To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) April 15 - 17 — AVIATIONWEEK MRO Military, Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. For more information call 212-904-4483 or go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences/milmain.htm
COLORADO SPRINGS — Challenge & Space, the Korean-based rocket maker, is planning to “Americanize” its Chase 10 engine to overcome U.S. State Department roadblocks currently slowing plans for using the motor to power a space tourism project. “We’d like to Americanize the engine, and run it through tests with more U.S. content to eventually make it a U.S.-certified engine,” Challenge & Space (C&S) research engineer David Riseborough says.
Malaysia will buy at least six new naval helicopters for anti-submarine warfare starting in 2011. The country’s new navy chief, Abdul Aziz Jaafar, says the service needs six anti-submarine helicopters to complement its new Scorpene submarines from France and will ask for them under the national plan for 2011-2015. The Malaysian navy already operates six AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300 naval helicopters from its two British Lekiu class frigates built in 1994-1995. They were ordered in 1999 and delivered in 2003 and 2004.
FUEL DEFRAUDER: Matthew W. Bittenbender, a former defense contractor from Baltimore, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal competitive information concerning contracts to supply fuel to Defense Department aircraft at locations worldwide, the Justice Department announced last week. He will cooperate in government investigations. Indictments also were unsealed against two other individuals, Christopher Cartwright and Paul Wilkinson, and their affiliated companies, Far East Russia Aircraft Services Inc. and Aerocontrol LTD, on related charges.
After four years of construction, the U.S. Coast Guard expects to accept its first National Security Cutter by early May, but testing and shakedown runs could delay full deployment for almost two years, according to a top Coast Guard official. The cutter Bertholf is at sea, undergoing acceptance trials with a crew supplied by contractor Northrop Grumman and under the supervision of the U.S. Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey, said Rear Adm. Gary Blore, the Coast Guard’s assistant commandant for acquisition.
An undercover operation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has uncovered what amounts to a cyber black-market haven for the sales of sensitive and sometimes stolen U.S. military equipment. “GAO found numerous defense-related items for sale to the highest bidder on eBay and Craigslist,” GAO said in its April 10 report. “A review of policies and procedures for these web sites determined that there are few safeguards to prevent the sale of sensitive and stolen defense-related items using the sites,” GAO said.
LOSING AIR: Raytheon continues to line up deals for its enemy ground force surveillance technology, but the company also continues to move away from using aerostats in the program in favor of tower-based sensors. “The current tower-based systems provide an enhanced capability with fewer logistics concerns,” Raytheon says. The company has nabbed a $60 million U.S. Marine Corps contract for the Ground Based Operational Surveillance System (GBOSS).
LUNAR DESCENT: NASA has extended Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine (CECE) development contract originally awarded in 2005 to cover a descent engine for the future Altair lunar lander. Pratt is testing a throttle-able version of the venerable 13,800-pound thrust RL10 for the role and under CECE has so far demonstrated repeated throttling operability from 100 percent down to as low as 9.5 percent of full power.
NEW TORPEDO: Although French Defense Minister Herve Morin has placed a moratorium on major new weapons programs until a White Paper reprioritizing defense requirements comes out at the end of May, he has made an exception for France’s nuclear deterrent. Armaments agency DGA last week approved the acquisition of a new heavy torpedo for nuclear missile and attack submarines under a 420 million euro ($655 million) contract with DCNS. The award covers supply of approximately 100 torpedoes, along with integration and six years on-condition maintenance.
FUTURE SOLDIER: French armaments agency DGA has agreed to acquire 5,045 kits from Safran’s Sagem Defense & Security Division for the Felin future soldier system. The kits, to be delivered in 2009-10, will equip five army regiments and serve for operational trials. An intial regiment is already being equipped with Felin under a 1,089-unit order placed in March 2006.
Scientists working on NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) have decided to target an older crater near the moon’s south pole for their impact study.
