As the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer gets closer to being completed, the U.S. Navy is highlighting its aviation-delivering potential. There are multiple aviation assets the ship can support, Capt. Jim Downey, DDG-1000 program manager, notes in a recently posted internal Navy site interview.
AIR FORCE L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace L.L.C., Madison, Miss., is being awarded an $8,076,281 contract modification (FA3002-09-C-0006, P00022) for aircraft flightline maintenance for the F-16 aircraft in support of Taiwan’s F-16 program. The location of performance is Luke AFB, Ariz. The work is expected to be completed by Feb. 28, 2014. Type of appropriation is international funding. The contracting activity is AETC CONS/LGCI, Randolph AFB, Texas. The contract involves Foreign Military Sales.
CYBER CRACKDOWN: The White House is adopting a tougher public relations campaign against China and other online hackers believed to be carrying out what has been described as the greatest theft of intellectual property in history. Last month, high-ranking officials unveiled the “Administration’s Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S.
As the lead ship of the Littoral Combat Ship class, the USS Freedom (LCS-1), got set to depart March 1 for its planned deployment to Singapore, U.S. Navy and other officials were digging into a draft environmental assessment (EA) report that proposes basing part of the fleet on the U.S. East Coast by the start of the coming decade.
LONDON — Warsaw has issued a 1.5 billion zloty ($470 million) tender for eight jet trainers and associated equipment for the country’s air arm. The Polish Armament Directorate announced on Feb. 25 that the country’s defense ministry wants to purchase eight lead-in fighter trainers (LIFT), a suite of simulators, spare parts and ground support equipment with deliveries to take place between January 2014 and November 2017. Press reports in Poland say the number of aircraft procured could increase to 12.
AT LAST: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has taken operational control of the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) weather satellite from NASA. Originally known as the Npoess Preparatory Project, NPP was conceived as a pathfinder for the ill-fated National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, an effort to merge civil and military weather satellite needs that was canceled due to massive cost overruns.
Congress may be facing across-the-board budget cuts, but that has not stopped members from attempting to protect individual programs from reductions. Included in a bill released by Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who leads the House committee controlling the government’s purse strings, is a directive to continue purchasing the RQ-4B Global Hawk UAV and C-27J Spartan aircraft that the Air Force had sought to stop buying in its fiscal 2013 budget request. It also blocks the retirement of C-23 Sherpa aircraft.
AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, is being awarded a $71,202,469 contract modification (FA8620-10-C-4000, P00023) for Global Hawk block load/sustaining engineering and production acceptance infrastructure. The location of performance is San Diego. The work is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2014. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2011. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WIGK, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
ARMY Fidelity Technologies Corporation, Reading, Pa., was awarded a $21,582,669 firm-fixed-price contract.The award will provide for the Armor B-Kits in support of the Heavy Mobility Tactical Truck A4, Palletized Load System A1, Heavy Mobility Tactical Truck A4 Tanker Armor Module Kit and the M915A5. The work will be performed in Reading, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 27, 2014. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with nine bids received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-13-C-0052).
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X-BAND PLANS: Washington and Tokyo continue discussing the possibility of deploying another powerful X-band radar in Japan to protect the U.S. and allies against North Korean threats, according to Frank Rose, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of State for space and defense policy. Besides U.S. assets in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan has several Aegis-class ships that have a missile defense capability, and also has deployed the Patriot air missile defense system.
HOUSTON — SpaceX and NASA were scrambling to salvage the second Dragon Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, after the unmanned cargo capsule encountered a thruster issue shortly after its March 1 liftoff that slowed the scheduled critical deployments of its solar arrays and rendezvous maneuvers. This situation has forced at least a one-day delay in plans for a March 2 rendezvous and berthing of the Dragon capsule with the six-person orbiting science lab, according to Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager.
The U.S. Coast Guard would still like to add a small UAV like the ScanEagle to its aviation quiver, but the service says it can’t afford to fund such a program by itself, says Adm. Bob Papp, Coast Guard commandant. “We are looking at the ScanEagle,” Papp said Feb. 27 following his state of the Coast Guard speech, noting the service is doing its second deployment with the UAV this summer.
The temporary grounding of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been lifted after investigators determined the turbine blade crack that prompted the stand down was an isolated event. “Based on the findings from our initial on-wing inspection to our subsequent inspections in our lab, we determined that root cause is sufficiently understood for the F-35 to safely resume flight,” says Pratt & Whitney, the manufacturer of the fighter’s F135 engine.
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is classifying its forthcoming squadron of Boeing EA-18G Growlers as a support force distinct from its air combat units, raising the possibility that the 12 electronic-attack aircraft will be added to the fast-jet fleet instead of substituting for part of it. The move may not persuade the government to pay for more fast jets than it has planned, however.
While the rest of the U.S. defense community continues to be obsessed with the effects of sequestration, the major issue for shipbuilding juggernaut Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is the effect of the continuing resolution (CR) currently funding the government at fiscal 2012 levels. “From the beginning of this, we’ve been focused on the continuing resolution,” HII CEO Michael Petters says. With no new appropriations yet in place for fiscal 2013, which began last October, the nation’s shipbuilding programs are adrift.
NEW DELHI — India has raised its defense budget for the next fiscal year, contrary to expectations that there would be a reduction in its military spending due to economic strains. The defense allocation for the India’s fiscal year beginning April 1 is being increased by around 5% to 2.03 trillion rupees ($38 billion), from the originally allocated 1.93 trillion rupees for the year ending March 31.
