Nouvelles

Nathan Strout and Valerie Insinna The Space Development Agency plans to award contracts for a mesh network in space this August, with the expectation that an initial batch of 20 satellites will be placed on orbit during summer 2022. The agency expects to release a request for proposals for the contracts May 1. The announcement came during an industry day the agency hosted over the phone April 2. The industry day was originally slated to take place during the 36th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs April 2, however, after that event was cancelled due to the circumstances with COVID-19 the agency opted to hold a virtual industry day instead. According to SDA Director Derek Tournear, 580 people called in for the event. That first batch will include 20 satellites and will comprise what Pentagon leaders are calling Tranche 0 of the SDA's Transport Layer, a mesh network of satellites operating primarily in low earth orbit and will be able to connect space-based sensors to the war fighter. According to Tournear, the agency has six goals for its Trache 0 Transport Layer: Demonstrate low latency data transport to the war fighter over the optical crosslink mesh network. Demonstrate the ability to deliver data from a space sensor to the war fighter via the Transport Layer. Demonstrate a limited battle management C2 functionality. Transfer Integrated Broadcast System data across the mesh network to the war fighter Store, relay and transmit Link-16 data over the network in near real time. Operate a timing signature independent of GPS references to the US Naval Observatory. Following Tranche 0, the SDA plans to continuously upgrade and add to its on orbit constellation in two year cycles, with Tranche 1 coming online in FY2024, Tranche 2 supplementing the system in FY2026. The SDA will procure two types of satellites for Tranche 0, with one main difference being that one set of satellites will have enough optical intersatellite links to communicate with other satellites operating in LEO and satellites in medium earth orbit or geosynchronous orbit, while the other will only have enough to communicate with other satellites in LEO. The agency is tasked with building the National Defense Space Architecture, which will be made up of hundreds of satellites operating in low earth orbit providing a multitude of missions, from tracking hypersonic weapons to providing alternative position, navigation and timing data. The Transport Layer will serve as the backbone of the NDSA, connecting the various satellites to each other and to the war fighter. And according to Tournear, the Transport Layer will provide the key space network component to the Department of Defense's Joint All-Domain Command and Control. “The transport layer, which is what the draft RFP and the industry day was talking about today, is going to be the unifying effort across the department. That is going to be what we use for low latency (communications) to be able to pull these networks together, and that, in essence, is going to be the main unifying truss for the JADC2 and that effort moving forward. That is going to be the space network that is utilized for that,” explained Tournear. The agency released the draft RFP March 26. The SDA is soliciting feedback on the draft RFP for Tranche 0 through April 17 and plans to release the full RFP May 1. Contracts will be awarded in August, Tournear said, though the agency wants to see the proposals before deciding how many companies it will award contracts to. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/04/06/the-pentagon-will-solicit-its-first-mesh-network-in-space-may-1/

