Key players and timelines for a seminal, and perhaps unprecedented, report on the future of the U.S. Air Force — from roles and missions to force mix among active, reserve and Air National Guard units — are coming together, according to announcements made around this week’s release of the fiscal 2014 budget request.
Now that the U.S. Navy’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal is out and aircraft carrier acquisition, repair and funding is better defined, service officials expect to secure an agreement soon for inactivation work on the USS Enterprise, the nation’s first nuclear-powered carrier. “The Enterprise is funded and supported in this budget,” Rear Adm. Joseph Mulloy, deputy assistant Navy secretary for budget, said April 10 during a budget briefing. “In fact, Enterprise will go to contract sometime here in the spring.”
Pratt & Whitney aims by June to complete the investigation into the root cause of the turbine blade crack that temporarily grounded the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet in February.
Pentagon plans to have the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) lead efforts to identify technologies required for the next generation of U.S. Air Force and Navy air-combat aircraft received a boost with the agency’s 2014 budget request. Funding sought for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) study, which gets underway this year, would double in 2014 under the budget proposal released April 10. The study “will define the projected threat domains and capability gaps for the 2020-50 timeframe,” according to Darpa budget documents.
The U.S. Air Force has conducted maximum angle-of-attack testing of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, successfully recovering the aircraft from extreme attitudes and upsets.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Apr. 16 - 18 — Aviation Week MRO Americas 2013 Conference & Exhibition, George World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events Apr. 17 - 18 — ISR 2013, "Focusing on PED (Process, Exploitation and Dissemination) of Data and Current Issues in ISR," Copthorne Tara Hotel, London, U.K. For more information go to www.smi-online.co.uk
The U.S. Navy’s proposed fiscal 2014 spending plan includes assumptions the service will be able to recoup money lost over the future years defense plan (FYDP) to keep key programs on track through fiscal 2018. Indeed the proposed spending plan appears a bit fluid. “In investment accounts, we’re still in a lot of analysis,” Rear Adm. Joseph Mulloy, deputy assistant Navy secretary for budget, said April 10 during a briefing on the budget proposal.
NO CONFLICT: French Prime Minster Jean-Marc Ayrault says there is no conflict between a new Europeanized variant of Soyuz and France’s plan to introduce a lighter, more modular successor to its Ariane 5 heavy-lift launcher, which will ultimately eliminate Europe’s need for the Russian medium-lift rocket.
NEW DELHI — India, one of the largest importers of defense equipment in the world, is letting supporters of the U.N.’s recently passed arms-transfer treaty know that it is not happy with their actions. The treaty, aimed at laying down common international standards and limiting the illicit sale of conventional arms, was passed by the U.N. General Assembly with an overwhelming majority of 154 votes on April 3. Iran, North Korea and Syria voted against the treaty, while China, India and Russia abstained.
France announced qualification of the Tiger EC665 Tiger multirole helicopter in the HAD support and attack configuration on April 11, paving the way for delivery of the first four HAD-standard, rotary-wing aircraft to the French army in late April. France has already received 40 Eurocopter-built Tigers in the standard HAP support and protection configuration, equipped with Mistral air-to-air missiles, a 30mm cannon and 68mm rockets.
LONDON — Bell Helicopter says it has taken lessons learned from the V-22 Osprey and is incorporating them into the third-generation tiltrotor it is offering for the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift requirement.
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.
