The leadership of the House International Relations Committee blasted the U.S. State Department's handling of the proposed $5 billion sale of F-16 fighters and weapons to Pakistan during a hearing July 20, complaining that they were not notified early enough to address concerns over Pakistan's ability to prevent sensitive technology from leaking to countries such as China.
The Pentagon needs to present White House policymakers with more options for a conventionally-armed long range strike weapon than are now available, an international security expert said July 19.
FARNBOROUGH - The U.S. military is about to launch the next phase in its unmanned combat air systems (UCAS) planning with the release of a new requirement for a Navy UCAS. The program will put Boeing and Northrop Grumman in head-to-head competition for what should be a winner-take-all contract. "We are within weeks of a new contract structure in which the Navy will take the lead," Boeing's George Muellner, president of Advanced Systems, said this week at the Farnborough Air Show near London.
RAPTOR HEARING: The Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee, led by acquisition critic Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), will host a hearing July 25 over multiyear contract authority for the F-22A Raptor. McCain promised a hearing last month when the Senate overrode his and other SASC-leader opposition to approving multiyear (DAILY, June 23). Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Comptroller General David Walker will testify along with several analysts and critics.
The U.S. Navy's unique High-Speed Vessel 2, called the Swift, may be used as part of belated but accelerating evacuation efforts in Lebanon, defense officials said July 19. "Committed to the operation, but not yet directly involved in the operation, is the [USS] Iwo Jima, Whidbey Island, Trenton and HSV-Swift," a senior official said. "They are committed; we will see if they are needed or not."
Goldcare, Boeing's life cycle maintenance program for the 787, has signed its first supplier and maintenance partners. But it may not see a first buyer from among the 29 customers that have placed 407 orders and commitments for another 6-12 months. Hamilton Sundstrand and Smiths Aerospace are the first 787 suppliers to agree to be after-market service providers. SR Technics will be the first maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) center.
The industry teams vying for the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) $2 billion SBINet program to monitor the U.S. northern and southern borders are anticipating a prime contract award in September, before the fiscal year is out.
FARNBOROUGH - The GE Rolls-Royce F136 engine is right on schedule. The only problem is there may be no more money for it by Oct. 1 except the $70 million to $80 million the U.S. government is committed to pay to shut it down. If the Defense Department has its way, the program will be shut down. This is not because there is anything wrong with the engine. However, defense budget reviews found there are greater priorities than a second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter.
Global Military Aircraft Systems (GMAS), the joint venture of L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Alenia Aeronautica and Boeing Integrated Defense Systems that is bidding the C-27J for the U.S. Army and Air Force's Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA), said it has chosen Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla., for production and final assembly of the aircraft.
Congressional cuts in defense spending - while perhaps not as deep as lawmakers have proclaimed - may impact the Air Force's ability to buy new aerial refueling tankers, according to one Senate proponent for such an acquisition.
In a seeming effort to soften or otherwise alter the Defense Department's annual "China Military Report," Chinese military officials are sharing some defense budget figures with the Pentagon, a senior Defense official confirmed July 18. Defense officials from the two countries are talking about setting up meetings between the "China Military Report" writers and the Chinese writers of the white papers issued by the country on its military spending, the U.S. Defense official said.
Although Boeing so far has been unable to entice any of the services into drafting a requirement for its Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) helicopter, the aircraft is proving useful as a test tool for other technology development programs both inside and outside Boeing, the company says.
Senate defense appropriators have kept legislative language in their fiscal 2007 spending bill that would continue a ban on foreign sales of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22A Raptor, setting up a conference fight with the House, which approved foreign sales last month.
Proposed Congressional cuts to two of the Army's key aircraft programs - the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter and the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) - would cause delivery delays and program cost increases, says U.S. Army Aviation Director Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt. The $109 million Congress wants to cut from the JCA program, for example, would slip that program by at least two years, Mundt said during a July 18 Pentagon briefing. The Army wants to start buying the planes in 2008. Such cuts and delays can cause a domino effect, Mundt said.
MODERNIZED GPS: Lockheed Martin Corp. announced July 18 that its industry team has completed the fifth of eight modernized Global Positioning System (GPS) IIR satellites that the company is developing for the U.S. Air Force. The GPS IIR-M modernized program will provide enhanced features such as two new signals and enhanced encryption and anti-jamming capabilities for the military, as well as a second civil signal. Finished satellites are delivered to storage and become available for launch when requested by the Air Force.
The aerospace and defense industry should help the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) recapitalize its C-130 fleet, possibly with C-130Js, rather than by offering more C-17s, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Wooley. Head air commando Wooley said AFSOC is studying a follow-on airplane for its current C-130s, and industry should help replace MC-130s first and then eventually AC-130 gunships. In particular, Wooley favored a possible MC-130J variant.
JCSAT: Japan's JCSAT-10 telecommunications satellite is undergoing checkout in the S5 clean room facility at Arianespace's launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. The spacecraft is slated to launch Aug. 11 on an Ariane 5 rocket along with France's Syracuse 3B military relay spacecraft. Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems built JCSAT-10, which will be operated by Tokyo-based JSAT Corporation.
Six CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopters are being used to evacuate U.S. citizens from Lebanon while the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Gonzalez is escorting the Orient Queen, an ocean liner contracted to help evacuate other Americans as a force-protection measure, according to the Defense Department. Going to Cyprus Three of the Sea Stallions belong to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and three are from U.S. forces based in the United Kingdom. The aircraft are evacuating U.S. citizens from the embassy in Beirut and taking them to Cyprus.
NASA's dwindling aeronautics research program slights the "transitional" work that is needed to drive the results of basic science into industrial applications that can add to the U.S. balance of trade, experts in the field told Congress July 18. Testifying to the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee, panelists from The National Academies, industry and academia agreed that while fundamental research is important, the "first A in NASA" - aeronautics - needs to bend some more metal.
SEA SPARROWS: U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded Raytheon Co.'s Integrated Defense Systems unit a $13 million contract for the fabrication, assembly, test and delivery of 52 MK 20 MOD 1 canisters for Japan (88 percent) and Canada (12 percent) under the foreign military sales program. The canister holds a RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile in the MK 48 guided missile vertical launching system, the launcher for the Sea Sparrow surface-to-air ship self-defense missile.
