Defence leaders call for strengthened supply chains and highlight security risks at Farnborough

Several company heads highlighted the challenges of trying to strengthen supply chains during conversations at Farnborough as they spoke about how governments and larger companies needed to nurture and support smaller entities.

Specific supply chain problems identified included the small number of potential suppliers, a shortage of capability and inadequate security.

Elbit America president and CEO Luke Savoie pointed to a need for depth in suppliers to allow an alternative in the case of an individual supplier facing difficulties, as well as allowing for a reduction in manufacturing pace to support the overhaul of processes.

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Savoie noted that a deep supply was key to manufacturing and national security.

“Multiple suppliers gives a supplier the opportunity to slow down production if they need to and it gives them the opportunity to perhaps even manufacture for somebody else as well apart from us, so again, it helps them as well as helping you,” Savoie explained.

He also noted that there were national security risks associated with a thin supply chain in terms of potential asymmetric attacks on manufacturing facilities.

“The US is not oriented in a way to look at that,” he said. “There's the risks of a vehicle attack or a simple attack which could involve a very basic [mechanical attack] and most sites are not as secure as military facilities.

“An attack can come from over land borders or from a container ship in the Atlantic and these are vulnerabilities in the supply chain.”

Some companies highlighted more traditional concerns about weak links in the supply chain with Raytheon noting a need for multiple suppliers of solid fuel rocket motors to meet a surge in demand, as well as selecting alternative suppliers to ensure production lines run smoothly.

Early in the show Raytheon outlined that it was on the hunt for a third motor supplier as it was doubling production of AMRAAMs and substantially boosting AIM-9X production with the support of the US Navy.

Paul Ferraro, president of air and space defence systems at Raytheon, said that previously the company had been producing about 450 to 650 AMRAAMs annually but was now currently on order for 1,160 which it expected to continue with the next annual lot order.

Ferraro said: “We have moved onto only manufacturing the AIM-120D-3 and AIM-120C-7 [air-to-air and surface-to-air] missiles and it has been a challenge introducing the D-3 into the production and ramping up to meet surging demand at the same time.”

Days later Raytheon announced it had signed a deal with Avio to “to initiate and progress the development of critical solid rocket motors for defence applications”.

Like the rest of the aviation industry, Bell has been facing an uphill struggle with its supply chain.

One official noted: “Everybody is suffering through ongoing supply chain challenges, but all in all, the [relevant] parties are doing a pretty good job of fighting through that.

“Castings and forgings are an issue across all of our industry and I think our engine providers are seeing issues with that. All of us are seeing issues on the transmission side.”

Tim Flood, vice-president of international business development at Boeing, pointed to offsets and wider industry involvement in national procurements as a way to expand and strengthen supply chains.

Flood referenced the company’s extended supply chain across its large commercial business defence operations with the latter reaching back to the former with programmes such as E-7A AEW&C and P-8 multirole maritime aircraft.

“It is important [that offsets] shouldn't be viewed as a handout but actually leveraging best of breed,” Flood said.

“Terma in Denmark do the electronic warfare self-protection controller for the P-8 and a whole raft of platforms,” he added. “Denmark has not bought any P-8s but Danish industry is benefiting from the global P-8 sales because their supplier in Denmark has been part of that supply chain.

“It helps us give us a lot more diversity and we can get capture the best technology in all these industry sectors,” Flood concluded.  

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