BMC moving ahead on Altay tank for Turkey amid supply chain questions

ISTANBUL — Production of Turkey’s first indigenous battle tank, the Altay, in development since the 1990s, is pressing ahead amid questions about the supply chain for a key component.

BMC, the Turkish-Qatari partnership that makes the Altay, says it will deliver the first two tanks to the Turkish government in 2023. Mehmet Karaaslan, general manager of BMC (defense), said the company plans to deliver eight units a month in an order for an initial batch of 100 units. The Altay contract eventually involves the production of 1,000 tanks.

Ankara has been negotiating to buy as many as 100 units of South Korean-made engines and transmission that will power the Altay. However, an industry source in the northeast Asian country said that the program is not moving ahead.

“There are serious tech-related and other problems,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

At long last, Turkey’s Altay tank finds an engine from South Korea

Turkey’s top defense procurement official, Ismail Demir, has said that negotiations with two South Korean companies focused on the quantity of the power pack (engine and transmission), also called a power train, to be supplied for Turkey’s Altay program.

“We must set a quantity … We are talking about 50 to 100,” Demir said in March.

Turkey’s defense industry boomed over the last decade, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 2010, The country had one company on the Defense News list of Top 100 Global Defense Companies. Presently it has seven—more companies than Israel, Russia, Sweden and Japan combined.

Turkey wants to make sure the Altay has enough foreign-made power packs until an domestically produced product is available.

In order to indigenously power the Altay, Turkey is developing the Batu engine. There is no local solution for the tank’s transmission mechanism.

In October 2021, Turkey and South Korea signed a letter of intent under which two Korean companies will supply engines and transmission mechanisms for the Altay.

Under the deals, South Korean manufacturers Doosan and S&T Dynamics would supply the know-how for engine and transmission mechanism for the Altay, which would be co-produced in Turkey.

The co-production option did not go ahead as planned and the new understanding changed into off-the-shelf acquisition of the Korean power pack.

BMC won the multibillion-dollar Altay contract in 2018. The contract involves the production of an initial batch of 250 units, life-cycle logistical support and the establishment and operation by the contractor of a tank systems technology center.

Turkey’s multibillion-dollar Altay tank program faces delay

As part of the contract, BMC will design, develop and produce a tank with an unmanned fire control unit.

The Altay program is broken into two phases: T1 and T2. T1 covers the first 250 units, and T2 involves the advanced version of the tank. Turkey plans to eventually produce 1,000 Altays, to be followed by an unmanned version.

Labor shortage still pinching aerospace and defense sector

WASHINGTON ― Despite signs the labor market is starting to cool, aerospace and defense industry executives said they’re still struggling with hiring, training and the loss of skilled workers.

“Shipbuilding is a very complex, high-touch labor business, and when you have a nationwide perturbation in the nation in the labor market, you’re going to be impacted,” General Dynamics chief executive Phebe Novakovic told investors on the company’s third quarter earnings call last week.

Novakovic said a labor “perturbation” at its hull-fabrication and outfitting facility in Quonset Point, R.I., was starting to ebb, but GD’s suppliers saw higher than normal retirement rates during the pandemic.

“While we kept open, not all of the supply chain did. But we also lost a number of experienced shipbuilders, as well as experienced people, manufacturing folks in the supply chain,” she said.

It’s not just General Dynamics. A review of the first batch of quarterly earnings calls shows top defense firms still see a tighter labor market and higher costs associated with it taking a toll on sales and profit margins.

On Raytheon Technologies’ call last week, CEO Greg Hayes said compensation, supply chain kinks and energy prices have led to $2 billion in cost growth so far this year. Compensation costs, which usually rise about 3% annually, have spiked well beyond that amid the tight labor market.

“The biggest inflationary impact really comes in compensation,” Hayes said. “We’re obviously seeing more pressure on compensation, given what’s going on in the marketplace today.”

Raytheon has hired 27,000 people this year and needs 10,000 more. At its subsidiary, Pratt & Whitney, which makes aircraft engines for civil and military customers, it’s taking time to train workers in how to cast parts.

“It’s not necessarily a capacity issue, it’s labor availability,” Hayes said. “I mean, how do you get trained welders working efficiently? That remains a challenge.”

