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Eurofighter officials are downplaying the stealth capability at the Berlin Air Show, positing that the consortium’s non-stealthy Typhoon still beats out the American competition in the race to replace .
“Stealth is only 10 percent of the capability mix,” Eurofighter marketing chief Raffael Klaschke told Defense News on Wednesday. “We’re still better at the other 90 percent,” he argued, referring to the aircraft’s combat capabilities.
While the company could rest easy with the German Defence Ministry’s recent proclamation that the Eurofighter is the preferred path for the upcoming multibillion-dollar Tornado-replacement program, Lockheed Martin’s massive showing at the air show may have some officials nervous.
Eurofighter CEO Volker Paltzo doubled down on the argument that the Typhoon would guarantee continued vibrancy in the European military aircraft market. “I want to underscore that every euro spent on Eurofighter within Europe stays in Europe,” he told reporters.
Executives also stressed that the European aircraft would come free of any “black boxes,” a reference to the expectation that all technological and operational details would be owned by Europeans, which may not be the case with the F-35.
F-35 advocates have touted the fifth-generation aircraft’s stealth and other advanced capabilities for deep-strike and standoff combat, and there are some in Germany, especially in the Air Force, who believe that European technology simply cannot compare.
At the same time, whatever follow-on aircraft Berlin chooses for its 90-strong Tornado fleet is only expected to be a bridge toward a brand-new development, raising the question of whether a costly acquisition of the U.S. planes would be a worthwhile investment.
Klaschke described stealth as a “niche capability,” adding with a nod to the F-35′s competition: “We’re not scared.”
Officials were less willing to discuss the expected nuclear-weapons capability of the Eurofighter, which it would pick up from . Paltzo pointed to “confidentiality” in discussing the topic, referring to the Defence Ministry for information.
What is clear, however, is that the Eurofighter will be able to carry forward Germany’s pledge to , according to Paltzo.
And while the U.S. Defense Department must certify the aircraft-weapon pairing, the CEO said he does not expect America to influence the fighter decision toward its own industry’s product.
“This is a subject where we would not expect leverage by the U.S. over the Eurofighter,” Paltzo said.
The Department of Defense has quietly revealed a long-term plan for signing a series of cost-saving, multi-year procurement contracts to buy a total of nearly 2,000 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II starting in Fiscal 2021.
As the F-35 moves towards full-rate production in three years, the US Air Force and Navy plan to transition from purchasing the aircraft in one-year blocks to multiyear procurement contracts, according to a Selected Acquisition Report released in in late March.
The USAF plans to start the first round of multiyear procurement deals with a three-year contract in 2021, followed by successive five-year procurements beginning in fiscal 2024 until the end of the programme.
The USN plans to continue one-year procurements through fiscal year 2023, followed by successive five-year procurements from fiscal year 2024 until the end of the programme.
Multiyear procurement contracts are a special mechanism that Congress permits the DOD to use for a limited number of programmes at full-rate production to reduce costs by several percent. In total, the DOD plans to purchase 2,456 F-35s: 1,763 F-35As for the USAF; 353 F-35Bs and 67 F-35Cs for the Marine Corps; and 273 F-35Cs for the USN.
Multiyear procurement would guarantee Lockheed Martin large volumes of production work for years to come. For example, the US Air Force plans to purchase 60 F-35As each year starting in 2024. The Joint Program Office’s first planned five-year procurement contract in 2024 would thus guarantee Lockheed Martin 300 orders for the aircraft.
The value of multiyear procurement is not lost on Lockheed Martin.
“Multiyear procurements are a key tool to reducing F-35 acquisition costs, improving industrial base stability and enhancing efficiencies,” said Lockheed Martin. “We are working closely with the Department of Defense on the acquisition approach for an F-35 multiyear procurement beginning in 2021, and we have submitted savings information to our customers to help support their analysis and decisions.”
The Joint Program Office wrote in the SAR that it is pursuing other cost-saving initiatives, including a shared database of parts costs with Lockheed Martin to be used to negotiate “fair and reasonable” pricing for the US and partner nations, as well as looking for production line efficiencies that could save money.
