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14 Nov 18. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has signed a contract with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) to provide contractor logistics support (CLS) to the Republic of Korea’s high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (HUAV) fleet. The support for DAPA and the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) include: timely site activation in South Korea; complete training packages for pilots, operators and maintainers of the system; and a team of subject matter experts to provide seamless on-site and reach-back CLS support.
“Northrop Grumman will build on our successful support of the U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk and U.S. Navy’s Triton heritage to provide high-quality sustainment support to the ROK HUAV fleet,” said John Parker, vice president, global logistics and modernization, Northrop Grumman Technology Services. “By leveraging our proven performance with the U.S. fleet and the introduction of systems to other global operators, we offer DAPA and the ROKAF a high-quality, low-risk, responsive services package.”
“Northrop Grumman is honored to have the opportunity to work with DAPA on the HUAV CLS program,” said Dong Ha, chief executive, Northrop Grumman South Korea. “We look forward to forming a long-term partnership on this important HUAV sustainment program that will help ensure the safety and security of the Republic of Korea.”
The Global Hawk system is building on its heritage of innovation, modernizing its current capabilities by integrating new technologies that enhance capabilities, performance and reliability. In active operation with the U.S. Air Force since 2001, Global Hawk has amassed more than 250,000 flight hours with missions flown in support of military and humanitarian operations. With the ability to fly at high altitudes for greater than 30 hours, Global Hawk is designed to gather near-real-time, high-resolution imagery of large areas of land in all types of weather – day or night. Global Hawk is also a multiple winner of the prestigious Roche Sustainment Excellence Award, which is a testament to the program’s ability to reduce significant costs while driving performance well beyond specified values.
15 Nov 18. F-35 countdown: Regional maintenance hub to drive industry growth. Australia’s participation with the global F-35 program has seen Queensland-based TAE Aerospace establish itself as the regional hub for complex engine maintenance on Australian and allied F-35s supporting the development of sovereign industry capability. As part of the broader national preparation for the Australian operation of the fifth-generation F-35, TAE Aerospace has established itself as a leader in the engine and turbine maintenance ecosystem. The company’s new Turbine Engine Maintenance Facility (TEMF) in Bundamba, south-east Queensland will enable deeper-level maintenance, where the F135 engine modules for the F-35 are disassembled, repaired and reassembled for testing.
“This is an exciting opportunity for TAE to design and build a speciality maintenance and manufacturing facility, with two areas of focus, one dedicated to F135 engine maintenance in partnership with CASG and Pratt & Whitney, and the second focusing on maintenance of existing engines from the Hornet, Super Hornet, Growler and Abrams platforms,” Andrew Sanderson, chief executive and managing director of TAE Aerospace said.
As part of establishing this leading-edge capability, TAE has partnered with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for the engines and turbines, world leading military aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, to establish a centre of excellence, not only for Australian industry, but equally as a critical cog in the global F-35 sustainment and logistics network.
Once completed, the building will have 15,620 square metres of floor space, which is an 80 per cent expansion of the current footprint, which will see five key work areas established, including:
- F135 engine maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade (MRO&U) and regional warehouse area – ready Q4 FY19;
- Existing engine MRO&U and warehouse area for engines from Hornet (F404), Super Hornet, Growler (F414) and Abrams tank (AGT1500), plus expansion space – ready Q2 FY20;
- Engine component repair area including, cleaning, non-destructive testing, machining, welding, grinding, heat treatment – ready Q2 FY20;
- Advanced manufacturing facility for aluminium vacuum brazing based chassis production for the F35 aircraft – ready Q2 FY20; and
- Administration and engineering office complex – ready Q2 FY20.
The specially designed, secure facility will provide optimised work areas for improved production flow, which is climate controlled throughout, while implementing an open plan design to maximise the use of space and equipment.
This leading-edge capability also provides the opportunity for Australia to further develop it’s sovereign industrial capability through collaboration with key global partners on the F-35 project. This expands beyond just the OEMs, like Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney, to the global operators of the weapons system, particularly allies including the US, Japan and South Korea.
“As key industry partners for the global F-35 project, it has meant that industry as a whole has had to be globally competitive, that is across both manufacturing and sustainment, it is a great vote of confidence in Australian industry and its capability to compete against global heavyweights,” Sanderson explained.