By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army commands in charge of acquisition and modernization are taking it day-by-day as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens in the United States, but so far see minimal impact to production lines and modernization efforts underway. “The Army has been very carefully looking at our industrial base and our ability to maintain programs, both for continued readiness and continued modernization, and, in general, we are still remaining fairly close to being on track,” Bruce Jette, the Army's acquisition chief, told reports in an April 3 teleconference. “That doesn't mean that individual programs or individual issues haven't arisen, but, at this point, we have, we think, in the long run, we can resolve any of the challenges we have at hand,” he added. Jette said he has sent letters out to contracting officers, program managers and program executive officers as well as industry providing them guidance and insight “into how we want to work together as a team, through good constructive and continuous and transparent communications, make sure that we know what's going on in each other's camp well enough that we can respond quickly.” One major point of concern is what might happen with sub-tier suppliers to the bigger prime contractors, Jette said, so the Army is doing what it can to understand challenges that these suppliers might be experiencing if they have to shut down production to keep employees safe and healthy should cases of coronavirus crop up. “We are still working various individual issues,” Jette said. “I track, on a daily basis, about 21 pages... on suppliers down to those lower levels.” That list provides projection for 30, 60 and 90 days, but are updated all the time. So far, Boeing is the only major defense contractor to shut down an Army production line, according to Jette. The company reported late in the evening on April 2 that it would have to halt its H-47 Chinook production line in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, for 10 days to better prevent the spread of the coronavirus after some employees tested positive for the virus. Jette said he didn't believe the work stopping at the Boeing plant would affect the delivery schedule for the H-47s to the force. All other lines are delivering on schedule including the newest version of the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle — the A4 — he said. The fielding of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Jette said, will be delivered at a “lower density,” but added, “it doesn't mean we won't catch up, it just means that we're slowing down.” Jette also said testing would likely be difficult in the coming months due to “the density packing necessary in some cases and how that puts a lot of people at risk.” The Joint Assault Bridge that was already delayed due to other issues was supposed to go into testing, but that will have to be rescheduled, Jette said. “It became a concern about moving the unit, moving the equipment together, getting all the testers,” he said, “and again, I go back to this issue that sometimes military operations require you to be in very close quarters for extended periods of time and that kind of violates our desire to keep people social distancing at this point.” The 2020 calendar year is also packed with major milestones for the Army's ambitious modernization plans. And as the country's citizens continue to self-isolate, avoid travel and work from home as much as possible, it becomes hard to conduct various tests or prototyping activities to move major programs along. “It's a changing situation, it changes pretty much daily,” Gen. Mike Murray, the Army Futures Command commander, told reporters on the same call. "It is very much a running estimate because it does change each and every day and we're not in control of this timeline, so in many ways, we are adjusting to the timeline to try to keep everything on track as best we The Army is having to take a “slight pause” in some activities, Murray said, such as briefly stopping some testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. “It's not because of a system,” he said. “It's based upon the maintenance of the systems as you test them. ... All the vehicles we're testing have to, daily, go into the maintenance bay to be maintained and so the interaction and the proximity, we just have to work through some mitigation strategies, we should have that done very quickly.” The Army's Interim Mobile Short-Range Air Defense System (IM-SHORAD) is one of the vehicles affected by the pause at APG. The system was undergoing automotive testing. The Army's plan to get to a critical soldier touchpoint or evaluation of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System this summer may be interrupted, Murray said, based on how long social distancing will be needed. “It's not Microsoft itself,” as the company is completely teleworking, but the IVAS deliveries could be affected by sub-suppliers, for example, he said. But, according to Murray, even if the touchpoint is delayed, he said the Army would do what is possible to avoid delaying the first unit equipped and believes, at this time, that the service will stay on schedule for t he initial fielding. The Army also has several major tests and evaluations coming up including a long-awaited Limited User Test (LUT) for its Integrated Air-and-Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS). A delay on the LUT would pile onto years of delays for the troubled program meant to serve as the brains of the Army's future air and missile defense system. And the Army is planning on another flight test of Lockheed Martin's Precision Strike Munition (PrSM) later this month, which will deliver a new long-range precision fires capability to the battlefield. LRPF is the Army's number one modernization priority. “We are working through mitigation strategies to keep both of those on track,” Murray said. “Every day we're readjusting and reevaluating whether we can physically do that or not.” The IBCS LUT and the PrSM test involve an entire community of representatives coming together, he said, but “I'm not ready to say today that either one of those are slipping; those are closer in and we'll work them through to keep them on schedule as best we possibly can. And if the analysis proves that we can't, there's a lot of sequential things that happen in a program; we may have to look at some concurrency.” Murray noted there are plenty of modernization programs that so far remain unaffected and likely will stay on track, such as Future Vertical Lift efforts to bring two future aircraft online in the mid 2030s, the Army's new network and initial work to restart the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle program to replace the Bradley. The Army and the Navy were also able to execute a major hypersonic missile test in March. For now, Murray said, he is focused not on alternative strategies, but how to mitigate impact to current ones. “I'm looking as far out as this fall just to make sure that we can get ahead of it with mitigation strategies," Murray said. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/04/06/can-the-army-stay-on-top-of-modernization-plans-during-covid-pandemic/

Japan's Next Generation Fighter (NGF) acquisition program is the focus of a new informal channel set up by a Washington think tank for Japanese, U.S., British and Australian officials to discuss requirements and expectations. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) held the first meeting in January with 25-30 people. It included government officials, business executives, and think tanks from all four countries, said Patrick Buchan, director of the center's U.S. Alliances Project. Organized as a “Track 1.5” level working group in the language of diplomacy, it represents a middle ground between formal, government-to-government talks and back-channel diplomacy, Buchan said. It is a format that allows government officials to discuss issues privately, with Chatham House rules imposed to avoid public attribution, Buchan says. The chair of the working group is CSIS Vice President for Asia Michael Green. He organized it to help avoid the miscommunications and disappointments of the FS-X program, which led in the late-1980s and early 1990s to Japan's underperforming F-2 fleet, Buchan says. The FS-X collaboration was designed amidst escalating trade tensions in the late 1980s between Japan and the U.S., two otherwise strong Pacific allies. Likewise, the Trump administration's demand for a 400% increase in Japanese payments to the U.S. to subsidize the costs of the U.S. military presence has also created friction within the alliance. The difference between the two eras is that China's military modernization efforts over the past three decades has raised the stakes for the outcome of the NGF development process, Buchan says. Neither side can afford a result that leads to a combat system that falls short of Japan's expectations for capability. Understanding the difficulty of directly engaging Japanese government officials, CSIS conceived of the working group to offer Tokyo an informal channel for discussing the desired capabilities and industrial collaboration for the NGF, Buchan says. In the first meeting, Green posed 12 multiple-choice questions to the group. Each member secretly answered by clicking a button on an individual controller. CSIS plans to release the full list of questions and answers from the first working group later this spring, along with an analysis. One example provided by Buchan was a question about technical compatibility for the NGF. Other than the U.S., the group was asked which country in the Indo-Pacific region should the NGF be compatible with. The possible answers included Australia, India and South Korea. Eighty-three percent of the respondents said the NGF should be compatible with Australia's air force, Buchan says. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/think-tank-creates-informal-forum-japan-ngf-talks

