A small but significant number of U.S. congressmen are backing a bill that would halt the U.S. Army’s plans to move some helicopters out of the National Guard and into active duty, while looking to establish a blue-ribbon commission on the armed service like one recently completed for the Air Force.
BEIJING — Japan is considering building at least one more amphibious landing ship, with the aim of defending remote islands and the East China Sea, according to local media. The design is very likely to be much larger than that of the three, 14,000-ton Osumi Class amphibious ships that the Japanese navy now has in service.
NEW DELHI — India’s defense ministry has barred AgustaWestland and parent company Finmeccanica from a biennial military exhibition as the two companies are “under investigation” for breaching a pre-contract integrity pact concerning the now-canceled purchase of VIP transport helicopters for the Indian air force. “As per our policy, any company under blacklist ... [or] under investigation will not be allowed to participate in the DefExpo,” says G.C. Pati, ministry secretary for defense production.
LONDON — The U.K. and French governments hope to decide by 2016 whether the two countries will collaborate on the demonstration and manufacture of an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV). At a one-day summit between U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande, at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire on Jan. 31, the two leaders jointly agreed to spend £120 million ($197 million) on a feasibility study toward a UCAV that would form the basis of a Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program.
LOS ANGELES — SpaceIL, the Israel-based team competing for the Google Lunar X-Prize, is optimistic about winning the pole position in the race to land a privately developed unmanned vehicle on the Moon following the award of a contract with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for the propulsion system.
LONDON — Air Greenland has canceled an order for two Airbus Helicopters EC225s because the offshore market around the island has not developed as expected. The company ordered the aircraft as part of a DKK380 million ($69 million) deal announced in December 2011. It planned to use them on search-and-rescue missions and passenger-carrying duties with an expected influx of oil and gas companies exploring for oil around the huge country.
LONDON — The French and British governments are looking to rationalize the development of what they call complex weapons capabilities with industrial partner and missile manufacturer MBDA. The plan is revealed in a communique following the one-day summit between U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, on Jan. 31.
NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) mission will spend an extra 28 days circling the Moon at low altitude to extend observations of the tenuous atmosphere for an additional light/dark lunar cycle. The extension will postpone Ladee’s anticipated impact with the surface until about April 21.
LONDON — The U.K. defense ministry has accelerated plans to introduce a helicopter-borne early warning radar system for the country’s new aircraft carriers. The Crowsnest program is expected to integrate an airborne early warning (AEW) radar onto the Royal Navy’s AgustaWestland Merlin Mk. 2 helicopters, replacing the capability provided by the Westland Sea King Mk. 7s carrying the Thales Searchwater radar, which will be retired at the end of March 2016.
ARMY GTI Systems Inc., Auburndale, Fla., was awarded a $78,200,000 firm-fixed-price foreign military sales multiyear contract for practice bombs and accoutrements. Funding and work performance location will be determined with each order. Estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2018. Bids were solicited via the Internet with three received. Army Contracting Command - Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-14-D-0042).
ARMY General Dynamics, Sterling Heights, Mich. was awarded a $72,690,235 firm-fixed-price contract for the acquisition of 12 M1A2 System Enhanced Package v2 tanks. Fiscal 2013 other procurement funds in the amount of $15,712,969 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Dec. 31, 2015. One bid was solicited with one received. The work will be performed in Lima, Ohio; Scranton, Pa.; Anniston, Ala.; and Tallahassee, Fla. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich. is the contracting activity (W56HZV-14-C-0054).
HOUSTON — Russia’s trash-laden Progress 52 capsule departed the International Space Station Feb. 3, opening a berthing port for the country’s first resupply mission of 2014. Progress 54 is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 5 at 11:23 a.m. EST, or 10:23 p.m. local time, initiating a four-orbit, 6-hr. automated rendezvous and docking at the ISS Pirs docking compartment. Progress 54 is scheduled to deliver 2.8 tons of fuel, research gear and other provisions to the six-person orbiting science laboratory.
The U.S. Navy needs more data about how F-35B Joint Strike Fighters and MV-22 Ospreys will affect LHA-6 large-deck amphibious ship operations, according to the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E). Military officials point out DOT&E reports provide programmatic snapshots that are often dated and Navy officials in January detailed modifications they are making to the amphib to accommodate the aircraft (AWIN, Jan. 15).
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NASA should have enough money in its fiscal 2014 appropriation to support development of at least two competing commercial crew vehicles, and the Senate panel that funds the U.S. space agency will try to keep that going in fiscal 2015, according to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who chairs it.
Republican leaders of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee are questioning the Obama administration’s credibility in negotiating new nuclear arms reductions with Russia or any deal with Iran as concerns linger over whether the former is cheating on past treaties.
BRISTOW LEADERSHIP: Bristow Group CEO and President Bill Chiles plans to retire at the end of July from the helicopter operator. Chiles, who became CEO in 2004, is expected to step down at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders on July 31 and be succeeded by Jonathan Baliff, the company’s current senior vice president and CFO. Chiles also will step down from the board of directors, but will remain an employee until July 2016.
HOUSTON — NASA’s 2013 Asteroid Initiative Idea Synthesis Workshop produced nearly 30 recommendations for refining strategies to identify, capture and maneuver a seven- to 10-meter near-Earth object into lunar orbit for a visit by astronauts. The proposed undertaking has emerged from its first U.S. budget cycle, but is still in search of significant U.S. Congressional and international backing.
THREAT ASSESSMENT: U.S. lawmakers will be boning up on threats and conditions facing the U.S. during Capitol Hill hearings this week. Topping the list is cyberspace, according to related testimony last week by the director of national intelligence. “I have not experienced a time when we’ve been beset by more crises and threats around the globe,” James Clapper told the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. The hearings began Feb. 3 with a closed-door House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee session on ongoing intelligence activities.
