EARMARK BAN: Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has announced a moratorium on congressional spending earmarks for fiscal 2011 and 2012, despite his own backing for what he and supporters term a constitutional prerogative. “However, the handwriting is clearly on the wall,” Inouye said Feb. 1. Inouye — who supports congressional directives like the General Electric-Rolls Royce F136 alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, which the Obama administration opposes — said he expects Congress will reassess the anti-earmark fervor next year.
The U.S. Army is exploring options for procuring a family of small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that would allow for rapid infusion of new technologies as units rotate for service abroad. The goal is to buy more of the small UAS to outfit each platoon-sized unit with its own system, which would be between 2-15 lb., hand-held and easily operated, says Glenn Rizzi, senior adviser at the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.
TARGETING MISSILES: In an effort to expand in the Indian defense market, European missile maker MBDA is eyeing the immediate needs of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). Loic Piedevache, head of MBDA India, says the company wants to position itself as a leading local player backing India’s missile programs. “It could be through joint ventures, co-development, transfer of technology and through enhanced cooperation with Indian defense public sector undertaking,” Piedevache says.
BUILDING BRIDGES: U.S. Army officials are conducting a study of whether to “optionally man” the Chinook and Black Hawk fleets to bridge the gap until a standalone cargo unmanned aerial system (UAS) is developed. But even that “might not be the ultimate answer to a cargo UAS,” says Glenn Rizzi, UAS advisor for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.
NEW DELHI — The eighth biennial Aero India air show, being held in Bengaluru Feb. 9-13, will be the largest ever, with 675 exhibitors and official delegations from 45 countries. “It is good that countries like Afghanistan are showing interest in the air show and would be participating,” Secretary for Defense Production Raj Kumar Singh says. “We have good cooperation with the Afghan government and we want it to grow.”
A new report from the Pentagon’s acquisition office has found that in a recent span of three years, 30 U.S. defense contractors have been criminally convicted of fraud, 91 were subjected to fines or restitution payments, and 120 agreed to settlements with the government.
The Pentagon is beginning to consider what requirements are needed for future unmanned aircraft that it will operate in contested airspace, rather than the permissive environment now enjoyed by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
LONDON — The Australian government is revisiting its landing helicopter dock (LHD) plans as it transitions to a new class of LHDs. The exercise could lead to lease or purchase of ships to sustain crew for operations. It could also see Australia try to obtain a Bay-class ship the U.K. is taking out of service under plans devised in last year’s Strategic Defense and Security Review. Construction of the first of the new LHDs is to begin Feb. 18 with the goal of fielding the Navantia ship in 2014. A second is due a year later.
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia is integrating three new operational elements into its advanced, network-centric military — a squadron of Wedgetail command and control aircraft, the first two squadrons of F/A-18F Super Hornets and the Vigilare theater surveillance integration system — all designed as the backbone of a small, highly responsive force.
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Lockheed Martin officials are confident the suspected cause of a liquid apogee engine failure on the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite — the introduction of foreign object debris (FOD) in the manufacturing process — will not pose a problem for other satellites built on the A2100 bus.
MUST CUT: “The fiscal challenges that governments around the world are having to face must be considered as national security issues,” says the British permanent undersecretary of defense, Ursula Brennan. “For this reason the new U.K. coalition government has made reducing the national deficit its top priority,” Brennan said Feb. 1 in Washington at a Heritage Foundation seminar on the U.K. Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR).
LONDON — The Australian government is moving to put the MRH-90 helicopter back on track after repeated delays, and will terminate the LCM 2000 watercraft program owing to persistent problems. A “high-level comprehensive diagnostic review” of the MRH-90 was announced by Defense Minister Stephen Smith and Minister for Defense Materiel Jason Clare. The army version is a year late and the naval variant, 18 months.
NEW DELHI — The first phase of the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) $260 million program to modernize 30 airfields has been delayed eight months as it awaits final approval from India’s Cabinet Committee on Security. Bids for the Modernization of Airfields of India (MAFI) project were received in 2008, with Raytheon and Tata’s Power Strategic Electronics Division being selected. Cabinet approval is the final step before the contracts can be awarded.
HOUSTON — U.S. and Italian astronauts onboard the International Space Station, using Canadian and Japanese robot arms, teamed Feb. 1 to extract the Exposed Pallet with external spare parts from the recently arrived Japanese unmanned HTV-2 cargo capsule. The 3-hr. operation concluded with the Exposed Pallet, launched within the HTV-2’s Unpressurized Carrier, mounted to the external science platform on Japan’s Kibo laboratory module.
CAPE CANAVERAL — Space shuttle Discovery was returned to Launch Pad 39A on Feb. 1 in preparation for a targeted Feb. 24 launch of the STS-133 mission to the International Space Station, the final planned flight for this orbiter. Launch was delayed after cracks were discovered in the shuttle’s fuel tank following a Nov. 5 launch attempt that was scrubbed due to an unrelated hydrogen leak.
CENTAUR ALOFT: Aurora Flight Sciences has begun flight tests of its Centaur optionally piloted aircraft, including initial tests of its unmanned flight modes. Tests are being conducted with a crew on board, with automatic takeoffs and landings planned for late spring and fully unmanned flights for later this year. Based on the FAA-certified Diamond DA42, the twin-engined Centaur can be flown unmanned to extend persistence for surveillance and other missions.
NASA will exercise a $54 million, one-year contract extension option with Computer Sciences Corp. of Fort Worth to provide aircraft maintenance and modification support for training and research aircraft based at installations in three states, the space agency announced Jan. 31.
Shipboard lasers could alter the way the U.S. Navy fights certain battles, builds or buys its ships and defends its assets, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Now that the Navy is so far along in its shipboard-laser programs, Congress could urge the service to put together a better-defined plan on how to develop and deploy its new set of proposed weapons, the CRS says.
ARMY Textron Marine & Land Systems, Slidell, La., was awarded a $42,480,499 firm-fixed-price contract Jan. 21, 2011. The award will provide for the testing of 23 medium armored security vehicles, as well as 50 vehicles being produced for the Afghanistan National Army. The work will be performed in Slidell, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2011. One bid was solicited with one bid received. The U.S. Army TACOM LCMC, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-11-C0114).
While the U.S. Navy’s dual-block-buy plan for its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) fleet may have been the service’s best move for the program in the near term, the decision could make it difficult for the Pentagon to make downselect purchases, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says. Last year, the Navy decided to award the two LCS shipbuilding teams contracts to construct the two different versions of the ship instead of picking only one contract through a downselect, as the service originally had planned to do (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 15, 2010).
CROSS DOMAINS: The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to demonstrate information interoperability among different implementations of service-oriented architecture (SOA) IT systems across air and space command and control, the company announced Jan. 31.
TransDigm is selling its aircraft fastener business to Alcoa for $240 million, the companies announced on Jan. 31. TransDigm acquired the fastener business in December 2010 as part of its acquisition of McKechnie Aerospace. That particular segment makes fasteners for military, commercial and general aviation aircraft. The deal is expected to close in the next 60 days, subject to regulatory review.
