ANKARA, May 31 (Reuters) – The delivery schedule for Russia’s S-400 missile defence systems to Turkey is continuing as planned, Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hami Aksoy said on Friday, dismissing reports of delay.
The U.S. and Turkey have been at odds over Ankara’s decision to purchase the S-400’s, which Washington says are not compatible with NATO systems and poses a threat to the F-35 stealth fighter jets. Ankara has proposed to form a working group to assess the U.S. concerns, but has not received a response yet.
On Monday, broadcaster Haberturk quoted Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar as saying that the delivery of the S-400’s may not happen in June, when Turkey previously said the missiles were due to arrive, but added the agreement was a done deal.
“Reports in some media outlets about Turkey evaluating delaying the S-400 procurement upon the request of the United States do not reflect the truth,” Aksoy said in a statement, adding that Ankara’s offer for a joint working group with Washington was still valid.
PARIS (Reuters) – European missile maker MBDA’s chief executive is returning to Airbus as head of strategy as the planemaker seeks to modernise its factory system and explores future options in defence, two people familiar with the matter said.
Antoine Bouvier, 59, replaces Patrick de Castelbajac who becomes head of Airbus Asia-Pacific, the sources said. Castelbajac’s responsibility for Airbus international operations had already been transferred to sales chief Christian Scherer.
At Airbus, Bouvier will be embarking on a battle of wits with a new strategy head at arch-rival Boeing CO.
Chris Raymond, until recently head of Boeing’s Autonomous Systems business, recently became vice-president for enterprise strategy under finance director Greg Smith, sources said. Raymond’s appointment has not been officially announced.
Airbus and MBDA declined to comment on Bouvier’s appointment, which was first reported by AeroDefenseNews. It is the latest step in a management reshuffle accelerated by the recent official appointment of Guillaume Faury as Airbus CEO.
Bouvier, a former civil servant who narrowly missed out on running France’s DGA defence procurement agency two years ago, brings experience in forging defence partnerships to Airbus, which is embroiled in a row with Germany over arms controls.
He is expected to be replaced at MBDA by former OneWeb chief Eric Beranger.
Although there is fierce day-to-day competition, with Taiwan’s China Airlines opting last week to switch to Airbus, the European planemaker is not expected to exploit the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX jetliner for now, industry sources said.
NEXT GENERATION
The future of the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX – the industry’s most successful models – is seen as strategically entwined and insiders say Airbus is also worried about the impact of the grounding on global certification..
But the planemakers are crafting crucial strategies for the next generation of single-aisle jets from about 2030 – both likely to define the aircraft industry well beyond mid-century.
Insiders say Faury wants Airbus to focus more on industrial strategy and closing a perceived gap with Boeing in production technology, as well as responding to the threat of increased environmental regulation of air travel, as well as new products.
Airbus must also assess how to respond to rising defence spending after its failure to merge with Britain’s BAE Systems in 2012 left it heavily skewed towards commercial markets that are now approaching the end of an extended upcycle.
It is involved on the German side of a nascent Franco-German fighter project along with French partner Dassault Aviation but faces competition for valuable systems work and a growing spat with the German government over export controls.
At MBDA, Bouvier helped forge an Anglo-French agreement on the use of shared missile technology.
Bouvier followed the classic path of a French mandarin from the prestigious Polytechnique engineering school to France’s ENA civil service academy. He had been linked with a number of top aerospace posts such as Safran and Thales.
“His appointment will be very credible with the French government,” a person familiar with the appointment said. France and Germany own 11 percent each of Airbus.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Luke Baker and Alexander Smith)
Mérignac, France, 14 May 2019 – Today, Dassault Aviation officially launched the construction of an office building on its site in Mérignac, France, as a step of its “Leading our Future” transformation plan. The building will accommodate design, development and after-sales support teams for the firm’s civil and defense activities.
“This ambitious project reflects our aim to bring together some of the teams who design and support our aircraft and those responsible for producing them. It fosters collaborative working as part of the rollout of our extended design office concept. The principle is to integrate even more and whenever required, from the design phase, all the trades involved in the product life cycle. This building will not just house offices, it will be one of the means to reframe the interactions between Mérignac and Saint-Cloud. We are expecting better links between technical competence, product knowledge and customer services”, said Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation. “It is one of the focuses of our transformation plan which, without altering the DNA that has underpinned our century-long success, aims to make our company more flexible and more competitive to respond to the technology challenges ahead and the changes occurring in the world around us.”
