In observance of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish an issue dated May 28, 2013. The next issue will be dated May 29. Aviation Week Intelligence Network subscribers may visit www.aviationweek.com/awin at any time for news updates.
CYBERSPACE PROGRESS: At the House Armed Services intelligence and emerging threats subcommittee markup of the 2014 defense policy bill last week, Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) praised the military’s progress in protecting the U.S.
The Pentagon’s latest cost report on the stealthy F-35 shows no change in the high price of estimated flying hour usage or total lifetime sustainment, two areas of great interest to operators in the U.S. and abroad.
Much of the focus lately on shifting U.S. resources to the Asia-Pacific has been on how Chinese ballistic anti-ship missiles may affect U.S. Navy aircraft carrier plans for the region. But there also continues to be rising concern about what effect the growing Chinese submarine fleet could have on naval operations in those waters. Navy officials say they own the undersea domain. But a recent Pentagon report on the Chinese submarine fleet underscores the growing might those ships represent for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.
The U.S. Air Force and launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) have once again scrubbed the launch of the fifth Wideband Global Satcom (WGS-5) spacecraft, this time due to an issue with a helium pressurization line that is part of the Delta IV rocket’s ground support equipment. Launch from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., which had been targeted for a 30-min. window opening at 8:27 p.m. EDT May 23, has now been pushed back 24 hr. to the same window on May 24. Weather forecasts predict an 80% chance of favorable conditions for liftoff, according to ULA.
Buoyed by greater-than-anticipated activity in the single-utility turboprop market, Honeywell is supporting a range of additional applications for its TPE331 family, as well as studying potential new engine developments to compete with Pratt & Whitney Canada’s ubiquitous PT6 and its planned successor.
DEEP SPACE COMMS: Maintenance, operations and engineering services for NASA’s Deep Space Network of spacecraft communications links will be provided for at least five years by ITT Exelis under a contract awarded by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. If the McLean, Va.-based company meets the requirements for incentive provisions, the contract can extend to a maximum of 10 years with a total value of $435 million.
BEIJING — EADS is offering to invest $2 billion in South Korea’s KF-X fighter program if the country buys the Eurofighter Typhoon, local media report. The EADS offer also includes an aircraft maintenance facility and an aerospace software center, says Yonhap news agency, citing the European company and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) of the defense ministry.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is activating an in-orbit Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) spare as experts try to rescue a primary spacecraft that has failed to deliver basic weather data for a second time in less than a year, according to officials in the satellite community.
House Armed Services seapower subcommittee Chairman Randy Forbes (R-Va.) and ranking Democrat Mike McIntyre (N.C.) remain concerned that the U.S. Navy’s long-term shipbuilding plan is unaffordable unless the shipbuilding budget is increased by several billion dollars a year in the near future.
With House lawmakers marking up the fiscal 2014 U.S. defense authorization this week, the congressional challenge to the U.S. Air Force plan to kill the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) begins its second year.
NEW DELHI — India’s long-delayed effort to acquire 197 light reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters for its army and air force is spiraling toward what might be the program’s second cancellation.
Officials at NASA on May 23 denied an account in the pending fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill that it disclosed the transfer of missile-defense technology to China, leaving a mystery clouded by the secrecy classification of part of the legislation. “NASA has no record of a voluntary disclosure being filed with the Department of State regarding the alleged transfer of controlled U.S. Missile Defense Agency defense technology to the People’s Republic of China,” an agency spokesman said after a day-long review of the matter at NASA headquarters.
TURIN, Italy — Though the young M346 transonic trainer fleet remains grounded pending the results of a crash investigation, Alenia Aermacchi is working on plans to garner more customers. Poland’s tender is the most near-term. Warsaw is asking for proposals by June 7, though Alenia plans to request additional time to submit its offer. Poland has short-listed the Lockheed Martin/Korea Aerospace Industries T-50 and Aero Vodochody’s L 159, a Czech model, along with the M346.
The U.S. Navy had to cut short the first extended underway in Singapore for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1), the USS Freedom, apparently because of continuing issues with the ship’s coolant system, service officials say. The problem appears to be a minor one, the Navy says, with the ship returning to the Singapore Changi Naval Base on its own power.
The long-running saga over paying off the U.S. Army’s part of the tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) appears set for an encore on Capitol Hill as at least one leading House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Democrat plans to push lawmakers to stop a final payment on the Lockheed Martin-led program.
The U.S. and its defense partners in the Asia-Pacific region are discussing what the air-sea battle mindset means for the region, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations. “We are sitting down in a series of meetings with Australians, Japanese and Koreans to talk about air-sea battle,” Greenert said during a May 14 media briefing at the International Maritime and Defense Exhibition (Imdex) Asia 2013 here. “There needs to be more discussion on air-sea battle,” Greenert says.
The FAA is advising air carriers transporting “heavy vehicle special cargo loads” to review policy and guidance on weight and balance-control procedures due to the “potential safety impact” of carrying and restraining the equipment. The timing of the "Safety Alert for Operators," published on May 20, suggests that it may be related to the fatal crash of a National Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter departing from Bagram AB in Afghanistan on April 29, though the FAA did not specify this.
NEW DELHI — India successfully test-fired the vertical-launch version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile off the coast of its western state of Goa on May 22. The BrahMos was launched from the Indian navy’s latest Russian-built guided missile warship, INS Tarkash, BrahMos Aerospace chief Sivathanu Pillai says. The missile hit its target, Pillai says. “Today’s vertical launch configuration of BraMos will help improve the stealth abilities of the ship as the missiles are under the deck and not exposed,” Pillai says.
