Nouvelles

And so what's really important to me is what the vendor brings to the table, in terms of their ability to integrate weapons onto a non-developmental platform," said SOCOM acquisition czar Jim Smith. By PAUL MCLEARY and THERESA HITCHENSon May 13, 2020 at 4:32 PM WASHINGTON: Like the rest of the Defense Department, Special Operations Command is preparing for flat to declining budgets in the coming years as the national debt spirals to $25 trillion and the economy flattens due to COVID-19 related shutdowns. At the moment, the command that trains, equips and sustains the nation's elite covert operators boasts a $13 billion budget, $7 billion of which goes directly into buying and repairing new gear, with another $800 million pumped into research and development. And that's the unclassified part of the budget. The command wants to protect those investments, Jim Smith, SOCOM's top acquisition executive, told reporters this morning. But fiscal realities being what they are, “right now, our planning assumptions are based on a flat budget out through the next seven years or so,” he said. “And then, if you take into account inflation, you might even have a slightly downward pressure on our overall budget.” Just recently, Defense Secretary Mark Esper suggested that the budget pressure might force his hand in cutting older, legacy systems earlier than planned to pull savings toward priority modernization programs like the $500 billion the DoD plans to spend on the refurbishment of the nuclear triad over the next decade. Earlier this month Esper declared, “we need to move away from the legacy, and we need to invest those dollars in the future. And we have a lot of legacy programs out there right now — I could pick dozens out from all branches of the services” that could be cut or curtailed. Asked by Breaking Defense if pressure on SOCOM budgets could lead to the command walking away from bigger and older systems, Smith said “SOF is a little different. There is a propensity for us to accept a near-[commercial] solution and get it into the fight very quickly. And for that reason, we tend not to sustain equipment or the 20-year, 30-year life cycles that you see in the services.” That's not to say “we don't have the same pressures,” as the services in finding savings, he added. “We're trying to divest in a force that you know likes to hold on to things. And so we have very rich dialogue at the command level, I can assure you, about trying to divest over some of our larger programs going on.” One area commanders want to grow is close air support and ISR in areas without large, improved landing strips via the Armed Overwatch program. Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, said in February at the Air Force Association's annual meeting that the aircraft would replace AFSOC's U-28s — and focus more on plane's close air support, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Smith today explained that effort is standing on the shoulders of the Air Force's defunct Light Attack Aircraft effort. “We are on the backs of the Air Force's effort. We're using the same program managers and engineers,” Smith said. “Everything that was learned by the Air Force in their light attack experiment is being leveraged into ours.” The Air Force's long-running light attack aircraft saga — that at one point was expected to involve procurement of up to 300 airplanes — began way back in 2011, when the Air Force initiated a program to procure what it then called “light air-support” aircraft for use in insurgencies. In 2017, the program morphed into what the service called the Light Attack Experiment, aimed at developing a concept of operations that involved US allies as well as fleshing out an overall acquisition strategy. In 2018, then-Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said the service had set aside $2.4 billion in the fiscal year 2019 budget's five-year cycle to acquire agile, armed reconnaissance aircraft — once it had tested out its chosen competitors: Textron's AT-6 and the Sierra Nevada-Embraer team's A-29. In October 2019, facing a threat from Congress to strip the program from its control, the Air Force issued a request for proposal to Textron and Sierra Nevada to buy “two or three of both” companies' turboprops. Finally, in February this year, the Air Force threw up its collective hands and gave up the quest to buy light attack aircraft in quantity — purchasing only two each of the AT-6 Wolverine and A-29 Tucanos for continued experimentation. Several of the companies who originally fought it out way back in the day under the Air Force effort, as well as Textron and Sierra Nevada, are now throwing their hats in the SOCOM ring. Spokespeople for Air Tractor (which had formally protested the Air Force's contract award in the light attack competition), Sierra Nevada and Textron confirmed to Breaking Defense today that they are all in for the live-fly demonstration expected in November. The plan is for SOCOM to buy up to 75 of the aircraft over seven years, beginning with a $106 million request in the 2021 budget to kick things off. The Special Operations community is as interested in what it can put on one of these planes as it is in the aircraft itself. “At the end of the day, I'm going to deliver a weapon system,” Smith said. “And so what's really important to me is what the vendor brings to the table, in terms of their ability to integrate weapons onto a non-developmental platform. I think the Air Force, you know, there was a lot of focus on the actual platforms. I don't think you'll see that from SOCOM. We are far more interested in the integration capability of our eventual industry partners on the platform.” https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/special-ops-budget-crunch-looms-but-new-aircraft-demo-coming

