The U.S. Coast Guard is continuing to fund acquisition and improvement programs for its aircraft and ships despite an overall cut in its proposed fiscal 2015 spending plan. The fiscal 2015 plan of about $9.8 billion is about $418 million, or 4.1%, less than the enacted fiscal 2014 spending plan of about $10.2 billion.
BUDGET DROP: With the release of the Obama administration’s fiscal 2015 budget request on March 4, the Aviation Week Intelligence Network’s budget digest page is your one-stop source for news, data and analysis of programs and priorities as the request makes its way through Congress. AWIN subscribers can access the page at www.aviationweek.com/awin/USBudget2015.aspx
THE PENTAGON — The fiscal 2015 baseline budget request for the U.S. Navy, announced March 4, is $148 billion, compared to the $156 billion 2014 request, which was whittled down to $150 billion by the Budget Control Act and its mandatory sequestration spending cuts.
THE PENTAGON — Spending constraints imposed on the defense budget, capped by Congress at $496 billion for fiscal 2015, have forced the U.S. Army to re-examine its aviation structures, officials told a Pentagon budget briefing on March 4. The Army is asking Congress for $5.10 billion for aircraft and aviation equipment, compared to the $5.02 billion sought in fiscal 2014 and the $4.76 billion approved by Congress in December.
ARLINGTON, Va. — Two of the recent intercept failures by the U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system were due to “fairly simple” issues, says U.S. Navy Vice Adm. James Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency. Syring is “disappointed” with Boeing’s performance in flight testing the GMD system; the last successful GMD intercept took place in December 2008. The next was expected this spring, but is now set for June. He spoke March 4 at Aviation Week’s Defense Technologies and Requirements conference in Arlington, Va.
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THE PENTAGON — Thanks to the U.S. Navy’s continued focus on ballistic missile defense (BMD), as well as its need to develop a stronger coastal presence, investments in its DDG destroyers and Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) are driving the service’s surface-ship funding in its fiscal 2015 budget proposal. Anchoring the BMD missions is the development of Aegis combat system improvement on DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class destroyers. The fiscal 2015 plan requests $2.8 billion for two Burkes as part of the fiscal 2013-17 multi-year procurement (MYP) for the ships.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy wants to buy more F-35B short-takeoff-vertical-landing (Stovl) Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs) for the Marine Corps across the future years defense plan (FYDP), ending in fiscal 2019, while cutting the number of F-35C carrier variants of the aircraft, according to the service’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal. The Lockheed Martin F-35B is the linchpin of the Marines’ future aviation plans, and service officials note the first operational aircraft will operate off amphibious ships supporting Corps operations within three years.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Air Force has decided to move forward in acquiring the Combat Rescue Helicopter, utilizing funds Congress mandated in fiscal 2014 final appropriations, the armed service’s budget director said March 4.
NASA is not planning for a disruption in the U.S.-Russian partnership that controls the International Space Station, despite the continuing military confrontation between Russia and the Ukraine over control of the Crimean Peninsula. Bolden noted that the ISS partnership has persisted through difficult times before during 13 years of joint operation and occupancy of the station, including the tense confrontation in 2008 between Russia and the U.S. over the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which resisted an invasion by Russian forces.
THE PENTAGON — While continuing to build more SSN Virginia-class attack submarines, the U.S. Navy is also investing in development of the SSBN Trident nuclear-missile fleet, according to its proposed fiscal 2015 spending plan. The budget proposal announced March 4 includes about $5.9 billion for two more Virginia-class subs.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Army is seeking a modest increase in intelligence and unmanned aircraft acquisitions in its $125 billion budget request for fiscal 2015, service officials said March 4. The Army is seeking $1.10 billion for intelligence acquisitions and research and development, down slightly from the $1.17 billion approved by Congress in December for the current fiscal year.
PARIS — The success of back-to-back launches of commercial communications satellites on Space Exploration Technologies’ (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rockets in December and January has drawn barbs from competitors in the commercial launch industry. Stephan Israel, chairman and CEO of European launch service provider Arianespace, has repeatedly criticized Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX for charging its U.S. government customers roughly twice the cost of a commercial Falcon 9 launch, which the company advertises for $56.5 million.
The news is in the details of NASA’s $17.5 billion, stay-the-course budget request for fiscal 2015. The request tries to maintain pace on all of the agency’s major priorities: the James Webb Space Telescope, Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule, along with the International Space Station (now extended until 2024) and commercial crew access to it.
THE PENTAGON — U.S. defense officials are putting their money where their mouths have been with the fiscal 2015 budget request to Congress, which emphasizes the pursuit of new and critical military technology over the size of the military, or even how it is compensated and trained.
ARLINGTON, Va. — Flight restrictions that stop the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from flying within 25 nm of a lightning storm could be lifted next year, senior program officials have said. The restrictions, partly the result of a 2006 bid to reduce weight in the short takeoff and landing (STOVL) F-35B, could be lifted thanks to changes in the onboard inert gas generating system (Obiggs) that are due to be flight tested in the coming weeks.
THE PENTAGON — Putting to rest—for now—questions about the U.S. Navy’s support for the nation’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier fleet, the service’s fiscal year 2015 budget includes money for next-generation models, as well as funding to anchor the overhaul of existing ships.
The U.S. Navy recently awarded about $359 million in contract modification work involving V-22 Ospreys to the Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas and to Rolls-Royce of Indianapolis, Ind. The bulk of the award—about $351 million—was for a Feb. 28 modification to a previously awarded, cost-plus-incentive, fixed-price incentive-fee contract for the Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office for V-22 joint performance-based logistics support. The work is expected to be completed in November 2016.
NEW DELHI — India has put all defense contracts with engine maker Rolls-Royce on hold following allegations that the British company paid bribes to win lucrative contracts to supply Hawk advanced trainer jet engines to state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), a defense ministry official says.
A seven-camera video system has confirmed deployment of a 9-meter mesh antenna on the Sirius FM-9 satellite-radio spacecraft, setting the Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) platform for service from geostationary orbit. Designed and delivered by Ecliptic Enterprises Corp., a Pasadena, Calif.-based company that manufactures in-space video systems for spacecraft and launch vehicles, the cameras verified that the reflector and boom hinges on the large antenna deployed correctly, followed by the large, unfurlable mesh reflector.
