Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee since 2009, does not plan to run for re-election in 2014. That will leave the committee with an open spot at the top, just after the departure of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who resigned at the end of the 112th Congress. Rockefeller was a strong advocate for rural airports, resisting efforts by Republicans to scrap the Essential Air Service program.
CARRIER COMPLETION: The next U.S. aircraft carrier, the CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford, is now about 90% complete. The Newport News Shipbuilding unit of Huntington Ingalls Industries recently added three units to the ship, including two sponsons to provide the space needed for flight deck operations. One of the sponsons was 140 ft. long and weighed 391 metric tons, making it one of the largest ever erected. In addition, shipbuilders installed 3 million ft. of cable of the estimated total 10 million ft. to be installed. The Ford has been under construction since November 2009.
C295 ORDER: Colombia has ordered an extra C295 transport aircraft from Airbus Military. With the order, made in November and announced on Jan. 14, the Colombian air force will have a fleet of six C295s as well six of the smaller C212. This latest order brings the number of Airbus Military C295s and CN235s sold in 2012 to 32 and increases total C295 orders to 115, with 93 currently in operation in 15 countries.
ARMY Gideon Services Inc., Huntsville, Ala., was awarded a $20,892,720 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of sets of commercial parts for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Capability Set 13 program. The work location will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 3, 2014. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with three bids received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-13-D-0044).
NEW DELHI — India plans to buy medium-range, anti-ship missiles for its naval ships, and is polling industry on its options. The missiles “will be utilized for engaging identified surface targets by the Indian navy,” a defense ministry official says. The ministry of defense has issued a request for information for the missiles, which must have a range of at least 120 km (75 mi.). The official declined to specify the number of missiles the Indian navy proposes to buy.
INFLATING ISS: Bigelow Aerospace will provide a new addition to the International Space Station under a $17.8 million NASA contract. “The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors,” the company said in a statement. Bigelow has been developing inflatable orbital habitats for commercial and government applications.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jan. 15 - 17 — Underwater Intervention 2013, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, LA. For more information go to www.underwaterintervention.com/ Jan. 22 - 23 — Aviation Week MRO Middle East, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
Hawker Beechcraft is furloughing workers on its T-6/AT-6 production line as it works through the most recent Joint Primary Aircraft Training Systems (JPATS) contract. The company says it is currently on the contract for Lot 18 aircraft, but is in negotiations for Lots 19 and 20.
The second round of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom’s post shakedown availability (PSA-2) overhaul went a lot more smoothly than the first overhaul, PSA-1, in part because the U.S. Navy took a “phased” approach in scheduling maintenance tasks, according to the ship’s commanding officer. “We took a systems engineering approach,” says Cmdr. Tim Wilke. “We looked at second- and third-order effects of doing the jobs, taking a more holistic approach that I don’t know was taken in the first PSA.”
Though the Pentagon managed to dodge a bullet at the turn of the year, the specter of sequestration funding cuts still looms if a new deal is not reached in March, and U.S. Air Force leadership warns that readiness accounts are sure to be hit.
As the Pentagon and Obama administration look for more ways to whittle away at costs and budget requirements, the U.S. Navy is touting the need for continued surface warfare improvements. “Despite the current tenuous fiscal environment and the ever-changing political landscape of the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, our ships are relevant, credible sources of combat power throughout the world,” says Rear Adm. Thomas Rowden, Navy surface warfare director, in a recent blog.
Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center are collecting data on kerosene-fueled rocket engines by hot-fire testing a gas generator built from 40-year-old parts originally manufactured for the Saturn V Moon rocket. Testing in a modified stand is planned to feed work underway that could lead to a reprise of the old F-1 engine as the booster powerplant for the agency’s planned heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS).
LONDON — Chinese interests continue to build up their aerospace portfolios, this time in the U.S. helicopter market with the purchase of light helicopter manufacturer Enstrom. The Michigan-based helicopter manufacturer, which has been producing helicopters since the late 1950s, was acquired by the Chongqing Helicopter Investment Co. (CQHIC).
LONDON — Cassidian and Northrop Grumman have completed the first flight of the Euro Hawk UAS since its delivery flight to Germany in July 2011. The Euro Hawk, now fitted out with its Cassidian-developed ISIS integrated signals intelligence payload, departed Manching airbase in Bavaria at 10:36 a.m. on Jan. 11 and returned six hours and two minutes later.
Boeing is considering lessons from giant retailers such as Walmart or Amazon, starting with a new approach to dealing with suppliers aimed at simplifying contract negotiations and lowering pricing for parts, according to company executives.
LONDON — Rising costs have pushed the U.K.’s A400M transport buy and its aerial refueling tanker to the top of a list of overspending military programs compiled by the National Audit Office (NAO).
NEW DELHI — India is on track to launch its first Mars orbiter in November of this year, a senior scientist in charge of the mission says. The unmanned satellite, christened “Maangalyaan,” will study the thin Martian atmosphere to determine the existence and sustainability of life and focus on climate, geology, origin and evolution of the planet, the scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said Jan. 10.
LONDON — The U.K. Ministry of Defense is deciding on the future of a loitering munition that it has spent more than £200 million ($320 million) developing. According to the U.K. National Audit Office (NAO), the Fire Shadow, being developed by the U.K. Team Complex Weapons initiative and led by MBDA, has successfully completed a series of trial firings at a test range in Sweden. But the defense ministry halted a plan to send the weapon to Afghanistan in March because of what the NAO described as “system maturity.”
