WARSAW — Over the next decade Warsaw expects to spend nearly $50 billion to strengthen its military through a sweeping modernization effort that includes air and missile defense, new helicopters, unmanned reconnaissance systems, air transport, anti-tank missiles and trainer aircraft, among other initiatives.
SEOUL — South Korea has chosen the Raytheon RACR fighter radar as the centerpiece of the upgrade of the bulk of its fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16s. Subject to U.S. government approval, Raytheon will supply 134 Raytheon Advance Combat Radar (RACR) sets to South Korea, the company says. BAE Systems is modernizing the same number of South Korean F-16s. Until now, the main unresolved issue in the modernization program was the selection of radar.
COLORADO SPRINGS — Orbital Sciences Corp. believes it can sell space on the commercial cargo vehicle it has developed with NASA seed money as an orbiting laboratory once it is unloaded and unberthed from the International Space Station. The Orbital Sciences Antares medium-lift launch vehicle set for its inaugural flight next week won’t carry the Cygnus capsule developed to deliver cargo to the ISS, but the instrumented mass simulator it is set to place in orbit will remain there for several months before re-entering the atmosphere.
Over the last decade the French government’s equity interest in several large defense companies has been questionably managed, according to a new report by France’s auditing arm, the Cour des Comptes, which says the state’s shareholder interest in companies like EADS, Thales and Safran is often at odds with its role representing French taxpayers. And in a couple of cases, according to the audit, the government has shown itself to be incompetent.
LONDON — Helicopter operator Bristow Group is making long-term plans to extend its U.K. Search and Rescue contract beyond its initial multiyear length. The Houston-based company signed a £1.6 billion ($2.46 billion) deal with the U.K. Department for Transport to provide a search-and-rescue helicopter service from 10 U.K. bases for up to 12 years beginning in 2016. But company officials say they are looking beyond the basic contract and believe they may be able to extend the deal.
SINGAPORE — Some European aerospace companies are shifting their focus and people to markets where there are more growth opportunities, notably the Asia-Pacific region. Saab recently established an Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Bangkok headed by Dan-Åke Enstedt, who was previously president of Saab North America. “I was covering the U.S. and Canada. It is the same concept. What we did there, we are trying to do in Asia and the rest of the world,” Enstedt says.
SPOOK FUNDING: The baseline funding request for fiscal 2014 for the National Intelligence Program is $48.2 billion, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says. An undisclosed additional amount will be requested as part of the supplemental, off-book budget request coming for warfighting. Altogether, $53.9 billion was appropriated for 2013, and $52.6 billion was requested for 2013, according to the last official announcements. Meanwhile, the baseline Military Intelligence Program budget request is $14.6 billion, the Pentagon says.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is working toward a full-scale turbomachinery test next year of the F-1B kerosene fueled rocket engine it is developing with Dynetics as a potential power plant for the advanced side-mounted boosters NASA will need to meet the 130-metric-ton congressional requirement for its planned Space Launch System.
GeoMetWatch will mount its first hyperspectral hosted payload on an AsiaSat commercial communications satellite set for launch in 2016, giving the Utah-based startup a view of the Asia/Pacific region for its weather-data service. The new spacecraft will be positioned at 122 deg. E. Long., where the Hong Kong-based satellite operator’s AsiaSat 4 is located today.
President Barack Obama is asking Congress to provide $526.6 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2014, a figure that does not include war-funding details or the continuing effects of across-the-board budget cuts that start in fiscal 2013. Over 10 years, the request sent to Capitol Hill on April 10 would trim $150 billion from previous spending plans for the military, with most of the reductions coming in later years.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget strengthens the nation’s carrier force, more than doubling the funding request from fiscal 2013 for the CVN-78 Ford-class program slated to replace the aging Nimitz fleet. The Navy is requesting about $1.7 billion in funding in fiscal 2014, compared to $781.7 million the previous fiscal year. Of that fiscal 2014 total, about $1.5 billion is slated for procurement, while the remaining $147.1 million is meant for research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E).
Despite releasing a fiscal 2014 budget that does not address sequestration, the Pentagon is still feeling the effects of an $85 billion across-the-board cut taking place in fiscal 2013. The reduction to military spending from sequestration in fiscal 2013 is $41 billion, which cuts from every program line. Coupled with higher wartime operations costs, the Pentagon is facing up to a $25 billion shortfall in its operations accounts, Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale told reporters April 10.
Aviation Week MRO Military April 17, 2013 Atlanta, GA Reduce costs through partnerships and better forecasting, sustainment, and product support strategies Briefings will cover: -- GFY 2013 and 2014 budget reviews and their impact to MRO business -- Global defense sustainment market forecasts -- Industry perspectives on sustainment and sequestration
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Army announced April 10 that it is seeking $5 billion in fiscal 2014 to buy or upgrade its helicopter fleet and acquire more large and small unmanned aircraft to provide ground troops with better intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The Army’s cut of the $526.6 billion Defense Department 2014 budget request is $129.7 billion, with only 18%, $23.9 billion, going to procurement and research, development, testing and evaluation programs. Personnel needs will be getting the largest piece of the pie, 44%, or $56.6 billion.
THE PENTAGON — To meet sequestration-mandated cuts, the U.S. Navy will spend about $10.7 billion less in fiscal 2013 than it had intended to spend and the service is projecting about $59 billion less in spending across the fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2018 future years defense plan (FYDP), according to the Navy’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget released this morning.
The White House is requesting $2 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) weather satellite programs in fiscal 2014, boosting funding for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite System (GOES-R) while trimming back the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). The moves are in line with the criticisms of an external review panel that last year deemed the agency’s satellite efforts “dysfunctional.” The White House is asking for $5.448 billion overall for NOAA in fiscal 2014.
THE PENTAGON — U.S. Navy submarine programs are geared up for vibrant funding in fiscal 2014 for both the Virginia-class and Ohio-class replacement boats. The Virginia-class SSN attack subs have become the template for the U.S. Navy in terms of operational and acquisition proficiency, and the proposed fiscal 2014 spending plan includes about $5.4 billion for the boats, compared to about $4.3 billion last year.
The U.S. Air Force is still reviewing an option to cut as many as five Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighters from its current fiscal 2013 plan to procure 19 aircraft, and expects to have to do the same for next fiscal year if no new appropriations are enacted by the time that year begins Oct. 1.
THE PENTAGON — While proposed U.S. Navy aircraft procurement funding is set to hold steady in fiscal 2014, the service’s aircraft depot maintenance accounts are slated to take a nosedive and maintenance backlogs will balloon. Navy spending for aircraft procurement has remained relatively flat—$17.6 billion in fiscal 2012, $17.1 billion in fiscal 2013 and $17.9 billion proposed for fiscal 2014—according to the service’s proposed fiscal 2014 spending proposal.
THE PENTAGON — The Obama administration’s proposed funding level for the U.S. Navy’s major surface-fleet procurement drops a bit for the upcoming fiscal year. Funding levels are sinking for destroyers, holding steady for Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) and rising for the new proposed afloat forward staging base.
