Spurred by reports that LightSquared is considering bankruptcy, two lawmakers are hoping the government can recover the cost of testing the company’s proposed 4G communications network for interference with GPS.
LONDON — The U.K. and Japan have committed to a future defense cooperation agreement, although specifics are still scant. The U.K. is aggressively looking for new export markets for its equipment to prop up industry at a time that its own defense spending is in decline. Exactly what programs the two sides may work on remains unspecified. The U.K. notes the agreement was made possible by Japan’s policy change, made late last year, on defense equipment transfers.
ANOTHER TRY: Cobham has launched a hostile takeover bid for satellite communications equipment maker Thrane & Thrane after an initial offer was rebuffed by the Danish company. Cobham bid £270 million ($428 million) for outstanding shares in Thrane & Thrane after bringing its own holdings to 25.6%. The move comes after Cobham withdrew an earlier bid last month, after Thrane & Thrane rejected it. Since then, Cobham has acquired shares from Jupiter Asset Management and other entities that represent 22.7% of the Danish company’s shares.
LONDON — The government of Saudi Arabia has given the green light to BAE Systems to build another 48 Eurofighter Typhoons even as the two parties continue to work out contractual details associated with changes in the program. The company notes that the contract for final assembly of the additional 48 aircraft — 24 were bought initially — has been signed. In January, the company was still saying the money for the aircraft was allocated, but no contract had been completed.
LONDON — The French government has completed validation of the final elements of its principal anti-air missile system (Paams), with the intercept of a supersonic sea-skimming target. The test was designed to explore the final element of the Paams ship-based air defense system, following previous engagements of air-breathing targets and ballistic missiles.
UNSAFE START: U.S. Army aviation safety is off to a bad start for fiscal 2012, with five fatalities in 10 or 11 Class A accidents, says Brig. Gen. William Wolf, director of Army safety. The total includes four soldiers killed when two Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warriors crashed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., on Dec. 12. Fiscal 2011 was Army aviation’s safest year, with 11 fatalities in 16 Class A accidents, he says. Analysis shows that 88% of Army aviation accidents are caused by overconfidence or complacency, Wolf adds.
Despite directives to the contrary, the U.S. Army and Air Force still have been farming out certain “inherently governmental” tasks to contractors, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). In the services’ own reviews of fiscal 2009 contracting, which GAO auditors call “incomplete” because the Navy failed to participate, there were 1,935 instances in the Army and 91 in the Air Force in which contractors were performing inherently governmental functions, according to GAO.
AIR FORCE SAIC, McLean, Va., is being awarded a $32,876,384 firm-fixed-price, time-and-material contract to procure the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing (480 ISRW) has a requirement in support of the AF DCGS intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission. The location of the performance is 480 ISRW, Langley Air Force Base, Va. The work is to be completed by May 30, 2014. Air Force Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, San Antonio, is the contracting activity (FA7037-12-F-0062).
As the Pentagon begins a 10-year reduction in its spending plans, its database of the vast network of suppliers that feed its prime contractors is helping spare vulnerable companies. The effort may provide some small measure of reassurance to lawmakers, who are concerned about maintaining high-quality jobs in a presidential election year during a time of high unemployment. The aerospace and defense industries employ more than 1 million people, according to a study conducted by Deloitte for the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
NEW DELHI — India’s nuclear-capable, long-range Agni-V missile, with a strike range of more than 5,000 km (3,100 mi.), is scheduled to be tested this month. “The Agni-V will be tested sometime in the middle of April. The exact date has not been fixed, though,” says Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) chief Dr. V.K. Saraswat.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, are scheduled to begin a U.S.-Brazil Defense Cooperation Dialogue on April 24. Their first meeting was part of President Barack Obama’s April 9 meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. As an example of how close the two nations have become, the White House is pointing to the U.S. offer to sell Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets to the Brazilian air force.
AIR FORCE Al Raha Group for Technical Services, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is being awarded a $95,000,000 firm-fixed-price and cost-no-fee contract for third-party logistics services supporting repair and return of F-15 assets for the Royal Saudi Air Forces. This contract includes repair services for 4,500 national stock numbers. The location of the performance is Riyadh. The work is to be completed by Nov. 30, 2013. WR-ALC/GRWKB, Robins AFB, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8505-12-D001). U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND
RELIABLE DELIVERY: Two Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max unmanned helicopters supporting the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan have flown some 240 missions and delivered around 600,000 lb. of cargo to remote bases since deploying in December, achieving a high operational tempo. Availability is “near 100%,” Lockheed says, adding that the aircraft have expanded into retrograde operations, picking up cargo at the forward base and bringing it back to the main operating base, and are beginning to fly to different locations.
Click here to view the pdf Joint Air-To-Ground Missile (JAGM) Funding History ($ in millions) Joint Air-To-Ground Missile (JAGM) Funding History ($ in millions) Outyear estimates Request year Request Approp
EXTRA EYES: U.S. Army Boeing AH-64D Apaches will deploy to Afghanistan this year equipped with Radiance Technologies’ WeaponWatch ground-fire acquisition system. The deployment will assess the podded prototype’s ability to detect and locate hostile ground fire, but will also look at use of the system’s six infrared cameras for other purposes, such as augmenting the crew’s situational awareness and the Apache’s targeting sensors, says Col. Shane Openshaw, the Army’s Apache program manager.
Warming of the world’s polar regions could lead to a greater need for U.S. icebreaking ships, especially in the Arctic, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) notes in a recent report about the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaker program. “Although polar ice is diminishing due to climate change, observers generally expect that this development will not eliminate the need for U.S. polar icebreakers, and in some respects might increase mission demands for them,” says CRS in its report released this month.
Upgrades for the U.S. Air Force’s B-1 and B-2 bomber forces have passed major milestones with production of a new navigation system beginning for the B-1 and validation of a computer upgrade for the B-2 recently completed. Boeing is acquiring the first navigation system upgrade kits for the B-1 following the award of a $55.3 million production contract to replace the original navigation hardware with a new ring-laser gyro system. Under the 3.5-year contract, Boeing will perform retrofits at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas, and Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, S.D.
The U.S. Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) program is spending its old money for now, stretching out technical development and planning for funding that is 10% of what was expected just two budget years ago. The Army alone is funding the joint Army/Navy program, seeking $10 million for fiscal 2013, and only $20 million over the following two fiscal years. In the fiscal 2011 budget request, the Army’s 2013-15 funding plan totaled $303 million. (See chart p. 2.)
NEW DELHI — The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has signed a contract to launch the Spot-6 satellite for France-based EADS Astrium. The agency says Spot-6 will be launched onboard ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) during the second half of 2012. The PSLV, in its “core alone” configuration, will carry other payloads as well.
U.S. Air Force leadership and auditors with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) agree that timely certification and flight testing remain key risk areas in Boeing’s KC-46A tanker program.