HASSAN MEDDAH INTERNATIONAL , ALLEMAGNE , AÉRONAUTIQUE , SPATIAL , DÉFENSE PUBLIÉ LE 13/05/2020 À 18H43 Les présidents du GIFAS et de son équivalent allemand le BDLI appellent de façon urgente à un plan de relance européen ambitieux et à accélérer les investissements dans le domaine de la défense et de l'espace. Face à la crise du coronavirus qui frappe lourdement le secteur aéronautique, industriels allemands et français ont décidé d'agir en concert. Le GIFAS (Groupement des industries françaises aéronautiques et spatiales) et son homologue allemand (german aerospace industries association) ont tenu en commun ce 13 mai le bureau de leur conseil d'administration par vidéoconférence. Dans la foulée, les deux présidents respectifs Eric Trapper - par ailleurs PDG de Dassault Aviation - et Dirk Hoke, président du BDLI et CEO d'Airbus Defence & Space ont profité d'une conférence de presse pour lancer un appel commun à un plan de relance européen ambitieux. Les industriels aéronautiques des deux pays auraient dû se voir en chair et en os à cette date... si le salon aéronautique de Berlin (Allemagne) n'avait pas été annulé à cause de la pandémie mondiale. "Ensemble, nous étions forts avant la crise et nous partageons l'idée qu'il faudra que nous soyons forts après la crise pour faire face à la concurrence mondiale", a souligné Eric Trappier, le patron de Dassault Aviation. Accélérer le programme d'avion de combat du futur Selon les deux groupements, les secteurs de la défense et de l'espace peuvent permettre d'amortir le trou d'air que traverse le secteur aéronautique. Ils appellent les deux gouvernements à renforcer leurs budgets de défense afin de conserver les capacités dans ce domaine stratégique. "Ce serait une grave erreur de réduire les dépenses du secteur de la défense. C'est un facteur de stabilité qui ne doit pas être sous-estimé", a précisé Dirk Hoke. Le GIFAS et le BDLI misent sur l'accélération des programmes en coopération. La France et l'Allemagne, rejointes par l'Espagne, ont lancé le programme SCAF (système de combat aérien du futur). Ce programme, à l'horizon 2040, permettra le remplacement des Rafale français et des Eurofighter allemands. "Ce programme est un défi et nous sommes convaincus qu'il faut le renforcer et ne pas prendre de retard. Les industriels ont commencé à travailler. Nous avons besoin d'une vision à long terme et de contrats pour atteindre la première échéance d'un démonstrateur en 2026", a exhorté Eric Trappier. Des deux côtés de la frontière, l'accélération de ce programme pourrait apporter une bouffée d'oxygène à tous les acteurs qui y participent : avionneurs, fabricants de moteurs, électroniciens et leurs sous-traitants. Cela permet également de faire d'une pierre deux coups, puisque la plupart des entreprises de l'aéronautique travaillent également pour le secteur de la défense. La manne du programme spatial européen Dirk Hoke a également évoqué l'importance du secteur spatial comme amortisseur à cette crise. Il a rappelé que l'agence spatiale européenne (ESA) avait approuvé en fin d'année dernière le lancement de nombreux programmes. En novembre 2019, lors de la réunion des ministres européens en charge du secteur spatial à Séville, l'ESA avait en effet dégagé un budget de 14,4 milliards d'euros pour les cinq prochaines années. La France et l'Allemagne étant les principales contributrices avec respectivement 3,3 milliards d'euros et 2,7 milliards. Les deux partenaires ont également sollicité l'aide de l'Europe. Ils craignent toutefois que le budget du fonds européen de défense soit la victime des ajustements budgétaires en cours de négociation. A l'origine, il devait atteindre 13 milliards d'euros sur la période 2021-2027. "Ce serait un mauvais signe si ce budget était coupé pour la construction et l'autonomie stratégique de l'Europe", a averti le patron du GIFAS. https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/pourquoi-les-industriels-europeens-de-l-aeronautique-misent-sur-les-secteurs-de-la-defense-et-l-espace.N964041

