FRANKFURT — Germany’s federal government is voicing serious concerns internally about the planned merger of EADS and BAE Systems. A Ministry of Economics and Technology report, destined for the federal parliament’s economics committee, points to a series of issues that puts the proposal’s viability in question.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) plans to deploy nearly 15 airborne warning and control systems during the next 10 years. “India is planning additional airborne warning and control system projects with radars atop larger aircraft such as the IL-76, Boeing 777 or Airbus 320,” according to a defense ministry official. The announcement comes on the heels of the arrival of the first of three Embraer 145 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft from Brazil’s Embraer Defense and Security on Aug. 17.
AIR FORCE Raytheon, McKinney, Texas (FA8620-06-G-4041, DO 001211), is being awarded a $44,032,247 contract modification for the Reaper/Predator Program. This contract modification is for Multi-spectral Targeting System, Target Location Accuracy, High- Definition Video and Targeting Improvements. The location of the performance is McKinney, Texas. The work is expected to be completed by July 17, 2015. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WIIK, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Talk of restarting the production line aside, the true financial focus now and in coming years for the U.S. Air Force will be aimed at maintaining the nation’s stealthy F-22 Raptor. For fiscal 2012, for example, the Air Force is spending about $803.4 million to modify and sustain the Raptor, compared to $132.2 million to produce the F-22, according to data provided by Avascent050, an online market analysis toolkit for global defense programs.
Boeing has confirmed a $1.9 billion U.S. Navy order for 11 P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, which the company describes as a “stepping-stone to full-rate production.” The order represents the manufacturer’s third low-rate initial production award, and follows two in 2011 that combined for 13 aircraft. The new order will take the Navy’s total fleet to 24, as part of an overall plan to acquire 117 as replacements for the Lockheed Martin P-3.
AIR FORCE Telephonics Corp. Farmingdale, N.Y. (FA8730-12-C-0007), is being awarded a $60,082,968 firm-fixed-price contract award for the production of 19 UPX-40s to include hardware installation kits, installation support, manufacturing and sustainment support. The location of the performance is Huntington, N.Y. The work is expected to be completed by Oct. 19, 2018. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/HBSK, Hanscom AFB, Mass.
TOO CONFIDENT: Analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) believe aerospace and defense executives may be “overconfident” in the information security practices at their respective organizations, given the trends of information security budget slashing, rising security incidents and accelerating technology development. The survey of more than 200 executives found that “72% of respondents are confident that they have instilled effective security behaviors into their organization’s culture, yet most do not have a process in place to handle third-party breaches,” PwC says.
Click here to view the pdf F-22 Spending Profile Fiscal 2008-2017 ($ in thousands) F-22 Spending Profile Fiscal 2008-2017 ($ in thousands) Type of Expense Sum of $Ks FY08 Sum of $Ks FY09 Sum of $Ks FY1
With Congress gone and no deal to prevent a nearly $1 trillion across-the-board budget cut from taking effect next January, a group of senators is laying the groundwork for proposals to delay the penalty known as sequestration.
It is not certain that the U.S. national airspace system (NAS) will be ready to accommodate unmanned aircraft by the deadline set by Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. In February, Congress set a series of deadlines to accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the NAS. In a recent report, GAO says FAA “has missed one deadline and could miss others.”
The U.S. Coast Guard needs to get a better handle on its major development and spending plans, a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. “The planned cost and schedule of the Coast Guard’s portfolio of major acquisitions is unknown because of outdated acquisition program baselines and uncertainty surrounding affordability,” says the Sept. 20 report.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) sept. 26 - 29 — Society of Experimental Test Pilots' 56th Annual Symposium and Banquet, The Grand Californian Hotel, Anaheim, Calif. For more information go to www.setp.org sept. 27 - 28 — Aerospace Summit Global Supply Chain, Palais Des Congress, Montreal, Canada. For more information go to www.aeromontreal.ca/summit2012
Paris — Since 2009, the commercial launch sector estimates nearly $1 billion in new orders have gone to a single U.S. company developing a rocket that has yet to be flown. Over the past two years, Hawthorne, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) proved its Falcon 9 medium-lift rocket can deliver unmanned payloads to low Earth orbit in two demonstration flights for NASA.
November 6-7, 2012 Arizona Biltmore, Phoenix, AZ Join top defense program leaders for discussions on complexity, lessons learned, and affordability aimed at improving program performance! Themes for 2012 include: Complexity Driving improvement and the roles that innovation and technology play Value chain optimization Register now at www.aviationweek.com/events/adp.
PASSING MUSTER: Loral Space & Communications says its proposed sale of spacecraft maker Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) to investors MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates has passed one regulatory hurdle. Loral says the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has “concluded its review and investigation” of SS/L’s sale and found there are “no unresolved national security concerns with respect to the transaction.” Still pending is anti-trust approval by the U.S. Justice Department. SS/L expects the sale to be completed in the fourth quarter, an official says.
Inmarsat expects that costs for satellite-based flight deck safety services, which airlines typically use for ACARS (aircraft communications addressing and reporting system) messaging in oceanic regions, will be 30% lower than its traditional services when the SwiftBroadband Safety Services option is approved for use in 2014.
Thanks to early supervision and a tight working relationship between the U.S. Navy and contractor General Dynamics NASSCO, the service’s Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) vessel is set for manufacturing, the service says. “The Navy worked very closely with General Dynamics NASSCO to identify cost savings early in the MLP design work while pursuing a concurrent design and production engineering approach,” the Navy says in a recent blog.