Enhancing these critical regional partnerships at the military-to-military level provides Australia’s domestic industry with the opportunity to integrate and collaborate with F-35 industry partners in allied countries as a means of enhancing industry development, collaboration and Australian industry content in global supply chains beyond the F-35.
Examples of such global integration and participation on the back of success with the F-35 program have been seen with companies like TAE, highlighting the adaptability of Australian industry and the role it can play in supporting broader platforms.
Sanderson reinforced this, saying, “The biggest growth opportunity for TAE is moving from an initial depot capability, to then begin competing for the broader regional F135 maintenance projects. Building on that enables us to then compete for excess maintenance and sustainment work coming out of the US and even broader global F-35 partners.”
Meanwhile, the partnership with a global prime like Pratt & Whitney further expands the avenues for Australian industry development available to TAE, as the Pratt & Whitney order book extends beyond military aircraft engines for some of the world’s leading combat and strategic airlift aircraft to include civilian aerospace engines for a range of civilian aircraft.
“Working on the only fifth-generation engine in the F135 is a game changer for Australian industry, and TAE is proud to be part of the Australian team supporting the F-35 at home and abroad,” Sanderson said.
The F-35 program is not only a global military project, it is frequently serving as a test-bed for greater international industry collaboration and integration and is expected to do so well into the future. (Source: Defence Connect)
13 Nov 18. NATO nudges Europe to make its transport networks war-ready. NATO leaders have their eyes on the European Union’s draft budget as a means to boost spending on infrastructure projects that could serve key military functions besides their civilian uses. The push comes as both organizations seek ways to increase defense cooperation without stepping on each other’s toes. Defense officials have described joint activities in military mobility as a relatively safe space in a NATO-EU field fraught with political tension.
“There is an ongoing budget discussion in the EU and we’ll see what comes out of it,” Camille Grand, NATO’s assistant secretary general for defense investment, told Defense News in an interview on the sidelines of the NATO Industry Forum here. All told, Grand said, on the table is a sum of €1bn annually in EU money on top of the roughly €1bn spent by NATO members on infrastructure improvements.
“I think it’s important that the EU delivers because it’s a good contribution on the part of the European Union to burden sharing,” Grand said.
Ensuring that Europe’s main transportation lines are suitable for transporting military gear in the event of a confrontation with Russia has been a key concern for defense leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. A patchwork of diverging policies and technical standards still complicates the rapid movement of tanks and other warfighting gear across borders. Grand stressed that NATO is not seeking to influence European Union decision making. But, he said, simple advice on military logistics during construction planning could make the difference between tanks being able to traverse through a tunnel or be stuck in front of it.
“Ultimately, it’s for both organizations to make their decisions following their own processes,” said Grand.
Debate on the European Union’s budget covering 2021 through 2027, proposed in the spring, is expected to continue this week (Source: Defense News)
13 Nov 18. New software tries to tackle European military mobility for NATO. A U.S. Army research and development facility hosted NATO representatives for a three-day demonstration of its new military mobility software, as NATO allies work to ensure war fighters and their equipment can be quickly moved across Europe. The Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center led the Next-Generation NATO Reference Mobility Model Development demo in early October at Michigan Technological University’s Keweenaw Research Center. The NG-NRMM program is sponsored by the NATO Science and Technology Organization. TARDEC is part of Army Materiel Command and an enterprise partner in the service’s Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command’s Life Cycle Management Command. The event highlighted the difference in capability between legacy and next-generation mobility software programs. Researchers from TARDEC showcased mobility models that leverage advanced computing power to show how large military vehicles respond to different types of terrain under various environmental conditions.
Paul Rogers, director of TARDEC, stressed to NATO representatives the importance of accurately predicting how military vehicles will respond to certain terrains and soils under various climates.
“What this allows us to do now is collect a whole new data set and then use that data set to optimize our analytical tools, our computer-based models, physics-based models so that we can do predictive analysis on soils that we have not tested,” Rogers said. This sort of predictive capability is, he added, “what we owe our war fighter, and that’s what we owe our future generations of engineers and scientists.”
According to Jay Meldrum, director of the Keweenaw Research Center, vehicles on its research courses interacted with terrains involving soft soil, telephone poles, parking curbs, rocks and boulders.