La pandémie de Covid-19 chamboule le calendrier des offres pour les nouveaux avions de combat et du système de défense sol-air. Le Département fédéral de la défense (DDPS) a fixé mardi à novembre le nouveau délai pour les offres. Ce nouveau calendrier n'a aucune incidence sur la suite du processus d'acquisition, assure le département dans un communiqué. Les informations tirées des deuxièmes offres ainsi que des résultats des divers tests permettront d'identifier les points forts de chaque système. Le DDPS doit réagir au fait que les fabricants sont aussi touchés par les mesures visant à freiner l'épidémie. De plus, les impératifs de confidentialités interdisent les collaborateurs des entreprises sollicitées à traiter les offres en télétravail. Les entretiens en personne, nécessaires pour concrétiser les exigences relatives aux affaires compensatoires, ne sont pas possibles. Ils ne peuvent pas toujours être remplacés par des téléconférences en raison du degré de classification des sujets abordés. Quatre avions Armasuisse avait transmis une nouvelle demande d'offre aux autorités françaises, allemandes et américaines début janvier. Celles-ci étaient initialement attendues pour août. Quatre jets restent dans la course: le Rafale français (Dassault), l'Eurofighter allemand (Airbus), et côté américain, le successeur du FA-18, le Super Hornet de Boeing, et le F-35A de Lockheed-Martin. Pour le système de défense sol-air, seuls les Etats-Unis (Raytheon Patriot) et la France (Eurosam SAMP/T) sont encore en lice. La nouvelle flotte doit remplacer à la fois les Tiger et les F/A-18. Les exigences ont été précisées sur la base des premières offres remises. Les constructeurs sur les rangs devront toujours calculer le nombre d'avions requis pour accomplir les missions de l'armée de l'air, notamment faire voler quatre avions en permanence pendant quatre semaines et assurer la police aérienne 24 heures sur 24. Les nouvelles offres devront indiquer un prix correspondant à 36 et 40 engins, frais logistiques et engins guidés compris. La première offre exigeait un prix pour 30 et 40 avions. Le prix proposé sera un point de départ contraignant des négociations approfondies avec le candidat à l'issue du choix de l'appareil. https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/11319075-les-appels-d-offres-pour-un-nouvel-avion-de-combat-prolonges-jusqu-en-novembre.html

By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Space Force looks to expand the military's communications capabilities in the far north, it is facing a problem. The global pandemic has hit space startups exponentially hard, and OneWeb, one of the companies aiming to provide internet to Arctic locations, filed for bankruptcy in March. The Defense Department is considering taking action to help fortify OneWeb and other vulnerable space startups, said Lt. Gen. David Thompson, vice commander of Headquarters Space Force. “I will say with respect to OneWeb specifically and others, we continue to work,” he said during a May 12 event held by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “We work with the White House and we'll be working with Congress, not just focused on OneWeb but all of the commercial space companies that face bankruptcy and face those concerns.” Thompson did not lay out options under consideration by the Pentagon to aid OneWeb, but he did say the department's Space Acquisition Council devised a list of proposed investments for space companies that need rapid, aggressive action. That capital is needed to ensure emerging space technologies remain available to the U.S. military but also so “that potential adversaries don't have the opportunity to acquire those capabilities,” he said. OneWeb is pursuing a sale of the business as part of bankruptcy proceedings, saying that “while the company was close to obtaining financing” through its own negotiations with investors, “the process did not progress because of the financial impact and market turbulence related to the spread of COVID-19.” So far, the company has launched 74 satellites, secured global spectrum and has half of its 44 ground terminals in development or complete — making it attractive to potential bidders such as Amazon or European satellite company Eutelsat. However, two unnamed Chinese firms have also submitted proposals, according to The Telegraph. That could raise major concerns among Defense Department officials, who have warned that adversary nations — particularly China — could use the financial instability caused by the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to increase investments in technology companies with national security applications. “The [defense-industrial base] is vulnerable to adversarial capital, so we need to ensure that companies can stay in business without losing their technology,” Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, said in March. If OneWeb is sold to a Chinese owner, the Defense Department could lose access to one of the few suppliers of commercial broadband internet servicing the Arctic. While the Space Force operates two Enhanced Polar System satellites to provide secure, jam-resistant military communications, few commercial satellite providers extend their coverage to the far north. As a result, troops have limited communication options in the Arctic, and the Pentagon has long been concerned about a lack of resiliency. Companies like OneWeb and SpaceX, which intend to create a network of hundreds of small satellites in low-Earth orbit, could change that paradigm by providing low-cost commercial internet services that span the globe. In September, OneWeb announced it would begin to provide low-latency broadband service to the Arctic by the end of 2020, with full, 24-hour coverage expected in 2021. For its part, SpaceX stated that its Starlink constellation would begin providing broadband service this year. The military has expressed interest in working with both companies. U.S. Northern Command sought $130 million to explore OneWeb's and SpaceX's capabilities in order to provide reliable and potentially cost-effective internet in the Arctic, listing the effort on top of the unfunded priority list sent to Congress this spring. Nathan Strout in Washington contributed to this story. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/2020/05/12/a-bankrupt-oneweb-could-get-some-help-from-the-defense-department/

By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic could make it more difficult for the U.S. Air Force's newest F-35 squadron to organize its personnel and jets on schedule. On April 21, the 356th Fighter Squadron at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, became the service's northernmost fighter squadron after receiving its first two F-35s. Pilots began flying those jets for training three days later, and another four F-35s on loan from Hill Air Force Base in Utah flew to Alaska on April 27. But a couple key challenges could hamper the assemblage of the new squadron, said Col. Benjamin Bishop, commander of the base's 354th Fighter Wing. “We're actually on timeline,” he told Defense News in an exclusive interview on April 28. “We have the pilots and maintainers already here to support operations throughout the summer. However, as you know, the Department of Defense has put a stop-movement order through [June 30], and that is something we're working through on a case-by-case basis.” Under the current order, pilots and maintainers who are moving through the training pipeline have been granted a blanket exception to transfer to Eielson. But more experienced pilots, maintainers and support personnel coming from an operational base like Hill Air Force Base will need to receive an exception. Getting additional F-35s to Eielson could also be an obstacle, as Lockheed Martin assesses whether it must slow down deliveries of the F-35 due to disruptions to its supply chain. In a statement to Defense News, Lockheed spokesman Brett Ashworth could not say whether the company was on track to deliver F-35s to Eielson on schedule. “Lockheed Martin continues to work with our suppliers daily to determine the impacts of COVID-19 on F-35 production,” he said. “We are analyzing impacts at this time and should have more detail in the coming weeks.” If the coronavirus pandemic delays the pace of F-35 deliveries to Eielson, the squadron will have to mitigate the shortfall in jets, Bishop said. “Currently, we're at a good pace on the road to readiness for our F-35 program here, and we'll continue to adapt and adjust to bring this mission capability to its full potential in the Indo-Pacific theater,” he noted. Despite COVID-19 and the potential logistical challenges involved in sending people and F-35s to Eielson, day-to-day training operations have continued as normal, said Col. James Christensen, 356th Fighter Squadron commander. Having six F-35s on base allows maintainers to use the jets for training while also maximizing flight hours for the eight pilots currently in the 356th. “We still do the mission the way we always have. We have the masks and the wipe procedures and social distancing,” Christensen said. “So [we're] being creative but still being able to get the mission done.” There are strategic benefits to being the U.S. Air Force's northernmost fighter squadron, starting with access. With support from an aerial refueling tanker, the F-35s at Eielson can reach and target any location in Europe or the Asia-Pacific, Bishop said. And even the harsh climate of Eielson has its perks. It's a short flight away from the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, the Defense Department's largest instrumented training range, with 77,000 square miles of airspace, according to the 354th Fighter Wing. “The F-35 is going to be able to fly in that airspace, but they're not going to be alone,” Bishop said. F-35s training in that area will regularly be joined by F-22s based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, as well as the F-16s in Eielson's 18th Aggressor Squadron that simulate enemy combat jets. “You're going to see amazing fifth-generation tactics and integration tactics emerge,” he said. Russia is investing in its Arctic infrastructure, and the U.S. military must make its own improvements to how it operates from and trains in the region, said Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who leads U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. “It's great to see some of the additional forces that are going in, whether it's the F-35s going to Eielson, whether it's the work of the Coast Guard to develop icebreakers,” he said