U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet aircraft with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232 arrive at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Jan. 19, 2024. Nicknamed the “Red Devils,” VMFA-232 traveled from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan to Guam as a part of their Aviation Training Relocation Program deployment to train multilaterally with allies and partners, and enhance the squadron’s combat readiness.
01.19.2024
Video by Sgt. Jose Angeles
1st Marine Aircraft Wing
By Pierre Tran
Paris – Airbus is taking more time to decide on the early stage of design for a European medium-altitude, long-endurance drone, with the industrial partners looking for a good fit with specifications, Guillaume Faury, chief executive of the aircraft builder, said Feb.15.
“The preliminary design review (PDR) is a very important milestone of each and every program, when we freeze the general design, meaning all specifications can be reached based on this general design,” he told a press conference on Airbus’s 2023 financial results.
“This has been postponed,” he said. “We took more time – we have more challenges to come to this convergence between specification and design.”
Challenges, a French business magazine, reported Feb. 14 the extra time spent on preliminary design on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), dubbed Eurodrone, had pushed back the critical design review, which had been due to be completed later this year.
The French media report said it drew on a German defense ministry report published at the end of January, with the Berlin authorities pointing up a perceived lack of coordination between Airbus and Dassault Aviation, which led to the project running late.
Airbus Defence and Space is the prime contractor, with the subcontractors Airbus DS in Spain, Dassault in France, and Leonardo in Italy.
France, Germany, Italy, and Spain back the project with a €7.1 billion ($7.6 billion) budget. The launch order, signed Feb. 24 2022, was for 20 systems, comprising 60 aircraft and 40 ground stations, shared between the partner nations.
There was no problem in working with the industrial partners, Faury said.
“There are four partners in the program,” he said. “Airbus is the integrator.
“There are challenges in this program, like on all programs in…selection of the design to come to a convergence,” he said. “There is no communication issue with any of the different partners. But there are challenges in coming to convergence.
“The communication is between industrial partners and we move forward on the Eurodrone.”
Dassault, which will supply the flight control system, was waiting for Airbus to supply specifications needed, the media report said, drawing on the German report.
Dassault was not available for comment.
Occar officials met Feb. 7 their counterparts of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to launch the certification for the Eurodrone engine, to be supplied by Avio Aero, the Italian unit of General Electric Aerospace, a U.S. company.
“The Eurodrone will integrate the Catalyst engine produced by AVIO AERO, fully ITAR free and produced in Europe, that is planned to receive a full civilian certification released by EASA,” Occar, the European arms procurement agency, said.
ITAR refers to international traffic in arms regulations, the U.S. rules which give Washington power to withhold authorization when American-built components are used in European systems sold to foreign clients.
Airbus DS picked the Avio engine over a rival offer from Safran, a French aero-engine builder, sparking lively debate in France.
Safran, meanwhile, will supply the undercarriage and its Euroflir 610 electro-optical system for the drone.
Meanwhile, Japan has joined as observer on the Eurodrone project, Occar said Nov. 30 in a statement.
Japan had made its request for observer status on Sept. 7, the agency said, pointing up “Japan’s willingness to explore opportunities to collaborate on subjects of common interest and its recognition of the importance of cooperation between Japan and Europe.”
Japan has also signed up as partner nation on the global combat air program (GCAP), joining Britain and Italy in designing and building a stealth fighter jet, due to fly in 2035. That global project grew out of an Anglo-Italian plan to build the Tempest new generation fighter.
“European MALE RPAS (remotely piloted aircraft system) will be a key enabler for future operations ensuring to European nations state of the art capabilities. It will be a key pillar in any FCAS to improve the collaborative combat capabilities,” Occar said on its website.
France, Germany, and Spain are backing a future combat air system, which includes a new fighter jet, competing with the Tempest.
The twin-engined, turbo-prop Eurodrone is due to fly in 2030.
Meanwhile, Turgis & Gaillard, a privately owned company, plans to launch flight tests of its prototype unmanned combat aerial vehicle, dubbed Aarok, in the first half of the year, Piloter, a specialist magazine reported.