“We’ve digitized every pebble in the proving ground here into a database,” Meldrum said. “So they can drive that vehicle through the terrain in the computer and try to predict the mobility, as we call it, of that vehicle going through that rough terrain.”
This research could prove relevant when it comes to “the change in the character of warfare, the kinds of operations that NATO member states have been part of, as well as due to technology developments,” said Marta Kepe, a Rand think tank analyst specializing in defense, security and infrastructure.
A myriad other complexities complicate the movement of military land platforms across Europe, including “the conditions of transport infrastructure; multinational, cross-border and national level-movement coordination, including between military users of infrastructure and the civilian managers; and national legal requirements,” Kepe added.
Governing bodies
Leadership on both sides of the Atlantic are focused on military mobility in Europe. In fact, it is a leading issue of the European Union’s nascent Permanent Structured Cooperation initiative. Due to the legislative and administrative roadblocks, some believe the nature of the EU makes the organization well-suited to address the political challenges of mobility.
“The EU has a lot of experience when it comes to infrastructure, a lot of experience when it comes to regulations,” the permanent secretary for the Estonian Defense Ministry, Jonatan Vseviov, said June 13 at the EU Security and Washington Symposium.
Jorge Domecq, head of the European Defence Agency, also shared that view at the symposium, saying that “for military mobility to work, you need a whole government approach to it, and that unfortunately you cannot do in NATO. You need to use EU to do it.”
But Thomas Goffus, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO, pointed to the importance of involving NATO: “[T]wo things together: on the front end is having NATO command-and-control capability to move the chess pieces around the board; the second is having chess pieces that are ready to be moved.”
At a NATO summit in July, the alliance released a declaration noting the importance of identifying alternative supply routes and ensuring adequate transportation capabilities.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in speaking before the alliance’s Parliamentary Assembly on May 28, said NATO’s security “does not just depend on the forces we have deployed, but it also very much depends on our ability to move forces to reinforce quickly if needed.” (Source: Defense News)
13 Nov 18. BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair, Jacksonville, Florida (N40027-17-D-1001); Colonna Shipyards Inc., Norfolk, Virginia (N40027-17-D-1002); East Coast Repair and Fabrication LLC, Norfolk, Virginia (N40027-17-D-1003); Metro Machine Corp., Jacksonville, Florida (N40027-17-D-1004); North Florida Shipyards, Jacksonville, Florida (N40027-17-D-1005); and Tecnico Corp., Chesapeake, Virginia (N40027-17-D-1006), are each awarded a $42,641,520 firm-fixed-price modification to their respective previously awarded multiple award contracts to exercise Option Year Two for the accomplishment of fixed priced delivery orders for emergent and continuous maintenance availabilities. Work will be performed in Mayport, Florida, and is expected to be completed by November 2019. No funding will be obligated at time of the modification award. The Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity.
13 Nov 18. BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair, Jacksonville, Florida (N00024-17-D-1007); Colonna Shipyards Inc., Norfolk, Virginia (N40027-17-D-1008); and Metro Machine Corp., Jacksonville, Florida (N40027-17-D-1009), are each awarded a $212,967,725 firm-fixed-price modification to their respective previously awarded multiple award contracts to exercise Option Year Two for the accomplishment of fixed priced delivery orders for docking and non-docking Chief of Naval Operations scheduled ship repair availabilities. Work will be performed in Mayport, Florida, and is expected to be completed by November 2019. No funding will be obligated at time of modification. The Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity.
12 Nov 18. Leidos signs supply chain deal in Australia. US government services group Leidos has signed an agreement with the Australian Department of Defence (DoD) to support the Australian defence industry’s efforts to secure export contracts.
Under the accord – announced by the DoD on 13 November – Leidos joins Australia’s Global Supply Chain (GSC) programme through which it will be expected to highlight opportunities for Australian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to enter its international supply networks.
Referencing opportunities through the GSC programme, the DoD said, “As a major systems integrator and services company, Leidos has a presence in more than 25 countries, relying heavily on its contractors to supply components and solutions.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/IHS Jane’s)
13 Nov 18. Japan donates UH-1H spare parts and equipment to Philippines Air Force. The Philippine Air Force is set to receive the first batch of the UH-1H Huey aircraft spare parts and maintenance equipment donation from Japan. Delivery is expected to be carried out in the first quarter of next year. Worth approximately PHP5bn ($93.87m), the spare parts and equipment will be used for the current fleet of the UH-1H utility military helicopters deployed with the airforce.