during a May 4 event. “These are all relevant things for us to be able to operate in the Arctic. And that is absolutely, to me, key to our ability to defend ourselves.” As the 356th stands up and becomes combat-ready, it will participate in the next Red Flag-Alaska, a multinational air-to-air combat training exercise slated to be held this August. The squadron is also looking for opportunities to deploy around the Asia-Pacific so that pilots can acclimate themselves to the long geographical distances that characterize the region, Christensen said. “Everyone is excited just to have F-35s here because of the awesome training we can do, but we're also thinking about at some point we have to project this air power out into the Indo-Pacific theater as a combat force. And transitioning everyone, including the wing and including [Pacific Air Forces] — they all have to adjust the mission of Eielson,” he said. Unlike other fighter bases, which usually swap out existing aircraft of existing squadrons with new jets, the two F-35 squadrons coming to Eielson aren't replacing anything, and infrastructure needs to be built to accommodate the anticipated growth in both people and aircraft. When the first members of the 356th Fighter Squadron arrived on base in July 2019, Eielson was home to about 1,750 active-duty personnel, Bishop said. By December 2021, that number is expected to double, with the addition of about 1,500 airmen. In that time, 54 F-35s will be delivered to the base for a total of two squadrons — a notable increase from the 30 F-16s and KC-135s previously at Eielson. An estimated $500 million will be spent on military construction to support the buildup at Eielson, including new operations buildings, a simulator building, heated hangars and other maintenance facilities, and a new cafeteria. A total of 41 facilities will be either built or refurbished with that funding, with 29 of those projects finished and others still under construction to support a second F-35 squadron, Bishop said. And everything — from constructing new facilities to maintaining runways — is tougher in the subzero temperatures of the Arctic. “Early on in this job, I learned that there are two seasons in Alaska,” Bishop said. “There's winter and construction season, with the former a lot longer than the latter. From a beddown perspective, how you put your construction plan together, you have to maneuver around that season.” “In order to maintain efficiency of fighter operations up here, one of the things we did is we built walled weather shelters for our aircraft, so all of our aircraft are actually housed in weather shelters," he added. "That's not necessarily for the aircraft. That's more for the maintainers because having that insulated and heating facility, now you can do maintenance around the clock.” Corrected at 5/12/20 at 2:53 p.m. with the correct size of the JPARC, which was recently expanded to 77,000 square miles of airspace. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/frozen-pathways/2020/05/11/how-the-us-air-force-is-assembling-its-northernmost-f-35-squadron-amid-a-pandemic/

BRUSSELS — The European Union's top diplomat is warning member countries not to slash defense spending as their economies buckle under pressure from the coronavirus, as the disease could spark security challenges. After chairing a video conference of defense ministers on Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said it was clear the pandemic is very likely to deteriorate the security environment in the years ahead. Borrell said as the crisis also hits the economy, it's important to secure the necessary funding for security and defense. Talks between the 27 EU member countries over their next long-term budget have been blocked for more than a year, well before the coronavirus hit Europe. Cuts to defense funds in that spending package were already under consideration. Given the impact of the disease, that seems even more likely now. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/05/12/eus-top-diplomat-warns-against-defense-cuts/

ARMY Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin JV, Tucson, Arizona, was awarded a $121,764,089 modification (P00018) to contract W31P4Q-19-C-0076 for the Javelin weapon system. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 31, 2023. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 missile procurement (Army) funds in the amount of $121,764,089 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Construcciones Jose Carro SE, Coto Laurel, Puerto Rico, was awarded a $9,469,023 firm-fixed-price contract to construct channel scour protection and toe key revetment. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Dorado, Puerto Rico, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 28, 2021. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds in the amount of $9,469,023 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity (W912EP-20-C-0005). NAVY Airborne Tactical Advantage Co. LLC, Newport News, Virginia, is awarded a $34,553,773 modification (P00023) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N00019-15-D-0026. This modification extends the period of performance for contractor-owned and operated Type III high subsonic and Type IV supersonic aircraft. Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia (44%); Point Mugu, California (37%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (19%). Work will provide airborne threat simulation capabilities and updates to the government furnished property list in support of the Contracted Air Services Program. Work is expected to be complete by November 2020. Funds will be obligated on individual delivery orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Lockheed Martin Co., Stratford, Connecticut, is awarded a $29,940,372 modification (P00039) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, fixed-price-incentive-firm-target and firm-fixed-price contract N00019-16-C-0048. This modification provides for rate tooling, physical configuration audits, associated systems engineering and program management in support of CH-53K aircraft production. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut (28.7%); Salt Lake City, Utah (21.88%); Macomb, Michigan (11.01%); Wichita, Kansas (6.04%); Redmond, Washington (5.89%); Rome, New York (5.16%); North Haven, Connecticut (4.42%); Quebec, Connecticut (3.4%); Shelby Township, Michigan (3.36%); Newington, Connecticut (2.07%); Fort Plain, New York (1.44%); Minden, Nebraska (1.2%); Lenexa, Kansas (1.1%); various locations within the continental U.S. (3.71%); and various location outside the continental U.S. (0.62%). Work is expected to be complete by December 2023. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds for $29,940,372 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. United Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney Engines, East Hartford, Connecticut, is awarded a $10,648,976 modification (P00022) to previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm contract N00019-17-C-0020. This modification procures one low rate initial production Lot 11 afloat spares package kit for the Marine Corps in support of the F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft program. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (20%); Indianapolis, Indiana (17%); Windsor Lock, Connecticut (16%); North Berwick, Maine (14%); Midland, Georgia (7%); Middleton, Connecticut (7%); Rockford, Illinois (7%); Phoenix, Arizona (6%); Bristol, United Kingdom (5%); and Santa Isabel, Israel (1%). Work is expected to be complete by September 2021. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds for $10,648,976 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Serco Inc., Herndon, Virginia, has been awarded a maximum $29,002,941 modification (P00021) exercising the third one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SP3300-17-C-5003) with four one-year option periods for chemical management services. This is a firm-fixed-price with cost-reimbursement and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. Locations of performance are Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and California, with a May 15, 2021, performance completion date. Using customer is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Distribution, New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. AIR FORCE The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a $25,439,155 firm-fixed-price delivery order to contract FA8621-15-D-6266 to provide C-17 training devices and spares for the NATO Airlift Management Program located at Papa Air Base, Hungary. The training system will consist of one C-17 Weapon System Trainer (composed of an air vehicle station with an instructor operator station (IOS) and a loadmaster station with an IOS, a learning center complete with computer-based training systems, core integrated processor task trainer, courseware and initial spares to support these items for two years. Work will be performed at Papa AB, Hungary, and is expected to be completed June 1, 2022. This award is a sole-source acquisition. Foreign Military Sales funds to NATO in the full amount will be obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. (Awarded May 8, 2020) DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY American Systems, Chantilly, Virginia, was awarded a cost-plus-fixed-fee task order with a value of $11,636,887. HT0038-20-F-0006 provides transformation planning of the Theater Medical Information Program-Joint into a modular and portable software suite with a unified architecture. This task order has a period of performance from May 13, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2020. The estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2020. Work will primarily occur in Chantilly, Virginia. This award will be funded by fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds; and research and development funds. This task order is a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III award. The contracting activity is the Defense Health Agency, Falls Church, Virginia. DEFENSE COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY AGENCY Verato Inc., McLean, Virginia, was awarded a firm-fixed-price delivery order (HS0021-20-F-0010) under HS0021-19-A-0005, for an estimated $8,735,669 for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). The delivery order provides for tri-merge credit reports and credit monitoring in support of the background investigation process. Work will be performed in McLean, Virginia. This delivery order is funded with fiscal 2020 DCSA working capital funds, with $2,183,917 obligated at time of award. The anticipated delivery period is from May 17, 2020, through May 16, 2021. DCSA Acquisition and Contracting, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity. *Small business

