20 septembre 2019 | International, Terrestre

Tank-killing missile tests ‘Europe First’ weapons policy

By: Sebastian Sprenger

COLOGNE, Germany — The defense chiefs of France, Belgium and Cyprus have signed an agreement to pursue a common anti-tank missile meant for wider adoption in Europe — an effort that puts the spotlight once again on accusations of protectionism in defense programs here.

The three defense ministers inked the cooperation deal for the Beyond-Line-of-Sight Land Battlefield missile project on the sidelines of a meeting of European defense chiefs in Helsinki, Finland, in late August. The goal is to develop a new “family” of missiles for integration on an “extensive variety of platforms,” according to the official project description. It would be operated by a “dedicated users' club” under a common European doctrine for such weapons.

Pan-European missile company MBDA has claimed the project as its own since officials announced it under the Permanent Structured Cooperation framework, or PESCO, in fall 2018. The vendor wants to sell its Missile Moyenne Portée, or MMP, to other armies besides the French, eyeing a far-reaching partnership with Belgium on ground vehicles as a potential avenue.

Aside from being handed a potentially lucrative market on the continent, products or concepts picked as PESCO leads can win sizable funding contributions from common coffers like the envisioned €13 billion (U.S. $14 billion) European Defence Fund, or EDF.

MBDA executives have danced around the question of how they came to be the quasi-incumbent for the missile project, arguing that the company is the only eligible manufacturer because the weapon is wholly developed and made in Europe. At the same time, company officials coyly painted the selection of the MMP weapon as a decision still up in the air.

That is because there is a formal solicitation process under the European Defence Industrial Development Programme with a closing date of Sept. 20. The process envisions weapons trials sometime in 2020 or 2021 funded by the European Union, according to an MBDA spokesman.

“The next step is that we hope to achieve this trial campaign and demonstrate the capability to inform future acquisitions from European nations,” the spokesman told Defense News.

The problem is, however, that several other European nations already have a different weapon in their arsenals: a variant of the Spike missile, made by Israel's Rafael and sold in Europe by Germany-based Eurospike.

Over the summer, Estonia moved to buy the weapon under a €40 million deal, becoming what Rafael said is the 19th user within NATO and the EU. Germany, which seeks to drive Europe's new defense posture alongside France, also relies on Spike — both the man-portable and the vehicle-mounted variants.

Eurospike officials at the DSEI defense trade expo in London, England, last week complained about being left out of the nascent European missile program. While the Spike weapon is entirely produced in Germany, it is based on Israeli technology, resulting in what one company executive in London estimated to be an overall ratio of roughly 70 percent European and 30 percent Israeli.

According to still-emerging rules for access to European defense projects, only members of the European Economic Area are eligible for EDF funding and collaboration-inducing mechanisms promised by PESCO. As it stands, Britain — after it leaves the EU — and its wares likely would be in, but the Israel connection means the Spike missile is out.

For now, Eurospike officials said they are closely watching the process. “I can't imagine that they will just take the market by storm,” one executive said of MBDA and its missile offering.

With its industrial infighting, the anti-tank weapons serve as something of a test case for whether common projects set up under EU auspices can truly serve the purpose of increasing collaboration among member states. Industry insiders suggest that the raft of existing PESCO efforts — covering everything from battlefield communications to future naval platforms to ground vehicles — comes with a built-in potential for turf battles.

In the end, it seems a good number of PESCO projects come with a vendor team pushing a specific product under the banner or European unity. And as the dust of Euro enthusiasm settles, insiders say, vendors that weren't part of the initial project considerations are bound to find out that defense cooperation on the continent is also about winners and losers.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/09/19/tank-killing-missile-tests-europe-first-weapons-policy/

Sur le même sujet

1 mars 2019 | International, Aérospatial

Boeing dévoile son avion sans pilote
Louis Neveu Lors du salon aéronautique Avalon 2019 en Australie, Boeing a dévoilé la maquette d'un futur drone militaire omnirôle. Doué d'intelligence artificielle, ce Boeing Airpower Teaming System pourrait épauler un véritable avion de chasse. Actuellement en Australie, près de Melbourne, se tient le salon professionnel aéronautique international Avalon 2019. C'est sur cet équivalent du salon du Bourget destiné à la zone Asie-Pacifique que Boeing vient de dévoiler son projet Airpower Teaming System. Il s'agit d'un drone à vocation militaire doté d'intelligence artificielle. Sur le stand de Boeing, une maquette de cet appareil, dont le concept sera baptisé Loyal Wingman, dévoilait des lignes conçues pour atténuer la signature radar de l'appareil. Cet avion sans pilote de 11,7 mètres de longueur disposera d'un rayon d'action d'environ 3.700 kilomètres. Ses missions seraient multiples : reconnaissance, renseignement et surveillance. Flexible, modulable, économique Il devrait également accompagner les avions de combat en soutien. Ainsi, le patron de la recherche chez Boeing a expliqué que quatre à six de ces avions pourront évoluer aux côtés d'un F/A-18 Super Hornet, l'avion de combat majoritaire des forces aériennes royales australiennes. Dans cette situation, en plus de pouvoir être télécommandé à partir du sol ou en l'air, l'appareil serait boosté par de l'intelligence artificielle pour pouvoir évoluer de façon autonome en sécurité lors des formations de vol serrées. Boeing expliquait également que pour réduire les coûts, l'avion sera propulsé par un seul réacteur provenant de l'aviation civile. Avec une telle motorisation, pour le moment, il est donc difficile de savoir quelles pourraient être ses limites en accompagnement d'un véritable avion de chasse. L'appareil sera développé entièrement par la filiale australienne de Boeing. Pour l'avionneur, ce sera d'ailleurs le plus grand budget consacré à un programme de drone en dehors des États-Unis. Ce développement sera soutenu par un investissement de près de 30 millions de dollars américains de la part du département de la défense du pays. Le premier vol d'un démonstrateur est prévu dès 2020, pour aboutir dans la foulée à la production en série d'un Airpower Teaming System directement opérationnel. https://www.futura-sciences.com/sciences/actualites/avion-boeing-devoile-son-avion-pilote-75181/
10 juillet 2019 | International, Autre défense