APACHE PBL: Prime contractor Lockheed Martin said the U.S. Army awarded it another, albeit lower, performance-based logistics (PBL) follow-on contract to support the Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (TADS/PNVS) and Modernized TADS/PNVS (M-TADS/PNVS) systems on the AH-64 Apache helicopter. The new contract has a potential value of $76.6 million for 2008. The original PBL contract, awarded in early 2007, was for $117.8 million. “This PBL program will reduce the length of the supply pipeline, enabling the U.S.
WAITING GAME: Defense Secretary Robert Gates said April 11 he is “impatiently” waiting for Congress to provide the Army the $102 billion balance on its budget. “The fact is,” Gates said, “we begin to run out of money to pay the Army in June.” If the battle over dollars drags on into May, Gates said, he expects interruptions in depot contracts and a ripple effect down to family housing and base closure issues. “We really, really need that supplemental as quickly as possible,” he said.
The Canadian government has rejected Alliant Techsystems’ $1.3 billion bid to acquire the space business of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), a deal that would have transferred advanced satellite and radar imagery technology to the U.S. suitor. In a terse letter to Alliant on April 8, Industry Minister Jim Prentice said he was “not satisfied that your investment is likely to be of net benefit to Canada.” The letter does not elaborate further, but gives Alliant 30 days to appeal.
Aerojet is meeting with the U.S. Air Force in a bid to speed up development of a U.S.-designed, reusable hydrocarbon rocket engine that could play a key part in plans for an operationally responsive space vehicle.
Standard Aero has selected U.K.-based G.M. Aero Support to be its sales representative for Rolls-Royce T56 engines in Europe. Jim Miller, director of marketing and business development for Standard Aero, said “it’s extremely important for us to be in Europe” to be closer to customers, including those who operate C-130s and P-3s, and be able to augment sales.
CARRIER CARE: A new study by Rand Corp. that examined whether varying maintenance schedules for U.S. Navy aircraft carriers from the current 32-month, one deployment cycle would result in increased efficiencies appears to indicate the Navy has taken a prudent tack. The report – announced April 9 – finds that a longer, 42-month, two-deployment cycle would increase the ability of ships to be deployed, but would place “unmanageable” demands on the shipyards that maintain them, according to Rand.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The newest iteration of the U.S. Army’s Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) aircraft, a design not yet on the drawing board called the Joint Future Theater Lift Concept (JFTLC), is being addressed by the Air Force and Army in a new joint initial capabilities document. “The [JHL] concept and the lift requirement have changed over the years,” said Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, director of Army aviation. Mundt addressed reporters at the Army Aviation Association of America’s (Quad-A) symposium here April 9.
Next year is a “key point” in moving forward with development of the U.S. Army’s mammoth Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization program, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official told a House panel April 10. With investment mounting, “I see [Congress] as having about two years of oversight leverage,” said Paul Francis, GAO’s director of acquisition and sourcing management. “The key point would be next year, 2009, for a go/no-go decision.” Francis spoke before the House Armed Services Committee’s Air/Land subcommittee.
Brazilian regional jet maker Embraer hopes the Brazilian air force soon will ramp up its effort to begin replacing its tactical airlift fleet, which would allow the company to proceed with plans for its C-390 military cargo aircraft.
LESS THREAT: The Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program has dismantled its final SS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and supporting system components in Perm, Russia, Defense Threat Reduction Agency officials announced. The Russian SS-24 system comprised 56 missiles, including 14 silo-launched variants and 42 rail-mobile launched missiles, with each ICBM carrying 10 independently targeted nuclear warheads. Dismantling efforts began in September 2000.
A popular bill in Congress that could affect U.S. influence over third-party trade partners with Iran is building even more support in the Senate after the House easily approved it last year. The so-called Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007, introduced last year, was the basis of a friendly hearing April 8 in the Senate Finance Committee, although final drafting there remains to be seen.
The Professional Services Council (PSC), recently infused by a merger of the Contract Services Association, is launching a communications strategy to try to counter, curb or tweak acquisition-process reforms on Capitol Hill and even among federal regulators. PSC leaders told reporters April 9 that they support contractor accountability, but they warn that blaming them every time a program runs into trouble is wrong, especially since federal officials have a long-running habit of changing program requirements after contract award.
