6 mai 2022 | International, Aérospatial
Boeing expected to move headquarters from Chicago to DC area
Boeing plans to move its corporate headquarters from Chicago to the Washington, D.C., area.
14 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
We Need $10B to Pay Contractors’ Coronavirus Expenses, Pentagon Tells Congress
It's the first time a defense official has put a specific price tag on DoD's COVID relief efforts.
The Pentagon needs Congress to approve “around $10 billion” to cover defense contractors' coronavirus-related expenses, a top defense official said Monday.
Alan Shaffer, deputy defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, became the first Defense Department official to put a price tag on the relief effort.
“If there is another supplemental or stimulus package for realistic economic adjustment, we could be looking at somewhere around $10 billion in additional program costs,” Shaffer said during a taped appearance on the Government Matters television show that aired Monday afternoon.
Also on Monday, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow told Fox Business that the Trump administration is putting together a fourth coronavirus stimulus package.
The CARES Act allows defense companies to recoup money they used to keep employees working amid the pandemic. While Congress authorized these reimbursements, they did not appropriate the funding.
Until now, Pentagon officials have been vague in saying how much money was needed to cover the costs. During a June 11 House Armed Services Committee hearing, Ellen Lord, the defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, said the Defense Department would request in the “lower end” of “tens of billions of dollars.”
Last week, defense analyst Jim McAleese estimated that between $12 billion and $15 billion would be needed to cover companies' coronavirus expenses. If Congress does not appropriate the funds, the Pentagon would likely cut weapons buying and research funding to cover the costs, the CEOs of most major U.S. defense firms wrote in a July 7 letter to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.
Factory shutdowns and trouble receiving parts from suppliers in the U.S. and globally have caused manufacturing disruptions across weapons programs. The current spike in COVID-19 cases in the southern United States in Florida, Texas, and Arizona, states with large defense manufacturing hubs, further disruptions to weapons projects are possible.
“We're going to be at this for a while,” Schaffer said. “The exact number of months — your crystal ball is as good as mine.”
Pentagon officials have been closely monitoring the aviation sector, where a substantial drop in commercial airline passenger travel has prompted airlines to ground planes and cancel new aircraft orders. In recent weeks, the Pentagon has awarded more than $400 million in bailouts to aviation, shipbuilding, space and even textile companies that manufacture military uniforms. Shaffer in the interview that aired Monday said more bailouts through so-called Defense Production Act Title 3 might be necessary.
“I think we're going to have to look at what we can do through Defense Production Act title 3 [and] through other mechanisms to make sure that we remain viable in the aircraft [industry],” he said. “We've seen some projections from the industry that suggest the aircraft industry will take two to three years to rebound.”
While Shaffer said “shipbuilding should be OK,” he said, “we're watching the space industrial sector very closely because we've seen a contraction in the commercial side for space launch.”
Major U.S. defense firms are scheduled to report second-quarter earnings before the end of the month.
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5 mai 2021 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Comtech Telecommunications Corp. Awarded $6.5 Million of Funding for Cyber Training Solutions
The contract has been funded $76.3 million to date.
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13 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial
How the US Air Force is assembling its northernmost F-35 squadron amid a pandemic
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic could make it more difficult for the U.S. Air Force's newest F-35 squadron to organize its personnel and jets on schedule. On April 21, the 356th Fighter Squadron at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, became the service's northernmost fighter squadron after receiving its first two F-35s. Pilots began flying those jets for training three days later, and another four F-35s on loan from Hill Air Force Base in Utah flew to Alaska on April 27. But a couple key challenges could hamper the assemblage of the new squadron, said Col. Benjamin Bishop, commander of the base's 354th Fighter Wing. “We're actually on timeline,” he told Defense News in an exclusive interview on April 28. “We have the pilots and maintainers already here to support operations throughout the summer. However, as you know, the Department of Defense has put a stop-movement order through [June 30], and that is something we're working through on a case-by-case basis.” Under the current order, pilots and maintainers who are moving through the training pipeline have been granted a blanket exception to transfer to Eielson. But more experienced pilots, maintainers and support personnel coming from an operational base like Hill Air Force Base will need to receive an exception. Getting additional F-35s to Eielson could also be an obstacle, as Lockheed Martin assesses whether it must slow down deliveries of the F-35 due to disruptions to its supply chain. In a statement to Defense News, Lockheed spokesman Brett Ashworth could not say