Mar. 23, 2015 By: Dan Parsons - FG

Washington DC - The overall cost of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II programme will come in at about $7.5 billion less than previously expected, according to the 2015 selected acquisition report (SAR).

Released on 18 March, the report indicates that research, development, test and evaluation cost remains unchanged at $54.9 billion, but that procurement costs declined by $7.7 billion, to $331 billion. The F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) says the reduction was primarily due to decreased labour costs.

While the SAR reports that the operating and support (O&S) costs of the F-35 over its service life remain nearly $1 trillion – the cost assessment programme evaluation that authors the SAR does not adjust O&S figures until a major milestone is reached – the JPO claims its revised cost estimate for this metric showed a $57.8 billion reduction from 2014, bringing the overall figure to $859 billion.

Lockheed's F-35 programme general manager, Lorraine Martin, says the company has reduced O&S costs for the F-35 by $60 billion in the past year alone.

Read more

KWAJALEIN ATOLL, Marshall Islands, March 23, 2015 – Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin Developed System to Improve Ability to Predict and Prevent Space Collisions

In a special February ceremony on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean – more than 2,100 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu – the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] broke ground at the future six-acre site of the new Space Fence radar system.

The event marks the official start of construction for the S-band ground-based radar system, designed to replace the 1960s Air Force Space Surveillance System to improve the way objects are tracked in orbit and increase our ability to predict and prevent space-based collisions.

“The number of small satellites and satellite operators around the world is skyrocketing, rapidly crowding an environment already congested by the more than 17,000 pieces of space debris that we are able to track today,” said Steve Bruce, vice president for Advanced Systems at Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems and Training business. “By comparison, when it comes online in 2018, Space Fence will enable the Air Force to locate and track hundreds of thousands of objects orbiting Earth with more precision than ever before to help reduce the potential for collisions with our critical space-based infrastructure.”

In addition to the radar arrays, the Kwajalein installation will include an on-site operations center and an annex to the current island power plant that will ensure the Space Fence system has everything necessary to provide continuous space situational awareness.

Lockheed Martin won the $915 million contract in June of 2014 to engineer, manufacture and deploy the Space Fence radar system. The total contract value is estimated at greater than $1.5 billion over an eight-year period of performance if all options are exercised.

The Lockheed Martin-led team – which includes AMEC Foster Wheeler and General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies – has decades of collective experience in space-related programs, including sensors, mission processing, cataloging, orbital mechanics, net-centric communications and facilities.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 112,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s net sales for 2014 were $45.6 billion.

DULLES, Va., March 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/

NASA selected Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) as the Large Business Prime Contractor of the Year in its agency-level awards to recognize small business partnership. Raytheon was nominated for its support to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and was then advanced to recognition at the agency level for extensive efforts to help NASA meet its goals for small business inclusion.

In its announcement, NASA explained its Small Business Industry Awards program is designed to recognize outstanding contractors that help the agency meet its mission. For 2014, nominations were received from all 10 of NASA's centers.

The Raytheon team was nominated by the Goddard Space Flight Center for support through the Evolution and Development, or EED, program led by NASA's Earth Science and Data Information System Project Office. Raytheon has been NASA's partner on the program for more than 20 years.

"Raytheon's work in support of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center underpins our nation's continued space exploration and scientific discovery," said Todd Probert, vice president of Mission Support and Modernization for Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. "We approach this work as a trusted partner to NASA and are committed to program innovation as we team with, and mentor, small businesses."

Raytheon program manager Tim Ortiz said Raytheon employees partner with small-businesses in direct support of NASA's Earth Science Climate Research at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The Raytheon team's integrated partnership means a 42-percent work share for small businesses, exceeding goals set by the Small Business Administration.

Raytheon Company has a history of more than 50 years of partnership with NASA through programs including manufacture of the Apollo flight computer, training astronauts, providing weather and other data analysis, and building space-based environmental sensing instruments for study of geophysical properties of Earth and other planets.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2014 sales of $23 billion and 61,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, security and civil markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 93 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as cyber security and a broad range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @raytheon.