Department of National Defense (DND) spokesperson Arsenio Andolong was quoted by the Philippine news agency as saying: “Following the exchange of notes, the DND and the Japan Ministry of Defense will coordinate and finalise the details and schedule of the transfer. “The actual turnover of the first batch of spare parts and equipment is tentatively scheduled in the first quarter of next year.”
Japan’s grant aid for Philippine defence enhancement will include airframe structure, accessory equipment, as well as dynamic power, control, rotor, hydraulic, electrical, and instrument systems. The Huey fleet is used by the Philippines to carry out a wide range of operations such as humanitarian assistance and disaster response, transport, as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The Philippine Air Force is known to operate between 20 and 40 types of the Bell Huey helicopter. In another defence-related development for the country, the DND has announced that the Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting was convened for the second time in Moscow on 7 November this year. This JWG meeting saw both countries discuss military-to-military engagements and finalise the Plan of Military Cooperation Activities. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
13 Nov 18. IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces that Terma, a global manufacturer and provider of military and civil electronics, software, and aerostructures, has chosen to upgrade its ERP platform to IFS Applications™ 10. As the Danish defence industry’s biggest player and a supplier to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Terma is experiencing rapid growth. Increasing its top line by double digits for four consecutive years, the organisation is delivering a growing number of projects through its 16 units worldwide.
Since 2001, IFS Applications has played a critical role in supporting Terma’s complex operations and stringent requirements for project management and traceability. To support its global expansion, the company needed to modernise its enterprise software platform with robust tools delivered through a state-of-the-art, browser-based user experience. By upgrading to IFS Applications 10, Terma will benefit from powerful functionality in key areas such as project management, CRM, and HR. In addition, the new IFS Aurena user interface will help optimise mission-critical areas such as documentation and traceability by empowering users with intuitive access to the ERP platform on any device, at any time.
“Companies in our industry must comply with very high standards of data management and traceability,” Terma vice president of IT Jørgen Eskildsen said. “By upgrading to IFS Applications 10, we are ensuring that we continue to meet these demands and remain in full control of the entire supply chain. Another key consideration for us were the new version’s extended capabilities for automating previously labour-intensive business processes. One example is financial management, which is now automatically consolidated across all subsidiaries involved in a project and enables global date change management. These enhancements give us an important competitive edge in terms of optimised project management and process efficiency.”
Eskildsen continued, “IFS Applications is ideally suited for project-centric companies with global operations, which is why we are using it as our central system of records. Thanks to the solution’s comprehensive set of fully integrated functionality, we are able to deploy robust additional CRM and HR capabilities without any need for complex systems integration. This means that we are able to leverage one central platform using fewer resources.”
Elni Kullmer, head of IFS in Scandinavia, added, “We are proud of the continued trust that Terma places in our people and solutions and we look forward to continuing the journey we embarked on together some 17 years ago. IFS Applications 10 is the ideal choice for global, project-driven businesses that are looking to boost value creation through fit-for-purpose capabilities coupled with an intuitive user experience.”
12 Nov 18. Russian Helicopters to open Chinese MRO facility. Russian Helicopters and United Aviation Technology have agreed to establish a maintenance and repair facility for Ka-32A11VS and Mi-171 rotorcraft in Shenzhen, China. The contract for the facility is expected to be signed by the end of the year, and a draft agreement is being worked by the two companies, they say. There is also the potential that a maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility in Tianjin could be upgraded to be able to carry out similar work, and a draft contract for a technical audit associated with this is also being drawn up. Russian Helicopters CEO, Andrey Boginsky, noted that China has a large number of Russian helicopters, and being able to support them in country would benefit existing customers, as well as increase the potential interest in the export of the rotorcraft. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
09 Nov 18. Boeing [NYSE: BA] and Safran [EPA: SAF] have received regulatory approvals for a joint venture so they can begin designing, building and servicing aircraft Auxiliary Power Units (APUs)—onboard engines that are primarily used to start the main engines and power aircraft systems while on the ground and, if necessary, in flight. The companies also named Etienne Boisseau as Chief Executive Officer of the joint venture.
The agreement establishes a partnership between two of the world’s leading aerospace companies to work together on APU products and expanded service capabilities to benefit customers and industry. Both companies have a 50 percent stake in the joint venture. The initial team will perform design work in San Diego, Calif.