The new building will offer 25,800 sq. m of surface area over four levels with a total capacity of 1,500 workstations including 24 modular collaborative work spaces and nine project offices. The building will also provide VIP rooms for our civil and military customers, a Falcon command center, rooms for aircraft system test benches, a Virtual Reality Center, an Immersive Reality Center and an auditorium.
The highest environmental standards will be applied including smart lighting and energy management, solar panels (4,000 sq. m), reinforced insulation, green roofs, and a heat recovery system.
Presided over by Eric Trappier, alongside Valérie Guillemet, Mérignac Site Manager, the “groundbreaking” ceremony was attended by many local elected representatives, particularly the President of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region Alain Rousset, the President of Bordeaux Métropole Patrick Bobet, the Mayor of Mérignac Alain Anziani and the Mayor of Bordeaux Nicolas Florian. Representatives of official services, as well as the region’s aviation ecosystem and the media were also present at the event.
Work is scheduled for completion at the end of 2020, and the building should be commissioned in 2021.
About Dassault Aviation
With over 10,000 military and civil aircraft delivered in more than 90 countries over the last century, Dassault Aviation has built up expertise recognized worldwide in the design, development, sale and support of all types of aircraft, ranging from the Rafale fighter, to the high-end Falcon family of business jets and military drones. In 2018, Dassault Aviation reported revenues of €5.1 billion. The company has 11,500 employees.
FILE PHOTO: Lockheed Martin is seen at Euronaval, the world naval defence exhibition in Le Bourget near Paris, France, October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
(Reuters) – Lockheed Martin Corp reported a better-than-expected 47 percent jump in quarterly profit on Tuesday and raised its annual profit forecast, helped by strong demand for its missiles and fighter jets, sending its shares up more than 5 percent in pre-market trading.
U.S. weapons makers have been expected to benefit from stronger global demand for fighter jets and munitions and higher U.S. defence budgets in fiscal 2020 as they announce first quarter earnings this week.
Lockheed’s Missiles and Fire Control business, which makes missile defences like the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD), was one of its best-performing units.
On April 1, the unit was awarded a THAAD interceptor missile contract worth $2.4 billion, some of which are slated to be delivered to Saudi Arabia, which could boost earnings for the current quarter.
Overall, the Bethesda, Maryland-based company said its earnings rose to $1.70 billion, or $5.99 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.16 billion, or $4.02 per share, a year earlier. That was partly helped by a $75 million dollar boost from additional tax deductions on foreign military sales.
Excluding that one-time gain, Lockheed reported $5.73 per share profit, well ahead of the $4.34 per share that Wall Street had expected, on average, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Lockheed’s overall net sales for the quarter rose 23 percent to $14.34 billion. The company’s sales backlog grew to $133.5 billion, up 3 billion over the quarter.
Operating margins at the aeronautics division, Lockheed’s biggest, fell to 10.5 percent in the first quarter from 10.8 percent a year earlier, but sales were up 27 percent to $5.5 billion on demand for the F-35 jet and some classified contracts.
The United States is considering expanding sales of Lockheed-made F-35 fighter jets to five new nations including Romania, Greece and Poland as European allies bulk up their defences in the face of a strengthening Russia, a Pentagon official told Congress in early April.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington D.C. and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Bill Rigby)
AVALON,
Australia (Reuters) – Boeing Co on Wednesday unveiled an unmanned,
fighter-like jet developed in Australia and designed to fly alongside
crewed aircraft in combat for a fraction of the cost.
The
U.S. manufacturer hopes to sell the multi-role aircraft, which is 38
feet long (11.6 metres) and has a 2,000 nautical mile (3,704 kilometre)
range, to customers around the world, modifying it as requested.
The
prototype is Australia’s first domestically developed combat aircraft
since World War II and Boeing’s biggest investment in unmanned systems
outside the United States, although the company declined to specify the
dollar amount.
The
Australian government is investing A$40 million ($28.75 million) in the
prototype programme due to its “enormous capability for exports,”
Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne told reporters at the Australian
International Airshow.
Defence
contractors are investing increasingly in autonomous technology as
militaries around the world look for a cheaper and safer way to maximise
their resources.
Boeing rivals like Lockheed Martin Corp and Kratos Defence and Security Solutions Inc are also investing in such aircraft.