23/03/2015  DICoD

Le ministère de la Défense a été présent au 35e salon du livre qui s'est déroulé du 20 au 23 mars 2015, porte de Versailles. Son stand a rencontré un vif succès avec de nombreuses visites et plus de 500 ouvrages vendus. Le président de la République, chef des armées, s'y est arrêté pour rencontrer les auteurs militaires et civils venus présenter leurs ouvrages.

Lors du 35e salon du livre, organisé porte de Versailles du 20 au 23 mars, le stand du ministère de la Défense a connu une fréquentation importante de son stand. Pour cette nouvelle édition, plus de 200 ouvrages étaient mis à l’honneur par le ministère, et plus de 500 livres ont été vendus. La politique éditoriale menée au sein du ministère de la Défense est riche et variée, dans sa forme comme dans son contenu. Cette volonté, qui fait du ministère le deuxième acteur culturel de l’État, explique en grande partie le vif succès rencontré lors de cette édition 2015.

Le président de la République, François Hollande, s’est rendu sur le stand de la Défense, accompagné de Fleur Pellerin, ministre de la Culture et de la Communication. Ils ont été suivis quelques heures plus tard par le ministre de l’Intérieur, Bernard Cazeneuve, ainsi que par le chef d’état-major de l’armée de Terre, le général Jean-Pierre Bosser.

Parmi la quarantaine d’auteurs présents sur le stand pour les dédicaces se trouvaient Alexandre Paringaux, pour son livre Rafale : Le Baptême du feu, le général Benoît Royal pour L'éthique du soldat français ou encore le chef de bataillon Rémy Scarpa, pour son ouvrage intitulé Offensive éclair au Mali.

March 21, 2015 By Burak Ege Bekdil – Defense News

ANKARA — Turkey's government and military leaders have agreed to speed up the country's crawling program for the design, development and production of an indigenous fighter jet.

Officials here said there is a broad "administrative agreement" over a need to give the program a boost.

"The program will gain notable pace after the [parliamentary] elections [on June 7]," said one senior procurement official familiar with the program, dubbed TF-X. "There is consensus among the president [Recep Tayyip Erdogan], prime minister [Ahmet Davutoglu] and the Air Force that the program should go ahead with a 'priority tag.' "

An Air Force official assisting the program said the top brass in the service is "keen to go faster than before."

"Maximum [expert] input possible will be provided from our side," he said. "This is now an established policy."

Early in March, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) procurement agency released a request for information (RFI) for the ambitious TF-X.

In that document, SSM defined the scope of the fighter program as "indigenous design, development and production activities of the first Turkish fighter aircraft to meet Turkish Armed Forces' next generation fighter requirements and replace the existing F-16 fighter fleet starting from 2030s."

Companies or organizations capable of designing, developing and manufacturing the planned aircraft are invited to obtain an electronic copy of the RFI from SSM.

SSM officials say the release of the RFI marks a critical stage for the program, aiming "to see which companies would be willing to take part and which capabilities will be offered."

"We expect a satisfactory level of international interest," the procurement official said. "We already unofficially know that a number of foreign manufacturers hope to be part of this program."

He said a new roadmap also has been devised. The first thing Ankara will do, he said, is put together a team of SSM and Air Force officials that will be expected to run the program until the end.

"Soon there will formally be an enthusiastic team working on the ideal modality for the program," the official said. "That team is being structured at the moment."

Turkey's top procurement panel, the Defense Industry Executive Committee, chaired by Davutoglu, officially decided on Jan. 7 to go ahead with the TF-X program after reviewing its feasibility.

At the meeting, the committee decided to move beyond the pre-concept design stage. It said a twin-engine model would be pursued in the national fighter aircraft program.

Other members of the committee are Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz, Chief of Military General Staff Gen. Ncdet Ozel and chief procurement official, Ismail Demir, head of the SSM.

Davutoglu has said that a twin-engine model would be pursued in the national fighter aircraft program.

But the procurement official said this is not an irreversible decision. "We remain flexible on the choice of engine modality. Depending on our choice of a base model we may rethink that," he said.

He also said the "base model" could be both a NATO or a non-NATO product.

23 Mar. 2015 NATO Communiqué de presse (2015) 056

Le Conseil de l'Atlantique Nord a approuvé ce jour, 23 mars 2015, la nomination du général Denis Mercier, de l'armée de l’air française, au poste de commandant suprême allié Transformation.

