LONDON — The contracting headaches with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter have credit-ratings company Moody’s worried, not just for Lockheed Martin but also the stealthy aircraft’s expansive supply chain. While the ratings agency notes in a new report that “we still believe the program is unlikely to be canceled outright,” it does highlight areas of concern. Specifically, Moody’s says, “at a minimum, production looks likely to be delayed further, and potentially more meaningful quantity reductions could be next.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Airbus Military is hoping the new level of industrial cooperation it plans to have with Indonesian Aerospace (IAe) will help it secure new Asia-Pacific customers and achieve a lower cost base. “We have to be extremely competitive. We have a lot of competition,” Airbus Military chief Domingo Urena-Raso tells Aviation Week on the sidelines of the LIMA Airshow in Langkawi, Malaysia.
ASTRONAUT CAPTURE: Veteran NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson has been named director of Commercial Crew Interface by the Boeing Co., a position in which he assumes comprehensive oversight for crew integration and operations in the design of the CST-100, Boeing’s seven-person spacecraft under development for NASA’s Commercial Crew Development 2 initiative. The appointment is effective Dec. 16. Ferguson retired from NASA on Dec. 9 after 13 years in the astronaut corps.
TYPHOON WARNING: With the start of the new year, Germany will have its Eurofighter force ready to support the NATO Response Force (NRF) if the capability is called on during a crisis. The operational readiness was validated during a NATO exercise last month, the German air force says. The fighter wing JG74 began preparing for NRF more than a year ago, which will see the unit ready to contribute with 300 personnel and six aircraft on standby (four would likely be deployed) to support the alliance’s rapid response mission.
ARMY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Ariz., was awarded a $141,318,475 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the services in support of 30 Apache AH-64D attack helicopters for Taiwan. The work will be performed in Mesa, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 30, 2017. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-09-C-0147).
While the nation’s top uniformed officer says the U.S. military is committed to developing a fifth-generation fighter jet, he indicates that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter may be on a path to a slowdown. “There are some fact-of-life changes that we’ll probably have to make based on the ability to procure on the time lines that we’d like to have,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a Dec. 9 event sponsored by the Atlantic Council.
Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and Embraer may get the lion’s share of attention, but the airplanes they build are the sum of systems and parts that are procured from hundreds of suppliers around the globe. So it is not surprising that United Technologies Corp.’s $18.4 billion deal to acquire Goodrich is generating a lot of speculation about the future of the aerospace supply chain.
SpaceX will attempt the first commercial link-up with the International Space Station (ISS) on Feb. 7, which could be a major milestone on the way to the low-Earth-orbit economy NASA is trying to create.
FILTON, England — As the U.K. starts exploring support options for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Defense Ministry is looking to rely on industry for the in-service maintenance approach. In effect, the goal is to replicate the outsourcing structure already in place for the Tornado GR4 RB199 engine and the Eurofighter Typhoon’s Eurojet EJ200. In both cases Rolls-Royce is providing the support.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Malaysia’s defense minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, says the news media misquoted him with regards to the Eurofighter Typhoon’s prospects in Malaysia. The Malaysian air force has a requirement for 18 multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA), with a winner to be announced sometime before 2016. Besides the Eurofighter Typhoon, the other contenders are the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale, Saab Gripen, Sukhoi Su-30 and RSK MiG-35.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — With an eye on becoming a bigger player in the global aerospace and defense industry, Malaysia intends to use its offset requirements. The Malaysian air force needs 18 fighter aircraft and at least two airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft. The navy, meanwhile, has a requirement for six anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters. The armed services have been evaluating the technical specifications of the platforms on offer and calculating the life-cycle costs, but the government has a broader view.
The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) will focus its spending more intently on the development of autonomous and unmanned systems, according to the agency’s recently released science and technology (S&T) strategic plan.
PARIS — Australian teleport operator NewSat announced an agreement with European launch consortium Arianespace Dec. 9 to loft a Lockheed Martin-built Ka-band satellite designed to cover the Middle East, Africa and Asia in the second half of 2014. Melbourne-based NewSat plans up to seven orbital slots in Ka- and Ku-band in the coming years to provide high-bandwidth communication services to government and enterprise markets, including mining, oil, gas, media and carrier-grade telecommunications.
NEW DELHI — Fresh troubles are delaying India’s indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft program, with final operational clearance slipping by over a year to December 2014.
YAK ORDER: The Russian defense ministry has ordered 55 Yakovlev Yak-130 advanced jet trainers from the Irkut Corp. The deliveries should start in 2012 and last through 2015. “The Yak-130 procurement by the air force will bring the pilots’ training to the required level and prepare them to operate the new-generation combat aircraft,” says defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) DEC. 14 - 15 — Electronic Warfare Conference, Sheraton National Hotel, Arlington, Va. For more information call (310) 322-8110 or go to www.ttcus.com 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
Even if the Pentagon is staring nearly $1 trillion in budget cuts in the face, the defense secretary should continue to accelerate production of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, an Oklahoma senator argues.
HOUSTON — NASA’s marathon New Horizons mission to distant Pluto and the Kuiper Belt earlier this month became the closest spacecraft ever to pass the famed dwarf planet. The $700 million mission to characterize the surface and atmosphere of Pluto with a flyby was launched on Jan. 19, 2006. After a July 14, 2015 flyby, New Horizons is expected to speed into the comet-filled Kuiper Belt for additional encounters with the icy, rocky rubble left over from the formation of the Solar System.
NEW DELHI — India’s state-run military airframer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and British engine maker Rolls-Royce have rolled out plans to build a joint manufacturing facility in southern India to produce civil aircraft engine components and subsystems. “The production facility will produce components, for the technologically advanced Trent family of civil aero engines, as well as for a number of marine and energy gas turbines,” HAL said in a statement today. Production is projected to start next year.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Australia’s air force has made it clear publicly that it prefers the Alenia C-27J over the Airbus Military C295. The chief of the Australian air force, Air Marshal Geoff Brown, says a letter of request (LOR) has been issued for the C-27J, but no such request has been issued for the C295. All that has been issued for the C295 is a request for information in regard to pricing, he says.
