United Technologies nets $325.2M contract for F-35 depot maintenance

Sur le même sujet

• 

  15 juillet 2019 | International, Autre défense

  Army to Receive 7.62mm Squad Marksman Rifles as Early as Next Year

  By Matthew Cox Heckler & Koch Defense Inc. will soon begin delivering thousands of 7.62mm squad-designated marksman rifles to the Army to give infantry and other close-combat units a better chance of penetrating enemy body armor. H&K will deliver "between 5,000 and 6,000" variants of the G28 rifle, which the Army plans to issue as its new squad designated marksman rifle (SDMR), according to a July 12 H&K news release. Under the agreement, the rifles will be manufactured by H&K in Oberndorf, Germany, and will begin to arrive in the H&K-USA facility in Columbus, Georgia, early next year, according to the release. Once there, H&K-USA workers will install scopes and mounts purchased by the Army under a separate agreement. "This is a significant achievement for Heckler & Koch," H&K-USA's chief operating officer, Michael Holley, said in the release. "The HK SDMR system will add much-needed capabilities to virtually every squad in the Army. We are honored by this opportunity." The new SDMRs are part of an interim effort to make squads more lethal ahead of the Army's fielding of the Next-Generation Squad Weapon system sometime in 2022, service officials have said. In May 2017, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told Senate Armed Services Committee members that the service's current M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round will not defeat enemy body armor plates similar to the U.S. military-issue rifle plates such as the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Insert, or ESAPI. As a short-term fix, the Army selected the G28 as its M110A1 Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System in 2016, to be used with the service's new 7.62mm enhanced performance round to give squads more penetrating power. In the past, the Army relied on the Enhanced Battle Rifle, or EBR, 14 -- a modernized M14 equipped with an adjustable aluminum stock with pistol grip, scope and bipod legs -- to fill the growing need by infantry squads operating in Afghanistan to engage enemy fighters at longer ranges. But the EBR is heavy, weighing just under 15 pounds unloaded. The M110A1 weighs about 11 pounds. In the long term, the Army is working with gunmakers to develop the new Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) that is slated to fire a special, government-produced 6.8mm projectile that promises higher velocities at greater ranges, service officials say. The program is being designed to produce an automatic rifle version to replace the M249 squad automatic weapon and a carbine version to replace the M4 carbine. Army officials said recently that they expect to begin receiving prototypes of the NGSW in July and August and that the weapon could be fielded to units beginning in late fiscal 2020. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/07/12/army-receive-762mm-squad-marksman-rifles-early-next-year.html

• 

  25 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  MQ-9 Reapers to the UAE: Why Now?

  By CHYRINE MEZHERon November 24, 2020 at 7:01 AM BEIRUT: The United Arab Emirates has long sought advanced American armed drones. That day appears to be close. The US State Department has notified Congress it plans to sell 18 battle-ready MQ-9B drones worth an estimated $2.9 billion to the UAE as part of a bigger deal that includes up to 50 F-35 fighter jets, as well as air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions. The UAE would become the first Middle Eastern customer to acquire lethal drones. Why now? The Israeli-UAE normalization of relations laid the foundation for it all, Lebanese strategic expert Naji Malaeb told me. “The path of normalization with Israel and the agreements that paved the way for it included deals that were not announced up until today,” the retired brigadier general said, adding that “more arms sales should see the light in the long run.” According to him, the sale had to be pushed fast given that the new administration in Washington might reconsider the whole matter. “Can we really assume that things remain the same under the Biden administration?” he asked, which explains the “urgency to finalize the deal without missing out on the opportunity to help both the American defense industry and the UAE.” Another reason is the fact that the Trump administration loosened measures to export drones after reinterpreting a Cold War-era arms agreement (the MTCR) between 34 nations to allow U.S. defense contractors to sell more drones to allies. “Trump's CAT policy with its emphasis on drone exports opened the door for such a sale a while ago,” senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and former Pentagon official in charge of security cooperation in the Middle East Bilal Saab told Breaking D in an interview. Abu Dhabi's increased interest in drones is due to its growing military role in the Gulf, Yemen and the Horn of Africa. “With the great role of Turkish Bayraktar drones emerging in both the Libyan and Nagorno Karabakh wars, and the game of regional axes, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates face off on more than one front,” Khattar Abou Diab, professor of geopolitical sciences at the Paris Centre for Geopolitics, told me. Simply, “Washington fears more Turkish independency or not controlling the Turkish situation,” he said, which is why it “provided one of its vital allies in the region with advanced weapons.” Another strategic perspective is the growing naval threat from Iran, I believe. Although the drone variant is yet to be confirmed, the UAE may get hold of the MQ-9B Sea Guardian which can be equipped with maritime surveillance radars, capabilities would be useful to the Gulf state. Military researcher and defense analyst at the Arab Forum for Policy Analysis in Cairo, Mohammad Al-Kenany believes the UAE will be using the Reapers for both land and maritime missions. “The systems won't be specialized to perform certain missions,” he said. Instead, the Gulf country is planning to operate them in missions related to overland ISR and to monitor the maritime activities across the Gulf. “It remains more important to the UAE however to keep a close eye on its waters,” he emphasized, given the ongoing Iranian threats in that area. The details of the deal clearly indicate that the UAE will also be equipped with ASW mission kits, receivers and acoustic processors, thermometric sonobuoys, active and passive sonobuoys and ASW acoustic operator workstations,” Al-Kenany explained, adding that “Iran's small fleet of submarines could well be a driver behind the UAE pursuing ASW capability with its drones.” What The Deal Represents The deal is a win-win situation for the US and the UAE as it clearly represents a huge leap for General Atomics' MQ-9 production line for one and the UAE air force for another. With Chinese and Turkish competitors proving highly successful at selling armed drones on the export market, and indigenous Arab industries quickly becoming more capable in producing their own unmanned vehicles, the agreement puts America on the map again. Saab, however, says he is less concerned about the first part: “We're less worried about competition in that space than we are in fixed-wing aircraft and larger land and air-based platforms. Our competitive advantage in UAS equipment is strong.” The UAE operates dozens of Chinese-made Wing Loong armed UAVs that were used against Houthi rebel leaders in Yemen and against ISIL-affiliated fighters in the Sinai. It produces its own drones, recently unveiling the new Garmousha drone, a light military unmanned aircraft designed to carry payloads of approximately 100kg with an endurance of six hours and 150km. All that shouldn't be a problem however because, “as cheesy or self-evident as it sounds, U.S technology offers greater operational flexibility,” said Saab. Malaeb agrees. “The UAE has long awaited such technologies even with the Chinese armed drones making a significant effect on the battlefields across the MENA region,” he said. “But let's face it, the MQ-9 Reaper is combat-proven, with an excellent operational record, albeit over non-contested skies.” Still, only time will tell the specific details of the deal which could reveal the kind of technology the U.S agreed to grant the UAE, without undermining Israeli military superiority or its military qualitative edge in the region. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/11/mq-9-reapers-to-the-uae-why-now/

• 

  24 août 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  RAF Waddington gets ready for new Protector drone testing trial

  A new shape coming to the Lincolnshire skies