LONDON — Finmeccanica arm Alenia Aermacchi has been awarded a $140 million contract to provide logistic support to the Israeli Air Force’s M-346 jet trainers. The contract, awarded by Elbit Systems on Jan. 2, will see the two companies jointly performing the logistics support contract for the training aircraft including supply and maintenance and overhaul of spare parts for the M-346s, 30 of which were ordered by the Israeli Air Force in July 2012.
President Barack Obama is nominating former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as the next defense secretary and White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan as the next CIA director. The battle lines over Hagel’s nomination are already being drawn, as at least two no votes from senators were registered before Obama’s pick was official.
The Pentagon is facing a “confluence of unfortunate events,” says the Pentagon’s top budget official, including the possibility of sequestration, a full-year continuing resolution and the need to protect funding for the war in Afghanistan.
A new “block buy” deal for the U.S. Air Force to buy the next two satellites designed by Lockheed Martin to provide nuclear-hardened communications for the president and military commanders is estimated to save the government almost $1.5 billion. But the cost of each Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite, used for routine secure communications globally as well as presidential command and control of nuclear forces, still exceeds the $1 billion mark.
SUSTAINED: The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Comptroller General this month sustained a protest by Kollsman, an Elbit Systems of America company based in McLean, Va., of a Navy award to L-3 Communications for handheld laser markers. Kollsman challenged the Navy’s evaluation of price and L-3’s past performance. “Because we find that the agency failed to adequately support and document its past performance evaluation of L-3, we recommend that the agency re-evaluate L-3’s past performance,” GAO says in its decision.
The U.S. Department of Defense is finding it more difficult to move its equipment and materiel out of Afghanistan than when it faced a similar drawdown in Iraq. The Pentagon says it has more than 750,000 “major-end items” worth more than $36 billion in Afghanistan and estimates the cost of transferring equipment out of that country could reach about $5.7 billion because of logistical and geopolitical hurdles.
SAN DIEGO — While the U.S. Navy brass says its new Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) will be combat ready, the debate still goes on concerning what kind and what degree of combat the ships are truly designed for. Over the past two years, defense analysts and Pentagon evaluators have called into question the ships’ combat value. The Navy brass has recently sought to squelch such questions, saying the LCS vessels — and perhaps other Navy ships or assets — will have to brave more combat than in the past.
As the incoming top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe (Okla.), sees his top priority as avoiding cuts to the defense budget under sequestration. Those cut are scheduled to be implemented in late March, unless Congress acts before that time.
NEW DEHLI — India’s armed forces will soon field advanced multi-caliber artillery guns as part of their modernization drive. The guns, being developed by a unit of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), will fulfill requirements of the Indian army for loading and firing both small and large munitions, DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat says. Each artillery gun will feature multiple barrels for loading and firing different sizes of shells.
Unmanned vehicle operations could benefit from research and development of more efficient ways to compress sensor data, according to a recent report by the so-called Jason group, the independent scientific advisory panel that provides consulting services to the U.S. government on matters of defense science and technology.
HOUSTON — Robonaut 2, a NASA and General Motors collaboration to develop an astronaut-friendly humanoid, is due a pair of legs and a battery backpack later this year to give it more mobility inside and eventually outside the International Space Station. The two-armed, camera and force-sensor-laced torso launched to the station aboard a February 2011 space shuttle mission. It has been restrained to a stanchion in the station’s U.S. Destiny laboratory since it was awakened electronically for the first time late the following August.
The U.S. Navy expects to see better allocation of — rather than an increase in — maintenance funding in response to proposed additional ship reviews by the Board of Inspection and Survey (Insurv), which has unveiled plans to double its vessel inspections.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jan. 7 - 10, 2013 — 61st AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition, Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center, Grapevine (Dallas/Ft. Worth Region), Tex. For more information go to www.aiaa.org/asm2013/ Jan. 9 - 10 — Fourth Annual China Aerospace Manufacturing Summit, Post Hotel, Harbin City, China. For more information go to www.galleonevents.com
March 5-6 2013 Hilton Arlington Arlington, VA Join senior defense officials and discover where priorities and opportunities exist beyond the FY 2014 budget and hear First-hand how programs are implementing affordable and effective designs! Register now at www.aviationweek.com/events/dtar Click here to view the pdf
The U.S. Navy is expected to spend about $31.9 billion for F-18-related programs between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2017, which would be about the same amount that the service spent for all fixed-wing aircraft during a similar period of time ending in the previous decade.
Led by new production of AH-64 Apaches and continued work on CH-47D/F Chinooks, Boeing delivered 144 military aircraft in 2012, including 34 in the fourth quarter. In 2011, Boeing’s production facilities worked on only rebuilt Apaches, so 2012’s 19 new-build deliveries of the attack helicopter are notable. At the same time, the company’s new Chinook assembly line in Philadelphia turned out 51 of the twin-rotor transport helicopters last year, up from 32 in 2011. The Chinook program celebrated its 50th year in production last August.
in and out: Everyone makes mistakes. Republican lawmakers wanted a two-month notification of any further cuts to the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and they wanted the White House to certify that Russia is keeping up its end. But in the mess of end-of-the-year lawmaking, the key word “strategic” was left out of 2013 defense authorization bill pased last month, meaning the Obama administration would have to certify far more than anyone intended.
IRIS-T: Diehl Defense’s surface-launched IRIS-T SL missile has engaged a target for the first time. A prototype missile was fired at a target drone at the Overberg Test Range in South Africa, watched by representatives of German state authorities. Reports from Sweden suggest the IRIS-T SL has been chosen as the next-generation surface-to-air missile for the Swedish military to replace the Saab-built RBS-70 weapon.
