Nouvelles

The Army launched its Shark Tank-style xTechSearch before coronavirus hit, but several of the small firms competing for $1.2 million in prizes are working on ways to help. WASHINGTON: A portable scanner that checks throat swabs and blood samples for dozens of different pathogens in 60 minutes. Sprayable sealant for wounds that kills germs with nanoscopic particles of silver. A mental health app that tracks the user's state and pushes out tailored tips and resources for, as an example, dealing with coronavirus-induced isolation. These were just the first three pitches I saw yesterday when I tuned in to the Army's webcast of its xTechSearch 4 pitches. Originally planned to happen before a live audience at AUSA's Global Force conference in Huntsville, they're now running online this week as a social distancing precaution. The Army already has the lion's share of the Defense Department's medical assets, since it has both the most personnel and the biggest role in humanitarian disaster response, and the service is playing a leading role in the government-wide response. It's also eagerly pursuing new technology. The 2020 edition of Army's Shark Tank-style competition for innovative technologies – with $1.7 million in prizes at stake this year, $1.2 million in this week's round alone – started long before COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan, China. But with the Army acutely interested in advanced medical science, it's understandable that several of the competitors are working on projects relevant to the coronavirus. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/covid-19-biotech-innovators-pitch-army-rapid-test-kits-more

By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — A U.S. State Department fund to help European nations replace Russian-made weapons with American equipment has expanded to eight countries, but will be eschewing a second wave of funding in favor of targeted investments. In 2018, the State Department quietly launched a new effort known as the European Recapitalization Incentive Program, or ERIP, a new tool developed alongside U.S. European Command to speed up the process of getting allied nations off Russian gear. The U.S. benefits both strategically — getting partners and allies off Russian equipment to improve interoperability and deny Moscow funds for maintenance — and financially, thanks to the sale of American weapons abroad. ERIP funds, reprogrammed from unused dollars such as regional Foreign Military Financing, come in one-time bursts to help a country buy American-made alternatives to Russian kit. To get the money, the European nation must pledge to not buy Russian equipment in the future, while also at least matching the dollar value of the ERIP grant with domestic funding. The initial funding round consisted of six countries, totaling $190 million in reprogrammed fiscal 2017 dollars. As of last May, the State Department was considering a second round of ERIP grants and was at least in early discussions with Latvia about the funding. But in the time since, the department decided there won't be a second round, but rather ERIP will become a tool best used on a rolling basis. (Discussions with Latvia turned to different pots of money other than ERIP, according to a source.) “There was a lot of discussions about a second round, but the way it's kind of evolving is, rather than look at it as rounds is, look at it as opportunities,” a senior State Department official told Defense News on condition of anonymity. “It's a tool that we can use when opportunities arise for us to work with a partner to make a difference.” All told, the department has given out roughly $277 million in ERIP grants in the last two years — but, the official said, those relatively small dollars helped lock in roughly $2.5 billion in U.S. weapons sales. That's a win in “pure economic terms,” the official said, even before getting into the hard-to-quantify policy and political benefits. “It was a pretty bold decision in trying to help some of these countries acquire a pretty high capability capital intensive, and for some of them it's their first major [Foreign Military Sales] case, period.” Going forward, there may be tie-in money from EUCOM, which could kick in $1-3 million in small grants to nations that received ERIP dollars in order to help nations with maintenance costs on the newly bought American equipment. That money would likely come from DoD's Section 333 authority. Asked about that potential. DoD spokesman Lt. Col. Uriah Orland said the department "continues to work closely with the Department of State in the planning of security assistance with our European partner nations that enables them to reduce their dependencies on Russia's defense industry and build and/or sustain their own defense capabilities.” Targeted, ongoing funding Bulgaria presents a notable example for how the thinking on ERIP is evolving. The country spent several years debating what fighter jet to purchase, with the finalists coming down to new F-16s from Lockheed Martin, secondhand F-16s from Portugal, Eurofighter Typhoons from Italy and Saab Gripens from Sweden. As ERIP was envisioned, it would be used only for rotorcraft or ground vehicles. But with the government in Sofia teetering