11 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Pentagon spending on missiles, satellites, and nuclear weapons fuels a production boom, as firms fight off commercial aerospace downturn.
As U.S. unemployment reached its highest level since the Great Depression amid the coronavirus pandemic, some of America's largest defense firms are hiring thousands of workers to build fast-flying missiles, satellites and nuclear weapons.
Even amid nationwide social distancing practices, companies are interviewing job candidates through video conferencing and other technology as they look to fill positions on national security projects that Pentagon leaders want to keep on schedule.
“[W]e recognize that providing jobs during this period of economic downturn is also critically important,” Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson said last month on the company's quarterly earnings call. “We are committed to continued hiring during this crisis.”
Lockheed, the world's largest defense company, already has hired more than 2,365 new employees since March when many U.S. companies began furloughing or layoff workers amid coronavirus stay-at-home orders. In addition, Lockheed is “actively recruiting for over 4,600 roles,” in 39 states and Washington, D.C., the company said in a statement Friday.
Northrop Grumman says it could hire as many 10,000 this year. Raytheon Technologies another 2,000. Boeing, which is preparing to cut 10 percent of its 160,000-employee workforce as the airlines predict at least a three-year drop in sales, is advertising more than 600 open positions in the United States, largely in its defense, space, cybersecurity and intelligence units.
Pentagon spending on missiles, satellites, and nuclear weapons fuels a production boom, as firms fight off commercial aerospace downturn.
As U.S. unemployment reached its highest level since the Great Depression amid the coronavirus pandemic, some of America's largest defense firms are hiring thousands of workers to build fast-flying missiles, satellites and nuclear weapons.
Even amid nationwide social distancing practices, companies are interviewing job candidates through video conferencing and other technology as they look to fill positions on national security projects that Pentagon leaders want to keep on schedule.
“[W]e recognize that providing jobs during this period of economic downturn is also critically important,” Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson said last month on the company's quarterly earnings call. “We are committed to continued hiring during this crisis.”
Lockheed, the world's largest defense company, already has hired more than 2,365 new employees since March when many U.S. companies began furloughing or layoff workers amid coronavirus stay-at-home orders. In addition, Lockheed is “actively recruiting for over 4,600 roles,” in 39 states and Washington, D.C., the company said in a statement Friday.
Northrop Grumman says it could hire as many 10,000 this year. Raytheon Technologies another 2,000. Boeing, which is preparing to cut 10 percent of its 160,000-employee workforce as the airlines predict at least a three-year drop in sales, is advertising more than 600 open positions in the United States, largely in its defense, space, cybersecurity and intelligence units.
Northrop Grumman, the fourth-largest U.S. defense company, expects “significant headcount growth this year because of the program volume increases... sales growth, as well as the anticipated awards in the latter half of this year,” CEO Kathy Warden said on the company's quarterly earnings call last week.
The company also has been increasingly winning classified contracts as the U.S. military has shifted spending to develop new weapons to counter China. Northrop is building a new stealth bomber and a new intercontinental ballistic missile for the Air Force.
“We are actively recruiting for 10,000 open positions and we hired more than 3,500 people in the first quarter, which included more than 1,300 new hires in March,” Warden said.
That said, those 10,000 might not all materialize as attrition rates drop as the broad job market contracts. A portion of those positions that would only make it on the books should Northrop win new government contracts.
“[W]e only do that hiring if we indeed get those awards as we look forward,” Warden said.
13 avril 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval
EMSA’s regional RPAS service for enhanced maritime surveillance in the Baltic Sea began this week under the coordination of the Estonian Police and Border Guar ...
