Lockheed Martin is standing by the concurrency strategy and the quality of the F-35 structural design,
despite a new critique by the head of the programme's acquisition office.
After two major restructurings since 2009, the programme office is still discovering new areas of concern. An investigation launched after bulkhead cracks were discovered last November
found several new "hot spots" of structural weakness in all three variants, the programme office confirmed.
Because the programme is building hundreds of aircraft concurrently with development and testing, the costs of retrofitting completed aircraft is so high it "sucks the wind out of your
lungs," Vice Adm David Venlet told an interviewer recently. The extra costs mean the programme should slow the rate of production, Venlet added.
When asked for comment, Lockheed challenged the programme office's conclusions in a rare departure from a normally shared public narrative between the F-35's lead contractor and customer.
Regarding the new structural problems, Lockheed downplayed their significance.
"None of the required changes are safety issues, affect aircraft performance or are beyond normal expectations," Lockheed said.
Although Venlet has now called the concurrency strategy a "miscalculation", Lockheed still argues it is less expensive overall than the alternative, which is to develop, test and build the
aircraft in a linear sequence.
Lockheed also noted that concurrency of development and production is a common tactic. "The concurrency costs for F-35 continue to reduce as experienced by all fighter aircraft development
programmes," it said.
The company also challenged Venlet's plan to slow production to reduce the costs of retrofitting new aircraft.
"The savings associated with building at increased rates will continue to mitigate the diminishing concurrency costs," Lockheed said.
It also suggested it is cheaper to build F-35s at higher rates and pay the concurrency bills than delay replacements for the existing fighter fleet.
"The cost to upgrade and maintain an ageing fleet of aircraft the programme was designed to replace should be considered in this decision," Lockheed said.
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a contract to provide a Combat Electromagnetic Environment Simulator
(CEESIM) system to support maintenance of the U.S. Air Force E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) Electronic Support Measures Operational Computer Program software.
The contract was awarded by Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA). Northrop Grumman will deliver the CEESIM to Tinker Air Force
Base Avionics Integration Support Facility (AISF), located in Oklahoma City, Okla.
The CEESIM provides navigation and pulse data generated from customized scenarios. It enables ASIF software engineers to model a
real-world environment and to test software changes by injecting pulses into the avionics hardware.
"The flexibility of the AWACS CEESIM system allows for adaptation to a wide variety of both system-under-test and existing
laboratory external control interfaces," said Joe Downie, president of Northrop Grumman's Amherst Systems business unit. "This flexibility provides a cost-effective transition from the existing
simulator to a state-of-the-art, supportable, modern simulator capability, in support of fifth-generation electronic warfare systems."
The AWACS CEESIM system will replace an Advanced Multiple Environment Simulator (AMES) system that has been operating at Tinker Air
Force Base for 14 years. The CEESIM replacement unit allows automatic conversion of legacy AMES emitter files to CEESIM emitter files for seamless reuse of AISF threat data and test scenarios.
The simulator also demonstrates the CEESIM versatility allowing for direct stimulation using radio frequency, intermediate frequency and digital outputs.
DMEA is a Department of Defense applied engineering facility charged with keeping microelectronics components in our military
systems operational and technologically current. DMEA works in cooperation with both defense prime contractors and the commercial semiconductor industry to ensure that the full range of military
systems, developed over 40 years, are supportable and operationally ready to perform their mission.
The U.S. Army effort to recapitalize aging helicopters has achieved a milestone at a Texas facility.
The Army said its Corpus Christi Depot has completed recapitalization work on the 48th UH-60 Black Hawk this year.
Recapitalization efforts bring upgrade A models of the UH-60 Black Hawk to the L model configuration. Over the course of a year,
the aircraft structural, engine and airframe components are rebuilt. The effort saves more than 45 percent of the cost of purchasing new L models and extends the life of older aircraft by 10
years.
"It took the entire team from Accounting to Aircraft Production and every single person at CCAD to meet the 48th Black Hawk," said
Col. Christopher Carlile, commander of the Corpus Christi Army Depot.
The Army said a number of processes to save money and time in the upgrade work, including a final assembly inspection at the depot
to reduce the number of defects and rework passed between reassembly and flight testing and the use of warrant teams from assembly lines that corrected any defects found without moving the
aircraft back to a separate building.
The U.S. Defense Department reports that Raytheon is receiving a $64.4 million contract modification for a sensor netting
capability for anti-air warfare.
The capability program is called Cooperative Engagement Capabilities. The Department of Defense said it will improve battle force
anti-air warfare capability by extracting and distributing sensor-derived information.
He capability will CEC improve "battle force effectiveness by improving overall situational awareness and by enabling longer range,
cooperative, multiple or layered engagement strategies," it said.
The award requires Raytheon Network Centric Systems of Florida to provide design agent and engineering support services for the
program.
Work will be performed in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Largo, Fla. It is expected to be completed by September 2012.
The Defense Department said the modification combines system purchases for the U.S. Navy (50 percent), and Australia's military (4
percent) under the Foreign Military Sales Program.
Raytheon will receive the contract from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington.
Harris has integrated its RF-7800T situational awareness video receiver (SAVR) with the Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Digital Data
Link (SUAS-DDL) waveform in order to receive wireless digital intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) video feeds in the battlefield.
The SAVR will now be able to simultaneously receive advanced encryption standard (AES) video feeds from multiple small manned and
unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
Harris RF Communications group president Dana Mehnert said: "Users will be able to switch easily between multiple video and data
feeds, providing them with critical real-time information."
The RF-7800T SAVR is a portable, handheld and multiband receiver capable of transmitting real-time ISR video feeds from cameras
present on aircraft or UAS platforms to ground forces.
The system is designed specifically for dismounted soldiers but can also be used for various vehicular and TOC-based
applications.
It incorporates remotely operated video enhanced receiver (ROVER) analogue and digital technology and is able to receive about 95%
of fielded downlinks from manned and unmanned aircraft including the Raven, Shadow, Predator and C-130 gunships.
The RF-7800T includes the Falcon III SCA operating environment, which allows tracking of emerging digital data link (DDL) standards
through software-only upgrades and is also compatible with other Harris multiband radios such as the AN/PRC-152A and the AN/PRC-117G.
The receiver can inject streaming video into a tactical Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) thus allowing other users on the network to
access video downlinks.
The SAVR can be used with a variety of antenna and display solutions based on user preference and comfort, including helmet-worn
and goggle-worn displays as well as laptop computers.
The SUAS-DDL is a US Department of Defense (DoD) standard waveform that enables maximum flexibility and interoperability between
small airborne UAS and control stations present on the ground.
The bi-directional and digital wireless video link allows multiple UAS to transmit video on the same frequency, thereby enabling the soldiers to monitor ISR video streams over
a wide geographical area leading to enhanced command and control and operational decision-making on the battlefield.
Picatinny Arsenal recently received kudos from Soldiers by developing six out of 10 2010 Army Greatest Inventions. One of the
inventions recognized was a dismounted fire control system that will make dismounted 120mm mortars easier to fire and keep Soldiers safer.
The M150/M151 Mortar Fire Control System - Dismounted, or MFCS-D, provides mortarmen with increased speed and effectiveness
previously only available to the mounted mortar systems using fire control.