Defense industry to launch inflation relief push in Congress

Compensation drives turnover

Amid the exodus of employees across the economy over the last 12 months, 70% of companies in the aerospace and defense sector saw increased turnover, according to a new workforce study conducted by the Aerospace Industries Association and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in collaboration with Ernst & Young. Overall turnover rose to 7% versus nearly 6% the year before.

The talent shortage comes as many companies in the sector are ramping up production amid the rebound of air travel from the pandemic and an increase in global demand for weapons linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as a new focus on space travel and exploration.

“There are a number of issues that are creating headwinds for the aerospace and defense industry, and they all touch on each other and overlap in certain ways ― and if you pull the thread on any one of them, it often ends up being a workforce issue,” AIA’s chief executive, Eric Fanning, told Defense News. “The biggest limiting factor we’re finding in the supply chain is labor.”

Compensation was the top driver for turnover in the sector, as 78% of turnover was attributed to employees leaving their jobs for the chance to make more money. According to the report, 75% left for career advancement and 31% departed for a better work location or opportunity for remote work.

Fanning said rigid demands on defense contractors are repelling workers. These include the need for employees to get security clearances, educational requirements and labor rates that are limited under contract.

“We have a retention issue, and the requirements levied on the defense industry are such that they decide to leave defense and go somewhere else,” Fanning said. “It’s not really one company in the industry poaching from another company. The workers are leaving the industry.”

On Boeing’s earnings call last week, chief executive Dave Calhoun partially attributed a $1.2 billion charge on the KC-46A Pegasus program and problems with other programs to labor instability. The firm reported a nearly $3.3 billion loss for the quarter.

“I know this: All of us in this industry are wrestling through these constraints,” Calhoun said. “I wish I had … an easy resolution. I don’t. This is what we’re going to struggle through all year next year.”

Boeing brought on 10,000 people this year, which Calhoun said would be enough to handle most production rate increases, but it takes time to train new workers. Calhoun said it’s a challenge particularly for casting metal, where more labor and experience are needed.

Calhoun said Boeing has put training and development programs in place to get new hires ready as quickly as possible.

German air chief: F-35 buy safe despite rising inflation costs

“There’s a real learning curve and cycle that is needed to ramp up capacity,” Calhoun explained. “All of us in this industry are wrestling through these constraints. We try to compare notes.”

Calhoun said Boeing is trying to help its suppliers find the employees it needs to get parts made, and sends its own staff to subcontractors to help.

But he said he doesn’t expect the labor market to stabilize until the end of 2023, as layoffs in other industries provide more potential hires.

The labor market in the software industry is already “beginning to soften considerably,” Calhoun said, presenting opportunities for Boeing to hire software engineers it needs.

But Northrop Grumman saw hiring and retention problems that stunted the company’s growth plans in the first half of the year begin to ease over the summer, according to its chief executive, Kathy Warden.

The company added nearly 3,000 workers over the quarter, and Warden saw layoffs at other firms as an opportunity. Still, she was guarded.

“In certain areas, the labor market is starting to soften, but we aren’t counting on that being a significant tailwind to us next year,” she said.

And not every company sees labor as a problem.

Lockheed Martin’s chief financial officer, Jay Malave, said the contractor has been able to absorb higher labor costs, but called it “certainly a watch item as we go forward.” At the same time, Malave told investors Lockheed is looking to pass at least some portion of its rising costs on to the Pentagon.

“We are seeing different changes both on the labor side and in supply chain, and it does have an impact really going forward on bids and proposals,” Malave said. “It’s something that we have to keep in front of us. And we’re having dialogues with the customer.”

Marines aim for ‘culture of interoperability’ with Japan, Philippines

WASHINGTON — A pair of U.S. Marine Corps exercises in the Pacific this month focused on working side-by-side with allies as the Marines pursue more sophisticated ways of sensing coastal waters and picking out targets.

The 3rd Marine Division commanded forces in two separate exercises, Resolute Dragon in Japan and Kamandag in the Philippines, that both questioned how Pacific Marines could quickly disperse to key maritime terrain and then team up with local forces to find and hit threats ashore and at sea, exercise leaders told Defense News.

