PARIS – Rafale International, a joint venture of Dassault Aviation, Thales and Snecma, has opened an office in Athens to boost efforts to sell the fourth-generation Rafale fighter to the Greek air force. In addition to its promotional activities, the office will serve to expand technology exchange and cooperation with Hellenic Aerospace Industry and other Greek defense companies.
GUNSHIP WOES: U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is trying to roll out a small fleet of gunship-oriented C-27Js but is struggling under competing Air Force budget pressures, as well as the need to pursue necessary funds via an unfunded priority list to Congress that is not part of the regular appropriations process. Navy Adm. Eric Olson, SOCOM commander, tells the Senate Armed Services Committee that it would be an “exaggeration” to say SOCOM and the Air Force are equally eager to fund the small gunship variant.
In testimony before the Senate Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces March 4, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that although DOD has made strides in addressing cost overruns and delays in space acquisitions, it continues to face persistent problems. “The majority of major acquisition programs in DOD’s space portfolio have experienced problems, resulting in cost growth close to or exceeding 100 percent on some programs,” Cristina Chaplain, GAO’s director of acquisition and sourcing management, said in her statement.
F-35 TESTING: The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program this week hopes to commence a series of air-to-air refueling trials needed to eventually shift the first test asset, AA-1, to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The tanking will be performed using a refueler dedicated to Edwards operations. AA-1 is expected to shift to Edwards in May, where it will undergo in-flight engine restarts. The trials were delayed by an electrical incident on test flight 19 in May, necessitating installation of new battery controller charge units. Those should be available in May.
NIGHTHAWK RETIRES: The U.S. Air Force will hold a retirement ceremony for the F-117A Nighthawk at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, on March 11. There were 59 production stealth aircraft built, and they have been in service for 27 years. Seven of the attack aircraft were lost, one of them in Serbia during combat. Aviation Week first reported the story that the remains of the aircraft had been moved to Russia where they were being analyzed by the companies that made that country’s advanced air defense systems like the SA-20.
LONDON - Britain is being forced to revisit its approach to integrating air-launched weapons as a result of rapidly escalating integration costs. A study of recent programs identified an average cost of $120 million, while there is a “common (UK) Defense Ministry perception” that weapons integration on the Eurofighter Typhoon “is in the region of 100 million pounds ($200 million),” according to Colin Hamilton, a weapons specialist at defense technology company Qinetiq.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) March 11 - 13 — Spacecraft Thermal Control Workshop, El Segundo, Calif. For more information call 310-336-6805 or go to www.aero.org
TANKER BATTLE: More fireworks over the controversial Air Force replacement refueling tanker selection are likely this week at several congressional hearings. On March 11, Pentagon acquisition chief John Young testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on Navy and Air Force tactical aviation programs. The hearing is being conducted by two subcommittees – seapower/expeditionary forces and air/land forces – that include two Democrats from Washington state and a Republican from Alabama.
NASA has started reconfiguring the space shuttle Atlantis to prepare for what may be its final mission – the last planned servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis is targeted to carry the last planned crew of on-orbit repairmen to the observatory before the end of this year. That will require it to be configured differently from orbiters working on ISS assembly.
Prodded specifically by the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) chairman for their personal opinions, U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and chief Gen. T. Michael Moseley said March 5 that their own preferences would be for additional F-22 Raptor fighters and an alternative Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) engine.
C-RAM AWARD: The U.S. Army Research and Development Command’s (RDECOM) Missiles and Aviation Research and Development Center (AMRDEC) has awarded Lockheed Martin an $8.6 million science and technology contract to demonstrate a Counter Rockets Artillery and Mortar (C-RAM) interceptor system. Work on the contract will be completed by November 2008. The activity is part of an AMRDEC effort to develop and demonstrate critical counter-fire technologies.
HEMTT ORDER: Oshkosh Corporation will build another 1,084 heavy expanded mobility tactical trucks (HEMTTs) in the A4 configuration under a $321 million contract modification received from the U.S. Army. The new order raises the total of Oshkosh HEMTT A4s under contract to 1,745, according to the company. Production of the vehicles is slated to begin in July.
An outside Alternatives Analysis (AA) ordered by the U.S. Coast Guard has found that regardless of the actions selected from a range of recommendations, the service faces infrastructure funding and scheduling shortfalls in modernization. The long-awaited analysis, spurred by widespread congressional criticism last year over Deepwater program failings, looked at planned new Coast Guard cutters, patrol boats, aircraft and a vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aerial vehicle (VUAV).
The U.S. Air Force is looking for potential participants in a fee-for-service aerial refueling pilot program. Acting on congressional language inserted in the fiscal 2008 defense authorization act, the service is putting together the pilot that could involve several participants and run at least five years. The goal is to start the program in the next two fiscal years.
Alabama Aircraft Industries – formerly Pemco Aviation Group – says it’s concerned about whether the U.S. Air Force met government concerns in keeping the service’s KC-135 maintenance contract award with Boeing despite the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s decision to partially uphold Pemco’s protest of the deal.
HITRON HELOS: Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Coast Guard announced the completion of a five-year aircraft maintenance lease agreement which provided eight MH-68A helicopters to the Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (Hitron) in Jacksonville, Fla. The last of the leased aircraft was returned to Agusta Aerospace Corp. in Wilmington, Del., in January.
One interesting outcome of the U.S. Air Force tanker decision is the further shift in U.S. national strategic priorities that it indicates – toward the Pacific Ocean. In choosing the Northrop Grumman/EADS proposal, Pentagon leaders have opted for an aircraft that can fly the longer distances required for rapid, trans-Pacific Ocean deployments, while carrying more people and cargo.
The U.K. defense ministry wants to field an unmanned, underwater counter-mine system as early as spring 2009. The government has issued a request to industry for the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) with mine-countermeasures reconnaissance capability. The system also should support the Royal Navy’s hydrographic survey mission and environmental monitoring. A secondary role for the UUV would be supporting search and salvage operations.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air Force have officially opened the bidding for industry participation in Blackswift, a hypersonic demonstrator formerly dubbed the HTV-3X that is targeted for flight-tests as early as 2012.
The Pentagon needs to revamp its system for collecting contractor past performance data needed for military services and other federal agencies to make proper and informed acquisition decisions, a recent Defense Department Inspector General report (IG) says. “Government acquisition officials do not have all past performance information needed to make informed decisions related to market research, contract awards, and other acquisition matters,” the IG says in its Feb. 29 report. The Defense Department essentially agreed with the findings.
FUEL CELL: AeroVironment (AV) broke a record with its Puma small unmanned aircraft system (SUAS), flying it for nine hours using an onboard fuel cell battery hybrid energy storage system. The previous record was seven hours. The nine-hour flight more than triples the duration of Puma’s standard battery-only operation. The successful demonstration marked a milestone in AV’s Phase II small business innovation research (SBIR) contract with the U.S.
U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) will need at least 96 new bombers that are capable of launching nuclear weapons, although Air Force requirements for conventional bombing may drive that number even higher, STRATCOM’s chief says.
