When it comes to the takeoff of the UAV industry in the U.S., lawmakers have a new bogeyman: hackers. At a congressional hearing July 19, a University of Texas professor described how he and a group of his students hijacked an $80,000 Adaptive Flight Hornet Mini, the kind of small rotorcraft a local police force might use. Professor Todd Humphreys had proposed the test as an experiment to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was then roundly criticized by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) for not sending someone to testify.
With the threat of sequestration stalking defense program spending, the U.S. Navy is providing a stronger financial anchor for the next-generation aircraft carrier CVN-79 John F. Kennedy with the recent award of a $43.4 million contract modification for additional long-lead-time material for the ship. Some defense analysts have cited the next-generation carrier program as a potential target for budget cutters as the Navy and Pentagon look for more ways to save money to meet federally set limits.
Pratt & Whitney’s president is encouraged that the urgency of sequestration’s effects on business is starting to sink in with lawmakers and the public, but his company has been making plans for some time now. Speaking July 19 at a House Aeronautics Caucus luncheon, David Hess said “Sequester is not worst-case. It is the law.” Accordingly, his company has to plan and to take action based upon that law.
SUPPORTING STATE: The U.S. State Department this week awarded General Dynamics Information Technology a $22 million contract for supply chain management services, with a potential total value of $2.2 billion over five years if all options are exercised.
The U.S. Navy hopes to use its major 2012 Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) exercise as a showcase for its alternative energy programs. Alternative fuels, including nuclear power, will be used in an operational demonstration starting this week, fueling helicopters and jets from the deck of an aircraft carrier, and refueling a cruiser and two destroyers during an underway replenishment. The demonstration also will incorporate prototype energy-efficient technologies designed to enhance the combat capability of Navy warships.
HOUSTON — NanoRacks, LLC, plans to improve astronaut training for its MixStix science canisters, to avoid a repeat of an activation failure involving 15 student experiments launched to the International Space Station in May.
The U.S. Navy intends to significantly increase the percentage of simulation training for its personnel — especially in aviation — in the coming years. For the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, for example, the Navy plans to increase simulated training to 32% of overall training by 2020 compared to the current 18%, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). For the EA-18G Growlers, the Navy plans to increase that percentage to 34% from the current 20% in the coming eight years, the GAO says.
Two U.S. senators are continuing the drive to pressure Congress to avoid sequestration cuts to the defense budget, arguing that lawmakers are playing chicken, or Russian roulette, with the budget and national security.
Small firm D-Star Engineering has received what appears to be the first contract, for $4.8 million, awarded under the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (IARPA) Great Horned Owl (GHO) program to develop a new class of quiet, small unmanned aircraft.
PARIS — British military demand for Skynet satellite bandwidth is expected to decline with troop drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan, prompting Paradigm Services, a division of EADS-Astrium, to expand its commercial offering to include civil service monitoring and data collection for government and private sector customers.
Robert Stevens, chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, estimates that the largest U.S. defense company could lay off 10,000 workers if $1 trillion in across-the-board federal budget cuts begin taking place as anticipated on Jan. 2, 2013. The company employs 123,000. Stevens qualified the layoff estimate as crude, but told lawmakers during a House Armed Services Committee hearing that 10,000 was the “best number I can offer.” More than 80% of Lockheed’s business is tied to the federal government — 61% of which is purely defense.
Missions requiring Special Forces work or construction needs are stressing Navy resources, but of particular consideration so is the increasing need for ships to handle BMD operations.
SINGAPORE — Pakistan is interested in acquiring some of the Australian air force’s Lockheed Martin C-130H aircraft. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has 12 C-130Hs that are all due to be phased out in December as part of the Australian government’s program to cut its defense budget.
Lockheed Martin has completed its first series of captive-carry seeker tests in preparation for the first all-up-round flight test of the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM).