While the two exercises had different objectives, 3rd Marine Division leadership coordinated their deployment from Okinawa, Japan. Division leadership also picked times to coordinate actions across both exercises, simulating the kind of disaggregated fight the Marine Corps expects in the future.

Kamandag was set in some of the most vital locations in the Pacific if the U.S. were ever called upon to defend Taiwan. Marines departed Okinawa and spread out throughout the Philippines, operating in locations on the western island of Palawan, near capital city Manila, in remote jungle in northern Luzon, and in small islands between the northern Luzon shore and Taiwan.

One island involved in the exercise, Basco, is about the same distance from Taiwan’s southern shore as Naval Station Norfolk, Va., is from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Some of the exercise events focused on command and control and sensing the battlefield alongside Philippine Marine Corps units, while others included bilateral combined arms events.

In northern Luzon, the goal was to “become familiar with the terrain that we might operate off of with our allies in a crisis, and also develop the necessary understanding of what the sustainment and resupply situation would be for us in areas like that,” Col. Erick Clark, commanding officer of 4th Marine Regiment under 3rd Marine Division, told Defense News.

Resolute Dragon, which this year took place on the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan, was focused on operating Bilateral Ground Tactical Coordination Centers, according to Col. Jonathan Sims, commanding officer of 12th Marine Regiment under 3rd Marine Division.

Sims, who has spent several years operating alongside the Japanese, said U.S. and Japanese units often have liaisons in each other’s operations centers to ensure they have matching operational pictures, but he said the effort gets quite “unwieldy.”

In recent years, the two militaries have crafted a concept for these bilateral coordination centers; due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Resolute Dragon 22 was the first exercise testing the concept on a larger scale, Sims said.

For the 12th Marines, he said, “we don’t do anything without Japanese partnership, nothing. And so really the imperative here was that we go out and start to run our operations together, absolutely side by side.”

The next step will be to move this type of exercise to more tactically relevant locations, including the islands between mainland Japan and Okinawa, and the islands between Okinawa and Taiwan.

For both exercises, the first test was arriving at the locations on time.

“What we continually see is that there’s just not enough military-tagged Department of Defense lift to move the division and my regiment to where it needs to go in a contingency or crisis,” Sims said. 12th Marines traveled to Hokkaido via civilian lift and Military Sealift Command ships.

He said the deployment went smoothly, though ships like dry cargo ship Sacagawea and roll-on/roll-off ship Dahl might not be available during an actual fight. Sims said his unit must consider other options to ensure it can always deploy when needed.

“We have to solidify plans to be able to get there as early as possible and then be able to partner up with our allies, whether it’s Japanese, Filipinos or otherwise,” Sims said.

The Marines headed to the Philippines used a range of military ships and aircraft, including amphibious assault ship Tripoli.

A forward command element from 3rd Marine Division even rehearsed scrambling from its Okinawa headquarters to the Philippines as part of an Alert Contingency Marine Air-Ground Task Force Drill using U.S. Marine Corps KC-130J planes, spokesman Lt. Col. Kurt Stahl said, part of an effort to ensure this lift is ready on short notice.

Once there, part of the Marines’ challenge was applying new gear to the rugged environments.

Clark said the jungles of northern Luzon stressed the radars and small unmanned aerial systems the Marines typically use to sense the environment and look for targets.

These systems were developed and tested in the United States, but 4th Marines needed to use them in the heat, humidity and triple canopy jungle. Clark said his Marines learned about employing these sensing capabilities in tough weather and terrain and would use those lessons to refine how they gather, process and share information.

Clark noted Marines near Manila for Kamandag and in Hokkaido for Resolute Dragon used High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers, something of great interest to the Philippines and Japan as they modernize to conduct littoral operations in a similar manner to the U.S. Marines. He said Japan has a shore-based anti-ship system, and the Philippines is interested in pursuing a coastal defense sensing and fires system.

“As we work with them, what’s a little more difficult … than developing the technology is developing credible processes in order to employ them in a timely manner that will be relevant to the speed of the battle,” Clark said. “What you saw up in Hokkaido with 12th Marine Regiment working with their adjacent Japanese Self Defense Force, and then with the 3rd Marine Division down in the Philippines, is really how we work these processes, how we go from finding a target to addressing that target, and how we take those lessons learned and cycle them back into the joint force.”