"We have a similar system that's used on 120mm mounted mortars -- the M1064 Self-Propelled mortar and the Stryker mortar carrier,"
said Bob Beck, branch chief of mounted mortar systems at the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, or ARDEC. "Both are big heavy platforms, and issued to guys in Heavy Brigade
Combat Teams or Stryker Brigade Combat Teams. These guys are mobile and on vehicles, not huffing stuff as much."
"The challenge was that when you put a fire control system on a vehicle, weight is not as much of a concern because you've got a
vehicle to carry it around with," Beck said. "If you have a dismounted system like the Infantry Brigade Combat Teams have, they don't have the luxury of the vehicle at all times."
"The idea was to develop a fire control system that could be implemented onto the dismounted system to give those guys the same
capability of increased survivability, increased accuracy and increased responsiveness," Beck added. "We proved the concept on the heavy platforms, so we needed to tweak it so that it's able to
survive not in a vehicle, but out on the ground."
To ensure the light brigades had the same capability as the heavy brigades, ARDEC engineers created the MFCS-D, M150/M151.
QUICKER FIRING TIME
The MFCS-D Improves the Army standard for first mortar round fired from eight minutes (day) and 12 minutes (night) to less than two
minutes for both day and night operations.
In addition, it improves Circular Error Probable, or CEP, from 136 meters to 75 meters.
Seventy-five meters CEP means that if you drew a circle around a target at 75 meters radius, the rounds have to fall inside the
circle 50 percent of the time.
"With the MFCS-D the standard (firing time) is less than two minutes because there isn't any time spent setting up auxiliary
equipment or aiming stakes," Beck said. "Once you've emplaced the new system it already knows where it is and where it's pointing."
The reason is that the MFCS-D has a GPS-aided Inertial Navigation Unit, or INU, so that the system knows where it is at all
times.
"The MFCS-D also has a computer that calculates the ballistic computations for Soldiers, which makes the mortar system more
accurate by eliminating human error," said Bob Ucci, chief, Weapons and Fire Control Branch; Office of the Product Manager, Guided Precision Munitions and Mortar Systems; PEO Ammunition.
"The Soldier doesn't have to do any calculations," explained Ucci. "They're done automatically by the fire control system because
the inertial navigation unit mounted on the gun tube allows for the computer to know the exact orientation of the weapon."
"The INU mounts on the mortar tube to give the accuracy for laying the weapon (pointing and position)," added Ucci.
"So when a fire mission comes in the computer will automatically compute the required elevation and azimuth for the weapon to hit
the target, and display it on the gunners display.
"As he cranks the gun he'll see the numbers change real time until the numbers reach zero. That tells him that the gun is laid and
he can be confident that the gun is pointing where the solution told you. At that point it's just a matter of dropping the round down the tube.
"You know where you are, where your firing, and with the ballistic fire solutions in the computer you know where the rounds going
to land," Ucci said.
In the past, to drop rounds on target, the Fire Direction Center translated coordinates provided by forward observers into mortar
tube deflection and elevation adjustments.
Aiming points were marked on a plotting board to generate the azimuth. Paper firing tables listed the elevation needed to achieve
the desired range with a given type of ammunition.
To establish azimuth reference lines, mortar crews left the protection of armored vehicles to place aiming stakes 50 and 100 meters
away.
Then the crew used ballistic computations to calculate the azimuth and elevation and fire.
"There was a lot of time spent using the optical sights and surveying," Beck said.
STOWAGE KIT ADDS SPEED
The speed of fire is also increased because the MFCS-D is being fielded with the M326 Mortar Stowage Kit. The kit uses a hydraulic
lift to remove the entire mortar system from the trailer and place the entire mortar system on the ground in less than a minute.
It can then quickly raise the system back into the trailer.
"The Mortar Stowage Kits help because the weapon doesn't need to be disassembled to be put back on the trailer for transportation,"
Ucci said.
The MFCS-D components and Mortar Stowage Kit sit inside a M1101 trailer towed with a HMMWV, which is the primary means of moving
the equipment.
SPEED CONTRIBUTES TO SAFETY
The increased firing speed of the mortar systems will help keep the mortar crew safer because it allows them the ability to "shoot
and scoot."
"We're able to get the mission, stop the vehicle, emplace the mortar on the ground, fire the mission and within a minute you're
able to lift the weapon off the ground and leave. You can get rounds down range in a minute and displace the weapon in another minute," Beck said.
This attribute helps the mortar crews to evade incoming counter-fire.
The MFCS-D also eliminates the need to send Soldiers out to set up aiming stakes.
"When you set up aiming stakes you've got to send a guy out in a field and he has to set up survey stakes at 50 and 100 meters
out," Beck said.
"So you're sending him out in an open field where he's vulnerable to attack. Because the MFCS-D knows where it is at all times, you
don't have to set up aiming stakes because the system already knows where it's aiming."
SOFTWARE REDUNDANCY
For mortar crews, there are many similarities between the mounted and dismounted systems.
"A lot of the software was reused for commonality. You don't necessarily want to start from scratch," Beck said of the MFCS-D
development process. "You want them to be as common as possible. There are, however, some specific things that were integrated specifically for the MFCS-D, just because it was a dismounted system
and the differences in platforms."
Technology has also advanced since the legacy system was fielded, so it was challenging to integrate the new developments into the
MFCS-D system.
For instance, the MFCS-D uses a touch-screen instead of the keyboard found in the mounted systems.
"Everyone before had used a keyboard for the computer, but to maximize display size and minimize the size of the computer you can't
really get a full-size keyboard that guys can use with arctic gloves," Beck noted.
"A touch screen was the logical choice. But the common software for the mounted and dismounted systems has to be capable of taking
input from either, whether you're using the keyboard or the touch screen."
The MFCS-D is also compatible with the Accelerated Precision Mortar Initiative, or APMI. APMI is the world's first fielded 120mm
GPS-guided mortar round, which was fielded in March 2011.
The MFCS-D was first fielded to the 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, in April 2010.
It will eventually be fielded to all U.S. Army Dismounted 120mm Mortar teams.
PEO Ammo is fielding one brigade a month and, to date, the equipment has been fielded to ten IBCTs and four National Guard
battalions.
They expect all Infantry Brigade Combat Teams to have been fielded and trained on the equipment by 2016.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. | Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that the company's Ingalls Shipbuilding division has been awarded an
advance procurement contract for work on the U.S. Navy's third Zumwalt-class destroyer, DDG 1002. The contract is valued at $46 million, with the majority of the work taking place at the
company's Composite Center of Excellence in Gulfport.
"Strategically, this is a very important contract to our company and specifically to the composite shipbuilders working in
Gulfport," said Karrie Trauth, Ingalls Shipbuilding's DDG 1000 program manager. "The Gulfport facility is a national asset in terms of composite capability and capacity. Our shipbuilders continue
to prove this on a daily basis with the significant work they are performing in composites for U.S. Navy shipbuilding programs. With this funding, we can prepare our facility and provide the
necessary resources for our talented shipbuilders to continue working on these complex products."
The funding for this contract allows Ingalls to purchase material and equipment in support of DDG 1002 advanced construction
activities, as well as provide engineering and production support services. Ingalls is already building the deckhouse, hangar and peripheral vertical launch systems for DDG 1000 and DDG
1001.
The deckhouse for DDG 1000 is expected to be delivered in the second quarter of 2012.
