Brian Moran has been appointed Brussels-based president for Boeing of European Union and NATO relations. He succeeds Antonio De Palmas, who has been named president of Boeing Italy. Moran has been the Berlin-based head of Boeing International's activities in Northern Europe and had been senior manager of international business development for the Nordic region, Switzerland and the U.K. De Palmas succeeds Rinaldo Petrignani, who is retiring.
U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom) has signed a new data-sharing agreement with France that will permit the exchange of space situational awareness information. The deal will allow the French defense ministry to request information gathered by Stratcom's Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., for launch support, satellite maneuver planning, in-orbit anomalies, electromagnetic interference, spacecraft decommissioning and collision avoidance, according to Stratcom.
Singapore is synonymous with MRO in the Asia-Pacific region, but the fast-paced growth of Asia-Pacific airlines is drawing local and global companies to establish aftermarket support entities in Indonesia and Malaysia as well.
The trend lines for next year's defense budget are clear: The Pentagon is putting its investments in technology associated with the U.S. “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region. That means intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities will be in demand in fiscal 2015 and beyond, along with long-range strike programs, warship construction and weapons that counter anti-access, area-denial strategies by China.
Water, the stuff of life, can also be deadly if there is too much of it, or not enough, or if it is too cold or hot. A new $1.2 billion international spacecraft mission will give scientists, forecasters and first-responders a map of where the water is on Earth, with unprecedented detail, every 3 hr.
With the Singapore Airshow set for Feb. 11-16, much of this issue focuses on Asia. A special report begins on page 46 with an article on the impact of low-cost carriers in the region. An article on page 40 and a section beginning on page 73 focus on India's defense buildup. Bruno Delliere's photo depicts one of the custom-configured F-16s in Singapore's inventory. Some, such as this aircraft, are based in the U.S. for training. A major mid-life update program is planned.
Sharing borders with China and Pakistan, both of which have undertaken their own weapons modernization efforts, and having borne the brunt of devastating terrorist attacks, India has undertaken its own military transformation. Without its own defense industrial base, India's modernization has been fueled by imports, and India now tops the list of global weapons buyers in the last five years (see map on pages 74-75). Despite procurement delays due to India's current political situation, the trend is expected to continue in the long term.
Two recent events epitomize radically diverging fates in the global defense industry. At the end of 2013, Singapore ordered Type 218SG submarines from German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) for €1.6 billion ($2.2 billion). A month later, the French defense minister awarded a €1 billion contract for the modernization of Dassault's Rafale fighter aircraft (see photo). A good story for both companies? Not quite.
Airbus Helicopters has completed the certification process for its EC175 medium twin-engine rotorcraft. CEO Guillaume Faury said he expected the delayed aircraft would win certification within days. Deliveries to the three main launch customers—NHV, UTAir and Heli-Union—are not due until the second or third quarter of the year, however. Certification of AgustaWestland's rival AW189 is also expected shortly, with deliveries due to launch customer Bristow within a week of certification.
Colin Jowers has become global director of business technology for London-based Air Partner. He was global chief operating officer of Royal Bank of Scotland's Global Banking and Markets Research and Strategy Div.
David Campbell has become vice president-technical operations for JetBlue Airways. He was vice president-safety and operations performance for American Airlines. Campbell succeeds Dave Ramage, who will be retiring.
Dann Runik (see photos) has been promoted to executive director of advanced training programs for New York-based FlightSafety International from manager of OEM and customer relations at the FSI Learning Center in Savannah, Ga. Marin Todorov has been promoted to manager of specialty and enrichment training programs from manager of e-learning systems.
Stephen A. Fuselier (see photo) has been appointed director of the Space Science Department in the San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute's Space Science and Engineering Div. He was a program director and had worked in the Space Physics Department at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center.
Obituary: Gilbert W. Speed, the founder of SpeedNews publications and conferences, a sister business of Aviation Week & Space Technology, died Jan. 27 after a long illness. He was 81. Speed's career in the aviation and aerospace industries stretched more than 60 years. He started as a student apprentice at the Bristol Aeroplane Co.—now part of BAE Systems—in 1952. Five years later, he moved to New York to work for Eastern Airlines as a development engineer for the DC-8 and Lockheed Electra.
Europe's version of the Russian Soyuz rocket has more customers than launch slots this year, a problem that complicates a European Commission plan to see six Galileo positioning, navigation and timing satellites orbited by the end of 2014. With four prototype Galileo satellites already in orbit, EC Vice President Antonio Tajani is on a quest to see six more fully operational spacecraft lofted in pairs from the European spaceport in French Guiana starting in June, followed by subsequent launches in October and December.
The price of carbon dioxide allowances (EUAs) under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) rallied to a four-month high in January, as the European Commission's short-term market intervention proposal drew nearer to final agreement. The price of EUAs for delivery in December 2014 rallied to €5.61 per metric ton ($7.66) on Jan. 28—the highest price since Sept. 26, according to Platts data. Prices took support last month from proposed short- and long-term reforms of the ETS.