Sims said understanding the flow of information is key — which is why the bilateral coordination centers are manually inputting information for now. He said Resolute Dragon helped each ally understand how the other obtains, inputs and shares information.

The coordination centers will eventually pull all sensor information into a single digital common operating picture for U.S. and Japanese forces to share — a goal 3rd Marine Division set for 12th Marines — but that will require additional maturation of processes and equipment.

Even as this pair of exercises worked through developments in procedures, concepts and tech, Sims said the cultural element was most critical. It’s an effort to ensure that “any time we plan to do something, any time we go out and execute, any time we’re operating or training, that’s its partnered.”

“Out here, where it’s an imperative that we partner, the III [Marine Expeditionary Force] and particularly 3rd Marine Division understand that we have to build a culture of interoperability,” Sims said. “That’s the future.”

Turkish firms unveil a new loitering munition

MERSIN, Turkey — Turkish defense companies STM and Roketsan unveiled a new loitering munition, dubbed “Alpagut,” at the SAHA defense expo here this week.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the occasion, Ismail Demir, head of the Turkish Defence Agency (SSB), said the new weapon will be effective against targets on land and at sea, including “radar and communications systems, critical facilities such as command centers, and targets of opportunity.”

It weighs 45 kilograms and can be equipped with an 11-kilogram warhead of various types.

Alpagut is envisioned to be launched from aerial platforms in the first phase of the project, though land-launched and sea-launched variants will be manufactured as well. Turkish-made unmanned aerial vehicles, including the TB-3, will be capable to carry and launch the drone munition.

In an interview with Turkish media, an STM executive said the company plans to complete all flight tests of the new drone by the end of the next year and achieve operational readiness.

In the meantime, the Turkish defense firm Titra technology, which has been developing Turkey’s first unmanned helicopter, the Alpin, presented its loitering munition named “Deli” (which means “mad” in Turkish) during the exhibition.

Deli is a smaller drone that can be launched by hand or by catapult. It can be operational in less than 15 minutes. Titra’s new drone has a maximum takeoff weight of 13 kg and has a warhead of 3.1 kg. It has a range of 85 kilometers and can fly for about 75 minutes at a navigation speed of 80 kilometers.

TAI to deliver Hurkus-C combat aircraft to Niger, Chad

ISTANBUL — Turkish Aerospace Industries has signed a contract to deliver two Hurkus-C light trainer and combat aircraft to Niger and three to Chad, a senior company official said.

Atilla Dogan, TAI’s deputy general manager, told media that the firm will deliver the aircraft to Niger by the end of the year, and to Chad in the first quarter of 2023.

Company officials contacted by Defense News at the SAHA defense and aerospace exhibition in Istanbul on Wednesday would not reveal the contract value for either deal, citing commercial secrecy. However, industry sources say the price for a single Hurkus-C is about $40 million to $50 million.

The contract with Niger follows the sale of 12 Hurkus-B aircraft to the African nation under a deal signed in 2021. That was TAI’s first export contract for the combat trainer.

The latest deals enhance Hurkus-C’s penetration into the African market. In May, the Libyan Air Force signed an agreement with TAI for the acquisition of the Hurkus-C. No details were given on quantity or delivery timeline.

The Hurkus-C is a tandem two-seat, low-wing, single-engine, turboprop aircraft that can perform close ground support missions. It is able to carry a 1,500-kilogram payload, including Cirit laser-guided missiles, Roketsan’s UMTAS anti-tank guided missiles and Mizrak anti-tank missiles.

The aircraft is also equipped with an advanced forward-looking infrared sensor built by military electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey’s largest defense firm, and it has a maximum speed of 574 kph (357 mph).

It has external fuel tanks and can carry Aselsan’s electro-optical/infrared pod, dubbed the Common Aperture Targeting System.

The Hurkus-B is an advanced version of the Hurkus-A, with integrated avionics. The cockpit avionics of the “B” variant have a layout similar to the American F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.

Major Hawaii-based Army exercise tests brigade in island-hopping fight

More than 6,000 soldiers are headed into the “box” this weekend as part of a combat training center rotation across the Hawaiian islands designed to replicate a fight with China.

