SUPPLY AND DEMAND: Beware the effect of going against statistical bias, says one official in the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). DLA’s core mode of operations is to use forecasts to try to predict and meet demand for parts, and it must do so as efficiently as possible as budgets become tighter, according to Air Force Col. Daniel Hicks, commander of DLA Aviation.
PREZ HELO: Industry has been alerted to the impending release of the final request for proposals for the VXX presidential helicopter replacement program, as the U.S. Navy tries once more to find a successor to its Sikorsky VH-3Ds and VH-60Ns. The RFP will call for modification of an in-production aircraft. The Navy plans to award a fixed-price contract for a six-helicopter engineering and manufacturing development phase, with options for nine aircraft in low-rate initial production and eight more in full-rate production, with the complete program lasting eight years.
The F-35A is expected to cost about 10% more to operate than the F-16 it is intended to replace for the U.S. Air Force and other international military services, according to U.S. government officials.
U.S. and coalition forces still need platforms and equipment to sustain their efforts in Afghanistan even as they pull back their military might and turn over operations to the Afghans, a U.S. Marine Corps major general says. Leading the list of coalition needs are equipment and people for medevac and other medical-related services, says Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus, commanding general of the I Marine Expeditionary Force Forward and commander, Regional Command – Southwest. Gurganus spoke April 18 during a media breakfast.
SMALL EXPORTS: The U.S. Export-Import Bank is joining the Obama administration’s Global Business Solutions interagency initiative to expand outreach of federal export assistance to small businesses. The pilot program has a goal to add 50,000 small businesses to the nation’s exporter base by 2017. Besides the bank, five other agencies are involved: the Small Business Administration, the Agriculture Department, the International Trade Administration, the Trade and Development Agency and the Overseas Private Investment Corp.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Pratt & Whitney is preparing to test the first major development hardware for the U.S. Air Force’s Adaptive Engine Technology Development (AETD) program, which aims to lay the foundations for a sixth-generation fighter engine.
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom arrived in Singapore at 11 a.m. local time April 18 — about midnight U.S. Eastern Standard Time — finishing its trans-Pacific trek to start its inaugural Asian deployment.
BEIJING — South Korean decisions announced this week confirm that the country will considerably strengthen its rotary-wing force over the coming decade. The South Korean army will take delivery of 36 Boeing AH-64E Apache helicopters between 2016 and 2018, the government says, announcing a long-expected decision to buy the aircraft. The country’s marine corps, meanwhile, has taken a step toward finally getting the helicopter force that it has been campaigning for, with the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) Surion lined up for an order.
HOUSTON — NASA’s ambitious plans to identify and retrieve a small asteroid and park it near the Moon for a visit by U.S. astronauts as early as 2021 would require a twofold improvement in solar electric propulsion (SEP) technologies, according to NASA. Efforts to improve SEP were under way well ahead of the yet-to-be-priced asteroid mission featured in President Barack Obama’s proposed $17.7 billion space agency budget for 2014, NASA says.
FRANKFURT — Following French media group Lagardere, German car manufacturer Daimler has sold its remaining shareholding in EADS. The company sold a 7.5% stake for €37 per share, a total of €2.2 billion ($2.9 billion), part of which was picked up by EADS itself.
NEW DELHI — A cut in India’s defense budget will not halt the acquisition programs of the Indian air force (IAF), Defense Minister A.K. Antony says. “The government is committed to the modernization of the IAF and funds are not a problem to ensure that it remains at the forefront of technology,” Antony says.
Government auditors estimate that “rework” costs for the first lots of F-35 aircraft will total nearly $1 billion, owing to the Pentagon’s strategy of developing and buying the single-engine, stealthy fighter at the same time. These costs are referred to by program officials as “concurrency,” because testing activities are taking place concurrent to production of the early lots of aircraft by prime contractor Lockheed Martin. The Pentagon embraced this strategy when awarding the company the F-35 development contract in 2001 over Boeing.
As the leader of Air Mobility Command, which is charged with providing global mobility to the U.S. military, Gen. Paul Selva finds that the across-the-board budget cut known as sequestration “consumes a disproportionate share of our time.” Budget planners are reprioritizing the money that commanders have to use on a weekly basis. And commanders are trying to make sure that those under their command stay focused on training and executing missions, rather than on the fate of the organization as a whole.
EXPORT REFORM: The Obama administration’s export control reform efforts continue to inch forward, as it published the final rules in the U.S. Federal Register that would allow aircraft, aircraft engines and related equipment to be traded more freely with allies. The rules that implement initial changes to Export Administration Regulations and International Traffic in Arms Regulations will take effect on Oct. 15 and involve the shifting of items from the U.S. Munitions List managed by the State Department to a more flexible one managed by the Commerce Department.
BANGKOK — Network-centric capability is the Thai air force’s top goal, making Link-T, Thailand’s indigenously developed data link, the potential linchpin for defense companies hoping to win contracts. Avia Saab Technologies, a joint venture between Thai company Savia Satcom and Swedish company Saab, developed Link-T. It was born out of what Thai air force Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong refers to as “The Gripen Project.”
LONDON — Boeing has completed the first flight of a new CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter for the U.K. Royal Air Force, one of 14 such aircraft destined for the service. The first flight was carried out on March 15, but Boeing did not disclose the event until April 15. The company says the flight, conducted from its facilities at Ridley Township near Philadelphia, “happened ahead of schedule” and confirmed the type’s “initial airworthiness.”
THE PENTAGON — The big bump in the U.S. Navy’s planned acquisition of Boeing EA-18G Growlers in the coming fiscal year illuminates the U.S. military’s continued desire to exploit and dominate the electronic spectrum. The Navy plans to buy 21 of the jamming aircraft in fiscal 2014 for about $2 billion, compared to the 12 procured in fiscal 2013 for about half that amount.
NASA’s proposed mission to wrangle an asteroid into lunar orbit would marry the embattled space agency’s disparate programs while providing the foundation for humans to move beyond low Earth orbit, according to a key official’s remarks on Capitol Hill.
The U.S. Navy is keeping the seven Ticonderoga-class cruisers in the fleet that the service had marked last year to be decommissioned early due to fiscal constraints. The Navy’s cruiser decommissioning plan, part of last year’s proposed fiscal 2013 budget submission, was met with immediate consternation from federal lawmakers.
