the nation's only shipyard that can build the ships is too risky. Add to that the likelihood that the Navy will move toward buying more numerous small cruisers, unmanned ships, and smaller platforms for Marines and away from small numbers of large destroyers and amphibious ships in the future, means there will be more contracts, and work to go around later this decade. The service is still on track to deliver its much-delayed 30 year shipbuilding plan and force structure assessment this fall, in which several options like a new class of destroyers, a new class of smaller frigates, and smaller hospital ships will all likely find their way into the plans. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/08/shipyards-not-at-risk-despite-dod-warning-it-needs-money-to-save-them/

• 

  28 juillet 2024 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Malicious PyPI Package Targets macOS to Steal Google Cloud Credentials

  Discover how a malicious PyPI package targets macOS users' Google Cloud credentials. Learn about the sophisticated attack and its implications.