Inadequate oversight of dozens of “undefinitized” contracts has put more than $2.8 billion at risk for some of the U.S. Air Force’s most important procurement programs, according to a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report. The undefinitized contractual actions (UCAs) are a tool used by procurement officers to get a company on contract for specific tasks while saving detailed negotiations until later, and are typically considered appropriate for use in areas such as urgent needs for commanders fighting a war.
LONDON — Flight and firing trials of a new weapon system designed for light and medium helicopters wrapped up recently in a joint effort between Eurocopter and Advanced Technologies & Engineering (ATE) to provide an armaments upgrade to rotorcraft. The test activities, using a Eurocopter EC635 and the Stand-Alone Weapon System (SAWS), were conducted at the Murray Hill Test Range near Pretoria. Eurocopter and South Africa’s ATE are developing the system, which includes various sensor options and a mission-and-fire-control computer.
BENGALURU, India — India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) says its homegrown Airborne Early Warning & Control System (AEW&CS), integrated on a modified Brazilian Embraer EMB-145, will fly by the end of 2011. Dr. Prahlada, head of DRDO, tells AVIATION WEEK the first EMB-145 will land in India by January 2011, and the integration work is set to begin by the middle of next year.
BENGALURU, India — A new test range for India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) will be built in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka state. Dr. Prahlada, chief of DRDO, tells AVIATION WEEK that a new facility also will be constructed in Hyderabad for DRDO to flight-test aircraft. The Chitradurga facility will focus on flight tests of unmanned aerial vehicles, air-to-ground weapons, parachutes and electronic warfare systems.
NEW DELHI — Taking another step toward Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) operations, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony has launched the $229 million AFNET (Air Force Network). AFNET will be a critical link for the air force between its command and control center and sensors such as the Airborne Early Warning and Control System, combat jets and missile squadrons. Interception of simulated enemy targets in the western center by a pair of MiG-29 fighters from an advanced airbase in the Punjab sector was played live on screens at the launch.
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LONDON — The tri-national consortium developing the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) has completed its system-level critical design review (CDR), setting the stage for government officials to decide the way forward on the program. Developers of the U.S.-German-Italian terminal-phase ballistic missile defense program have spent the past few months on component-level design reviews in the run-up to the system-level assessment.
The U.S. Air Force is conducting an analysis to determine what requirements it would need for a T-38 replacement, and a decision on whether and how to move forward is not expected until the Fiscal 2013 budget at the earliest, says Gen. Stephen Lorenz, who oversees the service’s training command. That budget will be assembled next summer and submitted to Congress in February 2012.
Japan’s IHI Aerospace is cooperating with the U.S. Air Force as it investigates the failure of its first Advanced Extremely High-Frequency (AEHF) satellite to reach orbit after an Aug. 14 launch, according to U.S. government sources. IHI made the satellite’s model BT-4 liquid apogee engine (LAE).
SUPER LOBBY: A bipartisan group of U.S. House Armed Services members are pushing for Congress to pass a bill that would allow Navy officials to enter into a multiyear procurement contract for more Boeing F/A-18E/F/Gs, which proponents claim will save taxpayers $600 million versus annual awards. Due to protracted dealmaking, the Navy did not submit necessary information to Congress for the 124-aircraft award until April — one month after a congressional deadline.
BENGALURU, India — India has set a Dec. 27 deadline to complete the certification process for its Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) According to P.S. Subramanyam, director for combat aircraft at the Aeronautical Development Agency, the deadline was set to make sure Tejas enters its much-awaited initial operational clearance phase. The certification process is monitored by the Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification.
The U.S. Army’s inability to properly regulate its time-and-materials (T&M) contracts in Southwest Asia likely cost the Pentagon millions of dollars, a Defense Department Inspector General (IG) report says. “Army contracting and DOD program officials did not properly award and administer the 18 T&M contracts and task orders for work performed in Southwest Asia,” the IG says.
PARIS — The French government has approved the privatization of state-owned chemical and propulsion manufacturer SNPE, paving the way for its solid propulsion business to be merged with that of Safran’s Snecma unit. The resulting company, to be named Herakles, would streamline production of solid-rocket motors used in the Ariane 5 and Vega launchers and M41/M51 ballistic missile lines, cutting costs and creating a world leader in solid propulsion, behind U.S. giant Alliant Techsystems. Further consolidation with Italy’s Avio could come later.
U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Director Bruce Carlson says he plans to declassify data on some agency programs to help celebrate its 50th anniversary next September. Carlson offered no specifics but says he has made the declassification a priority.
PARIS — A management buyout led by the Permira private equity fund is expected to allow Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) to acquire new spacecraft capacity, enabling it to expand in the fragmented Asian fixed-satellite service market. ABS’s senior management team agreed Sept. 13 to buy out Knightsbridge Ltd., the holding company that owns ABS, in partnership with Permira. Permira will be majority shareholder in ABS, which was founded in 2006 by CEO Thomas Choi and is now owned by Citigroup.
The first production Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar has flown on the Proteus high-flying manned aircraft that is acting as a surrogate testbed in advance of the sensor’s integration onto the Global Hawk unmanned aerial system (UAS), according to George Guerra, who runs the program for Northrop Grumman. The first flight with this production sensor took place Sept. 11 at a facility in the Mojave Desert.
Key U.S. senators are moving to cut the Obama administration’s Fiscal 2011 request for Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) by 10 F-35s, as well as drop one Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) from the four sought in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. In its first official whack at Fiscal 2011 defense appropriations, the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee unveiled its proposed changes to the administration’s request, including several JSF provisions and the $615 million reduction for the LCS program.
U.S. defense program managers now have to set an “affordability target,” which can be changed only with approval of the chief Pentagon acquisition official, as well as pursue “real competition” for their programs as part of 23 acquisition directives outlined by top Defense Department officials Sept. 14.
HOUSTON — Atmospheric scientists are evaluating their first data from NASA’s Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (Hirad), a prototype high-altitude sensor that could improve National Hurricane Center predictions of coastal surges and inland flooding from Atlantic and Gulf Coast tropical storms.
Negotiations on the long-awaited deal for the Pentagon to order its next lot of F-35 aircraft are nearly complete, according to Tom Burbage, executive vice president for Joint Strike Fighter program integration at Lockheed Martin.
MOSCOW — The Russian defense ministry is planning to resume flight trials of the R-30 Bulava (SS-NX-30) solid-propellant ballistic missile this month, after several failed launches in previous years. A government commission that investigated the earlier failures found problems with component manufacturing. There have been 12 launches of Bulava since 2004; only five have been considered successful. During the last launch, on Dec. 9, 2009, from the Dmitry Donskoi submarine (Project 941 Akula), the third-stage rocket engine control system failed.