Lockheed Martin delivered 66 F-35 Lightning II aircraft in 2017. In 2018, the goal is to deliver a total of 91 aircraft to the US and partner nations; with 85 aircraft to be delivered from the Fort Worth, Texas production line, two aircraft from the Italian production line and four aircraft from the Japanese production line. Lockheed had delivered 265 planes to US and international customers at the end of 2017.
The price of the F-35 has fallen in recent years as production has ramped up and efficiency has improved, but the Joint Program Office is pushing for the price to fall further. The flyaway cost of the USAF’s F-35A fell to $94.6 million in Lot 10 of low-rate initial production, which was signed last year.
Lockheed has committed to reduce the F-35A’s price further to about $85 million by Lot 13. However, Lockheed chief financial officer Bruce Tanner said in 2017 that his company’s ability to hit the $85 million target could be in jeopardy if the DOD didn’t find additional production efficiencies and implement multiyear buys.
now
Lockheed Martin executives Thursday dismissed critics’ claims that a German move to buy the F-35 fighter jet now would jeopardize future German-French combat aircraft cooperation.
Jack Crisler, vice president of business development, argued the U.S. defense giant’s product would be “complementary” to plans for future aircraft to be developed initially by Berlin and Paris.
“I don’t see it as ,” he said.
Speaking to reporters at the Berlin Air Show, Crisler said operating the fifth-generation jet would give the German Air Force a taste of the types of technology to come, which could be helpful in making the generational jump later.
Company officials sought to frame the contractor’s response to a German request for information as a sheer business matter, independent of any political sensitivities surrounding the U.S. defense giant’s move toward the German market.
However, the playing field is anything but apolitical. Outgoing Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Karl Müllner reportedly was considered too outspoken by Defence Ministry leaders in his openness for the F-35, previously noting the stealth and standoff combat capabilities as desirable features for the service.
But Berlin officially favors an upgraded version of the fourth-generation Eurofighter ― built by a consortium of Airbus, Leonardo and BAE Systems ― as a replacement for the 90-strong Tornado jet fleet. The main argument is to keep European companies involved in building combat aircraft and, perhaps even more importantly, staying clear of disturbing Franco-German momentum in armaments cooperation.
Airbus Defence and Space chief Dirk Hoke told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper over the weekend that if Germany picks the American F-35, it would upend plans for the European co-development of a new-generation aircraft that would begin service sometime in the 2040s.
Crisler said Lockheed is working toward a per-unit cost of $80 million by 2020, at which point the global fleet will be roughly 50-50 in U.S. and international users. Company officials now aim to lower F-35 sustainment costs.
“We realize that the cost of ownership is a significant part of the aircraft,” Crisler noted.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Andrew Olson, who , praised the advanced capabilities of the jet. The sensor package automates many tasks that were previously manual, such as those related to targeting, he said.
But he added that fourth-generation planes still have their place in combat scenarios for their ability to “put a lot of iron on target,” as their load capacities aren’t constrained by the limitations of stealth designs.
The F-35′s role, he said, is to sneak into enemy airspace undetected, “kick down the door” and allow other aircraft to stream in safely.
Besides the Eurofigher and the F-35, the Boeing-made F-15 and F/A-18 also are possible picks for what Berlin considers a bridging solution until a is developed.
but F-35 strike canceled in Italy as Leonardo offers jobsaccording to DefenseNews Strike planned at Italy F-35 assembly line
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Workers at Italy’s assembly line canceled following guarantees that more of them will be given staff contracts by Italian firm Leonardo.
The workers at Cameri Air Base in northern Italy, where Leonardo is for Italy and Holland, previously announced a one-day strike to protest what they described as the widespread use of employment agency contractors.
But the strike was suspended as the firm made an offer to take on 80 staff, said Sergio Busca, a representative of the UILM union at the site.
“It was not easy to speak about strike action since this is a strategic site, but we felt compelled to do it,” Busca said.
Unions have said 600 staff at Cameri are working on agency contracts, while only 270 are employed directly by Leonardo, which runs the site . Leonardo has said 520 staff are on agency contracts.
At a staff meeting held Monday ahead of the planned strike, a decision was taken to postpone the walkout in order to hear Leonardo’s proposals at a meeting scheduled on Tuesday, the day of the strike.