on the edge of rejecting the Lockheed deal, the U.S. State Department stepped in and used $56 million in ERIP dollars to push the F-16s over the edge and finalize a deal that could exceed $1.6 billion in costs. “For countries where it's a politically contentious issue, whether for economic or political reasons” the fund can help make a deal happen, the official said. “We were able to close that gap with an ERIP grant that enabled them to make the purchase and acquire the capability.” The second nation to get a targeted ERIP grant has been Lithuania, which in October announced plans to buy six UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to replace its Soviet-made Mi-8 fleet. The State Department kicked in $30 million of ERIP funding to help complete that deal. In fact, no one piece of equipment has benefited from ERIP as much as the UH-60, of which three of the eight ERIP grants has helped procure. The eight projects to date are: Albania: $30 million for UH-60 procurement. The UH-60 is produced by Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary. Bosnia and Herzegovina: $30.7 million for the Bell Huey II. Croatia: $25 million for Bradley fighting vehicles, manufactured by BAE Systems. Croatia is also working to stand up local maintenance for the equipment. North Macedonia: $30 million for Stryker vehicles, produced by General Dynamics. Slovakia: $50 million for UH-60 procurement. Greece: $25 million earmarked, but the government is still debating what to buy. Likely to either be Bradley vehicles or the M1117 Armored Security Vehicle from Textron. Greece stands out because, as a higher-income nation, they are technically ineligible for Foreign Military Financing dollars, but a political decision was made to support them with ERIP anyway, the official said. Lithuania: $30 million for UH-60 procurement. Bulgaria: $56 million for eight Lockheed-produced F-16s. All of those deals except Greece and Lithuania are under contract, with a letter of request from Lithuania expected in the next few weeks. As to future opportunities, “we always kind of have our eye open, and we rely on the country teams out in the field to bring us these opportunities and think about them,” the official said. Although at the moment there are no potential ERIP projects in the works. “We continue to look at the Baltics, we look at the Balkans,” the official said, adding that “countries within Eastern Europe, the Baltics, the Balkans moving towards a new ground mobility or rotorwing systems with something to divest would be our top candidates.” All of those deals except Greece and Lithuania are under contract, with a letter of request from Lithuania expected in the next few weeks. As to future opportunities, “we always kind of have our eye open, and we rely on the country teams out in the field to bring us these opportunities and think about them,” the official said. Although at the moment there are no potential ERIP projects in the works. “We continue to look at the Baltics, we look at the Balkans,” the official said, adding that “countries within Eastern Europe, the Baltics, the Balkans moving towards a new ground mobility or rotorwing systems with something to divest would be our top candidates.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/03/18/special-us-fund-to-replace-russian-equipment-in-europe-is-shifting-its-strategy

By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Textron Aviation is furloughing more than 7,000 workers in the hopes of containing the spread of coronavirus, the company announced Wednesday. Textron Aviation mostly produces commercial business jets, turboprops and piston-engine aircraft through its Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker brands. However, it also produces a number of military-specific aircraft, such as the Beechcraft T-6 Texan trainer used for basic pilot training by the U.S. Air Force and the AT-6 Wolverine, a weaponized version of that aircraft, and the Scorpion jet. News of the furlough was first reported by The Wichita Eagle, which also detailed number of workers slated to lose work. Textron has declined to specify how many workers will be furloughed or the functional areas of the business that will be impacted. Textron Aviation spokeswoman Sarah White said support for contracts would move forward, though with few details. The Air Force on Monday awarded Textron Aviation a $70 million contract for two AT-6 planes, training and support. That aircraft is manufactured at its plant in Wichita, Kan. “We are abiding by the requirements established by the DoD and our partner nations, as well as the protocols implemented across U.S. and customer bases worldwide,” she said in a written statement to Defense News. “We will continue to support our Defense customers according to our funded contract requirements.” More generally speaking, the furlough “will allow us to do our part in mitigating and containing the spread of the COVID-19 through social distancing, while continuing to support our customers,” White said. The company is also “limiting large group meetings, increasing daily cleaning of its facilities, restricting travel, and cancelling our participation in several global meetings and events” in response to the pandemic. The furlough will last from March 23 until May 29, but each impacted employees will only lose four weeks of work, she said. https://www.defensenews.com/coronavirus/2020/03/18/textron-aviation-announces-furlough-of-thousands-of-workers

