Pierre Chao, a longtime aerospace and defense (A&D) industry sage and managing partner at Renaissance Strategic Advisors, succinctly sums up what the outcome of the budget impasse in Washington between Republicans and Democrats should be. “Your taxes are going to go up, your benefits are going to go down, and spending is going to go down,” he said in a post-election address to Aviation Week’s A&D Programs conference. “My six-year-old daughter knows this.”
LONDON — The defense division of EADS, Cassidian, has announced sweeping job cuts as it restructures in a bid to save a further €200 million ($259 million) a year by 2014. Nearly 850 personnel, many in management and administration positions, are to be let go as part of the restructure plans detailed in letters sent to employees on Nov. 30.
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To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Dec. 3 - 5 — Worldwide Business Research's Defense Logistics, Marriott Crystal Gateway, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.wbresearch.com/defenselogisticsusa/. Dec. 5 - 6 — Airports Council International-North America's International Seminar, Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.aci-na.org/event/564.
AgustaWestland contends the Danish government’s decision to buy Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk helicopters will cost taxpayers 1 billion kroner ($173 million) more than if Denmark had chosen the AW159 Lynx Wildcat.
WEAPONS POLICY: The Pentagon has issued a new policy that “establishes guidelines designed to minimize the probability and consequences of failures in autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems that could lead to unintended engagements.” The Nov. 21 policy, Directive 3000.09, also assigns responsibilities for development and use of autonomous and semi-autonomous functions in weapon systems, including unmanned platforms.
The leaders of the House Privacy Caucus blasted a response from the FAA about how privacy protections for UAVs in civilian airspace should be handled, amid conflicting pressures on the agency as to how quickly it should select six test sites and whether it should be considering privacy issues at all.
TIMING THE PAIN: Fiscal 2014 — not 2013 — will be the worst year for federal contractors, including defense companies, if the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration take effect in January 2013, says Alan Chvotkin, vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council. That is because the sharp drop-off in federal spending under sequestration, the second part of the Budget Control Act preoccupying policymakers in Washington right now, will not be felt via contracting opportunities until then.
The Senate did not close out action on the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill in three days as had been anticipated, instead shooting for an agreement to wrap up work early this week. As floor work continues, senators are already looking toward resolving the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. Here’s a look at some of the outstanding issues:
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have settled on a price of roughly $3.8 billion for the next batch of F-35 fighters, after more than a year of negotiations, according to program sources. A few details remain to be worked out on low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 5 for the Joint Strike Fighter program, though the contract is likely to be signed in days.
Government and industry officials from Europe and the U.S. opened discussions Nov. 30 on how to bring elements of the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) into the service module for NASA’s Orion multipurpose crew vehicle.
NEW DELHI — India has warned that it will cancel a contract to buy helicopters from AgustaWestland and impose penalty measures if allegations of irregularities in the deal are proven, although it still has not launched a formal investigation into the matter. The deal to buy 12 AW101 helicopters, mainly to be used by the Indian president, prime minister and other top government functionaries, has been under a microscope after the arrest of a few individuals in Italy for allegedly paying bribes to Indian officials.
LONDON — Cassidian, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Qinetiq have been invited to bid on a contract to provide the U.K. Royal Navy with ISR services via an off-the-shelf, shipborne unmanned aerial system (UAS). According to the U.K. Ministry of Defense, the two-year deal would see the winning bidder providing 300 hr. of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) coverage each month per task line from Royal Navy vessels. The system would be contractor-owned and operated and be available for operations on a 24-hr.-a-day, seven-days-a-week basis.
The tri-national Medium Extended-Altitude Air Defense System (Meads) development program achieved its first target kill on Nov. 29. The Meads interceptor, a PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement weapon, was launched away from the MQM-107 target and turned 180-deg. for the engagement, demonstrating the long-promised “over-the-shoulder” capability offered by the system. The MQM-107 is an air-breathing target.
MIRROR, MIRROR: NASA plans to hold a workshop in February on possible uses for two 2.4-meter telescope mirrors transferred to the civil space agency in June by the National Reconnaissance Office. Although the optics have been proposed for a wide field infrared survey of the sky, other possibilities include uses for focused space-technology research, human exploration and operations, heliophysics, astrophysics and planetary science. The agency will select concepts for using the mirrors that it believes advance its goals, and allow detailed presentations of them at the Feb.
As the year comes to a close, the U.S. State Department continues to push forward with its overhaul of the U.S. Munitions List and other reforms to facilitate the sale of weapons abroad. This week, the department announced revisions to the munitions list for military electronics and refined the rules for components and parts.
A small engineering firm on Florida’s Space Coast hopes to recover some of the revenue and jobs the region lost with retirement of the space shuttle fleet by offering maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services to the commercial spaceflight industry that the Obama administration hopes will take the shuttle’s place.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is making yet another run at trying to force the U.S. to sell 66 F-16 C/D multi-role fighter aircraft to Taiwan. Cornyn, along with Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), have teamed up for a third attempt to make the sale of the Lockheed Martin fighters and hope to include it in the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill being considered this week on the Senate floor.