The Aarok, which drew media attention last year at the Paris air show, has been modified with a temporary manned cockpit for the flight tests, the report said.
“We will also test the sensors, communications, and then the air-to-ground capability,” said chief executive Patrick Gaillard, the report said. Two test pilots, former service personnel, will fly the aircraft in the test program, due to last this year.
The test flights will be fairly basic, with the company looking for a launch order to finance the flights needed for full certification.
The French company signed an agreement with Antonov last year, with the Ukrainian aircraft builder acting as its local partner if the Ukrainian authorities ordered the combat drone.
There was interest in the drone’s delivery of communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and the capability to fit the AASM powered smart bomb, the report said.
The medium-sized company was among firms which accompanied the French armed forces minister, Sébastien Lecornu, on his visit to Kyiv last September.
Faury, formerly head of Airbus Helicopter, previously worked in the Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office, where he was flight-test engineer on the Tiger attack helicopter.
The war in Ukraine has pointed up the importance of low cost and readily available drones, with the Ukrainian forces looking to improvised aerial vehicles and sea-going vessels to hit Russian targets on the land and the water.
Airbus reported 2023 adjusted operating profit of €5.8 billion, up four percent from the previous year, and sales of €65.4 billion, up 11 percent.
By Robbin Laird
In my recent interview with LtGen Heckl, Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, and the Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration, we went back to his time as the second squadron commander to have taken the Osprey into combat. He was an experienced CH-46 pilot but brought with him members of the squadrons who were “newbies” who did not come from the legacy aircraft but started fresh with the Osprey.
He noted that they were adapting to the aircraft faster than the legacy folks.
This raised the question of how different from the CH-46 the Osprey was, and the challenge of the learning curve to take full advantage of the generational leap.
Recently, I talked with Carl Forsling, a long time USMC CH-46 and Osprey pilot, now with Bell.
We focused in our discussion on his operational experience while in the USMC with the CH-46 to Osprey transition and the nature of the learning curve.
Forsling joined the USMC in 1995 and he had two CH-46 deployments, one to the Balkans and one to Afghanistan. After this, he was part of the first MV-22B-equipped MEU, which brought the Ospreys to Afghanistan in 2009 for LtCol Bianca’s squadron.
He then had several years of experience operating the Osprey until his retirement from the USMC in 2015, and continued his engagement with the aircraft after he joined Bell in 2017.
We started by discussing how different was flying the CH-46 into Afghanistan compared to doing so with the Osprey.
Forsling underscored that “the stark difference between those two events still sticks out in my mind.”
As he described the difference: “It was a challenge to get the CH-46s from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Going over the mountains was death defying. You had stops along the way– including a secret helo base in Pakistan. The CGI which measures the rotor strain on the aircraft regularly indicated that we were maxing out performance and we barely could get over the mountains. It was a huge challenge just to get to Kandahar.”
The Osprey experience was very different. “It was as interesting as flying from Chicago to Minneapolis. You put on your oxygen mask, flew up to The Boulevard from the Arabian Sea to Afghanistan at 18,000 feet, and flew directly to Camp Bastion in a couple of hours.”
This difference also underscored a key point I have made over the years when discussing the Osprey.
Rather than focusing on cost for flight hour in comparison to a rotorcraft why are we not focusing on the cost of delivered capability?
The Osprey does not need the bases, FARPs and other landing points to get to the target area. It doesn’t need security at those facilities, it does not need fuel delivered to those bases, it just goes directly to the point of interest and can receive air refueling if it needs it.
This was evident from the beginning as indicated by Forsling in his experience of flying a CH-46 versus an Osprey into Kandahar from outside Afghanistan.
But with the arrival of the Osprey, the learning curve began.
Forsling underscored that in his perspective a core challenge was getting Marines to shift from thinking of the Osprey as a fast helicopter to thinking of it as a plane which could land vertically. This meant learning new force insertion tactics, new ways to work brownouts, new ways to address landing in combat zones, or simply understanding how the speed and range of the Osprey changed the tactics the Marines could develop compared to how they were operating with the CH-46.