By: Aaron Mehta , Valerie Insinna , Jen Judson , David B. Larter , and Joe Gould WASHINGTON — Like everyone else in America, the defense industry is still reeling from how quickly the new coronavirus, known as COVID-19, went from a potential issue to a city-shuttering pandemic. But as major economic hubs like San Francisco and New York City struggle with curfews and restrictions on public gatherings, companies — and the Defense Department — still appear to be sorting out if any shutdowns related to work are imminent. The fluid nature of the situation is reflected in a series of industry statements, captured below by Defense News reporters. In many cases, when contacted by reporters and asked directly if any production lines were being slowed or halted by the attempt to reduce the rate of infection, spokespeople responded with general comments about challenges with the disease. That's not a huge surprise to Byron Callan, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners, who noted that there are many moving parts for companies to work through. “Maybe it's too soon for a lot of these guys,” Callan said. “When you think about it, we're into the second week of this [as a national emergency]. By the time they do earning calls in April, they should definitely have a better grip on what's happened in the last few weeks and what might they be looking at.” That could potentially include anything from supply chain issues to delays in delivery of defense articles to a massive bailout of the commercial aerospace industry and issues with pension requirements, Callan warned. “It's like a giant rock you drop in a lake. It's got all these waves. The people who work in restaurants or hotels are the ones feeling it immediately, but it's going to wash up and ripple through all these sectors, and we just don't know how or when the impact will be,” Callan said. “You're pilling up unknowns and unknowns here.” Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted that the design of modern production spaces shouldn't preclude people being able to work there, noting that for “a lot of those manufacturing jobs, they're set up, and the way a lot of people are doing work, they have adequate social distancing anyway." “If you've been in these facilities, they're not like sweatshops where people are in crowded, unventilated areas. It's pretty spread out, and a lot of the jobs in defense manufacturing are basically operating machinery,” he said. “I think what would be more affected would be the engineering and design functions, where the engineers tend to operate in more cubicle-like spaces — and you probably don't want to be doing that right now.” The Pentagon is also early in the process of getting a handle on what those impacts may look like. The department's top acquisitions official, Ellen Lord, has instituted a daily phone call with the Aerospace Industries Association, National Defense Industrial Association, Professional Services Council, National Association of Manufacturers, and Chamber of Commerce to “ensure the security, reliability and resilience of our defense-industrial base” and “and get feedback on COVID-19 impacts on industry,” according to a department spokesman. The first call, which happened Tuesday, was chaired by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy Jennifer Santos and included representatives from the Industrial Policy office, the Defense Contracting Management Agency, the Defense Logistics Agency, and the Defense Pricing and Contracting office. One potentially vulnerable part of the defense-industrial base is the ongoing modernization of America's nuclear arsenal, which the head of U.S. Strategic Command said last month is approaching a “point of no return” should there be even small delays in the upgrade effort. On Tuesday, Capt. Bill Clinton, STRATCOM's chief of public affairs, said the combatant command is “confident the services, along with industry partners, are able to keep production related to modernization of our nuclear forces on track, while taking appropriate precautions to keep their workforces safe and healthy. ... While our nation is working diligently to solve this acute public health crisis, I am confident we can continue modernizing our nuclear forces on time as planned.” Over the past few days, Defense News reached out to a number of key defense players whose production lines could be impacted by the virus. Here is a collection of their responses: BAE Systems spokeswoman Kelly Golden: BAE Systems has robust business continuity plans which have been implemented and are under constant review as the situation evolves. We continue to ensure we are providing a safe work environment for our employees, customers and suppliers while minimizing impact to our operations. We have also asked our suppliers and contractors to implement measures that are consistent with those we have put in place to protect our employees. Boeing spokesman Larry Chambers: Boeing has issued updated guidance directing all employees who are able to perform their work from home