DETAILS LATER: Last week’s release of the Defense Department’s comprehensive strategy review was the Pentagon’s first of three budget-related events. The next is expected in about two weeks — shortly after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address — and should unveil broad programmatic changes. The administration’s budget release, which would contain specific dollar amounts, should follow shortly behind. The budget release is traditionally held on the first Monday of February, but it has not been formally scheduled yet this year.
The new defense strategy recently outlined by the Obama administration muddies the waters for the future of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer fleet just as the vessel was starting to generate more interest. As it stands now, the U.S. Navy program of record calls for three Zumwalts, fewer than half of what the service had planned a few short years ago and only a fraction of what the initial fleet was envisioned to be.
LONDON — Eurocopter sees residual concerns from the Chinese military over efforts to ease lower airspace restrictions, but still expects liberalization to take hold and drive growth in the country’s demand for rotorcraft.
With the Obama administration prepared to hand down at least $480 billion in reductions to the planned Pentagon budget over 10 years, a trio of industry groups has prepared a set of ideas for stemming the damage.
The U.S. Army is issuing its first Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) Interoperability Profile (IOP), which defines interoperability, modularity and commonality standards among future UGVs. According to the Program Executive Office for Ground Combat Systems, all future requirements documents and requests for proposals will reference the IOP, which will be updated annually, and bidders will be required to adhere to its guidelines.
2012 Appropriations: The Shift Away From Ground Begins (Base Budget Only. $ In Thousands) 2012 Appropriations: The Shift Away From Ground Begins (Base Budget Only.
The Mexican air force early this year will begin replacing its aging PC-7 training fleet with the first of six Hawker Beechcraft T-6C+ trainers. The initial contract, announced Jan. 9, comes as welcome news for the Wichita aircraft maker, which recently lost its bid for the U.S. Air Force Light Air Support (LAS) contract.
CANBERRA — The Australian Department of Defense does not expect the NH Industries MRH90 transport helicopter, a local version of the NH90, to be operational until the middle of this year. The program, which should have had aircraft in service more than a year ago, has been listed as a project of concern, meaning that it has been formally identified as one that has gone off the rails.
LONDON — Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will get new leadership with the planned retirement of Itzhak Nissan on Oct. 31. The board of directors has yet to name Nissan’s successor. Nissan replaced long-serving Moshe Keret, first as president, in late 2005. In 2006 Nissan also took on the role of CEO.
LONDON — Cassidian Aviation Training Service has secured a deal to provide repair and support services for the French military’s EMB-121 Xingu fleet. The government decided in September it would outsource the effort as part of larger French plans to shift more work to industry. The work by the EADS defense unit will take place at the Avord air base and cover 30 of the twin-turboprop-powered aircraft.
WRITE IN: In addition to its lawsuit against the service, Hawker Beechcraft is hoping to build political pressure on lawmakers and the Defense Department to force the U.S. Air Force to revisit its decision to award the Light Air Support (LAS) contract to Sierra Nevada/Embraer. The company has launched a letter-writing campaign, asking customers and other supporters to contact their local congressmen and the Pentagon. As a result, close to 5,700 letters had been sent to Congress and the Pentagon by the afternoon of Jan. 6, according to the company.
BEIJING — Testing has proved the effectiveness of crucial landing technology for China’s third lunar exploration mission, due to be launched in 2013, says national space contractor CAST. The mission, to be called Chang’e 3, is aimed at making advances in a wide range of technologies, CAST says. It lists them as soft landing, surveying the surface by rover, “survival on the lunar surface,” communications for long-distance monitoring and control, and direct injection into a lunar transfer orbit.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) JAN. 9 - 12, 2012 — American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics 51th Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, Nashville, Tenn. For more information call (703) 264-7622 or go to www.aoaa.org/events
WATCH THE SKIES: Satellite trackers predict Russia’s Phobos-Grunt Mars mission will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere on or about Jan. 15, with a more precise forecast possible as it winds down toward the atmosphere. Carrying a Chinese probe piggyback, the 13,200-kg (29,040-lb.) spacecraft was left stranded in low Earth orbit after its Nov. 8, 2011, launch on a Zenit 2-SB rocket. Most of the probe’s liftoff mass was hypergolic fuel that may be frozen, and it carried a sample-return capsule that may survive reentry and reach Earth’s surface.
BELL PICKED: Bell Helicopter has entered final negotiations for the sale of 15 429s to the Turkish National Police, the company reports. The 429 is a new entrant in the light twin-engine helicopter market, and the company sees Turkey’s selection “as a significant win in the European market.”
The Defense Department needs to do a better job pricing and developing its non-standard rotary-wing aircraft (NSRWA) programs, specifically Mi-17s, a Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. “DOD officials did not adequately manage the acquisition and support of NSRWA,” the IG says in its report, released this week. The IG estimates the Pentagon has obligated more than $1.6 billion over the last five years and the Defense Department has planned for more than $1 billion in estimated future NSRWA efforts.
LUKEWARM WELCOME: Just in time to help carry out new defense priorities and changes that the White House and Pentagon announced last week, the four-star chief of the National Guard has taken his seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The move marks the first significant change to the Joint Chiefs since the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, and brings full and equal Joint Chiefs representation to a part-time element of the military that not only is not a free-standing armed service, but is also shared with state governors. The move caps a decade-long effort.
SUB WORK: The U.S. Navy recently awarded General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems a $95.9 million contract for production and deployed-systems support of U.S. and U.K. Trident II submarine strategic weapon systems, including the SSBN fire-control system, the SSGN attack weapon-control system, the U.S. SSBN-replacement [SSBN(X)] and the U.K. SSBN-successor common missile compartment. The contract has a maximum value of $225 million if all options are exercised.
Boeing’s decision to lower costs and increase efficiency in its defense operations by shifting work at its huge Wichita facility to elsewhere in its network may well be the first of many plant closures this year as U.S. military spending dries up.