Le général Mercier est actuellement chef d’état-major de l’armée de l’air française. Il prendra la succession du général Jean-Paul Paloméros, de l'armée de l’air française, lors d'une cérémonie de passation de commandement qui se déroulera au quartier général du commandement suprême allié Transformation, à Norfolk (Virginie), en septembre 2015.

Au nom des gouvernements de tous les pays de l’Alliance, le Conseil de l'Atlantique Nord exprime au général Paloméros sa profonde et durable reconnaissance pour les remarquables services rendus dans l’exercice de ses fonctions de commandant suprême allié Transformation.

March 23, 2015 By Burak Ege Bekdil – Defense News

ANKARA — The deliveries of two A400M military transport aircraft for Turkey, scheduled for this year, are facing delays, procurement officials here said.

The delay will result in penalties for the maker of the aircraft, Airbus Group, the officials said.

"The penalties specified in the contract can be cash payment or free equipment and services," one official said.

The official did not specify how long the delays are expected to be but said latest estimates show "they will probably be annoying enough but not as bad as the previous ones."

In 2003, Turkey signed a deal for a batch of 10 A400Ms, with final deliveries scheduled for 2018. Last year, two aircraft were delivered with two more to be received in 2015.

The delays in 2014 sparked a dispute between Airbus and the Turkish government. Turkey accused Airbus of failing in its delivery timetable, and Airbus accused Turkey for using delays for bargaining.

The latest A400M delivery to Turkey was formalized in December at Airbus consortium's final assembly line in Seville, Spain. The aircraft landed in the 12th Air Transportation Main Base Command in Erkilet in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri. Turkey's first A400M was delivered last April, following months-long controversy over whether the aircraft met technical specifications.

Other A400M client nations are Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Spain and Britain.

23 March 2015 defenceWeb (Reuters)

Islamic State insurgents in Libya.The United States is increasingly concerned about the growing presence and influence of the Syria-based Islamic State movement in Libya, according to U.S. officials and a State Department report.

The officials said what they called "senior" Islamic State leaders had travelled to the country, which is whacked by civil war, to help recruit and organize militants, particularly in the cities of Derna and Sirte.

Since late January, Islamic State militants have carried out attacks, including a car bombing and siege at the Corinthia, a luxury hotel in Tripoli, and an attack on the Mabruk oilfield south of Sirte, according to a report circulated this week by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Bureau.

The militants also posted on the Web images of the beheading of 21 abducted Egyptian Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach.

The State Department document said estimates of the number of Islamic State fighters operating in Libya ranged from 1000 to 3000.

Around 800 fighters were based in the Derna area alone, the report said, including up to 300 who previously fought in Syria or Iraq.

U.S. officials said that because of its strategic position, Libya had become a springboard for would-be fighters from across North Africa wanting to link up with the Islamic State. They could travel from there to Syria for frontline experience.

The State Department assessment, whose existence was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon website, said that the disintegration of central authority in Libya "has given ISIL an opening to establish a legitimate foothold."

The report said Islamic State had only had limited success in capturing and holding territory in Libya.

U.S. officials said Libya Dawn, an Islamist, but non-Jihadist, movement based in the city of Misurata, was mounting a counter-attack against Islamic State forces, a development which the United States considered encouraging.

Islamic State has also endorsed, or received expressions of loyalty, from other militants around the region, including factions based in Nigeria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

U.S. agencies are evaluating evidence that appears to tie Islamic State to the militants who killed 20 foreign tourists on Wednesday at a museum in Tunis, the capital of Libya's western neighbor Tunisia.

March 20, 2015 By Prashanth Parameswaran - TheDiplomat

Jakarta is reorganizing its military for the future. But specifics still remain unclear.

March 19, 2015 By Prashanth Parameswaran – TheDiplomat

Defense spending for the Southeast Asian state has been cut by over 25 percent.

23 March 2015 naval-technology.com

The US Marine Corps (USMC) has awarded a contract to Elbit Systems' US subsidiary for the delivery of Common Laser Range Finder-Integrated Capability (CLRF-IC).