effectively to telecommute until further notice. Some Boeing sites were already partially or fully operating under these guidelines in accordance with local or national government mandates. Production continues at this time, and the company has enhanced cleaning procedures in work spaces, common areas and on high-touch surfaces. We're assessing the safety of all of our sites and their alignment with local, state and national government guidance as we continuously monitor this evolving situation. Leadership at each of our sites is working closely with their employees to implement the guidance, and will make all decisions necessary to follow evolving government direction and to ensure the health and wellbeing of their teams and communities. Electric Boat spokeswoman Liz Power: Electric Boat remains open for business. Our ongoing mission is to provide our Navy with the high-quality submarines they require to complete their missions. We have initiated all government-recommended measures to mitigate spread of the disease and continue to work closely with our employees, customers, suppliers, stakeholders and our community to keep them informed. Fincantieri spokesman Eric Dent: Fincantieri Marine Group has customers with important missions — naval and commercial — and together we're dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic and working to prevent or reduce its impact to our mission and our people. So far, we have experienced no production delays. Obviously like other businesses and shipyards, we have to balance force health protection and production as we work through this. We've taken several mitigating actions, such as extensive cleanings of common areas, scrutinizing the self-reported health of every guest or visitor in the yard, eliminating all but critical travel outside the local area. In some circumstances, we are encouraging employees to work from home if possible. Through this all, we continue to reinforce the need for stringent personal hygiene and social distancing protocols, as well as eliminating large gatherings. We continue communicating with our employees so they understand the importance of their health is to us and their families, and if they exhibit symptoms or are caring for someone with flu-like symptoms, they should not risk the potential spread of it and stay home in accordance with our personnel policies. We suspended all international travel Mar. 4, and all non-critical domestic travel on Mar. 9. We suspended intracompany travel Mar. 13, to reduce the chance of exposure across multiple Fincantieri shipyards in Wisconsin. General Dynamics Land Systems: We are open for business. Our ongoing mission is to provide our Soldiers with the critical platforms and capabilities that they require to complete their mission. We have initiated all government-recommended measures to mitigate spread of the disease and continue to work closely with our employees, customers, suppliers, stakeholders and our community to keep them informed. Huntington Ingalls Industries spokeswoman Beci Brenton: At HII we are taking actions that are designed with the health and safety of our employees at the forefront of our decision making, and this extends across the enterprise. We are having multiple meetings 24/7 with leadership and diligently monitoring the ever changing situation, as well as following CDC's guidelines. This is rapidly evolving and some measures are division specific while others are universal. [HII has put a video statement from its CEO online addressing several issues.] Lockheed Martin spokesman Trent Perrotto As we monitor global developments we continue to use best practices to mitigate risks related to Coronavirus (COVID-19). The health and well-being of our employees and partners is our top priority. Across Lockheed Martin, employees with potential exposure are instructed to work remotely and self-quarantine. We have provided guidance to employees and their managers to accommodate flexible work schedules and alternative arrangements where possible. We continue to follow travel guidance from the U.S. government and other countries where we do business, and are limiting all other international and domestic travel unless necessary for business. We also pre-screen visitors to company locations and limit guests to ensure visits are necessary for business. When the circumstances warrant, we deep clean work areas and common spaces in any facility with elevated exposure to COVID-19 and regularly share exposure-prevention protocols to reinforce healthy behaviors. Additionally, we are mitigating any potential impacts to customers and implementing business continuity plans as required, including secure telework for our customer support teams. There are no specific impacts to our operations or supply chain at this time. We will continue to monitor and coordinate with customers should issues arise. Northrop Grumman spokesman Tim Paynter: We continue to closely monitor this rapidly evolving situation so we can quickly address concerns and impacts to our employees, operations and customers, and we are ready with contingency plans as the situation continues to develop. The safety and well-being of our employees is our top priority and we are continuing to provide our employees as much