3 août 2022 | International, C4ISR
Remember 5G? Pentagon backs 6G hub tied to Army Research Lab
'The DoD has a vital interest in advancing 5G-to-NextG wireless technologies and concept demonstrations,' said Sumit Roy, the IB5G program director.
4 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
To keep up with rivals, DoD nominee will weigh consolidation vs. innovation
By: Joe Gould
WASHINGTON ― President Joe Biden's nominee for deputy defense secretary, Kathleen Hicks, said she is “concerned” about consolidation in the defense industrial base, and that competition is needed to maintain an edge over China and Russia.
Hicks, whose office would review deals that involve national security issues if she is confirmed by the Senate, told lawmakers Tuesday that she would work with them to ensure a healthy defense industrial base. The comments came amid market expectations that defense deal-making could take off in 2021.
“Extreme consolidation does create challenges for innovation,” Hicks told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We need to have a lot of different good ideas out there. That's our competitive advantage over authoritarian states like China, and Russia. And so if we move all competition out, obviously, that's a challenge for the taxpayer. But it's also a challenge in terms of the innovation piece.”
As the space sector and technological developments drive growth in the aerospace and defense sector and the pandemic weakens commercial aviation firms, companies are “likely to pursue opportunities for consolidation,” the consulting firm Deloitte said in a recent report.
Firms could seek new merger and acquisition opportunities, the report said, to “capture more value, drive cost-competitiveness, or acquire targeted niche capabilities and emerging technologies” such as “advanced air mobility, hypersonics, electric propulsion, and hydrogen-powered aircraft.”
Recent years have seen a number of major deals, including the combination of Harris and L3 Technologies, United Technologies Corp. and Raytheon; BAE Systems and Collins Aerospace, and General Dynamics and CSRA. Lockheed Martin's $4.4 billion acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne, announced in December, has yet to clear regulators.
The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department also review mergers and acquisition activity in the defense sector.
At Tuesday's hearing, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, whose state hosts General Dynamics Electric Boat, told Hicks a drop in the number of submarine suppliers from 17,000 to 5,000 over recent decades suggested broader problems for the defense industrial base, problems that he said were, “extremely alarming to me.”
Blumenthal indicated Hicks had committed prior to the hearing to aid small suppliers struggling with the pandemic's economic fallout and to develop new small and medium suppliers. (This was one focus of DoD's acquisition and sustainment office under the previous administration.)
“I'm hoping you will focus on the supply chain that is vitally important to suppliers like Electric Boat or Raytheon or any of our major sources of supply,” said Blumenthal, who has served as the top Democrat on SASC's Seapower Subcommittee.
A broader theme for the hearing was how Hicks, whose job involves supervising the defense budget, would invest in forward-leaning technologies under a flat budget and divest from existing weapons platforms. Meanwhile, lawmakers grilled Hicks about whether she supported spending on nuclear modernization, shipbuilding and other programs with connections to lawmakers' home states.
Acknowledging the political and budget tensions, Hicks said she wants to link future budgetary decisions with concepts for operations, to buy “capabilities that actually line up to theories of victory for how we are trying to pace challenges from China and Russia.”
Other lawmakers told Hicks they wanted an easier paths for smaller, cutting edge firms from outside the Beltway to do business with the Pentagon and for them to scale production of their products, beyond the experimentation phase.
“We've had testimony before this committee that many smaller companies, particularly in Silicon Valley, and in the technology field generally have given up on the Pentagon, it's too complicated is too lengthy is too expensive, even to fill out the forms,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine.
For her part, Hicks said Tuesday she would “increase the speed and scale of innovation in our force,” and she would work to understand how alternative acquisitions methods are servings smaller non-traditional suppliers. She affirmed that those firms cannot survive on research and development funding alone.
“I do think a sustain level of [research and development] investment is vital, but we actually have to field capabilities, and that's a place where DoD has really struggled,” she said, adding that exercises and experiments help demonstrate the value of new technologies.
“When we can demonstrate value, then we're in a much better position to have a dialogue with Congress and with industry about where that where those capabilities can take us.”
