Latest news with #Next-GenerationShort-RangeInterceptor
Business Insider
8 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Sector Spotlight: Boeing enters non-prosecution agreement with DOJ
Welcome to the latest edition of 'Sector Spotlight,' where The Fly looks at a new industry every week and highlights its happenings. Confident Investing Starts Here: INDUSTRIAL SECTOR NEWS: Lime and Uber (UBER) have signed a new multiyear deal to let Uber feature Lime's shared bikes and scooters on its ridehail app, The Verge's Andrew J. Hawkins wrote. The deal was set to expire in 2025. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company is in the 'study phase' of using stablecoins as a way to transfer money worldwide, Bloomberg's Natalie Lung and Tom Giles reported. Stablecoins seems to have 'a practical benefit other than crypto's historic value,' the CEO said during an interview at the Bloomberg Tech conference San Francisco. Khosrowshahi added that the stablecoin is 'quite promising especially for global companies' since it can help cut costs of moving money around among different countries. Founders Fund has led an enormous funding round in defense technology startup Anduril with a $1B investment as part of a new $2.5B round, TechCrunch's Julie Bort wrote. Existing investors also took part in the funding round for the company, which was founded by Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, the author said, citing an Anduril spokesperson. The defense tech startup has now doubled its valuation to $30.5B with this Series G increase, the author noted. RTX (RTX) and Northrop Grumman (NOC) announced four successful tests of flight-ready Highly Loaded Grain solid rocket motors for the U.S. Army's Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor. HLG is a solid propellant technology for rocket motors that provides longer burn time and more energy output than conventional solid rocket motors, which extends the range of Raytheon's NGSRI offering compared to other missiles. Jacobs (J) was selected to deliver design, engineering and environmental services for Boeing's (BA) multi-billion expansion at its St. Louis, Missouri, campus. Designed to nearly double Boeing's regional manufacturing footprint, the 1.1M square-foot expansion will support advanced assembly facilities and the associated post assembly operations center for future generations of advanced aircraft. Site construction is underway and will be completed in multiple phases between 2026 and 2030. Uber, in a regulatory filing, announced that on May 31, appointed Nikesh Arora to the board. 'Nikesh is a globally respected business leader with deep experience across technology, finance, and cybersecurity,' said Ron Sugar, independent chairperson of the board. 'His leadership in scaling innovative businesses and navigating complex international markets will be invaluable as Uber continues to grow and evolve.' Arora has served as the chairman of the board and CEO of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) since June 2018. According to a regulatory filing, Boeing entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that, subject to court proceedings, resolves matters relating to the Department's determination that the company did not fulfill its obligations under the previously-disclosed deferred prosecution agreement entered into by the company and the Department on January 6, 2021. Pursuant to the NPA, the company is subject to a $487.2M overall criminal monetary penalty, $243.6M of which was paid in 2021 pursuant to the DPA and the remaining $243.6M of which was included in amounts expensed by the company in 2024 pursuant to the proposed plea agreement between the company and the Department filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on July 24, 2024. The NPA also requires the company, among other things, to pay $444.5M in additional compensation to the heirs and/or beneficiaries of those who died in the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accidents, to invest $455M in the company's compliance, safety, and quality programs through the end of the term of the NPA, to retain an independent compliance consultant to assess the company's progress regarding remediation and implementation of the compliance measures described in the NPA and the attachments thereto, to continue to implement a compliance program, and to continue to undertake a review of its internal controls, policies and procedures. The Department agreed that it will not further criminally prosecute the company for any conduct described in the NPA provided that the Company performs all of its obligations under the NPA, including those described above. The NPA has a term of two years from the date on which the company retains the independent compliance consultant, unless the NPA is extended or terminated earlier as described therein. China is considering placing an order for hundreds of Airbus (EADSY) aircraft as soon as next month, with deliberations underway with Chinese airlines about the size of the potential order, Bloomberg's Siddharth Vikram Philip and Danny Lee reported. The deal could involve around 300 planes, including both narrowbody and widebody models, according to people familiar with the matter. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS) and GE Aerospace (GE) announced a formal teaming agreement to advance propulsion technologies for the next generation of unmanned aerial systems and Collaborative Combat Aircraft-type aircraft. Eaton (ETN) and Siemens Energy (SMNEY) have announced a fast-track approach to building data centers with integrated onsite power. They will aim to address market needs by offering grid-independent energy supplies and standardized modular systems to facilitate data center construction and deployment. The collaboration will enable simultaneous construction of data centers and associated on-site power generation with grid connection and the integration of renewables to meet regional regulatory requirements, if required. Siemens Energy's modular and scalable power plant concept's standard configuration generates 500 MW of electricity. Based on its modular approach, the size of the plant can be scaled up and down. In the future, it can also operate in a carbon-neutral manner, provided hydrogen is available and part of the data center's sustainability strategy. Eaton will provide customers with electrical equipment such as medium voltage switchgear, low voltage switchgear, UPS, busways, structural support, racks and containment systems, engineering services and software offerings. Uber announced the departure of Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, senior VP, delivery, and the appointment of Andrew Macdonald as president and COO, effective immediately. Macdonald joined Uber in 2012 and has served in a range of leadership roles at the company. In his new role as president and COO, reporting to Dara Khosrowshahi, he will be responsible for the company's global mobility, delivery, and autonomous businesses, as well as cross-platform functions like membership, customer support, safety, and more. Tata Group's Air India is in discussions with Airbus and Boeing for a new aircraft order including around 200 extra single-aisle planes, Tim Hepher, Aditi Shah and Rajesh Kumar Singh of Reuters wrote, citing industry sources. In an interview with The Financial Times, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said he was working with the Trump administration to ensure the company did not become as 'unintended consequence' of the trade war with China, suggesting countries buy more of its aircraft to reduce their trade deficits with the U.S., Sylvia Pfeifer and Claire Bushey of The Financial Times reported. Ortberg also told the Times the launch of a new aircraft expected to replace its 737 Max was not an immediate priority, adding the 'market is not ready now.' Saudi Arabia is set to place orders for billions of dollars of Airbus jets as the kingdom balances suppliers in its quest to match the aviation growth of Gulf neighbors, industry sources said, according to Reuters. Leasing company AviLease, which placed an order for 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets during a visit to the region this month by U.S. President Donald Trump, could place a comparable order for Airbus A320neo jets at next month's Paris Airshow.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Army's Stinger Surface-To-Air Missile Replacement Makes Progress
The U.S. Army's ongoing effort to field a successor to the FIM-92 Stinger man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) has seen a series of successful subsystem demonstrations, with the next step planning to put the system into troops' hands for field evaluation. The latest demonstrations as part of the Army's Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor program (NGSRI) were carried out by RTX's Raytheon business unit. The need to field a replacement for the aging Stinger has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, which has seen the United States transfer thousands of the older missiles, while the drone threat has continued to grow globally. Raytheon announced today that it had completed all 10 planned subsystem demonstrations for its NGSRI entrant over the past several months. These successful subsystem demonstrations are a crucial step in meeting the U.S. Army's range and performance requirements for this transformational short-range air defense capability,' said Tom Laliberty, president of Land & Air Defense Systems at Raytheon. 'We are confident in our ability to rapidly deliver the Army an affordable, low-risk, highly producible NGSRI solution.' The company provided specific details of four of the subsystems that were looked at. First of these is the seeker assembly, which demonstrated a maximum acquisition range 'far exceeding Stinger in both laboratory and outdoor environments.' Meanwhile, the rocket motor 'demonstrated the ability to extend the intercept range of maneuver short-range air defense engagements.' As for the command launch assembly (CLA) — the man-portable missile launcher interface — this also demonstrated an 'enhanced range for operator detection and identification of aerial targets in real-world, low-visibility environments.' Finally, the warhead, which underwent static arena testing, demonstrated 'precise and repeatable lethality against a broad spectrum of aerial threats.' The remaining six demonstrations addressed other critical functions of the new missile, including tracking, guidance, aerodynamic control, fuzing, and safety. The success of the subsystem demonstrations, Raytheon says, should