information as possible. We are taking additional steps to protect the well-being of our employees, including halting travel, limiting non-essential visitors to work environments, reducing density and increasing separation distance where possible, providing personal hand sanitizers and cleaning our workplaces on a daily basis and disinfecting as needed. Oshkosh Defense spokeswoman Alexandra Hittle: Oshkosh Defense is committed to preventing the spread of COVID-19 and is closely following the Center of Disease Control's (CDC) guidelines and recommendations. The safety and wellbeing of our team members and our customers is of the utmost importance, therefore we have taken critical steps to ensure we are taking care of our people while maintaining continuity of operations. Raytheon spokesman John Patterson: We are actively monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and have taken a variety of immediate steps to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our employees. This includes domestic and international travel restrictions, restrictions on face to face meetings, and new work-from-home and social distancing protocols in all our facilities. https://www.defensenews.com/coronavirus/2020/03/18/we-asked-defense-companies-how-theyre-impacted-by-the-coronavirus-heres-what-they-said

by David Donald - March 17, 2020, 11:44 AM The U.S. Army's Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program has made significant progress with the March 16 award of contracts to bidders Bell and Sikorsky/Boeing. The contracts cover competitive demonstration and risk reduction (CD&RR) work associated with the Bell V-280 Valor and Sikorsky/Boeing SB>1 Defiant. With the awards, these two types become the official contenders for the FLRAA selection, which is intended to find a replacement for the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. The contracts have been awarded via the Other Transaction Authority (OTA) channel, which is more flexible than the traditional Department of Defense contractual process, and which does not require the Army to release contract values. Over two years, the companies will produce conceptual designs and perform risk and trade studies, leading to the launch of a full program of record competition and down-select in 2022. The winning FLRAA design is scheduled to enter service around 2030. Both Bell and Sikorsky/Boeing will draw on the large amounts of flight data amassed with the V-280 and SB>1 prototypes, which were produced for the Army's Joint Multirole Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) trials. Whereas a majority of JMR-TD work was company-funded, the DoD is providing around two-thirds of the funding for the CD&RR phase. The V-280 Valor first flew in December 2017 and has now amassed more than 170 hours. It has reached its intended optimal cruise speed of 280 knots, with a top speed of over 300. The SB>1 first flew in March 2019 but was temporarily grounded soon after as a technical issue encountered with a ground testbed was resolved. It returned to the air in September and has been flying regularly since. The aim is to push its speed envelope out to at least 250 knots. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2020-03-17/army-flraa-moves-forward-valor-and-defiant

Dates de fermeture prolongées En raison de l'apparition du coronavirus (COVID-19), nous avons prolongé les dates de fermeture des défis suivants. AI Software for Photonics Semiconductor Fabrication New closing date: April 2, 2020 Logiciel d'intelligence artificielle pour la fabrication de semi-conducteurs photoniques Nouvelle date de fermeture 2 avril, 2020 Nanocomposite Fabrics Production System New closing date: April 7, 2020 Système pour la fabrication de toiles de nanocomposites Nouvelle date de fermeture 7 avril, 2020 Secure and confidential rule matching New closing date: April 16, 2020 Correspondance de règles sécurisée et confidentielle Nouvelle date de fermeture 16 avril, 2020 Low-cost sensor system for patient monitoring New closing date: April 2, 2020 Système de capteurs peu coûteux pour surveiller l'état des patients Nouvelle date de fermeture 2 avril, 2020 Surveying objects across an air-water interface New closing date: April 7, 2020 Topométrie d'objets sur une interface air-eau Nouvelle date de fermeture 7 avril, 2020

Haifa, Israel, March 15, 2020 – Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: ESLT, TASE: ESLT) (“Elbit Systems” or “the Company”) announced today further to the Company's announcement dated March 27, 2019, that its U.S. subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America, LLC, was awarded a $200 million contract as part of the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) automatic self-propelled howitzer gun systems program. The contract will be performed over a 12-year period. About Elbit Systems Elbit Systems Ltd. is an international high technology company engaged in a wide range of defense, homeland security and commercial programs throughout the world. The Company, which includes Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries, operates in the areas of aerospace, land, and naval systems, command, control, communications, computers, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (“C4ISR”), unmanned