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.
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.
