The Obama administration is proposing to shift tanks, trucks and other military vehicles currently controlled on the U.S. Munitions List (USML) to the less-restrictive U.S. Commerce Control List (CCL) by year’s end as part of a broader effort to reform the U.S. arms export licensing process.
TARGETED ACCOUNTS: Weapons maintenance, services support and logistics will increasingly draw Defense Department acquisition chief Ashton Carter’s attention as the Pentagon looks to carry out its part of cutting $400 billion from projected defense spending over the next 12 years. “We need to look where the money is,” Carter told a Brookings Institution audience last week. He said for every 30 cents spent developing and buying weapons, 70 cents are spent maintaining them, adding up to about $100 billion per year.
Parallel development of two prototype long-range, highly survivable, anti-ship missiles is on track for test flights beginning in late 2012, says Lockheed Martin, following completion of a major program review. Under a joint effort by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the Office of Naval Research, Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control is developing two variants of the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm).
MOSCOW — The Russian defense ministry may purchase Sukhoi Su-30MKI multirole fighters, Russia’s most successful export combat aircraft for the last decade. On July 18, Alexei Fedorov, head of Su-30MKI manufacturer Irkut Corp., said the contract for 28 fighters for the Russian air force is expected to be signed in 2012, with deliveries to start in 18 months. The contract will include an option for 12 more aircraft that are to be handed over to the Russian navy.
The Pentagon is looking for industry to help it “come up with creative, innovative technological responses to the challenges that we have” in reducing an annual fuel bill that hit $15 billion last year, according to a U.S. Army official. Speaking with reporters at a U.S. Army-Air Force Energy Forum in Virginia last week, Richard Kidd, assistant secretary of the Army for energy and sustainability, said “the opportunities for cooperation are expansive and touch everything from original science to installation improvement technologies.”
The snake-bitten Amphibious Transport Dock Ship LPD-17 San Antonio is having more problems with its diesel engines. This time, the issue concerns leaks involving all four engines — one severe enough to shut down one of the diesels, according to Lt. Cmdr. Bill Urban, a spokesman with Naval Surface Force Atlantic.
As pressure mounts to enhance the U.S. presence in the global polar regions, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) warns that it may cost more than the U.S. Coast Guard estimates to buy new icebreakers or extend the lives of those in the fleet now. “The Coast Guard estimates that new icebreakers with a 30-year design life might cost $800 million to $925 million per ship, while a 25-year service life extension of Polar Star and Polar Sea might cost about $400 million per ship,” notes CRS in its recent report.
LONDON — The U.K. is looking into how to add a buddy refueling capability to the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter to provide operational flexibility for carrier deployments, particularly if recovery operations are disrupted. The study on F-35C-to-F-35C refueling is being undertaken by Lockheed Martin and funded by the U.K.
Lockheed Martin successfully transmitted IP-enabled data and video communications for the first time over the Joint Tactical Radio System network the company is developing for the U.S. Navy, the company says. The team extended the Navy’s existing network via wireless communications using a Joint Tactical Pre-Engineering Development Model (Pre-EDM) radio during a recent exercise at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific Combined Test Bed Laboratory, Lockheed announced July 19.
HOUSTON — The Atlantis astronauts deployed a small Defense Department satellite testbed on July 20, as they checked out shuttle flight control and communications systems for their descent to Earth. The 26-year-old orbiter is scheduled to touch down at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on July 21 at 5:56:58 a.m. EDT, bringing an end to NASA’s shuttle program after three decades and 135 missions.
NEW DELHI — The U.S. is lobbying for a bigger slice of India’s defense pie, with the Obama administration affirming its desire to strengthen cooperation through technology transfer and joint research, development and production of military equipment. According to Indian foreign ministry officials and U.S. embassy sources, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pitched the sale of 22 AH-64D Block III Apache helicopters, worth approximately $1.4 billion, during her three-day visit to India.
