Boeing’s defense unit notched its biggest sales gain in several years in 2009, but the company expects to give much of it back as cuts to missile defense and the now-defunct Future Combat Systems program begin to bite.
NEW DELHI — India’s defense budget for 2010-11 is expected to rise 20 percent from the previous fiscal year, driven by factors including the Mumbai terrorist attacks, tension with Pakistan, security for India’s 7,600 kilometers (4,722 miles) of coastline and the need to protect ocean shipping. “There is no limit to security expenditure,” a defense ministry official told Aviation Week affiliate Defense Technology International. “Whatever is asked for is given.”
ROTOR FOCUS: Kaman Aerospace has reorganized its Helicopters division, putting increased emphasis on growing its composite rotor-blade and unmanned aircraft businesses. Tim Bates, formerly director of operations, has been named general manager of the blade center of excellence, which develops and produces composite blades for other manufacturers’ helicopters. Terry Fogarty, formerly director of K-Max programs, has been appointed general manager of the unmanned aircraft systems group, which has teamed with Lockheed Martin to demonstrate an unmanned K-Max for the U.S.
The Pentagon’s top logistician says the outlook for Afghanistan is improving with the construction of more forward operating bases, airfields, expansion of ramp space at existing bases, creation of a new northern supply route and the introduction of new information technology to detect fraud and counterfeit parts.
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PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed off on the first three contract awards for the Full Operating Capability phase of the Galileo satellite navigation system. The contracts were awarded to OHB System, for supply of the first 14 FOC spacecraft; Arianespace, for launch of the first 10 satellites, plus an option for the next four; and Thales Alenia Space, for system support services.
Testing at NASA’s Langley Research Center suggests all-composite crew compartments can safely carry humans to space and return them to Earth, simplifying manufacturing and perhaps saving weight over traditional aluminum structures. The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) at Langley in Hampton, Va., used a full-scale composite inner module built to fit inside the agency’s planned Orion crew exploration vehicle for a series of structural tests.
While Haiti’s emergency is far from over, more than 14 million meals have arrived, up to 180 flights are arriving each day and a tanker full of fuel is on the way to replenish stocks in Port-au-Prince. “We have brought fuel support online,” said U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson, director of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). “And we have a tanker coming in to replenish the fuel terminal at the port [which is functioning again].”
Increased use of U.S. military airspace over the Christmas-New Year period helped reduce flight delays compared to the same span in 2008, according to new data from FAA. More than 5,600 flights used military airspace that was opened to commercial flights, a 35 percent increase over the prior year. Christmas-New Year delays were down 34 percent, although reduced traffic volume also was a major factor.
BEIJING — The time may have arrived for the Singaporean aerospace sector to move up a notch by expanding its manufacturing segment into more risk-sharing partnerships. Maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), the dominant part of the industry, also presents opportunities, and it cannot afford to rest on its laurels and cease its continuous drive toward lower costs, the Association of Aerospace Industries (Singapore) says.
PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy has affirmed once again that France will not send any more combat troops to Afghanistan. In a Jan. 25 television appearance, Sarkozy reiterated his refusal to increase France’s Afghan combat contingent, despite calls by the U.S. and other allies to raise its contribution. The country agreed to send 700 extra troops to the Afghan theater in 2008 and currently has 3,750 troops stationed there, primarily in the central and eastern regions of the country.
SINKING FEELING: The Australian Navy’s troubled Collins-class submarine force has fallen to just one operational boat after the HMAS Farncomb was sent to maintenance following the electrical failure of one of its three main generators last week. Accordingly, of the six-boat class only the HMAS Waller is now fully capable of operations. “I am very disappointed by this development,” said navy chief Vice Adm. Russell Crane. But Crane said the country’s layered defenses will mitigate the shortfall.
NASA will focus on keeping the stranded Mars rover Spirit alive through the upcoming Martian winter in preparation for a new role as a static science base, following the agency’s decision to abandon further attempts to free the vehicle before winter’s onset.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Corp., of Orlando, Fla., was awarded a $245,000,000 contract which will provide for lot 8 production of about 160 missiles comprised of both baseline and extended range missiles to support the Air Force and Foreign Military Sales customers. 308 ARSG/PK is the contracting activity (FA8682-10-C-0016). NAVY
LIGHT METAL: The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently awarded an industry team $5 million in funding to develop lighter weight metal castings. The Technology Innovation Program will last five years, with industry providing in-kind engineering resources, which will bring the total value of the project to nearly $10 million. The goal of the project is to produce lightweight metal castings of aluminum and magnesium that will have the strength of cast steel for commercial-scale production.
Lockheed Martin’s new Space Vehicle Integration Lab (SVIL) in Denver has achieved initial operational capability and is supporting the company’s satellite programs. The laboratory “leverages state-of-the-art computer hardware and software technologies to allow a more thorough understanding of how space vehicles, at various stages of their development life cycles, will eventually operate on-orbit,” the company said in its announcement Jan. 25.
SLOVENIAN SPACE: Slovenia has become the sixth nation to sign a European Cooperating State agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA), expanding an earlier cooperation pact signed in 2008. Cooperating state status provides a legal basis for drafting space activities, projects and budgets and helps prepare nations for ESA membership. Hungary, Romania, Poland and Estonia are also European Cooperating States. A fifth country, the Czech Republic, transitioned to full ESA membership last year.
LONDON — Former British Secretary of State for Defense John Hutton says it is “hard to imagine a worse procurement shambles” than the British Army’s Future Rapid Effects System (FRES) armored vehicle program. Hutton, appearing before the Iraq Inquiry Jan. 25, says the FRES program was a “pretty grim episode,” underscoring the need for a “shake-up” of how the Defense Ministry goes about procuring equipment.
AIR FORCE Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., was awarded a $323,945,933 contract which will provide the French airborne warning and control system midlife upgrade. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 551 IA/PKA, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-01-D-0016/DO 0067).
The U.S. Air Force is going to drop its ban on social media, streamline its cyber acquisition and reorient its data and information at the tactical edge of the network instead of in some central core that requires a huge communications pipe. Cyberwar also will come to resemble air combat, with resources mustered at the tactical edge where combat is ongoing rather than trying to protect all the network all the time, according to Lt. Gen. William Lord, the Air Force’s chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer.
EYES ABOVE: Astrium has landed a contract to track maritime cargo containers via satellite. The company’s service, dubbed SeCureSystem, will cover 20 containers operated by Hellmann Worldwide Logistics. Other deals are in discussion, project manager Wolfgang Busch says. The EADS affiliate sees SeCureSystem as the optimum answer to a new U.S. requirement, to go into effect in 2012, which will mandate that all containers bound for the U.S. are scanned at the outbound port.
