AVALON, Australia — If the Pentagon is given flexibility in apportioning the “sequestration” budget cuts slated to start in March, the U.S. Air Force’s F-35 program manager, Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, says he will reduce production numbers and preserve flight testing activities. Last week, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said up to three of 22 Air Force F-35As could be sliced from the fiscal 2013 buy if sequestration takes effect March 1, as scheduled.
NEW DELHI — India’s parliament plans to investigate allegations of bribery in the purchase of AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters, on top of the ongoing defense ministry-initiated probe into the deal. News of the probe comes as the U.K.-based subsidiary of Finmeccanica is demanding New Delhi furnish solid proof that it bribed officials to win the 12-aircraft, $750 million deal originally signed in 2010. India has suspended all payments and threatened to cancel the purchase altogether if the charges of bribery to middlemen both in India and abroad are proven.
The potential new designs for the U.S. Navy’s LPD-17 San Antonio-class amphibious dock ships detailed recently by Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) may have come at a fortuitous time, at least on the international scene. As the production line looks to ramp down for the ships, HII unit Ingalls Shipbuilding is eyeing other possible variants for the ship that could perform missions including ballistic missile defense (BMD), hospital work or sub tending.
ANOTHER SOLUTION: Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) is offering yet another bill to replace impending reductions to the federal budget that would reduce defense spending by $167 billion between 2014 and 2021. It would reduce total discretionary spending by $320 billion over the same time frame.
PARIS and BERLIN — In the coming years, as the U.K. replaces Italy as the European Space Agency’s (ESA) third-largest contributor, the Astrium space division of EADS stands to benefit from Britain’s 25% increase in ESA spending approved last November. With major operations in the U.K., Astrium will take advantage of a funding boost targeted mainly at developing next-generation telecommunication satellite technologies and supporting Earth observation and meteorology programs.
ABU DHABI — Ankara has chosen Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) to lead the development of the country’s first truly indigenous helicopter. An executive committee of senior government officials, including Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan, gave the go-ahead for the project in late 2012. According to Yilmaz Guldogan, VP of strategy and technology management at TAI, a deal should be signed in the second half of this year, with the aircraft’s development expected to take between four and five years.
Amid continuing uncertainty over delays to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Australian government has opened up a long-anticipated study with the U.S. into the “potential purchase” of 24 additional Boeing F/A-18E/F aircraft.
FALSE CLAIMS: Federal investigators and prosecutors could be on the lookout for an increase in dubious claims by government contractors now that federal budgets appear to be headed downward. That is because contractors could become anxious to land new awards and “may feel the need to stretch their claims,” potentially violating the False Claims Act, according to David Laufman, formerly associate general counsel to the U.S. Special Investigator General for Iraq reconstruction, who spoke online during an Ethisphere Symposium about procurement compliance Feb. 26.
U.S. MH-60R Seahawk helicopters equipped the AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low-Frequency Sonar (ALFS) and MK-54 lightweight torpedoes are proving to be quite a lethal anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission package, according to the service and its contractors. Over the past two years, service leaders have been talking up the ASW potential of the MH-60R, or “Romeo,” especially with the advancements in sensor and torpedo technology providing an efficient end-to-end capability.
NASA’s inspector general and the lawmaker who chairs the subcommittee that controls the agency’s purse strings in the House are reviewing the Space Act Agreements (SAAs) that have been the agency’s procurement vehicle of choice for support of the emerging “new space” industry, in part because they require less rigorous oversight than standard government purchases of goods and services.
TEL AVIV — Israeli officials are revealing new details of their national space program, including plans for a new spaceborne computer. During a recent international space conference, Menachem Kidron, manager of the Israeli Space Agency (ISA), said the computer should be operational in a few years. It will provide processing capabilities that are currently very hard to achieve in space, as a computer in space must withstand extreme cold and heat as well as powerful radiation. The computer’s development is budgeted at NIS 180 million ($45 million).
SINGAPORE — Satellite manufactures are responding to the challenge of tight fiscal budgets by adopting new business models, such as public-private partnerships, and looking further afield for partners.
House Republicans will meet Feb. 27 to discuss the budget, sequestration and a proposal to keep the government running after current legislation providing funding expires on March 27.
HAGEL CONFIRMED: The Senate on Feb. 26 confirmed former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as the next defense secretary, ending a long and controversial nomination process full of questions about his policy positions and financial past. Taking over at the Pentagon will be that much harder, as the military prepares itself for more than $40 billion in cuts to defense spending for fiscal 2013 to take effect March 1.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, is being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (FA8611-13-D-2850) with a ceiling of $6,900,000,000 for F-22 modernization. The locations of performance are El Segundo, Calif.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; San Diego.; Nashua, N.H.; and Wayne, N.J. The work is expected to be completed by Feb. 20, 2023. This award is a result of a sole source acquisition. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WWUK, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
BRIGHT SIDE: Clark Murdock, a senior adviser for the defense group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the Budget Control Act’s sequestration penalty, which slices a set amount from each eligible program, is still better for the Pentagon than if officials were assigned the task of simply cutting to an overall topline amount. In that case, rational planners likely would have proposed harsher cuts up front.
