Nouvelles

Ott Ummelas Donald Trump has taken credit for a rise in military spending by NATO states, but in the alliance's eastern reaches, it's his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, who's driving the rearming effort. Last month, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg thanked the U.S. President for “clearly having an impact” on defense spending by allies while Trump said his demands had added $41 billion to European and Canadian defense outlays. But the jump in acquisitions behind the former Iron Curtain of aircraft, ships and armored vehicles began when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, well before Trump's 2016 election victory, according to analysts including Tomas Valasek, director of Carnegie Europe in Brussels. While the median defense expenditure of NATO members is 1.36 percent of gross domestic product, below the alliance's requirement of 2 percent, eastern members comprise seven of the 13 members that are paying above that level. “Countries on NATO's eastern border do not need Donald Trump to boost defense spending,” Valasek said. “They decided this long before he came to power. The spending boost was because of a president, but it was Vladimir Putin, not the U.S. President.” Constant overflights by Russian aircraft into NATO airspace, cyberattacks on government and military installations, wargames on the borders of the Baltic states and accusations that Russia was behind a failed coup in newest member Montenegro have put NATO's eastern quadrant on alert for what it says is an increasingly expansionist Russia. Of the 15 members exceeding the bloc's guideline that 20 percent of total defense spending should go to equipment, six are from eastern Europe. At the time of the NATO summit in Brussels, Romania said it would buy five more F-16s from Portugal, raising its squadron to 12, after it signed a $400-million deal to acquire a Patriot missile air-defense system with Raython in May. The country of 20 million people bordering Ukraine, Moldova and the Black Sea plans to buy 36 more F-16s, four corvettes, at least 3,000 transport vehicles and coastal gun batteries over the next five years. Slovakia also announced the purchase of F-16 fighter jets at the summit to replace its aging Russian Mig-29s in a deal that was years in negotiating. And last month, Bulgaria asked for bids for at least eight new or used fighter jets by October at a total cost of 1.8 billion lev ($1 billion). By end-2018, the government in Sofia plans to buy 1.5 billion lev worth of armored vehicles and two warships for 1 billion lev. Neighboring Hungary said in June that it had agreed to buy 20 Airbus H145M multi-purpose helicopters, the country's largest military purchase since 2001. NATO's European members are expected to spend around $60 billion on equipment this year, with the 13 eastern members accounting for about 10 percent, said Tony Lawrence, a research fellow with the International Center for Security and Defense in Tallinn. The newer members will together spend about $2 billion more on equipment this year than last, he said. According to NATO, seven of its 10 biggest spending increases will be in the east. “Since these nations' membership in NATO, there has been a clear inclination to foster and strengthen their link with the U.S.,” said Martin Lundmark, a researcher with Swedish Defense University in Stockholm. “By procuring strategic defense systems, they willingly become interdependent and inter-operable with the U.S.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-13/nato-s-east-is-rearming-but-it-s-because-of-putin-not-trump

Rank Last Year's Rank Company Leadership Country 2017 Defense Revenue* (in millions) 2016 Defense Revenue* (in millions) % Defense Revenue Change 2017 Total Revenue* (in millions) Revenue From Defense 1 1 Lockheed Martin 1 Marillyn Hewson, Chairman, President and CEO U.S. $47,985.00 $43,468.00 10% $51,048.00 94% 2 4 Raytheon Company 1 Thomas Kennedy, Chairman and CEO U.S. $23,573.64 $22,384.17 5% $25,348.00 93% 3 3 BAE Systems Jerry DeMuro, President and CEO U.K. $22,380.04 $23,621.84 -5% $25,288.20 88% 4 5 Northrop Grumman 2 Wes Bush, Chairman and CEO U.S. $21,700.00 $20,200.00 7% $25,803.00 84% 5 2 Boeing 3 Dennis Muilenburg, President and CEO U.S. $20,561.00 $20,180.00 2% $94,005.00 22% 6 6 General Dynamics 4 Phebe Novakovic, Chairman and CEO U.S. $19,587.00 $19,696.00 -1% $30,973.00 63% 7 7 Airbus Thomas Enders, CEO Netherlands/France $11,185.91 $12,321.00 -9% $75,702.63 15% 8 11 Almaz-Antey 5 Yan Novikov, CEO Russia $9,125.02 $6,581.69 39% $9,125.02 100% 9 10 Thales Patrice Caine, Chairman and CEO France $8,926.13 $8,362.00 7% $17,852.26 50% 10 9 Leonardo Alessandro Profumo, CEO Italy $8,856.48 $8,526.22 4% $13,024.24 68% Full top 100: http://people.defensenews.com/top-100/

