While U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board findings have pinpointed specific equipment problems that led to F-22 Raptor pilots suffering hypoxia, the board also identified gaps and issues with service policies and procedures that exacerbated the issues.
PALMACHIM AB, Israel — Israel is a small country and its skies are periodically packed with fighters, airliners, helicopters, unmanned aircraft, missiles and rockets. The increasing technical and geographic complexity is driving planners to seek greater coordination and synchronization of air, space, land and sea operations.
PAC-3 FOR KUWAIT: The White House is asking Congress to approve the $4.2 billion sale of up to 60 Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles to Kuwait, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The sale, which would include related parts, components, training and logistical support, adds to a record-setting year of foreign military sales. Buoyed by the $30 billion sale of Boeing F-15s to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. already anticipates more than $50 billion in weapons sales for fiscal 2012.
NEW DELHI — A request for proposals for a wargaming center for the Indian air force (IAF) is expected in the last quarter of this year, according to Boeing, one of the likely competitors. Boeing responded to India’s request for information (RFI) issued late last year, says Eugene Beckles, senior managing director for international strategic development and experimentation at Boeing Phantom Works. According to the RFI, the center should be capable of simulations at the strategic and operational levels in collaboration with other security agencies.
In the wake of two miscues involving nuclear weapons in the latter half of the previous decade, the U.S. Air Force has taken steps to bolster its organization to prevent similar incidents, according to the Pentagon Inspector General (IG). The IG made the determination following an investigation of changes at Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC); U.S. Strategic Command; and the 8th Air Force (8 AF) and 20th Air Force (20 AF) bases, which the IG refers to as the Numbered Air Forces (NAF).
While the latest U.S. Navy shipbuilding plan provides for a bigger destroyer fleet than what the service had previously proposed, there remains a risk of a significant shortfall in the vessels when measured against U.S. needs, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
TEL AVIV — Israeli military and defense officials are boasting that their new trainer-and-sensor aircraft deal with Italy provides the Middle Eastern country with a high-grade capability and, just as importantly, opens up Italy and possibly other European markets for Israeli foreign military sales.
SUPPORTING ISRAEL: President Barack Obama signed into law July 27 a bill to reiterate U.S. support for Israel. The United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012 is less a binding document and more of a public declaration of the two nations’ military ties. But the signing ceremony gave the president the chance to highlight the continuation of $3 billion in foreign military aid to Israel during tight financial times — just days before his campaign rival Mitt Romney (R) will visit the longstanding U.S. ally.
The U.S. Navy raised some eyebrows recently when it proposed Afloat Forward Staging Bases (AFSBs) from which it could conduct a variety of operations, including irregular warfare (IW) missions. Now, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports says Congress may have some questions about the vessels and program procurement.
BIG DEAL: The U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission gave final approvals to United Technologies Corp.’s (UTC) acquisition of Goodrich, clearing the way for UTC to close on its $18.4 billion mega-merger July 26. Hartford, Conn.-based UTC expects to see $8 billion in synergies from the deal this year, according to CEO Louis Chenevert.
OSHKOSH, Wis. — Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) is hoping for a quick resolution of a lawsuit it filed last spring seeking reinstatement of its $355 million U.S. Air Force Light Air Support (LAS) contract, according to Taco Gilbert, the company’s vice president of ISR business development. SNC filed the lawsuit after the Air Force set aside the original award for 20 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft after the losing bidder, Hawker Beechcraft, filed its own lawsuit in protest.
Surrogates for the U.S. presidential candidates dueled in Washington this week, underscoring both sides’ inability to answer questions on the topic of defense spending. Speaking on behalf of the Obama administration at a Brookings Institution event July 25, Michele Flournoy, the former Pentagon under secretary for policy, outlined the military’s broad budget plans, emphasizing that what is called $487 billion in cuts to defense spending over the next decade is just “a reduction in the rate of planned growth.”
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Army and Marine Corps are working on establishing a joint project to develop a UAV outfitted with equipment to perform electronic warfare (EW) missions. “There is a lot of cross talk between us and the Marines” on the UAV, says Col. Jim Ekvall, Army Electronic Warfare Division chief. The services are looking to leverage some of the UAVs currently in the field, from the relatively large Gray Eagle from General Atomics to the much smaller RQ-7 Shadow offered by AAI Corp., Ekvall says.
It costs more to pay for labor and materials for shipbuilding than other industries, and the U.S. Navy’s apparent failure to account for that is causing the service to underestimate its funding needs, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). “Costs of labor and materials have traditionally grown faster in the shipbuilding industry than in the economy as a whole,” CBO says in its latest report on the Navy’s fiscal 2013 shipbuilding plans.
NEW DELHI — Aviation trials of India’s second aircraft carrier are set to begin soon in anticipation of the refurbished Russian carrier’s induction into India’s navy on Dec. 4. The “aviation facilities complex trials” of the 45,000-ton, 284-meter (932-ft.) long INS Vikramaditya, formerly the Russian Kiev-class Admiral Gorshkov, will begin before mid-August in the Barents Sea, off Russia, a naval official says.
HOUSTON — NASA’s 11-year-old Mars Odyssey spacecraft has been repositioned along its polar orbit around the red planet to provide a near-real-time communication link with Earth during the Mars Science Laboratory’s Aug. 6 entry and landing. News of the $2.5 billion rover mission’s fate should reach NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., through Odyssey on Aug. 6 at 1:31 a.m. EDT, nearly 14 min. after the actual landing — the time it will take X-band transmissions to cover the 154 million mi. separating the two planets.