HOUSTON — With the STS-135 space shuttle supply mission to the International Space Station drawing to a close, agency officials are honing plans for a late November launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon on the first U.S. commercial cargo delivery mission to the orbiting science laboratory, NASA ISS program manager Mike Suffredini says. Agency and company officials reached agreement on planning dates of Nov. 30 for the launch and Dec. 7 for the rendezvous and berthing of the Dragon cargo spacecraft with the station during a July 15 meeting.
SINGAPORE — The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) has begun the process of replacing some of its aging NAMC YS-11 turboprops, according to industry and Japanese military sources. The JMSDF wants four aircraft initially and they should be able to carry passengers and cargo, says one of the sources. Aircraft in the competition are likely to include the Airbus Military CN235, ATR 42/72 and Bombardier Q400.
The U.S. is eager to begin regular talks with China about civil and military space activities, says Gregory Schulte, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy. “We are ready to do it tomorrow,” Schulte told reporters July 19 at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington.
The first of three production 737-derived Boeing P-8A maritime patrol aircraft that will be used in the U.S. Navy’s flight-test evaluations completed nearly 6 hr. of initial flight evaluations on July 7, Boeing announced July 19. Besides putting the first production P-8A into the air, the flights also marked the first test of the CFM International CFM56-7BE engines on the P-8.
AWARD DISPOSAL: Congressional bid-protest referees recommend that the U.S. Army reconsider an award to General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems for the demilitarization and disposal of eight families of conventional ammunition. The July 8 decision by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), distributed July 19, came after Explo Systems, a HUBZone small business contractor, protested the September 2010 award.
An analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) sees a grim budgetary future for the U.S. Army. “The Army may see more pressure in terms of budget cuts in the coming years in terms of major programs that they’re talking about,” Todd Harrison said in a July 18 briefing at CSBA’s Washington office. Budget targets would include the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and the Ground Combat Vehicle, since the service has been given the bulk of new gear over the past decade to be able to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
NASA’s twin Artemis spacecraft are both in elliptical lunar orbits after two years of complex maneuvers designed to recycle them from their original roles as Earth-orbiting probes studying geomagnetic storms. In their new orbits, which will bring them within 60 mi. of the Moon’s surface, the two small Artemis (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) spacecraft will spend the next 7-10 years collecting data on the Moon’s internal structure, surface composition and possible magnetism.
NRO ABROAD: A new Pentagon directive for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), signed by Robert Gates days before he retired as defense secretary June 30, says the Defense Department’s agency for providing and operating satellite systems should “leverage overhead reconnaissance capabilities of foreign partners with whom NRO has an established relationship.” The directive was published via Secrecy News from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
EADS has turned to EOS, a major laser-sintering systems manufacturer, to help it conduct a full life-cycle assessment to see if direct metal laser-sintering will generate savings in energy and raw materials consumption compared with traditional manufacturing methods. The aim is to develop a range of manufacturing technologies that produce parts that require less energy to make and to fly, thereby saving money and producing less pollution. One goal of the study is to determine how sustainable direct metal laser-sintering is for aerospace manufacturing.
The Pentagon estimates that the first three production lots of the F-35 are exceeding cost projections by up to 15%, nearly $1 billion, most of which will be paid for by the government. The total estimated overrun for the 28 single-engine, stealthy fighters in those three production lots is $918 million, according to Joe Dellavedova, spokesman for the Joint Strike Fighter program office. Contracts for these aircraft were cost-plus arrangements, placing much of the burden for overruns on the government.
GETTING CLOSER: The U.S. and India are “deepening and expanding” their counterterrorism and cybersecurity cooperation and boosting military ties, including sales of defense technologies to India, and sea patrols, for better maritime security, according to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. At a July 19 joint press conference in New Delhi with Indian External Affairs Minister Shri S.M. Krishna, Clinton told reporters that military cooperation will also serve toward combating piracy and providing relief to the victims of natural disasters.
HOMELAND ALIGNMENT: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is creating new acquisition councils and boards for decision-making over R&D investments that will centralize DHS prioritization and focus on viability and affordability. The councils and boards also will help oversee key acquisition decisions for major programs using baseline and actual data. The department briefed congressional auditors on their plan in June, according to House testimony last week from a Government Accountability Office official.