The Ingalls Composite Center of Excellence is home to the world's largest numerically controlled, five-axis saw capable of sawing,
drilling and milling very large composite components to highly accurate tolerances. Located on 125 acres with access to water, rail and highway transportation links, the center has more than
322,000 square feet of manufacturing space (5.6 football fields) with 253,000 square feet (4.5 football fields) that is environmentally controlled. It has the only U.S. Department of Labor
Composite Apprentice Program and is a certified OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star Site.
Le neuvième sous-marin nucléaire d'attaque du type Virginia a été baptisé samedi aux chantiers General Dynamics Electric Boat de Groton, dans le Connecticut. L'USS Mississippi (SSN 782) sera
livré à la marine américaine en 2012. L'US Navy a déjà reçu 8 SNA de ce type, les USS Virginia, USS Hawaii et USS Texas ayant réalisé des déploiements opérationnels de longue durée alors que
l'USS North Carolina vient de débuter sa première grande mission dans le Pacifique.
Longs de 114.9 mètres pour un déplacement de 7800 tonnes en plongée, les Virginia sont capables d'atteindre 34 noeuds en plongée. Ils disposent de 12 tubes de lancement pour missiles de croisière
Tomahawk, ainsi que 4 tubes de 533mm permettant de mettre en oeuvre 26 torpilles Mk 48.
Le Nighthawk, naguère baptisé BatCam ou Tacmav, est un drone simple et rustique qui permet de réaliser des opérations de
surveillance, de reconnaissance et de renseignement avec un minimum de formation de l’opérateur.
Construit en fibres de carbone, un matériau robuste et flexible, le Nighthawk se range prêt à l’emploi dans un sac et se lance à partir de tubes. Il pèse seulement 630 g. et a une envergure de 66
cm. Une fois sorti du tube, il déploie automatiquement ses ailes. Sa portée a été accrue à 10-15 km et il peut voler pendant 70 à 90 minutes à une vitesse de croisière de 18 à 35 nœuds. Il peut
opérer à une altitude de 60 à 150 m. au-dessus du sol et monter jusqu’à 3 350 m. au-dessus de la mer.
Dans les poches extérieures, on range une antenne et un ordinateur portable qui sert de station sol. Le décollage, le vol et l’atterrissage peuvent être automatisés. L’opérateur indique au drone
les points de passage sur un écran tactile. Il peut aussi lui indiquer un point de ralliement, lui demander de suivre quelque chose, de rôder au-dessus d’une zone, quelle altitude conserver, ou
encore de rentrer à la base. Le Nighthawk offre également un mode de pilotage semi-manuel ou manuel.
Les forces spéciales de l’armée l’air ont perçu des exemplaires, dont certains se trouvent en Afghanistan auprès des forces d’équipement rapide (REF).
Avec son turbopropulseur Q400, Bombardier vise le marché de remplacement de l'avion de surveillance P-3 Orion.
«Ce sont des appareils vieillissants, rouillés, qui ont 30 ou 35 années de service, a indiqué le vice-président aux ventes et marketing des avions spécialisés chez Bombardier Aéronautique, Derek
Gilmour, dans une entrevue téléphonique avec La Presse Affaires. Il y a environ 400 P-3 dans le monde qui doivent être remplacés. Plusieurs pays recherchent donc un remplaçant.»
Selon Bombardier, le Q400, un appareil régional qui peut transporter 70 personnes, serait un candidat idéal en raison de sa taille et de ses caractéristiques.
«C'est le turbopropulseurs civil le plus moderne au monde, a soutenu M. Gilmour. Il a été conçu pour répondre aux critères les plus exigeants, il a une grande cabine, un poste de pilotage
moderne, de l'équipement avionique moderne. Tout ce qu'on peut mettre dans le P-3, on peut le mettre dans le Q400.»
Lockheed Martin avait d'ailleurs conçu le P-3 à la fin des années 1950 en s'inspirant d'un avion commercial, le L188 Electra.
Les avions de cette génération éprouvent cependant de sérieux problèmes de corrosion, ce qui n'est pas le cas pour le Q400, a fait valoir M. Gilmour.
«Le Q400 vole dans les tropiques, tout comme il vole dans le nord, en Suède, a-t-il déclaré. En fait de résistance à la corrosion, c'est un appareil de classe mondiale.»
La taille du marché de remplacement du P-3 intéresse plusieurs entreprises du monde de l'aéronautique, comme Elta Systems, une filiale d'Israel Aerospace Industries. La semaine dernière, le
directeur général adjoint de la division des systèmes aéronautiques et des radars d'Elta, Avishai Izhakian, a fait savoir que son entreprise voulait offrir le Q400, équipé des technologies
d'Elta, pour remplacer le vieil appareil.
«Cet avion (le Q400) a des coûts d'exploitation très bas et fournit aux membres d'équipage un environnement de travail très confortable», a-t-il déclaré, tel que cité dans la publication
spécialisée Flight Global.
M. Gilmour a confirmé que Bombardier discutait avec Elta, tout comme elle discutait avec d'autres entreprises.
«C'est un segment très excitant», a-t-il lancé.
Plusieurs gouvernements et forces armées dans le monde utilisent des appareils de Bombardier pour des missions de surveillance, de recherche et de sauvetage. Le Q300, un appareil un peu plus
petit que le Q400, est notamment utilisé par la garde côtière maritime australienne, le service américain des douanes, le Canada, la Suède et l'Islande.
Les Q300 utilisés par la Suède et l'Islande ont d'ailleurs été équipés de radars d'Elta Systems.
Les biréacteurs de Bombardier sont également recherchés. Il y a deux mois, le service aérien de Hong Kong a commandé deux biréacteurs d'affaires Challenger 605 pour des opérations de recherche et
de sauvetage.
Bombardier refuse cependant de dire quelle proportion de ses appareils sont transformés pour des missions spéciales.
«Dans plusieurs cas, nous ne pouvons pas révéler à quels gouvernements nous vendons nos appareils, a indiqué M. Gilmour. Ceux-ci quittent discrètement nos installations et disparaissent dans
l'éther.»
Linthicum, MD - Northrop Grumman has been awarded a contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop more efficient radio frequency (RF) transmitter
technology through the Microscale Power Conversion program.
Under the three-year, $8.9 million contract, Northrop Grumman will conduct research on high-efficiency transmitters with gallium nitride (GaN) Class E power amplifiers in
conjunction with RF wideband contour modulation and sub-banded switching supply modulation.
The objective of the program is to develop innovative RF power amplifier designs that incorporate supply modulation and control enabled by novel power switch technology.
The key to this research is to broaden the RF power amplifier's supply modulation bandwidth up to 500 MHz with composite efficiency of no less than 75 percent by employing the
contour modulation to maintain efficiency performance of the amplifier.
Contour modulation is a technique in which a phase-modulated signal waveform and amplifier output impedance work together to maintain higher efficiency over a sizable output
power back-off.
When supply modulation and contour modulation are working in concert, the dynamic range and efficiency of the power amplifier can be further improved. Microscale integration
and packaging with thermal design considerations is critical in achieving the efficiency.
"With more innovative RF power amplifier designs, we can produce much more efficient RF transmitters without increasing their size," said Pat Antkowiak, vice president and
general manager of Northrop Grumman's Advanced Concepts and Technologies Division.
"This technique can open the door to creating more powerful electronic systems for a wide variety of applications."
The design work will be performed by Northrop Grumman and its subcontractors, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and TriQuint Semiconductor.
