The U.S. Air Force’s new bomber program is intended to field a new aircraft in the mid-2020s, according to Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale. Maj. Gen. Alfred Flowers, Air Force deputy assistant secretary for the budget, says the service also plans to buy between 80-100 aircraft. Roughly $197 million is requested in fiscal 2012 to move forward with a program. The timing of a request for proposals or downselect has not been determined.
The U.S. Department of Defense fiscal 2012 research, development test & evaluation (RDT&E) funding request for at least two programs is more than eight times fiscal 2011 funding. The U.S. Navy is seeking $108.2 million in its RDT&E budget for the MQ-8 Fire Scout rotary-wing UAV, nine times more than fiscal 2011’s $10.7 million request, according to data released Feb. 14 by the Defense Department.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he will continue funding the General Electric-Rolls Royce F136 alternate engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program for now, but hopes tea party lawmakers and budget hawks in the House this week will help cancel the unrequested program congressionally.
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The Pentagon will cap its spending on the Medium Extended Altitude Air Defense System (Meads) at $4 billion, curtailing chances the primary partner, the U.S., will actually buy the system as designed. Rather, the Pentagon aims to potentially “harvest” technology from this development project while also giving its partners, Italy and Germany, the opportunity to also do so or, potentially, buy components of the air and missile defense program once a proof-of-concept effort is complete.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) is expected to slip 12-14 months as a result of Congress’s failure to pass new appropriations for fiscal 2011.
The proposed Navy fiscal 2012 budget gives little lift to aviation with an $18.6 billion request that nearly mirrors the $18.5 billion baseline request for the previous fiscal year. Most of the cost reductions, the Navy says, can be traced back to the restructuring of the very expensive F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Still, the service wants to buy 227 planes under the baseline budget proposal, or one fewer than it planned to buy in the previous fiscal year.
Aviation Week Analysis of Selected Major DOD Development Programs (dollars in thousands) Aviation Week Analysis of Selected Major DOD Development Programs (dollars in thousands) Description Service PEID FY2011 FY2012 Request Change Percent Change MQ-8 VTUAV Navy 030523
The U.S. Air Force is sacrificing part of its Global Hawk unmanned aerial system program while proceeding with a more aggressive buy of satellites and rockets, and moving forward with a bomber program.
The Obama administration’s NASA budget request for fiscal 2012 continues the new policies started in last year’s request, setting up a ready-made conflict with lawmakers who ordered faster work on government-built exploration vehicles and less emphasis on commercial space travel to low Earth orbit (LEO).
The U.S. Marine Corps’ fiscal 2012 proposed budget plan begins procurement of the CH-53K, reshapes the attack and utility helicopter fleet, continues Osprey procurement and starts to introduce upgraded cockpits and systems to the MH-60 force, while coping with the termination of one high-profile program — the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle — and two years’ probation for the struggling STOVL version of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter.
Cost-cutting across the U.S. Defense Department has helped free up funds to accelerate key unmanned aircraft programs, including a carrier-based surveillance and strike platform for the Navy. Fielding of MQ-1C Gray Eagles for the U.S. Army, MQ-9 Reapers for the Air Force and MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopters for the Navy also will be accelerated under the fiscal 2012-16 budget plan unveiled Feb. 14.
Investment in recapitalization is the U.S. Coast Guard’s top budget priority, the armed service said Feb. 14, and the Obama administration’s fiscal 2012 budget request seeks $1.4 billion to rebuild the operationally stretched fleets of ships and aircraft.
The Pentagon is requesting $671 billion in spending for fiscal 2012, including $553 billion in the base budget and almost $118 billion for war operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The U.S. Army’s fiscal 2012 budget request is slim on ground vehicles, but heavy on helicopters and communications. The shift follows massive outlays in previous budgets for Strykers, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles (M-ATVs). Among Army research, development and acquisition programs for fiscal 2012 by dollar amount, the top three programs are all rotary-wing assets, with a collective $3.8 billion requested for upgrades to the Black Hawk, Chinook and Apache fleets.
PARIS — French defense officials are wondering how a Tiger attack helicopter managed to crash during a joint French-Afghan mission on Feb. 4, given that it had just been fitted with advanced Thales TopOwl helmet-mounted night vision displays (HMDs).
The U.S. Air Force is faced with rationalizing its investment in a new, long-range, bomber-reconnaissance aircraft while struggling under the burdens of a tight defense spending and a high-priority F-35 strike fighter program that continues to suffer delays and cost increases. Planners are already aware of a number of unknowns surrounding a new bomber program. Will it be supersonic, optionally manned or hardened against nuclear-weapon-generated, electro-magnetic pulses?
BENGALURU, India — India’s National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) hopes to resume flight testing in December for its Saras regional turboprop aircraft, a program that has been delayed following the 2009 crash of the program’s second prototype. An NAL official says the flight tests will use the first prototype aircraft and by that time, the company will have completed a third prototype. Government approval will be required before the tests can resume. NAL aims to achieve Indian certification in early 2013.
BEIJING — A Japanese industry group is urging the government to keep the country’s planned F-X fighter in production until 2028, raising the stakes for the three Western companies competing for the program. Meanwhile, full-scale development of an indigenous follow-on fighter, known as i3, should begin between 2015 and 2017, the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies recommends.
BENGALURU, India — India’s Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) is in talks with Rafael and Thales about separate joint ventures in the fields of missile seekers and guidance systems. Chairman A.K. Datt says BEL has targeted $300 million in defense offset business in the next three to five years. “The exports are expected to be around $40 million in 2010-11,” he tells reporters at the Aero India 2011 show.
LAUNCHED: In the wake of its recent successful F/A-18 launch using the proposed new electromagnetic aircraft launch system (Emals) for its next-generation CVN-21 aircraft carriers, the U.S. Navy now feels comfortable enough to build production-grade Emals components where the service feels it has reduced the risk, such as the motor generators used by the system. Emals is going on the CVN 78 Ford carrier, replacing the legacy steam-powered catapults, greatly reducing maintenance and manpower needs with the technology shift.
Urgent efforts are underway to head off a threat of widespread and severe jamming of GPS following U.S. government approval of plans by wireless broadband communications provider LightSquared to install thousands of powerful transmitters that could block the signals from navigation satellites.
LONDON — One of the U.K.’s flagship unmanned aircraft programs, the Watchkeeper tactical long-endurance system, will miss its targeted in-service date. The first of the 54 Watchkeepers the U.K. is buying under a £895 million ($1.4 billion) contract were to be ready for fielding this month. However, an official familiar with the program confirms that is no longer the case. It is not the first delay for Watchkeeper. At one point the government was hoping the system could be fielded in 2010.