Graham Warwick For a defense program with relatively little funding behind it, Agility Prime comes freighted with expectations. The U.S. Air Force program to help build a domestic electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) industrial base is a lifeline for a nascent market as private capital dries up because of COVID-19. For the Air Force, if successful, Agility Prime could be a model of how to bring defense procurement together with commercial markets to compete with China's national drive for technology supremacy. U.S. Air Force's Agility Prime aims to boost investor confidence in eVTOL market Prototype agreements will produce vehicle test reports “For me, it's a template for how to take the military market—our entire value proposition, not just our funding—and bring it to bear on an emerging commercial market in a way that accelerates it for all of us, and not just for the military,” says Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper. Agility Prime aims to tap into existing commercial investment in eVTOL development and, through in-kind support in the form of access to test resources and technical expertise, help U.S. manufacturers along the way to FAA certification. At the same time, the program will seek out opportunities within the Air Force and other government agencies for early purchases of eVTOLs to help ramp up production. The program has been conceived to avoid what happened in the small drone market, where the Pentagon failed to engage the emerging U.S. industry and the supply chain migrated overseas. Drones made in China by market leader DJI are now regarded as a security risk in the U.S. “Because we were not proactive, the market went in a way that was not to the benefit of our national security or industry,” says Roper. The value Agility Prime brings to the nascent eVTOL market is more than just funding, he says. It includes access to resources to help manufacturers move quickly through military certification so that the Air Force and other agencies can begin buying vehicles for missions including logistics, base defense and disaster relief, “removing the risk that the market will move overseas,” he says. “This looks like a model that could counteract the benefits a country like China gets with a nationalized industry base where you're able to pick winners and losers,” says Roper. “What I like about this is it brings together our national assets—our vibrant commercial ecosystem, private capital, government—but it maintains those markets that have been so amazing at keeping innovation fresh and vibrant.” Joby has used military airspace to test-fly its eVTOL under a Defense Innovation Unit contract won in 2017. Credit: Joby Aviation “The Air Force's Agility Prime initiative comes at a critical time when many innovative eVTOL developers are beginning to fly demonstrators but need support to move forward,” says Mike Hirschberg, executive director of the Vertical Flight Society. As private investment in startups and corporate spending in R&D have been hit by the novel coronavirus crisis, Agility Prime “is an endorsement of the potential of eVTOL technology that should also bolster investor confidence,” he says. The Air Force has established three “areas of interest” (AOI) under the Agility Prime “innovative capabilities opening” released in late February. The first AOI is for eVTOL air taxis carrying three to eight people, the second for one- or two-person vehicles and the third for unmanned cargo aircraft able to carry payloads of more than 500 lb. Each AOI has three phases: submission of a proposal or “solution brief,” a site visit to determine funding and testing needs and, if successful, an invitation to submit a prototype proposal. To qualify, bidders must be able to fly a full-scale prototype by Dec. 17. The program plans to award no-cost “other transaction authority for prototype” contracts to produce test reports on the vehicles. In return for providing access to Defense Department test resources and certification expertise, the Air Force, Marine Corps and other government agencies will get to assess the performance and capabilities of commercial eVTOLs with an eye to procuring aircraft off the shelf for military and public-use missions that have yet to be identified. The Air Force plans to field a small quantity of eVTOLs by 2023, says Lynda Rutledge, Air Force mobility and training aircraft program executive officer. The Air Force is particularly