“Safran is proud to launch this joint venture with Boeing in order to offer state-of-the-art APUs and enhance customer value. Together, we are committed to delivering innovative, highly technological and cost-competitive solutions to global customers. We are confident this joint team will provide first-class products and services within the best integrated industrial organization,” said Philippe Petitcolin, CEO of Safran.
The joint venture combines Boeing’s customer and airplane knowledge and Safran’s experience designing and producing complex propulsion systems.
“We are open for business and excited to offer even more value to our customers throughout the lifecycle of their investment. This joint venture strengthens Boeing’s vertical capabilities as we continue to expand our services portfolio. By making strategic investments that accelerate our growth plans, we also are providing our customers with expanded, innovative services solutions,” said Stan Deal, President and CEO of Boeing Global Services.
In addition to Etienne Boisseau, others nominated to the joint venture’s leadership team include:
- Linda Hapgood, Chief Operating Officer
- Erin Morrissey, Chief Financial Officer
- Joan Inlow, Chief Technology Officer
The name of the joint venture as well as the location of the future headquarters and production and service facilities will be announced at a later date.
Safran currently supplies a wide range of components to Boeing commercial and defense programs, including as a partner to produce CFM’s LEAP-1B engine for the 737 MAX (through CFM International, a 50/50 JV between Safran Aircraft Engines and GE). Boeing and Safran also are partners in MATIS, a joint venture in Morocco producing wiring products for several airframe and engine companies.
08 Nov 18. Where is the military’s stuff? Check the RFID info. The Department of Defense has exercised a multi-million dollar contract option with defense logistics company Savi Systems to help improve visibility on the whereabouts of nearly 24,000 high-value military assets. With massive volumes of material on the move – arms and munitions, supplies, vehicles – keeping track of it all presents a significant challenge for the DoD. To meet this challenge, the Defense Systems Logistics Agency made Savi their sole contractor for their radio-frequency identification (RFID) contract in 2014. Savi announced Oct. 30 the Pentagon would exercise its second and final option year on the RFID contract, which has a ceiling of $102m. The contract aims to give government agencies and allied partners with “state-of-the-art hardware, software and integration services for worldwide asset tracking and in-transit visibility,” according to a statement from the company. The goal is to provide RFID equipment that can keep pace with today’s highly agile expeditionary fighting style.
Savi will partner with ORBCOMM, a global provider of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. ORBCOMM will provide high-performance cellular devices – or tags – to be used alongside Savi’s real-time asset visibility and analytics software. Together, the two companies hope to deliver “a quick return on investment for our government customers through a significant reduction in labor associated with the management of these high-value assets,” Marc Eisenberg, chief executive officer of ORBCOMM, said in a press release.
The new ORBCOMM devices will take advantage of widely available cellular signals as a new means to capture and communicate RFID information, expanding the military’s reach without requiring extensive additional overhead that the currently employed systems rely on to function.
The new tags are also equipped with waterproof solar panels, providing continuous power to rechargeable batteries and meet the DLA;s distribution requirement of a five-year power supply.
“Savi is excited to continue our successful partnership with ORBCOMM to fulfill this multi-million-dollar order for the DLA,” Rosemary Johnston, Savi Technology’s senior vice president of operations said in a statement. “We are proud to continue supporting their complex asset tracking needs now and into the future. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
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About Oshkosh Defense
Oshkosh Defense is a leading provider of tactical wheeled vehicles and life cycle sustainment services. For decades Oshkosh has been mobilizing military and security forces around the globe by offering a full portfolio of heavy, medium, light and highly protected military vehicles to support our customers’ missions. In addition, Oshkosh offers advanced technologies and vehicle components such as TAK-4® independent suspension systems, TerraMax™ unmanned ground vehicle solutions, Command Zone™ integrated control and diagnostics system, and ProPulse® diesel electric and on-board vehicle power solutions, to provide our customers with a technical edge as they fulfill their missions. Every Oshkosh vehicle is backed by a team of defense industry experts and complete range of sustainment and training services to optimize fleet readiness and performance. Oshkosh Defense, LLC is an Oshkosh Corporation company [NYSE: OSK].
To learn more about Oshkosh Defense, please visit us at www.oshkoshdefense.com.
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