aircraft systems, advanced electro-optics, electro-optic space systems, EW suites, signal intelligence systems, data links, communications systems, radios, cyber-based systems and munitions. The Company also focuses on the upgrading of existing platforms, developing new technologies for defense, homeland security and commercial applications and providing a range of support services, including training and simulation systems. For additional information, visit: https://elbitsystems.com/ , follow us on Twitter or visit our official Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn Channels. Contacts: Company Contact: Joseph Gaspar, Executive VP & CFO Tel: +972-4-8316663 j.gaspar@elbitsystems.com Rami Myerson, Director, Investor Relations Tel: +972-77-2946403 rami.myerson@elbitsystems.com David Vaaknin, VP, Brand & Communications Tel: +972-77-2946691 david.vaaknin@elbitsystems.com IR Contact: Ehud Helft Gavriel Frohwein GK Investor Relations Tel: 1-646-688-3559 elbitsystems@gkir.com View source version on Elbit Systems Ltd: https://elbitsystems.com/pr-new/elbit-systems-u-s-subsidiary-awarded-200-million-contract-to-provide-artillery-systems/

Wichita, Kan. March 16, 2020 – Textron Aviation Defense LLC, a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, today announced the finalization of a $70.2 million Other Transaction Authority (OTA) with the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center to equip the U.S. Air Force with two Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine aircraft, pilot training, engineering services and up to four years of contractor support for maintenance and spares. The work in support of this OTA, which includes activities in support of military type certification, will take place in Wichita, Kansas. “Textron Aviation Defense is proud to equip the U.S. Air Force with the multi-role Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine,” said Brett Pierson, vice president of Defense Strategy and Sales. “The AT-6 is a vital element of the National Defense Strategy to build ally and partner capacity, capability and interoperability — and does so at a fraction of the cost of other combat aircraft. We're eager to deliver the aircraft to the Air Force in support of Air Combat Command's (ACC) development of operational tactics and standards for exportable, tactical networks that improve interoperability with international partners.” This acquisition enables the U.S. Air Force to leverage a commercial off-the-shelf, non-developmental integrated weapons system to equip a multi-national coalition with a common system that meets a wide array of training and operational requirements. An affordable solution, the AT-6 cost per flying hour is less than $1,000 and its small maintenance footprint — as demonstrated during both phases of the Light Attack experiment — underscore the aircraft's cost-effectiveness, deployability and sustainability. “Our focus is on how a light attack aircraft can help our allies and partners as they confront violent extremism and conduct operations within their borders,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein in a U.S. Air Force press release published upon the issuance of the request for proposal. “Continuing this experiment, using the authorities Congress has provided, gives us the opportunity to put a small number of aircraft through the paces and work with partner nations on ways in which smaller, affordable aircraft like these can support their air forces.” ACC will experiment with the AT-6 to further examine the ways in which a common architecture and intelligence-sharing network will connect platforms, sensors and weapons and deliver a digital network for light attack aircraft. “It's rewarding to equip U.S. and partner nations with an affordable, easy to maintain and highly effective tactical aircraft in this era of constrained military budgets,” Pierson added. “The U.S. Air Force and Navy flew the AT-6 during the Light Attack experiment, putting its combat-proven A-10 mission computer, Wescam MX-15 EO/IR sensor, Airborne Extensible Relay Over-Horizon Network (AERONet) and other capabilities to work, employing a substantial amount of ordnance, demonstrating aircrew re-fueling and re-arming at the Forward Arming and Refueling Point (FARP) and conducting other activities in support of experiment objectives. The AT-6 met all of the experiment's standards and proved itself as a high performance, austere field-capable aircraft that delivers unparalleled mission capability, deployability and sustainability.” About the Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine The Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine multi-role turboprop delivers the greatest level of mission configurability, the most advanced ISR technology and the utmost deployability and sustainability. The AT-6 equips operators worldwide with an unparalleled value, ease of training, logistics efficiencies and 85 percent parts commonality with the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II. The AT-6 Wolverine will enter into service at Nellis AFB, Nevada for follow-on light attack experiments by U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps and partner countries and is available to its sister