The final integration and demonstration will be done by Northrop Grumman in Linthicum. UCLA will work on system architecture and co-design, design of the Complementary Metal
Oxide Semiconductor circuit and other elements, controls and test support. TriQuint Semiconductor will work on GaN and related process technologies.
Israeli defence electronics firm Elbit Systems said on Sunday its U.S. subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America, won a five-year contract worth up to $38.5 million from the Defense
Logistics Agency-Ogden.
The contract is for the upgrade of U.S. Air Force F-16 head-up displays (HUD), Elbit Systems said.
The wide angle conventional HUD takes critical flight and mission data that is normally displayed inside the cockpit on an instrument panel and projects that information on a
transparent surface directly in front of the pilot, allowing for eyes out of the cockpit and improved situational awareness.
The new design has fewer components, reducing power consumption and extending the average time between failures.
"For the F-16 HUD, we partnered with the U.S. Air Force to develop a solution which significantly reduces life cycle cost," Elbit Systems of America President and CEO Raanan
Horowitz said. "This is especially important considering the budget pressures faced these days by the U.S. military."
The U.S. Air Force's fleet of stealthy F-22 Raptor fifth-generation fighters has suffered two additional "physiological incidents" since Nov. 21, the service confirmed Dec.
2.
"Since 21 Nov., there have been two physiological incidents and no events of interest," said Air Combat Command spokeswoman Kelly Sanders in an emailed statement.
Since the F-22 returned to flight in September after a four-month grounding, the Air Force has maintained two listings for problems arising from operating the jet. The jet was
originally grounded in May after more than a dozen pilots suffered symptoms resembling hypoxia.
"Under the current protocols established to monitor F-22 operations since their return to flight, occurrences are categorized into events of interest and physiological
incidents," Sanders wrote. "An event of interest is an aircraft indication, system malfunction or a data point that has not caused symptoms of hypoxia nor caused any danger to the pilot or
aircraft, but is noteworthy for data collection and further analysis."
However, because of the Raptor's unresolved oxygen system problems, a separate category has been established for incidents that resemble hypoxia.
"Any event of hypoxia or hypoxia-like symptoms during pre-flight activities or a mission would be categorized by Air Force Instructions as a physiological incident," Sanders
wrote.
She noted that none of the most recent incidents caused any damage. Air Force sources who tipped off Defense News to these events had alluded to ground crews becoming ill when
performing maintenance operations with the engines running. An Air Force official confirmed that was the case with a separate incident. However, the two most recent cases Air Combat Command
referred to happened in the air.
"None of these incidents resulted in harm to a person or aircraft," Sanders wrote. "There is a rigorous process of collecting and analyzing operational, maintenance, and
physiological data relevant to any incidents, which typically takes several weeks to complete and may or may not produce actionable information."
Les avions de chasse F-35 que le gouvernement Harper a choisis pour équiper les Forces canadiennes résistent mal aux tests qu'ont leur fait subir, soutient le directeur du programme de
fabrication de l'avion au Pentagone.
Dans une entrevue accordée au cybermagazine Aol Defense, le vice-amiral David Venlet indique que les essais de fatigue effectués sur l'appareil de Lockheed Martin font apparaître de nombreuses
fissures et d'autres points faibles.
« Les points faibles décelés dans les quelque 12 derniers mois du programme nous ont surpris, tant en ce qui concerne le nombre de modifications que leur coût », explique le vice-amiral Venlet.
« La plupart [des problèmes] sont petits. Mais quand on les met tous ensemble, et qu'on regarde où ils se trouvent sur l'avion et à quel point il est difficile de les résoudre après l'achat de
l'appareil, le fardeau des coûts est à couper le souffle », dit-il.
« Je crois qu'il est sage de ralentir la production pour un moment, jusqu'à ce que nous ayons accumulé des années d'apprentissage et que nous puissions gérer ça correctement », ajoute le
responsable du programme.
Selon M. Venlet, Lockheed Martin a fait une « erreur de calcul » en construisant un modèle de série du F-35 avant d'avoir terminé les essais au sol et en vol. Cette approche, connue sous le nom
d'« exécution simultanée », présume que d'éventuelles modifications ne pourront être que mineures.
Les propos du vice-amiral Venlet ont été confirmés par le Pentagone, qui prévoit acheter 2400 F-35 à un coût d'environ 382 milliards de dollars. Lockheed Martin n'a pas encore commenté la
nouvelle.
Stephen Harper maintient le cap
De son côté, le premier ministre Stephen Harper n'a pas l'intention de changer la position de son gouvernement. « Évidemment, nous travaillons en étroite collaboration avec nos alliés sur cet
objectif. Ce travail se poursuit et nous restons sur la voie que nous avons suivie. Jusqu'à maintenant, il n'y a pas de raison de changer de plan », a-t-il déclaré.
Le gouvernement canadien a prévu acheter 65 avions de chasse F-35, pour une facture qu'il évalue à environ 9 milliards de dollars, voire 16 milliards si l'on y ajoute les coûts d'entretien sur 30
ans.
Le directeur du budget de la Chambre des communes, Kevin Page, a estimé l'an dernier que les coûts seraient plutôt de 9,7 milliards pour l'acquisition et de 19,6 milliards pour les coûts
d'entretien, pour une facture totale de 29,3 milliards en 30 ans Il soulignait que le développement du F-35 avait déjà cinq ans de retard et que cela risquait fort d'augmenter.
Le F-35 doit être à la fois un intercepteur pouvant arrêter les bombardiers ennemis et un chasseur bombardier pouvant être utilisé pour l'attaque au sol ou en mer. En plus de la version standard
(F-35A), une autre version doit permettre de décoller et atterrir verticalement (F-35B). Une troisième version est utilisée pour les porte-avions (F-35C).
Le programme du F-35 est le plus ambitieux et le plus coûteux programme d'achat d'avions lancé depuis la fin de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale.
St. Louis - The U.S. has built, flown, pointed and triggered a missile designed specifically to carry a directed-energy weapon. That payload, expected to be operational soon,
will be able to disrupt, shut down, spoof or damage electrical systems, but little has been revealed about the project.
However, various clues have provided substantive details about the design and concept of operations (conops) for the new missile and its exotic payload. They come from Boeing
officials, industry specialists and U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory sponsors who are working on the Counter-electronics High-power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (Champ).
An illustration created by Boeing shows the missile being dropped by a B-52, which means at least some versions of the design are air-launched. However, the directed-energy,
high-power microwave (HPM) payload also is designed for integration into land, sea or other air-based platforms for operational flexibility.
As to the warhead’s anti-electronics capabilities, “the whole radio frequency spectrum is viable as a target,” says Keith Coleman, Boeing’s program manager for Champ since
2009. The systems will be tailored to the target defined by the customer. The effects will depend on the frequency and effective radiated power (ERP). There are many options.
Two short video clips produced by the Air Force—without sound or annotation—indicate the conops and effects. An animation shows a cruise missile flying at low altitude firing
beams of HPM from side- and downward-pointed apertures at high-rise office buildings in a city. The lights go off as the buildings are attacked. An actual video shows a room with about a
half-dozen desktop computers functioning with data on the screens. Suddenly all the computers go black, with one momentarily turning back on and then off again.
That still leaves two unanswered questions—is Champ stealthy and reusable?
