19 avril 2021 | International, Aérospatial
How The U.S. Army Will Incorporate New Tech For Aviation Readiness | Aviation Week Network
The U.S. Army plans to use like digital twins and advanced manufacturing to improve aviation sustainment.
29 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Will commercial and military launch programs ever be truly complementary?
By: Kirk Pysher
In a few months, the U.S. Air Force will choose two of the four competing space companies to provide five years of launches in the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program. One of the core objectives for this program is to increase affordability by leveraging the technologies and business models of the commercial launch industry.
Is that a realistic expectation given the current commercial space market and historical precedents?
Historically, the commercial launch market has seen significant variability. Launches of commercial communication satellite constellations began in the early 1970s with NASA serving as the launch provider. New launch providers began to emerge from the commercial world after the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 allowed the private sector to provide launch services. We then witnessed a remarkable growth in commercial space launches in the 1990s that peaked just before the turn of the century.
Then, until about 2014, the commercial launch market stabilized at 20-25 commercial geostationary orbit satellites per year that were split essentially between three global launch suppliers. Since then, new entrants into the commercial launch market and pricing pressure from terrestrial-based communication systems have significantly impacted the viability of the commercial launch market, reducing profit margins and returns on investment across the board.
The expected 20-25 commercial GEO missions is now in the range of 10-15 launches per year and is expected to remain at that level beyond the NSSL five-year period of performance.
With new entrants into the commercial launch market, that 40-50 percent reduction in annual launch opportunities will now be competed among seven to eight global launch providers, putting further pressure on the viability of those launchers. Additionally, commercial launch revenue is also expected to decrease over that period by as much as 30 percent as satellite operators look to reduce their launch cost through shared launch, smaller spacecraft and reduced launch pricing.
Given the projected commercial launch market and additional competition from new entrants, launch service providers will have difficultly building and maintaining viable commercial launch business plans, let alone having commercial launch-driven capital to invest in new technology.
History has proven that no commercial launch service provider can succeed without having an anchor government customer. The commercial launch market simply has not been able to provide the stable, long-term demand needed to maintain affordable pricing, innovation and factory throughput for the Air Force to benefit from. History has also demonstrated that it is the Air Force with NSSL since 2003 that has provided the launch service providers with a stable number of launches.
The defense and commercial launch markets have a fundamental difference. The former focuses strictly on satisfying national security mission requirements in space — needs that are driven by risk, strategy and geopolitical events regardless of vulnerabilities in commercial markets. The defense market began in the late 1950s with industry designing, developing and building launch vehicles for the U.S. government to place critical national security satellites into orbit. Early on, we saw a large number of launches in the beginning — peaking at more than 40 in 1966 — before activity levels decreased to level out by 1980.
After more than 400 launches of defense-related satellites, the defense launch market finally settled into an average eight launches annually, whereas the commercial launch market is strictly tied to the ability of global satellite operators to close business plans and obtain institutional and/or private funding on new and replacement satellites.
The global COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of all commercial markets. Airlines, aircraft manufacturers and commercial space companies are needing to seek tens of billions of dollars in government assistance; and private commercial space investors are also reassessing their risk postures, as is demonstrated by the recent OneWeb bankruptcy filing.
Given the projected decline in commercial launch along with the historical precedents, there would be significant risk for the Air Force to expect to leverage benefit from commercial launch. In fact, I believe history has demonstrated that it is commercial launch that is able to leverage the benefits derived from the steady cadence of defense and civil government launches. The Air Force, in its role as anchor customer, needs to clearly understand commercial market dependencies and business cases of its key providers. With that understanding, the Air Force will mitigate any risk of critical national security missions being dependent on a finicky and fluctuating commercial market.
Kirk Pysher is an aerospace executive with more than 20 years in the commercial launch market, serving most recently as the president of International Launch Services until October 2019.