lead to exercises in which U.S. Army soldiers and Marines will get their hands on NGSRI prototypes and test them in exercises. It seems likely these trials won't involve troops actually firing the missiles — at least, not yet. Raytheon said a first system flight test demonstration is only planned for later this year. A replacement for the venerable Stinger short-range heat-seeking surface-to-air missile has been in the works for some time now, as TWZ has reported in the past, with the original plan being to get a finalized weapon into production no later than the 2027 Fiscal Year. The Army issued a formal request for information (RFI) for the proposed Stinger replacement in March 2022, at which time the program was known as Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) Increment 3. While other M-SHORAD increments focused on the development of air defense vehicles, Increment 3 was exclusively focused on developing a new missile to replace to that RFI, 'The system must be capable of defeating Rotary Wing (RW) aircraft, Group 2-3 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and Fixed Wing (FW) ground attack aircraft with capabilities equal to or greater than the current Stinger missile (with Proximity Fuse capability). The system must provide improved target acquisition with increased lethality and ranges over current capability.' At least some of those performance aspirations look to have been met in the recent subsystem demonstrations. We also know that the Army wants the new missile to be faster than the existing Stinger and more resistant to countermeasures. As well as being soldier-portable, the new missile is designed to be integrated on vehicles, via the existing Stinger Vehicle Universal Launcher (SVUL). This is a four-round launcher used on the M-SHORAD Increment 1 vehicle and the Avenger system, which can be mounted on a Humvee or in a static position. The rendering at the top of this article shows how Raytheon expects the new missile to appear when deployed in M-SHORAD-based and man-portable forms. RTX and Lockheed Martin have both received contracts to competitively develop the Stinger replacement. Speaking in October 2023, Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, who runs the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, told Defense News that the service expected to spend the first two years of the program developing the missiles, which would be built in a 'very small quantity.' Then there would be a competitive fly-off, with the possibility that both RTX and Lockheed Martin entrants could progress to the second phase: a rapid prototyping effort. This will see improvements made to the missiles (or missiles) and another round of prototypes. After another fly-off round, if required, the service would look to start low-rate production — sometime before the end of 2028. The original drivers behind fielding a Stinger successor included the determination that the Stinger Reprogrammable Microprocessor (RMP) would become obsolete in Fiscal Year 2023, with the Stinger Block I meanwhile undergoing a life extension to keep it relevant. This upgrade includes the addition of a proximity fuze, making the missile more effective against smaller targets, such as drones. 'We found some ways to buy time in the near term, including, for example, refurbishing older Stinger missiles,' Army acquisition head Douglas Bush said in March 2023, during an online Defense News event. 'We think we'll get at least 1,200 good new Stingers out of that effort, and save a lot of money doing it.' At the same time, the Army's Stinger inventory has been in decline for some time now, with a steady reduction due to normal training and test and evaluation requirements now compounded by the war in Ukraine. This has seen the U.S. military transfer thousands of these missiles to Ukraine, which has an urgent need for air defense equipment. The dwindling missile inventory in the United States across the board has led to broader questions about the feasibility of replenishing these stocks, or surging production if more missiles are required, as you can read more in this previous TWZ piece. As far as Stinger is concerned, the production of all-up missile rounds can no longer be undertaken, with all work now focusing on modernizing existing missiles. All this taken together helped the Army decide to develop a Stinger replacement, although it's still unclear exactly how much of the older Raytheon system might have made its way into that company's NGSRI offering. Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine has only further underlined the need for more capable SHORAD capabilities for the U.S. military. In particular, the threat posed by small drones, which is very much a reality now and only continues to grow, has already shown the need for improved SHORAD systems, and in significant numbers. The generally parlous state of the U.S. military's SHORAD enterprise is something we have discussed in this previous TWZ feature. All in all, while many details of the Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor are still to be revealed, the program is fast-emerging as one of the most important for the U.S. military as it seeks to optimize its short-range air defense capabilities to better meet current and emerging threats. Contact the author: thomas@
