BAE Systems is volleying back against cost, capability and scheduling concerns raised this week in a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the U.S. Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) acquisition. The CBO estimates the GCV would cost the service $29 billion in 2013 dollars from 2014 to 2030 as it is currently structured.
Aviation Week MRO Military April 17, 2013 Atlanta, GA Reduce costs through partnerships and better forecasting, sustainment, and product support strategies Briefings will cover: -- GFY 2013 and 2014 budget reviews and their impact to MRO business -- Global defense sustainment market forecasts -- Industry perspectives on sustainment and sequestration
Surrey Satellite Technology U.S. LLC, a subsidiary of small-satellite pioneer Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. in the U.K., has opened a dedicated manufacturing and mission operations center in Colorado to handle its growing U.S. customer base. Located in Englewood, Colo., near Denver, the facility includes clean rooms for spacecraft and component manufacturing, customer-payload integration and electronics assembly. The center also houses engineering office space, test facilities and a control center for the spacecraft it produces.
THAAD DEPLOYS: In response to escalating tensions with North Korea, the Pentagon is deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System to Guam. The battery from the Army’s 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas, is being sent to the Pacific island to counter the North Korean regional ballistic missile threat. The decision follows a shift in the U.S. military’s investments in national missile defense as well as the recent participation of B-2 bombers and F-22 fighters in military exercises in South Korea.
Lockheed Martin has told Australia’s government and general public that if the country orders fewer than its originally planned 100 F-35s, Australian industry will receive less work on the Joint Strike Fighter program.
NEW DELHI — The most advanced version of India’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) has made its first flight, setting the stage for its induction into the country’s air force. The limited series production aircraft (LSP-8) is the last in the indigenously developed Tejas’ flight line before it is prepared for deployment for operational service by 2015.
The U.S. Navy will likely pay much less for its vaunted air and missile defense radar (AMDR) than previously projected — only perhaps about a third of what officials predicted a year ago — a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. The AMDR’s total price tag is now estimated at $5.8 billion, compared to the $15.2 billion projected last year for the radar system meant to provide simultaneous air and ballistic missile defense (BMD). (See chart p. 8.)
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — BAE Systems, which is leading the campaign to sell Eurofighter Typhoon fighters to Malaysia, says the Southeast Asian nation would have three anti-ship missiles to choose from if it orders the Typhoon.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has become bullish about the prospect of using UAVs to help monitor Malaysia’s territory, even though it also has a plan to add more manned fixed-wing maritime patrol aircraft.
Lockheed Martin plans to provide further details later this week about the international version of its USS Freedom Littoral Combat Ship, the navy’s newest warship.
PARIS — French President Francois Hollande says the nation’s €31.4 billion ($40 billion) annual defense budget will remain flat next year despite pressure to reduce public spending. “We will spend in 2014 exactly the same amount as in 2013,” Hollande said during a March 28 interview with France 2 television. The Socialist president also lauded French military support for Operation Serval in Mali and vowed to maintain the nation’s security independence, including modernization of its nuclear arsenal.
The U.S. Army needs to do a better job tracking, configuring and “sanitizing” commercial mobile devices (CMDs) to ensure cybersecurity, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. “The Army Chief Information Officer (CIO) did not implement an effective cybersecurity program for CMDs,” the IG says. “Specifically, the Army CIO did not appropriately track CMDs and was unaware of more than 14,000 CMDs used throughout the Army.”
The Pentagon concurs with recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations to improve its efforts to infuse greater competition in its contracting procedures and the Defense Department plans to do just that, GAO says in a recent report. While the Pentagon has been working on making its contracting more competitive in recent years, the trend has not been promising.
GCV ANALYZED: In a new report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that it will cost the U.S. Army $29 billion in 2013 dollars from 2014 to 2030 to carry out its current Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) acquisition effort on the most recent schedule offered for the perennially challenged program.
LONDON — The U.K. defense ministry says it plans to stick to a common configuration of its Airbus Military A400M transport aircraft as the type enters service in 2014. The U.K. Royal Air Force is buying 22 A400Ms to replace its fleet of Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules aircraft over the coming years. Initially the U.K. had ordered 25 of the type, but the number was cut in 2010 as part of the re-negotiations over the increased price of the aircraft.