It was a change maker; not a replacement for the CH-46.
In addition, the Osprey was a digital aircraft and as in many ways the pioneer digital aircraft, it was introducing significant change in terms of how to maintain the aircraft.
The Marine Corps needed to shift its maintenance approach to have maintainers more familiar with software and avionics than with the legacy approach to wrench bending. This did not happen overnight and was part of the learning curve.
Forsling indicated that a key part of the learning process was to correlate where the aircraft was operating with the kind of parts most needed in the very different geographical and climatic conditions in which the aircraft operated.
As Forsling noted: “We needed specialized maintenance and adjustment in tactics for the different operating environments.”
Obviously, that could only develop as the Osprey gained operational experience globally and at sea.
Another key aspect of the development of the aircraft was experienced by Forsling while in the USMC which continued after he joined Bell.
The Osprey is part of the new generation of software upgradeable aircraft, where changes in software rather than hardware allows for ongoing modernization of the aircraft. This is one of the most neglected aspects in analysis of the impact of the software generation aircraft in enhancing ongoing modernization of such aircraft.
Forsling provided this example: “Enhancing capability to operate in brownout conditions is a good example of how having a digital aircraft provides a key advantage in the approach to product improvement. When I started flying the Osprey, the brownout landing procedures were almost entirely manual. After I left, both the display was improved, and the aircraft is much more automated in terms of brownout landings. For a non-digital aircraft, such an improvement would require a hardware fix. With a digital aircraft, it is a software drop.”
Forsling also underscored that when undergoing CH-46 to Osprey transition, his training was involved with not just CH-46 operators, but fixed wing operators as well. But his mix of skills was necessary for a plane which landed vertically rather than being a CH-46 rotorcraft replacement.
The tactical impact of the Osprey was clearly evident from the outset.
As Forsling highlighted: “Having the options of going anywhere from a helicopter speed and altitude up through the 10,000-foot-plus range and airplane mode speeds or being able to do a low altitude insertion at high speed that combination of options allows you to adjust your tactics for the threats. And the threats we faced in in Afghanistan and Iraq, were mostly small arms or MANPADs, and the combination of the Osprey’s speed and altitude allowed you to manage these threats. That flexibility also enhances survivability in higher threat environments by altering the flight profile. That might mean going lower and using the aircraft’s speed and range to circumnavigate certain threats.”
In short, the MV-22B was not a good CH-46 replacement.
It was the entrant into a new force insertion capability.
Featured Image: An MV-22B Osprey with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (Reinforced), 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, taking off from the flight deck of the multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) Nov. 6, 2009. The aircraft were flown to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, where they will be transferred to Marine Medium Tiltrotor squadron 261 and used in support of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. This was the first time the aircraft will be used in Afghanistan. The 22nd MEU was serving as the theater reserve force for U.S. Central Command.
U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet aircraft with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232 conduct flight operations at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Jan. 24-25, 2024.
Nicknamed the “Red Devils,” VMFA-232 traveled from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan to Guam as a part of their Aviation Training Relocation Program deployment to train multilaterally with allies and partners, and enhance the squadron’s combat readiness.
01.25.2024
Video by Sgt. Jose Angeles
1st Marine Aircraft Wing
By Pierre Tran
Paris – It was thanks to information shared on a social media link of the Association of Defense Journalists, a press club, this correspondent suited up to attend the Jan. 31 French parliamentary hearing of François Michel, chairman of John Cockerill, a Belgian company which builds armed turrets for armored vehicles.
The hearing was timely as Cockerill is in exclusive talks to acquire Arquus, a French builder of light and medium armored vehicles.
Volvo, a Swedish truck maker, is the parent company of Arquus, seen as struggling due to weak foreign sales.
That prospective cross-border acquisition is reported to be worth some €300 million ($324 million), with the final price depending on an “earn out” clause pegged to the performance of Arquus over 18-24 months after the deal closes.