“Leonardo had previously promised to hire 150 of the contract workers, but only took on 70 in 2016. At the meeting they said they would hire the other 80 by June,” Busca explained. “There will be another meeting on May 28 when Leonardo will tell us about further hirings. As a result, the strike was suspended.”
A Leonardo spokesman said the offer to hire workers was not forced by the strike action but was part of an existing plan, which would see a string of new hires up until autumn 2018.
He defended the use of agency staff, stating: “The system means we can train up the expert workers we need and then hire them full time.”
Cameri has to date delivered nine F-35As to the Italian Air Force, while in January the first F-35B to be assembled outside the U.S., which is destined to fly with the Italian Navy, was handed over to Italy at Cameri.
Italy is currently due to purchase 60 F-35As and 30 F-35Bs, while Cameri is also due to assemble 29 F-35As for the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
In 2014, the 101-acre site at Cameri was named by the U.S. Defense Department as its F-35 heavy airframe maintenance, repair, Overhaul and upgrade facility for the European region.
A bi-partisan group of US senators introduced a bill on 26 April to prevent the transfer of the Lockheed Martin F-35A to Turkey.
The bill would also block Turkey’s role as a maintenance depot for the aircraft, according to a press release issued by the senators.
The bill was introduced on 26 April by Sen James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, Sen Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, and Sen Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina.
Turkey, a NATO ally and partner in fighting ISIS, has ordered a total of 100 conventional take-off and landing F-35As. The first batch of 14 are already purchased, with deliveries scheduled to begin later this year. A total of 30 F-35As are scheduled for delivery to the Turkish Air Force by the end of 2022.
Sen Lankford said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s disregard for the rule of law, diminishment of individual freedoms, consolidation of power and “strategic decisions” have fallen out of line with US interests. He also cited the imprisonment of American pastor Andrew Brunson, who is accused of helping the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in a failed coup attempt against Erdoğan. Brunson denies the allegations.
“These factors make the transfer of sensitive F-35 technology and cutting-edge capabilities to Erdogan’s regime increasingly risky,” said Sen Lankford. “Furthermore, the Turkish government continues to move closer and closer to Russia, as they hold an innocent American pastor, Andrew Brunson, in prison to use him as a pawn in political negotiations. The United States does not reward hostage-taking of American citizens; such action instead will be met with the kind of punitive measures this bill would enact.”
In a joint statement, Sen Shaheen outlined the terms under which she would withdraw her support of the bill and agree to transfer of the F-35 to Turkey.
“Erdogan and his government must abide by the rule of law within his own country and abroad, and release Pastor Andrew Brunson and other Americans unlawfully held in Turkey,” she said. “There must also be an immediate end to the harassment and detainment of locally-employed staff at the US mission. Until that occurs, I’ll continue to join with Senators Lankford and Tillis to call for punitive action, including blocking the transfer of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.”
The move by the senators comes one week after a senior US diplomat threatened to use the Lockheed Martin F-35 programme as a retaliatory tool against Turkey for acquiring a sophisticated air defence system from Russia, the Almaz-Antey S-400 Triumf system. The S-400 is Russia's most advanced surface-to-air missile system on the export market. It's advertised with an "anti-stealth range" up to 81nm (150km).
Lankford and Shaheen have previously worked together to counter Turkey’s alleged abuses, including an announcement on 19 April to pursue targeted sanctions against Turkish officials in the Fiscal Year 2019 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs spending bill. That proposal was also in response to the imprisonment of American pastor Brunson.
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and the Pentagon have not yet figured out to get past an issue that spurred a suspension of Joint Strike Fighter deliveries, but the prime contractor’s chief executive said April 24 she is confident they will soon.
“We are still progressing along with the Joint Program Office on that,” Lockheed Chairman, President and CEO Marillyn Hewson said. “It’s just a temporary suspension that they have on accepting some aircraft until we reach agreement on a contractual issue. So we’re working through that contractual issue with them.”
Recently, the JPO temporarily suspended accepting F-35s until the government and OEM could resolve a dispute over who will cover the costs of fixing a known production error—corrosion where the carbon-fiber exterior panels were fastened to the airframe—found on many of the aircraft last year. According to testimony at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing April 18, there were at least five F-35s “on hold,” comprising three for the Pentagon, one for Australia and one for Norway.