The main force, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, will take on a geared-up opposition force from the 196th Infantry Brigade starting this weekend. They will run drills until Nov. 9, Army officials said.

The work they’re doing will be simulated to project a regional conflict far beyond the training rounds flying in the box. That’s part of the Army’s exportable combat training center program labeled the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, the first new combat training center in decades.

CTC on ice: Army holds first Arctic brigade-level training rotation

The JPMRC saw its first major exercise earlier this year with an arctic rotation in March that used Alaska-based units and other units to run large scale combat operations training in a cold weather environment.

Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, and Brig. Gen. Jeffrey VanAntwerp, deputy commander of operations for the 25th Infantry Division, told reporters on a conference call Thursday that the exercise allows forces to build readiness in theater.

That, Flynn said, gives units more training time in a realistic environment and makes it easier for nations in the region to participate.

“So, the Joint Readiness Training Center in (Fort Polk) Louisiana does not look like Southeast Asia,” Flynn said. “But these eight Hawaiian Islands certainly do.”

Soldiers will be joined by Air Force and Navy assets, the Marine Corps’ 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment and partner forces in the form of three infantry companies, one each from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

The plan is to conduct one JPMRC training event each year in Hawaii, Alaska and at another location in the region.

The Army built the exportable combat training center package through contributions from the existing combat training centers and work at the Program Executive Office-Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

The package allows for training cadre to tie in live, virtual and constructed simulations. That combination can help replicate theater-level operations and planning.

A commander on the ground in the Hawaiian jungle can communicate with partner forces on other islands or across the Pacific. Officers in the command centers can then react to developments outside the training zone, much like they would in actual large-scale combat.

Opposition forces have free range to go off script and challenge, thwart, harass and basically mess up 2nd BCT’s game plan for conducting combat and seizing objectives.

The 196th Infantry Brigade is a U.S. Army unit using two battalions in this exercise. But they’ll be running and gunning as if they were a Chinese unit — using small drones, jamming and other means to get inside the heads of their opponents, VanAntwerp said.

The blue force commanders will also experiment with commercial communications platforms during the training event, he said.

“By distributing this brigade over multiple islands, we intend to really put some stress on their sustainment and their command and control,” VanAntwerp added.

Flynn added that Army units will also experiment with watercrafts in ways they couldn’t do at training centers back in the continental United States.

The four-star noted how logistically challenging it can be for Pacific-based units to return to the continental United States for mandatory training.

“You know, it really doesn’t make sense,” Flynn said. “There’s a reason we have a training center in Europe, and we don’t bring tactical forces back from Europe to the continental United States to train. We just never created a combat training center out here in the Pacific.”

The same logic applies to U.S. soldiers based in Arctic environments.

“There’s absolutely no reason to bring forces out of the Arctic Circle and Alaska to Louisiana in the winter,” he said. “They need to stay up there in the winter and train in the winter so we can learn how to live and operate, so we can fight in those conditions.”

The Army developed the exportable combat training center last year, but it’s not the first time that the Pacific has had elements of a combat training center in its backyard.

Flynn said when he commanded the 25th ID in 2014 the then-USARPAC commander, Gen. Vincent Brooks, brought two sensor control centers from the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, out to Hawaii to conduct training.

But units were on a kind of conveyor belt for pre-deployment training to U.S. Central Command that meant it still made sense to go to JRTC or NTC regardless of their home station location.

The vision, Flynn said, is for partner nations to replicate the training experience that the U.S. combat training centers provide and then link those disparate training centers across the region for theater-level training.

US Navy hunting for info warfare experts, Aeschbach tells Old Crows

WASHINGTON — Personnel steeped in information warfare are increasingly in demand across the U.S. Navy, and the woman who ensures they are properly trained, equipped and available is feeling the pressure.

“The competition is so keen now that my warfighting peers are approaching me and, in a good way, want me to do my job,” Vice Adm. Kelly Aeschbach, the commander of Naval Information Forces, said at the annual Association of Old Crows symposium in Washington. “They want to invest in actually having information warfare experts as part of their team, because the environment is so complex now.”

