Lessons of virtual AFA; Esper wants more cash for ships; One-on-one with Lockheed Aero boss, and more.

One thing we learned about the Air Force Association’s newly all-Virtual Air, Space & Cyber conference this week: top military leaders were eager to participate.

While it’s difficult to replicate the in-person tradeshow floor and after-hours networking, executives said their schedules were loaded with Zoom calls with top leaders throughout the week. Moreover, several industry leaders said their meetings were more focused and longer since there was no travel involved.

Top Air Force and Space Force generals conducted daily press conferences, company executives gave program updates, and there might have even been a number of informal video happy hours in the evening. And just about everyone is far less exhausted from walking around a massive convention center all day.

Most of the panel discussions were recorded in advance, though a few top leaders gave live speeches. The Air Force Association filled the gaps in between with some live commentary, sponsored interviews, and commercials.

The way things are looking now, in-person trade shows are not likely to resume until mid-2021 at the earliest. It’ll be interesting to see if a hybrid in-person+virtual construct will be adapted even when life gets somewhat back to normal. Mark your calendar for August 2021, when the Space Symposium is scheduled.

Welcome

You’ve reached the Defense One Global Business Brief by Marcus Weisgerber. Send along your tips and feedback to mweisgerber@defenseone.com or @MarcusReports. Check out the Global Business Brief archive here, and tell your friends to subscribe!


From Defense One

Who is Secretly Building the USAF's New Fighter? // Marcus Weisgerber

Officials are mum, so here's a roundup of clues.

Selling F-35s to the Middle East was Never Going to be Easy // Derek Chollet and Andrew J. Shapiro

To do it, and preserve Israel's advantage, Trump must reinvigorate the consultative arms sales process with Congress.

Lockheed-Boeing Battle Heats Up as USAF Looks to Buy F-15EX // Marcus Weisgerber

The F-35 maker is fighting to keep its monopoly on the Air Force's fighter-jet shopping list.


Live: USAF Chief Gen. Brown 

Join me on Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 2 p.m. when I interview Gen. CQ Brown, the Air Force chief of staff, about his priorities and the State of the Air Force — part of Defense One’s State of Defense series. Also joining me are Mackenzie Eaglen, of the American Enterprise Institute and Stacie Pettyjohn of Rand Corporporation’s Project AIR FORCE. Register to watch for free here.

Esper Wants More Money for Ships

The defense secretary, who is in California this week, called for a boost in shipbuilding funding as the Navy struggles to increase its fleet to 355 ships. How much? Esper prepared remarks, which were widely distributed by the Pentagon, called for a 2 percent increase. But the numbers were left out of his speech he delivered. A Pentagon spokesman told Breaking Defense that the numbers are “predecisional” and thus left out. Defense News reported that a 2 percent increase in shipbuilding funding is about $4 billion.

One-On-One: Lockheed Aeronautics Executive VP

Michele Evans, the executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, oversees not only the company’s aircraft projects — including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F-22 Raptor, F-16 Falcon, C-130J Super Hercules and C-5 Super Galaxy — but also all future weapons developments within the company’s famed Skunk Works Advanced Development Programs business. Here are some excerpts from our conversation late last week.

Q. How does the peace deal between Israel and UAE change your calculus or projections for Middle Eastern sales of the F-35 and F-16?

A. I'd have to turn you probably back to the Department of Defense. We're waiting to see kind of what all that means. We'll certainly follow their lead in terms of what they choose to sell to what countries. But … we’re excited — whether it is F-16 or F-35 — that we've got an opportunity to continue to grow that international business and support the peace deal.

Q. The age-old question: how long is the F-16 going to be around?

A. You know, it's going to be around as long as there are countries that need the capability. Our focus is: how do we help some of these countries get into F-16s and then use the F-16, potentially as a path to someday the F-35. We're excited to continue to see the demand for the F-16. We certainly believe you're going to see the F-16 continue to be built — probably at a minimum out to 2030. And if it continues to have strong sales, we see it probably going even beyond that.

Q. Do you view the F-15EX as a threat to F 35?

A. I really don't. I respect the Air Force that they have to look at their operational needs and choose the complement of platforms that best suits their operational needs. We believe the F-35 is a superior platform. With its fifth-gen capabilities, we believe it brings capabilities that other platforms can't. But I certainly respect the Air Force, that they've made a decision to procure the F-15EX and we're going to continue to make sure that we're driving upgrades and capabilities into the F-35 to keep it competitive and keep it the platform of choice for the U.S. Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and our partner and [foreign military sales] nations.

Q. What is the status of the F-35 performance-based logistics contract that Lockheed is negotiating with the Air Force? Have there been any progressions or sticking points?

A. Actually it's had positive momentum. We're working through — with the [Joint Program Office] — a bunch of [courses of action], really looking at what are the best alternatives and how do we really get the maximum savings? So again, we're continuing to work through the acquisition process and are hopeful we can get to a contract to work next year.

Q. How do you view the Digital Century Series? What does Lockheed have to do differently in the way it builds airplanes to be successful? Should the Air Force buy multiple planes every couple years or so?

A. We're excited about the Digital Century Series. If you look at the modern digital transformation, and the tools and processes, in terms of how to develop, manufacture and sustain an aircraft, and also the software associated with it. You think about F-35 and how long ago that was really in the design phase. … Look at where technology has gone, not only in terms of the platform capabilities itself, but in terms of the design tools, the manufacturing tool, huge advancements that we're taking advantage of in Lockheed Martin.

[We’ve created] Stardrive, which is really our acceleration within the Aeronautics company of the digital transformation. Think of model-based systems engineering, think about factory of the future, software development in terms of containerization technologies like Kubernetes, and agile [software] and then even into sustainment in terms of how we use data analytics and AI. I think the technologies are just going to provide tremendous opportunities to speed up the development in the delivery of platforms going forward. We're excited to participate in the … concept of the Digital Century Series, and how do we support our customers to pace the threat and really deliver capability faster.”

Q. What's the status of the tanker arrangement between Lockheed Martin and Airbus?

A. We're excited about the partnership as the Air Force looks going forward at refueling and mobility. We believe we have a strong partnership with Airbus and will continue to leverage our Marietta manufacturing facility to provide a competitive offering as [the Air Force] really get to defining those requirements and getting to [requests for proposals].

AFA Speed Read

Making Moves

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory named Bill LaPlante, president and CEO. LaPlante, who served as Air Force acquisition executive during the Obama administration, has been a top executive at MITRE.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.