While it was possible to click on the website of the lower house National Assembly and watch the hearing remotely, it seemed worthwhile to cycle on a chilly winter’s morning to report on the defense committee, led on this occasion by the vice chair, Jean-Louis Thiériot.
The hearing was open to the press, and French media did report on Michel’s presentation, but this correspondent was the only one to turn up for the hearing.
The defense committee gathered in a freshly refurbished building in the elegant Haussmannian style, tucked away just round the corner from the imposing National Assembly building and near Brienne House, the offices of the armed forces minister.
The reception staff were diligent and helpful in facilitating entry to the secure building, and a parliamentary advisor escorted the correspondent to a well-attended committee room, which was transmitted live on the parliamentary video link.
It was helpful just to be in the room, as French members of parliament quizzed a captain of foreign industry looking to acquire a company employing their constituents.
John Cockerill, the British founder of the Belgian company, has been much in the press, not just in France but also in Belgium.
In Brussels, one of the four bronze statues of workers around the central figure of Cockerill, a pioneer of the Belgian steel industry in the 19th century, was toppled last week by angry farmer protesters calling for better conditions, Brussels Times and Belga agency reported. The Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, criticized the act of vandalism when he visited Feb. 1 the damaged national monument to Cockerill, just outside the European Parliament.
The protocol is the committee chair opens the hearing, and introduces the guest speaker, who gives a timed presentation. The chair then goes around the room by political party, with the parliamentarian making prepared remarks and asking questions, to which the guest replies.
Then the hearing is thrown open to other parliamentarians, with the speaker replying.
Loss of jobs is a key issue in mergers and acquisitions in France, and the parliamentarians’ questions made clear their concerns for constituents, particularly those around Saint Nazaire, western France, where Arquus has a factory.
Cockerill’s Michel spoke quickly, cramming within an allotted two minutes a 200-year back story of an Anglo-Dutch company, founded by John Cockerill, building cannons and equipment for the steel and rail industry, and promoting the corporate strategy of cutting costs by selling large fleets of vehicles of simple, modular design with integrated gun turrets and chassis, with an anti-drone capability, while selling into emerging markets expected to switch away from Russian suppliers.
Michel, who said he was a French national who started out at Chantiers de l’Atlantique, a Saint Nazaire shipbuilder, sought to persuade parliamentarians that the acquisition of Arquus would allow large foreign sales, backed by technology transfer and local assembly by foreign partners, while maintaining jobs and the present number of factories in France, and ruling out a management reshuffle.
Michel referred vaguely to discussions with the Belgian and French governments on “protective measures” on assets, with the results of the talks in the next few months.
The vice chair, Thiériot, had referred in his opening remarks to the sensitive nature of the financial terms of the bid for Arquus.
Matthias Tavel, a member of parliament for Saint Nazaire, called on Michel to give “firm commitments” for long term French jobs, working with the KNDS Franco-German joint venture, and maintaining Arquus’s service business at Saint Nazaire while pursuing production overseas.
Michel said there was an “extremely serious” commitment to maintain jobs in France and Belgium, and there would be cooperation with KNDS and other companies, but those would not undermine the work with Arquus. Foreign deals, agreed with state or industrial partners, helped maintain Cockerill’s French and Belgian jobs over the last 20 years, he said.
The priority was to maintain existing sites, he said, with exports seen as supporting work in the home market.
Technology transfer and local assembly with foreign partners were part of the deal, he said, as could be seen in export sales of aeronautic and land equipment. In the balance, the priority was to maintain jobs in the home market, he said, adding there was a firm commitment “never to touch the Saint Nazaire site.”
The planned acquisition would develop the Saint Nazaire site, he said, and long-term commitments on Arquus jobs depended on exports. There were no plans to halve the number of Arquus jobs, he added.
Michel’s remarks were particularly striking and “reassuring,” a source close to Arquus said after the hearing.
Nexter is a unit of KNDS, a Franco-German company 50/50 held by the French state and the German Bode-Wegmann family. France holds a golden share in Nexter, for protection of sensitive technology and national sovereignty.
