DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Bell Helicopter Textron, Fort Worth, was awarded contract W58RGZ-12-G-0001-THBD. The award is a firm fixed price, sole source contract with a maximum $8,613,657 for blade assemblies. There are no other locations of performance. Using military service is Navy. There was one solicitation with one response. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 Navy Working Capital Funds. The date of performance completion is April 31, 2014. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia.
Blue Origin has tested the pusher-type launch-abort system it developed with NASA funding, boosting a full-scale mockup of its suborbital crew vehicle to an altitude of 2,307 ft. at its test range near Van Horn, Texas, and recovering the capsule by parachute. The Oct. 19 test, announced Oct. 22, was conducted under a Space Act Agreement for the second round of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) effort to spark a commercial industry for transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit.
AIR FORCE Sierra Nevada Corp., Sparks, Nev., (FA8620-13-C-4007) is being awarded a $218,000,000 firm fixed price contract for 18 uniquely modified Pilatus PC-12/47E aircraft. The location of the performance is Sparks. The work is expected to be completed by July 31, 2015. The contracting activity is 645 AESG/WIJK, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Contract involves foreign military sales to Afghan National Army Special Operations Forces.
Polaris, mainly known for snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and light military vehicles, unveiled plans to move into larger vehicles at the Association of the U.S. Army show in Washington Oct. 22. Its Humvee-based Armor Concept Demonstrator vehicle is the result of a partnership with Seattle-based M9 Defense, which has developed a new composite forming process combining heat and hydrostatic pressure, in a machine called a “boroclave.”
TEL AVIV — Israel’s Elta is presenting new tactical radar options for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), to meet a need for ultra-rapid response to mortar attacks.
Honeywell says its business and commercial aviation products were top performers among its four business sectors in the third quarter and will remain so through 2013, despite expectations for a continued slowdown in the global economy. Sales for the Aerospace division, which includes business and commercial aviation as well as defense and space, were up 4% to $3 billion year-over-year in the third quarter due to a 9% increase in commercial product sales. Defense and space revenue decreased 1%.
NEW DELHI — India plans to buy 270 F-125IN turbofan engines from Honeywell to improve its fleet of Jaguar aircraft, the key strike asset for the Indian air force (IAF). “The defense ministry on Oct. 15 issued a request for proposal to Honeywell to supply the turbofan engines through the U.S. foreign military sales route,” IAF spokesman Wing Cmdr. Gerard Galway tells Aviation Week.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) oct. 22 - 24 — Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition, "America's Army: Service to the Nation, Strength for the Future," Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ausa.org oct. 22 - 24 — SAFE Association 50th Annual Symposium, Grand Sierra Resort & Casino, Reno, Nev. For more information go to www.safeassociation.com
NASA’s vision for deep-space exploration may be missing an opportunity to re-fortify the agency’s long-running but sporadic ties to nanotechnology, according to an assessment from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
SLOW GOING: Orbital Sciences Corp. has once again postponed a flight demonstration of the Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo capsule it is developing under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The Dulles, Va.-based company will slip the mission three or four months to next spring, following a flight demonstration of the rocket from the Wallops Island, Va., launch facility in December. Under the terms of a 2008 COTS agreement, the first flight of the rocket and cargo vessel was slated for late 2010.
Bell Helicopter is the latest contender for the Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement to demonstrate its candidate to the U.S. Army, but the only one with a flyable helicopter, hoping the service shuns a competition and stays with its existing armed scout. That’s because the company’s proposal is to upgrade the Army’s Bell-built OH-58D Kiowa Warriors with new engines and rotors to give them the 6k/95 (6,000-ft./95F) hot-and-high performance the Army is seeking.
HOUSTON — NASA will orchestrate a Nov. 1 spacewalk to address a long-standing cooling system leak outside the International Space Station that has gradually increased since June, the space agency announced on Oct. 19. Earlier concerns about an external electrical short on Sept. 3 that compromised one of the station’s eight power channels and prompted the preparations for a possible second near-term spacewalk, have eased with troubleshooting this week.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — While some ballistic missile defense strategists have suggested it might be better to do away with the traditional nuclear triad defense and deterrence policy, U.S. Navy leaders in charge of those missions say more collaboration with the Air Force is needed, and the two services could start to work toward a common missile. “The Air Force and Navy must look for ways to collaborate,” says Rear Adm. Terry Benedict, director of the Navy’s Strategic Systems programs. “Maintaining the triad is key to deterrence.”
While many of the world’s leading military powers are looking to cut back on defense spending, submarine building and maintenance contracts remain on the rise. The U.S. Navy, for example, this week picked up a $495 million option on a contract with General Dynamics’ Electric Boat Corp. unit for design agent, planning yard, engineering and technical support for active nuclear submarines.
The U.S. Navy has developed new fiber-optic support equipment that will decrease the number of aircraft avionics systems turned in for repair and recertification. The service introduced the Fiber Optic Common Support Equipment (Focse) to the fleet in early September. Focse was developed by engineers with the Aviation Support Equipment Program Office (PMA-260) and allows technicians to check fiber-optic cables, reducing the unnecessary replacement of functional avionics equipment.
AAI Corp. says its problems starting up unmanned-aircraft fee-for-service operations for Pentagon customers “are in the rear-view mirror” and systems deployed in-theater are “delivering what they need.” Under contracts with the U.S. Navy and Special Operations Command (Socom), AAI is providing full-motion video to deployed forces using company-owned and operated Aerosonde small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). “We have aircraft in the air and are executing,” says Steve Reid, vice president of AAI’s unmanned aircraft systems business.
The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) and a host of small businesses are lobbying debate moderator Bob Schiffer to pose a question about sequestration during the Oct. 22 presidential debate on foreign policy. The issue of a potential $1 trillion across-the-board federal budget penalty came up briefly during the vice presidential debate. But it was not a major topic during either of the two previous debates.
In Virginia, the politics of defense budget cuts is in full swing, as the Republican governor and three Democratic lawmakers engage in a war of letters about how to handle looming budget reductions.
