Initial flight testing of Japan’s Kawasaki XC-2 prototype airlifter has revealed good handling qualities and high-speed cruise performance, according to test pilots from the Japan Air Self Defense Force’s (JASDF) Air Development and Test Wing. The XC-2, formerly the C-X, is designed to replace the 1970s vintage JASDF Kawasaki C-1 transport. With almost four times the range, the Mach 0.8 C-2 also will provide Japan with its first tactical transport capable of operations in support of international disaster relief and emergency assistance.
ManTech International announced that it is buying Qinetiq’s Security and Intelligence Solutions (S&IS) for $60 million in cash. The proposed deal would expand ManTech’s presence in the defense intelligence market, ManTech CEO George Larsen says. “We see a solid pipeline of opportunities to provide full-scope security services to new and current ManTech customers,” he says. S&IS would be part of ManTech’s Mission, Cyber and Technology Solutions Group.
CAPE TOWN — Even if budget realities are likely to temper any major defense procurement efforts in South Africa in the near future, foreign and domestic suppliers still spot niche areas where they may be able to secure new deals.
ARMING B-52s: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a contract worth up to $11.9 billion for acquisition and sustainment activities to support B-52 weapon system modernization. The sole-source, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract covers an eight-year period.
LONDON — The Pentagon has spelled out details of its proposal to Sweden for a new transport helicopter in a competition pitting the UH-60M against the Eurocopter EC725. The Swedish government is looking to quickly field 15 new helicopters to meet the needs for deployed forces, with deliveries due by April 2013.
LONDON — Lufthansa Technik has won a key contract to build up its military MRO activities, having been named by Airbus Military to provide component support for the U.K.’s emerging fleet of 14 A330-based tankers. The deal is important for Lufthansa Technik’s military ambitions because it involves a foreign military rather than its traditional domestic German customer. Under the arrangement, Lufthansa Technik will provide component support for 10 years under the Future Strategic Transport Aircraft (FSTA) fleet program for the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF).
LONDON — Spain is considering a $155 million purchase of six SH-60F multimission maritime helicopters to add to its fleet of 12 SH-60s. The Pentagon says that Madrid has expressed interest in taking six of the helos as “excess defense articles” and putting them through a refurbishment program to make them operationally useful. The deal would also cover 12 installed T700-GE-401C engines plus a spare.
SEOUL — An emerging battle in Israel to acquire a new trainer aircraft is shaping up to have potentially far larger implications for the hotly contested advanced jet trainer market. The modernization effort also will mark the first time in decades when the Israeli Air Force (IAF) will acquire a non-U.S. aircraft.
ZULU EFFECTIVE: U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z helicopters are “operationally effective and suitable” and have been recommended for fleet introduction, Naval Air Systems Command officials announced Sept. 29. “This marks a significant milestone for the program,” said Col. Harry Hewson, program manager for Marine light and attack helicopters.
The full Senate ratified the U.S.-U.K. and U.S.-Australian Defense Trade Cooperation Treaties late on Sept. 29. The action follows the Senate Foreign Relations Committee resolution to ratify the treaties on Sept. 21, and the full House and Senate’s passage of so-called enabling legislation earlier this week.
PRAGUE — Sparring over International Space Station (ISS) spending is leading to a debate about whether the European Space Agency (ESA) should start work on an Advanced Reentry Vehicle (ARV), a proposed Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) spinoff that would provide both upmass and downmass services to the station, although planners still think detailed design at least can go ahead.
TWO MORE MONTHS: The continuing resolution (CR) considered by U.S. legislators will extend enacted Fiscal 2010 levels of funding for “most” federal programs until Dec. 3, Senate appropriations aides said late Sept. 29. Congress must pass, and the president sign into law, the CR before Oct. 1. The CR, nonetheless, “adjusts” the current rate for operations for the Foreign Military Financing program to include $965 million that was advanced for Israel, Egypt and Jordan in the Fiscal 2009 supplemental spending law.
BENGALURU, India – India’s Parliament Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture says that it is in favor of reopening the old airport now under the custody of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL).
ORLANDO, Fla. — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, says the country’s human space program is “teetering right on the edge,” with a final shot coming this week for Congress to approve a blueprint for NASA.
Northrop Grumman has powered up its Bell 407-based Fire-X unmanned helicopter demonstrator as the U.S. military moves a step closer to deploying autonomous rotorcraft for cargo resupply missions in Afghanistan. The Fire-X is nearing completion at Bell Helicopter’s Xworx rapid-prototyping facility in Fort Worth, with external power being applied for the first time in mid-September. The modified commercial helicopter has been equipped with computers, actuators and other systems from Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter.
BEIJING — Indonesia intends to acquire 180 Sukhoi Flankers and also to buy Lockheed Martin F-16s, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro says, setting out plans for a massive expansion of the Southeast Asian country’s air combat force. If Indonesia is serious about buying 180 Flankers, then Canberra will almost certainly fund the Royal Australian Air Force’s plan for 100 Lockheed Martin F-35s, says Andrew Davies, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Until now, there was a significant chance that Australia would buy fewer F-35s.
The U.S. Air Force has selected PMA maker Belac LLC to provide first-stage, high-pressure turbine blades for its aging General Electric F108 engines in a one-year contract valued at $2.6 million. Belac, a joint venture company, is one of a small handful of companies that has developed parts manufacturer approval (PMA) parts for use in the engine gas path. A spokeswoman for Chromalloy, the largest of three stakeholders in Belac, declined to reveal how many blades that the U.S. Air Force would acquire.
COUNTERPROLIFERATION CONUNDRUM: The Department of Defense has failed to identify what proportion of its programs are devoted specifically to counterproliferation since 2004, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in a Sept. 28 report. GAO made this assessment after reviewing biennial reports from the interagency Counterproliferation Program Review Committee (CPRC) that include information on projects and activities dedicated to deterring the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Washington-based cyberwarriors and analysts remain keenly interested in the Stuxnet cyberworm that has shut down some of Iran’s digitally controlled industrial capabilities, including some systems in its nuclear powerplant. Mahmud Liai of Iran’s Industries and Mines Ministry says 30,000 computers have been invaded and the event is being considered an electronic act of war against the country. Speculation by the press and some analysts points to U.S. or Israeli authorship of a cyber-delay of what may be an Iranian nuclear weapons program.
The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) is calling for the creation of a U.S. national space management and coordination body that reports to the president as part of a strategy to address the range of challenges facing the nation’s space national security and economic futures.
The U.K. is pursuing approximately 60 urgent operational requirement (UOR) upgrades in the air domain to push needed equipment quickly to deployed forces, says Air Chief Marshal Stephen Dalton, chief of staff of the Royal Air Force. The upgrades are only the latest in a series of such rapid fielding programs, through which Dalton says about £1 billion ($1.6 billion) have been spent on air-related efforts. Many of them are aimed at reducing risk for crews operating in Afghanistan, he tells AVIATION WEEK’s MRO Military symposium in London.
PRAGUE — Russia will use the leased facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to test the proposed Rus M launch vehicle that is expected to replace the venerable Soyuz rocket, and although the Rus M will eventually be launched from a new facility on Russian soil, Russia has no plans to abandon Baikonur before the lease expires in 2050.