Sur le même sujet
-
-
16 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR
Airbus Targets NRO Imagery Sales With New US Corporate Entity
"As you know, from Airbus we have a pedigree -- we're probably the leader in commercial SAR capabilities," says Chris Emerson, CEO of the new Airbus U.S. Space & Defense. By THERESA HITCHENSon July 15, 2020 at 6:14 PM WASHINGTON: Airbus is angling for a bigger share of the US space and intelligence market with a reorganization of its US operations and an independent board of directors — with its eye squarely on NRO's upcoming contest for commercial remote sensing providers. The new entity, called Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, is based near the Pentagon in Rosslyn, Va. It brings all of Airbus's US operations under one corporate hat. While Airbus, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, has long had a Special Security Agreement that allows it to sell products in the US, the move to appoint an independent board of US citizens to manage the business will give it increased opportunities to break into highly-classified programs, explained Chris Emerson, the newly appointed CEO, in a roll-out brief with reporters today. “The foundation to do business with the US is hinged around what we call a Special Security Agreement, because Airbus is based in in Europe. In order for us to establish the trust and bona fides to be able to work at every security level with the US government, we needed to set up an independent board of directors,” he said. James Darcey, an Airbus spokesperson, clarified in an email to Breaking D that while Airbus has had SSA agreements in the past, as U.S. Space & Defense is a new corporate entity, a new one was required. “So, while Airbus U.S. Space & Defense is not the first SSA company – and we've been selling to the U.S. government under SSA for some time – the new company is structured under a new board of directors, and is moving in new directions than previously,” he said. The independent board of directors is loaded with household names in the defense community: former National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Letitia Long; former Bush DoD exec Frank Miller; retired Gen. Willy Shelton, former head of Air Force Space Command; DoD Defense Innovation Board member Mark Sirangelo; and retired Rear Adm. Kevin Sweeney, former chief of staff to DoD Secretary Jim Mattis. Further, the company just received a license from the Commerce Department that will allow it to sell high-resolution imagery and data analytics to the US government, as well as commercial customers, he said. (Commerce, via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, licenses all US commercial remote sensing operators.) While Emerson said the firm's primary focus is commercial users hungry for imagery, he said the firm also intends to respond to the NRO's request for proposals (RFP) to expand its pool of commercial suppliers of imagery, including advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that has been traditionally supplied by the NRO's own highly-classified satellites. As Breaking D readers know, that RFP is expected to be released by the end of the year. It also is eyeing sales of data analyses to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA); not to mention technologies to NASA for its space exploration efforts. “As you know, from Airbus we have a pedigree — we're probably the leader in commercial SAR capabilities,” Emerson said. Airbus operates three X-band radar satellites, as well as two Pleiades and two Spot electro-optical satellites that utilize bandwidth into the near-infrared spectrum. Further, the company's UK unit won a design study contract from the British Ministry of Defense for an ultra-high resolution SAR constellation, under a program called Oberon. Airbus also is a 50 percent partner in OneWeb Satellite, based in Florida, that has been building satellites for OneWeb's planned mega-constellation of 650 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites for Internet connectivity. The fate of that operation has been up in the air because of OneWeb's March bankruptcy. But Emerson said that production for OneWeb is restarting, following the July 3 bid by the UK government, in partnership with Indian firm Bharti Global Ltd, to acquire the firm — with each partner contributing $500 million in investment. Further, U.S. Airbus Space & Defense is working to bring third-party US customers for the broadband communications satellites by modifying them at the Florida plant, he said. “That is a critical asset for us that we are only going to continue to grow in the United States. You'll see more than just one product coming from our capabilities in the US and, we're committed and excited about the business that we have with with OneWeb Satellites,” he added. Under Emerson, the new company will have three sub-units: Airbus U.S. Connected Intelligence led by Didier Cormary; Airbus U.S. Space, led by Debra Facktor; and Airbus US Military Aircraft, led by Jose Antonio de la Fuente. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/07/airbus-targets-nro-imagery-sales-with-new-us-corporate-entity
-
9 décembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial
MD helicopters secures $34 Million Army contract
Mesa, Ariz., December 3, 2020 - MD Helicopters, Inc. (MDHI) announces an agreement with the U.S. Army worth about $34 million to provide logistics support for the Afghanistan Air Force MD 530F Cayuse Warrior light attack and reconnaissance helicopter fleet. The deal is a continuation of MDHI's contractor logistics support (CLS) with the U.S. Army and Multi-National Aviation Special Project Office (MASPO) for the fleet. Under the terms of the contract, MDHI will provide maintenance, repairs, updates, and overhauls of the aircraft in Mesa, Arizona, and Kabul, Afghanistan. The estimated completion date for all work is May 31, 2021. “This contract illustrates the Army's and MASPO's continued confidence in MD Helicopters' ability to successfully manage our CLS contract,” says Nick Nenadovic, Vice President of Aftermarket and Customer Support for MD Helicopters, Inc. “We have delivered 60 aircraft to the Afghan Air Force and we maintain a vested interest in ensuring the highest level of support to keep the entire fleet mission ready.” The enhanced MD 530F Cayuse Warrior is a light armed attack helicopter revered for its power, safety, speed, agility, and unparalleled confined area capabilities. The aircraft supports a wide range of training and operational missions, providing safe, efficient multi-mission support with an increased performance profile. View source version on MD Helicopters, Inc. : https://www.mdhelicopters.com/md-helicopters-secures-$34-million-army-contract.html