Still, Hewson assured financial analysts during a teleconference over first-quarter results that the issue should work out throughout the year. “It’s not affecting production at all, because we continue to produce the F-35. That continues,” she added. “We are confident we’re going to meet our deliveries this year of over 90 aircraft for 2018.”
The dispute has raised questions even if it is not materially significant. “We doubt the outcome of this issue will be financially material to Lockheed Martin but we do not know why the two sides have entrenched on who is responsible,” Capital Alpha Partners analyst Byron Callan said after the teleconference.
The F-35 issue was not the only bugaboo raised, however, as Lockheed’s stock price proceeded to lose almost 6% in regular trading. While management has increased its full-year forecast for revenue from $50-51.5 billion to $50.35-51.85 billion and earnings-per-share from $15.20-15.50 to $15.80-16.10, they left their operating cash generation guidance for 2018 unchanged at around $3 billion, after making a planned $2 billion of pension contributions.
“There could be some modest disappointment that the cash guidance has not been raised, but it is early in the year and cash is trickier to predict,” Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard said.
Separately, Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan spoke at media breakfast on April 24 in Washington and indicated a flatter forecast for Pentagon investment accounts, including research, development and procurement. Lockheed is the largest prime provider by annual sales.
Still, Lockheed continues to press for sales outside the U.S. and Hewson volunteered optimism about Saudi Arabia during the teleconference. Lockheed has said there could be as much as $28 billion worth of potential sales to the kingdom, and last month Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, toured Lockheed’s location in Sunnyvale, California.
“We remain in discussions on several opportunities with the kingdom,” Hewson said. “We look forward to continuing our more than 50-year partnership with the kingdom to help them provide for the security of their citizens and support to His Royal Highness’s Saudi Vision 2030, his blueprint for transformation of their country.”
What will the F-35 bring to the Italian Air Force? Gen. Vecciarelli: The F-35 is the aircraft suitable and necessary for new-generation scenarios. It is not just a fighter but also the best asset that can be used in a growing number of hybrid situations to achieve information superiority.
It seems that the F-35 is not a popular program with Italian politicians. How do you convince them of the aircraft’s attributes? Our political leadership is aware of the importance of the JSF program and the tremendous enhancement this asset will bring to the capabilities of the defense ministry. Even when severe budget constraints forced a decrease in the number of acquisitions, Italy’s participation in the program has never been in doubt.
When do you hope to declare the F-35 operational? We are on track to achieve initial operational capability (IOC) by the end of 2018. IOC depends upon several parameters. These include the appropriate number of aircraft being delivered to the operational units, the proper level of training and expertise for personnel and the software block upgrade that will enable us to employ the appropriate weapons for the assigned missions.
You are planning to host the first fifth-generation Tactical Leadership Program exercise at Amendola AB [to train NATO aircrews how to work better in a coalition operation]. Are other F-35 nations interested in the exercise? Because Amendola is the first European F-35 operational base, it is fully up to speed to host fifth-generation assets for deployment, exercises and real operations. Therefore, we have offered our partner nations the chance to perform the fourth 2018 TLP course over our territory. This represents the first opportunity in Europe to host training activities involving the F-35, fostering interoperability between fourth- and fifth-generation assets during complex and advanced missions. All the TLP-signing nations have shown great interest; there is an initial bidding [to take part in] the course for approximately 50 aircraft.
With four fighter types in the current inventory, what are the current plans for the various fleets? The Panavia Tornado and AMX will continue to be responsible for air-to-ground and reconnaissance missions for a few more years because they are able to cover several roles and operational scenarios, thanks to their ability to interoperate with coalition assets. The AMX will be phased out within the next three years and the Tornado in the late 2020s. Ultimately, the F-35 and F-2000 [] assets will cover the wide spectrum of our operational roles, from information superiority to kinetic capability.
Will the Typhoon receive an air-to-ground role? The Italian Air Force will soon achieve an operational capability in the air-to-ground role. This step forward will enable us to better manage the transition between third-generation assets [the Tornado and AMX] and fifth-generation [fighters]. When this transition process is completed, we will have two completely interoperable assets—the F-35 and F-2000—allowing us to cover and manage the full spectrum of challenging combat scenarios by choosing the best combination for any given operation.