business unit, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), for contracted air services under the U.S. Navy's Terminal Attack Controller Trainer (TACT) program for live-air training of forward air controllers (FACs), joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs) and forward air controllers (airborne) at NAS Fallon, Nevada. The AT-6 Wolverine features 35 weapons configurations that fulfill SOCOM Armed Overwatch requirements for Close Air Support (CAS), Armed Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR), Strike Coordination & Reconnaissance (SCAR), and Forward Air Control (Airborne) (FAC(A)). ### About Textron Aviation Defense LLC When military customers need airborne solutions for their critical missions, they turn to Textron Aviation Defense. With a legacy of thousands of proven Integrated Training Systems (ITS) Integrated Weapon Systems (IWS) produced and missionized in America's Heartland since WWII, the family of Textron aircraft equip militaries worldwide with the lowest acquisition, sustainment and training costs on the market. Provider of the world's leading military flight trainer, the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II fleet of nearly 1,000 aircraft has logged more than 3.3 million hours across nearly a dozen countries worldwide since 2001. Purpose-built for light attack, Close Air Support (CAS), Precision Strike, and SOF Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) in austere and permissive environments, the Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine turboprop meets the full spectrum of U.S. Air Force Light Attack Aircraft requirements while delivering the greatest level of mission configurability, the most advanced ISR technology and the world's most cost-effective solution combining proven systems from the A-10C, F-16 and T-6 with commercial off-the-shelf components designed to drive down acquisition and total lifecycle costs. The open architecture Scorpion jet's unparalleled low acquisition, operating and training costs equip our warfighters with exceptional mission readiness, an 85-cubic ft payload bay, multi-spectral enhanced targeting, manned/unmanned teaming (MUM-T), cost-effective testbed capabilities and a full array of DoD-proven precision and general-purpose munitions with limitless possibilities. Textron Aviation's innovative technologies and advanced engineering techniques equip military customers worldwide with the performance, reliability and technological advantage they expect from an industry leader, all backed by proven training programs and the most capable global logistics infrastructure. Visit defense.txtav.com and scorpionjet.com About Textron Aviation Inc. Textron Aviation Inc. is the leading general aviation authority and home to the Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker brands, which account for more than half of all general aviation aircraft flying. The Textron Aviation brands represent unrivaled innovation, performance and leadership in the industry, and offer an unmatched value proposition rooted in the total ownership experience. Leveraging unparalleled speed-to-market, Textron Aviation provides the most versatile and comprehensive business and general aviation product portfolio in the world through five principal lines of business: business jets, general aviation and special mission turboprop aircraft, high performance piston aircraft, military trainer and defense aircraft and a complete global customer service organization. Textron Aviation has delivered more than 250,000 aircraft in over 170 countries. Its broad range of products include such best-selling aircraft as Citation business jets, King Air and Caravan turboprops and T-6 military trainer aircraft, all of which are backed by the industry's most capable global service network. For more information, visit www.txtav.com About Textron Inc. Textron Inc. is a multi-industry company that leverages its global network of aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell, Cessna, Beechcraft, Hawker, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Arctic Cat, Textron Systems, and TRU Simulation + Training. For more information, visit: www.textron.com. Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements which may project revenues or describe strategies, goals, outlook or other non-historical matters; these statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, changing priorities or reductions in the U.S. Government defense budget, including those related to military operations in foreign countries; changes in worldwide economic or political conditions that impact demand for our products, interest rates or foreign exchange rates; our ability to perform as anticipated and to control costs under contracts with the U.S. Government; the U.S. Government's ability to unilaterally modify or terminate its contracts with us for the U.S. Government's convenience or for our failure to perform, to change applicable procurement and accounting policies, or, under certain circumstances, to withhold payment or suspend or debar us as a contractor eligible to receive future contract awards; changes in foreign military funding priorities or budget constraints and determinations, or changes in government regulations or policies on the export and import of military products. Media Contact: Sylvia Pierson +1.316.617.7413 spierson@txtav.com www.defense.txtav.com View source version on TEXTRON: https://investor.textron.com/news/news-releases/press-release-details/2020/Textron-Aviation-Defense-announces-702M-US-Air-Force-contract-award-for-two-Beechcraft-AT-6-Wolverine-aircraft-training-and-support-services/default.aspx

