CYBER DEAL: A new cyber deal between the U.S. Defense and Homeland Security departments “is designed to put the full weight of our combined capabilities and expertise behind every action taken to protect our vital cyber networks, without altering the authorities or oversight of our separate but complementary missions,” according to a joint statement. Officials announced the memorandum of agreement Oct. 13.
LONDON — A halt in Nimrod MRA4 flight operations owing to safety concerns is expected to last at least several more weeks. The project team and type-airworthiness authority of the U.K. Defense Ministry identified a “potential safety issue” with the MRA4. “The aircraft will not fly again until we are fully satisfied that it is safe to do so,” a ministry official says. The work is expected to take a “minimum” of four weeks, the official adds.
L-3 Communications is playing down the impact on its P-3 Orion upgrade business following the U.S. Navy’s decision to cancel a contract to supply new outer wings. The decision clears the field for Lockheed Martin to supply new wings to extend the P-3’s life. Lockheed has orders in hand from Canada, Norway, Taiwan and the U.S. for 54 shipsets of new outer wings, which provide another 15,000 hr. of airframe life. U.S. customers include Customs and Border Patrol and the Navy for special-mission P-3s.
FOG OF WAR: Total reset and personnel costs for the U.S. military from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan “will probably total at least several hundred billion dollars over time,” according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies, which notes in a new study that they will come on top of operational costs already identified in supplemental spending bills. But the report adds that “obscurity in war cost accounting since the beginning of [war on terror] operations obfuscates any effort to extrapolate future costs based on past and present data.”
Following a successful operational evaluation, the U.S. Marine Corps plans to request approval for full-rate production of the new AH-1Z attack helicopter. A Defense Acquisition Board meeting is set to review the project early in November, says Col. Harry Hewson, who manages the Huey and Cobra upgrade programs for Naval Air Systems Command.
PORT BLAIR, India — India’s Tri-Service Command is gradually increasing its assets in order to monitor Chinese strategy in the region. The command is situated in Andaman and Car Nicobar Islands with Port Blair as its headquarters. O fficials from the Andaman Nicobar Command (ANC), confirmed that India is keeping a close watch on the activities of China and other countries in the region.
The U.S. Air Force’s financial and operational future lacks “complete certitude,” but the auguries are nonetheless grim, says the chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz. In a nutshell, the budget is “likely to continue to flatten” and buying power likely to decrease, Schwartz says.
Sierra Nevada Corp. is moving into fabrication of the aeroshell structures for its planned Dream Chaser lifting-body crew vehicle, after winning NASA approval for the tooling needed to build the hardware.
HYDERABAD, India — India is developing a homegrown computer operating system (OS) to ward off hacking and data theft. V.K. Saraswat, head of India’s Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO), says that India’s new OS will significantly increase cybersecurity.
LONDON — MBDA has completed the latest test in the development program for a French-British warhead designed to improve the ability to defeat hardened, deeply buried targets. The system uses a precursor charge with a follow-through penetrator to destroy hardened bunkers, which could house command-and-control and sensitive military research facilities. The second trial, this one last month at the Biscarrosse missile test range in France, involved a sled test in which the follow-through bomb penetrated the target and exited the other end.
U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command failed to correctly administer a ship maintenance contract covering three global regions during the past four years, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. “In October 2006, the Navy awarded a contract to Fincantieri Marine Systems North America (FMSNA) for ship maintenance services to be performed in Bahrain, Japan and Texas,” the IG says in its report, dated late last month. “Navy contracting officials did not properly manage this contract.”
HOUSTON — United Space Alliance (USA), NASA’s space shuttle prime contractor, expects to lay off 320 workers on Jan. 7, in what will be its fourth round of downsizing in response to the shuttle program’s pending retirement. The departures will leave the Lockheed Martin/Boeing joint venture with slightly less than a total of 6,400 personnel at Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center to support the last two scheduled shuttle missions and possibly a third flight.
Nov. 30 - Dec. 1, 2010 Munich, Germany Gain cost-effective best practices and strategies for engine MRO planning, new technology implementation, navigating maintenance contracts, green processes and compliance issues. Register now - http://www.aviationweek.com/events/current/mroeng/index.htm Click here to view the pdf
SINGAPORE — Corruption allegations are hobbling the Philippine military’s efforts to procure helicopters, but delivery of trainer aircraft and moves to purchase a secondhand Lockheed Martin C-130 appear to be on track. Derco Aerospace, a Sikorsky aerospace services company, appears likely to win a contract to sell a refurbished C-130H to the Philippine air force, according to officials at the service and the Philippine defense department.
NEW DELHI — The Indo-U.K. air force exercise “Indradhanush” will take place at Air Force Station Kalaikunda in East India from Oct. 18 to Nov. 3. The exercise is an effort to share experience and skills and fine-tune procedures for multinational operations, which are likely to occur with greater frequency in the future.
LONDON — The U.K. is expected to kick off a competition next year to modernize the ability of deployed forces to use geospatial intelligence (geoint) products. The effort is intended to produce a cultural shift within the British armed forces, pushing geospatial intelligence to lower levels of command and proliferating the availability beyond a small group of specialists.
LONDON — NATO’s Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) is eyeing up to €930 million ($1.29 billion) in contracts it may award in the next two years, although several are contingent on decisions that have yet to be made.
HYDERABAD, India — India plans to loft a series of dedicated satellites for defense purposes in the coming years, boosting the country’s capability to scan multiple activities on and across its borders. “We are looking at launching one or two satellites every year to fulfill the requirements of all three military formations,” says V.K. Saraswat, chief of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization.
FLYING HUMVEE: Lockheed Martin is to develop concept designs for a tactical vehicle that can fly as well as drive under an almost $3-million contract for Phase 1 of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Transformer program. The company is teamed with Piasecki Aircraft, which developed the ducted-rotor Airgeep in the late 1950s, and vehicle engineering company Ricardo. AAI is also working on Transformer, teamed with autogyro developer Carter Aviation Technologies, Bell Helicopter and Textron Marine & Land Systems (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 29).
Nov. 30 - Dec. 1, 2010 Munich, Germany Gain cost-effective best practices and strategies for engine MRO planning, new technology implementation, navigating maintenance contracts, green processes and compliance issues. Register now - http://www.aviationweek.com/events/current/mroeng/index.htm Click here to view the pdf
