UAV BOOST: The Pentagon is speeding UAV and Hellfire missile deliveries to Iraq under the existing foreign military sale with the country, according to a Defense Department spokesman. “We’re expediting delivery of 10 operational ScanEagles for part of the original purchase, as well as an additional four nonoperational ScanEagles, which will be sent to help facilitate maintenance of the original 10,” Army Col. Steven Warren told reporters Jan. 7. According to Warren, officials anticipate an additional 48 Raven surveillance UAVs will be delivered in the spring.
Less than a month after announcing a headcount reduction and restructuring in its European operations, Airbus Group also is making changes in its North American arm. Sean O’Keefe, once the head of EADS North America (renamed Airbus Group), is stepping down from his post. Allan McArtor, chairman of Airbus Americas, will assume the role of CEO of Airbus Group in North America, with oversight of operations in the U.S., Canada and Latin and South America.
The U.S. Army is accelerating plans to cut its active-duty ranks so budgeters have more money to buy new weapons and systems, the service’s chief of staff reaffirmed Jan. 7.
Recent ballistic missile defense (BMD) tests prove that the latest operational generation Aegis combat system and missiles aboard the guided-missile cruiser CG-70 USS Lake Erie can do those missions, says the ship’s commanding officer. “No more tests are required for the 1B [standard missile] or for the 4.0 [Aegis system],” Capt. John Banigan tells the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN). “While it’s not finalized, it’s just a matter of paperwork. It is operationally effective.”
Medical experts face a significant challenge in their search for the causes, ultimate effects and remedies for the vision problems reported by astronauts assigned to long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station, according to a National Academies’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) review. The review urges NASA-guided scientists to expand their search for contributing factors, pre- and post-flight evaluation techniques and appropriate ground-based analog studies.
Jerry DeMuro has been appointed the next president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc., following the retirement of Linda Hudson. DeMuro, a former executive with General Dynamics, will take over on Feb. 1, the company announced on Jan. 7, succeeding Hudson, who announced she would step down in August. DeMuro will be appointed as an executive director of BAE Systems plc in the U.K. and will serve on the company’s executive committee as well as on the board of the U.S. side of the company.
Timing is everything, and the chronology of signatures President Barack Obama provided on Dec. 26, 2013, to a couple of aerospace-and-defense-related laws has lowered and reformed a key tax benefit that contractors were receiving under certain awards from the federal government. Under the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2013, federal reimbursement of certain contractor salaries applied to cost-type contracts has been capped at $487,000 — down from more than $952,000 under an automatically adjusted regulatory formula before the new law.
Operation of the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max unmanned cargo helicopter in Afghanistan has been extended through November 2014, but the U.S. Navy has not yet decided whether to replace the aircraft that crashed in June 2013. The crash left a single K-Max operational in Afghanistan, ferrying supplies to and from remote forward Marine Corps bases. Lockheed and Kaman have said the aircraft is repairable, or alternatively a replacement K-Max is available.
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Canada is to have fully capable CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopters by 2018 — 10 years behind schedule — under a new agreement reached with manufacturer Sikorsky. The Canadian government is sticking with the years-late Cyclone after an independent evaluation determined that the C$5.1 billion ($4.8 billion) program would be viable with changes to the project structure and governance.
Aviation Week Laureate Awards March 6, 2014 National Building Museum Washington, D.C. Join Us! Aviation Week’s 57th annual Laureate Awards will recognize individuals/teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation, vision or any combination of these attributes that inspire others to strive for significant, broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace.
This week could see a surge of news on fresh fiscal 2014 appropriations, as House and Senate appropriators are working feverishly to put together a so-called omnibus spending bill by Jan. 15, when the stopgap continuing resolution (CR) of 2013 funds runs out.
NEW DELHI — India has entered the multibillion dollar commercial launcher market with the successful liftoff of the GSAT-14 satellite aboard its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) heavy-lift rocket fitted with an indigenous cryogenic engine.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) plans to award Lockheed Martin a contract to continue development and conduct additional flight tests of the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm), keeping the weapon on track for possible deployment in 2018. Pentagon efforts to transition Lrasm from a Darpa/Office of Naval Research (ONR) demonstration to a program of record without a competition have attracted controversy. But in a December notice, Darpa announced its intent to award Lockheed a sole-source contract for follow-on development.
HOUSTON — The International Space Station (ISS) Mission Management Team has cleared Orbital Sciences Corp. for a Jan. 8 launch attempt of its Antares rocket/Cygnus cargo carrier combination at 1:32 p.m. EST, if weather conditions permit. A mostly favorable launch forecast includes a low probability of cloud cover in the region that could prohibit the launch, NASA space station program spokesman Josh Byerly said. The spacecraft was transported from its hangar to the launch pad at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Jan. 5.
Lawmakers have adopted a plan to transfer new Alenia C-27Js from the U.S. Air Force to the U.S. Coast Guard, and older Coast Guard Lockheed Martin C-130s to the U.S. Forest Service after a protracted interagency debate over the aircraft last year. The transfers were signed into law with the long-awaited passage of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act last month.
CRACKING DOWN: U.S. law firm Hughes, Hubbard & Reed says the developing and Western world is catching up with American enforcements against business corruption. “Although the United States remains the most active anticorruption regulator, other agencies around the world (including national regulators and multinational development banks) have shown a greater proclivity toward prosecuting bribery offenses,” the lawyers say in a 2013 review of global antibribery actions. A recent example is India’s cancellation of its AgustaWestland AW101 helicopter buy.
U.S. Special Operations command recently leased the Lockheed Martin S301 Special Operations Forces dry combat submersible. In late 2013 the command awarded Lockheed an estimated $10 million sole-sourced lease of the S301, a commercially-classed dry submersible vessel, to support risk mitigation research, development, test, and evaluation in support of Socom’s long-term dry-combat-submersibles program objectives.