By: Aaron Mehta FARNBOROUGH, England — When Boeing and Embraer announced a tie-up for commercial business, it left quite a few questions about how the defense side of the Brazilian firm would work with the American giant. The answer, early on, is that there will be a new partnership around the KC-390 transport aircraft; but according to Jackson Schneider, president and CEO of Embraer Defense & Security, that is just the first step. During an interview at last month's Farnborough International Airshow, Schneider laid out his hopes for the Boeing tie-up as well as potential growth for the company's border security operations and A-29 Super Tucano aircraft. How does the Boeing-Embraer commercial deal impact the discussions you'll be having on the defense side? Defense will be a different transfer. We will decide together which will be the format. But it works as a normal joint venture, normal relationship, normal partnership. The most important thing to me in this dimension is [the interest] that both companies are dedicating for the programs. It is clear Boeing and Embraer is dedicated to investigate and identify the opportunities together. A lot of analysts expect the two companies to start in on some sort of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance/early-warning special-mission aircraft designs. Do you anticipate the same? I think that we have very interesting applications in terms of business jets — very creative. We have already had some solutions that could go to market for training, for medical evacuation, for airport inspections, but there are many other opportunities, alternatives that we can explore together, also in this joint venture. We will begin a conversation to see how we can explore together special-mission solutions for the market. Full Article: https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2018/08/03/embraers-defense-head-talks-growth-areas-for-the-brazilian-giant/

By: Martin Banks BRUSSELS — After two decades in which spending was often cut or stagnant, Europe is gearing up to spend big on defense. European Union nations, now unfettered by Britain's decision to leave the organization, have achieved a 70-year-old ambition to integrate their defenses, launching a pact among 25 EU governments to jointly fund, develop and deploy armed forces. The pact, called Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO, is meant as a show of unity and a tangible step in EU integration, particularly after Brexit. Earlier this year, Brussels also launched a major incentive for EU member states to cooperate on military procurement with a European Defence Fund, or EDF, worth €5 billion (U.S. $5.8 billion) per year, the first time the EU has put serious money on the table for this purpose. The EU has already approved one aspect of the fund, the European Defence Industrial Development Programme, or EDIDP, intended to foster cross-border cooperation between companies. But this huge upsurge in EU defense efforts begs the question: Are these various initiatives doing anything to bolster Europe's defense industry? Full Article: https://www.defensenews.com/top-100/2018/08/09/eu-defense-ambitions-trickle-down-to-industry-but-is-it-good-for-business/

Lee Ann Shay Boeing made another investment in additive manufacturing, this time with the intent of producing higher volume of multi-metal parts faster. Boeing HorizonX Ventures invested an undisclosed amount in Digital Alloys, which created Joule Printing, a metal additive manufacturing technology that uses metal in wire form and high deposition rates to produce the parts. The investment was part of a $12.9 million Series B financing led by G20 Ventures and included other companies. Boeing and Digital Alloys did not disclose the exact investment but Boeing said it “was a minority investor in this round.” Lee Ann Shay | Aug 10, 2018 Boeing made another investment in additive manufacturing, this time with the intent of producing higher volume of multi-metal parts faster. Boeing HorizonX Ventures invested an undisclosed amount in Digital Alloys, which created Joule Printing, a metal additive manufacturing technology that uses metal in wire form and high deposition rates to produce the parts. The investment was part of a $12.9 million Series B financing led by G20 Ventures and included other companies. Boeing and Digital Alloys did not disclose the exact investment but Boeing said it “was a minority investor in this round.” Get Key Developments Delivered to Your Inbox Get Your Sample Edition Digital Alloys holds two patents for Joule Printing, which can use multiple metals into a single part. This could enable new parts designs and improved thermal, electric and mechanical properties. This printing process is “similar to resistive welding and does not result in fully melting the material through external energy sources like lasers, e-beams, or electric arcs. As such, it has the potential to print alloys that have been a challenge with existing printing techniques, but with less energy and a lower machine complexity,” says Boeing. Joule Printing solves “three big problems that are gating the use of metal printing and production:” production costs, printing speeds and complexity, says Duncan McCallum, Digital Alloy's CEO. Full Article: https://www.mro-network.com/technology/boeing-makes-third-move-metal-additive-manufacturing-year

