The San Diego-based General Dynamics Nassco shipyard this month launched the U.S. Navy’s first Mobile Landing Platform (MLP)-class ship, less than two years after the start of fabrication. Designed to provide logistics movement from sea to shore, the future USNS Montford Point (MLP-1) will be the lead vessel for a new class of ships providing the Navy with a dedicated seabasing capability.
money men: Rep. Peter Visclosky (Ind.) is the likely successor to Rep. Norm Dicks (Wash.) as the leader of Democrats on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) says he will not contest the top spot, which is Visclosky’s in terms of seniority. “He’s a good friend. I have no interest in jumping over good friends,” Moran says of Visclosky. But Moran, whose district is home to a vast concentration of defense contractors, will remain a key player on the small, bipartisan committee that controls the Pentagon’s purse strings.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) dec. 2 — ICAO Safety Information Protection /Task Force Listening Session, L'Enfant Plaza Hotel, Wasington, D.C. Contact Alison Agnew at (202) 663-8010 or email: [email protected] Dec. 3 - 5 — Worldwide Business Research's Defense Logistics, Marriott Crystal Gateway, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.wbresearch.com/defenselogisticsusa/.
SINGAPORE — With the type certificate in hand for the combat version of its T-50 jet trainer, manufacturer Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is more confident of its export appeal. International customers increasingly want to see that combat aircraft have airworthiness certificates “to verify the safety of the aircraft,” the company says. South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration issued the type certificate for the combat version, known as the FA-50. It took two years to get, KAI says.
SEATTLE — Boeing plans by year-end to announce the medium-size business-jet platform for its Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA), which is being pitched for a market that company officials say could reach $10 billion over the next 10 years.
UHAI, China – Bell Helicopter is appealing an FAA ruling against a higher gross weight for the Bell 429 helicopter. The FAA has approved the Bell 429 at 7,000 lb. maximum gross weight, but the manufacturer sought FAA approval to increase it to 7,500 lb. The higher gross weight would allow operators to either carry more equipment or more fuel. Twelve countries, including Canada and China, already have approved the helo at 7,500 lb.
Pilatus next spring is planning to unveil its PC-24 twin jet, the company’s first twin-engine business aircraft and first-ever jet product, company executives confirm. The company has publicly acknowledged development of the PC-24 over the past couple of years, but would not say whether the aircraft would be a twin or a jet. But Pilatus verified that the aircraft would be a twin jet as part of its announcement that COO Markus Bucher was named CEO, succeeding Oscar Schwenk, who remains chairman of the board.
Lockheed Martin will upgrade the avionics in U.S. Navy C-130Ts in the first application of an open-systems architecture developed by government and industry to cut the time and cost required to field new capabilities. The $30 million cockpit upgrade is the first acquisition to require compatibility with the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE), a set of standards designed to ensure software is portable and reusable.
Raytheon says it has achieved two significant milestones on the Cobra Judy Replacement (CJR) program, meeting critical performance requirements. The company recently demonstrated the full-power radiation capability with the high-sensitivity CJR shipboard X- and S-band active phased-array radars for the first time. Both the X-band and S-band radars also successfully acquired and tracked satellites under the control of the CJR common radar suite controller, the company says.
The Senate shot down another attempt to shore up the nation’s cyber defenses legislatively this week. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and others insisted that the bill included important information sharing provisions that went beyond what the Obama administration could do through executive order that is likely to move in the bill’s absence.
BOMB RACKS: Marvin Engineering Co. of Inglewood, Calif., has been awarded a $17,929,710 contract to provide 420 BRU-32 B/A bomb racks for U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F and EA-18G aircraft, the Pentagon announced Nov. 15. The work will be performed in Inglewood and is expected to be completed by December 2015. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00421-13-C-0002).
The House this week approved a bill to extend for two years an indemnification program allowing the government to share the cost with industry against injuries or property damage suffered by the public in a commercial space launch.
NASA’s Kepler planet-finder has started an extended mission that could last as long as four more years, after finding more than 2,300 candidate extra-solar planets in its 3.5-year primary mission by measuring the faint flickers of distant stars. The candidate list, which must be confirmed by Earth-based observations, includes “hundreds” of planets that are roughly the same size as Earth. A prime objective of the extended mission will be to find a true Earth analog in terms of size, star type and orbit.
Hard on the heels of a presidential policy directive that is to lay down the rules for offensive cyberwar, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has transferred responsibility for a nascent National Cyber Range to the Pentagon.
STRENGTHENING METALS: Precision Castparts Corp. (PCP) is strengthening its market position by acquiring Titanium Metals Corp. (Timet), the largest independent manufacturer in the U.S. of titanium billets used in aerospace structures. “This addition allows PCP to become better vertically integrated, so there should be considerable cost savings,” analyst Robert Stallard of RBC Capital Markets says of the acquisition. At an offered price of $16.50 per share, the cash purchase is valued at about $2.9 billion.
There is a new, secret White House document that may finally start codifying what an offensive cyber weapon is, who can generate it, what its legitimate targets are and who can authorize its use. The document, Presidential Policy Directive 20, signed in October, establishes a set of standards to guide the military and other federal agencies in responding to or perhaps pre-empting cyberattacks on U.S. military and commercial networks. To active cyber warriors and aerospace industry officials, it comes as a bit of a disappointment.