Four
to six of the new aircraft, called the Boeing Airpower Teaming System,
can fly alongside a F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, said Shane Arnott, director
of Boeing research and prototype arm Phantom Works International.
“To
bring that extra component and the advantage of unmanned capability,
you can accept a higher level of risk,” he said. “It is better for one
of these to take a hit than for a manned platform.”
The
Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in the United States said last
year that the U.S. Air Force should explore pairing crewed and uncrewed
aircraft to expand its fleet and complement a limited number of
“exquisite, expensive, but highly potent fifth-generation aircraft” like
the F-35.
“Human
performance factors are a major driver behind current aerial combat
practices,” the policy paper said. “Humans can only pull a certain
number of G’s, fly for a certain number of hours, or process a certain
amount of information at a given time.”
MULTI-MISSION CAPABILITIES
In
addition to performing like a fighter jet, other roles for the Boeing
system include electronic warfare, intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance alongside aircraft like the P-8 Poseidon and E-7
Wedgetail, said Kristin Robertson, vice president and general manager of
Boeing Autonomous Systems.
“It
is operationally very flexible, modular, multi-mission,” she said. “It
is a very disruptive price point. Fighter-like capability at a fraction
of the cost.”
Robertson declined to comment on the cost, saying that it would depend on the configuration chosen by individual customers.
The
jet is powered by a derivative of a commercially available engine, uses
standard runways for take-off and landing, and can be modified for
carrier operations at sea, Robertson said. She declined to specify
whether it could reach supersonic speeds, common for modern fighter
aircraft.
Its
first flight is expected in 2020, with Boeing and the Australian
government producing a concept demonstrator to pave the way for full
production.
“I
would say we are some years away from exports, we are probably years
away from it being in operation here in Australia,” Pyne said. “It is
designed to be a cheaper platform, a shield if you like around the more
expensive platforms, to protect our servicemen and women who might be on
a Poseidon or a Wedgetail or a F-35A.”
Australia,
a staunch U.S. ally, is home to Boeing’s largest footprint outside the
United States and has vast airspace with relatively low traffic for
flight testing.
The
Boeing Airpower Teaming System will be manufactured in Australia, but
production lines could be set up in other countries depending on sales,
Arnott said.
The United States, which has the world’s biggest military budget, would be among the natural customers for the product.
The
U.S. Air Force 2030 project foresees the Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint
Strike Fighter working together with stealthy combat drones, called the
“Loyal Wingman” concept, said Derrick Maple, principal analyst for
unmanned systems at IHS Markit.
“The
U.S. has more specific plans for the wingman concept, but Western
Europe will likely develop their requirements in parallel, to abate the
capabilities of China and the Russian Federation and other potential
threats,” he said.
Robertson
declined to name potential customers and would not comment on potential
stealth properties, but said the aircraft had the potential to sell
globally.
“We
didn’t design this as a point solution but a very flexible solution
that we could outfit with payloads, sensors, different mission sets to
complement whatever their fleet is,” she said. “Don’t think of it as a
specific product that is tailored to do only one mission.”
($1 = 1.3914 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Jamie Freed; additional reporting by Gerry Doyle; editing by Gerry Doyle)
Let the shareholders rejoice: Lockheed Martin‘s (NYSE: LMT) F-35 Lightning II fighter jet contracts are getting bigger — and bigger.
In September, Reuters reported on a Pentagon deal to buy what it called at the time “the biggest batch yet” of Lockheed Martin’s joint strike fighter – 141 fighter jets valued at $11.5 billion. To win such a big order, Lockheed lowered its average F-35 cost to $81.6 million. With engine and other incidental costs factored in, flyaway costs were a bit higher. Lockheed’s F-35B variant flyaway cost $115.5 million, its F-35C cost $107.7 million, and the F-35A ended up at $89 million. Still, as Lockheed noted at the time, this contract offered the “lowest per-aircraft price in program history,” which undoubtedly helped Lockheed seal the deal.
Big as that sale was, however, the contract Lockheed just won easily eclipses it.
BERLIN (Reuters) – Airbus (AIR.PA) and France’s Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA) will shortly submit an unsolicited proposal for initial conceptual work on a next-generation fighter jet to German and French officials, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The two companies agreed in principle in April to work together on an ambitious Franco-German program to design a new warplane, but are anxious to get some early funding so they can start work on new technologies required for the multi-billion project – with a goal of fielding a new aircraft around 2040.