Alex Derber If the ongoing corona-crisis does effect a structural shift in the air transport market, both the production and aftermarket sectors will have to adjust. Much has been made of aviation's ability to weather previous external shocks such as 9/11, SARS and the financial crash, but the present upheaval is likely to outdo all others in its severity, and there is a good chance we won't see demand bounce back as quickly as in the past. In fact, the best comparison may not be with other external shocks at all, but rather with the profound impact that low-cost carriers (LCCs) had upon the established airline sector. Granted, this occurred region by region on a rolling basis over many years, rather than as a discrete global event like coronavirus, but the demand hit to full-service short- and medium-haul operations was huge. The LCCs also prompted significant changes in the MRO market, including: a move away from letter checks to more flexible maintenance programs; a rise in outsourcing and full-service maintenance contracts; and consolidation as larger MRO providers sought to enhance their nose-to-tail capabilities. So, what further changes might be wrought by the present crisis? Much will depend on the extent of the disruption and the demand profile thereafter, but certain tentative predictions can be made. For example: many airlines will probably fail; the survivors will emerge as smaller operations; many older aircraft will retire earlier; and business travel may never recover its pre-crisis highs. For the aftermarket this may mean: more competition for contracts and a need to find greater cost efficiencies; a greater focus on new-technology inspection, testing and repair capabilities, such as for carbon fiber and the latest engines; and a trend towards simpler cabins. Also a fair bet, of course, is that the most significant ramifications of coronavirus for the aftermarket are ones that almost no-one is considering currently. For an in-depth look at the factors that have shaped the MRO market to this point, see the next Inside MRO. https://aviationweek.com/mro/how-will-coronavirus-change-aftermarket

ByEd Adamczyk April 6 (UPI) -- Boeing Co. announced an extension of a production suspension in its Washington state facilities, and signaled that layoffs and buyouts could be coming, to help stem the spread of COVID-19. The company's Puget Sound and Moses Lake sites will be closed until further notice because of the spread of the coronavirus, additional advice from state health authorities and supply chain disruptions, the company said in a Sunday statement. The original shutdown began on March 23 and was scheduled for two weeks. The Puget Sound facilities are mostly known for constructing commercial aircraft, but the military's KC-46 tanker and P-8 maritime patrol aircraft are built on the same lines. Boeing officials said last month the stoppage is not expected to affect their production too greatly. Boeing employs about 70,000 people in the region. Last week it announced a two-week closure of facilities in the Philadelphia area for two weeks due to the spread of the virus. In a letter last week to employees, CEO David Calhoun predicted that the company's recovery from the health crisis will be lengthy. "When the world emerges from the pandemic, the size of the commercial market and the types of products and services our customers want and need will likely be different," he said. "It's important we start adjusting to our new reality now." Within several weeks, a buyout package will be offered to some of Boeing's 161,000 U.S. employees. Nearly one-third of its 27,000 unionized machinists are over 55, and with an aging workforce a buyout could find many takers. While the company appears to be eligible to receive funds from a $17 billion loan available to the aviation industry included in the $2 trillion federal stimulus package it is required to maintain staffing at 90 percent of current levels. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2020/04/06/Boeing-extends-plant-shutdowns-in-Washington-state/2371586187284