The notional airframe shown in Boeing’s drawings is relatively small with compressed carriage wings that extend after launch. While Boeing’s artist concepts are not exact
representations of the missile, they do resemble the company’s cruise missile designs that are similarly air-launched and have low-radar-signature designs to penetrate enemy air defenses.
“Any of these systems can be made to be recoverable or otherwise,” Coleman says. “There are many proven methods of recovering vehicles from the lightweights to the heavier
designs.”
Champ was first flown on May 17 at the Utah Test and Training Range at Hill AFB. The missile was successfully pointed at a series of targets to confirm that it could be
controlled and timed to fire a focused beam that would minimize—and perhaps eliminate—collateral damage to nearby electronic devices. The software used in the test was identical to that required
to trigger the HPM weapon warhead.
Cruise missiles are valued for their intrinsic low radar cross-section that comes with small size, and they can be shaped and treated with radar-absorbing or reflecting
materials. That is why they are the primary tools for breaking down enemy air defenses on the first day of any conflict. A Champ-like design would be sure to have the same operational
requirements and need for stealth. Nonetheless, HPM payloads are not restricted to Champ.
“Any unmanned aircraft would be a candidate for these types of systems,” Coleman says. However, “Boeing built the Champ system to be easily transitioned to [alternative
platforms]. From the start we designed it with as many features as possible so that we would need minimum adjustments.”
Program officials will not address the question of whether Champ is associated with the Air Force’s Long-Range Strike (LRS) program. Air Force and aerospace industry officials
have said that directed-energy weapons support and electronic attack will be supplied to LRS by adjunct, unmanned aircraft.
“Champ is a template for future HPM programs,” Coleman says. “There has never been this type of system with this kind of power out on any vehicle of any sort before.”
Coleman contends there would be little difficulty putting the HPM weapons technology on a smaller or larger airframe.
“The HPM system itself is a very flexible integration,” he says. If smaller, you get less ERP and if bigger you get more. But if you are smaller, you can probably get closer
[to the target without being detected]. I absolutely think there is a desire to go to a bigger airframe. ERP is dependent on the size of the aperture. The bigger the aperture, the more power you
can produce and the more standoff you get.”
The initial version of Champ is designed for a relatively small, unmanned aircraft, Coleman says, so “that was part of the difficulty of getting everything to fit.”
Boeing’s Phantom Works built the missile airframe and the weapon pointing system, drawing on its experience with advanced weapons, cruise missiles and unmanned strike aircraft
in conjunction with the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Coleman worked on the Calcm and Jassm cruise missiles, the F-15E and F/A-18E/F strike fighters and X-45A/C unmanned combat aircraft projects that prepared him for leading a
very specialized team that integrated the sophisticated directed-energy weapon payload into the unmanned platform. There are about 25 core members from the various companies involved in the
program providing missile and aircraft program experience.
Raytheon’s newly acquired New Mexico-based Ktech division built the HPM warhead. The combination of airframe and warhead are to be demonstrated during a series of flight tests
planned to cluster around the end of the current program in July 2012.
Raytheon recently acquired Ktech because it is making plans to build a series of HPM warheads for virtually all the missile models on its various production lines. A few years
ago Raytheon planners said they were “betting the farm” on HPM pushing aside lasers as the most tactically useful and least demanding directed-energy weapon for next-generation combat operations.
Boeing, in a complementary mode, has been designing its unmanned combat aircraft designs to carry reusable, multi-shot HPM weapons.
NEW YORK – Senior industry and government officials overseeing the $380 billion F-35 program say that the fourth production lot is likely to overrun its per-unit cost target by
about 7%.
Vice Adm. David Venlet, the government’s F-35 program executive officer, says that prime contractor Lockheed Martin could improve on that, bringing the cost at completion
closer to the target. Roughly 30% of the build is complete for the aircraft in low-rate-initial production (LRIP) lot 4, he says.
“We feel good about how we are performing on the LRIP 4 aircraft today,” Bruce Tanner, Lockheed Martin’s chief financial officer, told an audience of investors assembled at the
Credit Suisse/Aviation Week 2011 Aerospace and Defense Conference here on Dec. 1. The 7% overrun expectation is “a pretty good estimate,” he said.
The unit cost targets according to the government program office are:
* $111.6 million for the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing version;
* $109.4 million for the short-takeoff-and-landing version; and * $142.9 million for the first production carrier aircraft.
Based on the contract, the government and Lockheed equally share in the cost of overruns up to 120% of the unit price target.
This overage is an improvement over earlier F-35 lot prices, which exceeded targets from 11-15%.
The government is paying $771 million in overruns to the price targets set up for LRIPs 1-3; this averages to $27.5 million per aircraft. Of that, $135 million is dedicated to
“concurrency cost,” or the price of retrofitting work onto existing jets based on findings in the development program. On average, that’s about $4.86 million for the 28 aircraft in the first
three lots.
General Electric and Rolls-Royce are ending the F136 program after deciding to discontinue self-funding the alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
The move comes after an Oct. 31 meeting between GE Aviation leadership and Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in which “it became clear that the [Defense Department] would
not support the FET self-funding effort,” says GE. Although not surprising, given the department’s termination of the F136 development effort in April, the decision ends a 15-year effort to mount
a competitive challenge to Pratt & Whitney’s incumbent F135 engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35.
Industry representatives have long surmised that the JSF’s total engine work was worth around $100 billion, although proponents of the competition also have argued that the
jockeying could cut 15-20% over the life of the program. In the end, then, both teams appeared to be eyeing $40-50 billion of work.
The end of the F136 also could have potential implications for the future strategic balance of power between the two former fighter engine partners and the United Technologies
Pratt & Whitney company as they position themselves for development of so-called sixth-generation combat engines. In light of the recent realignment between Pratt and Rolls over commercial
engines, and the establishment of a new joint venture between them for development of future civil turbofans, the once inconceivable notion of the two joining forces on next-generation military
engines may not be too far-fetched.
With almost 80% of the development complete at the time of the Pentagon’s termination announcement, and with about $3 billion in federal funding already spent on the effort, GE
and Rolls had both vowed to continue the fight by self-funding the F136 through fiscal 2012. However, GE says Carter’s position “made future progress on the F136 development program difficult. In
addition, the status of the federal budget has created greater uncertainty for the overall JSF program.”
Before the Pentagon terminated the program, six F136 development engines had accumulated more than 1,200 hr. of testing since early 2009. GE says that throughout its
development time “the FET consistently delivered on cost and on schedule, and was rewarded with high marks by the Department of Defense in a successful joint venture between GE and Rolls-Royce.”
No current jobs will be lost as a result of the decision. All F136 staff related to the development program will be reassigned to other projects.
The F136, while technically advanced, will now be sidelined and GE and Rolls will pursue separate competitive paths to future sixth-generation combat engines through the Air
Force Research Laboratories’ Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology (Advent) program and other research efforts. As both GE and Rolls hold patented technology within the F136, the engine cannot now
be further developed or derived for alternate uses such as Long-Range Strike concepts.
GE and Rolls together have announced that the termination decision is final and even if a self-funded development proposal for fiscal 2012 is supported in a joint House-Senate
defense authorization bill, the companies nonetheless would no longer pursue it.
Engine proponents in Congress, particularly in the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), had been working to keep the Pentagon and White House from permanently dismantling the
F136 effort, potentially by shifting most or all of the remaining development costs to the industry team. But the White House has opposed the engine since the George W. Bush administration, and
efforts to keep the program alive have been overshadowed by greater spending and efficiency concerns.