Information warfare, or IW, is a fusion of offensive and defensive electronic capabilities and cyber operations. It combines data awareness and manipulation to gain an advantage, before, during and after battles. The proliferation of communications and other advanced technologies and their prevalence in militaries the world over has given recent rise to the concept and its persuasive powers.

“We do our job right day to day, we will stay in competition. We will not be in crisis, and we will not have to endure conflict,” said Aeschbach, who previously served as deputy director of intelligence for U.S. Forces–Afghanistan and the director of intelligence for U.S. Strategic Command. “But I would also tell you that if we end up in crisis or conflict, we will be essential to the Navy prevailing in whatever that conflict is.”

Operation Cyber Dragon turning US Navy reservists into digital defenders

The Navy years ago installed information warfare commanders in carrier strike groups. The position, C4ISRNET previously reported, supplements air warfare and surface warfare commanders.

The service also established Fleet Information Warfare Command Pacific, an entity postured for a vast region the U.S. deems vital to international security and financial well-being. The Pentagon considers China its No. 1 threat. Russia is a close second.

“I tell folks that information warfare in and of itself is its own warfighting domain. We have our own non-kinetic and kinetic capabilities that we deliver,” Aeschbach said Oct. 26. “But, candidly, no other warfighting area can execute without us. You have to have us in order to be successful, if you want to put a weapon on target.”

Aeschbach earlier this year told Defense News her top priority was “to get information warfare fully into live, virtual and constructive training,” where a clearer picture of the IW community’s capabilities can emerge.

An inability to train with information warfare systems during live events — either due to the harm they may cause nearby in the electromagnetic spectrum or because they don’t want to reveal tools and tactics to faraway observers — has clouded a more in-depth understanding.

“Until we deliver that,” Aeschbach said at the time, “we’ll remain challenged in being objective about how well we’re executing.”

With reporting by Megan Eckstein.

Air Force to begin withdrawing F-15s from Kadena in November

WASHINGTON — The Air Force plans to start withdrawing its two squadrons of F-15C and D Eagle fighters from Kadena Air Base in Japan on Nov. 1.

In a statement issued Friday, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said the phased withdrawal of the aging F-15s, which the service is retiring, will take place over two years.

Kadena now has at least 48 F-15s as part of the 18th Wing’s 44th and 67th fighter squadrons. The withdrawal of the F-15s will take place in waves as the older planes fly back to the United States. The Air Force’s F-15Cs and Ds are well into their third decade — some even pushing 40 years — and are nearing the end of their lives.

As the F-15s retire, Stefanek said the Air Force will rotate newer and more advanced fourth- and fifth-generation fighters to take their place. These rotations will be temporary, but Stefanek said the military will “maintain a steady-state presence at Kadena.”

“The U.S. commitment to regional deterrence and the defense of Japan is ironclad,” Stefanek said. “Modernizing our capabilities in the Indo-Pacific theater remains a top priority for the United States. The transition to more capable aircraft at Kadena exemplifies our continued commitment to enhancing our posture and building on the strong foundation of our alliance with Japan.”

The Defense Department hasn’t settled on a long-term plan for Kadena, Stefanek said. But the plans being considered all include fighters with capabilities beyond that of the F-15C and D.

Until the military decides on a permanent solution, Stefanek said it will keep using its global force management process to maintain a “backfill” fighter presence at Kadena to “maintain regional deterrence and bolster our ability to uphold our treaty obligations to Japan.”

The Pentagon is still weighing whether to eventually have squadrons of fighters permanently deployed to Kadena, or to stick with a rotational model. Aircraft being considered to replace the older F-15s include the F-15EX Eagle II — an updated variant of the fourth-generation fighter now under construction with modern avionics and capabilities — or the F-35A.

Chile kicks off push for locally made training aircraft

SANTIAGO, Chile — The Chilean Air Force has officially launched a program to acquire 33 Pillan II training aircraft, to be developed and produced locally by state-owned Empresa Nacional de Aeronaútica (ENAER), under a contract worth 142 million.

The award of the deal to ENAER follows the project’s kick-off last April during the FIDAE International Air Show in Santiago city. As a proof of government support, the program’s launch ceremony was presided by Chilean Defense Minister Maya Fernandez.