We agreed to explore how we could use the military expertise at EU level to support exchange of information and sharing of best practices among Member States. To do so, we could set up a task force with the European External Action Service, led by the EU Military Staff. Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy EU Ministers of defence today held a video conference, chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. Ministers discussed the defence implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing in particular on military assistance in the fight against the crisis, and the situation in the EU's military and civilian missions and operations in the framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Defence ministers shared examples of how their armed forces have contributed to the efforts to counter the Covid-19 crisis by providing transport and logistic support, building hospitals in record time, deploying their medical staff, and supporting the police and other national services. In this context it was decided to explore setting up a task force led by the EU Military Staff to better exchange information and share best practices among EU member states. This would be done in full coordination and complementarity with NATO. EU Defence ministers also discussed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the 17 EU CSDP missions and operations around the world, focusing on the six military operations and missions. Ministers highlighted the importance of maintaining EU's presence on the ground, especially in those countries and regions that are already fragile and affected by instability. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/fac/2020/04/06/

By: Jill Aitoro WASHINGTON — Less than a year after announcing plans to combine into a $121 billion company, Raytheon and United Technologies are officially no more — replaced by the combined entity Raytheon Technologies Corp., which kicked off trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. Listed under the ticker RTX, Raytheon Technologies began selling at $51 a share. With more than 866 million shares outstanding and a market cap of $74.5 billion, that price is bound to shift in the coming days, weeks and months. To put it in perspective, Raytheon closed Thursday at $122.43 a share, and UTC closed at $91.37 a share. With the merger, UTC shareholders owned 57 percent of Raytheon Technologies, and UTC will control eight of the 15 board seats. Tom Kennedy will serve as executive chairman, Greg Hayes as CEO and Toby O'Brien as chief financial officer. Planned divestitures will be completed post merger, though United Technologies did complete the spinoff of HVAC, refrigeration, fire and security solutions company Carrier Global Corp., as well as elevator and escalator manufacturer Otis Worldwide Corp. Both are now trading on the S&P 500. Amid the stock market fallout from the new coronavirus pandemic, Raytheon saw a bigger drop than most pure-play companies, likely due to the increased exposure to the commercial market that came with the merger. However, that could be short-lived, said Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners. “Raytheon has been the worst-performing stock [during the crisis] because they got tied into commercial aerospace through the merger," he told Defense News in an interview. “But going forward, that may be the most interesting [stock] of all because there will be a degree of balance.” https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/04/03/raytheon-technologies-corp-begins-trading-on-nyse/

By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is pushing back on reports that it seeks to classify previously public information about its future spending plans, with the department insisting that the transparency of this information that is public as part of the regular budget rollout process will not change. The Future Years Defense Program provides spending projections for how the Department of Defense plans to invest its money over the coming five-year period. While the numbers are not locked in and regularly change year by year, the projections can provide valuable information to the public and industry about what the department views as priorities and where programs might be going. Information about a legislative proposal from the Pentagon seeking to classify FYDP data was published Monday by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. Aftergood wrote that the proposal would “make it even harder for Congress and the public to refocus and reconstruct the defense budget.” It is traditional for FYDP numbers to be included as part of the budget rollout, as well as be included in program-by-program breakdowns. However, Pentagon spokesman Chris Sherwood said that the legislative language is not aimed at information that is currently made public during the normal budget process. Instead, it is focused on a requirement in the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act on what is provided to Congress. “The 2018 NDAA required a formal unclassified version of the FYDP report,” Sherwood said in a statement. “The Department has not to date complied with that request because we are very concerned that providing that level of detail for the outyears might put critical information at risk and breach classification standards." “The DoD is exploring all possible paths forward, including requesting relief from the new requirement, as well as trying to determine how much information can safely be public in addition to all the budget information already made available,” he continued. “It is important to note that there is a difference between a formal Unclassified FYDP report and the unclassified outyear data for any given program that people often refer to as the FYDP for a program. We have and will continue to provide the classified FYDP as we have since 1989. There will be no reduction in any currently provided information,” he added. Asked specifically if that meant information about the FYDP that is usually included in public budget documents provided to media, Sherwood said: “The legislative proposal would not affect or change how DoD currently provides budget information.” Whether that assurance will satisfy advocates of keeping the FYDP open is uncertain, but the DoD appears behind the ball on convincing Congress that less transparency is a good idea. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas., the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, said he had only learned of the proposal when reports emerged, but indicated that any attempt to limit information about the FYDP is unlikely to meet a warm reception on Capitol Hill. “Obviously my inclination is: That's a bad idea,” Thornberry said. “I have not heard the department's justification for it. But I would say they've got a pretty high evidentiary threshold to overcome, to get Congress [to] go along with classifying the five-year FYDP.” Thornberry said he understands the concern, elucidated in the DoD proposal, that modern computing techniques could allow a foreign competitor to gather information about American plans from the data. But taxpayers deserve to know how their money will be spent in the future, the former committee chairman said, and that outweighs such concerns at the moment. The House believes “that the greater good is the transparency with the American people. So that's our default position, I think in both parties,” Thornberry said. “They hadn't made their case to me yet, but I think it's going to be hard for them to overcome that default position.” The Pentagon ultimately benefits from more openness when it comes to discussions on the budget, said Tom Mahnken, a former Pentagon official who is now president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “It clearly is important to protect certain aspects of the U.S. defense budget from disclosure. The Defense Department has successfully met that challenge for decades,” Mahnken said. “But there is also a compelling case for disclosing how the Defense Department plans to spend its resources and whether its budget is aligned with its strategy. “Transparency ultimately helps the Defense Department make the case for the resources it needs in Congress as well as the public at large.” https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2020/04/03/pentagon-denies-it-seeks-to-hide-future-budget-information/