The companies say they “are deeply gratified by earlier HASC support.” The former team members add that “circumstances have changed and there is not a business case for
self-funding the F136 development.”
The unprecedented military engine relationship between GE and Rolls stretches back to March 1996 when Rolls-Royce (then the new parent company of Allison) joined the GE/Allison
team to develop and produce the YF120 cruise engine as an alternate engine for the various JSF aircraft then under consideration. It also became a partner in the GEA-FXL engine, the lift engine
being proposed for the lift-plus-lift cruise variant of the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing version of the JSF then under study.
The full partnership was ratified later that year when the government’s program office selected the YF120 engine for the JSF Alternate Engine Program. Under the original plan,
Allison was to provide components and technology for the core and low-pressure turbine while Rolls was assigned to design and manufacture the fan module.
In 1997, at the behest of Congress, the Pentagon structured the GE-Rolls program to enter production four years after the P&W engine and, in 2002, GE and Rolls formed the
Fighter Engine Team to develop the engine, by now renamed the F136.
Timeline of GE-Rolls F136 Program:
1995: For reasons of commonality with the P&W engine for the F-22, the Pentagon directs the P&W engine concept to be used during the JSF aircraft downselect process.
P&W becomes the uncontested primary JSF engine.
1996: Congress provides initial seed money to GE to study a competing engine. Rolls joins GE on the engine program.
1997: Congress further funds GE-Rolls and directs the Pentagon to ensure a full-development program is launched. The Pentagon structures the GE-Rolls program to enter
production four years after the P&W engine.
1999: The Pentagon introduces “plug-and-play” engine interchangeability, whereby the competing engines are designed to the same external dimensions for easy changeout of
engines.
2001: P&W awarded $4.8 billion full-scale development contract (system development and demonstration, or SDD) for the F135 engine.
2002: GE-Rolls create a joint company, the GE-Rolls Fighter Engine Team, to develop and produce the F136.
2000-2005: Development work continues on F136. Successful “core” engine test and fan rig tests in 2000; first full-engine runs begin in 2004.
2005: GE-Rolls is awarded $2.4 billion full-scale SDD, with completion set for 2013.
2006-2009: Each year in its budget request, the Pentagon seeks to cancel the F136, citing budget constraints. Engine funding restored each year by House and Senate
support.
2009: First “production-configuration” F136 engine goes to test.
2010: A so-called Nunn-McCurdy cost-and-schedule breach of the overall JSF program results from costs growing beyond 50% of plan. P&W’s development costs forecasted to grow
to $7.3 billion. For the fifth year, the Defense Department cancels the GE-Rolls program. In May, the House “authorized” to restore funding for the fiscal 2011 budget. However, the 2011 budget
process was not completed during 2010, and moved into the next year. Six F136 development engines run, preparing for flight tests in 2011.
2011: In a dramatic turnaround by lawmakers, coming after the November 2010 elections, the House votes in favor of a proposal that removes F136 funding from the 2011 continuing
resolution funding the government, and the F136 is terminated by the Pentagon. A self-funded F136 development effort plan is pushed forward by the House Armed Services Committee. But continued
uncertainty in the development and production schedules for the overarching JSF program lead GE and Rolls to discontinue the self-funded effort.
A bill to let U.S. spy agencies share intelligence on cyberthreats with private companies was backed by a House of Representatives intelligence panel on Thursday.
In a 17-1 vote, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence approved the legislation that would expand a pilot Pentagon program for sharing classified and sensitive threat
information with defense contractors and their Internet service providers.
Under the measure, a longer list of companies would be eligible for access to classified data from the National Security Agency and other agencies.
The bill was amended to expand privacy protections for data that companies give the government, including, potentially, data that Internet providers give about their customers.
That data could be used only for cyber- or national security, according to the amendment.
Some critics have worried that this type of sharing arrangement amounts to government surveillance of private data.
The government would also be barred from searching collected data except to secure cybernetworks from attack.
“Through hard work and compromise we have struck a delicate balance that provides strong protections for privacy and civil liberties, while still enabling effective cyberthreat
sharing and providing clear authority for the private sector to defend its own networks,” Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the committee, said in a statement.
There has been widespread and growing concern about incursions into U.S. networks by hackers determined to steal everything from state secrets to credit card numbers.
Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin have been among the high-profile victims of cyberattacks. Others include Google and Citigroup.
Sponsors of the bill envision, for example, that NSA would share with Internet service providers information identifying specific threats so that the ISP can then block traffic
to customers from that source.
Internet service providers and other companies have long complained that they give information to the U.S. government about potential cyberthreats but often do not find it a
two-way street. They say the government has been reluctant to reciprocate because the information is either classified or part of an investigation linked to a potential prosecution.
It was not immediately clear how the legislation would fare in either the Republican-controlled House or the Democratic-controlled Senate.
So, the interwebs are abuzz this morning with news that the man in charge of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program wants to slow down production — and therefore deliveries of the jet.
The slowdown is needed to install fixes to numerous structural cracks and “hot spots” that have been found in the plane over the last year, Vice Adm. David Venlet, JSF program manager, told
AOL Defense. The work needed to remedy these cracks could add $3 to $5 million to the cost of each jet.
Keep in mind that the Pentagon just reduced the latest F-35 purchase by five jets, so this news comes on top of that.
Venlet insists that these cracks aren’t an immediate safety issue, they would however cause the airframes to be pulled from service well before their planned 8,000 flight-hour lifetimes.
Here’s key quote from Venlet where he says that ‘heavy learning’ is still happening with the program — I have to say that many were hoping Lockheed and the F-35 office were beyond the heavy
learning years:
“The analyzed hot spots that have arisen in the last 12 months or so in the program have surprised us at the amount of change and at the cost,” Vice Adm. David Venlet said in an interview at
his office near the Pentagon. “Most of them are little ones, but when you bundle them all up and package them and look at where they are in the airplane and how hard they are to get at after
you buy the jet, the cost burden of that is what sucks the wind out of your lungs. I believe it’s wise to sort of temper production for a while here until we get some of these heavy years of
learning under our belt and get that managed right. And then when we’ve got most of that known and we’ve got the management of the change activity better in hand, then we will be in a better
position to ramp up production.”
These hot spots were found after the Pentagon and Lockheed examined the plane following the discovery of cracks in an important bulkhead on the F-35B last
year. He apparently wouldn’t say how much production should be slowed.
The big question now becomes, what will a production slowdown to to the cost of each airplane at a time when many JSF buyers are looking to cut billions from their defense budgets? The second
question is, what does this mean for the existing fighter fleets that are/were supposed to be replaced by F-35s sometime this decade?
Yes, the F-35 has had a very good year of flight testing but, as Venlet points out, overall testing still nowhere near close to finished. F-35 customers have
got to be wondering what additional surprises will come along:
Flight testing of the F-35, though going extremely well lately, is only 18 percent complete, Venlet said. As of Nov. 29, 1,364 test flights had been flown — 896 of them in the past 10 months,
despite two stoppages of a couple of weeks each to fix problems found by flying. Under a new program baseline created after the JSF project breached cost limits under the Nunn-McCurdy law,
about 7,700 hours of flight tests are planned. “That’s a lot,” Venlet said, adding that number will grow if more problems are found.