Germany and France signed a memorandum of understanding about the project in April, but progress has been halting amid disputes between the governments about future exports, and among industry about how to divvy up work on a system to integrate the new jet with drones and other weapons.
One source familiar with the matter said the two companies could submit their proposal by the end of the year or early next year, paving the way for the first contract awards next year.
One French military official told the International Fighter conference in Berlin this week that the two governments hoped to conclude an initial contract in January.
Peter Harster, senior executive with MTU Aero Engines (MTXGn.DE), said the study contract was needed, along with a medium-term budget plan, to help set a realistic timetable and key requirements to ensure the new jet would be ready by 2040.
Harster also called for a separate contract for work on an engine for the new jet to enable optimal flexibility and give the customers direct control over the propulsion system.
Bruno Fichefeux, head of future combat air systems at Airbus, told the conference he expected conceptual work on the program to begin soon, “bilaterally or with Spain.”
A Spanish official told the conference his country was in discussions with both the Dassault-Airbus team, and a separate project being led by Britain’s BAE Systems (BAES.L) to secure a role on one of the projects. A French military official said the two projects could also be merged at a future date.
Douglas Barrie, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said government and industry ties would likely shift again, as in the 1970s and 1980s during work that ultimately led to the Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault’s Rafale.
“We’re at the start of that process again now. And I don’t think it will take a decade to shake out, but it will take some time,” he said. “I think shifts are inevitable.”
Senior executives from Airbus and other companies discussed the next generation fighter with German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen at a meeting hosted last week by the German Aerospace Industries Association (BDLI), the sources said.
BDLI declined to comment on the meeting. No comment was immediately available from the defense ministry.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mark Potter)
ZHUHAI, China (Reuters) – The world’s two largest planemakers signaled on Tuesday that they were keen to see an end to a bruising trade war between Washington and Beijing, as China opened its largest airshow with a display that showcased its aviation ambitions.
Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) made their comments on the opening day of the biennial Airshow China, being held in the coastal city of Zhuhai from Nov. 6-11, that is traditionally an event for Beijing to parade its growing aviation prowess.
China has become a key hunting ground for deals for foreign aviation firms thanks to surging travel demand, but the outlook has been complicated by Beijing’s desire to grow its own champions in industries ranging from aviation to semiconductors to robots.
Its ties with the United States have in particular been strained. President Donald Trump criticizes China for what he sees as intellectual property theft, entry barriers to U.S. business and a gaping trade deficit, while Beijing calls the complaints unreasonable. The two sides have resorted to tit-for-tat tariffs on goods worth billions of dollars.
While U.S.-made aircraft, among America’s biggest exports to China, have so far escaped Beijing’s tariffs, analysts said they were still waiting to see what the trade war would spell for U.S. companies such as Boeing.
George Xu, the top China executive at Boeing’s biggest rival Airbus (AIR.PA), said at a news conference that the European planemaker did not expect a sales windfall from the tensions.
“I am Chinese and we don’t like this kind of trade war,” he said. “Nobody will be the winner in this kind of trade war.”
Airbus had hoped to close a deal for 184 aircraft during a trip to China by French President Emmanuel Macron in January, but negotiations appear to have stalled, industry sources say.
In carefully worded comments, Boeing’s senior vice-president of Northeast Asia sales, Rick Anderson, said China was a rapidly growing aviation market and that he believed Washington and Beijing understood that.
“We continue to engage with leaders of United States and China, and continue to urge productive conversation to resolve the trade discrepancies,” he said.
“We are optimistic for a quick solution.”
AMBITIONS ON DISPLAY
China and United States have in recent days stoked optimism that a breakthrough might be made, after Trump spoke by phone with President Xi Jinping last week.
The two countries have also announced that they will hold a delayed top-level security dialogue on Friday.
Still, Beijing has shown little sign of taming its ambitions to catch up with rivals like the United States, France and Germany in high-end technology.
Projects being showcased in Zhuhai included a full-scale mock-up of a widebody CR929 jet being jointly developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) in hopes of eventually competing with Boeing’s 787 and Airbus’ A350 jets.
The global market for widebody jets is estimated to be worth $2.5 trillion over the next two decades, according to Boeing, with the fleet size more than doubling to 9,180 jets.
Widebodies account for around 20 percent of projected global jet deliveries over that period but almost 40 percent by value.