What part does the AMX still play? As a cheap, robust and easily deployable asset for counterinsurgency, is it almost unique in Western Europe? The AMX has been demonstrating its value for years. The midlife-update version, ACOL [Italian for Operational and Logistics Capacity Update], has been employed in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq, where it has provided intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and air-to-ground support. It has proved to be capable, precise, reliable and affordable. We have therefore decided to extend its operational life until 2021, given the prolonged acquisition phase for the F-35 fleet.
What is your take on the future European fighter aircraft that France and Germany are contemplating building? We are following with interest the possible Franco-German joint venture to build a fifth-sixth-gen. fighter. For sure, the challenges will be extreme, but it could be a tremendous stimulus for the European aircraft industry. It will also be a long process involving several years and many resources. We need to think about fleet replacement, so a future European solution is definitely of interest.
What are the next steps in the Italian unmanned air vehicle (UAV)/unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) plan? UAV systems are an extremely valuable asset of our airborne ISR enterprise. They contribute daily to build up and consolidate the information superiority required for modern scenarios.
We have several years’ experience with the Predator A and B, which has allowed our air force to take a leading role in Europe in processing, fusing and disseminating the information from multiple ISR platforms—including the F-35. For the future, the air force is collaborating with Piaggio on the P.2HH project, and with other European partners for development of the next-generation medium-altitude long-endurance-Strategic-class UAV.
What are your plans with the new airborne early-warning Gulfstreams? Since Italy is already part of the NATO E-3 component, what role do these new Gulfstreams play? The CAEW [Conformal Airborne Early Warning] aircraft is a multisensor system able to address aerial surveillance as well as command, control and communications needs. These are fundamental in contributing to air supremacy and battle management. We plan an early-warning and command-and-control role for this asset, since it can be airborne with shorter tasking and employment times compared to the multinational AWACS.
It is indispensable for national airspace surveillance, although it may help support NATO/EU or coalition needs.
Many other air forces face personnel retention and pilot shortages. Is this the same for Italy, and if so, how are you combating the situation? Pilot shortage seems to be widespread across many air forces, and we are not immune. So far, our selection process and in-house training capabilities allow us to retain an acceptable ratio between the fielding of newly trained pilots and the replacement of experienced ones who reach the end of their flying duties. The biggest challenge now is the need to train pilots for the new F-35 operational squadrons while maintaining operational capabilities on the other fighter components. We’re focusing on an efficient training system that shortens [F-35] training time while allowing pilots to quickly become up to speed with the operational environments and complexity of the new information-management systems on the aircraft.
Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Leonardo, says his company wants to work more closely with the Italian Air Force on training and expanding the number of countries wanting to train in Italy. Can you provide more details? Our jet pilot training school, based at Lecce AB, home of the 61st Wing, comprises instructors and students from many nations as well as from NATO and other partners. The lead-in fighter training course, based on the new T-346 integrated training system, developed by Leonardo in close cooperation with us, is recognized worldwide. Such advanced training capabilities fit many partner countries’ requirements, and foreign personnel have been increasingly involved in our training base: We host nine exchange instructor pilots and dozens of foreign students. These commitments, which are expected to grow, are a tangible proof of the quality and appreciation of our flight training.
source is BreakingDefenseWill Roper, whose last job gave him the freedom to build really cool stuff fast, is discovering the vaunting challenges of managing large, regular acquisition programs and the enterprise that does that for the Air Force.
And one of the fundamental truths he’s having to grapple with is that at least three-quarters of the cost of a weapon is incurred after it’s been produced, during what the folks here call sustainment. This truth is why the F-35, the single largest conventional weapon program in world history is estimated to cost somewhere around $1 trillion to buy and fly. And that’s over half a century.