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1 mars 2019 | International, Sécurité, Autre défense
The Security Clearance Process Is About to Get Its Biggest Overhaul in 50 Years
By AARON BOYD The federal intelligence and human resources communities are preparing a coming out party for the first major update to the security clearance process in some 50 years. For the last year, the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council has been working on the Trusted Workforce 2.0 framework, the start of a wide-ranging effort to overhaul how background investigations are conducted. Representatives from the intelligence community, Defense Department, Office of Personnel Management, and Office of Management and Budget are leading PAC's efforts. Over the next two weeks, the team plans to debut the finalized framework to the White House and Congress and offered a group of reporters a first look at what's to come. This is the first time ever that the legislative and executive branches are on the same page with regard to clearance reform, according to Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, who is leading the framework effort along with OPM Deputy Director Michael Rigas. The two agencies, along with members of the Defense Department, have been working to reduce the crushing backlog of security investigations, which topped 725,000 in early 2018. That backlog has since been reduced to 551,000 as of Monday. But that number is 100 percent above what security professionals consider to be the baseline “steady state” of 220,000 to 250,000 investigations in process at any given time. Key to continuing to decrease the backlog and get the average clearance timeline down below 80 days is a major process overhaul, Evanina and Rigas said. “We realized this is a really big elephant, so we have to take some small bites,” beginning with reducing the backlog, Evanina said. From there, beginning mid-summer, they began to look at the “blue sky perspective,” as Evanina put it: the high-level view of structural, procedural changes that needed to take place. Discussions focused on removing “friction” from the process, said Matt Eanes, director of the PAC program management office, whether by removing the need to vet minor things or allowing investigators to use digital methods. Full article: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/02/security-clearance-process-about-get-its-biggest-overhaul-50-years/155229/
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23 novembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Dassault, Airbus, Safran et MTU joueront les premiers rôles dans le futur avion de combat franco-allemand
HASSAN MEDDAH La ministre des armées Florence Parly et son homologue allemande Ursula Von der Leyen attribueront l'an prochain aux industriels européens les premiers contrats d'études pour affiner l'architecture du système aérien de combat du futur et préparer les premiers démonstrateurs. Elles ont déjà confirmé les noms des heureux élus. Quid de Thales? Les avionneurs Dassault Aviation et Airbus ainsi que les motoristes français et allemand Safran et MTU vont enfin pouvoir faire plancher leurs équipes sur le programme SCAF, le système de combat aérien du futur. Il s'agit du principal programme de coopération franco-allemand dans le domaine de la Défense avec le programme de char de combat du futur. Le futur chasseur devra remplacer à l'horizon 2035-2040 le Rafale français et l'Eurofighter déployé dans les armées allemandes. Se mettre au travail En marge de la réunion des ministres des affaires étrangères et de la Défense qui a démarré à Bruxelles le 20 novembre, la ministre française des armées Florence Parly et son homologue allemande ont fait un point sur leurs grands programmes militaires en coopération. Le délégué général de l'armement Joël Barre et son vis-à-vis allemand étaient également présents. Les partenaires ont décidé d'attribuer les premiers contrats d'études aux industriels dans le courant de l'année 2019 pour éviter de prendre tout retard. "La réunion avait pour but de clarifier l'architecture industrielle des programmes en coopération. Ces études lancent réellement le programme SCAF. Les industriels vont pouvoir se mettre au travail", souligne une source proche de la ministre française des Armées. Un premier contrat d'études générales sera confié début 2019 à Dassault Aviation et Airbus qui se partageront le leadership. Il s'agit de définir l'architecture et le concept du système de combat aérien du futur, qualifié de système de systèmes, avec en son cœur une flotte d'avions de chasse en communication avec des avions de renseignement, des satellites, des drones, des infrastructures terrestres.... Il faudra répondre notamment au type et au nombre de drones qui intégreraient un tel dispositif. Cette étude devrait durer environ deux ans. L'objectif est de présenter les grands choix d'architecture du SCAF en 2021. Quid de Thales Deux autres contrats d'études ont été également décidés en vue de préparer des démonstrateurs, étape majeure en vue de dérisquer un programme d'une telle envergure. Il est prévu qu'elles soient lancées au plus tard au moment du Bourget en juin 2019. La première étude concerne le démonstrateur lié à l'appareil lui-même. Dassault Aviation, désigné leader de cette étude, est ainsi confirmé dans son rôle de chef de file industriel du programme SCAF. Il travaillera avec Airbus comme sous-traitant. La seconde étude concerne le démonstrateur pour le moteur. Safran, fabricant du moteur M88 du Rafale est désigné comme maître d'œuvre leader. Il retrouvera une vielle connaissance, le motoriste allemand MTU avec lequel il a déjà collaboré sur le moteur de l'A400M, l'avion de transport militaire d'Airbus Military. En avril dernier, au salon aéronautique de Berlin, Dassault Aviation et Airbus avaient confirmé leur volonté de collaborer sur le programme SCAF. "Nos deux entreprises s'engagent à travailler ensemble de façon pragmatique et efficace. Notre feuille de route commune pour le programme SCAF comprendra des propositions pour le développement de démonstrateurs à partir de 2025", avait alors précisé Eric Trappier, PDG de l'avionneur français. Thales, qui produit l'électronique du Rafale mais n'est pas mentionné en premier rang dans l'attribution des études, fait figure de grand perdant. "Il sera sur la photo finale" souligne toutefois une source proche de la ministre française de la Défense soulignant le caractère crucial de son expertise dans le domaine dit de système de systèmes. Aucun montant n'a été précisé pour le coût des études. Le programme d'un avion de combat de nouvelle génération se chiffre toutefois en dizaines de milliards d'euros. La France et l'Allemagneont déjà rappelé qu'ils comptaient ouvrir leur collaboration a d'autres pays européen et notamment l'Espagne. Quant au Royaume-Uni, il s'est engagé sur un projet d'avion alternatif avec le soutien de l'Italie. https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/dassault-airbus-safran-et-mtu-joueront-les-premiers-roles-dans-le-futur-avion-de-combat-franco-allemand.N772314