Fatigue testing has barely begun, Venlet said. The CTOL variant’s fatigue testing is about 20 percent complete; the CV variant has not started yet. For the STOVL variant, fatigue testing was
halted at 6 percent last year and has not resumed after a crack in a large bulkhead in the wing was found, requiring a major redesign of that part.
General Electric (GE) and partner Rolls Royce have stopped financing their F136 afterburning turbofan designed for the F-35 Lightning II, the two companies announced Dec.
2.
The pair had been privately funding the developmental effort - dubbed the alt-engine - after the U.S. Defense Department formally terminated the project in April.
"The decision, reached jointly by GE and Rolls-Royce leadership, recognizes the continued uncertainty in the development and production schedules for the JSF Program," the
companies said in a joint statement. "Following termination, the GE Rolls-Royce [Fighter Engine Team] had offered to self-fund F136 development through fiscal year 2012, but will now end its
development work."
The two companies' decision marks the end of a 15-year effort to develop an alternative to the Pratt and Whitney F135 engine that would eventually be fitted into later F-35
production lots. The process was supposed replicate the so-called "Great Engine War" between the GE F110 and Pratt and Whitney F100, which power different blocks of Lockheed Martin's F-16
Fighting Falcon. Lockheed also builds the F-35.
The Defense Department, however, had been trying to cancel the F-136 program for the last five years because it said it can't afford to fund an extra engine. Until last year,
DoD had been thwarted by Congress in those efforts.
Before DoD issued a "stop work" order March 24 for the 43,000-pound-thrust-class engine, GE claims that F136 development was about 80 percent complete. Six developmental
engines had accumulated more than 1,100 hours since early 2010, the company said.
The two companies often touted advantages the F136 potentially offered over its Pratt and Whitney rival.
"The engine demonstrated significant thrust margin for much lower operating temperatures than the competing JSF engine," the GE and Rolls Royce statement reads. "This creates
up to a 25 percent maintenance cost advantage for the F136 because of the engine's higher airflow design."
The Obama administration is planning for a $523.42 billion base defense budget in 2013 with an additional $82.53 billion for contingency operations, a combined one-year
reduction of about $47 billion in the base budget and an assumption of a $35 billion drop in operating costs in Iraq and Afghanistan from what was previously planned.
The budget caps agreed to by Pentagon officials and the White House's Office of Management and Budget are being used to write the detailed 2013 budget plan that will be
submitted to Congress early next year for the fiscal year that begins next Oct. 1.
Over five years, the Obama plan calls for a $261 billion reduction from the budget guidelines of just one year ago. This allow for modest growth in 2014 through 2017 in the
base defense budget, even though totals will be more than $50 billion less each year than previously planned.
The guidance also assumes that the cost of contingency operations, which was $160 billion a year in 2011, would fall to about $50 billion a year beginning in 2014.
No assumptions are included in the guidance about how the Defense Department might be affected by the automatic budget cuts set to take effect on Jan. 2, 2013, because Congress
has failed to find another way of producing $1.2 trillion in savings. Congressional and industry sources said the Pentagon does not appear to be doing any detailed work on how sequestration - the
technical name for the automatic cuts - might affect programs.
Under the formula in the Budget Control Act of 2011 for producing the $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board savings, the base defense budget faces sequestration of about
10 percent, or an additional $52 billion. Contingency funds are not subject to sequestration, under last year's deficit reduction law. The budget law grants the president the authority to exempt
military personnel funds from sequestration, but the Defense Department would have to make up the difference through deeper cuts in non-personnel programs.
The U.S. Army will decide in the next few weeks whether it will buy Israel's Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, to protect bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rafael and the U.S. Raytheon Co., which produces the Patriot air-defense system, teamed in August to market Iron Dome, currently used to defend against Palestinian rockets, in the United States.
Iron Dome is designed to counter rockets and artillery shells with a range of 2-43 miles. It's the first system of its type to be used in combat.
Yossi Druker, head of Rafael's Air-to-Air Directorate, said Wednesday that the winner of the tender issued by the Pentagon is expected to be announced in January.
"Iron Dome is said to be compatible with the U.S. Army's Counter-Rocket and Artillery and Mortar system, or C-RAM, as part of layered defense for military bases," The Jerusalem Post observed.
Iron Dome made its combat debut in April in southern Israel against Palestinian rockets and the military says it has notched a success rate of 85 percent against Palestinian rockets it sought to intercept.
The system's computer can distinguish which rockets will hit populated areas and those that won't. It only fires on those that endanger Israeli lives.
The Israeli air force, which is responsible for air defense, has three Iron Dome batteries operational, primarily in the south to counter short-range rockets fired by militants from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
But the military acknowledges that it needs 15-20 Iron Dome batteries to effectively provide protection from short-range missiles and rockets along the northern border with Lebanon and the southern frontier with Gaza.
So the Israelis may find themselves on the horns of a dilemma if the Americans decide they want Iron Dome: Who will get priority, homeland defense or developing a potentially lucrative export market for this unique system, the first operational short-range air-defense system in the world?
The Israelis say they face missile threats on several fronts, from Syria, Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and its allies in Gaza.
These threats range from intermediate-range ballistic missiles from Iran and Syria, with shorter-range weapons from Hezbollah and the Palestinians.
The nightmare scenario is that if a new conflict erupts in the Middle East, every inch of the Jewish state will be exposed to a sustained and unprecedented bombardment by these foes.
Military planners say this could last for weeks, with up to 200 missiles and rockets a day hammering Israel, including the massive urban conurbation around Tel Aviv in the center of the country.
Every Iron Dome battery will be needed but Israel's defense industry, like those in the United States and Europe, is increasingly dependent on export sales to keep production lines rolling amid global cutbacks in defense spending.
Singapore has reportedly bought Iron Dome, although no details are available and the Israeli Defense Ministry hasn't confirmed the sale. India and South Korea have also shown interest.
The air force expects to take delivery of David's Sling, another anti-missile system developed by Rafael, within the next year, Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of the air force's Air Defense Division, said Thursday.
This system, also known as Magic Wand, is designed as the middle-tier of Israel's planned multilayer missile defense shield. It's designed to counter missiles and rockets with ranges of 25-185 miles.
Meantime, The Jerusalem Post reports that state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries is building a third battery of the Arrow-2 high-altitude, long-range missile interceptor to be deployed near Tel Aviv.
The Israeli air force has two Arrow batteries deployed in southern and northern Israel. The system is designed to counter Iran's Shehab-3b, Sejjil-2 and Soviet-designed Scud ballistic missiles. Syria also has Scuds.
Central Israel was chosen for the site of the new battery "because it provides the best protection for long-range threats which Israel faces from a number of directions," a military spokesman said.
IAI and Boeing in the United States are developing the Arrow-3, which will extend the range and altitude of the missile, which allows it to intercept ballistic missiles earlier in their trajectory and further from Israel.
The Arrow-3's first fly-out test is scheduled within the next few months. The United States contributed the bulk of the funds to develop the Arrow system.
Brock Technologies has announced that its Havoc Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) has undertaken its first flight on 24 October 2011. Brock Technologies made the announcement in a
company statement, saying that the UAS will ‘bridge the gap between affordability and capability’.
The Havoc UAS was developed under a series of Air Force SBIR contracts. The twin boom, pusher 2-stroke engine platform was intended to provide users with a robust modular UAS
capable of long endurance flights while carrying an assortment of payloads.
