NEW DELHI — The Indian government has initiated actions to scrap its contract for AW101 helicopters with scandal-plagued Finmeccanica subsidiary AgustaWestland. “We have issued a formal show-cause notice to AgustaWestland seeking cancellation of contract and taking other actions as per the terms of the contract and the integrity pact, signed in 2010,” an Indian defense ministry official says.
MIND THE GAPS: Congressional auditors in Washington who have been keeping a running tally of the government’s highest-risk programs since 1990 have now added the need to mitigate gaps in federal weather satellite data to their list. “We and others ... have raised concerns that problems and delays on environmental satellite acquisition programs will result in gaps in the continuity of critical satellite data used in weather forecasts and warnings,” the Government Accountability Office said Feb. 14.
A three-year operational assessment of a tethered-aerostat cruise-missile detection and tracking system is to begin later this year at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, in part to see how it would fit into the air-defense system around Washington. The operational exercise involving Raytheon’s Joint Land-Attack Cruise-Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS) system “could inform a future decision for an enduring operational deployment,” says the Army.
Days after the White House issued a new directive on cybersecurity, House Intelligence Committee leaders are saying their bill to help secure the nation’s computer systems has a chance of passing this year. If so, it would represent a remarkable turnabout from last year, when three efforts to pass cybersecurity legislation through Congress failed. By the end of the year, lawmakers were skeptical about the future prospects of such legislation.
LONDON — Swedish aerospace company Saab and the country’s defense procurement agency, the FMV, have signed agreements to start development of the next-generation Gripen fighter.
The U.K.’s Royal Air Force (RAF) is publicly highlighting its need for a new trainer aircraft while the government continues to delay a decision. At last week’s Aero India airshow, Kevin Marsh, the RAF wing commander for the OC IV squadron, said the RAF’s Shorts Tucano trainer aircraft needs to be replaced because it does not “have a head-up display and mission system.”
In observance of the U.S. President’s Day Holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not be published on Feb. 19. The next issue will be dated Feb. 20. Aviation Week Intelligence Network subscribers can visit www.aviationweek.com/awin at any time for news updates.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Feb. 25 - 26 — Social Media Within the Military and the Defence Sector Europe, Movenpick City Centre Hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands. For more information go to www.smi-online.co.uk Feb. 26 - Mar. 2 — Australian International Airshow and Aerospace and Defense Exposition, Avalon Greelong Airport. For more information go to www.airshow.com/au/airshow2013
India’s state-owned National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) soon will restart the flight test program for Saras, a 14-seat multirole military transport aircraft that has been beset by developmental problems. There will be a test flight in April for Saras test aircraft one (PT1), NAL Technology Director Shyman Chetty tells Aviation Week. The Saras had its first test flight in 2004. There were two test aircraft built, PT1 and PT2. But PT2 crashed in 2009, killing all three people on board. That prompted NAL to make major changes to the aircraft’s design.
BIG DOWNGRADE: Wall Street analysts at Cowen and Co. are not waiting for so-called sequestration to take effect March 1 before telling defense-sector investor clients to move on in their search for profit and growth. In a Feb. 14 note to clients, the analysts say weapons face increased scrutiny from a confluence of the 2011 Budget Control Act’s automatic spending reductions and the likelihood of former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) becoming the next defense secretary. Lockheed Martin is first in line to feel the pain, in their opinion. “As No.
Northrop Grumman’s Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), a 300-ft.-long surveillance airship intended for deployment to Afghanistan to fly unmanned for up to three weeks, has been cancelled by the U.S. Army. The airship flew once in August last year, at Lakehurst, N.J., 10 months behind schedule in what was originally planned as an 18-month development program leading to deployment early in 2012.
NEW DELHI — The Finmeccanica bribery scandal has prompted the Indian government to defer a decision on the much-awaited $1.5 billion purchase of 197 light utility helicopters for its military.
Government offices may remain open if government-wide budget cuts take effect on March 1, but if sequestration is allowed to take effect it will have serious economic consequences, the U.S. government controller told senators Feb. 14. “I do not think it’s prudent at all to think that because the lights do not shut down across government on March 1 that we can cross that precipice and then pull back later,” Daniel Werfel, controller of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told the Senate Appropriations Committee.
BEIJING — A South Korean defense ministry think tank is publicly opposing development of the proposed KF-X indigenous fighter. The Korea Institute for Defense Analysis told a public meeting that the country is not technologically equipped to develop the aircraft, that the project is economically unviable and that the KF-X would not be a successful export product.
To keep operations going through the continuing resolution (CR) and tighter budgetary environment, the U.S. Marine Corps has already had to shift funds and the service will likely have to cut some of its mainstay deployments if sequestration hits, according to Gen. James Amos, Marine Corps commandant. Marines stand at the highest possible state of readiness and training, Amos said Feb. 14 during a speech sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. “But I’m paying for that by eating my seed corn from other accounts,” Amos says.
NEW DELHI — The Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile joint venture will expand this year into perhaps its toughest domain, with the company announcing it is nearly ready to conduct the first test of the BrahMos-A, an air-launched version of the weapon.
NEW DELHI — France is working to ensure that no ripple effect of the Finmeccanica bribery scandal disrupts the long-anticipated contract to supply 126 Dassault Rafale fighters to the Indian air force. “We will do nothing contrary to the principles that we stand for and rules of trade that are based on the principles of competitiveness and fairness,” says French President Francois Hollande, during his two-day visit to India, in which he discussed the estimated $18 billion fighter aircraft deal with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
ALLIED PAIN: Pentagon programs are not the only weapon systems set to see budget cuts under the so-called sequestration automatic reductions taking effect March 1. Military aid for up to about 150 allies around the world would face a $551.6 million cut, according to House Appropriations Committee Democrats. Within the total, sequestration would cut foreign military financing by $317 million. Affected would be aid to Israeli defense technology efforts, anti-cartel efforts in Mexico, counternarcotics border operations and counterterrorism ops around the world.
LONDON — Switzerland is to disband its Patrouille Suisse aerobatic team in 2016 as part of the planned retirement of the F-5 Tiger fighter from the country’s air arm. The decision will end the 50-year-long career of the team, which currently flies six brightly painted red and white Northrop F-5 Tigers. The plans emerged during a committee hearing discussing the country’s future purchase of the Saab Gripen. Switzerland plans to buy 22 Gripens to replace the F-5.
Buoyed by the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, U.S. combat ships have risen in the ranks of U.S. Navy and overall Pentagon expenses, according to an exclusive Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis.