whether the company was on track to deliver F-35s to Eielson on schedule. “Lockheed Martin continues to work with our suppliers daily to determine the impacts of COVID-19 on F-35 production,” he said. “We are analyzing impacts at this time and should have more detail in the coming weeks.” If the coronavirus pandemic delays the pace of F-35 deliveries to Eielson, the squadron will have to mitigate the shortfall in jets, Bishop said. “Currently, we're at a good pace on the road to readiness for our F-35 program here, and we'll continue to adapt and adjust to bring this mission capability to its full potential in the Indo-Pacific theater,” he noted. Despite COVID-19 and the potential logistical challenges involved in sending people and F-35s to Eielson, day-to-day training operations have continued as normal, said Col. James Christensen, 356th Fighter Squadron commander. Having six F-35s on base allows maintainers to use the jets for training while also maximizing flight hours for the eight pilots currently in the 356th. “We still do the mission the way we always have. We have the masks and the wipe procedures and social distancing,” Christensen said. “So [we're] being creative but still being able to get the mission done.” There are strategic benefits to being the U.S. Air Force's northernmost fighter squadron, starting with access. With support from an aerial refueling tanker, the F-35s at Eielson can reach and target any location in Europe or the Asia-Pacific, Bishop said. And even the harsh climate of Eielson has its perks. It's a short flight away from the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, the Defense Department's largest instrumented training range, with 77,000 square miles of airspace, according to the 354th Fighter Wing. “The F-35 is going to be able to fly in that airspace, but they're not going to be alone,” Bishop said. F-35s training in that area will regularly be joined by F-22s based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, as well as the F-16s in Eielson's 18th Aggressor Squadron that simulate enemy combat jets. “You're going to see amazing fifth-generation tactics and integration tactics emerge,” he said. Russia is investing in its Arctic infrastructure, and the U.S. military must make its own improvements to how it operates from and trains in the region, said Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who leads U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. “It's great to see some of the additional forces that are going in, whether it's the F-35s going to Eielson, whether it's the work of the Coast Guard to develop icebreakers,” he said during a May 4 event. “These are all relevant things for us to be able to operate in the Arctic. And that is absolutely, to me, key to our ability to defend ourselves.” As the 356th stands up and becomes combat-ready, it will participate in the next Red Flag-Alaska, a multinational air-to-air combat training exercise slated to be held this August. The squadron is also looking for opportunities to deploy around the Asia-Pacific so that pilots can acclimate themselves to the long geographical distances that characterize the region, Christensen said. “Everyone is excited just to have F-35s here because of the awesome training we can do, but we're also thinking about at some point we have to project this air power out into the Indo-Pacific theater as a combat force. And transitioning everyone, including the wing and including [Pacific Air Forces] — they all have to adjust the mission of Eielson,” he said. Unlike other fighter bases, which usually swap out existing aircraft of existing squadrons with new jets, the two F-35 squadrons coming to Eielson aren't replacing anything, and infrastructure needs to be built to accommodate the anticipated growth in both people and aircraft. When the first members of the 356th Fighter Squadron arrived on base in July 2019, Eielson was home to about 1,750 active-duty personnel, Bishop said. By December 2021, that number is expected to double, with the addition of about 1,500 airmen. In that time, 54 F-35s will be delivered to the base for a total of two squadrons — a notable increase from the 30 F-16s and KC-135s previously at Eielson. An estimated $500 million will be spent on military construction to support the buildup at Eielson, including new operations buildings, a simulator building, heated hangars and other maintenance facilities, and a new cafeteria. A total of 41 facilities will be either built or refurbished with that funding, with 29 of those projects finished and others still under construction to support a second F-35 squadron, Bishop said. And everything — from constructing new facilities to maintaining runways — is tougher in the subzero temperatures of the Arctic. “Early on in this job, I learned that there are two seasons in Alaska,” Bishop said. “There's winter and construction season, with the former a lot longer than the latter. From a beddown perspective, how you put your construction plan together, you have to maneuver around that season.” “In order to maintain efficiency of fighter operations up here, one of the things we did is we built walled weather shelters for our aircraft, so all of our aircraft are actually housed in weather shelters," he added. "That's not necessarily for the aircraft. That's more for the maintainers because having that insulated and heating facility, now you can do maintenance around the clock.” Corrected at 5/12/20 at 2:53 p.m. with the correct size of the JPARC, which was recently expanded to 77,000 square miles of airspace. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/frozen-pathways/2020/05/11/how-the-us-air-force-is-assembling-its-northernmost-f-35-squadron-amid-a-pandemic/