11 juin 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Sécurité
By: Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON — “Platform agnostic.”
It's a term getting a lot of play from United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes and Raytheon CEO Tom Kennedy, in the wake of this weekend's surprise announcement that the two companies would be merging into a new firm,known as Raytheon Technologies Corporation.
Neither company works as a platform producer, eschewing the production of aircraft or ground vehicles and instead focusing on the technology that makes them work. It's a business model that has produced well for both firms, and in a Monday interview with Defense News, the two CEOs made it clear they see no need to deviate now.
“One of the first and foremost things we absolutely agree on is, we want to be platform agnostic,” Hayes said, noting that UTC sold off its Sikorsky helicopter unit almost five years ago because “we didn't like the programmatic risk associated with platforms.”
“We'll supply all the content and all the systems, all of the offensive, defensive capabilities necessary to make the system successful, but we really think it's important that we remain agnostic among the platform providers,” Hayes added.
Said Kennedy, “Neither of us essentially develop platforms or sell platforms. Why that's important is, really, the amount of capital that you have to go and spend in maintaining and creating these platforms kind of takes your eye off the ball relative to investing in technology moving forward. So that was a big feature, that both companies are platform agnostic.”
Instead, both men said the new firm will remains focused on developing high-end technologies which can be inserted on, or in, platforms developed by the other major defense primes. With that goal in mind, the company is preparing to spend $8 billion in R&D funds in the year following its merger.
When the merger is completed in early 2020, Kennedy will become chairman of the board, with Hayes serving as CEO. Two years later, Kennedy will step down, with Hayes adding the chairman title.
One area Kennedy highlighted as having good synergies is hypersonic weapons, a major interest for the Pentagon. Raytheon has already been working on hypersonic missiles, including the guidance and control systems, but UTC's experience with propulsion and materials science might be able to help deal with a specific challenge for Raytheon's weapon designers.
“It just turns out when you're flying at Mach 5, you really increase your temperature on all your surfaces," Kennedy said. "If you have a propulsion system, the air is coming in at such a high speed, that creates a significant amount of heat; it has to be dissipated in a very efficient way,” Kennedy said. “And one of the areas that the United Technologies has, really based in the Pratt & Whitney guys, is all the technology that they've developed over the years in working very high temperatures internal to their turbine engines,” he continued. “So not only do they have, I would call it the heat management capabilities, but also the material science to go implement those.”
Hayes identified two areas where shared R&D will have a near-term impact, and they underline the benefit of having a new company that will be roughly 50-50 defense and non-defense business.
The first is on aircraft control systems, where each company has technologies that can be brought to bear for the FAA's next-generation air traffic control networks. The second comes in the form of cybersecurity.
“I think Raytheon is second to none as it relates to cyber, and we view this as a core competency that can benefit the entire commercial aerospace ecosystem,” Hayes said. “Not just the connected aircraft, which is probably the first order of business, but the whole ecosystem. How do you protect passenger data, how do you protect the equipment that's on the ground? How do you protect the airplane while it's flying?
“I think we'll see that shortly in the marketplace.”
3 octobre 2024 | International, Terrestre
The $255 million investment will enable Pratt & Whitney to meet the growing demands of both U.S. and global defense customers for the F135, F117, TF33, F100 and F119 engines.
7 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Françoise Dumas, présidente de la commission de la défense de l'Assemblée nationale, souligne, dans une tribune au Figaro, que l'industrie française de la défense constitue un outil précieux pour relancer l'économie française. «Un plan de relance à la hauteur des enjeux doit (...) surtout donner un stimulus immédiat à notre économie. Voilà qui plaide pour un focus très puissant en faveur de la défense et, par extension, de l'aéronautique et de l'espace, qui lui sont intrinsèquement liés», déclare notamment Mme Dumas. «L'industrie de défense, l'aéronautique et l'espace sont les grands points forts de la France dans la concurrence internationale. Il faut défendre nos atouts existants, en reprenant le travail lorsque toutes les précautions sanitaires seront réunies et, d'autre part, en préservant nos industries stratégiques de la récession qui frappe le reste de notre économie», poursuit-elle, mettant en garde contre d'éventuelles «coupes budgétaires destructrices dans l'exécution ou dans l'actualisation de la loi de programmation militaire» votée pour les années 2019 à 2025. «Investir dans la défense, c'est ainsi créer des emplois, de la valeur ajoutée et de l'innovation technologique dès à présent ; c'est relancer tout de suite, et non pas plusieurs années plus tard. Ne nous privons pas d'un vecteur de relance plus réactif que les autres», conclut Mme Dumas. Le Figaro du 6 mai
30 juin 2020 | International, Terrestre
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The Army has awarded GM Defense a $214.3 million contract to produce the service's new Infantry Squad Vehicle. The contract covers the cost of the first 649 vehicles, with work to be completed by June 24, 2028. The service hopes to eventually procure 2,065 of the ISVs. "Winning this Army award is well-deserved recognition for the hard work and dedication of our GM Defense team and their production of a fantastic vehicle. We are confident the GMD ISV will meet and exceed all of our customers' requirements," David Albritton, president of GM Defense, said in a statement. "It's indeed an honor to leverage our parent company's experience as one of the world's largest automotive manufacturers to design, build and deliver the best technologies available to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces and our allies." The ISV, designed to carry a nine soldier squad, was specifically put together to be light enough to be sling loaded from a UH-60 Blackhawk and small enough to fit inside a C4-47 Chinook, to provide maximum flexibility for deployment. GM's design is based off the company's 2020 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 midsize truck and use 90 percent commercial parts, according to the company, including a 186-horsepower, 2.8L Duramax turbo-diesel engine. The attempt to procure a light infantry vehicle goes back to 2015, but nothing truly materialized until Congress forced the Army to launch the competition as part of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. Last August, the Army awarded $1 million contracts to three teams — GM Defense, a team-up of Oshkosh Defense and Flyer Defense LLC, and a SAIC and Polaris team-up — to develop their offerings for the ISV program. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/06/29/gm-defense-wins-infantry-squad-vehicle-production-contract/