interested in the promise of eVTOL to provide lower acquisition and support costs, reduced acoustic and infrared signatures, and simplified flight control requiring less pilot training, says Agility Prime team lead Col. Nathan Diller. The missions being studied include transporting ballistic-missile operators to remote launch control centers, perimeter security at large bases, “lateral logistics” by moving packages and personnel between squads, disaster support to civilian agencies and distributed personnel recovery by locating rescue assets closer to combat. The $25 million provided by Congress for Agility Prime in fiscal 2020 is small compared with the cost of certifying an eVTOL. “When you look across our [vehicle] partners, just to develop an experimental aircraft is $100-150 million. To certify that aircraft is $750 million-1 billion,” Mark Moore, Uber Elevate director of strategy, told the Agility Prime virtual kickoff event on April 28. But the Air Force hopes that putting these vehicles through its trusted airworthiness program, and the data collected operating them, will accelerate FAA certification while early procurements will help scale up the supply chain. The Air Force goal is to operate 30 vehicles by 2030, says Roper, and the Marine Corps and Special Operations Command are also involved. By fielding eVTOLs “in some substantive way” by 2023, when Uber plans to begin limited commercial service in its pilot cities, the Air Force aims to “stress-test this new capability in a way that brings acceptance by the public, as well as delivers better capability for the Defense Department, [and] ultimately for the commercial market,” says Col. Scott McKeever, global mobility lead for the Air Force Warfighter Integration Capability office. A key consideration for Agility Prime is how private investors react to the Air Force working with eVTOL startups. Investors previously devalued companies if they were engaged with the Defense Department, Roper says. But since the Air Force revamped how it interacts with technology startups, the ratio of private to government investment has risen to 3:1 from 0.75:1, bringing more than $1 billion in private money into its programs, he says. “They now raise the value of a company if it is engaged with the Air Force,” he adds. By providing a boost to emerging eVTOL manufacturers at a time when access to private capital is limited, the Air Force hopes Agility Prime will help avoid a repeat of “the cautionary tale” of the drone industry. The virtual kickoff event, which ran from April 27-May 1, “really came out strong about the need for the U.S. to invest in American eVTOL developers and discouraged U.S. companies from accepting ‘adversarial capital' from countries like China,” says Hirschberg. “There are so many challenges with developing commercially compelling eVTOL systems; Agility Prime helps build momentum to overcome them,” says Hirschberg. “If we get Agility Prime right, I hope that it becomes the standard for how the Pentagon engages in all areas of commercial tech,” Roper says. Register for our latest free webinar on Friday May 15 where Agility Prime Team Leader Col. Nate Diller and Vertical Flight Society Executive Director Mike Hirschberg join Aviation Week editors to discuss this glimmer of hopeful news in hard times.

Steve Trimble The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said on May 12 that the Lockheed Martin F-35 Block 4 program must be extended two years due to development delays, adding $1.5 billion to the overall price tag. The original schedule called for completing the Block 4 modernization program in 2024, but the timeline must be extended to 2026, GAO said in the watchdog agency's annual review of the F-35 program. The F-35 Joint Program Office initially estimated the cost to develop all 66 new capabilities in Block 4 would be $10.6 billion. The two-year extension to deliver Block 4 raises the development cost to $12.1 billion, with another $3.4 billion budgeted to procure and insert the capabilities in future U.S. F-35s, GAO said. The Block 4 delays started in 2019. Lockheed planned to deliver the first eight Block 4 capabilities last year, but only one—the automatic ground collision avoidance system—entered service, GAO said. In another example, Lockheed delivered software last year to enable the interim full-motion video capability for the Marine Corps F-35Bs, but failed to deliver the associated hardware, the report said. As Block 4 capabilities have entered testing, the Defense Department's operational testers have noticed other problems. Some of the new capabilities have “caused issues” with existing F-35 functions that previously worked, GAO said. “The contractor had not performed adequate testing of the software before delivering it to the test fleet,” GAO said. For its part, the contractor acknowledged the issues and said they would conduct additional testing in software laboratories before releasing future software blocks, GAO added. https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/aircraft-propulsion/delays-cause-two-year-15b-extension-f-35-block-4