Le fleuron de l'armement français et ses équipements intègrent des composants américains dont Washington pourrait interdire l'exportation. Révélations. Par Ariane Lavrilleux et Guerric Poncet Ala veille de sa rencontre avec Vladimir Poutine à Helsinki mi-juillet, Donald Trump s'est fendu d'une phrase que les industriels français n'ont pas oubliée : « L'Union européenne est un ennemi (...) et profite vraiment des Etats-Unis. » Les mots du président de la première puissance mondiale ne sont pas que provocateurs : une véritable épée de Damoclès est suspendue au-dessus du secteur de la défense, et elle se nomme Itar. Derrière ce sigle se cache la régulation internationale sur le commerce des armes (International Traffic in Arms Regulations). Article complet: http://www.lepoint.fr/economie/pourquoi-trump-veut-briser-le-rafale-09-08-2018-2242513_28.php

By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — In the early days of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter stressed that the “experimental” part of the unit was vital, a sign that the Silicon Valley outreach hub could remain flexible. “DIUx is, after all, an experiment, as well as a pathfinder,” Carter said in 2016, following a relaunch of the group after a frustrating first year. “We created it so we could try new approaches, learn what works and what doesn't, and iterate until we get it right. And we'll keep iterating together and learning from each other as we go forward.” Now, three years after its founding, it appears the experiment is over. Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan on Thursday announced that the office will now be known only as the Defense Innovation Unit, formally dropping the “experimental” part of the title. In a memo, Shanahan called the group a “proven, valuable asset” for the department and said the name change is a testament to my commitment to the importance of its mission.” “Removing ‘experimental' reflects DIU's permanence within the DoD. Though DIU will continue to experiment with new ways of delivering capability to the warfighter, the organization itself is no longer an experiment,” Shanahan wrote. “DIU remains vital to fostering innovation across the Department and transforming the way DoD builds a more lethal force.” It's a vote of confidence that will be welcomed by the now-DIU team and its supporters, after a year where many wondered about the future of the office. Since its creation, DIUx reported directly to the defense secretary — until February of this year, when it was rolled under the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. Raj Shah, who led the group for the last two years, stepped down earlier this year as the office's leader; a search for his full-time replacement is ongoing. And three years after the office was formed, some have questioned what exactly the group has accomplished. Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/08/09/experiment-over-pentagons-tech-hub-gets-a-vote-of-confidence/

Proposal to create new military service requires approval from Congress Faced with growing competition and threats from Russia and China, the White House on Thursday said it will create the U.S. Space Force as a sixth, separate military service by 2020. Vice-President Mike Pence told a Pentagon audience that the plan fulfils President Donald Trump's vow to ensure America's dominance in space — a domain that was once peaceful and uncontested that has now become crowded and adversarial. "Now the time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces, to prepare for the next battlefield where America's best and bravest will be called to deter and defeat a new generation of threats to our people, to our nation," said Pence. "The time has come to establish the United States Space Force." Trump marked Pence's announcement with a tweet. Trump has called for a "separate but equal" space force, a complicated and expensive move that requires congressional approval. On Thursday, Pence said the administration will work with Congress on the plan and outline a budget next year. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has endorsed steps to reorganize the military's space war-fighting forces and create a new command, but has previously opposed launching an expensive, new service. A new branch of the military would require layers of bureaucracy, military and civilian leaders, uniforms, equipment and an expansive support structure. Full article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/pence-trump-us-space-force-plan-1.4779217

WASHINGTON -- Five university-industry teams have been selected for the Defense Enterprise Science Initiative, known as DESI, Defense Department officials announced today. DESI is a pilot program supporting university-industry research collaboration focused on accelerating the impact of basic research on defense capabilities. DESI's goals are twofold, officials said. First, it seeks to foster sustainable university-industry partnerships to identify and apply new discoveries and knowledge on existing capabilities and address technological gaps. DESI also aims to charter a new pathway to accelerate the transfer of basic research to innovative technologies and complement the department's other basic research programs such as the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative and the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program. “Programs like DESI are vital to foster collaboration in the research ecosystem and accelerate the transition of ground-breaking basic science to transformative capabilities,” said Dr. Bindu Nair, deputy director for basic research. “I look forward to seeing how these teams can help us address our unique and challenging defense problem sets.” Each team will receive up to $1.5 million over two years to further fundamental knowledge and understanding in the context of end-use applications. Full Article: https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1595382/dod-announces-desi-awards-for-university-industry-collaborations/