The test flight programme has so far seen the UAS undertake flights with two platforms with a variety of payloads. Swapping integrated forward payload bays between flights,
Havoc successfully demonstrated video data transmission to the ground station, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) communications, Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) functionality, and vehicle
identification through a mode C transponder and blind encoder.
According to the company, the second series of flight tests is to take place in November, when additional capabilities and endurance testing will be carried out.
Built using advanced composite construction, the radio frequency transparent Havoc airframe structure offers multiple internal antenna placement locations that enable increased
endurance and payload capability. With 1000 watts of power provided by the onboard generator at its disposal the Havoc can host a variety of payloads in either the forward or aft payload bay. The
tails are also hollow and offer additional space for payload integration. Variable launch and recovery options continue to illustrate the systems modularity. The current prototypes have
demonstrated successful rolling take-offs and landings. Future renditions will validate additional launch and recovery methods such as catapult launching and belly skid landing.
Les élus américains ont largement approuvé le budget 2012 de la Défense après plusieurs jours de débat et des amendements autour de mesures controversées sur les suspects de terrorisme.
Le Sénat américain a adopté jeudi un projet de loi de finances pour la Défense de 660 milliards de dollars pour l’exercice budgétaire 2012, contenant notamment des règles de détention durcies
pour les suspects de terrorisme. Les élus ont approuvé, par 93 voix pour et sept contre, ce vaste projet de loi, après plusieurs jours de débats et l’examen de dizaines d’amendements.
Parmi les mesures controversées sur les suspects de terrorisme, figure la détention illimitée de citoyens américains. Cette mesure a été atténuée par un amendement de compromis qui donne
l’assurance que rien ne change dans les droits des citoyens.
Mais l’administration Obama a menacé les mesures sur les suspects de terrorisme de veto, exprimant "de graves inquiétudes judiciaires et politiques", et rien n’indique qu’elle sera satisfaite par
le compromis.
Iran et Pakistan dans le collimateur
Outre ces mesures, le Sénat a adopté un amendement sanctionnant la banque centrale d’Iran pour entraver la progression du programme nucléaire iranien. Une autre mesure vise à geler l’aide
militaire au Pakistan pour la lutte contre les talibans, pour forcer Islamabad à s’attaquer aux causes des attentats à l’engin explosif improvisé sur le bord des routes, dont sont victimes les
soldats américains en Afghanistan.
Par ailleurs, un autre amendement appelle l’administration américaine à la coopération avec la Libye pour empêcher que les stocks de missiles portatifs libyens ne tombent entre les mains
d’extrémistes islamistes après la chute du régime du colonel Mouammar Kadhafi.
La Chambre avait adopté en mai sa version du projet de loi finances pour le Pentagone. Celle-ci contient une mesure exigeant que les terroristes présumés arrêtés par les Etats-Unis soient jugés
dans des tribunaux militaires et non de droit commun.
L’administration Obama s’oppose à cette mesure empêchant de facto la fermeture du centre de détention de Guantanamo.
Les élus des deux chambres doivent se réunir en conférence pour se mettre d’accord sur une version commune du projet de loi finances.
(Source: Elbit Systems of America; issued December 1, 2011)
FORT WORTH, Texas --- Elbit Systems of America, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd., announced today that it purchased from General Dynamics Armament and
Technical Products its holdings in UAS Dynamics, LLC, a joint venture established by Elbit Systems of America and GDATP to provide UAS to the U.S. market, thus making Elbit Systems of America the
sole owner of UAS Dynamics.
UAS Dynamics will become part of Elbit Systems of America's Unmanned Systems business unit which is responsible for both airborne and seaborne unmanned systems.
Raanan Horowitz, President and CEO of Elbit Systems of America, stated: "The integration of UAS Dynamics with Elbit Systems of America Unmanned Systems business unit will
enable us to pursue opportunities associated with unmanned technologies and capabilities across multiple domains and we will continue to look for opportunities to provide the U.S. warfighters
with innovative solutions that meet their diverse mission needs."
Elbit Systems of America is a leading provider of high performance products and system solutions focusing on the commercial aviation, defense, homeland security, and medical
instrumentation markets. With facilities throughout the- United States , Elbit Systems of America is dedicated to supporting those who contribute daily to the safety and security of the United
States. Elbit Systems of America, LLC is wholly owned by Elbit Systems Ltd., a global electronics company engaged in a wide range of programs for innovative defense-and
commercial-applications.
Elbit Systems Ltd. is an international defense electronics company engaged in a wide range of 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, unmanned aircraft systems,
advanced electro-optics, electro-optic space systems, EW suites, airborne warning systems, ELINT systems, data links and military communications systems and radios.
22.06.2020 source DCSSA À l'occasion de la fête nationale, qui aura lieu le mardi 14 juillet 2020, une collecte de sang exceptionnelle en soutien aux armées sera organisée, à Paris, Hôtel national des Invalides Paris 7e, de 10h à 17h30. Rendez-vous annuel,...
source: FED Manifestation biennale créée en 1989 à l’initiative conjointe de la CCI Val-d’Oise/ Yvelines et de la DCMAT (Direction Centrale du Matériel de l’Armée de Terre) devenue en 2010 la SIMMT (Structure Intégrée du Maintien en condition opérationnelle...
18.06.2019 Ministère des Armées A l’occasion de la 53ème édition du Salon International de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace, nous vous proposons de découvrir la maquette grandeur réelle du futur hélicoptère interarmées léger, exposée sur le stand du ministère...
photo Thales
17 juin 2019 CP Thales Thales lance IVEN, la première plateforme digitale assurant la mise en relation entre industriels de l’aéronautique et de la défense et fournisseurs de pièces détachées. Avec IVEN, l’acheteur bénéficie d’un tiers de...
Spy’Ranger 550 photoThales
18 juin 2019 CP Thales Thales présente le Spy’Ranger 550, son nouveau système de mini drones tactiques de surveillance et de renseignement. Il complète la gamme de systèmes de mini drones proposée par Thales. Déployable en vingt...
photo Armée de l'Air
16.06.2019 Ministère des Armées Ce mois-ci, les équipes du Journal de la Défense vous font découvrir les coulisses de l'arrivée du dernier-né de l'armée de l'Air : le Phénix. Conçu sur la base d'un A330, l'appareil européen permet...
photo Naval Group
Paris, le 23 mai 2019 CP Naval group & ONERA Dans une continuité de l’accord signé en mai 2016, Naval Group et l’ONERA ont décidé de renforcer leur coopération dans le domaine du développement de l’autonomie décisionnelle contrôlée des...
23 Mai 2019 CP Thales Lors de la première phase du programme ARTEMIS, Thales et Sopra Steria ont réalisé en 2018 avec succès la conception et la réalisation d’une preuve de concept pour une plateforme Big Data. Pour la deuxième phase du programme, la...
photo DCSSA
source DCSSA Les vacances de pâques et les jours fériés du mois de mai ont entraîné une forte tension des stocks en produits sanguins. Les réserves en produits sanguins notamment de groupe O, sont passées sous le « seuil d’alerte ». Si ce...
photo Naval Group
23.04.19 2019 CP Naval Group Le 18 avril 2019, Naval Group a mis à flot la frégate multimissions FREMM Alsace. Première des deux frégates de défense aérienne du programme FREMM (FREMM DA) destinée à la Marine nationale et dotée des mêmes...
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