The new aircraft will replace around 30 T-35 Pillan training aircraft, developed by ENAER with assistance of Piper and produced locally in the 1980s, that are currently operated by the Chilean Air Force.

The option to procure an off-the-shelf aircraft from the international market was previously considered and studied. But in the end the choice was to proceed with the development and production of an indigenous design, “in order both to preserve and to build up the industrial and technological capacities of ENAER and other firms in Chile’s local industry,” said ENAER chief executive Henry Cleveland.

Work on the current project started in 2012, using the experience gained by ENAER between the late 1990s and 2004, when a new wing was designed for T-35 Pillan, a prototype fitted with a turbo-prop engine was tested, and studies were made for the modernization of the cockpit.

According to Pablo Astica, engineering director at ENAER, “besides including aerodynamical improvement and a major use of composites instead of metallic parts, the main characteristic of the Pillan II will be the fitting of an advanced glass-cockpit and avionics suite.”

The upgrades as designed to replicate the interior of new-generation combat aircraft that trainee get familiar with what they will find when progressing to fly tactical types, he added.

For cost and efficiency reasons,the Pillan II will be powered by a piston engine, but it will be upgraded to four-blade propeller.

The aircraft will be the center of an Integrated Flight Training System for the Chilean air service, which will also include synthetic training using flight simulators as well as flight pre-planning support. Those elements are already in advanced stage of development by Desarrollos de Tecnologias y Sistemas (DTS), another Chilean company subsidiary of ENAER.

The program of development and production of Pillan II will run for eight years. The phase of definition of requirements and design, already completed, will be followed by a phase of engineering and production of a prototype, which is expected to be ready to perform its first flight in 2025. A subsequent testing phase is expected to end in 2026, giving way to serial production, with deliveries to start from 2027 and to continue until 2030.

But production of Pillan II will not necessarily end in 2030. ENAER also expects that Pillan II will replicate the success of the original T-35 Pillan, which was also exported to Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Salvador, Spain and Panama, countries where it is still in use with military and paramilitary forces.

While those users will also need to replace their machines and could choose Pillan II as the solution, an effort will be made to find new customers abroad, according to the company.

Canadian Surface Combatant cost may rise 9% with delays, inflation

WASHINGTON — The Canadian government has again increased its cost estimate for its next-generation frigate program, with a report by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer showing a 9% increase in procurement costs since last year’s approximation.

The Canadian Surface Combatant program is now expected to cost CA$84.5 billion (U.S. $62.3 billion) to design and buy the 15-ship class.

In total, the ship program is now projected to cost CA$306 billion for the entire life of the class, including development, acquisition, operation and disposal of the ships, spanning a period from 2015 through 2081.

This program has seen a string of cost increases throughout its lengthy planning and development process to date.

The original 2008 budget for the surface combatant procurement was set at CA$26.2 billion. In 2017, that jumped to CA$62 billion. The procurement cost ticked up to CA$69.8 billion in 2019, after Canada selected Lockheed Martin’s design for the ship, and then to CA$77.3 billion in 2021. It now sits at CA$84.5 billion.

This week’s report shows an increase in expected production costs due to updated production timelines and higher inflation rates, according to the report.

Ship construction was pushed back by a year; the first ship will now enter production in the 2024-2025 time frame, and will get delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy in the 2031-2032 time frame. The final ship’s delivery has been pushed back to the 2048-2049 time frame.

“Construction and ship delivery schedule delays directly affect the construction cost element, and consequently extend other cost elements such as project management, engineering support, training and testing, infrastructure and facilities, ammunition, and spare parts,” according to the report.

Last year’s report warned of potential schedule delays, and the cost increases that would incur. The jump in the cost estimate in 2021 was attributed to an increase in the planned weight of the ship and did not yet take into account potential schedule slips.

The Canadian Surface Combatant is designed by Lockheed Martin as a subcontractor to prime Irving Shipbuilding. Lockheed recently said the ship’s preliminary design review will be completed by the end of this year.

Irving Shipbuilding spokeswoman Mary Keith told Defense News the company was “not asked to provide data or participate in the report’s preparation. We are currently reviewing the full report and will respond to any issues Canada has. Our focus is on the start of CSC production in 2024.”