The $73.4m indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract has a performance period that runs up to 2020 and the initial order under the IDIQ award amounts to $7.5m.

Work under the contract will be carried out by the company in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Commenting on the contract, Elbit Systems of America president and chief executive officer Raanan Horowitz said: "We are pleased to provide the USMC with their new rugged CLRF-IC, a lightweight system that is mission-ready and safer for the foot-mobile Marine.

"Leveraging the innovative capabilities of our imaging, range finding, and degraded environment navigation solutions, Marines are now able to acquire targets without breaking cover from their concealed fighting positions and minimise impact while on the move."

Set to replace the USMC's currently fielded equipment, Elbit's CLRF-IC is a lightweight targeting device that is designed to incorporate day and night imaging and high accuracy laser based range finding.

The system provides 24-hour observation capability, accurate range to targets, the ability to confirm spot on target with laser designation systems, and accurate target location in a variety of conditions, including magnetically disturbed environments, areas with overhead clutter, and in GPS-denied situations.

The CLRF-IC is said to offer a more affordable mission capability due to its highly reliable performance and minimal lifecycle cost.

BURLINGTON, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - 23 mars 2015) - marketwired.com

Le gouvernement Harper investit dans une nouvelle technologie de surveillance et de ciblage dans le but d'appuyer le secteur canadien de la défense, de la sécurité et de la sécurité publique

Le ministre de l'Industrie James Moore a annoncé aujourd'hui l'octroi d'un important investissement visant à préserver la sécurité des Canadiens. Le ministre a effectué cette annonce alors qu'il était de passage au siège social de la société L-3 WESCAM à Burlington, en Ontario, en compagnie de représentants d'universités et de fournisseurs partenaires. L'investissement considérable consenti à cette entreprise lui permettra de poursuivre ses travaux de R-D visant à mettre au point des caméras de surveillance et des détecteurs de haute technologie aériens, terrestres et maritimes. Ce type d'instrument est essentiel aux activités de défense, de sécurité, et de recherche et sauvetage qui sont menées au Canada.

Cet investissement du gouvernement Harper entraînera la création d'emplois hautement spécialisés et bien rémunérés dans l'ensemble de la chaîne d'approvisionnement dédiée à la fabrication de matériel de défense dans le Sud de l'Ontario, en plus de préserver 200 postes existants à Burlington et à Don Mills.

WESCAM investira 2 millions de dollars dans le cadre de partenariats avec des universités et des collèges canadiens, afin de contribuer à la formation de la future main-d'œuvre du Canada dans le domaine des technologies de sécurité et de défense.

L'entreprise formera des partenariats avec plus de 60 fournisseurs de l'Ontario dans le cadre de ce projet.

Les faits en bref

• L-3 WESCAM est l'entreprise de fabrication de matériel de défense la plus importante au Canada dans le domaine de l'imagerie et de la détection de pointe aéroportées, et un chef de file des applications en matière de défense, de surveillance, et de recherche et sauvetage.
• Depuis 2005, les caméras de WESCAM ont joué un rôle crucial dans l'interception d'insurgés en Afghanistan et en Iraq.
• En 2014, un avion de Transports Canada équipé d'un détecteur de chaleur de WESCAM a joué un rôle prépondérant dans la capture du malfaiteur armé responsable de la mort de trois membres de la Gendarmerie royale du Canada, à Moncton, au Nouveau-Brunswick.
• Le matériel de surveillance de WESCAM a également été utilisé le long de la frontière canado-américaine pour intercepter des trafiquants de drogue.
• Le gouvernement du Canada verse, par l'entremise de l'Initiative stratégique pour l'aérospatiale et la défense, une contribution remboursable de 75 millions de dollars à L-3 WESCAM à l'appui de ses travaux de recherche-développement.
• L'investissement du gouvernement Harper entraînera un investissement additionnel de 113 millions de dollars de la part de WESCAM dans l'économie canadienne.
• En 2013, l'industrie canadienne de l'aérospatiale et de la défense a généré plus de 172 000 emplois et a injecté 28 milliards de dollars dans l'économie. Le volet de la défense de ce secteur emploie chaque année plus de 63 000 travailleurs hautement qualifiés et génère des recettes de plus de 9,4 milliards de dollars.