Latest news with #EirikLie
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SpinLaunch wants to send 250 broadband 'microsatellites' to orbit with a single launch
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SpinLaunch has unveiled its plans for a new broadband satellite constellation known as Meridian Space. The Meridian Space constellation will consist of small "microsatellites" that can be sent to low-Earth orbit with as many as 250 spacecraft on a single launch vehicle, according to SpinLaunch. The company received $12M in funding from Kongsberg NanoAvionics to help develop and commercialize the satellites, with a planned launch date of 2026 for its first on-orbit demonstrator. It's unclear if SpinLaunch will be launching the demonstrator itself with its revolutionary rocket-flinging centrifuge or if it will hitch a ride on another rocket. The Meridian Space constellation will provide "significantly higher broadband capacity in a satellite constellation compared with what is available on the market today," said Eirik Lie, president of Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace, in a statement. David Wrenn, CEO of SpinLaunch, added that NanoAvionics' small, modular satellite platforms offer "a reliable foundation to scale our constellation quickly and confidently." Along with the statement announcing the partnership, SpinLaunch shared an image of a stack of Meridian Space satellites atop a launch vehicle. The flat satellites appear to stack on top of on another, hinting at how the company plans to fit 250 of the spacecraft on a single rocket. If SpinLaunch can successfully loft 250 satellites at once, it would set a new record for spacecraft launched by a single flight. That record currently stands at 143, set by SpaceX's Transporter-1 mission in 2021. SpinLaunch aims to disrupt the launch services market with its wild new concept for reaching orbit. The company is developing a 108-foot-long (33-meter) spinning arm that accelerates launch vehicles to high speeds inside a centrifuge before flinging them into the sky. Once at altitude, the flung rockets then ignite their engines. The concept greatly reduces the amount of fuel and hardware needed to reach orbit. NASA signed an agreement with the company in 2022 for a technology demonstration that saw third-party experiments from the agency, Airbus and Cornell University lofted to suborbital space with the centrifuge.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Manufacturer of NASAMS air defence system plans to set up plant in Ukraine
The Norwegian defence company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, which produces ammunition for NASAMS air defence systems, plans to set up a joint production facility in Ukraine. Source: Eirik Lie, President of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, in an interview with Euractiv Quote from Eirik Lie: "We are now establishing a company in Ukraine. We are in close discussion with industry in Ukraine to establish a joint venture. The first priority is to increase missile production for our air defence system in Ukraine, based on Ukrainian technology. We are talking about the mass production of missiles, meaning hundreds. We are looking at establishing the joint ventures within months." Details: The company's president said that Kongsberg wants to use the power of Ukrainian industry in the long term after the war. Quote from Eirik Lie: "Ukraine can be part of the supply chain providing missiles for air defence systems." Background: Shares of the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall have risen ten times since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Euronews
16-02-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Visibility, supply chain, innovation: What defence executives need from Europe
Europe's defence industry is ready to ramp up production to secure the Old Continent but it needs governments to be faster and smarter with procurement practices to address potential shortages issues, top executives at Kongsberg told Euronews. The EU is in the midst of a deep rethink of its defence strategy with leaders hammering out how to inject the €500 billion the bloc needs over the coming decade to upgrade its military capabilities and plug the gaps in its defence that the conflict in Ukraine has starkly exposed. Neighbouring countries and allies, including the UK and Norway, are doing the same. Among the capabilities EU leaders have repeatedly put at the top of their wish lists are air defence systems and ammunition — which the bloc's failure to fulfill its pledge last year to deliver one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine within 12 months made all the more urgent. 'We are not the limiting factor in producing air defence systems,' Eirik Lie, President of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS, told Euronews in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. 'We can produce two NASAMS batteries per month so that's not the problem. The problem is to have the long-lead items and the supply chain providing these items,' he added. The Norwegian company, which produces two different types of air defence systems, including the NASAMS, as well as strike missiles among other capabilities, reported operating revenues of €4.35 billion in 2024, a 20% increase on the previous year, and finished the year with a record order backlog worth €11.39 billion. According to a ranking of global defence companies released by SIPRI in 2023, it ranks 80th in the world in terms of revenues. In 2024, it struck procurement contracts for air defence systems with Spain, Lithuania and the Netherlands, among others. Some long-lead items required for the sophisticated systems can require up to a year to source meaning the earlier the defence company knows a contract is coming the better the better, Kongsberg's Lie said. Norway and the US are among countries that have ordered long-lead items months before actually finalising the procurement contract, allowing companies to put the orders in early and therefore cutting the delivery time of the final product. 'I think it's a matter on the contracting side, it's a matter of speeding up the procurement side,' Lie said, urging governments to simplify the acquisition process, aggregate procurements so orders don't drip through slowly, and give companies 'long-term visibility'. This visibility is also necessary to help the smaller companies in the supply chain — which might struggle to access financing — ramp up in turn to match demand. Another challenge facing the industry, Lie said, is the need to diversify supply sources. The NATO military alliance published in December 2024 a list of 12 critical raw materials that are crucial for the defence industry which include aluminium, graphite, gallium, germanium, and lithium. China controls significant shares of the global mining and processing of a number of these materials — including lithium, gallium, and germanium. In 2024, the country announced export controls on the exports of the latter two, even banning shipments to the US at the end of the year. Reduced access to these critical raw materials and some electronic components is not currently an issue, Lie said, but it is: 'a risk for the future' 'We don't expect that to happen in the near future, but we need to be secure, to have our eyes open to see if there are any disruptions in that area,' he told Euronews. Finally, European companies need to be given the means to innovate more and one area where the Old Continent can differentiate itself is by better building on civilian technology, Geir Håøy, president and chief executive officer at Kongsberg, told Euronews. 'We need to utilise commercially available technology and then you need to militarise it as required. That way you can speed up and you can take down the cost as well,' he added, arguing that it would also help to standardise technologies and systems, which allies have flagged as a key goal. But another area where Europe cannot miss the ball is on autonomy, meaning, unmanned technology, and Artificial Intelligence through the use of datasets to help troops quicken the decision-making process. "I think that's going to change the battlefield going forward,' Håøy said. The European Commission will release its on March 19. The paper will detail what the EU's executive believes the bloc should invest in in terms of capabilities and how it should finance it. Leaders are expected to take decisions at a summit in late June.