General Dynamics Awarded $2 Billion US Department of State Global Supply Chain Contract
GDIT wins competitive rebid to continue supporting the State Department's global security, engineering and supply chain mission. FALLS CHURCH, Va. – General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) announced today it has won a $2 billion contract to continue managing the U.S. Department of State (DOS) global technical security supply chain. The single-award contract with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), Countermeasures Directorate includes a base period of five years and a five-year award term. “This award demonstrates GDIT's commitment to providing world-class solutions for our customers and expanding the broader security mission of federal agencies,” said GDIT President Amy Gilliland. “We are excited to continue supporting one of the federal government's largest supply chain and logistics operations.” This award adds to the scope of the current supply chain management contract, which was awarded to GDIT in June of 2012. Under the new contract, GDIT will provide DOS with a fully-integrated, turnkey solution consisting of technical security systems, engineering and solution development, hybrid supply chain and distribution management, as well as a global logistics and transportation network. These elements work together as a cohesive system of systems to deliver efficiency, cost-effectiveness and customer service. “GDIT delivers millions of security-related items to embassies and high-threat posts worldwide,” said Senior Vice President Paul Nedzbala, head of GDIT's Federal Civilian Division. “We remain committed to this important work for the State Department and its employees across the globe.” GDIT's security engineering experts apply the industry's best practices to deliver reliable and high-impact security solutions. This includes deploying supply chain and logistics experts who embrace state-of-the-art commercial supply chain processes, tools and techniques. These and other innovations counter existing and evolving security threats to U.S. diplomatic personnel and facilities. https://www.gdit.com/about-gdit/press-releases/general-dynamics-awarded-usd2-billion-us-department-of-state-global-supply/
21 octobre 2020 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR

Britain unveils strategy to gain a technological advantage over adversaries
Andrew Chuter LONDON — British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has announced a new science and technology strategy aimed at competing with potential adversaries. “We are in a very real race with our adversaries for technological advantage. What we do today will lay the groundwork for decades to come. Proliferation of new technologies demands our science and technology is threat-driven and better aligned to our needs in the future,” Wallace said Oct. 19 during a visit to the British Army's Salisbury Plain training ground in the west of England ahead of a war-fighting experiment there. The latest strategy launch comes weeks after the MoD rolled out a new integrated operational concept to shape how Britain adapts its future military effort to the changing security threat posed by the likes of China and Russia. With the rollout of a defense and security review fast approaching, the MoD has been revealing busy some of the key supporting strategies that will likely underpin what is being touted as Britain's most fundamental military shakeup in generations. Both the science and technology strategy and the integrated operational concept are key elements of an integrated defense and security review planned to link defense, security, foreign policy and international development aid. The review, expected by the end of November, is meant to signal big cuts to conventional capabilities as the Conservative government invests in high-tech areas like space, cyberspace, artificial intelligence and undersea capabilities. The initial response from industry appears positive. “I welcome this MoD innovation initiative and hope that it translates into more conversations and activity with industry,” said Steve Beeching, the managing director of the U.K. arm of American communications company Viasat, which has a growing defense presence in Britain. "We want to work collaboratively in supporting the rapid implementation of future mission capabilities to empower our defense and security forces in the constantly evolving adversarial environment.” Future military development would focus on five emerging technology areas that have posed the most significant enduring capability challenge, according to the new S&T strategy document. Technology areas listed are: Pervasive, full-spectrum, multidomain intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Multidomain command and control, communications, and computers. Improvement of the U.K.'s ability to compete against adversaries below the threshold of conventional conflict while addressing vulnerabilities, especially in the information environment. Develop systems to target adversaries in new ways across all domains. Generate affordable, survivable capabilities that can rapidly address evolving threats and can operate within a denied electromagnetic environment. “They have been recognized as the key drivers for science and technology and research and development within the MoD," the document read. "The Department will continue to have an enduring requirement to maintain investment in science and technology capabilities and programs beyond these.” The country noted it isn't dismissing other equipment areas; it has also pledged to invest in the areas of cyberspace; chemical, biological and radiological technology; novel weapons; and system of systems integration. The document does not mention how Britain will afford the strategy, but it does talk about new approaches to funding. The MoD said it plans to invest in new, riskier activities in hopes of developing technologies by using demonstrators, experimentation and better exploitation processes. It also hopes to make rapid progress on the strategy by the end of the first year. The progress includes creating a strategy implementation plan, giving clear policy positions on the critical capabilities that the government must sustain, providing direction to academia and industry on priority areas, and revitalizing the government's technology incubation program. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/10/19/britain-unveils-strategy-to-gain-a-technological-advantage-over-adversaries/

Toutes les nouvelles