The real key to this weapon, he told about 20 defense reporters, will be its software. The producible bits of hardware are now pretty well understood and being produced and assembled. “The physical pieces of the plane are moving in a good direction,” Roper said. The military and industry need to improve the speed and reliability with which software can be produced to the point where a weapon like the F-35 can be regularly updated — sort of like your iPhone. “In future wars, we could end up updating software every day,” he suggested. In that vein, he said “it’s probably time to rethink whether the acquisition system,” created to build subs, carriers, tanks and planes, is really suited to building and buying software. And he pointedly said he really considers the F-35 a “software program” today.
In the meantime, the head of Air Force acquisition said the military needs to change its focus on production costs — note the unending focus on the price of each production lot of the F-35 — and “design for sustainment.” Of course, that won’t pay many dividends until new programs are started that are based on that.
The real news of today’s event is that we can expect an important announcement in a few weeks that “a significant acceleration is doable” of the Air Force’s hypersonic efforts. Roper said he’d completed a review of all the service’s work on hypersonic, one of the Pentagon’s top priorities.
Of course, the Air Force on April 18 to Lockheed Martin for the “design, development, engineering, systems integration, test, logistics planning, and aircraft integration support of all the elements of a hypersonic, conventional, air-launched, stand-off weapon.” We just have to wait, because Roper wouldn’t discuss any details.
If the Pentagon wants to decrease F-35 sustainment costs, it needs to make sure it gets its right, the Air Force’s new acquisition executive said Friday.
As the former head of the , Will Roper made a name for himself by pushing innovative new uses of existing tech, charting near term successes with swarming Perdix drones and other projects.
But since his confirmation hearing in front of Senate lawmakers in January, Will Roper has made clear that one of his priorities will be .
Now about 50 days into his new job as the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, Roper believes software is key to doing just that, he told reporters during a roundtable discussion on Friday.
“A lot of the would be solved if you do the software correctly, because the predictive maintenance happens via software,” he said. “The supply chain management happens via software. So it’s kind of like if you could solve this one thing, the dominoes would fall over and the world would be better.”
Roper’s thinking is thus: Predictive maintenance could significantly drive down sustainment costs, especially if the department utilizes new technologies that help it pinpoint exactly when maintenance should be done on the jet. That saves both time and money, as parts theoretically could be replaced when their life is depleted but before they fail.
In a long-term sense, the department may be able to make artificial intelligence and 3D printing cornerstones of its preventative maintenance toolkit, Roper said.
But in the near term, it should focus on improving the software across the F-35 enterprise as it moves into the Block 4 modernization program, which now includes an or C2D2.
“Your litmus test — and this something [where] we’ve got some more thinking to do, but this is where my thoughts are now — is that we have Block 4 coming up. And it’s very important that we can do agile software development to achieve Block 4. So we should probably think about doing some pathfinders on agile software development on software prior to Block 4,” he said.
“And if we’re worried about sustainment, and we are, some things on the maintenance side of the house would be good places to begin. Things like ALIS [Autonomic Logistics Information System, the F-35’s sustainment system] or the mission data files are things we can work on to prove to ourselves that we really can do this drop of software every couple weeks or couple of months and sustain that over time.”
Roper added that the Defense Department doesn’t have the “I’s dotted or the T’s crossed” on such an effort and that a software pathfinder has not been approved yet by the F-35 joint program office, which is responsible for the C2D2 effort.
“As the service acquisition executive I am actively looking at opportunities to tackle this development, working those with the program executive office,” Roper said.
Improving ALIS would be no easy task. The Lockheed Martin-designed system was devised to allow operators to do mission planning, order spare parts, do after action reviews, walk maintainers through repair jobs and store all the plane’s technical data.
But the software , and F-35 maintainers have complained about that cause them, oftentimes, to work around the system to execute tasks.
Roper pointed out that, as the Air Force is just one of three U.S. customers for the joint strike fighter, he doesn’t have sole control over the program. The F-35 joint program executive officer is charged with leading the execution of the program, and , is the milestone decision authority.
So where can the Air Force help? Maybe it’s by lending expertise to the C2D2 effort, Roper said.
“Where I find software talent in the Air Force—and I have found some, it’s not as broad as I would like, but I’m trying to make sure that this talent is available on this pathfinder software activity.”
One of those places is Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, where the program executive office for battle management “is doing some great software development,” he said. “I’m looking at them and thinking, all right, I have a small group of people who are doing software well. How do I get that knowledge everywhere?”