Cockerill is privately owned by Bernard Serin, a French national, who acquired the company in 2002.
Mounir Belhamiti, the member of parliament from the Loire-Atlantique constituency, said he sent a “friendly greeting” to the workers at the Saint-Nazaire factory, who were doing good work to equip the French army.
Michel, replying to Anne Genetet, who drew on a speech by president Emmanuel Macron on the French war economy, said an armored vehicle turret now took a year to build compared to two years before the war in Ukraine. That was unsatisfactory, but a big improvement, he said.
The military requirements of emerging markets were four or five times larger than the Belgian and French forces combined, he said, and it only took a few of those large volume contracts to stay in business. It was unsustainable without those big foreign deals, he said.
Christophe Blanchet said he thought of two companies in his constituency – ACGB, which builds fuel tanks, and Renault Trucks at Blainville, northern France, and pointed up the importance of subcontractors. Blanchet’s constituency is in Calvados, northwestern France.
Michel pointed up two key points in his presentation to the committee.
The first was there was a large “strategic complementarity” with Nexter, which had expertise in artillery, heavy armored vehicles, and 8×8 vehicles, while the planned acquisition worked on light and standardized vehicles for foreign markets, he said.
The second point was Arquus, he said, had modernized its plant and increased competitiveness with support from Volvo, but the French unit had not been able to pursue exports. The acquisition offered more “synergy” and greater volume, not laying off workers or managers, he said, and that Arquus was a great industrial asset.
Such a deal could not be considered, he said, if there were not a high level of confidence between the Belgian and French governments, defense ministers, and the armed forces.
Arquus, along with Nexter and Thales, is one of the prime contractors on the French army Scorpion modernization program.
The three companies delivered through a temporary joint venture 123 Griffon armored multirole vehicles and 22 Jaguar armored reconnaissance and combat vehicles to the Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office in 2023, as contracted, Nexter said in a Feb. 5 statement.
There was first shipment on June 16 an artillery observation version of the Griffon, which included a retractable opto-electronic observation mast for surveillance, telemetry, and laser designation for targeting and guiding artillery.
Cockerill, previously trading under the name of Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénerie (CMI) made an offer for Arquus in a competition launched in 2016. KNDS made a rival offer, and Volvo cancelled the tender in 2017 as the bids fell short of the €500 million-€700 million then seen to be fair value for the French military business, led by Renault Trucks Defense. The business unit was rebranded Arquus, the Latin term for bow.
Volvo has taken a financial hit of some 900 million Swedish crown on the operating profit line due to the planned sale of Arquus, the Swedish company said Jan. 15. Arquus accounted for 1 percent of Volvo’s 2022 sales, compared to 1.5 percent in 2016.
See also,
Strengthening Franco-Belgian Cooperation: The Cockerill Acquisition of Arquus
Here is the video link on the defense committee hearing:
What involves 90,000 forces, more than 50 naval assets, 80 air platforms and more than 1,100 combat vehicles?
Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024 – NATO’s biggest in decades, aimed at reinforcing the defence of Europe.
February 2, 2024
Natochannel
This U.S. Marine Corps video was created in Adobe After Effects to explain the Distributed Aviation Operations warfighting concept for the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, the aviation combat element of II Marine Expeditionary Force.
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, NC
10.20.2023
Video by Cpl. Adam Henke
2nd Marine Aircraft Wing
U.S. Marines with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 461 and 2nd Distribution Support Battalion (DSB), U.S. Navy Sailors with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Four, and animal packers with the U.S. National Forest Service hike to the site of a downed U.S. Navy MH-60S Seahawk to prepare it for recovery at Inyo National Forest, California, Oct. 19, 2023.
The combined efforts of U.S. Marines, Sailors, and Forest Service personnel allowed HMH-461 to successfully recover the MH-60S Seahawk with a CH-53K King Stallion.
HMH-461 is a subordinate unit of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, and 2nd DSB is a subordinate unit of the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, the aviation and logistics combat elements of the II Marine Expeditionary Force.
U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Rowdy Vanskike,