Hundreds of spectators and industry executives at the airshow were also treated to a roaring flight demonstration that involved three of China’s Chengdu J-20 stealth fighters, which debuted at the show two years ago with a 60-second flypast.
China put the J-20 into service last year that experts say is a part of Beijing’s plan to narrow a military technology gap with the United States and its F-35 stealth fighter.
Sophisticated anti-aircraft batteries were also on display.
“If you tie those together with the J-20, the message is about Anti-Area Access Denial. It is not just about protecting the motherland but pushing the Americans away,” said aerospace analyst Sash Tusa of UK-based Agency Partners.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh, Stella Qiu and Tim Hepher; Writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Lockheed Martin will build wings for its F-16 combat plane in India with its local partner, Tata Advanced Systems Limited, an executive at the U.S. company said on Tuesday.
Lockheed is bidding for a contract – estimated at more than $15 billion – to supply the Indian air force with 114 combat planes, which must be all manufactured locally under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Make in India programme.
However, Vivek Lall, vice president of strategy and business development at Lockheed, said the proposed Indian production of the F-16 wings would not be contingent upon the company winning the order for the planes.
“Producing F-16 wings in India will strengthen Lockheed Martin’s strategic partnership with Tata and support Make in India,” the company said in a statement.
Modi has been pushing for local manufacturing that will provide jobs and also end the military’s dependence on imports.
Lockheed’s announcement came just days ahead of top level talks between the United States and India aimed at expanding defence ties.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will meet with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Boeing has pitched its F/A-18 Super Hornet for the Indian contract as well as Sweden’s Saab with its Gripen fighter. France’s Dassault Systemes SE’s Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Russian aircraft are also in the fray.
Lall said Lockheed had offered to make India its sole F-16 production facility that would supply the Indian military but also other countries. “If India buys the F-16 then it becomes the centre of manufacturing for the global market,” he said.
Lall said the company planned to begin production of the F-16 wings in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad from 2020. He said these were being produced at a facility in Israel and would not impact any jobs in the United States.
The Israeli centre will continue to be involved in other production, he said. “All F-16 wings globally are to be built in the Hyderabad facility,” he said.
(Reporting by Neha Dasgupta; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Susan Fenton and Jane Merriman)
BERLIN (Reuters) – European efforts to develop a next-generation military combat jet will end in disaster if individual governments insist on dictating specific suppliers or sites, the chief executive of European aerospace firm Airbus (AIR.PA) warned on Friday.
Airbus CEO Tom Enders told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that a decision by Germany and France to develop a new “Future Combat Air System” was an important step towards expanding European defence cooperation.
He said Airbus and Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA) had come to agreement surprisingly quickly on their respective roles in the fighter jet project, but warned governments against trying to influence the process.
“It will be a success if we don’t let governments interfere with their demands for the use of specific suppliers and locations in certain countries. That will only lead to disaster,” Enders told the newspaper.
Similar issues have cost Airbus dearly, said Enders, who has often criticised the way the multi-nation A400M military transport plane programme was structured when it began. Airbus took a further 1.3 billion euro (1.1 billion pounds) charge on the troubled programme in February.
“I hope that European companies will insist that future multilateral programmes have clear leadership structures and reasonable technical requirements and timetables,” he told the newspaper.
Airbus, which builds the Eurofighter Typhoon, and Dassault, which builds the Rafale jet, signed an initial agreement in April to cooperate on the new air combat system, with an eye to replacing current fighter jets by around 2035-2040.
Enders also called for Germany to move forward more boldly on closer European defence integration, citing concerns about what he called the “deplorable” state of the German military after years of neglect.
One key step would be to introduce majority-rule decisions in European foreign policy, replacing the current requirement for unanimous decisions, Enders said.
“Europe can only safeguard its interests if it is unified. It’s burning all around us,” the Airbus executive said, citing escalating tensions with the United States, difficult ties with China and Russia, and increasing tensions within the EU itself.
He urged EU officials and member countries to focus less on EU budget debates and more on strengthening security, securing Europe’s borders and moving forward on a joint foreign and defence policy.
The EU also needed to look at tax cuts pushed through by U.S. President Donald Trump that were providing a big incentive for companies to invest there, he said.
“If we in Europe continue to have high government spending and thereby high taxes, we will fall behind,” he said. “The low tax rates and the threatened protectionism are a strong incentive to invest more there.”
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mark Potter)
