Boeing and General Electric are offering the U.S. Navy an upgrade plan for the F/A-18’s F414 engine that will deliver more wartime thrust while saving the service $5 billion over the life of the Hornet/Growler fleet, the two companies claim. The upgrade supports an increasingly aggressive Boeing campaign that aims to continue F/A-18 production for the Navy in response to delays in Lockheed Martin’s F-35C program.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) is looking at acquiring about a dozen Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, which could be based on the Boeing 767 or Airbus 330. India already has AWACS aircraft under development based on the Russian IL-76 with the Israeli Phalcon Radar, and three in service.
In a sign of movement in the epic legal battle over the A-12 Avenger II, the Obama administration is asking Congress to allow the Navy to accept a settlement in the case. In a letter outlining amendments to the administration’s fiscal 2014 request for appropriations, the Pentagon is seeking legislation that would “authorize the Secretary of the Navy to accept and retain in-kind goods and services in lieu of monetary payment, for the purposes of a settlement of the A-12 aircraft litigation.”
The chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is trying to push Congress and ultimately the Obama administration to tweak its evaluation criteria for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) rocket providers — which could help Boeing and Lockheed Martin and be another hurdle for Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren (D) and William Cowen (D) are pressuring the U.S. Army and the Pentagon to support the Army’s network modernization efforts, which are being squeezed by sequestration and other demands on the Pentagon’s budget.
SINGAPORE — New Zealand’s ministry of defense aims to decide by the end of next month whether to short-list multiple bidders for its primary trainer aircraft requirement or simply downselect to one company.
ISRAELI DEFENSE: Israel will cut its defense budget, though not as much as originally anticipated, as the Middle Eastern country tries to control its deficit. Israel now plans to spend NIS 52.5 billion ($14. billion) on defense in 2013, fending off NIS 1 billion in proposed reductions. Spending on the Israeli military is projected to dip slightly to NIS 51 billion in 2014, before rising steadily to NIS 59 billion by 2018.
SINGAPORE — While recent Pentagon reports have highlighted the strides made by the Chinese in developing anti-ship ballistic missiles, the way the U.S. Navy operates in that part of the world remains essentially the same, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations (CNO). “It hasn’t affected the way we operate in the region,” Greenert said during a May 14 media briefing at the International Maritime and Defense Exhibition (Imdex) Asia 2013.
MONT-DE-MARSAN, France — France’s two new Pleiades optical imaging satellites are generating more than 30 high-resolution images per day in support of military operations in Mali, where troops have been fighting Islamist rebels since the French-led intervention began in mid-January. The pictures, supplied to French forces using the Pleiades 1A and 1B spacecraft, supplement high-resolution optical imagery furnished by the French Helios 2 military reconnaissance satellite launched in 2009.
COCOMS GROW: The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that staff at joint combatant commands (cocoms) like U.S. Central Command increased by about 50% from fiscal 2001 through 2012, to about 10,100 authorized positions. Similarly, mission and headquarters-support costs at the cocoms more than doubled from 2007 through 2012, to about $1.1 billion. Both authorized military and civilian positions and mission and headquarters-support costs at the armed service’s component commands inside these cocoms also increased, GAO says.
A non-toxic propellant and related hardware developed in Sweden for spacecraft attitude control has been tested for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center at ATK Defense Group’s Elkton, Md., facility, as the civilian space agency continues its search for “green” propulsion systems.
The fuel consumption of USS Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) appears to be running in line with U.S. Navy estimates for their likely operational levels, a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis shows.
NASA’s third New Frontiers-class mission, the Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return probe, cleared a crucial decision point for development May 15 and is expected to proceed in preparation for launch to the asteroid Bennu in September 2016. If all goes well, Osiris-Rex (Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resources Identification Security Regolith Explorer) will return samples of the asteroid to Earth in 2023.
SINGAPORE — With “small-footprint” moves like the deployment of its relatively small Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) here and an extra 2,500 U.S. Marines in Darwin, Australia, the U.S. may be stepping up its resources in the Asia-Pacific with a “rhetorical footprint” that could heighten rather than ease tensions in the region, says William Choong, the Shangri-La Dialogue senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia (IISS).
LONDON — AirTanker, the company charged with providing the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) with air-to-air refueling capability, has been cleared to begin inflight refueling. The long-awaited clearance, granted by the U.K. Military Aviation Authority (MAA) on May 16, means that RAF Panavia Tornado crews can now start refueling training from the new A330 Voyager tankers. Refueling clearances with the Eurofighter Typhoon will follow later along with other aircraft in the inventory.