Sean Broderick The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act sets up several new programs and adjusts some existing ones—each aimed at pumping much-needed cash into specific sized organizations or industry sectors. Large portions of the U.S. commercial aviation industry got specific carve-outs in the $2 trillion economic relief package enacted March 27. While these loans and grants will help air carriers and other key industry players offset some financial strife caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, most suppliers will be looking elsewhere for money. Thankfully, CARES gives even the smallest companies options. Topping the list is the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a $349 billion pot of money designed to enable the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide “expeditious” relief to eligible businesses, an interim final rule published late April 2 said. PPP provides SBA-guaranteed loans equal to up to 2.5 times monthly payroll costs, with a $10 million cap, that businesses can use to keep the lights on for two months. Eligible expenses include payroll, health care benefits, rent and utility payments, as well as some interest expenses. The loans come with a 1% interest rate, maximum two-year terms, and require no collateral or personal guarantees. But they will be forgiven if 75% or more of the funds are used to cover payroll. Among the PPP's wrinkles: only the first $100,000 in an employee's salary can be counted when calculating payroll expenses. Contractors are eligible to apply for their own relief, so their costs can't be counted at all. Also ineligible for counting in the payroll expenses: salaries of employees that live outside the U.S. Businesses can only apply for one PPP loan, so the SBA advises applying for the maximum eligible amount. Determining eligibility is straightforward: a business must find its North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, check the maximum employee size for its business category, and compare it to its staff size. While the general small-business benchmark is 500 or fewer employees, aerospace has many exceptions. The threshold for aircraft engine and engine parts manufacturing/maintenance (NAICS code 336412) is 1,500 employees. For aeronautical instruments manufacturing (334511), it's 1,250. If your business falls into multiple codes, the one that generates the most work determines your NAICS code. SBA has an online tool that walks through the process at www.sba.gov/size-standards. The PPP application window opened on April 3. The program's sheer size—SBA's cornerstone 7(a) loan program issued about $20 billion in loans in all of 2019—and its first-come, first-served basis triggered a massive, front-loaded surge of applications. The interim final rule contained key guidance that banks needed to service the program, which meant not all lenders were ready to start processing applications right away. But the situation was improving hourly throughout the day April 3 as more lenders came onboard. Another SBA program that CARES leans on is the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). Capped at $2 million with a 3.75% interest rate, EIDLs can be used for a wider variety of expenses than the PPP. Unlike the PPP, however, they are not eligible for forgiveness. CARES also gives the U.S. Treasury Department the authority to make special loan allowances for medium-sized businesses, generally those that are too large for an SBA program and have up to 10,000 employees. Among the caveats: maintaining or restoring 90% of its equivalent workforce as of Feb. 1, 2020 within four months of the official U.S. declaration that the COVID-19 public health emergency is over. Further guidance from Treasury, including basics such as how to apply, are in the works. Some suppliers are eligible to apply for shares of the aviation-specific funds set aside in CARES. FAA-certificated repair stations are mentioned as being eligible for some of the $29 billion in CARES loans, specifically from the $25 billion pot allocated for passenger airlines. But the law says they should exhaust other available CARES funding options first. There is another pot of $17 billion in loans set aside for companies critical to national security. Neither the law nor Treasury defines the term, however, so eligibility remains unclear. If Treasury looks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Critical Infrastructure guidance, aircraft and engine supply-chains would qualify, as would repair stations. Payroll grants for suppliers are murkier. CARES language has a $3 billion set-aside for contractors that both work for airlines and are on-airport. Many maintenance providers would seem to fit here, though Treasury will have the final say. Industry trade associations and legal experts working the issue are learning more by the hour. Their one common piece of advice for businesses: consult with an attorney or tax expert, determine what your business qualifies for, and weigh your options. Many businesses will qualify for multiple programs that cannot be mixed, creating an either/or choice that comes down to the various strings attached to each. https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/aircraft-propulsion/daily-memo-emergency-funding-suppliers-aftermarket-providers