After two years of intensive digital engineering, in 2020 the Army will pick either a Bell tiltrotor or a Sikorsky-Boeing compound helicopter to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. WASHINGTON: A Sikorsky-Boeing team won a $97 million award to refine their SB>1 Defiant high-speed helicopter over the next two years, the Army announced today, while Bell Textron won $84 million for its V-280 Valor tiltrotor. The two designs are vying to replace the Reagan-era UH-60 Black Hawk, the Army's workhorse air assault and medevac transport. The difference in amounts purely reflects the different approaches the two teams proposed for what's called Competitive Demonstration & Risk Reduction, Army officials told reporters. It doesn't imply either team has an advantage going into 2022, when the service will choose one design as its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), with the first operational units flying in 2030. FLRAA is just part of the flying “ecosystem” of manned and unmanned aircraft that the Army is developing under its Future Vertical Lift Cross Functional Team, which in turn is just one of eight CFTs working on 31 high-priority projects. But FLRAA has been unusually visible, literally, because – as part of a program called the Joint Multi-Role Tech Demonstration – both companies have prototype aircraft actually flying. As we've reported previously, the SB>1 Defiant started flight tests a year later than the V-280 Valor, but Army officials reasserted today they'll have enough test data on both aircraft. “The flight envelope continues to expand for Sikorsky-Boeing, so they're flying a bit more aggressively now than the V-280,” said Brig. Gen. Walter Rugen, head of the FVL CFT. “Towards the end of this fiscal year, maybe August, we're going to see very comparable data on both.” “Flight time is only one of the inputs that goes into a multivariable non-linear calculation,” added the Army's aviation acquisition chief, Program Executive Officer Pat Mason. Not all flight hours are equally valuable, he told reporters, and flight hours alone are not enough. “[It's] what you did in flight, what you've done in modeling and simulation, how you're administering model design, how you [set up] your digital engineering development environment, what you've done in your component test, lab test, SIL [System Integration Lab] test. Taking the totality of those elements into consideration, what we see is a good competition between two vendors.” So while the two aircraft will continue flying to provide more performance data, the lion's share of the work over the next two years will be digital, explained the Army's program manager for FLRAA. “The preponderance of this effort is associated with digital engineering and model-based systems engineering,” Col. David Philips said. That means taking the real-world data from physical tests and rigorously refining every aspect of the design to meet the Army's needs from flight performance, combat survivability, affordability, sustainability, safety and more. The program's reached the phase of design refinement that's traditionally handled by engineers with slide rules on “reams of paper,” Mason explained, but which will now be accomplished in painstakingly precise virtual models and simulations of every aspect of the aircraft. “That is the future of design,” Mason said. “The key is that digital environment.... digital engineering and model-based engineering.” The flight tests of physical aircraft are proving out their novel configurations – designed to achieve high speed and long range that are aerodynamically unattainable for conventional helicopters. But the digital design phase is especially suited for working out the software that's essential to everything from flight controls to navigation to evading incoming anti-aircraft missiles. Rather than have each vendor fit the electronic jigsaw together in their own unique, proprietary way, the Army insists that FLRAA, its sister design the FARA scout, and a whole family of drones all use the same Modular Open Systems Architecture. MOSA is meant to ensure that all the aircraft can easily share data on everything from maintenance diagnostics to enemy targets, and that the Army can easily replace specific components (hence “modular”) using whatever vendor offers the best technology (hence “open”). To ensure different vendors' products plug and play together, Mason said, “we specify what we need in those interfaces, and we flow those out in models.” Those models will include simulations of the aircrafts' physical characteristics, but, since they're software themselves, they can contain the actual prototype code for the Modular Open Systems Architecture. In other words — let's get digital. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/fvl-bell-sikorsky-boeing-split-181m-to-finalize-flraa-designs