SEQUESTRATION Pinch: The controversial debt-and-deficit fighting law in the U.S. is expected to lead to slow merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the aerospace and defense sector, according to PwC’s Aerospace & Defense practice. “It has now been 20 months since the last defense deal announcement greater than $1 billion,” said Scott Thompson, PwC’s U.S. aerospace & defense leader.
HOUSTON — The International Space Station crew began to unload cargo from the Russia’s unpiloted Progress 51 resupply capsule on April 26, within hours of an automated docking ultimately unimpeded by a navigation antenna that failed to deploy after liftoff. The freighter, filled with just over three tons of propellant, water, research gear, spare parts and other supplies, eased into the aft docking port of the Russian segment Zvezda service module at 8:25 a.m. EDT.
A controversial debt-fighting law in the U.S. may be eating into the Pentagon’s ability to do many things, but backing up Israel is not one of them, according to officials in both countries who recently unveiled an unprecedented arms sales proposal designed to maintain the Jewish state’s “qualitative military edge” (QME), above all.
LONDON — Eurocopter has begun proving trials of its EC145 twin-engined helicopter with an optionally piloted flight control system. The self-funded demonstration program, revealed April 25, made its first flights in early April and has already carried underslung loads and performed what the company calls a “representative observation mission.”
POSTPONED FURTHER: The restart of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-4) Coronado’s pre-delivery builder’s trials has been pushed back to the week of May 6, U.S. Navy officials say. LCS-4 was being put through full-power trial tests on April 13 when problems developed with its port and starboard diesel engines, creating smoke and a small fire first on the starboard engine and then the port one, Navy sources said. Those sources initially expected to resume the trials April 15, and later the week of April 22.
SEOUL — South Korea’s proposed KF-X could emerge as the only alternative to the F-35 for prospective buyers looking for a fighter than can easily accommodate Western weapons and sensors.
An inability to properly configure a required reporting system is casting doubt on how financial statement data was captured and reported by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and other defense-related organizations, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. The findings came during an IG review to determine whether the Defense Agencies Initiative (DAI) generated accurate and reliable financial data and reported it in compliance with requirements.
LONDON — Eurocopter has extended a deadline for the French government to buy an additional 34 NH90 helicopters for the country’s army. The government ordered 68 NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopters (TTH) in 2007 to replace the Army’s aging fleet of Puma utility helicopters. The order would be delivered in two batches.
The U.S. Navy’s program manager for its Flight III DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyer says only “moderate modifications” will be needed for the ships to accommodate the service’s planned Air & Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), despite concerns among some analysts that integrating the radar, other systems or weapon advancements could prove cost-prohibitive. “We’ve been able to retire risks,” says Capt. Mark Vandroff, Navy program manager. “We now have a better idea of the need for power and cooling. That’s allowed me to change the estimate on the ship.
LONDON — Boeing will use BAE Systems’ fifth-generation active inceptor control technology as part of its work to boost the performance of the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter. The company selected BAE to develop the Active Parallel Actuator Subsystem (APAS) onto both the CH-47F and the MH-47G helicopters. The move represents the first time the active inceptor technology has been used on a non-fly-by-wire aircraft.
HOUSTON — Russian flight control teams worked to free a rendezvous antenna aboard the Progress 51 supply ship that failed to deploy as commanded after the freighter lifted off early April 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station.
Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., will design, manufacture, integrate and test the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) selected by NASA earlier this month for a new all-sky search of habitable zone exoplanets under a $75 million, four-year space agency contract, the company announced April 24.
The Brazilian air force has taken part in its first NATO exercise, deploying one of its new Lockheed P-3AM Orions to Scotland. An Orion and a crew from the Brazilian air force’s 1°/7° GAV unit based in Salvador deployed to RAF Lossiemouth in Northern Scotland for Exercise Joint Warrior, a major land, air, and sea exercise held April 15-26. The Brazilian crew worked alongside maritime patrol crews from other nations including France, Canada and the U.S., providing the top cover for surface vessels and assisting them in anti-submarine warfare exercises.
The strength of Boeing Defense, Space & Security’s first-quarter performance surprised analysts as the company continues to weather the downturn in U.S. spending with success in cybersecurity, UAVs, space and intelligence and reconnaissance accounts. While first-quarter revenues at Boeing Defense, Space & Security were $8.1 billion, off 1% from a year ago, operating margins climbed 1.3 percentage points to 10.3%, signaling continued strength in international markets fueled partly by concerns over rogue states.
DEFENSE DEFENDED: Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the bipartisan co-chairs of the failed-but-popular 2010 presidential deficit-cutting commission, are offering up a new plan to try to help Washington reach a grand budget bargain that would halve the cut the defense sector expects to see compared with sequestration. Sequestration would cut around $450 billion from previously planned spending over a decade (on top of a $487 billion reduction implemented when the Act was passed).
The U.S. Air Force should be able to maintain 65 combat air patrols with Predator and Reaper UAVs by May 2014, according to Lt. Gen. Larry James, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
