LONDON — Italian defense and aerospace giant Finmeccanica has established a committee to oversee the ethics of its leaders in the wake of the Indian helicopter scandal.
NUCLEAR DYAD?: Linton Brooks, a former head of the National Nuclear Security Administration who was chief U.S. negotiator for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) with the Soviet Union, has cautious words for arms control advocates when it comes to nuclear weapons: do not get your hopes up. Brooks told a think tank audience in Washington April 15 that he sees no reason to cut a leg of the so-called nuclear triad, largely because U.S.
U.S. Marine Corps pilots from the Okinawa-based “Dragons” of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron VMM-265, flying MV-22B Ospreys, recently conducted first-of-its-kind training with the dry-cargo ship USNS Sacagawea (T-AKE 2) off the coast of Subic Bay, Philippines.
A command-and-control (C2) module concept could be a future consideration for Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs), Lockheed Martin officials say. The acknowledgment came during and after a spirited discussion of LCS abilities to perform C2 operations — usually slated for larger ships like cruisers that possess power, bandwidth and other attributes for controlling aircraft, vessels and other naval assets — during anti-piracy missions at a Navy League Sea-Air-Space presentation on the topic last week.
The Obama administration’s fiscal 2014 budget request for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the U.S. agency responsible for providing nuclear weapons and reactors to the military, among other duties, appears to maintain warhead life-extension programs (LEPs).
LONDON — The first NH90 NATO Frigate Helicopters (NFH) destined for the Belgian armed forces has made its first flight in Germany. The first of four naval versions took to the air at the Eurocopter plant in Donauworth on April 5. The aircraft will now begin a series of test flights before delivery later this year.
LONDON — A government committee is urging the U.K. defense ministry to be more transparent in its withdrawal from Afghanistan. The House of Commons Defense Committee, made up of members of Parliament from all three main parties, says in an April 10 report it is vitally important that the ministry and government begin providing details about the Afghan departure.
NEW DELHI — India plans to loft the heaviest variant of its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), the Mk. 3, in 2014, even as the country’s space agency prepares for another mission with an earlier GSLV variant in July of this year, a senior space scientist says.
ARMY Argon ST Inc., Fairfax, Va., was awarded a $9,632,695 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide services in support of the Joint Unified Multi-Capable Protection System research and development program. Fiscal 2013 procurement funds are being obligated on this award. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with one bid received. The Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-13-C-A202).
RIO DE JANEIRO — South Africa’s Paramount Group brought a model of its Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (Ahrlac) to the LAAD Defense & Security show here, and says work on the first prototype is nearing completion and that the first flight should take place “around the third quarter of this year.” The company acknowledges that this is later than originally expected, but still says that the project – which was hinted at at LAAD in 2011 and revealed in September of that year – has still “gone very fast” for an all-new venture.
BAE Systems will train aviation technicians and maintainers for the Australian defense forces under an A$107 million ($113 million) contract covering the next five years. About 900 students a year will be trained in courses conducted at the Royal Australian Air Force’s base at Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, says the minister for defense material, Mike Kelly.
While the U.S. Navy is scaling down some of the proposed funding for its Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) in its fiscal 2014 budget, the service is ramping up some of the money for its AIM-9X Sidewinder missile.
BUCKING TRENDS: Overall the world spent less in 2012 on national defense, the first time since 1998, largely driven by declining budgets in the U.S. and its allies, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. But China and Russia continue to raise their military spending, “substantially” offsetting Western and allied reductions. China, the second largest spender by country last year, increased its expenditures 7.8% or $11.5 billion; Russia, third largest, rose 16% to $12.3 billion.
AIR FORCE General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, Calif., is being awarded an $18,251,274 firm-fixed-price contract for MQ-1/MQ-9 organic depot activation. The work will be performed at Hill AFB, Utah, Warner-Robins AFB, Ga., and Tinker AFB, Okla., and is expected to be completed by April 4, 2015. This award is a result of sole-source acquisition. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2011. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WIIK, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (FA8620-10-G-3038 0044).
MetiSpace Technologies, a new space systems engineering company, has been formed after a U.S. management buy-out from its Spanish parent company, Madrid-based GMV. Led by President and CEO Theresa Beech, the former president of GMV USA, MetiSpace will continue to provide GMV satellite control and mission planning software to the U.S. aerospace “institutional” market.
LONDON — Airbus Military has been conducting anti-ship missile release trials from C295 transport aircraft. The tests, which took place on March 21 in conjunction with missile manufacturer MBDA, saw an inert Marte Mk. 2 missile fitted and dropped from the underwing pylon of the C295 as part of a program to validate the integration of the weapon onto maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) variants of the C295.