14 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, C4ISR, Sécurité
Burak Ege Bekdil ANKARA, Turkey — The Canadian government's decision to suspend export of key drone parts to Turkey has once again thrown a spotlight on Turkey's ongoing efforts to develop a self-sufficient defense industry. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan often boasts at party rallies that his governance since 2002 has reduced Turkey's dependency on foreign weapons systems from 80 percent to 30 percent. There is truth in that, although the actual percentages remain a mystery, mainly due to the difficulty of defining what is truly a local or national system. Most Turkish “national” systems depend on various degrees of foreign input, often including critical parts only available abroad. The T129, an “indigenous” attack helicopter, is a Turkish variant of the Italian-British AgustaWestland A129 Mangusta chopper. Turkey's local industry has no engine technology. The “national” new generation tank Altay is facing major delays, due to the lack of a foreign engine and transmission system. Turkey's first “indigenous” landing platform dock, the TCG Anadolu, will enter into service next year, but the $1 billion or more ship is being built under license from Spain's Navantia. Even Turkey's biggest success in the past few years, a locally-built drone known as the Bayraktar TB-2, features critical foreign parts — an issue now in the spotlight following Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne's Oct. 5 announcement to suspend export permits of drone technology to Turkey, which is backing Azerbaijan in the recent Azeri-Armenian military conflict. Champagne issued the pause in exports alongside an order for his ministry to investigate claims that Canadian drone technology is being used in the fighting. The decision followed an announcement by disarmament group Project Ploughshares, which warned the multimillion-dollar exports of high-tech sensors and targeting technology produced by L3Harris WESCAM in Burlington, Ont., are in direct contravention of Canada's domestic laws and its international obligations under the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, to which the Trudeau government acceded almost exactly a year ago. L3Harris WESCAM, the Canadian subsidiary of U.S. defense giant L3Harris, is one of the world's leading producers and exporters of electro-optical/infra-red (EO/IR) imaging and targeting sensor systems — both of which are featured on the Bayraktar drones. “These sensors are integral for their ability to conduct drone warfare, which they've done increasingly... in the past few years across several conflict zones,” Kelsey Gallagher, a Project Ploughshares researcher, told Radio Canada International. “If the exports of these sensors were completely halted, then Turkey would not have the sensors necessary to conduct modern airstrikes.” “This [the suspension of Canadian supplies] may cause disruption in the production line,” said one local aerospace analyst, “unless substituted immediately.” “There may be some other foreign suppliers to be used as a stop-gap solution," the analyst added. "But this is mostly a Western (including Israeli) technology and may not reach Turkish manufacturers due to political reasons.” Turkey's top procurement official, however, has a solution. Ismail Demir, president of the defense procurement agency SSB, twitted Oct. 6, the day after the Canadian decision, that Turkey would soon start to mass produce the CATS electro-optical system, to replace the WESCAM technology used in the TB-2 drone. CATS will be produced by military electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey's biggest defense company. Demir said that Aselsan has also begun to work on developing a future version of the CATS system. Demir also talked up another new indigenous ambition: Project Özgür, or “free” in Turkish. Özgür is part of a broader upgrade effort designed to extend the life of the Turkish F-16 fleet. “This program aims to completely nationalize electronic systems on our F-16s,” Demir told the HaberTurk newspaper Oct. 6. The full upgrade work will also involve structural and avionic modernization. Turkey views the F-16 upgrades as a stop-gap solution before it builds its own indigenous fighter, the TF-X. But the TF-X effort has moved at a crawl, with no notable progress in the past few years, due mainly to the lack of an engine to power the planned fighter. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/10/13/canadian-block-on-drone-parts-shows-turkeys-defense-industry-still-not-independent/
20 mars 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Par Michel Cabirol Le salon international de défense et de sécurité terrestres et aéroterrestres Eurosatory maintient pour le moment ses dates du 8 au 12 juin. Alors que les organisateurs du salon aéronautique ILA de Berlin ont été contraints d'annuler l'édition de 2020 (13 au 17 mai 2020), le salon international de défense et de sécurité terrestres et aéroterrestres Eurosatory, maintient quant à lui et pour le moment ses dates du 8 au 12 juin au Parc des Expositions de Paris-Nord Villepinte. Le Coges, qui organise Eurosatory, a mis tout son personnel en télétravail. "Nous nous employons à préparer avec soin le salon tout en assurant la sécurité et la protection de tous les participants", a précisé le Coges. Une décision concernant la tenue du salon ou son annulation sera prise avant fin avril. "Nous espérons que cette crise sanitaire sera la plus courte possible ; nul ne sait aujourd'hui comment cette crise va évoluer", a fait observer le Coges. https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/aeronautique-defense/defense-le-salon-eurosatory-est-pour-le-moment-maintenu-842676.html